Present.

Spencer, can I uh trouble you uh for a roll call?

Pardon me.

Commissioner Collin?

Commissioner O'Neill.

Here.

Vice Chair Barlow.

Here.

Chair Rodriguez.

Here.

Commissioner Rath.

Here.

Commissioner Paisel?

Here.

Commissioner Smith Corvello.

That is no absences.

Um planning staff present today are planning manager Levi Hill, Principal Planner Fernando Boveri, and myself recording Secretary Spencer Argentwright.

Information on participating in this meeting and providing public comment, including remotely by Zoom or telephone, is on this meeting's agenda, which is online at Monterey.gov forward slash agendas.

If you are connected on Zoom, the timer is accurate.

And the channel in the chamber, we recommend keeping phones and devices needed to prevent audio interference at the meeting.

Thank you for participating in your city government.

Thank you very much.

Spencer, um, I'm going to open up the consent agenda.

We're gonna we only have one item, which are the approval of minutes item number two, February twelfth, twenty twenty-six.

Uh I see a member of city staff who is also a member of the public and a many public member besides, but I see not no one wants to participate in person.

Spencer, is there anybody uh online that wants to participate?

Uh, there are currently no attendees online.

All right, perfect.

So we're gonna take it back to the commissioners.

Did uh is anybody want to make a motion or have a comment regarding the minutes of last meeting?

I'll move to approve the minutes as written.

We have perfect.

We have a uh motion and a second.

All those in f Sorry, you have a question, Spencer?

No, okay, sorry about that.

Uh all right, we have a uh motion and a second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

I wasn't there, but I think I could still vote on the meeting.

So I think you can.

So you're still in aye?

Sure.

Perfect.

All right.

So we're going to end the consent agenda and we're going to open it up for general public comments.

Here present.

I don't see any hands raised or anybody approaching uh to speak.

Uh, Spencer, is there anybody online that wants to speak?

There are currently no attendees online.

All righty.

So we're going to close that part of the agenda and move over to the public appearance uh side.

We have our first item, which is item number three.

Provide update on lower Presidio Historic Park.

Do we have a presenter?

This is me.

Thank you.

Hello, hello.

We'll have a presentation coming up.

Thank you, Fernanda.

Cool.

So let's start off.

This started off with a presentation going to council, where we went to council about next options on Lower Presidio Historic Park.

Um back last year in 2025.

And one of the guidings of council was to come back and discuss Lower Presidio Historic Park with the Museum's Cultural Arts Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission, and Historic Preservation Commission.

So hello.

Starting off basically, folks, we're Lower Presidio Historic Park right over there, kind of separating New Monterey from Old Town Monterey, right around the corner, um, Pacific Street.

And also, by the way, in today's MC Weekly, there is a short article about the Lower Presidio Historic Park about the erosion on the hillside and what's going on.

So, but it is one of the founding sites.

It was we know it as a we believe it as a trading site, as a mid-in site.

Um, it is a site where you can typically would not find abalone up on the land unless people were actually there.

So we know it was used by the different villages there.

Um, it's earliest sites, we believe about 10,000 plus years over there.

That people were there, the first people, the Esselin, Rimsian.

Um, and the hill from the records of Honokil was the name of the actual hillside there.

But there we know they're also the first abalone divers.

So next slide.

And but it's been owned by our US Army since 1847.

So that you had Ord over there, we had uh Halleck, we've had a number of uh General Sherman was there, they were working on actually building the first fort of over there.

And in 1996, the city got into a 50-year lease with the army for 25.15 acres.

Um, next slide.

And I will mention that on that there was a move about last year to do a there was an amendment to that to that lease, but that was specifically for the child care center because that was a 25-year lease, and that that portion of the lease did expire, but we are in the middle of the lease right now.

This is the aerial view of this of the site right there.

The yellow is right around kind of the curve going in there.

Next slide.

Um, but preserving open space.

So what happened in basically you had the 1980s.

Um, United States Army was looking to sell land to private developers, including Huckleberry Hill, including Lower Presidio Historic Park.

Um basically, as you see there, you had Congressman Leon Panetta.

Um basically reject the Army's request and try to create what we ended up calling now the Monterey Way, which is the partnership between the monarch between the city of Monterey and the United States Army Garrison, where we actually do public works over there at the Defense Language Institute.

Um, but they rejected the request to actually sell the Presidio, close it down to developers.

So next slide.

And this is the land block right over there.

Went to went to Congress and basically they said we're not that would have changed that area pretty dramatically around that time.

Next slide.

So since that time, um basically what ended up happening is they had to get into an agreement who's going to actually maintain the land.

That's where the city of Monterey came in, and there was the 50-year lease for the facility.

Basically, we take care of the land.

Um, and we don't pay for the lease, we pay for basically we we do the work.

We do the recreation, we run the museum, all those things.

So we were they used to run a museum at building 113, and they cleared out everything, sent it to Virginia, and took out changed to their signage, and the city had to work with a historic um master plan with the United States Army.

So the entry signs were updated in terms with old Monterey Foundation.

They built it up above the archaeologically sensitive sites, putting concrete on top.

And the city estimates we spent about 80,000 a year on that 25 acres.

Next slide.

So on the slide, you'll see here these because of how archaeologically sensitive that site is.

So those are all things where we're not doing any work on there.

So next slide.

I was just going to see where this highlighted, those signs right there.

And you go next one.

And there's the path.

So back to the purpose of the lease.

Initially, we wanted to preserve open space.

California State Parks actually owns the small Portola landing park right there in between the two, the artillery, you know, road where there's right there.

That little spot where the Murray Cross is at, the James Murray Cross is at, is actually by state parks.

So State Parks owns that little spot next to the creek, and the creek is the landing spot of Father Sarah.

But they did not want to handle restoration maintenance or anything.

But they had previously in the 60s and 70s excavated down because El Castillo, which it's known as a National Register of Historic Places as El Castillo, which was the Spanish and Mexican fort, was further closer to the curve and on the hillside.

That site actually uh California State Parks excavated it out, did the archaeological archaeology in the 60s and 70s, wanted to build a rebuilt fort there, never did.

But they came back in the 80s.

And at that time, I think probably due to cash restrictions, they said we don't want to take it over.

So that's when the city came in.

Next slide.

So as you'll see in 1996, we run into a lease of 50-year lease, which will expire currently in 2046.

Minimal maintenance functions, mowing, litter control, restroom maintenance.

Um, as I mentioned, the majority of objects in the little museum that's in there in that little artillery shack building that's there, the museum, are owned by either the city of Monterey, Monterey History and Art Association, or our different donors.

Everything that was basically owned by the United States military, they used to actually have recreations of like models of what it looked like during the indigenous time.

They had models of what it looked like in, you know, I think in 1602, or they had, you know, they just had different models out there and they sent those all back away.

So those are all gone.

Unfortunately, next slide.

So as I mentioned here, we've had over a million dollars in maintenance on the site.

A lot of that from CIP, NCIP, as well as some different grants.

Next slide.

Um, history right there.

That painting is on the inside.

That painting is by Agatha Few.

We are in the Few Memorial Building right here for Agatha Few, who donated her estate from her and her husband's estate to build City Hall here and the city buildings all here, all part of Pocket the Few.

So she was a painter as well.

So she painted the that uh Presidio Curve right over there, which I like to see that as well.

And as I mentioned, you know, Viscaino came here in 1602 at that site at that tree where the Murray cross is at.

Uh Sarah and Gaspar Portola had the first mass there, 1770.

Site of the only land and sea battle in the west coast of the United States.

So that was the Bouchard 1818.

And where they won by sea but lost by land.

And the slope monument is the 1846 capture of Monterey for the United States of America.

That was done in the semicientennial.

So the slope monument on the top was done by veterans of the Mexican American War for the 50-year anniversary.

So they petitioned a Congress to build that.

Next slide.

So a couple other sites of importance on there, the Rumsian Aloney or Essalin, depending on you you talk to, birthing stone.

Also, some people call it a rain rock.

Uh, it's a large rock up there.

The Alejo Niño Cross, which is currently in our storage because somebody pushed it over.

Um, but that is a not the actual burial site, but the first non-native buried in Alta, California was a Lejo Niño, a freed black slave from Mexico, and he died on June 2nd, and Father Sarah landed June 3rd.

So he was on the ship the day before.

So after they held mass at the tree, they said we buried him away from the tree.

So probably right over there.

So they put the cross right up on top of the hill.

As I mentioned, the Bouchard Monument, the Sarah monument that was donated by uh Jane Stanford from Luland Stanford and Jane Stanford, they donated that here.

And the slope monument up at the top of the hill.

Next slide.

So other sites on there, it's important for the 9th and 10th Cavalry, 24th and 25th Infantry for the Buffalo soldiers.

And they're coming here, they were not able to serve east of the Mississippi, but they were serving in the Philippines and in Cuba.

And so they came and were stationed out in San Francisco, and then we're sent from San Francisco to Monterey and to gather and train new horses.

So first they were living in Pacific Grove, and then they helped build uh cavalry housing and stables up on the actual Presidio.

So this photo I got from the PG Museum of Natural History, but they left from Monterey to become the first U.S.

Park Rangers, the Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.

Next slide.

And as you'll see there, uh the 2002 interpretive master plan is what we work, what we initially worked off of for the signage for the interpretive panels on there.

And we've been working on this with the city and different departments for over 20 years.

And I said 7,000 years of history, depending on who you talk to, some people say 10,000 years at that site.

We know it's several thousand years.

Next slide.

And of course, you guys know about preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction.

This is your wheelhouse here.

But just for all the other commissions to know that whenever we do anything here, because of this is an archaeological sensitive site and a site on that's on multiple um, it's overlapping archaeological sites on the space there, as well as a site of the national uh interests that we have to make sure everything is done here sensitive.

Next slide.

And there's different walkways, improvements, everything right over there, kind of that reddish area right there is around kind of the essential area of the lower presidio historic park.

So it goes up to the gate.

So if you're coming in from you know, from New Monterey, and there's that kind of sharp curve that turns right around there.

The uh Boy Scout Shack is also part of the lease, but the Boy Scout Shack, when they when we signed the lease, it basically the army said you guys are going to allow the Boy Scouts to continue to use the building.

That's basically what it says there.

Um the historic master plan, different projects do identify which sites are historic, which sites are not historic as well.

So some of the works that were done, there was a stable study 2019.

I believe on 2019-2020, their historic stables, but they were from the 1930s.

They were not from the Buffalo Soldier era, and they were not from an earlier era.

Those were actually torn down, and that was done in um, there was numerous studies done with planning department with museums department consultation with the army.

So those were removed.

Next slide.

And Presidial Curve.

So that's what brings us kind of here, the initial comment.

2022, the United States um army contacted the city about what we call the sloughing on the hillside, the dirt coming off of the hill.

And being an archaeologically sensitive site, we have to bring out Dudek, which is our one of our contractors out there to um go through all of the soil coming on their erosion.

And the city actually owns a very small kind of inside square there where you will see a wood fence along the hillside.

Next slide.

So Army City right away.

We have a very interesting property line right there, as you'll see, we're a little juts in right there.

So the city installed that wood fence right on there to help hold in some of the soil.

So next time you're driving to New Monterey or coming in from that side or walking there, take a look at that site.

But it was done as a surface mount.

It was not done with like excavation inside to do very limited construction on that site right there.

Next slide.

So as I mentioned, 2021, there's burrowing animals, there's just erosion on that hillside, water.

We have heavy storms, you know, we'll have very dry eras, and then all of a sudden we have heavy rains coming in and it washes things down.

So there are different reasons that the hill site kind of comes there.

And the army wanted us to build a full-size um wall.

The height of the of the of the wall height of the curve up there.

So you know you're looking at up to like 25 feet up high at some points, pretty high up there.

And um, the city does not have the funding to build or the design to do the wall.

Next slide.

So at that point, they thought it'd be about 1.5 million dollars to design and construct.

Um, there is NEPA and SEQA.

The SEQA, of course, California and Environmental Quality Act.

The NEPA is the national um environmental, sorry, the actual acronym.

What's that?

Protection act.

And NEPA is sort of because it's on federal property, because if this is a federal job, if they do it on federal property, they do it on NEPA's um guidelines and standards.

And if we do it, if with the city does the work on the city property, it's under C, you know, under CEQA.

But we do everything with historic and tribe consultations.

The um important thing to recognize also with this site is that our local tribes are not federally recognized.

Only Costa Noan nation are not federally recognized.

There are very few tribes in California that are federally recognized.

That's a whole nother presentation.

There's a whole lot of information about that.

Uh has to do with the early 1850s.

But um Kerber and others came out came out and basically said these tribes are extinct.

And when they did that, they were not eligible for uh federal tribal recognition.

And the federal government has not identified new tribes since the 1970s for federal recognition, because they want you to have lineage from the moment eight from 1851 to present of tribal activities.

So the federal, because this is a federal site, the federal government works with the federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes work with the local tribes.

So we still do work with the local tribes in terms of through these projects, but we work with them in consultation with the United States Army to make sure that we are going through all of the correct federal and state processes as well.

Um, as well as the project would be done by Army Corps of Engineers and of course funding staff shortages and opportunity costs.

Next slide.

So questions, we don't have to have answers for all these, but these are some of the questions I posed for the other commissions before the um project came forward with the army.

Go ahead.

All right.

Well, thank thank you for that presentation.

Um I'll pass it on.

There's a question on the to the commissioners for questions, Commissioner Clavel.

I think you have focusing on well, just think there are some other questions.

If you want to think about it, I can pose them, and if you guys want to think about them.

Ah, gotcha.

I have a well, we'll we'll wait a little bit.

Sorry about that.

Go ahead, Bryce.

Sorry, I got too much info.

No, got it, got it.

Um, but these are some of the questions that kind of came up initially in terms of working with council.

And what I'm gonna, I'm gonna preface this with up in recently we just had a a public meeting over at the Lower Presidio Historic Park, and uh Chair Rodriguez was there as well.

And part of it was we did a survey for the community about Presidio operations, and the Army had just put out a 30-day notice regarding their and they are working on building a fence here.

They're working on building a fence or or some kind of soil management for the hillside.

And they got federal funding, they did a federal grant to actually do that work.

So they are planning on doing that work.

And this was before I did this part of this present presentation as well.

But part of the questions coming from council is should the city continue this lease?

Part of the questions with the lease was either the army or the city could back out with one year's notice of having it.

Um, but then also would if the city had backed out, will we continue to provide public access?

Would the army provide public access to that park if the lease was terminated?

And the other part should we continue to invest general fund dollars on the park?

And because if we're running into a budget crisis, you know, budget and what do we do with spending money on um capital projects on this site as well?

Next slide.

Click all the questions through real quick.

And so one of our questions at the point was can we remain low cost, no cost compliance?

The museum is operated by volunteer docents, and we do most of our history tours there are you know volunteer-led.

And are there other state or federal agencies, county agencies that can get into a new lease for this project?

Go ahead and thank you.

Thank you.

And so part of that, the next part about that is the federal land, should the city pursue and advocate for national monument or national historic site designation.

This is something I've been working on with uh Congressman Panetta, and I'm hopeful that we'll have something presented to the House um in the next few weeks regarding national.

There would be a Secretary of Interior study for this.

And should they be the ones to possibly operate the site in perpetuity?

And then another one, or there are other regional agencies that can operate and provide access to services for this part.

And I think we don't.

So the other question I just had for council on this is that if this if the army is looking at market rate leases, which is one of the things they were looking at when we were discussing with the child care center, what would that look like?

We don't know because right now it's basically at the lease is in a kind of uh we'll provide you with access to the park if you guys do historic preservation and provide open space.

But if those federal guidelines changed for how they were to do leases in 25 years, what is that going to look like for us to provide a lease and try to lease out that parkland from the United States Army?

Right.

And click and click through all of them.

So yeah.

So basically uh we're looking at preliminary of looking at federal management of the park.

Our understanding also is if the National Park Service were to take on this site, if they were ever to go back to that BRAC process, which is base relocation and closure that created Ford Ord, you know, created CSUMB.

But if they went through the BRAC process, it wouldn't be able to be sold to private developers or anything.

It would automatically go to National Park Service because they would be the ones running the park.

And what are the Army's plans for Lower Presidio Historic Park?

We see today's, like we've got you know, wars going on and people at high alert.

These can really change um buffer zone access.

And what are the capital maintenance costs?

And recommended public engagement approach, initial engagements, uh presentations.

That's where I'm here.

And next slide, I think the next one is just community workshop, and we had one of our community workshops and may have more.

And I think that's it.

Questions and anything.

All right, thank you.

Now we'll open it up.

Sure.

No, thank thank you for the presentation.

And by this at this point, I know you have it all by heart.

Uh so thank you.

Um, I'll open it up to commissioners.

Commissioner Corello.

I I really do think it's an important site.

And and I hope that we still have some access to it no matter what happens, just the perspective and uh telling the story from that point of view with the the forts that have been there.

I think it's it's important to the story of Monterey.

I also one slide you showed was not, however, that site.

And so did you recognize that it's a side before the um projects and Presidio Hill.

I don't know if you want to roll back to that, but that's actually kind of the back of San Carlos Cathedral, and they had the um Adobe Church in front, and they were building the scat they had the scaffolding up for the stone church in the back.

And just one it went, it's prior to projects and prior to Presidio Hill.

If you go back to what said projects and presidio hill, and then you show a picture of a site, not that one, not that.

There you go.

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah.

So you see there's sort of a branch on the left side, and if you follow it in in the original of this, which is of course much bigger and kind of colorized, there's scaffolding scaffolding there, and that's to build the rock the stone cathedral, and just to the right of that is a pointy thing, and that's the adobe that was there.

And there's the presidio that used to be, you know, the church was one side of it and it extended to the YMCA.

So that's what you're looking at there.

Right at Presidial Hill.

Right.

That's the that's the original lower presidio, original presidio, which would have been there were El Estero and San Carlos Chapel.

Right.

So basically a location of many presidios, actually.

You know, if you count all of them, there's you can do a nice um presentation on the Presidios of Monterey.

It goes on and on.

So I just wondered if you know that that I just wanted to point out that that's actually where the church is.

I didn't understand that you separated.

I thought you were still talking about the city.

Is that yeah, that is just that is the the earliest kind of drawing, one of the earliest drawings of the Presidio.

But yeah, when they built the Presidio, they built the Presidio next to San Carlos Cathedral and the Presidio Walls and the Presidios that they used, they had a standard Spanish architect that had the same design, like through the different areas.

You know, they use a pretty standard um thing, but that's part of yeah, the walls on like Fremont over around there.

It's all over that tour from the church.

Yeah.

But and you can see it, it's sort of like a western fort size, you know, just like we used to see you know, TV show Win 1010 or something, yeah, it would be kind of young.

I'm trying to figure out where when I first started paying attention to this here, Bill Wokowski, or I have trouble with his last name.

What he was doing presentations with the community on the big project of building the pathway and accessibility.

So what was the funding for that project?

And and were we involved as the city of Monterey in that project?

Yes, from my understanding, that was prior to my time here, but I believe some of that was NCIP funding, and that was also there was grant funding and private donors from OMF.

So old, you know, Old Monterey Foundation, they did it in partnership with the city.

All of the historic panels were done because they didn't worked on that.

Like they did like in the pathway and the historic panels.

The path the panels were done by command historian um Cameron Binkley and Dennis Copeland and Old Monterey.

Bill, not it wasn't Bill Wojt, but it was somebody else, but there was another person involved in that on that site.

But multiple parties were involved in that and in the funding of it.

And so it was funded by various sources.

And that's holding up pretty well.

The work?

Well, the walkway there, yes.

The walkway that goes to where the Sarah path is.

The other path was what I mentioned was the DG, which is a decomposed granite.

And that's the one that's like kind of on the that one is goes from pretty much the Presidio Museum over towards kind of the Bolio gate, and that's on the hillside.

That one just needs like more maintenance because it's not concrete.

It's basically, you know, like it's it's not as easy to walk on, I would say.

But the pathway that goes up to Slope Monument is good.

That pathway is good.

There was an NCIP project for repair of the base of Slope Monument, which did not has not been completed.

And I think there's additional work that needs to be done on like Slope Monument and some of the other sites.

But the actual pathways, the signage, those kind of things are fine right now.

And I just hope we we continue to have access to that walk that was developed and be able to kind of plot, you know, where the castillo and the fort was and just have that view of of the bay is it's really quite magnificent.

And I think it's nice if we continue to have access, no matter who's organizing it.

I think that that would it would be nice to have that as part of the package, because I think it's I think it's important.

And I do appreciate the people that give docent tours.

I think that's that's really great.

And I've had some of those tours, and it's really nice.

I I also know those soft hills that are part of California's um, you know, that's just part of California in different places, and sometimes they're not structurally um stable, you know, and and that one isn't a uh you know hard rock hill, and in my opinion, it has soft areas, and so it probably will continue to take um, you know, we have to be aware of of the condition of it and the erosion and all of the things that you were talking about, and that equals money in order to to maintain it.

But I I think it's great if we can continue to have access, it is an important site.

So thanks for all the work you do.

All right, I think we have a commissioner Pizza.

Yeah, my impression from your presentation is that the army's future plans for the space is pretty nebulous at this time.

Is that a fair assessment?

Yeah, what I had heard before at one point they were wanted to have parking up there because of the flat land up there and getting people up into you know, up into DLI, Defense Language Institute, or um we're not entirely sure because they still they still reserve the right in with national security that they could just say, hey, you know, we're gonna put up a fence and do this.

But when we've talked with them, they are interested in us continuing to maintain the park.

I will say that because of, you know, we as I mentioned with like the Monterey way where we're we have public work staff that work directly on site, we do these kind of work for them.

They don't have the staff that can do that kind of the you know, the daily kind of uh mowing, maintaining the maintaining it, operating the museum, those kind of things.

So they want somebody to do that.

So I think it's in their interest right now for us to have it.

So that's why I do think like they came out with their plan, which was that the army initially they had asked the city to fund the entire wall and the hillside on their property.

And so the proposal that they've put forward says we're we want to continue to work with the city, and we're gonna fund and design the wall.

So they're gonna build like whatever kind of wall and also kind of drainage work, the design so that there's less of the sloughing on there, whether that's infill, whether that's um water drainage, whatever we need to do.

So I think they are working to see like how they can collaborate still.

Have you presented to them any sort of plans of what you envision the park being like in the future?

Well, I think one thing that's always interesting that I I think about is their commanders change every two years.

And then you have regional, you know, and you have they have different higher levels that we're not always overware of what's there.

I will say a couple of years ago, we did meet with their leadership team and said, like, like, hey, like, what do we want to see?

What are pop, what are possibilities and what's the best way to address these kind of things?

Um my communication consistently was my most important thing is consistent public access.

That's the most important thing to me, is just to say, you know, if we're operating the museum, you know, personally professionally is fine.

We're operating a museum with volunteer doses.

I'm like another organization that's a lot of museums do that in this region, is their volunteer dosins.

It doesn't have to be my staff running that side.

But the park itself should be open.

My goal would be perpetuity for Monterey residents.

That's in the and everyone, the visitors' community, everybody.

So that's really where I want to see it.

Um, and then also, does the army have any approval or authority over ultimate design plans there?

As far as no, yes, because it would be under if it did on their property, it would be under uh NEPA guidelines too.

So they would do it under their their federal guidelines rather than through CEQA.

So if they're doing anything, I believe they're gonna do everything on their side.

So we did write a um presentation, I believe that was one or two weeks ago where it went to council and had Mayor Williamson um put forth, bless you, put forth a letter of support for for the project and to do the the short wall along the side.

No, sure, I understand the the requirements for any work that you do there, but in terms of the use of the space that you may envision have any say over what you can or cannot do there?

They do.

So any time um anytime we have to do any tree work, anytime we have to take out a bush, a plant, we have to put in an environmental request with with the army.

Whenever we're doing an event, um, and I know some of the commissioners even here, uh we had to put in a um environmental request of what the impact is on that site.

And I worked with that, and I worked with the uh Presidio.

And I actually put in a request for group use of that.

So it doesn't go, even though the city manages the park, you cannot request it through the recreation department.

You request any use of the park through um City of Monterey, the museums and cultural arts, the library.

And so I then um connect so like the Boy Scouts wanted to do a scout bikes, bicycle rodeo.

So I had to get the permit, get the request, go through the army, and army say, can we still do this project?

So ultimately they oversee that activity, yes, still, at least for now.

What do you mean, at least for now?

Well, I mean, if they if if we had a a acceptable use policy rather than right right now, right now it's basically if we're going through if I'm having a request for what types of programs could be used there.

It would be a lot easier if we said these are the spaces that you can hold the program, these are the types of programs you can do, and the city of Monterey is going to do that rather than right now.

I have to work with the uh public works engineering, public outreach people, you know, um depending on if ecological staff, that stuff, it's like I feel like it's a little bit extra work for something like that.

There's a lot of extra work for every single event.

Exactly.

So yeah, okay.

That's good.

Yes.

And and I was one of those people that um, and I think I should apologize to you, because we thought we were talking with somebody at the city that knew what they were doing, and then it was getting closer, and then it turned out all of a sudden we had you really had to jump in, get permission on a short notice when we had the Native Daughters of the Golden West have a um a lunch at in the pitning tables and walk up the hill and back.

It wasn't uh a huge event, but but I know what you're saying about the process.

In terms of building up there, I think that's a really good question.

What would be the fee?

I think you'd have to be really careful about doing building with these soft hills.

You know, that's been done before, and houses have not held up over rainstorms and and erosion.

I think it's great that we did not subdivide that hill.

And and I wouldn't want that that to happen in the future.

That would be another opinion I have about it.

I don't think it's appropriate for subdividing.

Yeah.

All right.

Any questions?

Yes.

I have a question.

The the um displays or whatever that the army removed their museum and it went somewhere back east.

Do they exist?

Um can they be brought back?

I mean, I can't think of anything if you're gonna have a uh I'm guessing are they dioramas or some sort of something like that?

Any place besides Monterey, that that would be terribly interesting.

Yeah, I was just told by you know their their cultural historian who who had who resigned, and that's where she told me they went to Virginia, that they were sent to their storage out there.

I don't know if that's and I couldn't find records of them yet, but I was when I was doing the tour for the other group, I was mentioning like I tried to contact the Naval Museum for a Navy boat display that had to do with the the Congress, which is the ship that Walter Colton came out on, and we have photos from the 1960s of this boat.

But I said, Can I have new photos?

Can we lend out the model?

No one's ever got back to me, but I do feel like it's got to be somewhere.

You know, those models have to have to be somewhere in there.

We just don't know what condition they're in or what they did with them.

They may have had other things, like because we have things like cannonballs in there from the cannonball from 1840 when there was a Mexican over they tried to overthrow the Mexican government here.

Um of those kind of things, and we have like the Colonel Fitch sword that's used for La Merienda.

That one's kept up inside there as well.

So some of those things we we we still have, but yeah, we're missing a lot of stuff.

It's um, yeah, uh, we've tried to query the Navy on the Coast Guard uh historians, and they're not very responsive, to be honest.

So luck with that.

Thank you.

That's a very nice way to put it.

Uh any other questions?

I if I I oh go ahead.

Yeah.

Um touching on the potential of national park status.

Um any feelings, thoughts on likelihood, the the possibility, the desire to have it be completely in federal hands.

Well, I think you know, the first part is they do like um Secretary of Interior, they do what the house bill would do is what's called a special resource study, and they would do a new study, and it'd probably be similar to one of the studies that they've done in the 60s and 70s, making it a nationally recognized site.

So I think that I feel like there's enough there, there's so much different layers and levels of history that in my opinion that would classify for national recognition.

Um the most similar one in my opinion was Cabrillo National Monument, which is if you're in San Diego, because Cabrillo came out for 1542 and you know came out here at a Bay of Pines, also named us Bay of Pines, but they have the Caprillo National Monument, which is next to the Navy land.

So this would be you know, like very similar next Army land.

So this would be something like that, where I think it's possibility.

I think uh federal, as you've probably seen in the news, like IMLS institute, museum and library services, national park services consistently see decreases in funding or shutdowns and everything like that.

So that would be the one concern.

But if it was just like marked as like an open space and a park with very limited things in there, I I don't know that's I think that would be that study to say like what would that management be?

What buildings would they occupy?

You know, would they have somebody stationed at a Fort Ord that would just have to be the you know, the ranger or whatever you call it for there?

Because it's pretty it's a pretty small site.

But I think I think the there's a lot of community support.

Um, and because Leon Panetta helped save that park, that's why I thought Jimmy Panetta would also be a great person to help save the park in the future too.

Uh his representative expressed any strong belief that that it could happen or well, I've been working with his staff directly on the report.

So I worked on the on the on the text.

So we'll see.

We'll see where it goes.

But I worked on the text directly um with the you know uh Lone Colo Costano and Silent Nation with our command historian and with uh Dennis Copeland before he passed.

So I worked with numerous people just on getting the right text for them.

And does anybody have any concept of what the timeline might be for that to go through?

I think if it was where to go past, I believe it's like a three to four year kind of project.

I might let us see it.

All right, I think I saw her hand and you're you're next.

Go ahead.

Then you know, there's a kind of an article in that same weekly about the answer and why we're not celebrating it, but it made me think here come 240 people and they've just walked a long ways and probably tired and they rested in Monterey.

They had a couple hundred stock and if you know it was a it was a parade, a long long group of people.

Where did they stay?

Did they stay up on the hill in this lower presidio?

Did they stay down in the board?

Well, no, they couldn't have stayed down there.

How do they where were where were they staying when they were in Monterey?

Well, they were camped, they have different camp records, and so they were camped over at where the Presidio was before.

So if you look at the Presidio, I'm sorry, if you look at the DeNZ Foundation, it does mark visit the Lower Presidio Historic Park Hill.

And I told them that's not the actual site.

It would have been over by the San Carlos Cathedral, over by El Estero.

There are some granite rocks that are on the corner of LSR by Fremont and Camino El Estero.

That's actually was done for the for the uh 200th celebration.

Those statues, those rocks there, those granite stones.

That's around the campsite would have been right around there.

Around San Carlos, that up it gets confusing which presidio and what would have just wondering.

And do we have any um any are we doing anything for the DNS at all or remembering anyway?

We've we're not doing any presentations.

The the image on the cover is a photo I took of our painting this, and I put in the library's lobby.

Got the Jack Laycox painting this on the cover of the weekly.

The map that I had redone inside the um city manager's office right over there, that's inside of there from the image on the inside that was done.

That tile map was restored because the tile map had been damaged and fell off.

So we didn't we don't have any kind of activities and celebrations going on right now.

All right, uh Commissioner Arnold.

Oh, just a uh comment.

Uh the if an agency like the Army Historical Command, um, gets an inquiry from a congressman, they are obligated to respond.

So just a hint.

Yeah.

Uh uh, yeah, and and they have to respond.

Uh, whoever, whoever it is, if it's the pay or when my husband was a um company commander in the marine corps.

If the corporal's mother didn't get a letter and she went to the congressman, they would get a letter and he would have to respond.

Yes, little Johnny is doing just fine.

Thank you.

Anyway, it's just it's it's an avenue.

You wouldn't want to bombard them, but um, it it works.

So thank you.

Any other questions?

Uh I would just comment that I know we're in lean budget times, but let's not do anything rash.

We can always cut back, but backing out of a lease, it would be very permanent.

I hope city council hears this.

Instead of spending 80,000 a year, maybe we can spend 40 for now and just keep it.

Uh and I and this is coming from a former docent of the Presidio Museum uh at some point.

Uh, and and thank God for all those volunteers that that do it.

So the volunteer mowing Boy Scouts, yeah.

That's right.

Yeah, let's that's right.

Um, all right.

Uh let's open it up to I'm gonna ask Spencer if there's anybody online that may want to speak on this item.

See, there are currently no attendees online, but I'll just remind uh if they do join information on how to participate remotely by Zoom or telephone is found at Monterey.gov forward slash agendas.

If you are joining by telephone, dial star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute.

Thank you, Spencer.

And I don't see anybody.

Um I'll open it up to in-person public comment, and I see none.

Uh all right, so I don't think it this is an action item.

So thank you very much for for the report.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for all the work you do.

Thank you, Brian.

All right, let's move on to our second item.

I see Fernanda.

I'm gonna stall while she walks over to the computer, and we're gonna go to item number four, which is a receiver report on certified local government 2024-25 annual report.

Thank you, Chair.

My name is Fernando Rovere, principal planner for the city of Monterey, and I'll present to you the CLG annual report for reporting year October 2024 to September 2025.

So, first of all, what is a CLG?

It means certified local government.

The CLG program is a preservation partnership between local, state, and federal governments focused on promoting historic preservation at the local level.

The program is jointly administered by the National Park Service and the State Historic Preservation Office in each state with each local community working through a certification process to become recognized as a CLG.

And because the City of Monterey is a CLG, every year we are required to submit a report to the State Office of Historic Preservation to document the HPC's accomplishments and to prove that we maintain our certification requirements.

So how to become a CLG.

In order to become a CLG, you have to maintain a fully staffed historic preservation commission with at least two qualified professionals, which we do.

We also have to we have and enforce a local historic preservation ordinance.

We also maintain a system to survey inventory historic resources, which we do in our historic preservation ordinance, and facilitate public participation in local preservation, which we do by holding public hearings.

This map here shows that Monterey, Carmel by the Sea, Salinas, and Monterey County are CLGs, and Pinnacles is a national park.

If the Lower Presidio Historic Park becomes a national historic park, it will show up as a tiny green polygon on this map.

Very nice.

So because we are a CLG, we get these benefits.

Also, it is well documented that historic districts maintain higher property values, less population decline, more walkability, and greater sense of community.

This map shows CLGs and national parks across the country.

As you can see, it is a large network.

So now I will share some highlights from the report.

We have a fully staffed commission with great attendance.

By the way, as you can see.

The first is the 1078 West Franklin William O.

Stevens House Repairs and Alterations Project.

The HPC visited the site, and if you remember, the terrace had extensive water damage.

The project included repairs and alterations to the terrace, windows, and other components to rehabilitate the building and make it functional and watertight for the owner.

The HPC also reviewed the inclusion of an apartment unit at the second story of the historic La Aida Cafe Building, now of Stinos Patissary at 851 Canary Row.

Lastly, the HBC reviewed alterations to the Hellam House at 581 Scott Street.

The HPC visited the site and evaluated plans for a second-story deck expansion and skylights on the tobacco barn and the garage.

As you know, every historic preservation commissioner must have at least one hour of training completed per reporting period.

And you all exceeded that tremendously.

And with that, staff recommends that the HPC receive the report, hopefully accept it, and make any corrections if necessary.

All righty, I'll open it up to commissioners if they have any comments, corrections, questions.

Just thanks for the nice presentation.

It looks pretty good when it's when we see it written at Fernet.

Um, I I just have one brief Fernanda promise it's San Ego on page 15 of the packet, it says my name attorney.

I'm also a trained historian.

The only reason I mention it is because I know it matters to the composition, but I saw it on my resume, it's there, so I don't know if you want to add there.

I I have an MA in history, although it's ever been my official profession.

Someday someday, that's right.

Uh yes, I can um so on page 15 of the PDF, the attachment one.

Yes.

So you have the commission membership under uh Roman numeral 2A.

But like I said, I for posterity because this is recorded, it's not ego, it's to help the commission if if the if the commission needs another historian on on it, that's it.

That would be my only suggestion.

So attorney and historian.

I see now it sounds like it's ego.

But yes, yes, if it helps the commission, if not the attorney's fine.

I'll make that change.

Okay.

Since you're changing just that a P between by first name and last name, please.

And that's and that's that's it.

Um Spencer, do we have anybody online that uh sorry, uh so just confirming no commissioner comments or corrections?

Yeah, all right, Spencer.

Do we have anybody online that would want to comment?

There are currently no attendees online.

Thank you very much.

I see none in person, so I think uh this is not an action item, correct?

We just thank you for oh, do you want to need us to vote to receive?

Yes.

Okay.

With the changes?

Uh that's right.

All right.

So do we have a motion to accept or receive the report with the suggested changes?

I can make oh, okay, go ahead.

I'll move that we um accept the report with the changes.

Thank you.

And we have a second, Commissioner Collin and I know uh not in that order, but for uh motion and second.

All right, and uh all those in favor?

Aye, anybody opposed?

Any abstentions?

All right, thank you very much.

Uh Fernanda appreciate the report.

All right, moving on to our last uh item, which is planning update.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

Um, so as noted in the agenda packet, there's currently no items that are tentatively scheduled for our April 9th meeting.

However, that's some time away, so that might change.

So we'll certainly let this group know if something does make its way onto the agenda.

Uh besides that, also noted are the upcoming historical and cultural events beginning with neurodiversity and disabilities awareness month art show.

Uh, that's going to be in PG on March 13th at the R Abilities Studio.

Uh, there's also Monterey Parts Cutting Day, which is very popular, as you all know, and horticultural horticultural fair 2026, which is going to be out here at Colton Hall Lawn.

And of course, rhythms and resistance uh is concert at CS CSU and B on March 21st.

And that's all we have.

Thank you.

I'm I know we're very active in the historic community.

Any uh events from the commissioners, yes.

Thank you.

Well for the Monterey State Historic Park Association.

I attended uh the uh of lecture on the Bhutan sisters who did a lot on the peninsula in terms of mosaics, murals, etc.

I have their book that Wendy Van Dyke, I can't remember her other name.

Uh listen, I've heard it twice.

In fact, once at the library and uh at the California Theater last Saturday, and I did pick up poetry in the park that the um the historic uh park association is doing also at the California State Theater, first theater on April 4th from one to three.

They have these little things.

So they'll probably be at the library and so forth and custom has different places like that.

But um Mimi Sherrod, any historian and a preservation specialist uh opened the lecture last Saturday.

She's now the president of the group.

And um, so I think it's important to support these different things that they're doing.

It's very interesting.

the first theater on April 4th from one to three they have these little things uh they'll probably be at the library and so forth and custom has to be places like that but um mimi sherid any historian and a preservation specialist uh opened the lecture last Saturday she's now the president of the group and um so i think it's important to support these different things that they're doing it's very interesting and so bad it was packed all right yes uh commissioner creve but uh two things one is that um planning started for the maryenda which always celebrates the birthday of monterey and this month in March if you're a member of Monterey History and Art you can purchase tickets and um and we're always um you know this is a good time to get them because it often sells out and so in April those who are not members can purchase tickets cost 25 dollars more but you know you get a you know first chance if you're a member this the second thing is um april 13th uh mimi who is the president of monterey um parks is gonna make a presentation to the native daughters at the Casa Serrano on Margaret Jack's and Margaret Jacks was the last jacks to survive due to the uh well we don't know if it's because they were um yeah they weren't not popular in terms of the way they acquired their property but there's a really positive story about how the properties are being used now and all the really great things margaret jacks did in terms of bequeathing her resources to a variety of different things so if you're interested in knowing more about Margaret Jacks and we welcome you to come it'll be at seven o'clock at the Casa Serrano on April 13th.

Right thank you.

I have one just I won't be here in April so I'm traveling so um he left but I did go to the event on Sunday and I just want to thank and plug Brian if he ever does a walk or something he's fantastic uh so he's really interesting have you all had the chance what he can take in and bring out in such a wonderful way we we were lucky to get in my very and uh and when it was a really fun uh it was a really really cold day uh after a few warm days but you can couldn't even uh feel it because he had us walking all over the place so it was it was a very nice day so if you see him uh before I see him next month I'll just also add uh he didn't mention it he mentioned the Monterey County Weekly but he's there's also a nice picture of Brian in the weekly this this week there's also a nice picture of Brian in the weekly mention that he's being modest at and all right out here in front of Colton Hall you know extension of the historic path what's happened with that where Brian took us through the Rosino Canary Row everywhere do you know anything about that I should have you should have had him while he was in here that's he was he's your guy that's monetary concerns nothing right now probably back to tell us about that yeah all righty if if nothing more for the group I will adjourn we will adjourn the meeting uh Fitzward Preservation Commission at 501 p.m.