It's four million dollars in Sacramento and bring those dollars back to San Diego.

We are excited to finally enjoy all the new amenities.

These improvements restore Jarabag Park to full use.

It's such a great gathering spot for our community.

I wanted to tell you that this park has been special to Script Ranch since the day it opened.

This is one of many great park improvements we have across the city.

By the end of this year, we will have completed ninety-three new or improved park projects across the city of San Diego in just the last five years.

And I hope that that's reflective of a city administration that knows that infrastructure is a priority, that quality of life is what makes us special and unique in San Diego, and that the city's priorities are correct to benefit residents and children, particularly.

Three of the people who are not going to be able to do that.

All right, welcome back.

Good morning.

I'll now call the city council meeting on Monday, December 8th, 2025 to order.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Here.

Councilmember Moreno.

Councilmember Ila Rivera.

And Council President Lacava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting are City Attorney Heather Ferber, independent budget analyst Charles Modica, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Thank you, City Clerk.

Quorum is now present.

We will begin this morning with an invocation by Clerk Quentis, followed with the land acknowledgement and the pledge of allegiance led by Councilmember Whitburn.

Grant those who hold office in this city the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice, that with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their offices to promote the well-being of all people.

We respectfully acknowledge that the Kumiyai Nation are the original inhabitants of the unceded land, now notice San Diego.

Despite enduring the horrors of genocide and colonization, the Kumiai spirit remains unbroken.

We honor the resilience of their ancestors who fought to protect their culture and land.

Today, they carry their legacy forward, ensuring that their traditions continue to thrive in gratitude and strength.

We stand with the Kumaiai Nation connected to our past and committed to a thriving future.

Please face the flag.

Place your head over your heart.

Ready to get.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States.

And through the Republic for which it stands under God and indivisible with liberty and justice for all clerk, please go over how the public can offer their testimony.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll highlight the slide on the screen that reviews how the public can offer their public testimony during today's meetings with the phone numbers and instructions.

If you are in person, please complete a speaker slip located at the entrance of chambers and bring it to the front of the room into the clear box.

No further in-person testimony will be taken once the council begins virtual testimony for better meeting management purposes.

Each speaker will have one minute per item per person.

If you would like to speak on three or more items, you will have a maximum of three minutes.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Please read the closed sessions.

Thank you, Madam City Clerk.

Please read the closed session items into the record.

Thank you.

Conference with legal council significant exposure to litigation pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.9 D2.

CS1 mediated resolution of construction change order dispute with Blue Pacific Engineering and Construction Inc.

versus City of San Diego Triple A mediation clay case number 01-25-0001-7297.

Conference with legal council existing litigation pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.9 D1.

CS2, William Dorsett versus City of San Diego.

CS3, Jacob Trisco versus City of San Diego, and CS4, Nancy Laughhead versus City of San Diego.

Conference with Labor Negotiators pursuant to California Government Code Section 54957.9 D1 is CS6 A M A Minor versus City of San Diego.

CS7, Saini Mourne versus City of San Diego, CS8, Mosavian Mehron versus State Farm General Insurance Co.

et al.

CS9, City of San Diego versus San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission et al.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Thank you for reading that into the record.

Please proceed with public comment.

Thank you.

Here in Council Chambers, we do have Tasha Williamson.

If you can please come up to the microphone, you have time ceded to you by Jean Wong.

If you can please raise your hand, as well as Tariq Asfor, please raise your hand.

Please proceed when ready.

Hi, thank you.

Um, for allowing me to speak.

I think it's important that we understand.

First, I want to say uh thank you for taking these settlements uh that you have done in close session, looking at them.

I do not believe that families should have to endure uh trials in as long as they go uh when their uh children or adults uh when family members have lost their loved ones uh due to negligence today.

I want to talk about that, and we will start with CS6, which is Arabella McCormick, an 11-year-old girl who should have had a promising life, a future.

Um she'd have should have reached all her milestones as a child into an adult.

And here we are today, you all figuring out if you're going to pay out a 10 million dollar uh settlement.

And I hope you do.

But I also hope that you all, the mayor's office, um, if they're listening, will stand firm against SDPD's chief.

Um, because no way, in no way, shape, or form in a business can someone cost 10 million dollars for Arabella McCormick.

Um can they cost $30 million for Kanoa Wilson?

$875,000 for Marcus Evans, and still be employed.

I am asking, I am asking for accountability for these officers in Marcus Evans' case, Officer Die Martin, and the unnamed officer who shot shot the uh bean backgrounds in Kanoa Wilson's case, Officer Daniel Gold II.

Um, and in Arabella McCormick's case, uh, there may be a number of officers, but Officer Lewanda Fisher gave that family paddles to use on these children.

And it is time and time again that I have to stand before you asking for accountability for San Diego police department.

None of these officers should be receiving a check, and we have had to pay out almost 40 million, almost 50 million dollars.

None of them.

They should be terminated.

And I'm asking when you meet with the chief that you ask him to start terminating his officers.

His leadership sucks.

He has not developed a strong leadership, and time and time again, his officers have gotten away with negligence that has cost this city money in the millions, and it shouldn't happen.

Thank you for my time.

Thank you.

Next is Paul Kruger.

If you can please come forward, you'll speak on CS6 and CS9.

I know you have some images to share.

There they are.

I'll put two minutes on the clock and you can manage, or you want one minute and one minute for CS6 and then CS9 we can do.

Um, I'll just take the two.

Please proceed.

Um thank you.

I'm also here to talk about CS6, and I have a very positive 10-year relationship with uh the police chief, going back to when he was lieutenant.

But I think um it is extremely important that we have a public discussion about what happened in this case, as Tasha pointed out.

Um it's been widely publicized, if in fact true that the officer not only didn't report the alleged abuse, but provided the parents with paddles with which to punish this girl, and that the chaplain from fire rescue was negligent in not reporting what uh he or she saw.

We must have a public discussion about this.

I know of no city where a settlement of this size, and the one that we'll be speaking about this afternoon, which is uh featured in the New York Times as the largest settlement ever to date in a police shooting case would go undiscussed.

If the mayor finds it to his political advantage to keep this as quiet as possible and to limit uh or exclude public discussion about what's going on in this department, and again, I understand officers are human beings, they make mistakes.

But I believe in any other city, one or more of you would be out on that concourse talking about what's going on.

Do not let this go undiscussed.

Um, and then secondly, on CS9, that's the laughco anti-slap lawsuit regarding the signatures.

I urge you to exercise your independence uh in the face of what be what may be a somewhat personal uh uh effort by the mayor to not let this challenge go.

And I think you should look closely at the uh merits.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

That does conclude public comment here in Council Chambers going to those participating remotely starting the five-minute timer, starting with Lori Saldania, if you can please unmute and let us know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Currently have six people in the queue.

Uh thank you.

Yes, I'd like to speak on items uh CS1, six, and seven.

And I'd also like to say I I support Tasha Williamson and Paul Krueger's comments regarding an overall lack of accountability in the San Diego police department when it comes to violating the basic human rights of residents.

So I guess we can I'm starting on six and seven.

Um nearly 50 million dollars in a wrongful death and other payments at a time when we're struggling to close a deep budget deficit with parking fees.

I you know, this is a lack of training and a lack of leadership on your part, not only within the department, but within this council.

Each of you is answerable to the families who have lost loved ones.

And as you announce your intent to run for other offices, I hope you will take into account the pain and suffering that these families have endured.

And uh first as was mentioned, an 11-year-old girl whose abuse was apparently completely ignored and maybe even facilitated by a member of the police department.

That's that's just terrific.

And that's on CS6.

And going on to CS 7.

Your time is running.

Thank you.

Failing to yield for a traffic stop is not a reason to allow a trained police dog to attack and mutilate someone, and that is what happened.

I realized that in the agenda for this meeting, you don't specifically state what happened, but the fact was a plaintiff had a police dog released on him after he had raised his hands to surrender to police officers, and yet that dog was commanded to attack that person violently and maul and mutilate this person.

It it's horrific, and it sounds like something out of the deep south that we would see during the civil rights movement.

I I think it's it's just horrendous that you as council members are not outraged, or perhaps you are, but you're not expressing it.

Um and it's time for you to express it because that is happening too often with law enforcement, not only here but in other places around the country.

Um, I just want to speak to the last item.

I'm a little confused about a mediated resolution.

This is CS1 regarding you put change order dispute with Blue Pacific Engineering because of extra work they performed on a storm drain in Mira Mesa.

But if you look up another description, it says that San Diego Gas and Electric is also suing you and Blue Pacific because of allegations that they uh caused a sewer water line to rupture, created a sinkhole, and an SDG and E employee fell in, and now S C G and E is on the hook for 79,000 in workers' compensation benefits.

What is your relationship with San Diego Gas and Electric?

They are a contractor, they are a franchise agreement holder.

How can this baby suing the city over a case like this?

Uh it would be helpful to understand why a corporation, investor-owned utility that takes almost a billion in profit and overcharges ratepayers, is now asking for $79,000 for compensation from San Diegans once again.

Thank you for those concluding comments.

Zoom user, if you can please unmute.

Well, thanks for taking my call.

Man, I've been waiting to talk to you guys for a while.

Can you please note which item or items you wish to speak to?

One, six, and seven.

Thank you.

On the thing with the kid that starved to death.

You gotta hire a couple women that give a shit about our kids, man.

And give them a badge, that one black lady to talk, give her a badge, and and hire the original too, man.

She gives a shit.

She knows the game.

And have them have ultimate authority.

Starve to death a kid at church.

Come on.

That's like take their building from them.

You know, that's just so wrong, man.

It's just so wrong.

And we have we have to have like um meetings and talk about, like the guy said, we need meetings.

I know you like skating this thing by and shove it under the rug.

And maybe have it down at the shell or somewhere where people can go there and have talk and uh obviously the mayor's not nowhere to be found after he spent 450,000 going to Philippines.

He could have uh stayed at one of his relatives' house.

He keeps saying he's from Philippines, Philippines.

He should have like 60 60 uh relatives there he could stay with for free, so we could do something.

Now the the kid that got shot by the cop.

Hopefully, the guys that are uh that the uh um I gotta turn that off.

Did he can uh that to get the kids that shot at him on the video?

They need to be prosecuted too, man.

Man, manslaughter who drew the cop in there.

A cop drew down on me at my own house one time, like 20 years ago.

I had a home invasion.

I called the cops and they fled, and the cop showed up with a gun drawn, and I put my hands up.

It was training.

He didn't shoot me, it was my own house.

He did a great job.

But I'm a white guy, I'm not a black guy.

So at the time, I love the cops.

They came over to my house for dinner, give him coffee if there's some problem.

I don't fear the cops uh like him.

The guy needs training, the guy that shot the kid.

He should give training to the other cops because it's a split second thing.

I don't know if he needs to be fired.

I wouldn't fire him, I'd I'd hire him for training.

He has that experience on the job right there, man.

He could train all the other cops, what he was feeling, why he shot, you know, why, you know, it's like one of those things the kid could have had his gun out and shot him.

You know, that's why he shot it was not a race thing.

Wasn't a white or black guy, it was just some kid running the corner after gut shots were fired.

So I don't know.

I think the one thing about the police should uh tell how much they're paying the jail for the county for the sheriff.

It's you've got to all gotta work together on the problem side.

And where's the money going?

It's all about the money, but I guess we're out of money.

Who knows?

Your time has concluded.

The five-minute timer has also concluded here in council chambers.

There are four speakers with their hands raised, no other speakers will be taken.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute and let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

All right, uh, Blair Beekman, uh, item CS6.

Please proceed, you'll have a minute.

Thank you.

Uh Blair Beekman, happy December to everyone.

Um yeah, about this item.

Um, it's sad that this has happened.

Uh, I know I I'm interested.

Um, you we've all heard how much DRA can be talking about these issues of of child welfare.

Um, is this an issue that even though this is from uh San Diego police uh issues and problems?

Um does this uh is it suggest a wider problem of county issues and how the county is dealing overall with child welfare issues at this time.

Uh is those questions being asked and how they're working, because I think DRA is asking those questions that I think need to be noted, and uh uh she's offered an interesting point of view that I think we need to be considering.

Um, that uh at the county level, they may be doing something a little off base on how to talk about uh uh child welfare issues better and how to address the issues, and uh is that indicative of what's happening at the city level?

Uh I just thought I'd bring that up to question.

Your time has concluded.

Andrea Ebbing, if you can please unmute and let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Uh good morning.

One, six and seven, please.

Three minutes, please proceed.

Uh, thank you.

My name is Andrea Ebbing, and what took place is a hundred percent unacceptable.

And it's just confirmation that the San Diego Police Department, San Diego District Attorney's Office, and you know, city attorney still on the fence with Heather Ferber's new leadership.

I have more faith, but Mara Elliott was a complete and total corrupt brat.

So uh, with that said, yes, child welfare from the county level should be taken into consideration.

Um, Summer Stefan, our district attorney handles uh, you know, family protection, um, domestic violence cases, child abduction cases, and she's failing beyond miserably.

Um, she had uh charged this the state 3.4 million dollars for child abduction recovery, which an audit revealed none of those dollars actually went to child abduction recovery, and I should know, because I too have an 11-year-old daughter who has been she's been gone as a result of SCPD.

She was abducted.

She was abducted from my home when she was six years old on 1228-20.

I was almost murdered.

I was um strangled.

I had my head split open on video.

My children were abducted and driven across the country.

They were drugged, admittedly drugged by their father, who had permanently suspended license.

But the San Diego police department failed to protect my children and failed to protect me.

In fact, Holland Defoya, who is the San Diego police detective, omitted my children from her felony strangulation report.

But she did mention that the father admitted to drugging our five-year-old daughter.

How did we have a five-year-old daughter if there were no children involved in the case?

Why did Dad keep his firearms?

Children, and there was no consequence for his felony strangulation.

I'll tell you why.

Because his accomplice is a county contracted rehab owner who pays them all off, and they are completely corrupt.

Not every single one of them.

But this case and every case that gets publicized, and I have access to their attorney, will hear from me because mine is the next lawsuit.

The city of San Diego and County of San Diego has to prepare for.

Every single day, 192 DOJ, attorneys, investigators, employees, hear from me about what's happening here in San Diego.

Now we have children being raped and murdered by the people who are supposed to be protecting and serving them.

But unfortunately, money clouds their judgment, and they're too busy keeping up appearances with the people that are paying them off instead of protecting and serving and focusing on what's important.

Thank you.

Francine Maxwell, if you can please unmute.

Can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Yes, six and seven.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Thank you.

Good morning, Francine Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego resident.

I'm hoping that you're hearing the theme throughout the people speaking about education.

It would be nice that the chair of public safety that's running for Congress would take a moment out of her schedule and hold a hearing so that people can be educated on how much money is being spent with our insurance absolutely risk management.

It's very important that as you get ready to prepare for the unions or whomever you're going to push forward to try to do the next one cent tax that we're going to say no to because we don't trust you.

If we begin to have hearings, then we can build a bridge of trust.

Very important that we pay attention to our canines.

Um have gone through some new policy changes in a hearing, those would be highlighted so that the community could have split timing of the new policies that pertain to canines, their usage, and things like that.

Absolutely, the county has working groups that talk about how to better the foster care system, especially getting more connections with the family members to have their family members in their custody in foster care.

The money that's being paid out, 50 million is a number that is making national news.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to make national news that our city council, eighth largest city, is educating their constituents and their residents on how these lawsuits come about, how we pay out, how we negotiate.

These are the things that people need to do to make us have a better city.

258 million deficit was my last count, but it could have grown now.

Again, cut the middle management throughout the building.

No matter what, we could save money and you can stop breaking our backs.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Our final speaker is William Dorset.

If you can please unmute and let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Thank you.

Please proceed.

Okay, I just want to say um the this has been going, this whole case has been going for a while now.

Um I'm not here to be vindictive or anything like that.

I just feel like, you know, over everything that I went through, there should be compensation for me and my attorneys.

Please don't just listen to the opinions on this case.

Actually, ask questions about, you know, how many times has the judge awarded a win towards my side, and then ask about the facts of this case.

These things are important.

Um I hope that y'all make a good decision and that this is settled rather than dragging it on longer and costing taxpayers money.

Um, because you know, that's what I rather do is not cost a taxpayers' money.

Anyways, thank you for your time.

Have a good day.

Thank you.

That concludes on a uh public comment on closed session items.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

We will now recess into closed session and reconvene.

Council today at 2 p.m.

or shortly thereafter.

Shall I play for you, Rumble Bum Bum?

The Oxen Lamb Cap time for Rumble Bum Bum.

I played my drum for him Barb Bum.

I played my best for him by Rumble Bum Bum.

Rumble Bum Bum Rumble Bumble.

Oh we never had this many police up here.

I think it would be encouraging if we could just get the other veterans to get here.

I've seen this grow.

Uh and like I said, I know that there is a lot more veterans that can be here.

We can pack this place out.

You have given to this nation, and you continue to give to this city, and we see you, we salute you, we respect you, and most of all, we thank you.

We are here today in Oak Park to celebrate Kate Sessions Day and to honor a woman who helped make San Diego what we all know and love today as America's finest city.

Kate Sessions knew a good idea when she planted one.

She believed the trees could turn uh what was then a city of dry brush hills into something absolutely beautiful and something that we all enjoy today.

All right.

Look at that.

Not only are we just celebrating new trees that we plant in the ground, we want to celebrate our existing trees that we have that already provide us lots of benefits and shade and ecosystem services.

Kate Sessions taught us that when you plant a tree, you're literally planting hope for cooler streets, cleaner air, and stronger communities.

And that's what you all are doing here today.

And I'm so grateful that you take time out of your busy schedules to help plant these 30 trees all across Oak Park.

Happy Kate Sessions Day, everybody.

Today marks an important milestone for Coral Gate and the Sanny Cedro community, one that has been years in the making.

We never imagined that we were gonna get a new park for Coral Gate.

It takes all of us to be able to put a park together, and uh first part of that is to really understand the recreational needs of our communities.

Now we have this amazing park, and it's really important.

If our kids aren't playing, then they're probably out doing other things.

So let's invest in their being able to be kids, and the transformation we see today is the result of persistence, partnership, and shared commitment.

It shows what's possible when residents advocate.

One, two, three.

Since taking office, I've helped complete an open Rivera del Sol Park, broken ground on Fire Park and Hidden Trails Neighborhood Park, and secured funding for Grove Avenue Park.

We've renovated Robert Eggert Senior South Bay Rec Center, Memorial Park, Colonel Solomon's Sanny Cedro Community Activity.

Another example of this office's commitment to investment in family-friendly space.

By the end of this year, we will completed ninety-three new or improved park projects across the city of San Diego in just the last five years.

And I hope that that's reflective of a city administration that knows that infrastructure is a priority, that quality of life is what makes us special and unique in San Diego, and that the city's priorities are correct to benefit residents and children particularly.

All right, good afternoon, everyone.

I will now reconvene the city council meeting of Monday, December 8th, 2025.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Here.

Councilmember Moreno.

President.

Councilmember Elo Rivera.

And Council President Lakava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting our assistant city attorney, Leslie Fitzgerald, independent budget analyst, Charles Matica, Council Affairs Advisor in the Mayor's Office, Coda Zeiser, and myself, your city clerk, the NF Wentis.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, City Clerk.

A quorum is now present.

Do we have any comments from the mayor's office, City Council members, City Attorney, Independent Budget Analyst, or the City Clerk.

Not seeing any.

So I have two.

First of all, for my wife, I want to wish her a happy birthday.

She's played the role of wife, mother, Girl Scout leader, kindergarten teacher, uh, and now grandmother.

So Lorreen, I wish you a very, very happy birthday.

And there's a second woman in my life in our life that I also want to recognize.

I want to recognize Councilmember Moreno in common commemoration of 15 years of service.

Councilmember, your success is real because it contributes to the success of others.

You've dedicated your career to the most underserved communities and done an amazing job, and have been an incredible advocate for transparency, equity, and leaving a better San Diego for our children.

So with that.

No, it's been an honor, you guys, and um I will say um looking forward to the last 12 months of uh my term, and thank you for the pinning.

Thank you for the recognition.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

All right, let's with that, we'll get back to the regular business.

Clerk, please go over how the public can offer their testimony.

Thank you, Council President.

I'd highlight the slide on the screen that reviews how the public can offer their public testimony during this afternoon's meeting.

The order can be found on the agenda summary found online or at the table in the back of the room.

If you're in person, please complete a speaker slip located at the entrance of chambers and bring it to the front of the room.

Council ambassadors are available near the entrance and can assist with questions and speaker slips.

No further in-person testimony will be taken once the council begins virtual testimony.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Can you please introduce item 200?

Item 200 is a selection of a council president.

This item is not subject to the mayor's veto.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh with that, I will introduce the item per rule of council 4.2, selection of the council president in odd numbered years at the first Monday council meeting December.

The council shall select the council president from one of its members by a majority vote.

And for the selection, we will follow the standard procedure of debate that is described in Rule of Council 2.11.

This is the procedure we are following for every discussion item before the council, which is as follows introduction of the item by city clerk.

Would happen, an optional staff report, which this comment is serving.

Public testimony, council member questions, comments, a motion, a second, and a vote.

And then City Clerk announcing the result of that vote.

With that, City Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

There is no public comment here in Council Chambers.

We have one speaker in the virtual queue.

I'm starting the five-minute timer, Blair Beekman.

If you can please unmute, you'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Hi, thank you.

Uh Blair Beekman.

I do not know exactly how this vote is going to go today.

I don't know how conversations have been taking place.

Um I've been very happy uh with um current uh president uh council person lapaba as the president and uh of the council at this time and uh council person lee as the pro tem.

Um if that order is going to be switched today, I can be okay with that too.

Um I had the thought that it it could pose some interesting ideas uh or could offer some interesting uh ideas as well towards uh uh agent American leadership uh in such a position, I think would be really interesting and uh create a good feeling.

So um both can be good.

Um I I do like the current leadership of uh council person lacava and and uh we've had the same questions uh now that I'm here up in the uh San Francisco Bay Area.

I attended a recent uh public transit meeting in Santa Clara County VTA.

They had these same questions going on, a board person uh vote and change.

They stayed with their same board board people.

Um I offered at that time, you know, we often have to choose between continuing the same good practices or versus the importance of a change.

And um, yeah, both are important.

Uh however you move forward, good luck in those efforts.

Things do not seem so severe as as they are up in the Bay Area that they stayed with the same people based on you know, they have to go through some hard things in the next year.

I don't think we quite have that hardness going on here in San Diego to navigate issues, but um, whatever you decide, good luck in that process.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have phone number ending in 7499.

If you can please unmute 749.

Bob Kazuski here.

As we're considering a new uh president for this council, I'd like to hear any candidates um comment on how they view the citizens' participation in these meetings.

Um, for instance, there used to be in the city charter a way for citizens to have items added to the agenda.

So citizens could present something.

Uh I forget what the rule was, but citizens could present an item and present it to the council president, and the council president would then add it to the agenda.

In fact, it was mandatory.

Now that rule was removed by this council because we know that you don't want to hear from citizens, but that doesn't keep the council president from doing it just the same.

In other words, if an item is requested, say someone comes to non-agenda and requests an item to be added, the council president could add that item.

There's nothing stopping that at the next meeting.

And I'd like to know if any of the candidates would be willing to do that.

Also, another thing that the council president does is schedule when non-agenda public comment happens.

Now it's common practice that you tend to always put non-agenda comment at the end of the meeting, so that anybody that's come for any other item doesn't get to hear it.

And it's a way of suppressing uh citizen participation again.

Now, I wouldn't uh request that non-agenda come first at every meeting, but maybe alternate, maybe have it come first some meetings and last other meetings.

So I'd like to know if any of the candidates would address any of those issues in discussion leading up to the vote.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

That concludes public comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

I'll turn it over to my council colleagues for any questions, comments, and entertain a motion.

We'll start with council president pro tem Lee.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, it is my honor today to nominate uh council president Joe Lakava to serve another term as our council president.

Um I want to share that under his CETI leadership, Council President Lacaba has approached this role with thoughtfulness, integrity, and transparency in mind.

And throughout that time, he's shown a willingness to tackle not only the tough issues as well as to take difficult positions, but to also work thoughtfully and collaboratively with the community and the council.

I know it was one small thing that came up in the discussions recently regarding Bubba Park, but the Council President noted and the community acknowledged that he had attended a community meeting to hear from residents and even those who were challenged.

And it's an action that I don't think we should take lightly as the type of leadership that you have continued to show throughout the city.

Joe, I want to offer you both a thanks as well as condolences, I believe, um, for your willingness to step up, uh, not just for this year, but for another year.

Um, and I look forward to our continued partnership as we um face, I think no less challenging times in the year ahead.

So uh with that, I'm honored again to nominate Council President Lakava to serve another term as council president.

All right, you thank you, sir.

We have a motion on the floor.

Uh we'll go next to Councilmember Whitburn.

This may be the easiest vote we take all year.

Uh and I will second the motion uh as uh Council President Pro Tem Lee uh mentioned the city council has dealt with a lot of challenging issues this year, and I have really appreciated the even-handedness and grace with which you have approached uh everything that has come before us this year.

Uh, also want to extend my appreciation to your staff uh because I know a tremendous amount of work goes into the role of council president.

So thank you for leading us this past year, and I look forward to the year ahead.

All right, thank you, sir.

Uh, and thank you for the kind both of you for the kind words.

So we have a motion by Pro Tem Lee and a second by Council Member Whitburn.

We'll go next to Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh, I just wanted to echo the um the comments by my colleagues here.

Um, really admire the the steady hand you provided this year.

Um is it as glamorous and as amazing as you envisioned?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Um so just uh great job, sir, and uh very much appreciate the leadership you've shown.

Um definitely supportive of the motion, and thank you to Council President Pro Tem Lee for serving in that uh in that role, um, always being ready in the very, very few instances where you're not in that seat.

Um, Council President Pro Tem has stepped in and handled it um very, very smoothly.

Thank you.

Well said, well said.

It just gets awfully lonely at 10 a.m.

and 2 p.m.

I'm sorry, I just had to throw that in.

Uh we'll go next to Councilmember Moreno.

Thank you.

I will be supporting the nomination of Council President Lacava to continue serving as council president.

Um, Council President, you have consistently supported critical infrastructure investment in District 8.

And I appreciate your continued acknowledgement of the neglect the communities south of Interstate 8 like Council District 8 have endured, and your commitment to ensuring equity and building projects like parks, um libraries in in our areas is truly vital.

Uh finally, your commitment to transparency and good governance is well known, and I know that you're gonna continue to meet those standards as our council president.

So, with that, um that concludes my comments, and I will be voting yes.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Moran.

I'll go next to Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Um thank you.

I'm also happy to support the motion today.

I want to thank you, um Joe, for keeping us safe as well.

You know, you've had to govern in a time when we'd see an increased threats of violence against elected officials across the nation.

And so thank you for making sure that everyone has an opportunity to speak in this chamber, as is our first amendment right to do so, while you know making sure to balance quorum and uh you know decorum and um acting on any threats we've ever got.

So I really appreciate you doing that.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember.

We'll go next to Councilmember Campillo.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll add to this chorus uh appreciate your leadership over the last year, in particular, something that a lot of times the staff or that the public doesn't see is the work of uh your staff with all the council members' staff in terms of docketing, putting things on, moving it through on base uh and so I know that your leadership and making sure that the ideas of the council are put forward, are listened to uh is really uh is transparent and done well.

Um so thank you for your leadership on that.

That is the uh the uh core authority of the council president's office, and you exercise it very well.

So thanks for all you do on that regard.

Thank you, Councilmember Campio.

Appreciate the comments.

Not seeing anybody else in the lights.

We have a motion by Pro Tem Lee and a second by Councilmember Whitburn uh for me to serve another term another year as council president.

Clerk, please call the roll.

I've started the voting system.

Please cast your vote.

And that passes unanimously eight to zero with council member Campbell absent.

Congratulations, Council President.

All right, thank you.

I was gonna make a few comments.

I didn't want to do it before the vote, just in case I said anything.

Uh but in all seriousness, um, I appreciate uh my council colleagues for the uh collaborative process that we went through.

We knew calendar year 25 was going to be a challenging one, both in uh some issues that were very challenging in front of us and the difficult budget process we went through in the first half of the year and uh some of the difficult votes on terms of implementation of some of the decisions that were made at budget time.

Uh but I appreciate the fact that now how difficult those conversations are uh that we showed a mutual respect.

We could come back to work the next meeting and go at it again.

Um I appreciate your tolerance uh for my love of workshopping and really going into the weeds, which does cause some late meetings, but I think we do a good job of getting the work done.

Uh I also want to thank Luz and Heidi that helped put the docket together.

Um Deanna, our city clerk, um the office of the IBA and Charles in particular, our city attorney's office and Leslie, the collaboration that and everybody that makes these meetings run so smoothly, and especially the executive detail, uh, which I never imagined that I would have to call a couple of times over the course of the year, but as Councilmember Baumwolberg correctly said, we have to uh make sure that we are thoughtful in protecting the public uh as well as elected officials uh when things get a little bit uh heated.

So uh and I also appreciate my little bit of bias in terms of when we don't quite get it right from a communication uh to try to make sure that somebody comes back and tries to communicate.

Uh Balboa Park Committee was an example of that.

Going on to Mission Bay Committee was another example of that, and I appreciate the work of the mayor's office when we realize we missed somebody or didn't communicate something a timely way to uh try to make sure we do that and explain that when we when we can.

So, with that, again, thank you.

I'm very honored.

Look forward to probably another challenging year ahead of us again, but uh we'll get the work done.

So, with that clerk, please introduce item 201.

Item 201 is the California Coastal Commission modifications to transit priority area parking reform and housing action package 2.0, San Diego Municipal Code and Local Coast and Coastal Program amendments.

If you'd like to speak on this item in our hearing, Council Chambers, please submit a speaker slip to the clear box.

Any of participating remotely, please raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

City clerk, with that staff, please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you need for the presentation.

Good afternoon, Council President and members of the City Council.

I am Angela Dang, an associate planner with the city planning department.

Joining me today are Deputy Director Seth Litchney and Principal Planner Courtney Pash.

The item before you today is for the adoption of the California Coastal Commission modifications to the transit priority area parking reform and housing action package 2.0 to the San Diego Municipal Code and Local Coastal Program.

The City Council adopted the transit priority area parking reform on December 7th, 2021, and Housing Action Package 2.0 on December 12th, 2023.

The transit priority area parking reform removed parking requirements for multifamily residential developments in the transit priority area, formerly defined as the parking standards transit priority area and better aligned the city's parking regulations with its climate and mobility goals.

Housing Action Package 2.0 was comprised of 10 land development code amendment items that promoted the development of new homes.

Housing Action Package 2.0 also amended its parking requirements to implement assembly bill 2097, which eliminated parking minimums for all residential and commercial developments in areas a half mile from existing and planned major transit stops.

Since the transit priority area parking reform and housing action package 2.0 amended the city's land development code and local coastal program, the amendments do not take effect in the coastal overlay zone until the changes are certified by the California Coastal Commission.

Although these amendments were submitted separately, the California Coastal Commission processed their approvals simultaneously due to both amending the parking regulations.

On August 15th, 2025, the California Coastal Commission conditionally certified the transit priority area parking reform and housing action package 2.0 with one modification for each item.

If the modifications are approved by the city council today, the transit priority area parking reform, housing action package 2.0, and modifications will be resubmitted to the California Coastal Commission for final certification.

The modification to the transit priority area parking reform removes a reference to Section 152.0102 of the San Diego Municipal Code and Local Coastal Program.

Section 152.0102 stated that the regulations and the Barrio Logan Planned District Ordinance shall apply when there is a conflict between the Land Development Code and the Barrio Logan District Ordinance, except as it relates to parking standards transit priority area, and also stated that the provisions of the Barrio Logan Redevelopment Plan shall apply when a conflict exists between the provisions of the Barrio Logan Planned District Ordinance and the goals and objectives of the Barrio Logan Redevelopment Plan.

The Barrio Logan Planned District Ordinance, which included Section 152.0102, was repealed as part of the Barrio Logan Community Plan update on January 27, 2022 and took effect following certification by the Coastal Commission in December 2023.

Since the transit priority area parking reform item was adopted and submitted to the Coastal Commission for certification prior to the Barrio Logan Community Plan update, this created a conflict between the land development code and the local coastal program.

To rectify this conflict and realign the land development code and the local coastal program, the coastal commission suggested a modification to remove section 152.0102 from the transit priority area parking reform amendments.

Since section 152.0102 has already been removed from the municipal code and the removal has been conditionally certified by the Coastal Commission.

No changes need to be adopted to the municipal code.

Instead, city staff recommends the adoption of a resolution to acknowledge and accept the modification proposed by the Coastal Commission.

The resolution would be submitted to the Coastal Commission for final certification.

The Coastal Commission proposed one suggested modification to the Housing Action Package 2.0 amendments to the municipal code and local coastal program.

To ensure that adequate vehicle miles traveled or VMT reduction are installed in the beach impact area of the parking overlay zone, the Coastal Commission proposed additional VMT reduction measure requirements for non-residential development in the beach impact area of the parking overlay zone.

VMT reduction measures are existing requirements created through the mobility choices regulations.

This requires that new development invest in active transportation infrastructure and amenities, resulting in reductions to citywide VMT and greenhouse gas emissions.

Additionally, the regulations require a new development to provide VMT reduction measures based on the development's location in a mobility zone.

Appendix T of the land development manual lists VMT reduction measures and the number of points for each measure.

Examples include providing an on-site shared bicycle fleet and providing amenities or upgraded features to an existing transit stop.

In Mobility Zone 2, non-residential developments within the beach impact area of the parking overlay zone must provide VMT reduction measures totaling at least seven points.

In Mobility Zone 3, non-residential developments within the beach impact area of the parking overlay zone must provide VMT reduction measures totaling at least 11 points.

Staff recommends the City Council adopt a resolution to approve the Coastal Commission's modifications to the transit priority area parking reform amendments to the municipal code and local coastal program and an ordinance to approve the Coastal Commission's modifications to the housing action package 2.0 amendments to the municipal code and local coastal program.

The city council's approval of the modifications will allow the transit priority area parking reform and housing action package 2.0 to receive final coastal commission certification and all code amendments associated with the item to take effect in the coastal zone.

If the council makes any amendments to the modifications, the entire transit priority area parking reform and housing action package 2.0 will need to be resubmitted to the Coastal Commission for certification.

This could result in additional delays in implementing both items within the coastal overlay zone.

This concludes staff's presentation, and we are available for questions.

All right, thank you very much for the presentation.

Clark, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

We have two speakers here in Council Chambers, starting with Arya Grossman, if you can please come up to the microphone.

Sorry, it's pointing the other way, just point it towards you.

My apologies.

And then uh Paul Kruger will be next.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Arya Grossman.

I'm the policy manager at Circulate San Diego.

I'm speaking today in support of these amendments and finally advancing parking reforms and taking action on building housing in coastal areas.

Circulate San Diego has been a strong advocate for parking reform for many years across mayoral administrations and different council makeups.

We have supported and led local efforts to ensure that San Diego's parking policies support housing and transit-oriented development.

As we all know, using parking requirements ultimately leads to more housing and lets more people live and work near transit.

I think we all want to see San Diego become more affordable for residents, including those who live in coastal zones.

I strongly I urge I urge the council to uh support these amendments, and I strongly support its adoption.

Thank you.

Paul Krueger.

And you'll have two minutes.

I wasn't gonna speak on this, but I cannot stand by and listen to this continuing falsehood about public transit.

If anything has shown you the um completely misleading uh projections about people doing without cars, about the fact that if we do not require parking, people will get rid of their car and take the bus.

It has been this whole process of what's happened in Hillcrest.

I know that Council member Whitburn has been a huge supporter of this, but he, like the rest of you, have been forced to reckon with the fact that in San Diego, 97% of people cannot live without a car.

People may use the bus every once in a while.

They may take the trolley to Snapdragon like I do or you do, but we have cars and we live in a city that now is not amenable to people and especially those with families getting where they need to go without a vehicle.

As I pointed out before, you build housing for wealthy people, it has parking.

People who have homes have parking.

Who does not have parking?

It is the people who can least afford a place to live that has parking, correct?

So these people, many of whom are working families, minority families, people who do landscaping and painting and take care of our homes, are forced to jockey around the street for a place to park.

And what have we done?

We put meters everywhere now with the most insane requirement in Hillcrest now.

Parking meters go from 10 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

If you're gonna go out to dinner, you can put two hours in the meter and go to dinner, go to a show, and your car will be towed.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Starting the five-minute timer and going to those participating remotely, we have Blair Beekman and then 7499.

Blair Beekman, you'll have two minutes.

Hi, thank you.

Interesting, you chose consistency uh for uh President Lakaba to continue as president.

Uh good luck, thank you.

Good decision all around.

Change in consistency, and you went with consistency.

Um, a few words too um from the previous public comment.

Uh in my attendance at recent uh public transit meetings in the Bay Area, they specifically stated uh they were traveling around the world checking out different transit planning.

Uh Korea has a very uh South Korea has a very strong emphasis on um uh working as transit as a community process that that does not rely on car use, I think is what was stated.

Um they want to build a future of transit use availability.

So it was nice to hear, and I exactly thought of Paul and his comments, and he really nicely spelled out that the city of San Diego, the way our housing structure is, uh, developments built on these large hillsides, uh, it makes it hard to travel around without a car.

Uh it makes it hard to travel around without a car.

Um so good luck how we address that issue.

Uh it's a lot to deal with uh the the individual service vehicles, uh vehicles that can arrive at your place uh for individual service.

I think that's an option that we need to consider more.

To also consider uh this uh for this item in housing issues.

How does this item relate to the really important meetings you had on housing density for the college area and uh and for another area of San Diego Claremont, I think, uh last week or a week or two ago.

It was a really good meeting that I learned a lot that I I hope we can get through the taboo of density, and I hope you can make that conversation more clear in your future conversations.

Um that's important to me because there's really uh experimental, hopeful ideas that we're talking about with those items, and I guess with this item Q.

Hopefully, they can be related and interconnected.

Thank you.

Thank you, next to 7499.

If you can please unmute, then Kate Kellen.

7499, you are unmuted, but we do not hear you here in Council Chambers.

Not sure if the device you're speaking into.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, please continue.

Bob Bazuski, I'll be brief.

I want to echo what I believe were Paul Krueger's comments.

Uh California was built around the automobile.

It is a delusion to believe that you can eliminate citizens having their own private transportation.

Private transportation is the definition of individual choice and individual independence.

It's what we all deserve, and this council needs to realize that and stop wasting the taxpayers' money and our resources on your own delusions.

Thank you.

Next is Kate Callan, and if you can please unmute.

Oh, you lowered your hand.

So that does there you go.

Please unmute.

Oh, thank you.

I have just two questions for the council members, and I'd like a show of hands.

How many of you took public transit to City Hall today?

Second question: how many of you rode your bikes to City Hall today?

If any of you practiced what you're preaching, we might consider trying to change the way we get around, as hard as that would be.

But you don't.

You're asking us to do something that you yourselves don't do.

Think about that.

Think about your credibility and your leadership.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes public comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

So we'll turn it over to my council colleagues for questions, comments, and entertain a motion.

And I guess I'll start it off.

Um thank you for the presentation.

Thank you for the good work.

Um thank you for navigating the process through the coastal commission.

Um, as you've heard me say in the past, it's always frustrating that uh those of us who represent the coastline vote in support of these things, and then we have to wait to get through the coastal commission, which four years for the the earliest one is uh quite a length of time.

Um, and so these are relatively minor changes.

So um I supported this originally and will support it again today.

So I'll move the staff recommendation.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

I'll offer a second to the motion.

Thank you.

Not seeing anybody else on that.

Please call the vote.

I sorry, the voting system, please cast your vote.

That passes unanimously 7 to 0 with Council Member Von Wilbert and Council Member Campbell absent.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Please introduce item 202.

Item 202 is the creation of underground utility district for university heights 02, UHTS-02 and Encanto 09, ENCO-09, and the certification of the final program environmental impact report, PEIR project number 675395, SEH number 2018101037 for the utilities undergrounding program.

If you'd like to speak to this item, please submit your speakership to the front of the room or raise your hand.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, we see staff have settled in.

Uh please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Thank you very much.

Council President Chelsea Clacious, Deputy Director, and the transportation department.

And we will need approximately five minutes.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon.

We are here today to create two new undergrounding districts and to certify the final programmatic EIR.

With us in chambers is Rebecca Malone, program manager in planning department, as well as her staff.

And on the uh virtually joining us is Jim DeBong, ADD of UUP project delivery.

So this is a process that we do annually, and it consists of four parts.

We hold a vote to note uh to do a noticed public hearing, mail notices, we do the hearing itself, and then that gets approved.

So on October 20th, council did vote unanimously to set a date for this notice public hearing.

After that, we emailed notices to all utility owners and property owners and residents who fall within the boundaries of these two project areas.

Today's requested actions include certifying our final programmatic EIR, which evaluated the entirety of our EU UP to mitigate for cultural and biological impacts and streamline sequel review for future district creations.

And also the action of creating the two utility districts, which assigns uh responsibilities to the utility companies and residents to participate in this program, and it finds and determines that it is in the general public interest to do so.

These two action items are here before you.

And now I want to get into some specifics of the two projects that we are moving forward.

So some of the details as an overview.

One is in Council District 3, which is University Heights 02, one is in District 4, which is in Canto 09.

The general process uh we are currently at the first step, which is district creation.

Um, after uh districts have been created by council, we are able to finalize base maps of these locations, and that work is performed by the engineering and capital projects department's survey section.

Once that's completed, we are able to issue the notice to proceed for these two for these projects.

We estimate that both of these projects will have be will be NTP'd before the end of the fiscal year.

And I do want to note because in previous years, we used to have a little asterisk saying that you know, certifying or creating these districts did not guarantee funding, but moving on and moving forward, including these two, we are only moving forward projects that have dedicated funding.

So these two projects will get notice to proceed uh this fiscal year.

Um, after the notice to proceed happens, between now and basically the time that these polls are getting removed, that can take six to eight years.

So I really want to manage uh everyone's expectations.

It gets very exciting when a new project comes online and we agree because of all of the uh benefits it will bring to the community, but this is a very long and um complex infrastructure project, multi-year uh infrastructure project.

Um, you know, we've got up to two plus years for design, and then another potentially four to five years of construction, and then we'd come in and do CIP work, which includes street lights, road improvements, tree plantings.

Some specifics of these projects.

So, starting with university heights, um, we'll be delivering underground electrical telephone broadband services to serve 230 properties, um, and it's just shy of about two uh two city miles uh of city streets.

We will install 54 curb ramps within the project boundary.

There'll be about 30 new street lights per city standards, and about 91 polls will be removed.

For the Incanto project, it will be delivering services to about 240 properties, almost three miles of city streets, um, 11 curb ramps within the project boundary, 42 new street lights to city standards, and about 115 electrical polls will be removed.

Um, I also want to mention that the preliminary estimates found in the staff report um jointly are about 10 million dollars per mile.

Uh this is really formulaic, um, and so these estimates tend to be quite conservative with a bit of contingency involved there.

And um, once we do our notice to proceed and get our more site-specific engineering estimates, we tend to see that number decrease.

Um happy to answer questions.

Thank you.

All right, thank you for the presentation.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

My apologies.

I don't see any public comment speakers on this item here.

Going to those participating remotely, we have Blair Bink Bleak Beekman and Craig Fuller, if you can please unmute.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

Thanks a lot for this item.

I didn't quite understand the replacement issue.

That means old older uh light polls that you'll be picking down and putting up new smart street polls, start smart street lights.

Um it sounded like you can do uh a lot more smart street lights with a lot less polls and a lot less electricity, a lot less use, I guess, or something like that.

So um kind of an interesting trade-off there.

A good beginning trade-off because yeah, you know what I want to be able to work on is the idea of how can you place all of that new smart streetlight technology that's gonna have a ton of new technology equipment in it and data collection.

How can that be uh how can the technology placed in there be minimal amounts of technology that can still do the same amounts of public safety service?

Um that's that is I think just the goal of our lives at this time, and we have to be thinking and working on that constantly.

Um you guys have put in way too much technology.

San Jose is really suffering from that right now because they're going through lawsuits because they put in too much technology, and their police are overusing the tech in ways that are uh not being considered as fair and possibly illegal.

So because they have such such an overabundance and plethora of choices of new tech within their smart streetlight programs, they're creating a bit of a mess and a bit of civil rights mess.

I think we should take those lessons to heart and really consider that I know you are just really put it to practice that we can reduce the technology in our smart street lights, create a more efficient system that still practices public safety, and work on overall goals of civil rights protections and accountability with the smart street light use that can allow you know replacement of smart streetlights, maintenance, all the regular stuff in a more smooth fashion.

If you want to practice good open accountability practices, that's key.

Please talk on those terms more than the other.

Your time has concluded.

Thank you.

Craig Fuller, if you can please unmute.

After that, 7499.

Good afternoon.

Um my name is actually Karen Wishnev.

I am an attorney working for Craig Buller using our firm Zoom account.

Um I'm a member, um a resident of University Heights for 22 years.

And I just wanted to ask if there's any sort of rule of thumb that residents of these areas that are being blessed with this new technology and upgrades to our systems, our neighborhood systems.

Um, whether there's any rule of thumb thumb that we could use similar to um 10 million per mile type thing, just so that uh neighborhood residents have an idea of what our um responsibilities will be, or if there's somewhere we can look to find out that information.

Thank you.

That concludes your comments.

Yes.

Thank you.

7499, if you can please unmute Bob Kazowski here.

I also want to echo Blair Beekman's concerns about the increasing use of technology in our public spaces.

Um if you've watched any of the frightful future um predictions about how uh humanity will be basically controlled at micromanaged, whether you whether it's 1984 or any of the other famous works, it all uh starts with surveillance.

And as AI grows more and more powerful and becomes more and more of a threat to our human existence.

I think the the ability for AI to observe us and track us is gonna be a very big part of the problem.

And now is the time to not be providing the infrastructure that allows us to be abused as AI grows in power.

Thank you.

And that concludes public comment for this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

With that, I'll turn it over to my colleagues for questions, comments, and retain a motion.

We'll start with Council Member Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

Certainly in University Heights, this is welcome news for residents who are living between Cleveland Avenue and Florida Street and for Batterset Avenue to Mission Cliff Drive.

During the design work, uh property owners and community members will have the opportunity to share feedback on things like street lights and utility box locations before the work gets underway.

Yeah, no, it's a great question.

Thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

So for residents who fall within the boundaries and are property owners or or just residents, there's mailed communication.

So that is something that we do, whether it's letters, uh postcards.

We have a new element on our website that tracks kind of active projects.

Also uh to you you've already mentioned it, but there's pre-design forums, there's also pre-construction forums.

Both of these are held in the community uh to gather feedback.

Um and uh lastly uh after the districts are created, they will get mailed uh communication that also includes um a form that's called permit to enter that talks about uh private property conversion that needs to happen.

Um and so and and also we have a a an info line and an email undergrounding at Sandieago.gov um and we have staff that will that answer that every day.

Thank you.

Uh so lots of opportunities for residents to engage, uh get information, ask questions, and uh be a part of this process.

Well, thank you to the transportation department for the ongoing partnership uh with the University Heights community and with uh the commitment to making this process as smooth and uh transparent as possible.

And I'm happy to make the motion to approve the staff recommendation.

All right, thank you, sir.

We have a motion by Councilmember Whitburn to move the staff recommendation.

I will second.

That's part of my commitment as council president.

We're gonna move these meetings along.

Um thank you for the presentation.

Uh Chelsea.

I I especially appreciate, as you know, the conversations we've had over the years, greater candidness about what each step means and what that actually means in terms of uh turnaround.

Um I'm really excited about the idea that you actually have the financial capacity to move these forward.

Um, and so that is um really key.

And I guess I'm kind of inclined, given two public comments.

This is not about smart street lights.

Sometimes a street light is just a street light.

It is just a street light to city standard, they are not smart street lights.

If we were to propose smart street lights, it would be a whole separate hearing that we would do the transparency and accountability as one member of the public called for, but these are just street lights uh going in.

So thank you for confirming that.

All right, Councilmember Von Wolpert.

Uh thank you very much.

Um also um Deanna, I'd like her to register a yes vote on item 201.

I was standing in the back but didn't get out to the dais.

Um thank you for the work in the presentation.

I just have one undergrounding, it's great.

We need more of it.

Uh, one question about the street preservation ordinance.

If we're gonna be undergrounding and tearing up the street, I don't know if this falls under our street preservation ordinance, but to make sure the street is fully repaired, not just trenched and then lumped over.

Is that part of the plan?

Uh yeah, so um with the uh with the street preservation ordinance um uh it'll fall under the new SPO.

Okay, um, yeah, and uh there are because the paving of the street will happen six to eight years from now.

Uh there is a lot that can happen between now and then as far as other projects coming through.

Um so whether it's under moratorium or not under motorium, we don't know that yet.

Um, but that will be something um that we are always advocating for um is is curb to curb restoration where feasible.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Yeah.

Uh thank you for that question, Councilmember Von Wolpert.

So with that, no one else in the lights.

We have a motion by Councilmember Whitburn, a second by myself to move the staff recommendation.

Clerk, please call the roll.

I've started the voting system, please cast your vote.

And that passes unanimously eight to zero with councilmember Campbell absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

Again, thank you to staff for the good work on that item.

So with that, Clerk, please introduce item 203.

Item 203 is the 40th and C Street project number 106767.

This item is not subject to the mayor's veto.

If you'd like to speak on this item, please submit your speakers up to the front of the room in the clear box.

Or if you're participating remotely, now is the time to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh, with that, staff, as you settle in, please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Good afternoon, Ben Heffer Tepe Development Services.

I'll need about 10 minutes.

All right.

Again, when you're ready.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council President, Council members, and members of the public.

My name is Ben Hefferte, and I'm the development project manager for item 203, which is the 40th and C Street Project.

The 40th and C Street project is located east of undeveloped 40th Street, south of undeveloped B Street, and north of both developed and undeveloped C Street.

The project site contains 16 existing parcels and an undeveloped alley within the southeastern San Diego community plan area.

The project site is vacant and consists of hilly terrain with grass, brush, and scattered trees.

There are no significant areas of artificial fill on the property.

The property generally slopes downward to the north and west.

There are no existing structures that would adversely affect any proposed development on the subject site.

The development project site is 2.12 acres and is in the RS 17 zone, which is a residential zone that can accommodate a variety of residential dwelling types that promote neighborhood quality, character, and livability.

The project site's overlay zones include the airport land use compatibility overlay zone, San Diego International Airport, Airport Influence Area, San Diego International Airport, Review Area 1, environmentally sensitive land, sensitive vegetation, brush management, native naturalized vegetation, and the very high fire hazard severity zone.

The general plan designates the project site as residential, and the southeastern San Diego Community Plan designates the project site as residential low density with nine five to nine dwelling units per net acre.

This land use designation is characterized by detached single dwelling units on individual lots.

The project proposes to consolidate and subdivide the 16 existing vacant lots into 10 new lots, construct 11 new single dwelling units, and 18 new accessory dwelling units or ADUs and vacate portions of undeveloped 40th Street, B Street, C Street, and an unnamed alley.

Lots one through nine on each lot will contain one new single dwelling unit with an attached two-car garage and one new detached structure with one accessory dwelling unit and one bonus affordable accessory dwelling unit.

The proposed 11 single dwelling units would be consistent with the density range of the land use designation, and the proposed projects ADUs are not subject to the density limitations for the site pursuant to the San Diego Municipal Code.

Lot 10 will include two new single dwelling units.

The project requires a neighborhood development permit since the development is requesting four deviations from the land development code regulations.

You are providing sustainable buildings as identified in the San Diego Municipal Code and incorporating voluntary tier two measures of Title 24, Part 11, California Green Building Standards.

A tentative map is required for the subdivision of land.

And a public right-of-way vacation approval is required since the development is proposing to vacate 40th Street, B Street, C Street, and an unnamed alley.

All the single dwelling units are two stories and will include three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a living room, dining room, and a two-car garage.

Nine lots will also contain their own separate detached two-story building with one market rate ADU and one bonus ADU, which is deed restricted to moderate income households for a period of 15 years.

All ADUs will include two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an average approximately 800 square feet in size.

Each unit will also include a private exterior open space, either a patio or balcony, in addition to yard space to the rear of each lot.

This slide shows the elevations for the two single dwelling units on lot 10.

Prior to the issuance of a building permit for the construction of the second dwelling unit on lot 10.

Assigned declaration of eligibility and acknowledgement of restrictions related to Senate Bill 9 shall be submitted, which will allow up to two single dwelling units on lot 10 without performing an urban lot split in the RS-17 zone.

The proposed development is requesting four deviations.

The first deviation is to reduce the required street frontage on lots 1 through 3.

The second deviation is to reduce the minimum distance from a curb cut to the side property line from 3 feet to 0 feet on lot 3.

The third deviation is to increase retaining wall height within the side yard setback from six feet to up to 14 feet on lots eight and nine.

And the fourth deviation is to reduce the minimum distance between an off-street parking space and a sidewalk or curb opening on lot nine.

Deviations three and four are designed to accommodate a fire apparatus turnaround for life safety.

And the staff report contains additional details justifying each requested deviation.

The proposed project proposes to vacate an unimproved portion of 40th Street, B Street, C Street, and an unnamed alley.

In accordance with the subdivision map act, the project proposes to vacate approximately 5,635 square feet of 40th Street, 12,060 square feet of B Street, 3,560 square feet of C Street, and 2,408 square feet of an unnamed alley within the boundary of the tentative map.

The project also proposes to vacate 6,329 square feet of 40th Street, 8,915 square feet of B Street, and 3,227 square feet of C Street in accordance with the streets and highways code outside of the tentative map boundary.

The proposed public right-of-way vacation will revert the vacated areas to the abutting parcels.

The land is no longer needed as public right-of-way and is not needed for circulation access and public services, yet the portions of the right-of-to be vacated were never constructed for the purposes they are originally dedicated for.

The neighborhood and community have several existing improved park public rights of way that provide public public circulation necessary to the community, and the portions of 40th Street, B Street, C Street, and an unnamed alley are not needed to provide public circulation.

The project was previously analyzed within the Certified Program Environmental Impact Report or PEEIR for the Southeastern San Diego and Canto Neighborhoods Committee Plan update.

An evaluation was prepared to determine if conditions specified in the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines Section 15183.

Projects consistent with a community plan or general plan or zoning would require additional sequel review.

The evaluation of identified that the project would be consistent with the development density established by the Southeastern San Diego Community Plan and in Canto Neighborhoods Community Plan update, and it did not result in any project specific significant effects that are peculiar to the project site or it's beyond those identified in the certified PEIR.

Based on the CQ evaluation, the project is exempt from further environmental review.

A mitigation monitoring and reporting program for biological resources and paleontological resources will be implemented consistent with the PEIR mitigation framework.

The project will directly impact 1.33 acres of non-native grassland, tier 3B habitat, and native soils through grading and excavation.

Mitigation for the one for the impacts of the 1.33 acres of non-native grassland will be achieved through payment into the city's habitat mitigation fund in accordance with the city's biology guidelines, and mitigation for the impacts to native soils will be achieved by a qualified paleontologist being prejudiced present before and during construction.

Consistent with the city's ESL regulations, a covenant of easement will also be recorded as part of the development to ensure the preservation of the remaining 0.03 acres of non-native grassland that are outside the allowable development area.

On October 30th, 2025, the planning commission voted 601 to recommend approval of the project.

And on May 9th, 2024, the Southeastern San Diego Community Planning Group voted 700 to recommend approval of the project with a non-binding recommendation to continue discussions with the immediate community and consider how they might be able to have first purchase options to remain within their community.

Staff has reviewed the proposed project and all issues identified through the review process have been resolved in conformance with the adopted city council policies and regulations of the general plan, Southeastern San Diego Community Plan, and Land Development Code.

With approval of the requested deviations, staff supports the determination that the project is consistent with the goals and policies and development regulations in effect for this site for the San Diego Municipal Code, the general plan, and the community plan.

Draft findings, permit, public right-of-way vacation, and tentative map conditions are contained in the staff report to support approval of the project.

Therefore, staff recommends that the city council approve the project.

This concludes staff presentation.

Staff, the applicant's team, and I are available to answer any questions.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

I understand the applicant wants to make a presentation.

There we go.

So as you walk up, please introduce yourself for the record, and you will also have 10 up to 10 minutes.

Either one, which is more comfortable.

Sounds good.

So you'll have up to 10 minutes for your presentation.

Thank you.

My name is John Allen, president of Streamline Development Group, the applicant.

Thank you, President Lacava, congratulations, and members of the council.

I won't take up too much of your time today.

The nature of this presentation is more supplementary considering the thorough job from staff.

I would like to take a quick moment just to thank staff for their diligence on this project.

Numerous issues have come up during the course of the entitlement process, and they've diligently and gone through a lot of processes to really make this a really seamless process towards the end.

So thank you for staff for all that they've done here.

Just to echo what staff mentioned, this is a vacant, undeveloped site.

Zoned RS17 currently consists of 16 substandard lots and undeveloped paper streets.

Next slide.

Oh you can go to the next slide.

Development potential for these lots up to 16 single family residences, 32 ADUs, and 16 JADUs.

In order for these lots as currently subdivided to be developed, the applicant would need to either improve all adjacent right-of-ways for frontage and access, or vacate, the other option would be to vacate the adjacent right-of-ways and remap the entire property.

Next slide, please.

So this approach would require excessive grading, elimination of drainage channels, and would likely cause significant environmental impacts.

And that would provide an entrance off of the C Street cul de sac onto the property.

So the current proposal, in our opinion, would be the more reasonable and responsible approach for developing this particular site.

Next slide, please.

So the proposed project in summary proposes really a logical cleanup action to remove the paper streets that will really never serve the public.

And as noted by staff, the four waivers are either due to uh technicalities within the code that we need the waivers for or to accommodate fire life safety apparatus to access the site.

Um and it really builds modest scale family housing that's fully consistent with the RS17 zone and the Southeastern San Diego community plan.

Next slide, please.

I wanted to show a little bit of the street vacations.

Um they're really practical and necessary.

Uh I brought a pointer just in case I needed to.

The portions of C Street, 40th Street, and B Street were never really built and are not feasible to construct.

As shown here, B Street was cut off by I-94 construction decades ago.

I guess I can't point at it, can I?

Next slide, please.

40th Street to the left ends at the bottom of a canyon and drainage channel.

The canyon would prohibit development of 40th Street with the existing uh potentially biological potential resources there.

C Street to the bottom of the screen is uh too steep, and developing this small portion serves no real purpose.

So vacating all three of these right-of-ways and the also the alley as seen in pink in the middle there really removes obsolete paper streets that again serve no real public function.

Next slide, please.

It's important to note that all parcels affected by the vacation are owned by the same applicant.

There are no other properties, lose any access or development rights as a result of this proposal.

Um the consolidation actually enables a coordinated access for construction and for uh completion, uh, coordinates grading and design as well.

Um most importantly, this plan avoids a lot of unnecessary environmental impacts that would otherwise be uh uh a requirement of construction on this site.

Next slide, please.

As you can see, the applicant uh owns these lots, which includes the seven lots to the west of 40th street.

Um those lots are not a part of this development proposal.

Next slide, please.

As shown here on the aerial view, um, undeveloped on both sides of what you can see in the middle is 40th street.

Next slide, please.

This lot to the east of the subject properties um provides for uh this lot accesses directly off of C Street, and there is no existing access or possible access off of B Street.

Next slide, please.

As you can see at the top of the screen, that dead ends to the I-94 freeway act uh I-94 freeway, and there's no possible access along B Street, and the driveway uh to access that property is here off of C Street.

Next slide, please.

These lots to the west of this subject property are um just directly adjacent to the lots that are not part of this property but um are directly adjacent to it.

Please, next slide.

They access here off of Quail Street, um, and those those properties are uh would not be able to be accessible from any uh B Street improvement.

Next slide, please.

Um as it pertains to the planning and consistency, um, the size, design, and intent are all consistent with the zoning and concepts within the general plan and um community plan um of southeastern San Diego.

The homes match the neighborhood character with two stories, um porches and garages, and all following the uh modest slopes of the property, and we are including tier two green building measures to ensure sustainability with solar and um and cool cool roofs.

Next slide, please.

So, in summary, um, this we believe this project will provide valuable housing stock in for found for uh for families in the neighborhood, which very few new home opportunities are available.

And with that, um I'm here to answer any questions.

We also have our architect and civil engineer on as well to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you.

All right, thank you for uh the applicant's presentation.

With that, clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

John Allen was the applicant.

Sean Rodriguez, if you can please come forward.

After that, we'll have Christian Battereson if you can please come up to the yellow reserve seats, then Jeffrey Heater and Paul Kruger.

You can all please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Sean, you can come to the microphone.

You'll have two minutes.

Please proceed.

Okay, hi everyone.

Um, I just want to start off by saying that I am opposed to this plan design for changing our neighborhood.

For me and most of the neighbors who you could see couldn't make it due to the fact that they're all working families who also were probably most likely not notified because I wasn't.

Um, and it's not a matter of not building more homes, but what does this mean for our our community, such as home equity and why would there be so many homes on such a small footprint?

Um if this housing project is supposed to revitalize our neighborhood for quality, comfortability, and affordability, which was stated at the beginning, um, then we would like to see some actual um works for that.

Because just saying those doesn't mean anything.

Um projects that would actually make direct impacts in our community would be something like the Dennis Allen Park, um, which was supposed to be getting a new field or courts, um, repaving some of the streets, adding more sidewalks, um a lot of the paper roads that are currently in this neighborhood in this section of where you guys are trying to redevelop, are all throughout the community, so that would also be a great impact for everybody who lives there.

Um also, how about using half of the footprint for your new community to put in a new park or something that would actually give back to our community?

I'm not opposed to more housing in San Diego, but for this neighborhood where you have multi-general generational families that have lived there for decades.

And you're talking about the right to allowing the first right to purchase with the non-binding agreements.

There's been no direct knowledge on how much these things are going to cost and how these people are supposed to afford a multi-million dollar home with an ADU is just unfeasible.

The parking situation is not adequate.

Again, because there are people who have three, four generations of people living in one home.

There's going to be two to five cars per household.

You're only implementing 23 parking spaces.

Your time has concluded.

Thank you, Christian.

Thank you.

Realistically, this is a glorified 30-unit apartment building with 20 parking spots that are being provided in total, way in the back of a single family, mostly single-story neighborhood.

These uh places, there's been talk about rights of ownership for people in the neighborhood to have like first whatever.

Um, frankly, that's laughable.

This uh structures will be sold at twice the price as the average home in the community, making it inaccessible for uh the average person in our neighborhood.

Um I've also heard of there being this uh potential um you know uh ability to if the project does go forward in some form or fashion um to have uh development funds from that reinvested into the community, which the community greatly does need, um, as was mentioned by other uh um uh persons that there are roads that are undeveloped in the neighborhood.

Um they started repaving some of the roads um and then did a couple stop doing it.

So in reality, the neighborhood does need investment, it does need housing, but it needs housing that's gonna match with the average person in the community, not something that's gonna be scooped up by investors and rented out without any parking available or provided.

Um there are other people, many in the community who voice the same concerns.

I also did not receive notice, nor did several of my neighbors who wanted to be here but were unable to make it.

Um we're concerned about other things like flood impacts, wildlife endangered species.

There's a lot of environmental concerns like a sorry, sir, your time has concluded.

If you have any additional comments, you can definitely email them in to Cityclerk at Sandiego.gov and they will be emailed out.

Jeffrey Huter.

And then after that will be Paul Kruger, uh thank you, council members.

Um, so I don't think I'm here to speak against the project, but there are some questions that we have about some of the details of it that we just like to make sure get hopefully addressed and answered here.

So the first thing is as you saw, and the uh the fire lane for this project is exactly 20 feet, which is the legal minimum for fire access equipment in a new development.

Um there were some features shown on some of the renderings that looked like uh sidewalks that protruded into that 20 feet area, which we don't think would be permitted, so it'd be good to clarify that.

The second thing about this project is um it's 29 units in total, so it should be subject to our inclusionary housing ordinance.

You heard some things about making housing accessible to people in the community, and that was the intention of the inclusionary housing ordinance.

Uh it's it's a big question about this project as to when it's being deemed complete.

There's uh a note in a cellar that goes all the way back to uh September of 22.

But since that date, the project scope has changed multiple times, including a tentative map that was withdrawn in uh 2024.

So uh it's really important that we figure out what that date is because it's not clear from looking at the permit information that's available to the public gonna sell it.

And the reason that's important is first of all, if this is subject to the new bonus ADU regulations, um the project actually can't be built on uh cul de sac because it's in a very high fire hazard severity zone.

And the other part of it is it's not in a TPA or an SDA.

So if it's subject to the new regulations, the 80, the bonus ADUs actually are required to have off-street parking, and that it can't be argued that exists in this project today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Paul Kruger, please come forward.

Thank you.

I'm also here not to speak against this project, but to um echo the concerns of Jeff, my colleague Jeff.

These projects present you with serious questions that he just raised about the issues of inclusionary zoning and the effect of the new bonus ADU rules on the number of units that they might build.

And I would urge you to please ask staff about these questions before you vote.

Too many times we come here and we hear from people like my colleagues who do significant research that's never been shown to be wrong or misleading.

And the information they give you is papered over.

So I cannot stress enough what I think is your responsibility to follow up with these questions.

And if it means delaying a vote, you should do that.

But these are legitimate and significant questions.

Number two, I was really moved to speak by hearing this term about deed restricted moderate income housing.

What I hear every time I hear that is that we are not building housing for low income people who are the ones who need it the most.

Throughout this city, we are building building thousands of units with studios that rent for 2500 and one bedrooms or the rent for 3900.

So I just want us all to be cognizant of the fact that when we hear a buzzword like deed restricted moderate income housing, we're talking about one person who's making 102,000 a year, or a family of four making 146,000 a year.

This is not affordable housing, and I just think we need to acknowledge that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Going to those participating remotely.

I'm sorry, the five minute timer, Stroodman, if you can please unmute.

Hello.

Um, not specifically here to speak out against, but to bring up uh some of the things that uh the folks that just spoke are already brought up.

Um access is a big issue here.

We live across the street, across the cul-de-sac on Street C Street, directly across from where this driveway is going to be the entrance to the project.

I think that the possibility of people getting in and out of there without there being some kind of problem, uh, possibly accidents, probably a high number of accidents, with the traffic in the cul-de-sac being what it is from my observation from living here for eight years, uh, is ten amount to uh a crisis.

We're talking about real problems here.

Also, it might be important to point out too.

Uh, you guys brought up the fact that this is in a very high fire hazard area.

The fire plug to fight the fires is down on 40th street.

There's no way to gain access up there.

Uh, when they fought the fires, it have happened in the field wall since I've lived here.

I went over there and stopped them out and tried to put them out with my own host.

The fire department showed up, they had to use what their trucks because they couldn't get houses up there, not in any reasonable amount of time.

So this would expand that problem unless that's something that's going to be addressed by the project.

But by far, the biggest problem is going to be parking, uh, and what it's going to do with regards to access to all of us who already live here and those who would be moving in.

You know, there's none of it parking as it stands right now.

People trying to park on the cul-de-sac, that's gonna go away.

That's not that many spaces, but it is enough to definitely impact the community, and we're highly concerned about that.

We're also concerned about the disruption that's going to happen due to the construction.

How are these people gonna get all this equipment in here to do the building without totally destroying the property around it?

I've seen what heavy equipment looks like when it drives down the street.

It tears up the street, they're gonna be backing into my my driveway and destroying my driveway, possibly taking out my fence.

Um, it's not gonna be good, not gonna be pretty.

And I just think this is something that needs to be considered, you know.

Also, where are all the people that are gonna live there?

Where are they gonna park?

There's not enough parking set aside for that.

So I just wanted to bring these things up.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Susan, if you can please unmute after that is Kate Callan.

Susan.

Thank you.

My name is Susan Baldwin, and I am calling in to second uh the need and the request uh of staff to answer the questions that were posed by Jeff Hewder.

Um I think it's really important to know when this project was deemed complete.

And 2022 seems uh very questionable to me, and it affects how much in the influ fees for affordable housing via the inclusionary ordinance would be paid, what what level they'd be paid at.

And the second thing I wanted to mention is um, you know, the street vacations um that are being requested are benefiting the property owner, and they could be used to um benefit the community in some way, such as um a park, a pocket park or something else if the if the project were designed differently.

So I think um I'm really questioning whether those street vacations should only be used for um the developer and property owner.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Kate Callan, if you can please unmute after that, I'll be Zoom user.

Uh thank you.

So the list we've heard today, and it's a very familiar list.

No community infrastructure improvements, no amenities, no real green space, no price points.

Paul is correct, this will not be affordable, and no adequate parking spaces.

The item that stands out the most is very high fire severity zone.

And one of the earlier speakers uh described this very powerfully.

Why must we cram so many houses housing units together and put people at risk because if a brush fire sweeps through there, they won't get out in time.

Is this just so that the developer gets enough profits to make it work it worth his while?

That's not your responsibility as council members.

Your responsibility is to the public.

It's to make sure that when people move into housing complexes, they're gonna be safe there.

And this does not look like a safe complex at all.

So please think about that when you vote.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoom user, if you can please unmute.

That also concludes our five-minute timer.

No additional speakers will be taken.

Zoom user, please proceed.

Oh, yeah, Henry here.

Hey, thanks for taking my call.

Okay, this project here is a prime example of the tyranny of the Democratic Party and leadership from California and through our county and our city.

This is so crazy.

No parking, no fire.

Just do it because on high, someone said to do it.

We all gotta ride our bikes, you know, and no parking at all.

And this is a tyranny of the Democratic Party, man.

It's gotta go.

All the Democrats on the board up there, there's no MAGA.

Somebody's gotta go MAGA here and go for some sanity, man.

Yeah.

This is this is like a prime example of democratic lack of leadership.

Just plain ass wicked stuff that's going on.

You know, there's just wickedness going on in the Democratic Party.

And uh you guys are gonna pay one day, but whoever lives in these houses, you're gonna have an eight-story building in Bay Park and no parking.

That's gonna be fun.

A lot of fun.

Good luck with anything, man.

So okay.

Thanks a lot for your time.

Thank you.

That concludes with a comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And with that, we'll turn it over to the council colleagues uh for questions, comments, and entertain a motion.

We'll start out with council member Ilo Rivera.

All right, uh, thank you, Council President.

Um appreciate uh the work staff did on this.

Uh, thank you to the presenter for um for the applicant for being being present.

Uh, thank you to the community members from Mount Hope for being here.

I I understand and appreciate this is a complicated project and that the rules were followed.

Um there was a presentation of the Southeastern Sandy Uh Community Planning Group.

Um, I do I would have liked that to have happened sooner than it uh happened, as well as uh some of the engagement with our office.

The housing that's coming through this project is important.

Um but I I don't love what I'm seeing here, and I want to address some of the reasons why.

Um every concern that was raised by the members of the Mount Hope community were real.

And added on top of that, this is a long, long, long neglected, not even like overseen.

So I have a concern that that what is being added to the community is not going to feel like it's part of the community, that it's just going to be kind of dropped in there and folks are going to come and go while the rest of the neighborhood feels the impacts and doesn't necessarily see see the benefits.

I understand the big picture benefits of more housing, obviously, we're incredibly supportive of housing.

How you all are thinking about working with the community members who raised that concern.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I I think this community's put a lot of work into rebuilding some of the community groups that some of which um deteriorated over time as folks aged, as community leaders aged.

Um others, quite frankly, they gave up because they never saw the city respond to their concerns.

Um they put a lot of time into to rebuilding community in a in a very in a very real way.

And so I would ask for you to find some time to meet with the Mount Hope neighborhood group.

Um they're they consistently working with their neighbors.

Um they're putting on events at Dennis V.

Allen Park to try to um reinvigorate life into that park.

Um and I think they could be very helpful in identifying the sort of families that it sounds like you're intending uh or you you would you would like for this project to benefit, um, but it won't just happen on its own.

Um and and so um I would appreciate you committing to meeting with them and figuring out ways to do that.

Absolutely.

Thank you for that.

Um and then I I'll I'll turn to um to Coda if I can.

This is a park deficient um community.

Uh Dennis V.

Allen Park is a historic park, it's a park of historic significance to the community.

Um it's also um been again neglected for a very long time.

It's badly in need of of repairs.

So um what I want to make sure of is that as the community is feeling um the impacts of additional um of additional development um that the things that they've had that quite frankly should have been taken care of before um that they're not left waiting even longer um for for those repairs.

So um there's a a general development plan for the park um that we're we're trying to get done um and um we we need some attention paid to that to the bathroom situation there.

Um can you and the mayor's office commit to getting that done as well?

Yes, we absolutely can.

Uh the GDP is in its final stages of approval.

It will go to the relevant CRG uh in January and then the park and rec board shortly thereafter.

Uh, your office has a meeting with park and rec staff on the 16th where you can further discuss the status of the restroom repairs as well as interim solutions in the meantime as that work is underway.

But you absolutely have the commitment from our office to prioritize those efforts.

I appreciate that.

Um, Mr.

Allen, I just would say this that um Mount Hope is a really special community, and I cannot emphasize how hard the community is working to to make up for lost time and to have the city finally pay it the respect that it's long due, long been due.

Um it's a community that's surrounded by freeways and cemeteries through no fault of its own.

It dealt with generations of a firing range across that freeway that terrorized it on a daily basis.

So I just I I'm going to ask that you treat the community with the respect that it deserves, engage them in the conversation that they're worthy of and make sure that this is the benefit that I think you intend for it to be, but that again uh it won't be without some intent behind that.

Is that fair?

That's thank you for your comments.

I uh yes, I I will be committed to doing exactly that.

And um, you know, we're we're looking forward to working with uh you know D9's office as much as they'd like to be a part of it, and also with the community to make sure that that becomes a reality.

Thank you for that.

And the last thing, Council President.

Um of the things that the community group has has worked hard to do is again um reinvigorate the park, and some of that's through like programming and activities that are there, and uh I know it'll take some time for these homes to be built, but one of the things that I think could help make sure that the community that you are intending to build is integrated into the community is is through participation in events like that and making sure that um again it this is not just a de facto um enclave in a in a otherwise pretty tight-knit community and is actually part of the community that it's being it's being situated in.

Thank you.

With that, uh council president, I'll move the staff recommendation.

Thank you.

All right, we have a motion by council member Yelar Rivera to move the staff recommendations.

Um council member Whitburn would second that's oh council member Vaughn Wilbert.

Next up.

Um thank you very much, and thank you for the presentation.

Um I have some questions about the fire evacuation plan and the safety.

Um I I appreciate that we're gonna you're gonna widen the street so that a fire apparatus could turn around.

But is this street gonna be wide enough considering that how many parking spaces are being provided for how many units 22 for how many units?

For 11 dwelling units, the accessory dwelling units are exempt from parking regulations.

Because of the state law?

Or did we something that the city council did?

Because of the land development code regulations, ADUs are not uh there's no parking required for ADUs.

Okay, so how many dwelling units total will there be regardless of requirements?

Uh 29.

There'll be 11 dwelling units and 18 accessory dwelling units.

So that's 29.

29 and 22 parking spaces?

For the 11 single dwelling units, yes.

Two two parking spaces per dwelling unit for the eleven dwelling units.

Okay, but each ADU can accommodate how many people.

I mean, it's two bedroom, right?

The ADUs.

Correct.

Okay.

And they are gonna drive to their ADUs.

So they'll probably have it two cars each.

Give or take.

Okay, so 11 times two is 22 more cars in the street, meaning that there's going the street parking will be completely full.

So can the fire department, I see we have fire folks here, assure us that even with street parking completely full, since the developer is not providing parking for the ADUs, you can still get the fire trucks and the ambulances up and down the road.

We have Tyler Larson with the fire rescue department who could speak to that.

Good afternoon.

I'm Tyler Larson, uh supervising deputy fire marshal with San Diego Fire Rescue.

Um to address your question, the minimum width is 20 feet, right?

Our apparatus is approximately eight feet wide, so the 20 feet kind of incorporates safe passing of two different fire apparatus, or we're during code three driving, pulling private vehicles over so that we can get to where we need to get to.

Um, as far as the uh to maintain that adequate width that that incorporates red curb and or fire lane signage across that that road.

So that's that's what we need to uh to maintain that 20-foot width.

Oh, so all the entire area will be red curved, there won't be any parking.

It'll have to be 20 foot wide, unobstructed.

So yes.

Got it.

Okay, and that's going to happen.

Yes, there's no there's no parking within the pro the private driver of the alley.

There's no on-site parking allowed on the private driver alley within the development.

Okay.

Okay, I so I'm glad that you guys are assured that we're gonna be able to get.

I mean, this is on a canyon.

I don't think I don't know how much of the canyon will be preserved once the housing's done, but still it's you know uh there's interfacing with brush.

I just um I don't I don't agree with the state law that doesn't allow us to require parking for ADUs because this is silly.

We're building housing that we expect people to park in, and they're going to use their cars, and then we're gonna red curve the whole area because it's unsafe to park cars in front of their houses.

So this is silly.

I'm just gonna say it.

Um we need cars here in San Diego still.

We need transit too, but we don't have it everywhere.

But at this point, you know, I I understand where we are where we are, and we're not allowed to require parking by state law for at least some of the ADUs, but every multifamily unit building you see in my district always has cars parked on the street.

Always, always, always.

Um so I mean, I guess I'll support the project given that we know what's gonna happen.

I mean, fire safety is my first responsibility as a chair of public safety.

I just hope that our planning folks just realize like this is it's c it's that's we are where we are.

We're stuck with state law, but I do we do need more housing and we are where we are, so I'll support the project.

Thank you.

Uh council member, I just wanted to clarify that the regulations in effect at the time that the project was deemed complete, which was September of 2022, were adopted by the city council in response to state law.

Uh but with that said, the council did choose not to require parking for ADUs that went beyond the state mandated requirements.

So uh as you understand that those regulations have since changed, and so prospectively new development projects are subject to the regulations currently in effect, but this project was reviewed and applied the regulations uh and determined to be in conformance with those at that time, in which no ADUs were required to provide parking as part of a development project.

Got it.

Thank you.

Understood that we're still getting through the past projects.

I was just encouraged.

I and I heard the developer say that they're going to meet with community groups.

Maybe you can have a discussion about where people are gonna park.

They need to drive cars.

So okay, thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Von Wolpert.

Uh going next to Councilmember Campio.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, staff.

Um was the project deemed complete?

Ben Hevertepita on my project manager development services.

The project was deemed complete on September 2nd, 2022.

Okay.

The the that is important given that we changed regulations most recently.

Uh I do project if if a project's deemed complete, is it or any component at which point it's removed from complete status and made into incomplete because of changes?

If a project were to expire or be withdrawn, then a new development project would be subject to the regulations in effect at that time.

Uh a project, there's no uh regulations in the land development code and or in our procedures that preclude a project while keeping an active status from making modifications to that project and still utilizing the regulations of that deemed complete date.

Okay.

So what does it mean to be withdrawn?

If the applicant or the owner were to literally um cancel the project essentially through our system so that there is no active development project.

Okay.

So this particular project, I see components of it that are that are problematic.

I see other components of it that are really strongly desirable uh from uh ownership opportunities, uh the single family homes that are there, the sustainability of the project as it was described.

Um how much has the project changed since it was deemed complete in September 2022?

So after the project was complete in September 2022, there was a revised notice after application on July 31st, 2023, which included a scope revision for the public right-of-way vacations of 40th Street, B Street, C Street, and the unnamed alley.

Okay, so are you saying that essentially the the dwelling units themselves that those concepts haven't changed very much, but the request for variances, the request for changes to the nearby infrastructure for safety purposes, those were the requ the adjustments.

Is that essentially what I'm hearing?

Correct, yes.

So uh after the revised notice of application on July 31st, 2023, when there was a scope change, there was an uptick to the number of dwelling units.

Okay.

And that was noticed properly.

Understood.

And since August 22nd, 2025, what other components of the application have changed?

None.

Okay.

All right.

Sorry.

So just to be very clear, we're operating under the legal framework before this council took up bonus ADU adjustments reforms this summer.

So essentially the rules were the rules we're operating here are from 2022, and really that's the bottom line.

Yes, that was correct.

Okay.

I appreciate the questions uh brought from uh Councilmember Von Wilbert about the fire safety of the fire department.

I know you don't have to get up to the microphone, but you feel you feel confident that uh if there is an emergency uh in this potential development as it comes forward that you'll be able to do your jobs.

Obviously, we can't predict what the most absolute worst case scenario is, but given the changes that are being asked of by the applicant, you feel confident you can do your jobs as the fire department to save people's lives in there and prevent a fire if that so arises.

For the record, they said yes out loud and nodded.

It's like a court.

Um the concerns of this I I see very, very clearly um in in balancing the various components of this the single family homes that are gonna be going in that will obviously be having parking there, the opportunities it will provide are are very, very positive.

Um it seems to me that the uh overall density being created with the bonus ADU program here uh while not allowable if the application were completed later, um I've stated many, many, many times that uh we have to treat things from a very legalistic point of view, and it seems that given that from staff's assurances and uh their representations that the the housing components in sp in specific uh were completed long long before any reforms were made.

Um I don't think there's much of a legal basis for us to uh say that this does not meet the standards, and that's that's the standard I hold every applicant to.

Um as I review the other components of this um uh while our bonus ADU program creates housing that is rent restricted, it's it's not at the deepest levels of affordability, but that's not the regulation that was put in place either back in the day.

So uh as I review this, I don't see any basis for me to uh deny it.

Uh but uh I will say that there are many components that the developer, which I know to be one of our better developers throughout our region in streamline, um, have done a good job.

Um so I thank them for the good work that they've done.

I know there's there's uh some negative impacts that will be felt, uh but overall no basis to deny it.

So I will be voting in support.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campio.

Not seeing anybody else in the lights.

Um I'll jump in with a couple of questions.

So thank you for the presentation uh and the work on this.

Um I noticed that uh because they're providing sustainable buildings, they only had to do a process two neighborhood development permit.

Yeah, here we are, full counsel.

What did we lose by not having a site development permit or a planned development permit?

How would that have shaped would have shaped the project any different the the so if you lose the neighborhood development permit, essentially the development would not provide sustainable buildings, which would then require either a uh a planned development permit for the requested deviations.

Besides the permit itself, would it have actually changed the project?

I'm guessing no.

No.

Just the permit type.

So ironically, by giving them a lower permit, we got a better project, right?

So better buildings, more sustainable.

Okay.

Um the um I think as my colleagues say there is things to like about this project, there are some things that are not.

The um usable outdoor space is almost zero in most of these lots.

Pretty constrained.

Umind me whether development services actually looks at um how the project as a whole to operate.

They have a uh water quality basin.

So is there some sort of HOA or something like that?

We'll take care of that in the private street to my understanding, yes, there will be an HOA.

Uh the HOA will contribute to maintaining the truck the the private drive as well as the stormwater retention basin.

Um as my colleagues have explored, and you clearly articulated uh a lot of this is driven by the way the regulations are in place, what whether they came down from Sacramento or anything that we develop.

Uh so I appreciate the very candid way you've responded to the council members, and I very much appreciate it.

So we have a full understanding.

Excuse me, at moderate.

And I'll first say you may not like moderate income, but it's also part of our RENA requirements.

And we're also doing a terrible job of moderate income units.

So actually, 10 of these units, I will not use the word affordable capital A or little A, but they will be income restricted to moderate income.

And so is that complies with the law at the time that they get that bonus units?

Good afternoon, Council President George KCK Development Services and the planning reviewer.

Sorry, could you repeat the question one more time?

Sure, there was a question that came out of the public about whether they actually qualified for the density bonus.

So they got the 180U plus one bonus.

That is that bonus is income restricted for moderate income, and that is under our current regulations or under state regulations.

I think I understand the question.

Yes.

So the site is allowed to get one ADU by right.

Um given the fact that it is outside of a transit priority area.

Uh the regulations locally allow them to essentially get one bonus ADU, which is what they're proposing.

With the model, not go beyond that, uh, which is something that back then would have been allowed within the TPA.

Um so they are limited to what they're proposing.

Okay.

Uh so they're building 29 units, and 10 of those are going to be deed restricted to moderate income.

There are going to be nine deed restricted, because there's 18 ADUs.

There's 29 living units of those 29 living units, 10 are going to be restricted to moderate income.

No.

No, it's going to be nine.

So there are a total of 11 COVID units.

I'm sorry.

And there are, yeah.

Yeah, I I was I thought you were going in a different direction when you're going to be able to do one half of the 80 years.

Yes, you're absolutely right.

Um you're absolutely right.

So I think I think that's all the questions I have.

Like I said, I'm there's a lot of things I'm not excited about on this project, uh, but I think the findings can be made.

So I appreciate staff's good work, and we will go back to Councilmember Campillo.

Thank you, Council President.

Just last question.

I I asked the question about um withdrawal but expire.

Can you elucidate when a project expires as soon as an application is deemed complete?

Is there a particular amount of time before expiration?

Just describe that timeline for me a little bit.

So it's for discretionary projects.

There aren't necessarily expiration dates, that's more for building permits.

But per our code uh on discretionary projects, developers should be resubmitting their project within uh 90 days from when they receive an assessment letter per our our municipal code.

So there the discretionary projects essentially do not expire, but there should be activity on the project uh within a 90-day time frame.

Okay, so okay.

Sorry to say that open up a can of worms because when you said earlier that something expires or is withdrawn, but now you're saying that they essentially don't expire unless they leave it dormant, but then you just said it was 90 days you expect them to take action, but you said the word should so it seems it's that it's completely up to the department if something expires or doesn't expire.

So again, uh it's we're talking about development applications.

Yes.

And the application that after a 90-day period, if there is an inactivity, a letter is sent to that applicant requesting that they provide a response or a resubmittal in order to keep that project active.

The development services department would have to proactively close that application, which has been done based on information available, not on this project, sorry, uh on other projects where there is no activity and no continued work toward fulfilling the policies and regulations that are established when that application is deemed complete.

So this application continued to be active through the course of its review and entitlement process uh and what's before you today.

At no point was it inactive uh or were they not making progress toward getting to hearing today?

Okay.

Well, I appreciate that streamlined uh was more streamlined and actually kept up their end of the bargain over the course of 90 days.

I would like staff to to give me a sense, not right now, but uh in response to this question to my staff, uh, how often something does expire or is deemed expired because somebody sits on it for 90 days, or if there's long periods of time where someone sits on it, maybe to be able to utilize a more favorable legal standard than a more restricted one.

Um and uh I'll leave it at that.

Thank you for your response.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campillo, for the last set of questions there.

All right, not seeing anybody else in the lights.

We have a motion by Councilmember Elo Rivera and a second by Councilmember Whitburn to move the staff recommendation.

Clerk, please call the roll.

I started the voting system, please cast your vote.

And that does pass unanimously eight to zero with council member Campbell absent.

Thank you very much.

Right.

Again, thank you to staff, and I appreciate your candor in answering the questions of the council.

We will now take up non-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.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you.

If I can ask um Damien Roberson or Sox to please come up to the podium.

After that, we have Jean Wong, Elizabeth Campaneo, Ismael Valdez.

If you can all please come forward to the front of the room, Jeffrey Huder as well.

And then if uh Paul Kruger can please come up to speak with my staff.

We just had a quick question.

Oh, Campanello, thank you very much.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Um, how are we doing today?

My name is Damian Roberson.

So over the past year I've created a nonprofit, which is two parts.

One is community outreach, and the other part is an apprenticeship program designed with uh three programs or three uh not for not for profit or excuse me, three for profit companies attached to the apprenticeship.

And I'm trying to get this initiative put on to the ballot or maybe not on the ballot, but maybe get the the city to vote on it.

And um I'm gonna try to tie in with every um say like Alpha Project or Father Joe's, any of the the people that provide shelter, and one of the apprenticeship programs is a construction company, which is um if we can tie in with any in cities of the city, uh state, federal, um, local, uh, or private, and become a community resource for rehabilitation, but also um uh an apprenticeship for better careers and better living, and it's designed at um say people without homes or trouble youth, even elders.

Um the way I designed the program is it covers it covers pretty much everything that you can uh with any excuse me, how do I say it?

Um, so this stemmed from being a father, a husband, um, married um and ended up homeless.

You know, um, I ended up with a drug problem, different issues that most people will go through to end up on the street.

So to my wife wanted me to go into a program.

I ended up not doing it and decided to draw or to write my own program.

So reason why I wrote the program is because I couldn't find a program that particularly uh fit for me.

Um so basically it's a work program, and I would like to be able to present it to the city.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

Um we'll have some additional information for you as well, if you can take a seat.

Jean Wong.

Thank you.

Please proceed when ready.

Yep.

Uh-huh.

Thank you so much for your time.

This has been on a long day for you guys.

Uh Gene Wong, um, the founder of one of the many patrols that have formed to alert our neighbors of the presence of ICE in our sanctuary city.

Uh, for months now, we've watched the same pattern repeat.

Um, ICE calls San Diego police department claiming an agent was assaulted, and we need peace protectors.

Uh, this is a lie, it's a tactic, and it's a script.

They use the San Diego police department to turn a peaceful presence into chaos.

They rely on police to legitimize a rogue operation that hides behind masks, no names, no badges, no marked vehicles, and total absence of accountability.

And now we need to say this clear.

We will never normalize having power over us or any human when they cannot be held to account with ease.

I hope all of you heard that.

I will never accept authority that refuses to identify itself, period.

No name, no badge, no face, no compliance.

Because we already know what happens when we refuse to play along.

They detain us, they shove us, they pepper spray us, they use unmarked cars and drive us to the border and some of us across and disappear us.

This is not law enforcement.

This is not public safety, this is not democracy.

ICE is acting as a rogue entity in San Diego emboldened because they operate without consequences, without transparency, and without oversight.

And the San Diego Police Department is being used as the muscle behind their lies.

So I asked the San Diego Police Department directly.

Who do you protect and who do you serve?

Because right now it's not the community that's being harmed or its families that are being torn apart.

Our city has a choice.

We can continue to be manipulated into escalating violence on behalf of the anonymous federal forces, or San Diego Police Department can choose to step up and step on.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

One moment, we're asking the city council and the mayor to have a meeting with those of us that are on the ground so we can tell you our experiences and bring those receipts to you.

Thank you for having me.

Elizabeth Campanello.

Good afternoon.

I'm here today to raise urgent concerns about the increasing collaboration between ICE agents and San Diego police officers at enforcement scenes throughout our city.

Though the police publicly states that it does not coordinate with federal immigration officials, the on-the-ground reality tells a much different story, and I can give you a first hand account.

We have had guns pulled on community members by ICE agents twice in the community that I know of that has not been handled or responded.

We have had police officers that have responded to community issues, and when the community members tell them that they don't feel safe, their response is, well, I could call immigration for you if you would like.

That is unacceptable.

Grossly unacceptable.

Because what happens is when residents fear that calling the police could trigger ICE involvement, they stop reporting crimes, emergencies, and safety threats.

This creates a significant public safety risk for everyone, not just immigrant families.

San Diego police, we ask complies with state laws such as the California Values Act, that they receive clear guidance and training on limiting engagement with federal immigration enforcement, and that the mechanisms are in place for documenting, investigating, and correcting violations.

Bold on that one, civil rights violations.

The presence of local officers at ICE operations, even as observers, communicates endorsement.

So my closing call to action for you today.

We call on the city council to stand unequivocally for civil rights to strengthen oversight, protect vulnerable communities, and to ensure that the San Diego PD is held accountable to the people that it serves.

Thank you.

Hello, I hope everyone is having a nice day and continues to have a nice day.

I am here for the same reasons.

I am here to express the concern that our community is expressing to us.

They operate under darkness.

They operate at five in the morning, six in the morning.

They are specifically targeting school zones.

We have seen them multiple times sticking out certain schools and immigrant communities, following school buses and non-marked vehicles.

Now, there is only so much that we can put up with.

This happened about a month ago.

This is one of the working class communities that they are targeting, where San Diego police responded with over 20 police officers and the helicopter to prosecute someone who doesn't even have any charges against them.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

Jeffrey Huder.

Thank you, Council Members.

Um, you know, I I won't go into all the details, but I did send something to all of the council offices today.

One of the things that we are um uh promoting and trying to get uh traction for is the idea of increasing the density threshold for complete communities uh as it currently exists.

Almost any low density multifamily zone can have uh the maximum density of complete communities put in it, which uh conflicts and disrupts our community plan updates.

So, as we're going through our community plan updates, we would very much like uh to kind of revisit what those thresholds and kind of right size things so that our community plan updates give us what we what we want.

Um I I'm just asking um you know, read the materials that we sent out, and if we could get a meeting with your office or your staff, that would be greatly appreciated.

Um, while I have uh an additional minute, um SB 79 is gonna take a lot of work for the city council and for the planning department to do.

I think everybody's sort of waiting around for uh sand egg to tell you where the trolley stops are, and you know where the trolley stops are now, and sandag is only gonna identify the stops.

Once you have the stops, there's a tremendous amount of work that has to be done because you have to identify on a parcel by parcel basis what the net capacity of that parcel is.

You have to exclude a very high fire hazard severity zones, you have to exclude any properties that are subject to tenant protections, it's a very complicated process, and then you have to go to HCD after you've had public hearings for this.

So the time is really clicking on this.

Um, my recommendation would be that cities ask for uh an extension of the time it takes to implement SB 79 because the people who wrote this bill don't realize how hard this is.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Paul Kruger, if you can please come forward.

Um before you show my photo, and I can't thank you enough for all the work you uh the clerk, how fortunate you are to have her and how much she puts up with the people who put stuff in late.

Um, I'd like to say I think it's completely inappropriate for any member of this body to get up and leave during public comment.

Um, I don't have to tell you because you're still sitting here, but uh it's disrespectful to those of us who are who are up later, and uh private conversations can be private.

Um I have a photo I'd like to show.

Um this is Matthew Boomhauer, he's the vice chair of the planning commission.

Uh I'm bringing to your attention issue I brought to the planning commission uh after a very unfortunate November 9th meeting, and I'm bringing it to you because in your role as counsel, you approved the mayor's appointments to this commission and others.

Do you have the next one?

This is testing my vision.

Uh what happened was a member of the historic preservation community pointed out in possible irony that a lawsuit could be used to block a project that otherwise would pass if the if the item that they were considering that day was approved.

Uh Vice Chair Boomhauer attempted to silence that person.

These are his comments.

Um public testimony is making threats that could be intended to influence a decision by an appointed board or body.

Is that something they should be warned against?

The city attorney said, are you talking about threats of litigation potentially, or just I don't know, designating a project.

I don't have time left, but I would like to thank the city attorney's office for saying we will endorse and protect public opinion, and that this kind of behavior is unacceptable, and that I hope you'll keep it in your mind.

I've set five minutes on the timer that does conclude public comment here in Council Chambers going to those participating remotely.

Currently have nine speakers in the queue, starting with Barbara Gordon, then iPhone and Blair Beekman.

Barbara, please unmute.

Thank you very much.

I wanted to share with you.

December is national impaired driving prevention month.

Data from the natural nation highway traffic safety administration shows December drunk driving rates are the highest in 15 years to help combat impaired driving.

The National Highway to traffic safety administration wants to remind everyone with their new campaigns.

Drive sober or get pulled over.

And if you feel different, you drive different.

Drive high, get a DUI.

These campaigns, which run December 11th through January 1st, aim to educate people about the dangers and consequences of impaired driving, like drunk driving, drugged impaired driving is illegal.

Studies conducted at several trauma centers involving drivers who were seriously injured.

Found that among those drivers, about 25% had active THC in their system.

The psychoactic component of marijuana shows reaction time, impairs cognitive performances, makes it more difficult to keep a steady lane in position.

There are many false misconceptions about marijuana use, such as it makes you a safer driver, or it doesn't impair your driving ability.

Ultimately, prioritizing road safety through robust marijuana regulations is essential for protecting lives.

I hope we must act decisively to ensure that our roads remain safe for everyone.

Let's advocate for policies that address this growing concern and foster a safety driver environment for our community.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you.

After that, Blair Beekman, and then Becky.

Please proceed.

Yes, thank you.

And thank you for allowing people to speak today.

I was at a meeting with the land use and housing committee where uh many people had waited around for hours and submitted speaker slips.

But because members left.

As we approach the end of the meeting, uh the chair, Kent Lee, decided to prevent people from having a chance to speak, despite the state law, the Brown Act or public meetings law, um, specifically says at meetings the public has a right to make non-agenda public comments.

Paul Kruger was present at that.

Other people who had waited around to make comments on the community plan updates were denied their constitutional right to speak at city council.

And you have been sued multiple times for these infractions over the years.

Not you personally, but prior members of the council for proclamations where people weren't allowed to speak, and most recently for a ceremony for the former police chief where people were denied a chance to speak.

So I am bringing this to your attention to let you know that uh I am exploring litigation once again.

Every case that I have been a party to prior to this incident, we have succeeded, and the city has settled and made payments of legal fees.

If that's what it takes to get you to allow people their legal right to speak, uh, another lawsuit, then that's what will happen.

But you also know you can file another resolution of unconditional commitment to always respect our rights, and that's becoming a very hollow and pointless exercise.

So please allow people to have their non-agenda speaking rights respected.

Uh, and make sure that every committee chair understands and is trained to know what to do, especially those that are seeking additional office after they leave the council.

They need to know state law.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Blair Beekman.

If you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Uh, really nice public comment from Lori Soldano.

Uh that was a difficult ending to that meeting.

Uh I was greatly disappointed as well.

And uh thank you for Lori Soldano's words.

Um, uh good luck on how we address uh the future of density issues uh from that meeting that were not more clearly addressed, that really could have been and should have been.

We the subject was broached, but why why is density has it?

Why has it been such a previous problem?

What are we doing to work out of that?

And good luck in those efforts.

Um that needs to be a clear conversation, hopefully.

Thank you also to the person uh two people who spoke previously that uh on what ice agents are doing in San Diego at this time.

I stress the incredible important, incredible importance of having to work towards making sure they are not uh over militarizing themselves uh when they are going in to these areas and neighborhoods.

Uh it's really important to work on that part of the process.

I think it can teach a lot of humanity and asks for a lot of humanity and expectations of how the process can work uh, you know, uh reasonably.

So good luck uh in what the public speakers offered in their upcoming meetings, and and to really ask if they can uh uh an additional ask for how to be uh less overmilitarized, how customs agents can do that.

Good luck in those efforts.

Uh, we've got a really important uh uh technology uh policy use meeting coming up tomorrow, agenda item.

Um, really good luck that we can be addressing, you know, not just the future of a new flock vendor, a new uh ALPR vendor, but what we can also be addressing that we can reduce technology overall and still maintain the basic practices of good public safety.

Um the things are available to work on.

Oakland's considering these things too.

It's not impossible.

Good luck we can address these things.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Becky Rapp.

After that, Juan Cruz.

The five-minute timer did conclude.

There's uh seven speakers.

There were seven speakers in the queue when it concluded, no additional speakers will be taken.

Becky Rapp, please proceed.

Good afternoon.

My name is Becky.

Recognize December as national drug and drunk driving prevention month.

It's crucial as our city continues to see impaired driving crashes.

In Pacific Beach, recent DUI checkpoints have resulted in multiple arrests and citations.

These checkpoints point to the fact that impairment isn't just alcohol.

Law enforcement repeatedly states that marijuana is increasingly showing up in DUI evaluations.

Yet, even with these trends, public awareness about marijuana-related impairment remains far too low.

THC affects reaction time judgment, coordination, and the ability to track speed, uh track speed and distance.

And in many cases, officers will tell you it's harder to detect.

It lasts longer and can be more dangerous than alcohol impairment because drivers falsely believe they are okay to drive.

This is where SV 540 becomes critically important.

The law requires marijuana retailers to provide standardized safety information at the point of purchase, including warnings about impaired driving.

But enforcement matters.

Without consistent oversight of local retailers, San Diego residents are not receiving the drug driving education the law intended.

Today in Most in the Council to do two things.

One, continue supporting high visibility DUI enforcement efforts like Pacific Beach checkpoints.

And second, ensure that within our city, marijuana retailers are complying with SB 40.

Drug driving prevention cannot fall solely on law enforcement after a driver is already on the road.

Prevention must begin at the point of sale, where people are making decisions that affect their safety and the safety of everyone else on our roads.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Juan Cruz, if you can please unmute.

There you go.

I'm here.

Thank you so much.

Uh council for being there.

Appreciate you guys.

Um thank you for speaking about up about Mount Hope.

Sean always is a big advocate of us.

Um we as a community, as a community, need a lot of help and a lot of growth.

I'm very grateful for um streamlined coming in.

I've heard them speak before.

Great speakers, have a lot of good things that they want to do in the community.

Excited for them to come.

We know that they're really good at what they do.

Um has some conversations with them in the past.

Um want to really, really emphasize that I'm very grateful for for the for the growth that we're gonna see soon, hopefully here in Mount Hope.

But I also want to talk about some things that haven't been addressed.

Um, as far as the $500,000 that were supposed to go to the Mount Hope uh project, but actually went to Southeastern San Diego, uh Connect, which was a community that was not affected, that was not affected by the shooting range.

If you guys don't know, it was a shooting range of 100,000 dollars went to a project that ended up getting shipped over to Southeast.

And Mount Hope has seen very little to no use for that money when some of our children have been affected because of the gun violence and the lead abatement.

So if someone could address that for me, uh please please do in the future because we have to do better for Mount Hope.

Mount Hope is a very marginalized community.

Like Sean said, we're between cemeteries, cemeteries and freeways.

We've been gridlocked.

However, we're still battling, you know, as frontliners.

We're still battling, trying to get our community's name out there and trying to get help.

And I see Sean's efforts, and I see um the mayor's efforts as well.

Uh really appreciate him for coming out to Hispanic Heritage Month 2025.

Um, thank you guys so much for everything you guys do.

Appreciate you have a have great holidays.

But please, but please do as right.

We need it, we need your help.

More now more than ever.

Thank you.

Next is 7499.

If you can please unmute after that is Madison and Francine Maxwell, 7499.

Bob Kazuski here.

I endorse Laurie Saldania's comments about this council.

Last month I submitted two documents, including the Dockweiler hang glider waiver and the nearly identical proposed Torrey Pines glider port waiver.

I have asked and I ask again that the proposed Torrey Pines waiver be docketed and approved.

Of course, Joe Lacava has ignored my docketing request, and he will likely continue to do so.

Shame on you, Joe Lacava.

Earlier this year, KUSI News reported a collision between a paraglider and an RC plane at Tory Pines glider port.

The headline reads quote, drone collides with Tory Pines Paraglider, forcing emergency landing by Danielle Dawson.

The article reads in part, quote, here in San Diego, a Tory Pines paraglider was forced to make an emergency landing when a drone became entwined in his parachute.

Federal officials say it is generally legal to fly a drone in non-controlled air spaces if it abides by other rules mandated by the FAA as well as state and local authorities.

The paraglider said he reported the incident to both the FAA and San Diego Police Department.

This is happening in our Tory Pine City Park, owned by the city of San Diego.

I'll ask again who in this city has the expertise to review these kinds of accidents and make operational recommendations to the commercial flight operator to keep citizens safe.

Who?

Who, Joe LaCava?

The answer is no one.

It is gross negligence by you, Joe Lacava, to knowingly allow a commercial flight business to operate in a city park without appropriate oversight.

The city must reactivate the Tory Pines City Park Advisory Board.

Why in the world would this city have a climate advisory board advising the city on how to influence the weather, which you don't own and can't control, and not have an advisory board advising on the Tory Pines glider port, which you do own and can control.

Implement the waiver and reactivate the advisory board, Joe La Cava now.

Next is Madison, if you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

My name is Madison, and I'm here to urge the council to take a more cautious and critical approach to marijuana policy in our city.

We often hear that cannabis is safe, natural, and benign.

But the reality emerging from recent research and from people's lived experiences tells a very different story.

A new report highlights that more people are becoming addicted to marijuana, but fewer people are seeking help.

National data now show historic levels of daily marijuana use with nearly 18 million Americans using every day or nearly every day.

A massive jump from just one million three decades ago.

Researchers estimate that three in 10 users develop cannabis use disorder, a real addiction that affects relationships, work, and health.

And THC levels in marijuana have skyrocketed from under 5% in the 1960s to 40%, up to 90% in modern products.

These high potency concentrates are especially common among teens.

With stronger products, comes stronger harms, including problems with learning, memory, chronic nausea and vomiting, lung issues, and in some at-risk individuals, onset of psychosis.

The share of users entering care has dropped significantly, largely because widespread acceptance has created a stigma against seeking help.

People believe you can't get addicted, so they don't reach out, even when cannabis is impacting every part of their life.

San Diego has a responsibility to protect public health, especially for young people.

I urge the council to strengthen education, regulate these high potency products more seriously, and ensure that prevention resources are accessible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Francine Maxwell, if you can please unmute.

Thank you, Nexus Francine Maxwell, if you can please unmute Francine Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego.

Congratulations on leaving the leadership because only you, Joe, could have steered the ship where uh you gutted the planning uh boards so that the community had a voice.

Only you, Joe could have helped do the bamboozle for this uh trash fee.

So we look at the council and we see what is the most important to put that face that we feel safe with that we can approach easily and make sure that you uh are coming for the community on their backs.

We have a problem in southeastern San Diego with the Valencia Energy Park where it's been kicked down and you've given you given so many extensions, and now we're told that it's been sold to Demetrius Booker.

The community has not had a conversation, the community hasn't been told.

Demetrius Booker has no intentions of making sure that our community is treated right.

He's already having backdoor talks with Aldi.

Not that um Aldi is bad, so that the community members have told me, rather this is rumor or factual.

We can't get a call back, an email return from Christina Bibler because she's on the operational side.

And when you go to the director of community engagement, she lets you know that Christina Bibler is too busy to communicate to the community.

And so again, while you guys sit there and push up that this is a strong from a mayor government, you and I both know that the mayor doesn't make any moves without full support from the council office when he makes decisions.

You get to meet with the mayor first on policy changes, not the community.

So somebody stand up as we close 2025 and enter 2026 and get on the education train.

There is nothing wrong with uh calling a hearing.

Vice Chair of Public Safety, Raul Campino, as it pertains to education.

We can't build a bridge with the police who run to violence, who run to rescue first responders without knowing everything.

10 30 million, we are on good morning America.

Come on, people, let's get it together.

Next is Zoom user, if you can please unmute.

Oh, thanks for taking my call again, Henry.

Yeah, I want to comment a couple things.

I think I've I've brought this up before, like on highway eight.

I wish you guys would pass a law that anything south of Highway 8 gets double what gets north of Highway 8.

If there's a park up in or park up in the Vista or a parking, you know, up there in North County somewhere before the park gets done.

You have to do two of them below highway eight.

And just call it the discrimination line or something.

Whatever gets done above Highway 8 north before it gets done, sidewalks, roads.

You have to do twice the roads down south of eight.

I think that would try to figure it out.

Maybe you have that law, just pass another ordinance.

And it would last for like you know, 10 years until it's getting rectified.

You know, that'd be kind of cool.

And then also I want to point out you guys heard it.

That young guy threatened ice.

That was a veiled threat to take action against ice.

I think you gotta report that to like the FBI or something.

You got his picture.

He needs a talking to man, so that's something you heard it just like I did.

So you gotta take action on that.

And then I'm authorized.

I say bring it on.

I want to change the name of the theme song of the city, the high-size baden.

Bring out the marine corps to protect ice.

Let the cops protect the rest of us.

Well, I say bring it on, man.

And we'll have 90,000 guys deported here.

It'll open up a lot of housing for people and jobs.

Just think of it.

That'll be the housing 90,000 people addicted or sent back to their country and open up all those housing units and beds.

That's a homeless solution right there.

Just 90,000 deported from ice, and it won't cost us nothing.

So, anyway, have a good day.

Thank you.

And our next speaker is Kathleen Lippett.

Again, if you had raising your hand after the five-minute timer, you can definitely send in comments to City Clerk at Sandiego.gov, and those will be distributed.

Kathleen, please proceed.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Kathleen Lippett, and on behalf of public health and safety, I advocate for public policies that protect the public from unreasonable and unnecessary risk.

And our laws should reflect the societal concern for preventing those, both from unnecessary vehicle injuries and deaths from DUI.

I'd like to provide some information that most people are not aware of, and it's the how marijuana and DUI fatal crashes differ on time of day, and they are significant differences.

A study done by National Traffic and Safety Council administration and a pharmacist whose sister was killed by a wrong way marijuana driver, analyzed the data from fatal fatality analysis reporting system and found the highest hours of risk for alcohol versus marijuana.

DUI crashes dominate the evening hours and occur during the least populated road times after bars close, typically.

One of the things that the city could do is advocate on behalf of the medical examiner to test every single DUI for marijuana impairment and marijuana presence.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you.

That does conclude non-agenda public comment for today's meeting.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh, does the city attorney have anything to report out from closed session?

Thank you, Council President.

Today, in a closed session meeting, the city council took the following actions.

The City Council voted on closed session item number eight, Mahron Mustavian versus State Farm Insurance Company et al.

San Diego Superior Court case number 37 2020 3343, C UIC C T L to withdraw its notice of appeal.

The motion passed 8 to 0 with Councilmember Campbell absent.

The City Council also voted on closed session item number nine, City of San Diego versus San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission et al.

San Diego Superior Court case number 25 CU 031043C to refrain from seeking appellate review.

The motion passed six to zero with council member Campbell absent and council members Whitburn and Wilpert recused.

That concludes my report.

All right, thank you, City Attorney.

With that, we will now adjourn council to the next regular council meeting on Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 at 10 a.m.

Thank you.