Monterey City Council Meeting on August 19, 2025 – Housing Ordinance and NCIP Discussion
Monterey City Council Meeting
The Monterey City Council convened on August 19, 2025, for a meeting dominated by debates over implementing state housing laws and prioritizing neighborhood improvement projects. Key agenda items included the second reading of an ordinance to comply with Senate Bill 9 (SB9) for residential densification and a joint session with the Neighborhood and Community Improvement Program (NCIP) to address project backlogs and community engagement.
Consent Calendar
- Items 3 and 7 were pulled for discussion; all other consent calendar items passed unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Judy, a Monterey citizen and event worker, expressed support for Car Week but requested resources for trailer parking and improved safety measures.
- Uva Groebecker of New Monterey advocated for speed limits and clear separation on the bike trail between Sun Calus Beach and Wharf parking lots, citing safety hazards.
- Marsha Renzula, a Monterey resident, proposed updating the municipal code to prohibit roosters due to noise exceeding city limits and public health risks.
- Daniel Mandares, a local business owner, opposed a 98% reduction in street vendor space, arguing it was an unacceptable encroachment.
- Another resident supported prohibiting roosters, noting disruption from crowing.
- Jody Emerson, a low-income housing unit owner, requested incentives for decarbonizing homes by allowing cost additions to selling values.
Discussion Items
- SB9 Ordinance Implementation: Staff clarified that SB9 allows up to four units on a single lot, with an option for six units if affordability requirements are met and a lot split occurs. Council members debated compliance with state housing mandates, water availability, oversight of owner-occupancy rules, and neighborhood impacts. Public comments were largely in opposition, fearing increased density, traffic, and loss of R1 zoning character.
- Deputy City Attorney Position: Amendment to the position control list was briefly discussed and approved.
- Historic Preservation Rezoning: First reading of an ordinance to rezone 817 Martin Street for historic preservation and authorize a Mills Act contract was approved without significant debate.
Key Outcomes
- SB9 ordinance passed with a 3-2 vote, with Councilmembers Barber, Garcia, and Williamson in favor, and Councilmembers Rash and Smith opposed.
- Deputy city attorney position amendment passed unanimously.
- Historic preservation rezoning passed unanimously.
- Councilmember Garcia appointed as primary representative to the Access Media Productions board, with Councilmember Rash as alternate.
Joint Meeting on NCIP
- Discussed the backlog of 75 active NCIP projects and staffing challenges limiting completion. Staff highlighted a structural budget deficit affecting maintenance costs for new projects.
- NCIP committee members emphasized prioritizing public safety and health in project selection, with improved collaboration between staff and the committee.
- Debated defining maintenance and potentially amending the city charter to include maintenance funding in NCIP projects. Concerns were raised about community outreach and managing project lists to reduce backlogs.
Meeting Transcript
How do we give us a hug Today's council meeting. It is Tuesday, August 19th, 2025. Go ahead and call the meeting to order and pass it to Clementine to do roll call and share nonsense with the public. Councilmember Barber. Councilmember Garcia. Here. Councilmember Raff here. Councilmember Smith. And Mayor Williamson. Here. And public comment and participation information is provided on this meeting's agenda, which is online at Monterey.gov/slash agendas. In-person attendees, please keep your electronic devices muted to prevent audio interference. Thank you for participating in your city government. All right. With that, we'll go ahead and open it up for general public comments. Just for folks' awareness, what we do is we identify the individuals that want to speak during public comment at the beginning of the public comment period. Once those folks are identified, we close it off and then only those folks will be able to speak. So once those folks are identified, we don't take up hands afterwards. So we'll go ahead and check in with folks on Zoom. You can use the raise hand function while you're navigating your way there. I'll check in the chamber. Anybody in the chamber wish to speak on items that are not on today's agenda. So if you can do me a favor and stand to the left of the podium. And if you prefer to remain seated, just continue to raise your hand so I can identify you. Okay, so I see three. I see three folks standing. Four. And then there's one hand raise in the front row. Anybody else in the chamber? Okay, so we have the five in the chamber. We'll go ahead and close it off in the chamber and I'll do a countdown for folks on Zoom to five, four, three, two, one. We have one person on Zoom. We're gonna go ahead and leave it to two minutes. We'll go ahead and start in the chamber, please. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council members, city officials, and Leo. I'm Judy. I am a Monterey citizen, but I am also an event worker in Monterey. I just want to say I love cars. Thank you. Keep them going. I have a note though, however, it is from a participant in the event. And if I could share it, it would be about trailer parking. Um I'm told him I would bring it to you all because I am uh in the city of Monterey. But he wanted um to have some type of a resource on the website so that the trailers that are towing the vehicles have somewhere to park because some of them are coming from a long way and there's no collective resource for them that's available right now. I will share the um contact information. Uh but also then he had a comment on the parking safety. Uh from me.
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