Well good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meeting of June 25, 2026.

Our committee liaison, Sarah Jordan, will provide information and instruction for the public to participate in today's meeting.

Sarah, please proceed.

Thank you, Chair Whitburn.

While members of the public are able to attend the meeting in person, this meeting is being televised and live streamed on the city's website, and council administration will continue to make arrangements for the public to comment using the Zoom webinar platform.

Members of the public who wish to provide testimony via call-in or an internet-based service option must enter the virtual speaking queue within five minutes after the conclusion of in-person public testimony or before virtual speaking queue is exhausted, whichever occurs first.

This will allow for better meaning management between the two platforms and ensure the committee is able to manage and conduct city business.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Comment period.

Your hand will be lowered.

Chair.

Thank you, sir.

Quorum is now present.

We will now take up not agenda public comment.

The council members respect and appreciate the public's input and are fully committed to protecting every participant's free speech rights at council and committee meetings.

Sarah, please proceed with further instructions.

Thank you, Chair Whitburn.

Per rule 2.7 on agenda public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on items that are not on the agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of this committee.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

And again, if you're watching on City TV or the live stream and you'd like to dial in to speak, please call 1669-2545252 and putting webinar ID 16029 4290 pound.

We will begin with in-person testimony.

Maximilian Schmidt, if you'll please approach the lecture, and you will have two minutes to provide your non-agenda public comment.

Um is the timer.

The timer begins when you start speaking.

Okay, is it going to turn on?

There you go.

Thank you.

25% of the world's population is atheist, and the belief in God is the biggest weapon against communism.

And uh people in the cult and Freemasons have linked um have leaked info to me under the table that um to expose that God is real, and Masonic oaths do not apply to me because I have not done an occult group ritual and I'm not a Freemason.

Um, what has been uh leaked to me under the table is that um over 90% of San Diego has worshipped Diocletian, Nimrod, Jabalon, Osiris, um, to have very powerful religious experiences where they become telepathic mind readers and also feel like a living God, and these are very supernatural experiences that prove um God is real.

Christians will say that they're uh worshipping Lucifer, however, um actual pagans believe that that is the higher being.

And I just want to say there's lots of disinfo online that God is not real.

When I search AI, is God real?

It says there's no scientific proof.

However, the miracle of the sun in Fatima is scientific proof that God is real.

And I just wanted to say that um uh the word pagan actually was was um pagans were actually around before the English language was written, and the word pagan has the word again in it because all pagans live life over and re uh and reincarnate again.

I just wanted to spill some Gnosticism.

The temptation to become a Freemason is very tempting when all you need is one connection to become a Freemason.

And you hear about these powerful religious experiences, and when once you become a Freemason, you actually learn that if you did not do in a cold group ritual, you had a better chance of going to heaven, and that heaven and hell are real.

But now that you did in a cold group ritual, you actually have to reincarnate to avoid hell.

And you actually learn Gnosticism that heaven and hell is real, and actually, over 60% of the USA are telepathic Freemasons, and over 90% of the West Coast.

Thank you for your concluding remark.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide non-agenda public comment.

Each speaker will have two minutes, and we currently have seven hands raised, beginning with Madison.

Please unmute and begin.

That'll be good.

Hi, good afternoon.

Today I would like to speak about AB 269, which is currently moving through state legislature and proposes to allow drive-through marijuana dispensaries, but it would be up to local jurisdictions to choose whether to allow that.

So I'm here today to urge you to use your local authority to reject this idea.

This committee has worked hard to prioritize safe streets, reduce impaired driving, and promote thoughtful active transportation.

Drive-through marijuana sales directly conflict with those goals.

They are by design car dependent, they incentivize more vehicle trips, more idling, and more normalization of substance access behind the wheel.

Unlike other reasons, marijuana is a mind-altering substance, and we know a key challenge.

There is still no reliable practical roadside test for marijuana impairment.

That means enforcement is already difficult.

Adding drive-through access only makes that job harder and sends the wrong signal that purchasing a psychoactive substance from behind the wheel is just another routine errand.

We should also consider the broader street environment.

Drive-through models increase curb cuts, traffic conflicts, and queuing in roadways and parking lots.

Exactly the kind of design features this committee typically tries to reduce for pedestrian and cyclist safety.

And culturally, this does matter as well because the built environment shapes behavior.

When we normalize drive-through access to marijuana, we further embed car use and substance use into everyday routines in ways that are hard to undo.

San Diego has the ability to say no.

Local control is built into this proposal for a reason.

So I urge you to prioritize safe people-centered infrastructure and reject drive-thru marijuana sales in our city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Lori Saldania.

Please unmute and begin.

Good afternoon, thank you.

I'd like to bring to the committee's attention flooding taking place in Mission Beach during the high tides this past week.

At the high tide mark, the alleyway alongside the channel at the south end of Mission Boulevard was being flooded from water coming up through the storm drain system.

And so what you basically have are storm drains unable to drain water back out as designed when this land was evaluated and this infrastructure was engineered decades ago.

I know small businesses in that area that have had gas leaks, underground gas lines, have been leaking.

A restaurant that has a larger gas line compared to the residential areas nearby had significant leak last summer.

And both the fire department and ultimately STGE had to respond to repair that.

So I want to encourage this committee to work with scripts, work with other experts, and evaluate what is happening with places like Mission Beach, but also the convention center.

Yesterday I attended their meeting.

I advised them to take a look at how much excess water is coming into the underground parking structure, how much more they have to pump, why the pumps now are having problems, and this is a public safety as much as an infrastructure problem.

So I will continue to provide evidence of this problem to this committee and hope you will act on it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Becky Rapp, please unmute and begin.

Good afternoon.

My name is Becky Rapp, and I'm here today to speak about road safety and the real consequences of reducing staffing and programs tied to Vision Zero.

Traffic deaths continue to be a serious public health issue, and nationally, about one-third of traffic fatalities involve an impaired driver.

And that impairment includes not only alcohol but also drugs, including marijuana.

Federal data show that a significant number of drivers involved in fatal crashes test positive for marijuana.

And when we reduce staffing for traffic safety, we're not simply eliminating positions.

We are weakening the education, planning, engineering, and enforcement efforts that help prevent crashes before they happen.

At the same time, California is considering assembly Bill 2697, which would allow marijuana storefronts to operate drive-through sales.

This bill moves us in exactly the opposite direction of Vision Zero's goals of reducing traffic deaths.

Drive-through marijuana sales further normalize and commercialize marijuana use while increasing convenience for customers and consumers who arrive and leave by vehicle.

What is particularly concerning is that AB 697 2697 contains no safeguards regarding children being present in vehicles during marijuana purchases.

An adult could drive through a marijuana retailer with children sitting in the back seat while purchasing high potency THC products.

If we're serious about preventing impaired driving, improving traffic safety, and protecting youth, we should not be cutting Vision Zero resources while simultaneously supporting policies that increase the normalization and commercialization of intoxicating products.

I urge this committee to restore transportation safety staffing and programs and to publicly oppose AB 2697.

Thank you.

Thank you for your concluding remark.

The virtual queue has exhausted with four hands raised.

We will not take any other callers beyond these four hands.

Terry Ann Skelly, please unmute and begin.

Good afternoon, Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Whitburn.

My name is Terry Ann Skelly.

I'm a planning group member, a parent, and a public health educator.

Thank you, City Committee members, for your support and interest in Vision Zero Strategic Plan.

I supported school of zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries for the safety of pedestrians and would like to add e-bikers.

Promoting safe driving is personal to me since I'm a parent of three young adult sons who have the highest rates of accidents, especially drug impaired driving.

Recently, the National Safety Council fact sheet announced that, and I quote, it is unsafe to be under the influence of cannabis.

Intoxicating cannabis products can have a major impact on safety on our roadways because marijuana use slows reaction time, impacts memory, affects coordination, and impair skills essential to driving, end quote.

Thanks to our city attorney, a city attorney for aggressively sending out media messages regarding marijuana and drug impair driving.

Thanks to San Diego Police Department for utilizing freeway sign boards like Drive High, get a DUI.

We need these messages to counter the marijuana businesses social media and all boards all over our city.

Thank you for hearing my concerns this afternoon.

Thank you.

Phone number ending in 870.

You can unmute by pressing star six.

First of all, thank you.

Uh Lori Soldania.

Okay, so topic is engineering and capital projects.

On the agenda today, they have six items.

So I wanted to highlight and honor our engineering and capital projects department.

From their website, maintaining the highest degree of quality.

Isn't that a beautiful statement?

Uh so uh there are five divisions.

They provide a full range of engineering services that supports the city's CIP.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for that.

Uh types of projects, there are ten.

Thank you.

And this is from me.

All projects are needed and loved by the community, by the public.

Thank you so much.

Uh, latest news.

We all love this one, uh, especially CB4.

Uh kicks off construction of Oak Park Library.

Equity, equity, equity.

Now, this is from Google.

Uh approximately 700 plus employees.

So uh positive comments from Google.

Uh uh increases, excuse me, uh responsive problem solving, commitment to equity, pure water initiative.

For me, my focus is to honor our department in a positive framework so as to foster employee relations, collaboration between inter and outer, customer service, and more.

Thank you, engineering and capital projects.

I value and appreciate all of you and the important work you do for San Diego.

Love to all.

It's going to be a great day.

Thank you.

Judy Strang, please unmute and provide your non-agenda public comment at this time.

Good afternoon.

Hacking Transportation and Infrastructure.

I want to thank Mia and some hope that they might be there this afternoon for covering what's been happening at San Diego City Council.

I appreciated the information that they provided regarding the decisions at San Diego City Council regarding e-bikes earlier in the week.

Is that just ever timely information?

And I hope that they'll continue to follow the decisions that make it all that you make here at all of our committees.

I was very taken with an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

It's entitled Co-Use of Cannabis Edibles and Alcohol Increases Driving Impairment.

This matters because a little bit of both actually is more dangerous than you think.

In many countries, the legal blood alcohol concentration level is only.05.

It's of course here in America is 0.08.

And the research there suggests that even at 0.05, there is impairment.

And you would add to that cannabis edibles, which we're seeing in greater numbers, unfortunately, mostly among younger drivers, then the complications become that much more enhanced.

And I would appreciate any opportunity the media has to get this information out that this is information that's important to this committee and to all of us that want safe driving on our streets.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the final caller in our queue this afternoon for non-agenda public comment is Blair Beekman.

Please unmute and begin.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

Thanks for the words of uh Lori Saldano and others today.

Um I I heard on KP KPBS radio this morning that uh Tijuana City Council persons are talking with Oceanside right now.

They are uh really interested in the pure water program and what the future that of that can be for the future of Tijuana.

Um I thought that was kind of remarkable and really made clear to me the importance of communication and dialogue, and that for as much as we keep wringing our hands and saying Tijuana doesn't want to listen to our our complaints and our issues.

Don't forget how often we do that to Tijuana as well, and that we don't want to talk about issues either.

You know, we have our own ways of working.

We say we don't we don't say those things in public.

You know, we do that a lot in San Diego.

Uh we don't talk about Giuana.

You know, so note how you do that and learn how to be more communicative in in just sharing, and what we share together is really good things with Tijuana and what we can accomplish together.

Wow, man, it's a big day.

It's an important change.

We're at an important time of change right now, really interesting uh here in San Diego.

Um a really interesting council meeting yesterday to possibly work on the future of strong mayor issues.

Um, in the concepts of working as a community process, community input, even the mayor has mentioned the idea of of a community process to decide things for the future.

Those are new words from the mayor that um I'm hopeful about.

Um good luck what we can be doing with the feature of a strong mayor, strong council idea and all that means.

That means coordinating together uh an office uh coordinator.

Uh that because our government needs organization is what I'm understanding.

So good luck in those efforts and good luck that we can talk about the future of block, finding a new AOPR vendor, uh, and and learning to limit our technology use and still practice good public safety in the neighborhood.

Thanks.

Thank you for your concluding remark and chair, this concludes non-agenda public comment.

Thank you, sir.

Alright, let's see if there are any comments from committee members or the offices of the mayor or city attorney or independent budget analyst.

Seeing none, uh, do we have any requests for continuance of items on today's agenda?

Seeing none, let's move on to our agenda for today.

We will now dispense with the approval of our consent items.

Do we have any requests to poll consent items?

Seeing none, let's move forward with public comment on the consent agenda.

Just a reminder uh to public commenters to please make sure that your comments are geared toward whether or not this committee should approve the items on the consent agenda.

Sir, please proceed.

Thank you, Chair Whitburn.

The public comment period for the consent agenda is now open.

The consent agenda includes items numbers one through six.

Item number one, approval of the committee minutes of April 23rd, 2026.

Item number two, construction change order number two with Orion Construction Corporation for the Barrett Road Emergency Repair.

Item number three, extension of sole source construction contract and authorization of a construction change order number one with DUDEC for the long-term maintenance and monitoring services of Crest Canyon Park Emergency Storm Drain Replacement Project.

Item number four, authorization of construction change order number one for the choice material bins emergency for emergency sole source contract.

Item number five, authorization of construction change order number one for the pump station 14 emergency for emergency sole source contract.

And item number six, award first amendment to the agreement with Hazen and Sawyer for professional construction management services for the Lakeside Valve Station Replacement Project.

Please note each speaker will have one minute per item with a maximum of three minutes provided to speak to the consent agenda.

We will begin with in public in person public testimony.

Maximilian Schmidt, you have indicated you wish to speak to items one, two, three, four, five, and six.

So I will place three minutes on the clock for you to manage to speak to these items.

Hi.

Lucifer, some people Christians believe that's what I believe.

And I just wanted to also for item six.

It talks about um there's a required a um guidelines for the California environmental uh quality act.

And there's an email attached that says, hello, Jose.

Um this is not a project defined by CEQA guidelines section um 1537 and it's not an organizational or administrative activity of government that will not result in direct or indirect physical change in the environment.

Um the first amendment to the consultant agreement will not on its own accord result in a direct reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.

And I just think that we need to stop having um these California Environmental Quality Act requirements for every um contract that the city of San Diego does with a company because I believe that these um I believe these environment um quality acts that are requirements can be used as a stepping stone to try to um brainwash the masses that there is an environmental problem that is not real, where I believe that people need to see the um the writing on the wall that the new world order is using the environment, especially in San Diego, where we have um ocean breeze and some of the cleanest air in the country to try and um raise taxes.

Um and it's very clear what's going on with the um California Environmental Quality Act that it's just that it's a um unnecessary, um, unnecessary addition to every city contract that is completely unnecessary.

And in my opinion, we should remove it.

And I'm opposed to the um six agenda items until CEQA is removed from the contracts because um taxes are too high, property tax, sales tax, cannabis tax, are all too high, and the environment is fine.

We've got the cleanest air in the country.

Thank you for your concluding remark.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to speak to the consent agenda.

Consent agenda includes items numbers one through six.

So when I give you permission to speak, if you can please indicate which item or items you'll be speaking to.

We will begin with phone number ending in 8700.

You can unmute by pressing star six, and please let us know which item or items you'll be speaking to.

I'll be speaking to uh to number two two through six.

Alright, three minutes, please begin.

Thank you.

Uh so yes, on all of the items I am speaking on.

Uh okay, the first one, number two is Orion.

Uh EOC program evaluation.

This ingredi disagreement is an emergency contract, so it is exempt from submitting workforce report.

Uh damage from winter storms needed to restore city vehicles.

City vehicle, excuse me, city vehicle and emergency response access.

This road has no name.

All right, number three, uh, and that involves uh study, and so uh thank you.

There's 13 items in the backup.

EOC workforce report uh is uh chose under representation.

It goes uh they sent it to the county uh under representation in Latino and Professional, Asian and A and E science and computer on number three.

Oh, this is three still continues.

Uh, thank you for addressing five-year maintenance and monitoring program, CEQA guidelines, um are covered the uh this emergency declaration.

So this is a big big emergency.

Thank you for getting on top of it and really taking care of it for us.

On number four, which is Choyas, uh EOC report, another emergency, so exempt from workforce report.

It's addressing a sinkhole uh impact on city crews across multiple departments, so this is very important.

Thank you.

And number five is pump station four, EOC again exempt from the workforce agreement to to an emergency uh due to many layers of the investigation, it exposed more and more issues.

The reading of this was amazing.

A temp temporary backup generator was installed.

Could we have presented this with better maintenance?

I'm not sure.

And then lastly, on six Hazen and Savage, EOC under representation female in management, financial, and professional.

They stated improvement in several employee representative categories.

That's always good news when they say that.

They have only 35 admin employees uh total.

So uh I hope I was understandable.

Uh I went fast, but I loved studying it.

It's an amazing agenda today on the consent.

And thank you, engineering and capital projects.

I think you were on all uh of the ones I spoke on, so love to all.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Lori Saldania.

Please unmute and indicate which item or items you wish to speak to.

Yes, thank you.

Um, approval of committee minutes.

Um and well, let me just start with that.

I'll give you the other ones as I go along.

So last month there was an emergency project approved that had to do with oh, and please I haven't been to committees for a bit, so is it one minute per item or one minute?

It's one minute per item with a maximum of three minutes to speak to the total agenda.

So if you have three or more items you wish to speak to, you will exhaust at three minutes.

All right, so starting with um uh an approval last month of Tory Pine and a park in Torrey Pines that I can't find on the map.

I'm not sure where Crest Canyon Park is.

It was noted that there is soil sampling indicates elevated salinity levels, which have resulted in the slow growth.

So basically, last month you approved an emergency project, and I believe that this is another example where climate changes and sea level changes are having an impact on a project.

But because I haven't been able to find this park on a map, um, I'm not sure exactly where it's located relative to the saltwater.

But clearly, something is delaying is impacting sinkholes and plants being um installed in that area.

Um if I could go on to the change order for Choyas material bins for emergency sole source contract.

Um, change orders are the really costing the city a huge amount.

And we see this when projects run into underground um structures that they didn't know about.

As happened with uh a project last month in the South community areas where SDGE apparently didn't put something on the city's map.

So I just in general, whenever I see a change order, I need to remind this committee that there's a 35% overage in the cost of the pure water program for change orders related to flooding in the Friars Road area for some of the pump stations.

So whenever I see uh change orders going forward for any of these projects, whether it's choice, other stations, other pump stations, um item five as well.

When there are emergency requests made in order to, did you get that change to a different item?

Thank you.

Um when I see a request for an emergency uh change order, and especially when it has to do with pump stations, and especially when it has to do with areas in in this case in Mission Beach, I can't emphasize enough that you are going to fail in all of these projects if you don't bring in hydrologists, engineers, and surveyors to determine where the sea level actually is in Mission Bay Park.

It has changed.

Those of us who have spent our lifetime here have seen these changes, and if you're going to make engineering assumptions based on old data, then you are bound to have these failures.

And finally, if if anyone could look up from their personal cell phones, because you're going to injure your necks.

And I'm really concerned about those of you that are bent over your phones, you're not paying attention to the speakers.

It's not only rude, but Miss Saldonia, this needs to be on the consent agenda.

Do you have anything further you wanted to discuss on the consent agenda?

I would like for people to do their jobs, show up for meetings and pay attention at any point.

Okay, we'll go ahead and move on.

Thank you very much.

We will now turn it over to committee members for questions and comments.

And oh, we have one more public comment or go ahead.

Yes, thank you.

With our final speaker in the consent agenda queue is Blair Beekman.

Please unmute and indicate which item or items you wish to speak to.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Uh, I have my list here.

Uh items one, uh, three, uh, four and five.

Three minutes, please begin.

Thank you.

Um I guess I'll start with item one.

Uh thank you for uh council person Whitburn's uh clarifying words how he liked the committee minutes committee meeting minutes to be discussed.

Um, as a point of clarification, he's he's mentioned previously.

Uh, I hope this can be of help to ask the question.

Uh I I I felt with meeting minutes that it in order to approve the meeting minutes, it can be okay to offer uh a small brief uh bit of additional information to an item uh on the meeting minutes to help clarify its approval process, and that's what I try to do.

I don't sometimes I'm not brief enough, and I'll practice briefness in the future brevity.

Uh but uh I I think that hopefully can be more uh acceptable in in the future of how to address our meeting minutes processes needed.

Um to speak to item three, um is the storm drain uh replacement uh project item.

Um I'm interested in oh, the Crest Canyon Park area.

I'm just learning the different languages between storm drain replacement, stormwater issues, and sewer replacement, sewer issues.

Sewer can be much different than I'm getting the understanding that storm drain and storm water can be related, but they can also be separate items.

So you have to be clear in those explanations, and then uh you know, storm drain and and sewer uh issues can be completely different, and funding questions become completely different.

Uh, that's my beginning understandings.

Hopefully, I'm better learning that process and uh so I can be more clear in speaking out on the future.

And with items four and five.

Uh thanks a lot for the previous words of uh Lori Soldano.

I'm listening.

Uh, I think you'll get a lot of the public listening and hearing what you're saying.

Uh Ms.

Aldaño, Lori, and thank you.

Uh immensely.

I've been learning from your examples to talk more about uh sea level rise issues for places like Midwidway Rising along the coast, and that we have to be clear in the sea level rise issues like what you said for the Mission Bay area, because um when we're not uh we may be holding back a bit because of midway rising, so we're not being clear with each other about our sea level rise on the coast, and because of that, that's creating problems.

We have to learn to be more clear about the sea level rise issues and how to build, if it's possible to build at at midway rising in the future.

What we can do, what we can't do, that all has to be more clear.

And that and that will just open up what Lori is talking about for Mission Bay items with sea level rise.

Is that why it's not more easily talked about?

I it's possible, it's quite possible.

So with that, and and with that, we can have more open conversations with a very uh, you know, hesitant public who doesn't want to give in to the concept of sea level rise.

They know they're around, but if we have a more clear conversation, that helps everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you for your concluding remark.

And as a reminder, the five minute timer has exhausted.

We have finished with the hands raised.

If you have any comments on the consent agenda, you can submit them to council committee at San Diego.gov.

And this concludes comment on the consent agenda.

Thank you, Sarah.

We'll turn it over to the committee for questions and comments, and we will entertain a motion on the consent agenda, which I will be happy to make, and I will take a second from Councilmember Lee.

Uh, seeing no further discussion, uh, Sarah, please call the roll.

And the consent agenda passes unanimously 30 with Councilmember Von Wilbert absent.

Thank you, Sarah.

Let's take up our discussion agenda now.

Uh sir, please introduce item seven.

Thank you, Chair Whitburn.

Item number seven is award of as needed UUP electrical distribution system design.

And if you're watching on City TV or the live stream online and you'd like to call in to speak, please dial 1669-2545252.

Inputting webinar ID 160-229-4290 pound.

Chair.

Thank you.

Please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you'd like for your presentation and begin whenever you're ready.

Okay.

Um thank you very much.

Um chair and members of the committee.

My name is Carrie Purcell.

I'm with Engineering Capital Projects.

We would need about seven minutes, I think should be good.

Um I manage the program project development division, and with me today we have Michael Ramirez.

He is our senior civil engineer.

We're here today to present to you the item to recommend approval to award two as needed agreements for the uh utility undergrounding program electrical design services in the maximum amount of five million dollars each.

Uh Michael will be going over the background and the need for these agreements as well as the details of the selection process.

And of course, we are here to answer any questions that you might have about the program or the agreements, and we'd be happy to answer.

So thank you, Mike.

Thank you, Carrie.

My name is Michael Ramirez, Senior Civil Engineer with the Engineering Capital Projects.

As she mentioned, today we are presenting the request to award two as needed underground utilities, electrical distribution design agreements.

We are requesting authorization to execute two as needed contracts with the following firms, the Engineering Partners Inc.

and the Hermann Weissker Inc.

to provide UUP electrical distribution design system in an amount not to exceed five million dollars for a duration of five years.

Authorization to spend an amount not to exceed five million per agreement, and the authorization to spend an amount not to exceed two thousand dollars, one thousand dollars for each contract to fund the minimum guarantee.

The underground the utilities underground program is one of the city's major infrastructure initiatives delivering tangible improvements to the neighborhoods.

The Transportation department manages the undergrounding MOU with the SDGE, which includes coordinating the removal of overhead poles and the relocation of utility lines underground.

Projects in the public right away are implemented by engineering capital projects department.

Part of the MOU, SDGE facilities must be designed by SDG and E certified designer.

Based on those requirements, consultant services will be required for several aspects of project delivery, including the design of SDG underground electrical distribution system for SDGE's latest standards, creating a consolidated drawing summarizing all dry utilities for the project, providing the geotechnical testing and reports.

In-house staff will continue to be responsible for the design of city asset capital improvements, which include the street lights, installation, and cabling connection, curb ramps and resurfacing.

ECP currently has two active as needed UUP electrical design contracts.

These contracts were awarded in December 2020, each valid at 3 million with an eight-year duration.

So far, each contract has been awarded seven tests with the capacity and the capacity of both contracts have been nearly exhausted.

Both consultants had a 20% SLBE ELBE voluntary goals.

Both are currently exceeding those goals with 23% and 24%.

Block 8R joint project is a current project task under our current UUP as needed contract and is a great example of the type of projects that utilizes these contracts.

The scope includes undergrounding approximately 2.7 miles of overhead utility lines, which converts 254 private properties from overhead utility lines to instead be powered via underground services.

As a short background with this selection process, we received proposals in November 2025.

Firms responded, 12 firms responded to the RFP.

Interviews were conducted in February 2026, and the two highest scoring firms were selected for a contract award.

A quick look at our as needed task award process.

Once the as needed contracts have been awarded, a potential project arises and requesting task authorization, we ensure that the project fits within the scope, the capacity, and the duration of the overall as needed contract.

When there is more than one as needed contract for a service such as this, we select the consultant on a rotation basis.

After the consultant is identified, project management team and the consultant will begin negotiation, including how the consultants will demonstrate their plan to meet the SLBE ELBE mandatory goals.

The outcome and the outcome and final agreement are then captured in an agreed-upon task order authorization.

The task order authorization spells out the amount, the timeline, and the detailed scope of the agreement for the specific tasks, and this is how we hold the consultants to these agreements.

The equal opportunity contract program team has been involved throughout the duration of these proposed contract awards and will remain involved.

As a part of the selection process, EOCP reviewed the submitted proposals on a pass and failed basis.

These two proposed contracts will be subject to a mandatory SLBE ELBE goals calculated at a task level on a task level base on the number of available subcontracting per the North American Industry Classification System.

As part of the task award process, EOCP reviews and approves the consultant's proposal demonstrating how the mandatory SOBE ELBE goals will be met.

As part of the task order closeout process, the project manager along with the EOC evaluates to ensure the mandatory goals were in fact achieved.

This concludes with the overview and background.

At this time, we are requesting City Council's authorization to execute two assigned contracts with the following firms: the Engineering Partners, Inc.

and Herman Whisker Inc.

to provide UUP electrical distribution system design and the amount not to exceed five million per agreement for the duration of five years, authorization to spend not to exceed five million per agreement, and the authorization to spend not to exceed $2,000, $1,000 per contract to fund the minimum guarantee.

This concludes the presentation, and we welcome any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Sir, do we have any public comment?

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, we've received one slip here in the committee room, so we will begin with Max Schmidt.

If you could please approach the lecture, and you will have one minute to speak to item number seven, which is award of as needed UUP electrical distribution systems design.

Hi, this is one of my um favorite topics to talk about because I believe it's one of the most unnecessary projects happening in San Diego, a massive undertaking to move all the power lines underground.

And um 10 million dollars of taxes are being spent on this project.

Uh a five million dollar contract, um, two five million dollar contracts.

And I just wanted to um be a voice for um Christians in San Diego, where um I believe that um this project's unnecessary, and that this project is about quality of life.

Um, and I think that if we reallocated the money to different um different areas to improve quality of life, such as information about um God being real, and there is evidence on in the miracle of the sun in Lubbock, Texas, 1988.

Um, we can improve quality of life for free.

We don't need to spend 10 million dollars of a tax that's sales tax at 775, property tax at a 1.25% sales at 7.75% is too five.

Thank you.

I will begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item number seven as a reminder.

Each speaker will have one minute, and we will begin testimony with Lori Saldania.

Please unmute and begin.

Uh thank you.

Can I I hope I won't be interrupted if I say something out of line?

Um, but I would like to say that for a company to be awarded a contract when they are underrepresenting the following categories: African American, Latino and Women in Professional Services, Latinos in Management and Financial Services, Latinos and women in technical services, African American and Latino uh workers and laborers.

I what are they not?

Where are they even trying to achieve some form of the equity and opportunity that the city claims to stand for?

I know they compare the workforce report with the last report, and they see some improvement.

Where is that improvement?

And how does that represent it in salaries and wages and as well as opportunities?

Seeing this report is extremely frustrating to those of us committed to diversity and opportunity in the workforce.

Yeah, that's kind of cool.

I've been noticing around town, Tesla is working with a lot of different companies, like 7-Eleven and uh Carls Jr., who just put in a Tesla plant in down by Verena Boulevard, and I've watched the city put one down at the stadium.

It took them forever.

So down on the barrio would be a great place to work with Tesla because they're breaking out those new uh Tesla trucks, the delivery trucks that are electric and they're kicking ass.

They've got a lot of orders in, they could put a generating plant down in the barrio, east or west of the train tracks, and they could the barrio would get the money.

Tesla would do all the engineering, underground it, battery storage with chargers, heavy-duty chargers for the trucks that for the banana company can use the electric trucks in the barrio.

It would help them out a lot.

Plus, they would get the money, not the city.

Give it to the barrio, and that would be thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment.

And the final hand in our queue for item number seven is Blair Beekman.

Please unmute and begin.

Hi, Blair Beekman, humbling with my microphone here.

Yeah, um, my my question, uh, thanks a lot for the you brought to the item to the council this past week, uh, municipality items.

Do we go municipal uh in order to get to our community energy future?

I I don't know if we have to or not.

Um that's further discussion, but I uh we don't necessarily have to, although it can be a good idea, as long as you're working with union people and really uh bring them to the table.

Uh I think uh that if that conversation is more regular, that would be helpful.

With the undergrounding issues here, I was trying to state that we already have a system, you know, of funding local neighborhoods for undergrounding, and and that can be having those little sources of of working with government and community together.

Maybe we have a whole bunch of those, and that could be a municipality use instead of uh municipal power itself.

Just an idea.

Um, I know you're trying to combat address uh SDP GE.

Good luck on the U.S.

Thank you.

And this concludes public comment for item number seven.

Thank you, Sarah.

I'll turn it over to the committee for questions and comments at a motion.

We'll begin with Vice Chair Foster.

Yes, thank you.

And I can appreciate the engineer reviewing the contract or the task at its completion.

But I'll be honest with you, completion is a kind of a day late and a dollar short.

So how are you guys going to ensure that obligations are met?

And when you look at the um EOC reports that were um provided, I think our municipal code is very clear that says we will not do business with those who do not share in our um in our um efforts regarding diversity and and non-discrimination.

So can you um help to square this up and um let us know why we should be moving forward with this contract?

So um Carrie Burcel, I'll just start and perhaps um Claudia can weigh in as well.

So just if I can.

Oh I don't want to hear from personal contracting.

You guys manage the contract.

I want to hear from the contract.

Yes, we manage the contract.

So what happens is we the the contracts go out for advertisement, they are submitted through purchasing contracts, they are scored for um what is it uh pass fail, but they're also evaluated if they meet the criteria to be able to be uh interviewed, right?

Or reviewed.

So we receive the proposals that were approved by PNC, and then we um they've assemble a panel.

I don't know if you want to talk a little more about that.

Yeah, just to follow up on what Kara's saying, yeah, so EOC does have a role in selecting these, um, but but as far as your question in terms of is there a way for us to monitor it during the the actual project?

Um, yes, there is.

When they submit invoices, we can kind of see who they're paying, right?

And this is this goes into prism.

The reason why we want to do it at the end as well is because sometimes it's an overall task goal.

So if the task is not completed yet, um, you know, there's still ways for them to make up for it.

Hopefully that answers your question.

Well, I think you repeated what you said.

I'm looking for more of process.

What do you actually do?

Right.

For example, if you are issuing a task, I assume they give you the pricing for said task in which they disclose who their subcontractors are.

So at that time at the task level, you can go through and determine if the firms are certified, non-certified, and what their participation level is for that specific task.

So we should know what their commitment is going into it, and then you do confirm at the end of the process, but even then at the end of the process, what I'm looking for is accountability.

How are we holding folks accountable?

Not only, and Ranya, thank you for coming up, but not only with our subcontractors, but for our engineers that are managing the projects, because I've been around here for quite some time, and I don't think our contracting levels have exponentially gone up as we look at our efforts in working with um minority and women-owned type businesses, right?

We just had an item come to council yesterday where we're making a change in our prevailing wage monitoring and how EOC monitors contracts where we made a decision to move to another contractor, leaving a black woman owned company, and we're going to pay a 100 over a 100% increase in contract cost.

So that is the level of my concern.

Your concern is very well taken.

Council member Aranya, I'm a city engineer.

Um more than a few years ago, like about four years ago, we shifted when it comes to ANE contracting, architecture and engineering, uh contracting that to make it more mandatory goals uh to meet certain requirements.

And then which is really enable staff to have a better uh monitoring tools to be more specific, uh task specific, and to hold the prime uh accountable for what we have communicated through the task review.

What are these mandatory goals?

Uh so from monitoring perspective, I think that provides a little bit more clear uh expectation with the prime about um meeting those goals.

So every time we have a scope of work identified and we're ready to issue a task, staff they calculate all the possible uh um goals, mandatory goals for subcontracting and meet those requirements from subcontracting in EUC requirement.

And then based on those goals, um the task is issued, the prime confirmed that they meet those goals, and they monitor uh the received invoices uh from their subs along with the prime.

And before we closing the task, we ensure they meet all those requirements.

And then if we see violations, this is something will uh uh require us maybe terminate working with this as needed prime consultant.

And this is just for design, or is it for design and construction?

Uh this is for ANE contract, which is architecture and engineering, which is more on the design side for for constructions, it's always been uh mandatory goals or good faith effort.

Right, but this is a design.

This is design, yes.

Okay, and so I guess if we have um consultants that have a pattern of not meeting their um obligations, how do we deal with um the consultants?

I think they operate a little differently than um our contractors and our prequalification program and certain things.

So, how are we having accountability on the back end for our repeat offenders?

And I'm asking this because if I pull out and look at who we do business with, yeah, it's pretty consistent and pretty there's a pattern.

Yeah, as we um did enhance the the the goals and then the monitoring of the mandatory goals or whatnot, we also work on the back end uh improving how we are doing um evaluations for uh consultants generally speaking.

As a matter of fact, currently we're routing an AR that reflect all those additional uh improvements um and accountability that we added in those uh consultants' evaluations where um they got evaluated periodically throughout the life of the project, and if we find uh deficiencies in their performance, we always have the option to terminate them halfway in the contract, as well as we can read them unsatisfactory at the end, and then this has been taken into considerations when we put new RFP on the street and then go through the selection process.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Um I will um I will uh I will move the item, um, but I do have a request of the mayor's office, and and Randy, we can fall back and talk about and have further discussions, but I would like to get um some periodic updates to these um as needed contracts.

I want to see exactly um how we are performing and how we are handling any deficiencies as we move through this.

So I'll fall back and we can have that conversation and get things set up.

I do understand the nature of as needed, right?

Which is why we have a minimum of spend of a thousand dollars.

Um, and also I want to put in this that undergrounding is important to folks out there in the community, and I want to make sure we're moving through things efficiently, right?

And so I'm gonna be looking at this on all sides.

So um you okay with that, Randy?

Absolutely understood.

Okay.

I'll move staff's recommendation.

Okay, thank you very much, Vice Chair Foster.

We have a motion from the vice chair that I will go ahead and second, uh seeing no further discussion.

Uh Sarah, please call the roll.

And item number seven passes unanimously three zero with Councilmember Von Wilbert absent.

Thank you.

Sir, please introduce item eight.

Thank you, Chair.

Item number eight is first amendment to the park development and reimbursement agreement with Tri-Point Homes Incorporated for Project Solitaire Vista Neighborhood Park.

And if you're watching on City TV or the live stream online and you'd like to dial in to speak, please call $1669-2545252.

Inputting webinar ID $160-229-4290 pound chair.

Very good.

Thank you.

Please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you'd like for your presentation to begin with your buddy.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I have with me Brianne Busby, senior civil engineer, who will be making the presentation.

We would need around seven minutes.

Thank you.

Great.

Good afternoon, Chair and Committee members.

My name is Brian Busby.

I'm a senior civil engineer with the city planning department.

Today's item is the first amendment to the reimbursement and park development agreement for Soltera Vista Neighborhood Park and Pacific Highlands Ranch.

The amendment is needed to increase the approved reimbursement amount based on current construction cost and bids received for the project.

The park is currently under construction and anticipated to open in spring of 2027.

There we go.

There are three actions before the committee today.

First, approve the first amendment to the reimbursement and park development agreement with Tri-Point Homes to update the reimbursed cost for the Soltera Vista Neighborhood Park.

Second, increase the maximum reimbursement amount that the developer can request from approximately 7.99 million to 11.35 million based on actual construction bids that were received in 2025.

Third, increase the capital improvement program budget for the overall project by approximately 6.19 million, bringing the total project budget to approximately 11 or 15.19 million.

This total includes park design and construction, previously completed land acquisition, city administration, and project delivery cost and other related project expenses.

This slide provides a breakdown of the total project budget.

The 11.35 million represents the design and construction costs eligible for reimbursement under the agreement with the developer.

The city separately acquired the uh the approximately six-acre park site in 2023 for $3.3 million.

While this cost is not reimbursable to the developer, it is a part of the overall project cost and must be reflected in the capital improvement program budget.

The remaining approximately 540,000 includes city project management, engineering cost verification, oversight, contract administration, reimbursement, uh processing, and other project related costs, including implementation of the joint use agreement with the school district for the shared stormwater system.

Together, these costs result in a total project budget of approximately 15.19 million.

This slide summarizes the project history and the reason for the amendment before you today.

In August of 2020, the city uh council approved the original reimbursement and park development agreement, authorizing up to 7.99 million for the design and construction of Zilterra Vista Neighborhood Park.

The reimbursement agreement establishes the framework under which the city may reimburse a developer for eligible project costs.

Because developer delivered projects are typically approved before final design is complete or construction has been competitively bid.

The agreement includes the best available engineering estimate at that time and establishes the maximum reimbursement amount.

This is a developer-delivered permit project, meaning that the developer rather than the city is responsible for the designing, permitting, competitively bidding and construction of the park.

The city establishes the required improvements, reviews and approves the design and permits, inspects the construction, and verifies eligible costs before reimbursement is provided.

Following approval of the agreement, the developer works with parks and recreation and the community to complete the general development plan process, then advances the project through final design, environmental review, permanent, and coordination with city staff.

Separately, in March 2023, the city acquired the approximate six-acre park site for $3.3 million.

In March 2025, the project was competitively bid and received eight bids.

The lowest responsive bid resulted in a reimbursement design and construction cost of approximately 11.35 million, representing about a 42% increase over the 2020 estimate.

This increase though is consistent with construction cost escalation experienced throughout Southern California between 2020 and 2025.

For additional context, the Pacific Highlands Ranch Public Facilities financing plan anticipated that this park would cost approximately 10 million in 2014.

When adjusted for construction cost inflation, that planning level estimate is approximately 15 today, which is consistent with the total project budget before you.

Construction activities began later in 2025, and the groundbreaking ceremony was held in September of that year.

The project is currently under construction and remains on schedule to open to the public in spring of 2027.

The project is funded entirely with Pacific Highlands ranch development impact fee funds collected from development within the community.

These funds are restricted to infrastructure improvements within Pacific Highlands Ranch.

Approval of this amendment allows the city to utilize those community specific funds for their intended purpose and continue delivery of Soltera Vista Neighborhood Park.

No general fund dollars or city development impact fee funds are being requested as part of this action.

It's just within Pacific Highlands Ranch.

The project will deliver a new five-acre neighborhood park.

Planned improvements include children's play area, multi-purpose sports field and courts, a comfort station, picnic facilities, landscaping, and associated park amenities.

Once completed, the park will provide recreation opportunities for residents of all ages and help meet the community's park needs as the area continues to be developed.

Staff is requesting the approval of the proposed amendment and project cost increase to align the reimbursement agreement with current construction costs and support the completion of Soltera Vista neighborhood park utilizing Pacific Highlands Ranch Development Impact fees.

And this concludes our presentation, and we're available for any questions.

Thank you.

Sorry, do we have any public comment on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, we've received one slip here in the committee room.

Maximilian Schmidt, if you would please approach the lectern, you will have one minute to speak to the Solitaire Vista Neighborhood Park item.

Hi, um, I wish that this contract was with an American company because um 11 million dollars is being spent for a five-acre park, and that doesn't include the land acquisition.

That's only three point that's 3.3 million.

And this 11 million dollar five-acre park is just going to have a multi-purpose sports field, picnic tables, and um it just seems very expensive.

And with the um America globalizing, I wish that the comp um this company is actually a subsidiary of one of Japan's biggest conglomerates called Sumitomo.

And um, it is equivalent to like GE in America or um cock industries.

And it's one of the biggest um conglomerates in Japan.

And how come we can't do business with an American company and keep the money in America?

Why do we have to do a 10 uh 11 million dollar park deal with a Japanese company?

Thank you for your concluding remarks.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item number eight.

Each speaker will have one minute, and we will begin with Lori Saldania.

Please unmute and begin.

Uh thank you.

I mean, it's always good to see public parks being completed.

Sadly, in San Diego, there's a history of developers putting in the houses that they're going to profit from, and then the parks follow, if at all, at times very slowly, sometimes many, many years, even decades after the homes are completed.

So kudos to the city for getting this project done.

The cost overruns in our inflationary environment are understandable.

But once again, I do have to look at their equal employment opportunity compliance.

The administrative workforce is underrepresented with Asian and women in professional services and Latinos and administrative support management and financial services.

So to echo and appreciate Mr.

Foster's comments on the previous item.

When are we going to start working with these companies to make sure that they are representing the communities that will be using these parks in the future?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Phone number ending in 870.

You can unmute by pressing star six.

You will have one minute.

Thank you, Joyce and Yata.

Uh, thank you, planning.

Uh great presentation, great project.

I say yes, uh, to the Tri-Point Homes uh First Amendment to the agreement.

And uh let's see, Laurie covered the uh EOC good.

I just will say that the EOC submitted their workforce report to the county.

Uh, but on the EOC report, they did a state what Laurie has stated.

Thank you, Lori.

I love this project.

Great amenities uh to provide a high quality recreational facility that's stated in the staff reports.

A beautiful sentence.

So uh the market conditions.

I wish I would have had time to read and read it thoroughly the staff report because what an amazing thing on this on the uh market conditions.

So no nothing to the general fund, which is super duper.

Uh the project began in 2020, six years is long, but we're going to get it.

Thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you.

Blair Beekman, please unmute and begin.

All right, thank you.

Uh Blair Beekman.

Uh, thanks for the words of Max.

Uh he offered like nice information and and just was really uh relevant to the item, speaking to the item.

It was really nice to hear.

Uh that's really the way to go how to do it.

Uh thanks.

Um I learned stuff, actually, from your word.

Thank you.

Um, yeah, I'm interested in how this item will be um addressing our tech, as usual.

That's my usual question.

And in San Diego these days, how are we addressing our biometric tech?

Um, I don't think the euphemism to say sports utility lighting when talking about biometric tech is quite the right way to go.

I think we have to be more specific and not be afraid to talk about that.

Um, so how will biometric tech be used in uh not just the sports utility in the fields, but in the recenter as well.

Um, those conversations are happening in San Diego.

We shouldn't be afraid to have those community conversations openly and clearly.

Good luck in the effort.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the final hand up in the queue for item number eight is Crypto Bradley.

Please unmute and begin.

Thanks.

Yeah, I agree with Max too.

Let's start using American companies working on our jobs.

But also, there's something you could do is like go to a junior high school, like in the district four, and ask the kids.

What do you want to be?

Who wants to be electrical engineer here?

There won't be one hand going up.

Who wants to be a basketball player?

Three quarters of the hand will fly up in the air.

Go to uh Del Mar, junior high school up there.

Who wants to be a basketball player?

Maybe a couple hands will go up.

Who wants to be electrical engineer?

There could be eight, ten hands going up.

It's I don't know if it's uh it's just the way it is right now.

There's not a lot of demand, there's not a lot of demand for junior high kids like in a black community to be electrical engineers.

I don't even think they even know what it is or think about it, but I don't know how that's gonna change, maybe in the family structure.

And just like there's no your time has expired.

Thank you.

And with no other hands in the queue, this concludes public comment on item eight.

Thank you, sir.

Let's turn it over to the committee for questions and comments, and we'll entertain a motion.

We'll begin with Council Bible Lee.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, and thank you for the presentation.

Um this is always an example of um the partnership that the city has when we're looking at new housing to also try to ensure that we've got amenities that end up being delivered as well.

Um I I I did want to ask a couple questions in terms of how um how the process works.

Um obviously, this was uh first estimated in 2020.

Um to a lot of folks that that jump from eight million dollars to eleven point three is nearing 150 percent.

I mean that's a pretty sizable difference.

You mentioned the parks already underway in terms of construction.

So at what point typically do we we had gotten all these bids?

Totally understand that of the eight, the minimum one was eleven point three five.

Um when was that again timing wise and and how does that relate to the timing of when we're hearing this?

Yeah, we got the bids in March of 2025, and we've been working with the developer in this case, specifically.

Um, as Brianne mentioned, the monies are coming from Pacific Highlands Ranch Community Def.

And we have looked at the fund balance.

There is an available fund balance.

In fact, this is one of the communities where there are funds but limited projects on which it can be expanded since we are required to expand those monies specifically on projects listed in the public festive financing plans.

So there is a limit of projects on which these monies can be expanded, and there have been money sitting in the account for over five years.

And we had already looked through the bids and it was all reasonable.

So we did um work with the developer to say that since also they have a time limit on how fast they have to act once they have the bids in order for those bids to um still be current and all of that.

So and we we have always told them that we're still working, we still have to go to city council to get it adopted, but it is a risk that a developer was willing to take to start construction and with the certainty that there are funds in the account.

There are no additional competing needs, and therefore, but otherwise, when there are competing needs, we always come to city council first, get that adopted, and then the construction starts.

Thank you for explaining.

I ask it in part because I feel like it's important for folks to hear.

I unfortunately have uh experienced this uh in my district.

Um we had a major project, Meramisky Community Park Phase 2, also had been estimated earlier at a time when construction costs um pre-COVID, uh, everything was very different in this world.

Um, and the costs have gone up, and not only was it difficult to get bids, but the bids that we could get all showed that they were above the estimates, which ultimately required funding uh to be added.

Um, and in this particular case, uh, just as a reminder to anyone who's who's listening, again looking at the numbers that the funding is coming specifically from local um community-based FBA funds, which are dedicated and as you have shared, limited in terms of their uses.

Um, and that I think helps to explain one, the jump, but also why it's an acceptable, unfortunately acceptable sort of environment that we're in.

That these are the projects that we want to see get delivered, and we're fortunate that the funds are available within the community to allow that to happen.

So with that clarification, Chair, I'm happy to move the staff's recommendation.

Very good.

Thank you, Councilmember Lee.

Uh, we have a motion from Councilmember Lee.

I'm happy to second it, seeing no further discussion.

Uh please call the roll.

And item number eight passes unanimously three zero with council member von Wilbert absent.

Thank you, sir.

Please introduce our final item for today.

Thank you, Chair Whitburn.

Item number nine is administrative update to parking meter zone boundary descriptions for the uptown and mid-city communities.

And if you're watching on the live stream or um City TV, you can dial 1669-2545252.

Inputting webinar ID 160-229-4290 pound.

Chair Whitburn.

Thank you.

All right, please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you'd like for your presentation and begin whenever you're ready.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Whitburn and committee members.

I'm Alex Sabaldo, interim deputy director with the transportation department.

I'm joined by Naomi Chavez, interim director with transportation department.

We'll need five minutes.

Today we're presenting an item that will clarify and update portions of the written boundary descriptions associated with the uptown and mid-city parking meter zones.

This is an administrative housekeeping item that's intended to improve consistency across city records, mapping systems, and parking meter administration practices.

So just to give uh some background here, parking meter zones are established by ordinance and have been used for decades to help manage parking within commercial and mixed use districts.

Some of the city legacy parking meter zones predate the 1960s.

Over time documentation associated with these zones has uh become incomplete or inconsistent, creating ambiguity regarding certain boundary descriptions.

So while parking meter operations have continued without issues, staff identified an opportunity to modernize and clarify these legacy descriptions.

These parking meter zones have also evolved alongside the city's community parking district program.

The Uptown and Mid-City community parking Districts were both established by city council in 1997.

Since that time, the city has significantly improved its GIS mapping capabilities and administrative systems.

And as part of our recent review, city uh staff identified opportunities to better align the written parking meter zone descriptions with our current mapping systems and longstanding operational practices.

So the proposed updates are intended to improve clarity and consistency across the city records.

So similar boundary clarifications were previously approved by city council in 2021 as part of the Pacific Beach parking meter zone establishment.

Staff identified the need to clarify portions of the uptown and mid-city parking meter zone boundary descriptions.

The proposed updates again just improves consistency between all the parking meter zones, the community parking district boundaries, our GIS mapping systems and our operational records.

These clarifications support more accurate administration mapping and enforcement of the city's parking meter program.

This slide illustrates the community parking district boundaries that were previously approved by city council.

The proposed ordinance simply updates and clarifies the written parking meter zone descriptions so they are consistent with these established boundaries and current mapping references.

So again, this action does not create new parking meter zones or expand any of the existing operations.

This is an administrative in nature, it just clarifies the uptown and mid-city parking zone descriptions.

Importantly, this action doesn't install new parking meters, it doesn't change parking meter rates, it doesn't change parking regulations, change the number of parking spaces, expand or reduce parking meter operations, or result in any fiscal impact.

So this proposed action simply updates the written boundary descriptions to reflect our longstanding parking meter and administration practices.

And with that, we're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

Sir, do we have any public comment on this item?

Thank you, Chair Whitburn.

Yes, we've received one speaker slip here in the committee room.

Maximilian Schmidt, if you would please approach the elector, and you will have one minute to speak to the parking meter zone boundary descriptions for the uptown and mid-city communities.

Hi, I'm opposed to um the parking meter boundaries.

Um I believe that there should not be parking meters, and that there should be free parking.

Um, with sales and property tax above the average um in America, I think that free free parking would be something that the people of San Diego would really love to have.

I know just a year ago they raised the parking meter price from $1.25 to $250, and they said that the argument was that Oakland and San Francisco's parking um fees are higher, so it's not that bad.

I don't think that we should use other cities' um parking um meter fees as a um as a benchmark of how expensive they should be in San Diego.

And I think that it would be a great way to give back to the people to make parking completely free.

Um, let's we I think we can do it, and I hope that it becomes free.

Thank you.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item number nine.

Each speaker will have one minute.

We will begin testimony with phone number ending in 870.

You can unmute by pressing star six.

Oh, thank you, uh Joy Sunyata.

Uh thank you, Transportation Department, and a big yes on this item because I feel regular reviews and updates are so appreciated and needed, especially parking, which can be a sensitive area in community.

So, as were said, this action is administrative only.

Uh, this will better align with city's current operations.

Uh, a big thank you from the staff report on the outreach effort, uh, which involved a community planning group, community parking district, and mobility advisory board.

So that was great to hear.

I was really wondering what was going to be there as I read the staff report.

So uh thank you so much.

A wonderful day.

Uh, thank you, Chair and the rest of the committee.

Love to all.

Thank you.

Laurie Saldania, please unmute and begin.

Uh thank you.

So it's very clear there's no such thing as free parking.

We all pay for it one way or the other, except for many of our short-term visitors.

This is a community, this area, uptown, mid-city, especially mid-city.

I think this is a disproportionate burden on people to park.

I I really would encourage the city to look at what are the financial burdens in certain communities.

On the other hand, I would welcome that you start charging for the short-term vacation rental people that are parking on the street.

Come up with some way for people who come here.

If they go to a hotel, they pay for parking.

If they go to most other places, they pay for parking.

Look at ways that people who are driving here staying in short-term vacation rentals that have already displaced residents have to pay their fair share for parking as well.

And the disproportionate impacts could be analyzed in a similar way that you're doing this analysis to come up with the new descriptions and boundaries.

So this my two cents on bouncing some of the budget.

Thank you.

Blair Beekman, please unmute and begin.

All right, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Um I I hope uh our San Diego community scene, we're going through some interesting uh changes in San Diego at this time.

We're kind of in flux.

We're in transition, we're in motion, we're in progress to use that word.

Uh, I think things are kind of like moving around and we're thinking about things.

We're doing it a little differently.

Thank you that you're uh re-uh addressing parking issues, how to address it.

Can this be a time to start to how to think about how to bring back the parking uh commission process and neighborhood parking commissions?

Um it actually had a bit of a democratic process to it that is taken away with uh you know all the new parking things that were going to come in.

San Diego City government wanted to kind of be in control of all of that.

Can we return that control back to local commission process?

Uh just a question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the final hand up in our queue is Juliana Johnson.

Please unmute and begin.

Good afternoon, Council.

Staff says this is simply an administrative update to parking meter boundaries.

My question is, why now?

If this changes nothing, why is updating a decades-old boundary language a priority?

Transparency matters because parking meter revenues are already difficult for the public to follow.

Reporting has found that after administrative costs, much of the remaining revenue goes into the city's budget, while only a fraction returns to improvements within the parking district.

Before approving this item, please explain why this is this update is necessary today and whether it's connected to in any way to future changes in parking meter administration or revenue use.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

And seeing another hands up in the queue, this concludes public comment on item nine.

Thank you very much, Sarah.

Um, I'll go ahead and kick things off here since uh much of uh the area in the uptown and mid-city parking districts are uh in my council district.

Certainly parking has been a hot topic.

Uh the last few years.

Uh I was going to ask about the impacts of this.

So I appreciate you being proactive and discussing the fact that there are no substantive impacts that this is uh administrative.

Um there was a question about whether uh this is being done uh in anticipation of other changes down the road is or could you respond to that question?

Sure.

Um Chair Webburn.

So uh it's not um being done because of of any future changes.

We're simply just changing the descriptions from the way the ordinance is mentioned currently.

So just to give an example, um, the uptown uh parking meter zone is described currently using like the Hillcrest bid, uh, Mission Hills bid and Old Town bid.

Um, those are are the way they are bounded and how they're described.

So to determine the actual boundaries, staff will then have to research historical resolutions, ordinances, and and GIS records to help identify where those districts begin and end.

So what this this um change is is doing is that the it changes those indirect references essentially with with clear street based boundary descriptions.

So we have street names that are now um stating where those those boundaries are located that match the city's existing JS mapping systems and long-standing operational practices.

So it's a lot easier for us to be able to tell where those boundaries are located.

Thank you.

Uh, those of us who pay attention to the parking districts, we are familiar with the maps, and this basically is just simplifying the description of what we can see in the map by using the borders, the streets that bordered that describe exactly how an average person would characterize what the map says.

That's correct.

Okay.

Appreciate the presentation.

Um I will go ahead and make a motion to approve the staff recommendation.

Uh and we will get a second from Councilmember Lee.

Thank you.

Uh seeing no further discussion on this item, uh, please take the vote.

And item number nine passes unanimously three zero with council member von Wilbert absent.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you again.

Thank you to my colleagues.

That brings us to the end of our agenda for today.

Again, thank you to the members of the public and the staff for uh all the efforts that have gone into today's meeting.

We will now adjourn this meeting of the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to the next regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, August 27th, 2026, at one o'clock in the afternoon.

We are adjourned.

Um, I'm just