All right, good morning.

I will now call the city council meeting of Monday, May 11, 2026, to order.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wolpert.

President.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Here.

Councilmember Moreno.

Councilmember Elo Rivera.

And Council President LaCava.

Present.

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

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, City Clerk.

The quorum is now present.

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

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 Kumiai Nation are the original inhabitants of the unceded land now known to San Diego.

Despite enduring the horrors of genocide and colonization, the Kumiai sphere 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 Kumeay Nation, connected to our past and committed to a thriving future.

Please stand and face the flag.

Ready to begin.

With that, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

There are no speakers here in Council Chambers.

I've started the five-minute timer going to those participating remotely.

When you are unmuted, please let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Catherine Rhodes, if you can please unmute.

Um hi, this is Catherine Rhodes, and I wanted to talk on the last two.

Please proceed, you'll have two minutes.

Okay, um, uh first of all, for the trash fee.

Um, you know, when we voted on it, we voted on something around the $20 mark, and now it's going to um, you know, 40, and pretty soon it's gonna be 50 something.

So I very much think that you should take the um the deal that um Micah Gary talked about previously, and what he said is we should just go back to what you had on the ballot measure.

That's perfect.

And we also don't need a world class tri Sorry, Catherine is multitasking.

Sorry, I uh um we don't need we don't need a world class trash.

We don't need a world I'm sorry, we don't need a world class trash.

Um it instead we could have what we had before, where we had um one week we had recyclables and the next week we we had um the green cans for um other things.

So I I really think that you you should um go back to what you were before.

We don't need a world class trash thing.

We just need our trash picked up, and we could do it.

Um we could also get rid of all the people who um go around ahead of time and give people tickets if they don't do their um they don't do their recyclables right now.

So anyway, that that's just such a big deal.

Plus, I don't think that um, you know, you guys put in um motions to not have um Mayor Todd Gloria, City Council President Joe Locava, and John Councilmember Shell and Ilo Rivera to be part of the um, you know, to actually testify on how you came up with all these numbers right here.

And so I actually think that it's a um it's a good deal for you.

And then I heard also that um Kevin Faulkner and his group will not try to get rid of the trash fee for two years if you actually approve it.

So thank you very much.

Bye.

Thank you.

Next is Hector, if you can please unmute.

Please let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Uh the trash fee and then uh Hector here, trash fee and the selling case with that Hispanic guy.

Okay, two minutes, please proceed.

Okay.

Okay, with the trash fee, it's obviously you gotta tick it back to what it really was.

And give out refunds and then also in the trash, I would say don't have the county collect the money to elect the water bills where you can't take the guy's house if he doesn't pay the trash fee.

So that's that's kind of inappropriate.

You know, it just it's not good.

And then I want to shout out to Campillo, uh Councilperson Campillo.

He took a racial slur from some messing guy calling him a bandejo the other day.

I want to I want to give him thanks for not doing nothing about it.

You know, he took he took one for the team and it it it wasn't a guy was hot, he was mad, but he did I think was a racial slur or something.

Anyway, uh it could be just a badge of courage.

And then uh that was just on the side there, and then the on the uh when you settle cases with people, like the last time you sold that the black kid got shot, and I think we should have took that to trial because I think you guys were intimidated.

We'd have another race ride or something if we did it, if you got off on it, or you know, we had to do something else.

Because that's just intimidating.

You guys were intimidated by that guy.

He was a 16-year-old black kid with a gun.

He ran the corner, the cop was he was we tell our cops to run toward the fire.

Maybe we should tell our cops just sit back and watch and see what happens.

We told the kid to run to fire, he runs.

You gotta show cops your hands, man.

If you run it from a crime scene, like we need to teach black kids that are junior high.

If you're running from a crime scene, gunshots are fired.

Show the people your hands.

And if you got a gun, you might get shot.

You know, so he's old enough to have a gun.

And did his other buddies ever get busted?

The guys that fire the shots.

Where are those guys?

I never heard nothing about that.

So anyway, don't be intimidated by the lawsuits.

Thank you for my comments.

Our next speaker is the original is the original.

Please proceed and indicate which items you'll be speaking to.

As many of them as I can in three minutes.

Okay, please proceed.

Your ability to uh make decisions regarding closed session is um significantly compromised when you're unable to uh conduct meetings um legally, uh, blatantly so uh not doing that, not having a quorum, and then deciding several days later, five times after doing it in a row, that and potentially even more.

I'm sure it was even more than I caught, but that all of a sudden you need a quorum.

So when you're suddenly making decisions like that, and the reason why we're always in litigation is because of your uh willful negligence, misconduct, uh mismanagement, fraud, waste, and abuse, the list goes on.

I mean, uh why are you even talking about these?

And the fact that we're doing something about this prescription, opioid uh opiate uh litigation.

It's interesting because in the city of San Diego, drugs are being done on a massive scale.

Fentanyl is being distributed, and you know, trafficked in and out of tent city and just the city.

Police officers watch people do it, there's foil all over the place.

So, like you guys don't really care, you just want to make money off the backs of people, and that's why you're doing this discover uh financial discover card class action as well.

Anytime you guys can jump on the bandwagon, but you're hypocrites because you guys sit here and you engage in fraud with the people's money.

I mean, you even say you want to go against corporations when you're a corporation that is making the people's cost of living go up.

So it's just crazy to hear the double speak and people praise you for what you're doing, and then the constant litigation from tripping and falling or a skateboard incident from um, you know, the infrastructure not being up kept.

How many more of these are we gonna have to do?

Um, and even just like you know, drain pipes not being up kept, all of the you know, five billion dollars that you guys need for storm infrastructure, it's pretty ridiculous because it's just like you just, you know, rob the people blind so that we can not only get into litigation because of your negligence, but also do other things like you know, the trash fee.

You know what you did is constitutionally illegal, but you guys don't uphold that anyway.

I don't even know why you guys take an oath, it's pretty crazy.

Um, because right in your face, you blatantly do things in people's face, and you're like, yeah, fuck you.

What I'm gonna do it.

It's just nuts.

Like it's how brazen you guys are, and then that leads to litigation, which costs the people more money.

So hopefully at some point you guys are gonna course correct and quit engaging in shit like that.

Um, and you know, instead of engaging in this litigation, why don't you go ahead and settle with the person and then course correct and fix what you messed up with with the whole trash thing, and you know, even going into the fees here with the water um resources board like you guys just cannot be trusted with anything, not even children, and that's what's so sad.

It's like, I mean, just from the least to the most, you guys are negligent.

Thank you for your comments.

Please note that the five-minute timer has concluded with two speakers left in the queue.

Our next speaker is Lori Sildania.

Please proceed.

Hello, good morning, and a bit of housekeeping uh for the members who arrived late.

The mic is live when you arrive in the chamber, and the public can hear your comments.

They are audible between when the meeting actually starts and the time you enter the chamber.

So just FYI.

I'd like to speak to CS4, CS7, and CS5, please.

Okay, please proceed.

Uh, CS4.

Um, this is a pedestrian who tripped on a metal storm drain.

Um, I have mentioned this in the past in my comments that the hazards presented to residents of San Diego from tripping and falling are not just inconveniences and not just monetary problems for the city, they can be life-threatening.

And I speak from the experience of a member of my own family who tripped just around the corner from City Hall, was injured, but not it was not anticipated that the injuries would would eventually kill her within a few months, and that is what happened, and that was my mother, and it's hard to celebrate Mother's Day with that in my mind.

But she tripped and fell on the broken sidewalk.

And the severity of her injuries were not apparent.

They treated the most difficult one.

She was bleeding profusely.

They failed to notice some other injuries that contributed to her death a few months later.

So these are not just theoretical.

In my case, when I see these cases, these are very real.

Regarding Mary Brown and the case on solid waste.

Thank you, Micah Geary, for taking this up and bringing uh justice to ratepayers.

The city has a history of overcharging ratepayers when it comes to basic necessities, and it is one reason so many, especially older adults, are losing housing because they simply can't keep up with these bills.

In 2005, the city was investigated for financial impropriety, and it was determined residents were overcharged for basic water services in violation of the state's revolving fund loan agreements.

So this is nothing new.

The city of San Diego has a long history of putting the burden of higher rates on the back of those who can least afford them, as opposed to charging industries and others that operate for a profit a fair amount.

And that includes water, trash, and electricity, things that every resident needs, and we cannot get around paying for.

So I believe that this is related to CS5, the State Water Resource Control Board, and this case.

Again, the city has a long history of these disputes between the state regulatory agencies and the fees.

And I I welcome an audit.

I welcome a very thorough audit of the city.

I realize as a result of the Kroll report from 20 years ago that determined numerous improprieties when it came to uh city finances, that periodically, I think every quarter century or so, having an outside auditor go through the city's books would be welcome.

And I I hope Micah Geary would consider that as part of this settlement.

Uh you're going to go into closed session.

These are cases that sadly should be transparent, should be discussed in front of the public.

If not the terms of the litigation, then at least how you came to your decision-making process and how you missed the mark so badly in charging ratepayers a fair amount.

Thank you for those comments.

Our next speaker is uh caller with last four digits 8700.

Please proceed and please state which closed session item or items you wish to speak to.

Thank you, and welcome aboard uh Joyce and Yata, and I will speak on all of them.

Okay, please proceed.

Uh CS1 pharmacies, and I'll uh lump it together with CS2, and I'll say thank you for opting into the fight uh against big company power.

CS3, skateboarding, safety first, and parental love and guidance.

Uh CS4, a trip and fall, dear public, self-advocacy, and self-safety.

CS6, storm drain pipe sinkhole.

I am very concerned about the leeway that was spoken about at the budget review committee meetings last week.

And now we will switch to the discussion.

That was consent that I just did.

So CS7, which is solid waste management fee.

Please be very diligent about any fees and how they are applied.

BS5, which is the um FDC WA and the city and the other uh the state thing.

Uh good to see a partnership with the CWA.

Uh, another fee issue here, yet on a state level, it's regulatory, so perhaps it's going to be a tough fight with the letter of the law involved, so blessings on that item.

Now, a question I think that covers it all.

Uh, question for you, President.

Uh, on the consent uh agenda, uh, compared to how you usually do it at City Council meetings.

Uh, can you ask the question?

Are you supposed to ask the question?

Excuse that word.

Um, does anyone want to pull any item off consent?

So I don't know if there's a different protocol for closed session consent, but I don't remember through the years that we ever had consent on the closed session, but for some reason it's popping up into my consciousness now that it's there, and I'm a little unclear.

I should probably study that.

But in any case, thank you so much.

Uh, thank you, City TV for the beautiful, soothing, calming music uh that's on the TV screen.

Usually it's not that soothing and calming, so keep that up.

And then I had something else to say.

Well, it doesn't want to hang in there.

Okay, so thank you.

Have a beautiful week.

And uh last week was absolutely great, and I'm still processing it, so looking forward to what's next.

Love to all.

Thank you for those comments.

That does conclude closed session public comment.

All right, thank you uh for that.

We will now recess in the closed session and reconvene council today at 2 p.m.

or shortly thereafter.

That the San Diego Housing Commission has helped to create or preserve.

You know, I think this project is particularly poetic.

It's focused on veterans.

Many of you know that Sarah Mesa has long uh been home to many of our region's military families.

We have incredible military housing uh literally across the street.

Uh it has Sarah Mesa has long supported uh San Diego's role as America's premier military town.

We are transforming this former library to a from one community asset to a different type of community asset in terms of providing affordable housing for folks most in need, and then we're also transforming lives, the notion of being able to uh support residents, and some of whom may be formally homeless, and giving them not only a chance to really live comfortably in a well-built home, but also truly to thrive with the layering of services that we're going to be providing for them for free.

This site that was overlooked for two decades is no longer overlooked.

It's being put back into use.

And the use that we're choosing to do it for is affordable housing because that's the priority.

And whereas community members may have been overlooked in the past and not engaged with.

No, we're saying if you want to come in off the streets, we will make space for you in our community.

SB 79 is a new bill that's intended to address the state's housing shortage, and it's intended to provide more homes near transit.

The bill is scheduled to take effect on July 1st, 2026.

SB 79 requires the city to approve certain housing development projects that are located within a half mile of a major transit stop.

SB79 is generally consistent with the city's housing policies, which are intended to encourage more home development, especially in places that have access to transit and access to jobs.

This implements the city's climate goals.

Phasing implementation gives us an opportunity to see where the increased density makes the most sense.

It also gives us an opportunity to address issues like fire safety, climate resilience, fair housing considerations, and historic resources.

Today we are on a business walk in North Park.

Business walks give us the opportunity to have face-to-face conversations with business owners in their own space.

It often feels a lot more personal than giving uh giving them a call from behind the desk.

And as a result of these business walks, we often have the opportunity to solve complex issues, whether it's getting the support of other city departments or other government agencies in the area.

Today we are joined by the mayor's office, Councilmember Whitburn's office, as well as North Park Main Street.

It's really important when the city government is working together with our neighborhood businesses.

There is so much involved in running a business, we understand it could be difficult.

They're navigating permitting processes.

They have questions about uh how to get things done, how to get started, and our city government is there to help.

It's there to be a partner.

I really appreciate our economic development department because they are working every day to help these small businesses succeed.

And when our small businesses succeed, our neighborhoods succeed.

The city offers more than half a dozen business incentive programs to help businesses succeed.

Some of these programs are one-on-one technical assistance, the storefront improvement program, a revolving loan fund, a the incentive program, as well as an outdoor business grant.

Our commercial corridors are part of what makes San Diego such a special place to live and a great place to visit.

Our ability to help businesses keep their doors open and provide jobs is a benefit to the general public.gov slash defensible space.

Hi, I'm Bethany Bizak.

It takes a lot to keep the eighth largest city running.

A lot of buildings, roads, sidewalks, street lights, parks, and reservoirs, and a lot of vehicles.

In fact, San Diego has more than 5,000 vehicles in its fleet.

Think trash trucks, fire engines, and police cars.

All of these vehicles need fuel and regular maintenance.

But over the past several years, fuel prices have continued to rise, and that's directly impacting San Diego's budget.

In fact, for every one cent increase per gallon at the pump, the city's monthly fuel costs rise by 10,000.

We know that San Diegans are also feeling the rising impact of prices at home.

It's not just our vehicles.

Construction and insurance costs have increased dramatically over the past several years, and our city revenues have not kept pace with those rising costs.

As we face some difficult budget decisions, we want San Diegans to know that we're listening.

We will continue to prioritize public safety and protecting our neighborhoods and work to create a more efficient and effective city government.

I will now reconvene the city council meeting of Monday, May 11th, 2026.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell?

Here.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wilper.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Councilmember Campillo.

Councilmember Moreno.

Present.

Councilmember Ila Rivera.

Council President Lacava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting or Assistant City Attorney Leslie Fitzgerald, independent budget analyst, Charles Matica, Council Affairs Advisor in the Mayor's Office, Coda Zizer.

And myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fluentes.

Thank you, Council President.

Let's so quorum is now present.

Do we have any comments from the mayor's office, Councilmember, City Attorney, independent budget analyst or city clerk?

Our city clerk.

The ballot drop box is located directly across from the entrance to City Hall, also known as a city administration building.

Any county of San Diego registered voter can vote using these ballot drop boxes as voters are not limited to specific voting location in the county.

This means those that live in other cities such as Chilovista or Carlsbad, but maybe in this area can use this ballot drop box to cast your vote to encourage city civic engagement and increase voter turnout.

Your city hall serves as a convenient and accessible voting location.

This ballot drop box site offers ADA accessible parking near the drop box and accessible entrance ramp and is located adjacent to the Civic Center Trolley Stop Services by the Orange and Blue MTS trolley lines.

This central location is easily accessible to thousands of city and other government employees, as well as nearby workforce and employment hubs.

The ballot drop box is available for voting now through election day on June 2nd.

I remain committed to working with the registrar during each election cycle to continue providing a ballot drop box at City Hall, and the ballot drop box will be locked at 8 p.m.

on June 2nd, and the ballots will be collected by the Registrar Ballot Security Teams, which always consist of two staff members working together.

The deadline to register to vote for this election is May 18th.

After that deadline, eligible voters may still conditionally register through election day.

Conditional voters may cast a vote, which will be processed and counted once the registrar of voters completes the voter registration verification process.

Voter registration forms are available in multiple languages on the first floor of City Hall.

My passport and city connection staff will be more than happy to assist you.

They're also available in the back of the room here on the 12th floor.

And to register online or check your voter registration status, please visit sdvote.com.

Please remember to vote.

Thank you, Council President.

Alright, thank you, City Clerk.

Not seeing anybody else in the lights.

Please go over how the public can offer their testimony this afternoon.

Thank you.

I'd like to highlight the slide that will be up on the screen shortly that reviews how the public can offer their public testimony during this afternoon's meeting.

The order can be found on the agenda summary.

The order will be updated here today.

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.

Council ambassadors are available near the entrance of chambers 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 for that as well.

I will note for the afternoon session.

Item 202, the business improvement district budgets will be done first.

You can say thank you now.

Item 204, the 2006 26 land development code heard next, then the item 203, the adoption of the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan, then the item 201, the Mission Bay Park Improvements Program, and then we'll close out the afternoon with item 200, the pavement management plan, which is an information only item.

Um notice greater scrutiny by me using my discretion as a council president to recognize the attendance by city council members and having the proper order to make sure we get the business that we must get done to be done while folks are here.

So with that, clerk, please introduce item 202.

Item 202 is the fiscal year 2027 business improvement district budgets annual appropriation process.

If you'd like to speak on this item, please be sure to submit your speaker slip to the front of the room in the clear box.

And if you are participating remotely, now's the time to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Thank you for that introduction and staff as you settle in.

Introduce yourselves for the record, let us know how much time you need.

Good afternoon, Council President LaCaba and City Council members.

My name is Sean Plaisted, Small Business Engagement Specialist with the Economic Development Department.

With me today is Sean Carafin, Program Manager.

We respectfully ask for five minutes.

The item before you today is the fiscal year 2027 business improvement district or bid budgets.

The city collects assessments from businesses within bids and contracts with nonprofit associations to provide technical assistance for small businesses, promote neighborhood identity, and attract customers to local businesses.

The city's bid program is authorized by the parking and business improvement area law of 1989 in the California Streets and Highways Code.

The intent of the program is to strengthen small business communities, create new jobs, attract new business, and revitalize older commercial neighborhoods.

This action relates to the strategic plans priority area, protect and enhance every neighborhood.

The business improvement district program supports dynamic neighborhoods that incorporate mobility, connectivity, and sustainability by fostering resilient and economically prosperous neighborhoods.

The City of San Diego has a total of 18 active bids that are individually managed by 16 nonprofit business associations, and one currently managed by the Economic Development Department.

For fiscal year 2027, an estimated 1.5 million dollars in assessments would be collected from approximately 12,000 businesses located within the districts shown on this slide.

Bid association managers have developed a variety of successful strategies to increase business and invest in their communities.

Some districts choose to strategically deploy assessments to develop and market their own unique identity.

This is usually done through large-scale events, neighborhood promotions, and targeted social media campaigns to highlight assessment paying businesses.

In the Elcohone Boulevard bid, they focus their resources on amplifying outreach and revitalizing unused areas in the district to create new business hubs.

The Elkhone Boulevard Business Improvement Association internally staffs a support and outreach specialist as a way to strengthen relationships with their businesses and resolve business challenges along the boulevard.

They also support their businesses through placemaking.

Community activated lots transform once vacant lots into vibrant community gathering places.

Ferret 44 and Pop Up Winona each attract over 1,000 local visitors per week, driving over $1 million in annual spending directly to the businesses within a four-block radius.

All these metrics are provided in the bid's annual performance reports.

Bids are required to post an annual performance report to their website, summarizing activities during the fiscal year and detailing revenue and expenditures.

Each year, the council considers approving a one-year extension to the agreement, which includes two six-month periods.

Per state law, the council must take eight actions over two council meetings.

During the last meeting, council appointed the respective advisory board for each bid, approved the 2027 budget reports for each bid, declared the council's intent to collect assessments from businesses, and set today, May 11th as the notice public hearing date.

In addition, an action was added this year to allow the Economic Development Department to continue to directly manage the San Isidro bid, including including waiving sections of council policy 900-7.

During this meeting, the council will consider confirming the actions taken at the first meeting, authorizing the city's CFO to appropriate transfer and expend assessment revenues, approving the third amendment to the fiscal year 2024 bid management agreements with the nonprofit associations, and authorize the mayor to execute the contracts.

As part of their agreement, the economic development department works, collaborates with bid managers to better understand each district through metrics.

The metrics provided are for fiscal year 2025 and provide information regarding the ratio of assessment versus non-assessment spending, business losses and gains, job losses and gains, vacancy rates, and rental rates.

These are included in the staff report as attachment F.

Metrics are also provided by other city departments.

These include building permits, both applications and approved, public projects, private investment, and public investment.

These are also included in the staff report as attachment G.

Accountability provisions remain part of the current agreement.

These provisions include the requirement of an anti-harassment, non-discrimination, and inclusion policy signed by all board members and staff, and the requirement that all board members and staff attend a related training.

Also included are additional conflict of interest processes.

Final summary of council actions required for the fiscal year 2027 business improvement district budgets is shown on this slide, and we are available to answer any questions you have.

Thank you.

Alright, thank you for the presentation and the work that it takes to bring these items forward.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

Sonny Lee, if you can please come forward to the microphone after that.

Ben Nichols.

And then Blair Beekman, if you can all come up to the yellow reserved seats, and then I have Tutti who would like to register a position in favor but do not wish to speak.

You'll have two minutes.

Please proceed.

Good afternoon.

I am Sonny Lee, the president of the San Diego Bid Alliance and executive director for Discover Pacific Beach.

I'm here in support of our bid budgets.

And I also wanted to say thank you.

Last week, you all showed real support for small businesses and arts and culture, and that didn't go unnoticed.

I'm hoping that these programs make their way into the next version of the budget with the support you all have shown.

Programs like SPEP and arts and culture funding are not extras for our bids.

They are part of how we drive business into our districts, support the small businesses, and keep our neighborhoods active.

When our districts are working, businesses see more customers, more activity, and that also translates into revenue for the city.

So we're asking you to continue that support and make sure these programs are included in the next version of the budget.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ben Nichols.

Hello, my name is Benjamin Nichols, and I'm the executive director of the Hillcrest Business Association.

The bid and ASBI programs are vital parts of our neighborhood's economy.

Just this past quarter, we launched a still fabulous promotional campaign that supports businesses through the many public construction projects occurring in the neighborhood.

We also hosted a Mother's Day Raffle, a shop local raffle campaign.

And next week we will host our quarterly business mixer.

There's always things going on in Hillcrest, and these funds are a vital part of that.

But what makes this program exceptional and the bid program at large exceptional is that for every dollar you invest through the bid program, we raise an additional $19.

This kind of leverage is very rare, and it's why these programs matter.

Please support this program and the related small business enhancement funding.

Thank you.

Blair Beekman.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

As they change the order of the meeting today, I have to um I'm gonna come in and out of the meeting today.

I got chores to do around downtown today, so I'll do that and hopefully make it back with a later part of the meeting.

Um thank you that uh I think I heard council person foster is around here still.

Um thank you, he's back.

Um I wish him well and what he's been going through.

Um I wanted to comment on this item.

You know, it's my real uh hope that uh with this item that you're creating a sense of um the parking boards that were uh summarily dismissed, and sadly so, hopefully, can have a place within this new appropriations process, and that um it there can be a clear uh respect and uh of ideas of what parking uh needs for each business district.

And along with those needs, uh a reminder that the work I do with the tech accountability has been uh I think can be really interesting to business owners in and not only the public ace safety aspect, but learning to balance public safety with uh responsible practices and learning that combination.

Uh that's that's the sustainability that I've been trying to learn and understand better, and I think it's a community process, a neighborhood process.

It's uh interesting and for our business community to have a good sense of that and understanding of not just public safety but responsible tech practices.

That's a good combination.

That's really building our future and uh thank you for your time.

And Evan Strong.

Good afternoon, Council President, Council members.

My name is Evan Strong.

Speaking on behalf of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, and just here today to support the funding for our bids across the city.

Thank you to city staff for your hard work on this.

Thank you to council for your support.

Small businesses are really the lifeblood of our local economy, and so we're really grateful for the support and the great activities and work that bids do, as well as funding that supports small businesses themselves.

So really appreciate your support today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, the five-minute timer going to those participating remotely.

Starting with the original.

Yeah, it's interesting to see you guys perpetrated as though you care about small businesses when you were actively closing them down during the days of COVID.

Uh, you know, if they weren't, you know, abiding by me and you even got rid of your own employees, the police department.

It's like, and then you guys wonder why things are like they are.

If you weren't engaged in such nefarious acts to, you know, actively close small businesses down and you know, pretty much gaslight them at this point, acting as though you cared about them.

You should have been doing something to ensure that they stayed open and not that they closed down.

And when you guys engage with NGOs or nonprofits, they are for profit.

And the problem is when you contract with them, they are making money off of these bids and the money that you are allocating to them that, you know, there is some that's going to go to the community, but there's no, you know, checks and balances, no accountability and transparency to see exactly where the money is going.

It's as though you guys just give it into these uh nonprofits' hands and kind of let them run rampant.

I mean, as you can see with dreams for change in downtown San Diego partnership with Ted City.

So it's like, you know, it's really hard to trust you guys making sound mind decisions when you have proven time and again that you cannot be trusted when you're allocating money to uh different entities uh and you kind of take out your um you know accountability in it and act as though you're immune from anything if if they're engaged in it.

And that's the problem is that you know, there's no way to for the people to follow where their money is going and ensure that it is actually making uh the communities better and and who's determining what needs to go into that community.

If you have an NGO doing it, then it's like they're gonna be pushing a certain agenda, and is that exactly what the people want, or is it what they want?

And are they getting money to do it and then you know profiting off of it when it should be all of it should be going into the communities so that it can be better and not like it is.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

We're going to Andrea Ebbing next.

And we're just updating our slide to have the right number.

Can you give us one minute?

My apologies for the delay.

Please proceed.

This is Andrea Ebbing.

I think the bids are critical.

We must invest in the bids.

I um was in the Columbia District when I um was the marketing director for W Hotels, and Starwood had me do a qualitative quantitative analysis of the Columbia district over like a six or seven-year period for a 26 million dollar investment into a property in the area.

And um, that's when the Columbia district was kind of being defined because Little Italy was so successful in how they ran things.

Um, and I feel like we have obviously we have a budget crisis, but I've mentioned this before.

It's like Tagleria is an assemblyman trying to like operate the city as a politician when it's a business.

You know what I mean?

Like we need to really look at this as a business and drive revenue, and that all certainly there are people and issues and human rights and civil rights that need to be met and addressed, but in terms of driving revenue and the investments, the bids are where it's at.

I mean, look what look what the bid did for little Italy.

I I think you guys all see that uh and agree.

But I think that um, you know, that is gonna be our key to helping fix because we have a lot of um, we have a lot of aftermath and fallout from all the issues we've had recently.

So we're already all the way down.

We need to have promotions and we need to have um like theater market promotions going on.

I often go back to the time we had convis when Joe Terzi was running Convas.

And um, like one of the things was just as an example, there was an Arizona promotion where the investment would be 300,000 and the return on investment would be 5.2 million.

Um, and in order to make that kind of money, when the tourist or the person arrives in our city, they have to have a great time, not be um squeezed for every dollar for parking, be able to enjoy uh downtown without feeling threatened, and you know, it has to be clean and safe.

So thank you.

Next is iPhone.

If you can please unmute.

Hey everybody, this is Jody Rudick, the executive director of the La Jolla Bid, and I am so excited to be talking with you and apologize for not being there in person.

It is not indicative of my passion for this item, so I wanted to make sure that I got a chance to call in.

I first of all want to thank the economic development department for all of their hard work.

Putting together these budgets is no small feat.

So thank you to Christine Bibler and all of her team.

I want to thank you in advance and optimistically for your unwavering support of the resources and the commitment to small business.

I know this has been an incredibly difficult budget process, but LJ VMA's success is also a balancing act like all of the other bids, as we work to meet the needs of our nonprofit partners, our cultural arts organizations, and of course, our 1280 bid members.

Event costs continue to rise, and SPEP funding is on the chopping block.

Yeah, LJVMA has continued to increase services along with the other bids.

When I hear the list of programs, services, and events that are being put out by these tiny nonprofit organizations, it is absolutely overwhelming.

LJVMA continues to connect with our community, our nonprofits use other grant funds to help off.

We are committed to growing our social media, we're committed to telling your story as a community, and we want to make sure that we are there for you.

For example, Ahoya by the C.com through some of the work with some of our partners now exceeds 60,000 unique visitors a month.

That's not La Jolla story, that's San Diego's story.

It is a very unusual time, both in La Jolla, as we have groups of citizens looking.

Your time has concluded.

If you can please unmute, star six, if you can please unmute.

Now I want to give you a red flag, because I know the gas slam district bid.

I know how it ticks, I know how the energy comes in, and the top energy getter are the conventiers.

So my red flag is we've got to put our arms around our convention center and make sure that we keep it vibrant and cooking along because we need them desperately.

Not desperately, that's I don't like that word, but we need them uh to be our gym and the gas lamp district a bid.

So uh I'm gonna I'm gonna wave that red flag for you on this.

So thank you for listening on that.

Now I love the focus on the metrics, and uh I know we're very good at the quantifiable.

Uh I'm gonna research this at some point on the qualifiable metrics, because they're subjective, of course, at times.

So I'd like to have qualified qualified qualifiable and quantifiable because when I first started reading those performance reports uh on the bids, you know, mostly on my bid downtown, I really sympathize with what it takes to run a bid and the challenges they face.

Some of them are really enormous.

So it's not just pretty on the top, but there's a lot going on that you always have to look at and really respect the bids.

So uh the metrics are great, qualifiable ones to see, you know, how it's working on all levels and love to halt.

The five-minute timer had concluded, no additional speakers will be taken.

We have four speakers left in the queue.

Jacqueline, if you can please unmute.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jacqueline Schlepnik Garcia.

I'm the executive director of the Diamond Bid and the Secretary of the Bid Alliance.

And I'm here to say thank you to city staff for, you know, passing our budgets for the bid.

They are super important.

And I also want the public to know that every single penny that we receive for the bids are accounted for.

We have checks and balances.

And so it's really important to know that the SPEP support that we receive for the small business in our neighborhoods is very important in our districts.

It really helps us do placemaking, resource classes for our business owners, a lot of opportunities for different people in the neighborhood that are working really hard to make it a better place and a better San Diego.

So I just want to say thank you to our Bid Alliance for showing up today.

You guys are amazing, and also to everyone in the city who is pushing for us to continue to get support for programs like Creative Communities and all the grants that we need to move forward for our dining, for our shopping, for our small business districts, arts, culture, everything that we have been talking about the last few weeks are very important part of what happens in San Diego.

So thank you very much, and you all have a wonderful day.

Thank you.

Next is Tony.

If you can please unmute.

Yes, hello, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Hey, thank you.

How's it going today, City Council?

How are we doing?

Uh, just wanted to thank the previous caller.

I believe her name was Jacqueline uh for what she just said.

I I was kind of uh arrived late to the meeting, so I didn't get a chance to hear everything.

I'm reading the agenda, but as I'm looking online, I'm seeing the uh business improvement district alliance.

I'm reading its purpose, and with what she said and combined with what I'm reading right now, it sounds like a fantastic program.

Um it's super beneficial coming to these meetings.

I just want to say for anybody that may be listening, there's so many things that are discussed at every meeting, and I'm really grateful.

I know uh I don't always we don't always agree on every issue, but it's really beneficial, even uh the things that I don't necessarily um uh agree with on the surface.

I find out there are nuances that um I am grateful for, like the um no shots fired program.

I think that's a great uh use of of funds within uh SDPD's budget.

But anyway, getting back to the bid uh budgets and and uh the business improvement district.

I think that this is exactly what our government is supposed to be serving, and this is a form of public safety, um, is making sure that we have economic justice, right?

And making sure that um small businesses um don't face the foreclosures that end up you know becoming a blight on the community when we have empty buildings, right?

And uh none of us wants to live in a corporate conglomerized town where it's the same uh the same layout of a city that you could find in any other city because it's the same handful of corporations.

Our local businesses are what makes San Diego unique, and um, if our if our local government doesn't step in to protect them, then we're not protecting uh those that create the economic opportunities uh that create the stability, they create the safety that makes our city great.

So thank you.

Time is concluded, Kathleen.

If you can please unmute, and then our final speaker will be Michael Trimblay.

Kathleen Lipu.

Yes, I'm here.

Sorry.

Thank you.

It's important that bids like Discover PB work to improve their partnership with community members.

Recently, one of the representatives came to City Council to speak in support of a neighborhood bar, which has been the subject of uh neighborhood nuisance problems for decades.

It's admirable when they support community-friendly alcohol licensees, but supporting pub crawls and other high-risk drinking events is not in the best interest of either their any of their bars or or for the community members.

TB ranks consistently in the top three communities for crime, most with most violent incidents being alcohol related and occurring in bar districts, euphemistically referred to as hospitality districts.

But when people visitors come to PB, they do not want to be fearful of draw uh walking at night and being uh spending a lot of money to spend in hotels that they can't sleep because of the bar noise and the and the music that they play and also the vulgar language that is that is telegraphed throughout the community there.

Those are things that they should be careful to do.

Be careful to only sponsor and support businesses that are in the best interest of both businesses and community.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you.

And our final speaker is Michael Trimblay, if you can please unmute.

Thank you, uh, Council President, Council members.

My name is Michael Trimble, and I'm the executive director of the Gas Lamp Quarter Association.

I'm here today to strongly endorse the FY27 business improvement district budgets.

These budgets are critical to the success of small business community in the Gas Lamp Quarter and in the neighborhoods throughout the city.

Business improvement districts provide direct support to small businesses through advocacy, maintenance, marketing, special events, and programs that help keep our businesses active, safe, and economically vibrant.

I also want to reiterate the importance of fully funding the small business enhancement program.

This program is not a luxury, it is a necessity uh for investment into the small business community.

When small businesses are supported, they generate activities, jobs, tax revenue, and long-term economic stability for the city.

I want to thank the economic development department for its partnership and continue to work in supporting the bids and recognizing the value of small businesses in our neighborhood.

Uh the Gas Lamp Quarter is very important economic cultural area in San Diego, and the bid funding plays a vital role in helping our businesses succeed.

So I respectfully urge the support the F 427 bid budgets, and thanks very much for all your support, everyone on the city council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that concludes public comment for this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh, we'll now turn it over to council members for questions, comments, and entertain a motion.

We'll start with Council Member Campio, the Chair of Economic Development.

And intergovernmental relations.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh, thank you to our city staff.

Thank you for members of the public who called in in support of this.

Uh this is a no-brainer, help small businesses keep good jobs, improve the local economy.

I move approval of the item.

Thank you.

All right, we have a motion to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Council Member Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you to uh Chair Campillo.

Uh, as was mentioned, this is the second part of the bid budget allocation process.

We approved part one last month.

District three is home to the majority of San Diego's bids.

And I want to thank all of our business districts, their executive directors, all the board members, the staff, the volunteers, all of the individual uh businesses that participate in those business approved districts.

Thank you for your continued partnership and for all the work you do to help uh our wonderful neighbors uh neighborhood succeed.

I also want to thank the economic development team uh for all of your work in making this complex process as seamless as possible year after year, and I will second the motion to approve the staff recommendation.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

So we have a motion by Councilmember Campion, a second by Council Member Whitburn.

Uh not seeing anybody else in the lights.

Uh I'll offer my thanks to Jody Rudick who called in from the La Hoya Merchants Association, and of course Sonny Lee, who has double duty with uh executive director of Pacific Beach Bid, and also the bid alliance, which I still call the bid council.

So there you go.

Um I want to thank Miss Ebbing for her comments.

Uh appreciate her recognition of the importance of bids and economic development.

Um, and uh I don't know why I have to say this every time.

We're just giving money back to the merchants, and how they choose to form uh their governing board, how they choose their executive director is up to them.

Uh so it's really their money and they're deciding what to do with it.

We don't do anything more than that.

Well, except for the extraordinary support that EDD gives every single day to help them navigate the challenges that small business has in today's environment.

So thank you very much to everybody at ADD that participates in that.

Alright, uh, we do have a motion by Councilmember Kim Peel and a second by Council Member Whitburn to move the staff recommendation.

Clerk, please call the role.

Sorry, the voting system, please cast your vote.

That passes unanimously 7 to 0 with Council Member Von Wilford and Councilmember Foster absent.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, City Clerk, and thank you again to the good folks at EDD.

So as their departing clerk, please introduce item 204.

Item 204 is the 2026 update to the San Diego Municipal Code, Land Development Code, and Local Coastal Program, minor amendments to the downtown community plan and general plan and associated implementing actions.

If you'd like to speak on this item, please be sure to submit a speaker slip to the front of the room in the clear box.

And if you are participating remotely, now's the time to raise your hand by pressing star 9 or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

Uh and we got a bit of a turnout here from city planning.

So please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Megan Cavrubius, we will need uh 28 minutes for the item.

All right.

When you're ready.

Good afternoon.

My name is Megan Cavrubius, Senior Planner with the City of San Diego City Planning Department, and today I'll be providing an overview of the 2026 Land Development Code update.

Joining me today is City Planning Director Heidi Von Bloom, Deputy Director Seth Lichney, and principal planner Courtney Pash.

Also joining me from DSD Urban Division's Deputy Director Brian Schoenfish and Senior Planner Jacob Bassinger.

Components of the land development code, chapters 11 through 15 of the San Diego Municipal Code are known collectively as the LDC.

These chapters cover land development procedures, the land development review process, zoning, general regulations, and the planned districts.

There are 134 proposed amendments.

103 are dedicated to citywide amendments and 31 to downtown amendments.

The land development code team evaluated roughly 242 submissions from a variety of different groups that are highlighted on the screen.

In addition, staff researched and reviewed state legislation for inclusion in this code update package.

On February 19th, the planning commission voted unanimously to recommend to the city council approval of the 2026 LDC update.

With the cap of 30% of total homes in the development, provided that at least 10% include three or more bedrooms.

Item 87, previously conforming premises and uses for city staff to work with Council District 6 office to refine the NLU options for required street frontage improvements for the previously conforming regulations.

Which was intended to provide more flexibility for lots with commercial or industrial uses that were rezoned through a community plan update by allowing additional but similar previously conforming uses in some circumstances, provided the lots are outside of the environmental justice communities with requirements to provide street frontage requirements such as wider sidewalks, street trees, public spaces, and other improvements.

Based on feedback from LUNH, staff engaged with stakeholders to explore additional options for city council's consideration.

Following these discussions, the item and its associated resolution were removed from the 2026 LDC update at the request of the stakeholders.

Existing previously conforming use regulations will apply as is moving forward.

Updates to the code are grouped into five categories you here see on the screen.

Align policy with climate equity or housing goals, second clarifications, third, compliance with state law, fourth corrections, and the last category regulatory reforms.

In parentheses, the numbers of proposed amendments are included in each category.

First, I will review changes to the proposed amendments that align the code with the city's climate equity or housing goals.

The next slides highlights select code of minimum items that generate public interest, raise questions during outreach, or required further evaluation.

While some of these items will be reviewed here, additional details on all items are provided in the backup materials.

Before I begin presenting on the citywide items, I would like to point out that the category that the proposed item is associated with can be found at the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

Item three includes changes to the floor area ratio bonus in commercial based zones to encourage more mixed income development by allowing an additional 0.5 floor area ratio bonus for residential mixed use developments that provide all required deed restricted affordable homes on site.

This amendment only applies in commercial-based zones that are located in mobility zones two or three within high or highest resource areas as defined by the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee.

This would incentivize affordable homes to be constructed on site in high and highest resource communities in the city.

Item six, currently the complete communities housing solutions only permits rental homes.

This amendment allows the development for four-cell homes and provides additional home ownership opportunities across various income levels.

Item seven, the proposed amendment to the complete community's housing solutions requires certain conditions to be met to receive a diff waiver for homes less than 500 square feet.

At the time the full waiver was fully adopted, with the adoption of citywide diff, all new homes were required to pay the same diff amount regardless of the size of the home.

With the adoption of citywide diff, all diff are scaled based on home size, meaning the smaller homes pay less than greater homes.

A complete waiver of diff is not recommended for smaller homes, since infrastructure investments are needed to ensure adequate public facilities are provided, which is the intended purpose of DIF, and staff estimates it may result in the continual loss of revenue for infrastructure in the amount of about 11 million annually.

The city planning department initially proposed removing the diff waiver from the complete communities regulations.

However, the planning commission recommended that a diff waiver for homes less than 500 square feet continue to be applied.

Based on the land use and housing committee's recommendation, staff made revisions to this item to clarify that the diff waiver would continue to apply to homes less than 500 square feet, provided the development includes at least 10%, three or more bedroom homes, and that the diff waiver is limited to 30% of the total homes in the development that are less than 500 square feet.

It is important to note that the city currently still provides a full diff waiver for any deed restricted affordable home, meaning that these smaller units would still be eligible for a waiver if a deed restricted was placed on the home.

The amendment proposal would prohibit new moving and storage facilities in specific central urbanized commercial zones that include CU 2 3 through CU2 5 zones to be consistent with the mid-city communities plan.

This would not impact existing storage facilities, which would be subject to the city's previously conforming use regulations.

This amendment is also consistent with the city's climate goals of encouraging active pedestrian communities and encouraging new housing to be built new transit to be built near transit.

Now we move on to our next category that comprises 23 items within the code update under clarifications.

Note that we will review some of these items, but that more detail on all items are contained in the backup materials.

Item 11 amends the noise regulations to clarify that in certain cases, noise levels may temporary exceed limits if the activity or use is authorized by a special event permit, development permit, or other permits or agreement approved by the city manager.

This amendment codifies current implementation practices.

Item 17, the amendment is meant to inform development applicants that fire defensible space buffer may be required that is greater than the setback in the base zone.

Nothing in this section increases the authority of the fire marshal, but simply provides notice to an applicant that other requirements may be applicable.

The planning commission recommended that staff insert the defensible space qualifier to the fire setback language to differentiate between the two different requirements in the base zones.

City staff changed the amendment from fire setback to fire defensible space buffer to address the planning commission's concern and increase clarity of the amendment.

Item 18 in the plant makes use zone, at least 50% of the project's floor areas required to be a non-residential use, and the remainder area may be used for either non-residential or residential uses.

Live work quarters are considered non-residential uses even though they provide a residential component.

To provide additional flexibility, this amendment proposal clarifies that up to 50% of live work quarters floor area can be counted toward the minimum non-residential requirement of the EMX zone.

Item 25 aligns affordable housing, complete communities housing solutions and dwelling unit protection regulations with government code section 66300.5 by clarifying that equivalent size means that the replacement dwelling units must include the same total number of bedrooms as the units being replaced.

This is to ensure that families occupying the protected units can still qualify for the replacement units since bedroom count determines the affordability of the replacement unit.

Next, we focus on code amendments that bring the San Diego Municipal Code into compliance with state law.

Again, we will review some of these items, but that more detail on all items are contained in the backup materials.

Please note that the proposal amendments simply implement state law and do not go beyond what is otherwise required.

Item 39, tentative map aligned aligns the tentative map regulations with the subdivision map act for land zoned industrial or commercial development, clarifying when a tentative map is not required pursuant to government code section 66426.

The planning commission was concerned that mixed use zones were not explicitly included and therefore would not be eligible for a tentative map waiver.

City staff added language to clarify that the tenant map waiver would be allowed in mixed use zones for development that is consistent with the subdivision map act.

Item 40 allows for ministerial approval of a subdivision of up to 10 dwelling units on loft zone for multiple dwellings that are five acres or less to be compliant with Senate Bill 684.

This state bill establishes a streamline approval process for such subdivision exempting them from the California Environmental Quality Act and other requirements.

However, the application of this amendment would be excluded in very high fire hazard severity zones, wetlands development with existing deed restricted affordable homes and rental homes.

Item 41, Senate Bill 1123 expands on Senate Bill 684 that was previously discussed in the slide to allow for streamlined subdivisions and single dwelling unit zones.

The same site eligibility restrictions for Senate Bill 684 and multifamily zones apply to single dwelling unit zones.

However, this bill includes additional location criteria that includes the site must not be more than 1.5 acres and locate adjacent to existing development.

In addition, Senate Bill 1123 allows for the creation of a remainder lot and requires lots to be sold with a dwelling unit unless they are reserved for open space, common area, or a remainder parcel.

The land development code includes 19 items that fall into the corrections category.

Again, we will review some of these items, but that more detail not items are contained in the backup materials.

Item 68, this amendment to the airport land use compatibility overlay zone regulations would align the code with the MCAS Miramar Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan by permitting moving and storage facilities, wholesale and distribution and storage uses in areas with noise levels up to 80 decibels, provided that any associated office or retail indoor spaces are mitigated to achieve an interior noise level of 50 decibels.

Based on the recommendation from the Planning Commission, vehicle and vehicular equipment sales and services were added as a permitted use, but only within MCS Miramar Airport Influence Area since it is the only area that currently identifies this use.

Now moving on to our last category, regulatory reforms, which is comprised of 22 items in the LDC.

Again, we will review some of these items, but more detail on all items are contained in the backup materials.

Item one, the administrative citations have not been revised since 2007.

This amendment increases existing penalties, which range from $100 to $1,000, now up to $10,000 per violation.

This is to deter code violations.

Item 81: the administrative abatement penalties have not been revised since 2007.

This amendment increases penalties for causing or maintaining a public nuisance from $2,500 to $10,000 per violation and increases the cap per parcel or structure from $200,000 to $500,000 in a calendar year to better reflect current administrative and investigation costs and to better deter violations.

Item 82, administrative civil penalties for code violations have not been updated since 2017.

This amendment proposal raises administrative civil penalties for code violations to better reflect current enforcement costs and serve as a stronger deterrent against noncompliance.

It maintains the maximum rate of 10,000 per violation limit while increasing the cap of 400,000 to a $500,000 cap per parcel or structure for civil penalties imposed for general code violations.

Code enforcement would retain discretion to impose appropriate penalty amounts given the surrounding violations.

Item 85, project and environmental appeal fees need to be updated to accurately reflect staff time involved when appeals are considered by planning commission and city council.

This proposed amendment would increase the planning commission appeal fee from $1,000 to $1,140, and the City Council appeal fee from $1,000 to $2,380.

The proposed amendment also establishes a reduced fee option based on the updated fee amounts.

Appellants may receive a 50% reduction from the newly increased appeal fee if the project is within a low resource census track area identified by the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee at the time the application is deemed complete.

These new updated fees reflect the current estimated costs to process these appeals, ensuring better cost recovery.

Item 93, this item allows child care centers in the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Airport Influence Area Transition Zone as a limited use and establishes a maximum floor area ratio of 0.42 for the use, which is consistent with other small assembly uses.

It also removes the expansion limit for child care centers under previously conforming regulations that no longer apply as a result of this amendment.

Because the MCAS Miramar Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan prohibits child care centers in the transition zone.

Adopting this item would require a city council overall of the airport land use commission as provided under state law.

Item 94 wireless communication facility regulations streamlines the review process by reducing the approval process level for certain wireless communication facility applications from a process four to a process three and from a process three to a process two.

This would allow timely approval and avoid requiring planning commission approval while maintaining a discretionary process with appeal rights for the public and applicants.

Item 102 proposes how to calculate the vehicle miles traveled reduction measure by out fee for develop that for development applications in mobility zones two and three that choose to pay the buyout fee if they are unable to implement the reduction measures.

Now I'll hand off the PowerPoint to Jica Bassinger to discuss the downtown amendments.

Thank you, Megan.

There are 30 proposed items affecting the center city and gas lamp quarter plan district ordinances, which regulate land use and development in the downtown community plan area.

One additional item proposes minor amendments to the downtown community plan.

The downtown items are organized into the same five categories as the citywide amendments.

Most are minor clarifications or refinements to existing programs.

Over the next slides, I'll highlight some of the more substantive items with more information on all proposed downtown items available in the backup materials.

These first slides focus on amendments that align downtown regulations with climate equity or housing goals.

Downtown zoning code includes several incentive programs designed to encourage development in return for public benefits or development amenities.

Most of the items within this category fall within these programs.

Item one expands the existing downtown eco-roof density bonus by adding an additional incentive for projects that provide a rooftop community garden that is accessible to building occupants.

It also encourages rooftop landscaping to meet mechanical screening requirements, giving projects more flexibility and supporting greener rooftops.

Item two streamlines development in the downtown coastal zone overlay.

This overlay is a small area primarily located between the railroad tracks and Pacific Highway outside of the Coastal Commission's appealable area.

For projects within this overlay that provide public benefits or development amenities through existing downtown floor area ratio bonus programs.

This amendment would reduce the approval level from process two to process one, provided the project is consistent with the local coastal program and satisfies required coastal findings.

Item six would encourage development on small underutilized downtown lots.

It would establish a new density bonus and provide limited regulatory exemptions that address challenges associated with tower development on smaller parcels.

Item eight would support revitalization along C Street by offering an additional density bonus for projects along the transit corridor that also use at least one other downtown bonus program.

This amendment would strengthen incentives for higher density transit supportive development along the C Street Corridor in the downtown area.

Item 9 would promote preservation of existing mature trees downtown.

This concept originated from the 2025 City Council Environment Committee, which found that downtown has lost more tree canopy than any other community.

Because mature trees provide greater ecological benefits than newly planted trees, this item would grant a 0.2 floor area ratio bonus for each mature tree preserved.

It would also provide options for two-to-one replacement on-site or off-site within the downtown area, or a payment to the downtown FAR bonus fund for public improvements, in addition to existing urban tree canopy fund requirements.

The downtown items also include 12 proposed amendments in the clarification category to make downtown regulations easier to understand and apply.

These items are fairly straightforward, and more information is available in the downtown update list and draft code language materials.

The downtown amendments also include one item to ensure compliance with state law.

Item 22 would provide minor amendments to the downtown community plan to align it with the current center city and gas lamp quarter plan district ordinances.

These are minor updates that remove outdated references, text, graphics, and images so that the plan reflects existing regulations and remains internally consistent.

This would also amend the city's general plan due to the downtown community plan being a component of the general plan.

There are also three proposed corrections included in the downtown items.

Item 25 updates the gas lamp quarter land use table so that its use categories along align with the citywide use tables.

This would remove outdated terminology, improve code consistency, and make it easier to identify permitted uses in the gas lamp quarter.

Finally, the downtown items include seven regulatory reforms.

Currently, temporary community focused uses on downtown private property, which are referred to as outdoor activities in the downtown PDOs, require a discretionary permit which can encourage or sorry, which can discourage activation of underutilized outdoor spaces.

Item 27 would make these activities a permitted use downtown, encouraging more temporary community-serving uses such as farmers or artisan markets on private property.

Outreach for the LDC update including a public comment portal, two virtual public workshops, an overview video of the LDC update, two community planner committee meetings, three LDC update subcommittee meetings, and meetings with three community planning groups and one advisory board to discuss specific LDC items impacting their community areas.

On January 27th, the CPC passed the motion shown here on this slide to approve the LDC subcommittee's recommendation to the land development code update.

Additionally, the CPC met again in February to amend their recommendation.

For the 2026 LDC update approval timeline, we are here today presenting to City Council recommendation.

So staff's recommendation to the city council is approval of the proposed 2026 land development code update and local coastal program, as well as minor amendments to the downtown community plan and general plan.

The recommendation also includes the adoption of two resolutions and one ordinance that includes amendments to the ADU density bonus program, community enhancement fee, adopt minor amendments to the vehicle mileage travel reduction measure buyout fee with an amendment to the land development manual appendix T, and an ordinance to increase fees for project and environmental appeals.

Thank you very much for your time today, and this concludes staff's presentation.

All right, thank you for the presentation, all the work that it took to bring this item and all the public outreach that you conducted to get this ready for both Planning Commission, LDC, excuse me, L U and H and now City Council.

With that, clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

We do have quite a number of speakers on this item, so we will be going to one minute each.

If we can start with Evan Strawn, if you can please come up to the microphone.

Okay, Amy Fawcett.

You can please come up after that.

If I can have the following individuals, please come up to the yellow reserve seats at front.

John Allen, Heather Riley, Mindy Harston, Jeffrey Schuter, and Bob Kazuski.

If you can all please come up to the front row.

Amy, you'll have one minute.

Please proceed.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Amy Fawcett, and I'm the president and CEO of the San Diego Building Industry Association.

And as you very well know, we are still much in a housing crisis.

And while the city has made clear progress, it is critical that we not take our foot off the gas and retreat anything less than an adamantly pro-housing philosophy.

That said, the package before you is the product of an immense amount of work from various stakeholders, including our members in the urban council who painstakingly reviewed these amendments in their different iterations.

Thank you to staff for working with industry to identify policies that needed more vetting or hearing our pleas for amendments in planning commission.

We believe this is a better update because of that.

In totality, this is a package that we are proud to support, and I hope you will vote in favor of its adoption.

Thank you.

John Allen.

Good afternoon, City Council.

Thank you for your time today.

My name is John Allen, founding principal of Streamline Development Group and the chair of BIA's Urban Council.

We are charged with reviewing and advising the organization on city-specific policies, and we're highly active in reviewing the 2026 Land Development Code update.

First of all, I'd like to thank Heidi and the planning team for their countless discussions and willingness to dive into detail.

It means a great deal to know that there is a ready ear at the city.

It will benefit not only builders, but more importantly, everyone who is feeling the pressure of the housing deficit.

I'd like to add that we uh while we support this package, we're eager to review these policies once adopted to continue to refine them for the maximum impact.

Specifically, we believe there's an incredible opportunity to enhance our foresale opportunities through code improvements.

We commit to keeping this council and uh and planning staff abreast of our discussions.

In closing, please adopt this package.

Thank you.

Thank you, Heather.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Heather Riley with Alan Mackins.

Today I'm actually here on behalf of the Kids Bay Learning Center.

They're the original proponent of item 93 on your chart.

And this came up because of all the changes you guys have been so great at doing through the community plan update process.

We realized a very strange quirk of the MCAS Miramar Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan prevented child care in the transition zones.

Nowhere else in the city was that code change made.

It's a weird quirk.

We have no idea why it's there, but it doesn't need to be there.

Particularly since the Kearney Mesa and University plans are encouraging EMX and RMX zones.

So there's a lot of development happening in that neighborhood, and we want to put child care where that development will be.

Many of you know my kids are older.

They don't need child care, but this is personal.

I remember the stress when my kid was in my stomach 19 years ago, and I was trying to find daycare near where I worked or near where I lived.

And it's not a stress we need to have our families go through.

So please support that change.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mindy.

Good afternoon, Mindy Hartstein representing T-Mobile.

And I'm very specific as to the wireless proposed changes.

While we are supportive, obviously, of many of the changes that were in there, the equipment enclosure size increase, uh, increase in the antenna standoff distance, process review shifts, which um allow for quicker review and streamlining the process, and also a path for temporary communication wireless facilities.

We do have some concerns centered on very specific items.

Um we've supplied a letter, uh, hopefully you've all received that uh for consideration, but one is the small cell facility design, uh which is more restrictive than the FCC small cell order and basically um would limit heights and type of small wireless facilities to only light pole attachments, and that should not be the case.

I'm running out of time, but for temporary communication, please.

We'd ask for uh, I do have to be fair to everybody, but thank you for that concluding comment.

Jeffrey Hooter.

You have times uh ceded to you by Dana Givitt, as well as Yvonne Jones.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Oh, something.

Maybe you get maintenance on this or get it into the budget, I think.

All right.

Uh council members, so uh we don't have a lot of input on this year's land development code update.

Uh we interact with staff previously in the process.

Um it's a fairly technical package this year.

What I did want to do is if you go to the next slide, just focus on uh one of the items in here that may be underestimated in 103, and that's this small lot subdivision item.

This is uh implementation of something called the starter home revitalization act, and what it does is it allows you to subdivide a lot, and this is ministerial in a sense it's like SB 10, but not something we opt into.

It's ministerial, you can create a subdivision of up to 10 lots.

Um, the buildings on those can be up to 1750 square feet, um, and you can subdivide down to a minimum lot size of 1200 square feet, and that's actually consistent with what, for example, we do with SB9.

Um the difference is is this doesn't have a home ownership requirement, but what it does, but it is limited to our uh vacant lots, which is either they're completely empty or mostly empty, as it turns out, with some other restrictions.

Um there is a uh far flurry ratio increase that comes with this, so whereas on a typical single family lot you would be allowed uh say you know 3,000 square feet of development on a 5,000 square foot lot.

This basically doubles that to 6,000, so um that far increase is not insignificant, and then um there's also item 40, which does this for multifamily lots.

But for the sake of completeness, I'll just skip over that.

If you go to the next slide, this is basically what it looks like.

You have a large lot, maybe it has one house on it, and you can subdivide that and now create um 11 parcels uh with 10 new items.

Now go to the next slide, and this is really what I want to talk about.

This it's only restricted to vacant lots, and it has exemptions for certain environmentally sensitive and fire areas, and we think that's a useful part of this because um rather than applying everywhere in the city and putting that development pressure on every single homeowner, this is only for a certain and we've created a market where people can come in and develop these vacant lots and a market where somebody who just wants to buy a house and live in it isn't facing that competition from developers, so we think that's an important feature.

And the final aspect of this is if you go to the last slide, is we have something that's ongoing called neighborhood homes for all of us, and rather than create a whole new set of development regulations for that program, what we would like to use is that program to create um uh pre-approved plans for that program for this program, which would be a big benefit.

Thank you, Bob Kazuski.

We all know that real estate is the most valuable resource in this city.

It's obvious that this current item reflects the ongoing and continuous housing pressure resulting from our ever growing population.

If you ask your constituents, they will tell you that population is the one problem in this city that drives all other problems, yet this city government continues to conduct the city of San Diego as a sanctuary city, worsening all of these problems.

I suspect all members of this council are suffering from stage four Trump derangement syndrome.

What other excuse do you have for refusing to place the picture of our president in the place of honor on that wall that had been reserved for other presidents for decades?

Shame on each of you for putting your personal politics above the people of San Diego.

Evan Strong.

Good afternoon again, Council President, Council members.

Again, my name is Evan Strong, speaking on behalf of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

And I really just want to start by thanking staff for their hard work, Heidi Seth and this whole team.

It's definitely been a labor of love on this whole LDC update, and really appreciate their work in making sure that this package, which is a lot of state law changes that we don't necessarily have control over, still makes sense for San Diego.

So really appreciate their work, appreciate the work of the planning commission, the land use and housing committee at looking at all these, you know, 100-plus items.

Um really we're especially as supportive of the items that promote housing throughout our city, that help revitalize downtown, that speed up processes for things like outdoor dining establishments and wireless communication facilities and really help promote small business growth and housing opportunities throughout our city.

So we encourage you to support the LDC update as proposed today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, the five-minute time regarding those participating remotely, starting with Andrea.

We currently have 13 people in the queue.

I'm Andrea Hedgley Head Haver with Hold the Hill.

I submitted a policy paper titled Capacity Before Density into the record for this item.

The paper proposes that to the extent not prohibited by state or federal law, the city incorporates a sequencing framework into implementation of all discretionary and ministerial housing schemas, including complete communities, density bonus programs, transit oriented development programs, and future SB 79 implementation, as I discussed Thursday night during the council hearing on that matter.

The central issue was not whether low resource communities should grow.

They should.

The issue is whether growth occurs alongside sufficient amenity investment, infrastructure capacity, and economic diversification to avoid intensifying existing low resource conditions.

The state itself has now acknowledged through SB 79 implementation options that absorptive capacity and sequencing matter in vulnerable communities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Becky Rapp, if you can please unmute.

Becky Rap, I can't unmute for you.

Thank you.

And good afternoon.

My name is Becky Rapp, and I just wanted to voice my support for item 20 on the land development code update and urge the city to strengthen this ordinance even further by expanding it beyond site signage.

Um it's cannabis on-site signage to include all off-site cannabis marketing and advertising.

If the city has determined that the marijuana leaf symbol and cannabis imagery are inappropriate for storefront signage, then the same standard should apply to billboards, banners, event promotions, and other off-site marketing that families and children see every day.

These symbols normalize drug use, target young people through branding and imagery, and undermine public health messaging about the real risks associated with high potency marijuana, including addiction, impaired driving, and psychosis.

San Diego regulates tobacco and alcohol advertising because we recognize the influence that marketing has on behavior.

Gary Hewitt, if you can please unmute.

Good afternoon.

My name is Gary Hewitt, Chair of the Downtown Community Planning Council.

On behalf of the DCPC, I want to thank council and staff for the collaborative process on this general plan update.

I personally want to raise one concern critical to the downtown plan's success.

This update continues to support significant residential development in downtown some mixed use neighborhoods, something that the downtown community continues to support.

But the goal depends on residents being able to actually live in those homes, which requires enforcement of the noise standards this plan commits to.

Item 11 would allow staff to administratively override state and city noise limits for special events and projects, combined with noise enforcement already being downgraded to alternative compliance due to budget cuts.

This effectively eliminate noise protections for downtown residents.

The DCPC has a live entertainment permit on our agenda this month.

We must now consider approving it, knowing that the applicant won't be held accountable if they violate the noise ordinance.

I ask the city council is restore noise enforcement and reject the staff discretion proposed in item 11.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is John Stump, if you can please unmute.

Uh thank you very much.

Uh I'm contacting you to protest item number 85 on page 16, which raises the fees to file an appeal to some uh 2,480 dollars.

This is an amount that severely discriminates against people of median income in the city of San Diego, people of color.

That fee should only be a hundred dollars or something like that.

This is a discriminative fee.

Secondly, the policy should be changed so that should a party prevail in the appeal, the fee will automatically be refunded to them.

Come on.

You know, if staff did good work, we wouldn't have to have these fees.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next is Craig Benedetto, if you can please unmute.

Good afternoon, Craig Benedetto.

I'm here today representing NAOP San Diego, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, speaking in support of the staff recommendation for the 2026 land development code update.

I'd like to thank the entire planning department team for their efforts in developing this latest edition.

Staff spent countless countless hours with stakeholders throughout the city to help develop the list and refine the provisions.

In some cases, items were removed, and others changes were made that will ultimately improve our city's code for the betterment of our city.

In closing, we appreciate staff's consideration of our members' perspective in developing these updates and respectfully request council's approval of the staff recommendation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Doreen.

If you can please unmute Doreen Diaz.

Hello, thank you.

I would hope that this council would pull item 401 and figure out a way that you will enforce the non-removal because your DSD department has evidenced by Project 1128933, where developers falsely lie that the lot is empty.

So I'd like to know how you actually enforce non-removal of these rentals.

Second thing is item 97 should be pulled.

This they have not contacted any ADA groups.

Relocating accessible parking is unacceptable, and all it's gonna do is lead to another lawsuit, hopefully, of violating ADA, and you guys still haven't even re-resolved some 88 issues that are in existence for 88 parking on Market Street.

Thank you.

Next is Catherine Rose, the five-minute timer also concluded.

There are nine speakers in the queue, and that concluded, no additional speakers will be taken.

Catherine, please proceed.

Um, hi.

Hi, this is Catherine Groudes, and um I want to talk about the fees for appeals.

You know, I did an appeal for the Navy Broadway complex because I thought there was an act of fault on it, and even with the appeals, nothing ever happened, nobody ever confirmed or denied the act of faulting.

And so just to increase the appeal so that people can't afford them.

That's not cute.

Um, you should you should want as many appeals as possible so you could know what the dangers are.

So I don't like that.

Um, one thing that I um I was very concerned about is you're talking about how you can increase a height in mobility zone one, and then you have to go to another thing to say mobility zone one is downtown.

I would like if you actually put the word downtown in there where you talk about mobility zone one, so um people don't get confused like I did.

And then um, Sergeant on page eight um 142 of 211, you talk about the exchanges for affordable housing dwelling units, and in some areas, I think it's concluded.

The original, if you can please unmute.

You guys think these changes are gonna be your key to success.

I highly doubt it.

Because it seems like you're more concerned about following state law when you're a charter city, and you but I mean obviously you do things because you don't wanna bite the hand that feeds you, and you're concerned that you're not gonna be getting your money coming in from different things, but if you really cared about putting into people's communities what the people wanted, you wouldn't be concerned about following state law.

You'd be concerned about following what the people in our communities um are desiring.

And it seems like you guys are constantly getting in your own way to uh providing the things that need to be provided, but also you're implementing, you know, changes that are gonna force uh others to do the work in the communities that you can't do yourself by way of making it a requirement bill.

And it's interesting that you guys have density bonuses, but you also have density fees.

The fact that you're using vehicle miles traveled when that is a fraudulent uh data point and there that shouldn't even be something um that's included, and you guys just really need to think about what the community wants over what the state is requiring.

Tony, I can't unmute for you.

I will need to move on to the next speaker.

If you can't unmute for yourself, going on to Peggy Walker, if you can please unmute.

Thank you.

I endorse street strengthening code language regarding unsite advertising, um, and prohibiting the marijuana leaf are colored images on buildings.

That's good policy, and suggests extending this to upside marketing, including prohibition of billboards as we do with tobacco.

One reason federal rescheduling of marijuana is creating confusion, and this move will help reduce misconceptions about marijuana safety and medical utility.

Medical societies still do not endorse dispensary pot for medical or mental health treatment.

Nevertheless, loose advertising regulations enable manufacturers to exaggerate therapeutic uses and downplay harms, especially to vulnerable populations, including youth.

We can choose how we allow wheat to be marketed in our communities.

Prohibition of marijuana billboards and stronger advertising restrictions will help a little time has conclusion.

Thank you.

8,700, if you can please unmute uh thank you.

Uh Joy Sanyata, C D3.

Heidi, I support updates to the appeal fees for project and environmental appeals, especially environmental appeals.

Uh in regards to the downtown plan, yes to uh transit oriented items, yes to tree canopy.

Uh and then my last statement is again to you, Heidi, please.

We do we need to update any unity codes, land development codes in the future to bring all in alignment with FB 79, the transit oriented housing project item.

Uh i.e.

uh fees, and there's lots of other stuff.

Um President Lakava, uh you didn't say it the way I did, but you did bring up the question last week.

Your time has concluded.

Sorry.

Hector, if you can please unmute.

Hector, yeah, pretty complicated on all these codes, but the city should implement a land development code and municipal quota.

If you run out to illegal aliens, you can get a fine like of 10,000 dollars.

Because we're gonna have the mass rapid deportation program coming up with Trump, it's gonna hit the county and the city pretty hard, and then we gotta do our part.

Just uh if you run out to illegal aliens or you're involved in that, like a landlord, we can find you 10 grand or maybe take your your property or something like that.

Because we gotta even the even uh governor said now that the uh medical programs bankrupt with all the medical patients taking over the state, and uh Governor Newscombe has been hiding it.

So eventually we're gonna have to come up with uh the mass rapid deportation committee and move forward and uh get San Diego back to being great again.

Thank you.

Thank you, Blair Beekman.

If you can please unmute, hi uh Blair Beekman.

Um I often feel like an illegal alien in the public process to try to offer my two cents here.

Um what I can with downtown issues.

I I really like the public uh comment.

Thank you.

Um I'm concerned on uh ideas.

Council President Lacarba made a very nice comment uh on the previous side of how the uh uh appropriation boards can work if applicable.

I'm hoping it's possible that uh economic development persons can possibly be attending the uh the meetings more if that's applicable uh appropriations meetings.

Good luck with that, and good luck with uh a public process to define our future of these sort of issues.

Um, you know, I'm really hurt that the parking's been it really excludes the public process.

Good luck what we can be doing with that and with downtown, uh I hope we can keep our old buildings.

Uh parking uh accessibility is being taken away.

I feel that could be a part of all building issues.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madison.

If you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you.

I wanted to say that I support the proposed update to prohibit the cannabis leaf symbol on cannabis outlet signage.

As a mom of three and someone who works in youth drug prevention, I've seen how recognizable that symbol has become to kids and teens.

Displaying it prominently near restaurants, schools, parks, or along our streets normalizes cannabis use and increases youth exposure to a mind-altering substance.

I also believe that marijuana billboards should not be allowed for the same reason.

Large scale advertising further promotes and normalizes cannabis use in ways that impact young people and the overall character of our community.

The current regulations already limit signages to business names, alphabetic characters, and simple colors.

Prohibiting the cannabis leaf symbol is a reasonable extension of those protections.

It simply creates sensible guardrails to reduce youth exposure and community impacts.

Please support this amendment.

Thank you.

And our final speaker is Kathleen Lippett.

Kathleen Thank you.

I'd like to address uh municipal code updates 85, 94, and 107.

Regarding the appeals fees, project and environmental appeals that would increase fees for projects and environmental appeals that would align with fees charged by other cities.

I don't think that has anything to do with our city.

Your city fees should be tailored to this city, not to other cities.

And as John Stuff pointed out, that exorbitant fees are discriminate, discriminate against low income communities, and all they do is serve as a deterrent never to appeal such projects.

94 is the wireless the wireless communication facilities, and it says that they will streamline the process by reducing the approval process for specific wireless communications.

What that means is a it's just euphemism for we're going to eliminate the public voice in opposition, and we're gonna streamline it to make it an administrative process.

And that is not that is not that does not serve the public need.

The outdoor dining and the streeteries have already removed nearly all of the public.

Your time has concluded, and that concludes public comment on this item.

Alright, thank you, City Clerk, uh, for that.

So with that, we'll turn it over to council for comments, questions, and entertain a motion, and we'll start out with the chair of land use and housing.

Council President Pro Tembly.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you to the city Planning department for the tremendous amount of time that's been dedicated to delivering this land development code update, uh working with various stakeholders, working with our offices as well.

And I will uh for one recollect that I believe this we all thought this was first gonna come forward back in late 2024.

Um so that's just to say that the there's been a huge amount of time that's been dedicated to trying to get this to the finish line.

Um there have been many thorough discussions regarding numerous components in this update including since it went through planning commission and then most recently through our land use and housing committee meeting back in March.

We made a few amendments at that time and so I'm glad to see some of our recommendations were included in today's version, particularly for item seven relating to microunit diff waivers.

For those who might recollect a little over two years ago the council chose to maintain waivers for microunits and while I was glad to support that I was also understanding the need that we have to collect development impact fees and to show that the city is actually providing incentives that match up with the areas that we believe are in short when it comes to housing production.

So I want to thank the city planning department for incorporating our amendment for microunit waivers so that they continue to be offered but to be done so as an incentive tied to the ever elusive larger three bedroom units.

And I think this is one of the ways in which community complete communities remains an important program that helps our city encourage all types of housing including microunits.

On item 87 uh I want to especially thank you Heidi for your leadership in trying to work on a sensible solution with our offices and various stakeholders especially as we all seek to see the community plan updates that we've worked to pass actually come to fruition we talk often about how we create capacity but whether that actually results in the production that we intend.

And in all of that also taking the opportunity to acknowledge that there are some severe economic realities that are being faced.

So I just want to take this moment to thank you and your staff for spending so much energy perhaps more than it was ever worth on that effort.

Next I want to thank staff for the efforts made towards streamlining the wireless communication facility regulations and then also allowing childcare centers in the MCAS Miramar area in my district along with other items to help make clarifications and corrections to the complete communities housing solutions program.

And lastly I appreciate staff in bringing forward item 103 which expands where medical offices are allowed medical clinics can be a good fit for many business parks and I think about how other areas of the city can also have the potential to see expanded access to healthcare including in my district and with that in mind I'm only just going to ask that you consider in the next LDC update perhaps reviewing what we categorize as medical offices to ensure that we're not over overly limiting where they can be placed as well as ensuring that we match up with the types of facilities that we're seeing given healthcare as we know it continues to evolve.

So with that I'm going to go ahead and move the approval of the 2026 citywide LDC package and downtown LDC package.

Thank you Council President All right thank you.

So we have motion by the Council President Pro Tam Lee to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to council member Whitburn.

Thank you Council President thank you to Chair Lee for those comments I also want to thank the Planning Department and DSD's downtown urban division for all the work that went into this update and the community members and business groups uh for all the review and feedback I made most of my comments at the land use and housing committee meeting in April so I'll just touch on a few citywide amendments here before turning my attention to Dow town item six expands complete communities for four sale homes that's a meaningful shift until now that program will be applied to rentals opening up the home ownership including affordable for sale homes means more San Diego's will have a real path to owning a home near transit near schools and near the amenities that make our neighborhoods work.

Another item that I'm really looking forward to implementing citywide is item 50 the shared housing density bonus which will make it easier to build share housing citywide downtown is a great place to start with that particularly at vacant office buildings.

Shared housing approves affordability by splitting rent and utility costs and it fosters social connection and security especially for seniors.

Many of the changes in front of us today seem small but could actually make a really significant difference.

One of those instances is item 90 regarding emergency shelters.

It streamlines the permitting process for emergency shelters, making it easier to get them up and running without regulatory burdens so that we could more efficiently help people who are homeless get off the streets and into shelter.

I'll focus most of my uh time now on downtown.

Every great city has a great downtown.

We have seen more and more people moving into downtown San Diego.

We've added parks, we've added trees, we've expanded our cultural resources.

There is a renewed commitment in downtown San Diego to making our streets vibrant and safe and welcoming for everybody.

And this didn't happen by accident.

Uh thoughtful planning by DSD's urban division played an important role in that.

This code update uh builds on that momentum.

Item one opens the door to more rooftop gardens in downtown.

Uh item nine, it encourages preservations of the mature trees to give our neighborhoods shade and character and comfort uh together.

Uh they will help to cool our streets, improve air quality, and bring nature into the heart of our city.

Item five creates new home ownership opportunities for people who want to live downtown, uh, additional opportunities for people to make downtown their home strengthens our neighborhoods, supports local businesses, and builds a sense of stability and pride.

Many small parcels in the urban core have sat underdeveloped or as parking lots for years because the rules have made it very difficult to build them.

Item six is incentives for small lots, and item eight's revitalization bonus along C Street helped to unlock those sites, bringing new housing, new activity, a new life to blocks that have been waiting for the next chapter.

And clearer rules for programming provenance and simpler pathways for outdoor community uses, those make it easier to bring people together, whether it's a fitness class, a farmer's market, a cultural event, or a pop-up activation.

Together, these updates move us toward a downtown that is greener, more attainable, more dynamic, and more complete, and one that honors our character supports our residents and strengthens the economic and cultural heart of this city.

Uh, really glad to see uh this code update coming forward, and I'll be happy to second Councilmember Lee's motion.

All right, thank you, sir.

So we have a motion by Council President Pro Tem Lee, and a second by Council Member Whitburn to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Councilmember Hilo Rivera.

All right, thank you, Council President.

Um, thank you, Heidi and team, for all of your work on this.

Um I was just thinking about it as you're running through each item.

How much work uh there must be behind each of those items?

Um, so what shows up is this you know, very, very comprehensive list of updates.

Um, I know it takes hours and hours and hours of work each and every item.

So thank you for that effort.

And um, I know there's a lot of thought that goes into each of those.

I uh made most of my comments at at council, but I will say um thank you again for uh including the um the prohibition on new moving and storage facilities um in the zones that we've laid out here.

Um, as I said it before, I'll say it again.

Um, we need homes and and small businesses in my district and in our communities.

We don't need more spaces for folks from other neighborhoods to store their stuff and and each of those facilities deprives the community of an opportunity to build housing.

Um, so um I'm I'm glad we're we're making that move.

Um District 9, City Heights, and other parts of the city are not the storage centers for wealthier parts of the city, um, their neighborhoods that deserve respect.

And along those lines, um, increasing the the fines um for uh abandoned properties, I think is a very important thing for us to do.

It's been far too easy for disrespectful property owners to uh hoard property, uh leave it in in an abandoned state, um, which has uh negative impacts on property values, safety, and just general quality of life in my district and other parts of the city as well, and ensuring that that the penalties for those bad actors are sufficient enough to actually discourage that behavior in a city where holding on to property can produce so much uh profit over the course of time.

I think is an important uh step to make sure that all of our neighborhoods get the respect they deserve.

So thank you again for all the work on this.

Uh very much appreciate it, and I'm supportive of the motion.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Council Member ILO Rivera.

We'll go next to Council Member Campio.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you to our staff from our planning department.

I'll echo my colleagues' appreciation for staff and stakeholders and community members who've been involved throughout the process.

Obviously, we have a lot of technical amendments before us, uh, but when we make space for the community and the industry feedback throughout that process, we get a very good result.

Um, and that's that's a workable result uh outside of the development streamlining provisions, which I'm always encouraged to see.

I appreciate the inclusion of AB 812 from assembly uh member burner.

Um putting aside some of that uh meaningful opportunity for artist housing in San Diego is is a good path forward, and I appreciate uh spaces for our team, the spaces for our team to advocating and championing that.

I'm also glad to see the incentives for family housing and home ownership opportunities uh and opportunities to support child care in our military communities around MCAS Miramar.

Uh and I do have one quick question from something someone said on the public comment about a fee going up to 2400.

Is that can you elaborate on what that might be?

Is that an appeal fee?

Um yeah, I believe that the reference um was to the appeal fees, both to planning commission and city council.

The fees are proposed to increase from 1,000 to 1,140 for appeals to planning commission, and the appeals from city council are currently set at 1,000, and they're proposed to increase to $2,380.

Um, this is due to um the need uh to provide for full uh cost recovery for the staff time it takes to process the items to council.

Understood.

Um so essentially, well, a thousand dollars more is what it takes to get to cost recovery is a hundred percent cost recovery.

Is it partial?

Um the new fees would be at a hundred percent cost recovery, they currently are not at 100% cost recovery.

I see.

Okay.

Um I do agree uh with what the caller pointed out that there are there are um planning groups and individuals who sometimes uh uh struggle to get that money together uh when an appeal is successful, is the peel fee refunded or is it not?

Um it is not.

Okay.

Well um just would like to know that I I think that maybe that it should be.

If you appeal and you win, then maybe you should get it back, but I understand that's not before us today.

Um, last thing I had heard from members uh in the development um uh development industry that a couple months ago there was an issue around the def couple of definitions that seem to be not completely clear about the size of a hedge, trees, things like this.

Have those definitions been worked on and cleared up.

Um I believe they uh there was comment at planning commission about this sort of thing.

So the uh 2026 land development code update included an item that was intended to clarify the landscaping requirements to state that uh the preservation of trees and shrubs was part of the intent of the regulations, as there are regulations that apply to their preservation.

Um the planning commission requested that that intent language be removed and it was removed prior to committee.

Very good.

All right, thank you.

I had heard about that uh at a few different times out in public, so I appreciate you doing that.

Um, with that, uh, thank you for the detailed work, and I know you do this once a year, and it it's extraordinary amount of work.

Um, I'll be in support.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

Uh, not seeing anybody else on the lights.

I'll jump in with a few comments.

Uh, as I said at the onset, uh thank you to city planning for all the work that it took uh a multi-year uh project uh to bring this forward uh and the outreach you did and packaging this up for CPC's input, planning commissions, land use and housing, uh, and the extraordinary work to really get it uh feedback from the public uh and fine-tuning and tweaking that.

Uh it really shows evidence of that based on the comments that we heard uh we heard today from the public.

Um I also appreciate the collaboration.

Gosh, it seems so long ago on two La Jolla amendments, uh, one of which came directly from the community that I supported, and one that which was adjusted based on the community feedback.

We thank you for that.

On items 81 through 83.

I'm glad to see the adjustments to the administrative penalties that our blue team could assess, uh, particularly given our conversation in BRC BRC last week.

It is necessary to give that team the flexibility to assess penalties at a level that better reflects uh costs and incentivizes compliance, as was said, bless you, whoever that was.

Um a question about item 17.

This question about defensible space buffer, which we're getting um from the state.

Um does our regulations still kind of grandfather where everybody is, but they still have to deal with the state for existing homes and properties?

I think you're referencing maybe two different items.

Okay, maybe I am, yeah.

One of them is just clarification that setbacks may be more than what the setback is if it doesn't meet the defensible space requirement for new buildings.

Um, and then there's a sort of totally separate issue, which is related to existing homeowners and how to comply with new regulations related to zone zero.

Um, those are not before the council today, but happy to follow up with.

So, zone zero is compliance date for existing uh is 2029.

So there's communication coming from fire rescue department educating homeowners now.

Oh, fantastic.

Thank you.

So 17 was just clarifying that possibility.

Okay.

So on item 94, the wireless communication facilities, you know, we've had some policy differences.

I've expressed uh feedback that I've heard from my constituents, but I appreciate the conversation about that, although ultimately those were not brought forward.

Um, to the concern that I think somebody from the public was calling in the proposed process level changes within the 100 feet, maintain the noticing requirements and a public hearing where the community members may express concerns that they may have on projects of this nature.

Is that correct?

Did we understand that correctly?

Yes, that's correct.

The uh wireless facilities would still go through a discretionary process uh that would be appealable to the planning commission rather than required to go to the planning commission.

Okay, um, I was just trying to save all those wireless companies some trouble of introducing things, getting beat up by the community, and then walking away and wasting all that time and money.

But maybe we'll we'll come back to that another day.

Uh so again, thank you for all the work, and I certainly will be supporting this item as well.

Uh no one else.

So we have a motion.

Council President.

Sorry to interrupt you.

Um, can I just make one clarification in response to council member Campio's um question about the appeal fees?

I did want to note that the appeal fee resolution provides for a 50% reduction in the appeal fees if the project is located within a low resource area.

That's very good.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you for looking that up.

Yeah, that is that is good.

I'm old enough to remember zero dollar appeals.

But with that, uh, we have a motion by council president Pro TM Lee and a second by Council Member Whitburn to move the staff recommendation.

Please call the roll clerk.

Sorry, the voting system, please cast your vote.

And that passes unanimously seven to zero with council member von Wilper and Council Member Foster absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, again, thank you, everybody from City Planning for your good work and everybody else who worked on it.

So as they pack up, uh clerk, please introduce item 203.

Item 203 is the adoption of the 2025 urban water management plan and the 2025 water shortage contingency plan.

If you'd like to make any comments to this item, please be sure to submit your speaker slip to the high lectern and the clear box at the front of the room.

And if you are participating remotely, now's the time to raise your hand by pressing star 9 or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And as staff settles in, when you're ready, please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Good afternoon, Council President, Council members.

My name is Christiana Gogger.

I'm the assistant director over the public utilities department's technical support branch.

We'll need about 15 minutes for this presentation.

When you're ready, I'm very pleased to be here today with two members of the team that have worked to bring to you the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan and the water shortage contingency plan.

The city is required to update, adopt, and submit these plans to the state every five years.

Megan and Andrew will discuss how the updated 2025 plans meet state guidelines for compliance with the California Water Code.

In addition, the team worked to ensure that the creation of these plans was considered analytical and data-driven in order to produce an accurate projection of future urban water demand and supply.

The team has a number of details to walk through, so I will now ask them to introduce themselves and start the presentation.

Thanks, Christiana.

My name is Megan Hickey.

I'm an assistant deputy director with the public utilities department.

With me today is Andrew Funk, Principal Water Resources Specialist.

And as Christiana highlighted, we will provide an overview of the 2025 urban water management plan, its components, water supply and demand projections, and the city's water shortage contingency plan.

Urban water management plans are high-level plans that project future water supplies and demand over a 25-year timeframe to help inform local, regional, and state planning efforts.

They must be adopted and submitted to the California Department of Water Resources every five years.

Urban water management plans are also foundational documents for subsequent water supply assessments and water supply verifications performed by PUD to assess the availability of water for development in the city of San Diego.

The plan must include a water shortage contingency plan, which defines the actions the city will take in the event of a declared water emergency or enactment of more stringent restrictions on water use, allowing the city to respond in an efficient and timely manner to manage and mitigate any potential water shortages.

In addition to be eligible for any grant or loan administered by the Department of Water Resources, the city must have a current urban water management plan on file that has been determined by DWR to address the requirements of the water code.

The 2025 Urban Water Management Plan is the city's ninth iteration of the urban water management plan and is due to DWR on July 1st.

Urban water management plans have five key required components as shown in the graphic on the left, including the development of a 20-year water supply and demand forecast, an overview of water demand management measures implemented by the city, an analysis of water supply reliability as well as the energy intensity of our water and wastewater system, and the adoption of a water shortage contingency plan.

We also have corresponding implementation goals for the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan, which included the development of a credible and balanced 25-year projection of water demand.

By utilizing a 25-year planning horizon instead of the required 20-year projection, we closed potential planning gaps during cycles where we are updating the urban water management plan.

Next, we wanted to update and refined our water demand modeling approach for more accurate projections.

This included the development of an alternative on-trend forecast detailed in Appendix F of the draft Urban Water Management Plan, which is a lower demand forecast than what is proposed for adoption in the urban water management plan.

The on-trend forecast assists PUD staff with strategic capital investment planning in the Pure Water Program and other CIPs.

By evaluating a range of potential future demands, the city can evaluate the size of the water system and consider downsizing where appropriate to reduce capital costs.

At the same time, the adoption of a more conservative demand forecast allows the city to support conclusions that we have adequate water supply for major development projects, other housing initiatives, and community plan updates.

Our next goal included an analysis of system reliability and the integration of a water shortage contingency plan.

We also utilize and build upon the city's climate action plan and water conservation goals.

Last, we prepare for future inclusion and expansion of local water supply development.

As the ninth iteration of the city's urban water management plan, PUD has continued to strive for enhancing and increasing the accuracy of our demand forecasting approach.

For the 2020 Urban Water Management Plan, PUD developed a hybrid approach, combining actual water use data at the parcel level with a statistical model that considers land use as well as water use factors such as temperature, irrigable parcel area, number and types of housing units, income and persons per household.

This hybrid approach allows us to more accurately spatially represent demand within our service area, allowing us to better understand where we may need infrastructure improvements.

Based on the increased accuracy of the 2020 forecast, the first step for the demand forecasting in the 2025 urban water management plan was adapting the 2020 model.

This included analyzing and updating the water use factors based on recent water usage trends and accepted planning practices in accordance with DWR's guidelines.

Next, we utilized the SANDAG Series 15 regional growth forecast to assess population and growth within the city service area over the planning horizon.

Sandag Series 15 includes projected household population, total population, information on single family and multifamily occupied units, household income, projected total employment by census track, and information on development and redevelopment projected out to the year 2050.

In comparison to the Sandag Series 14 forecast, which was utilized in the 2020 Urban Water Management Plan, Series 15 projects a roughly 12 to 17% reduction in the forecasted population and total households within the city's service area.

This had a significant impact on the 2025 demand forecast, which will be detailed on the following slides.

Next, we select a base period based on hydrologic conditions, so we want to look at a rainy year as well as a dry year, and corresponding water use trends from billing data.

Our base period also overlaps with Sandag Series 15's base period, which increases our model accuracy.

Last, we incorporate water conservation savings based on compliance with existing state mandated conservation and new upcoming regulations.

PUD is confident that we have developed a defensible and more accurate demand forecast for the city as visualized on this slide.

The graph on the left illustrates historic potable water usage shown in blue, as well as the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan demand forecast shown in orange.

The table on the right provides the specific breakdown on total potable and non-potable water usage by sector, with residential water usage making up the majority of demand within our service area, more than 50%.

The demand forecast to be adopted in the Urban Water Management Plan represents a measured approach with respect to long-term water supply planning and meets the regulatory planning goals defined by the Department of Water Resources.

The 2025 Urban Water Management Plan is projecting a lower 25-year demand than the 2020 Urban Water Management Plan, primarily based on reduced growth projections included in Sandag Series 15.

Based on the updated Series 15 growth forecast and water usage in the city, there is also now a projected flattening of water demand out to the year 2050.

For the development of the 2025 demand forecast, PUD additionally analyzed our historic water usage and legacy forecasts from previous urban water management plans, as can be seen on the slide.

Similar to the previous graph on slide six, the blue line illustrates the historic water usage for potable water demand in the city, and the hash lines show the past four urban water management plan demand forecasts.

For historic water usage, the city's water demand has decreased by 34% over the past two decades, despite the population growing from 1.29 million in 2007 to the current peak customer base of nearly 1.4 million residents.

This is primarily based on statewide droughts and subsequent mandatory water conservation regulations that have decreased customer water usage.

When looking at the previous urban water management plan forecast, the city has historically overestimated demand.

A primary driver of this is the use of regional growth forecasts, which are required by DWR's guidelines.

However, in more recent iterations, our urban water management plans have been more accurate.

PUD updated its water demand modeling methodology, incorporating actual water use trends, recognizing that customer use has significantly shifted over the past two decades.

Additionally, refinements from Sandag in their growth forecasts for the region have increased accuracy in the demand forecast for the 2025 plan.

An adequate and reliable water supply is vital for the city and demand has greatly outpaced local supply from rain.

The city has historically purchased roughly 70 to 90% of our water supply, which is imported from Northern California and the Colorado River.

PUD actively pursues ways to increase and diversify local water supply and maintain reliability.

This includes pursuing additional local supplies and maximizing the utilization of our existing surface water, groundwater, non-potable recycled water, and in the near future, pure water.

As required by the water code, the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan analyzes water supply reliability under multiple hydrologic conditions to confirm that the city has adequate supplies and methods established for reducing demand during times of single or multiple dry year periods and through coordination with the County Water Authority can supplement any projected supply deficiencies as they may arise.

Based on the city's projected increase in local supplies and reduced demand forecast in comparison to the 2020 urban water management plan, the city is anticipating to utilize less CWA imported water supplies into the future than previously expected.

By 2030, the city anticipates using 40% local supplies and 70% by 2050, with the majority of local supplies being supplied by the city's pure water program.

The development of local water supplies and transition from imported supplies will directly benefit PUD with water supply reliability during periods of multi-dry year conditions, as well as reducing the cumulative energy intensity required for conveyance and distribution, thus making it more sustainable and cost effective.

The updated energy intensity data from the urban water management plan will be utilized to aid in the five-year update of the city's climate action plan in the near future and is included in the city's GHG emission strategies.

Based on historic water conservation by customers, the city is currently in compliance with all state mandated conservation regulations.

Specifically, the city has met the Water Conservation Act requirements, which was a 20% demand reduction by the year 2020.

We are meeting the model water efficient landscape ordinance and our urban water use objective.

The urban water management plan incorporated additional conservation for outdoor water usage in the demand forecast for future compliance with Assembly Bill 1572, which is also known as the non-functional turf ban.

The city continues to offer active water conservation programs, largely driven by state regulations, including residential water surveys and water conservation rebates.

As required by the water code and previously mentioned, the city must also prepare and adopt a water shortage contingency plan in conjunction with the urban water management plan.

Water shortage contingency plans provide the plan in the event of a declared water emergency or enactment of more stringent restrictions on water use, allowing the city to respond in an efficient and timely manner to manage and mitigate any potential shortages.

The plan identifies how the city will annually assess water supply and demand to determine if a water shortage exists.

Shown on this slide are the six standard water shortage levels and their corresponding shortage range that lead to a variety of response actions in addition to permanent water waste prohibitions and ongoing consumption reduction methods.

The table on this slide shows an example of corresponding shortage response actions to water shortage level one, which is up to a 10% shortage in supply compared to anticipated demand.

Each water shortage level has corresponding response actions that are categorized as one of the following by the Department of Water Resources: supply augmentation, demand reduction actions, operational changes, or mandatory water use prohibitions, in addition to state mandated prohibitions.

The response actions incorporate MWD and CWA emergency and catastrophic planning, as well as the city's council policy 400-04, which is the emergency storage of water policy.

An outline of public participation and the schedule for adoption and submittal to Department of Water Resources for the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan and Water Shortage Contingency Plan is shown on this slide.

Public participation began February 27th, and the draft urban water management plan was posted on the city's webpage for public comments.

The plan was highlighted on the city's social media, announced via Inside SD, sent directly to a list of interested stakeholders, and members of the public were notified of their opportunity to provide public comment during today's hearing via the daily transcript newspaper as required by the California Water Code.

After adoption by Council, the Urban Water Management Plan will be submitted to the Department of Water Resources on July 1st.

PUD is requesting your support for the following actions: approving a resolution to declare the adoption of the Urban Water Management Plan and Water Shortage Contingency Plan to be statutorily exempt from CEQA, and approving a resolution to adopt the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan and Water Shortage Contingency Plan as required by the California Water Code.

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to present an overview of the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan.

We are available to answer any questions you might have at this time.

Alright, thank you for the presentation and the good work to bring this forward.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President Blair Beekman.

If you can please come forward, I do not see you here.

Oh, there you are.

Please go up to the mic after that will be Bob Kazuski.

It'll be a minute and a half.

Hi, thank you.

I just walked in from doing my chores around downtown.

Hi again.

I was listening to this item.

Uh thank you for it.

Um we're coming up on a pure water future.

Um good luck what you can be doing with this item.

I'm really hopeful what we can be doing with the future of the public process in working with waterboard issues overall.

Um I think it's really important for ourselves, a reminder and how important what building the future of our public process means to us at this time and place in our history and what it can be doing for ourselves.

Um, I think it always should be remembered uh what public participant participation that can do for the process.

I think we're growing.

Um imagine what uh the public process was like in times of war in 9/11 compared to now.

Um we're starting to ask questions more and be more open and clear, and that develops better reasoning, and that is our future.

Good luck in the efforts, what you can do with the water board with this item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bob Kazuski.

As I mentioned in the earlier item, it is population that drives all of this city's major problems, including water use.

Virtually all citizens would prefer a less crowded San Diego.

However, it is our growing population that makes each of you more powerful and more likely to ascend to higher offices in our government.

I think that's a pretty fair characterization of our problems.

Thank you.

Sorry, the five-minute time marketing that's participating remotely.

We have Tony, please unmute.

Hey, how's it going, City Council?

Can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Okay, thank you.

Um, how's it going?

I just wanted to uh speak to the urban water management plan and the and the presentation that was given.

Um, really good presentation.

I encourage the staff to look into.

I'm sure they have already, but I uh really encourage them into looking into permaculture um uh water collection devices and uh permaculture water collection just in general.

Um, I did not see, and excuse me if I if I missed it.

Um I'm doing some cleaning right now, so I was just hearing the presentation out loud.

But um I did not see anything about uh collection of uh rainwater from rooftops.

All of our rooftops are enormous pools and enormous wasted opportunity currently in all of our gutters because they're just going right into storm drains.

All of that is mostly clean water, um, and I say mostly because it's acidic, and that's why we're having problems with our avocado growers in San Diego that have traditionally done so well is because our our we have so much contamination in the air now that it's uh causing uh more acidic uh more acidity in our in our water, which is affecting our our crops as well.

But anyway, um we can we can work on that uh uh reducing the pH or balancing the pH of the water, um reducing its contaminants.

But in essence, we should be collecting all that rainwater.

If we if we invested in rainwater storage collection tanks, um that would be a huge way to uh go about uh getting ahead of these problems.

Your time has concluded.

Next is the original.

If you can please unmute.

Yeah, I'm wondering what's coming down the pike because uh as you talk about a water shortage, we always know that there's something that's gonna be coming.

And uh, you know, it's all about control, controlling the resources, and when you guys put in your smart meters, then with you say that people have used too much water, you can you know shut it off.

And I mean, this already came down because you guys have been talking about a drought, and it's like you don't really act like we're having problems with water.

I mean, you buy it, you sell it.

When you're transferring it, like 50% of it gets lost.

I mean, it's just the way that you guys treat it, it's it's not a scarcity, and that's the problem is that you want to say it is, but though your actions speak louder than that because you wouldn't like pour half of a glass of water out if that's all you had left.

You would make sure that you're preserving it, and you can't even keep up with the infrastructure that is needed to make sure that we have an abundance of water, and the problem is that you can drill for it.

You guys want to give us back our own sewage and put a bunch of chemicals in it and say that it's cleaner than the Colorado River, and it's like, I mean, how is that when you're like literally toxifying it with things that are deadly to the human body, and then saying that it's better?

I mean, it's just sad the way that you guys um treat our resources and how you treat the people and act like you know, don't have a lawn and don't do this because it's such a scarcity.

Again, you wouldn't buy and sell it like you do and treat it like a business if it was in scarce demand, and you should drill for it, but you won't, because it's not profitable.

Your time has concluded, John Stump, if you can please unmute ah, water is one of the essentials along with air and food, water.

Um your chart is flawed.

First of all, you've got 12% as non-revenue.

What does that mean?

Does that mean leak just leakage?

Or does it mean the water that's given to the city or your friends?

Is that the water tap that fills the Troyus Lake every day with potable treated water?

The second thing is you group and irrigate, you group in irrigation, both decorative irrigation, you know, landscaping, and food production.

San Diego was once food independent.

All the water for agriculture and food production has been moved to residency.

You need to break that category out so that you have a contingency plan for continuing food production.

I mean, is it the plan we're gonna take cut down every tree and stop raising every crop?

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

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

There are four speakers in the queue, no additional speakers will be taken.

Andrea Epping, if you can please proceed.

This is Andrea Ebbing, and uh I just wanted to bring up this like a data center in Georgia.

There's news today that 30 million gallons of water um was basically like not paid for and wasted and nobody noticed.

Um I know that we're looking at Lithium Valley and like different projects, and we should consider that, and we should consider the um, you know, uh paying close attention, whoever feels this particular issue closest to their heart, you know, when you have some free time, just investigate, dig around, see what people are doing.

Something like this 30 million gallons of water without paying for it, or nobody even knew about it.

I feel like that could happen to us quickly.

Another thing I wanted to bring up about the water is like maybe when we are approving massive um build-outs for businesses specifically.

Businesses like the uh I fly that like um place where you would be like skydiving.

I do think that there's an impact in the amount of water it takes to build a place like that, that really just didn't have a future.

Like if you had presented that idea to me to build that in San Diego, I'd be like, that sounds kind of novel, and maybe that would be fun for like a few months, but with the costs associated and the whole production, I probably would have rejected it.

So I think stuff like that would be um helpful in conserving the water and then just keeping the rates low for us, is to watch out for things like the two things I just talked about.

Thank you.

Thank you, Hector, if you can please unmute.

Thanks for taking my call.

I know something about this water thing.

Yeah, I've been following the lake thing.

There's a lake website that does all the lakes in California reservoirs and the state and the city and a country.

Uh Lake Mead is at the all-time lowest level right now, and there's no snowpack in the in the Rocky Mountains this year, it's very low.

And they've got like uh the releasing water from Lake Powell into Lake Mead, and they're also uh Las Vegas is on the third intake.

They've already done two that went below the intake level, and they're on their third one.

They made a one about 10 years ago, down really low, and Arizona's getting a lot of water too.

So they're talking, I don't know if they're talking dead pool.

If Lake Mead goes deadpool, we got a problem there.

And I don't know if we can handle it, but one thing I worked on a sewer plant in Steamboat Springs in 1980 for a year and a half.

There are 200 systems from uh Colorado to San Diego that treat their water and put it back into the in the Yampa River.

They put it in the Colorado River, 200 uh cities that doing what we're doing, and they put it in the Colorado River.

So it's effective to do, and we could do that with the Tijuana River, take all their water, treat it stage five, and it's worth a fortune.

And we could we could actually have a lot of money from five-stage treatment plant in in uh your time has concluded.

8700.

If you can please unmute, and then our final speaker is Catherine Rhodes.

8700.

There you go.

Thank you.

Uh Joy Asanyata.

Uh so this is data-driven, which is always great to me.

Uh, that's our future love IT.

Uh, every five years uh seems uh a good time.

You know that I have very much interested in water conservation, and I've really looked at it in these last few years.

So the it really affects water usage.

So I'm wondering, it's been years since our program was started.

Are all of you really accumulating?

Can we accumulate data on our water usage?

And if we can, did we for the last five years?

What happened with our conservation?

Because it's a lifestyle change which we honored, and it's a paradigm shift that happened.

So more data on water conservation.

I was really surprised, but I guess I shouldn't be that you overestimated the uh demand, and um, but you have improved it, you said.

So uh, you know, that really is going to affect the water shortage data.

So I just want this data to be as as quantifiably excellent as we can.

Love the um water shortage uh contingency plan.

Thank you.

We're gonna have such a big reduction eventually in imported water with CWA.

Will they inflate the cost of imported water, thereby impacting water rates and reducing our savings from the pure water plan?

So um, thank you.

That does conclude your time.

Thank you, Catherine Rhodes.

You're a final speaker, please proceed.

Hi, this is Katherine Rose, and as a civil engineer, I hate to see the San Diego River water go all the way down without capturing anybody any of it.

So my plan is called it is part of a full tide lands reclamation that could be actually used at midway rising.

And what it's called is the La Playa plan for continuation of the 1908 and 1926 Nolan Plan, which established Lindbergh Field, Pacific um the airport, Pacific Highway, Harbor Drive, um, and the Midway area.

So the La Playa plan will future-proof um uh for a full state public trust tide lands reclamation project by taking out the hydraulic field.

So foundations um are now in subterranean land and they can be founded on competent soils, not subject to flooding or sea level risk.

So the pilot project for that is already done, which is a navy broadway complex, and then also the cisterns at the airport.

And so what I want you to do is actually look at my La Playa plan for full tide uh reclamation, especially under the project at midway rising, because right now water comes up during the king tides in that area.

And so you do have to future-proof it.

And your plan right now is to put in five feet of additional fill and then like a two-foot map foundation, which is not proper, engineering wise, and would be um subject to catastrophic failure.

So please look at my my LaPlaya plan for structural integrity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes with a comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh, and with that, we will turn it over to the council for questions, comments, and entertain a motion, and we'll start with the chair of the environment committee, council member Ila Rivera.

All right, uh, thank you, Council President.

Thanks for all the the work on this.

Um, I know a lot of effort went into it.

Um, I don't want to get too far into it, but I do think that at times um the conflation of more people meaning um, so we actually hear it in a variety of forums, that more people means higher water bills, and and more strain on our system.

We've planned for the population to grow, correct?

And everything that we're mapping out is based on that population growth.

Correct, yes.

And again, this isn't the you all don't do rates, but if there are fewer people, the rates are higher because we have a certain amount of water that we are getting because we were planning for a certain number of people to move here, slash be born here.

I just um every time we get a chance to repeat some of these things, I think it's important to do so.

Um, all that being said, I think I appreciate all the effort and planning that goes into this.

This is the you know the the not so glamorous work that's really important um to make sure that San Diegans do have the water that we need, um, that we do have a plan in case um there are shortages in the future.

Um so thank you for doing that work.

I very much appreciate it, and I will move approval of the staff's recommendation.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember.

So we have a motion by council member Ilo Rivera to move the staff recommendation.

Not seeing anybody else in lights, I'll make the second as the other member of the environment committee for that day.

Um, and as my colleagues said, we did hear this in uh environment committee.

There was a good robust conversation.

So again, want to thank uh public utilities for the data-driven approach.

Uh update using updated data from Sandeg and really actually getting down to the parcel level in this conversation.

And as my colleague uh referenced, I want to acknowledge two graphs and charts that you presented.

On slide six, you highlighted the historic water use decreasing over the past 25 years, and what is equally significant is that we've continued to do that despite rising projections in the prior urban water management plan.

So I think we're really zeroing in on the appropriate level of projections, but a realistic one that we can actually do a management plan.

I think there was some conversations about projects, but that's not really for today.

We'll there'll be another time for that.

And the leveled projections in the 25-2025 plan makes sense perfect sense and are apparent in the charts you have in slide eight showing an entire reversal from predominantly imported water to local supply via pure water.

Uh, that's an accomplishment that we're all away on our way to achieving.

I appreciate your highlighting that achievement.

So, again, thank you for the very good work.

Every five years, maybe isn't too bad to update this plan.

I know it's still a lot of work, and that you just don't roll over what you had and polish it up, but you actually dove deep and really updated the data.

So that's a lot of extra work, and we're very grateful uh for that.

So, with that, not seeing anybody else in the lights.

We have a motion by Councilmember Ila Rivera and a second by myself to move the staff recommendation.

Clerk, please call the role.

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

And that passes unanimously 7-0 with Council Member Von Wolpert and Councilmember Foster absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And again, thank you to staff for that very good work.

Clerk, please introduce item 201.

Item 201 is the Mission Bay Park Improvements Program, Programmatic Environmental Impact Report and Implation Framework.

If you'd like to speak to this item, please be sure to submit your speaker slips to the front of the room in the clear box.

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

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Thank you for that introduction.

And as staff as you settle in, please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Okay, thank you.

Um we probably need about 12 minutes or so, I would say.

And when you're ready.

All right.

Well, good afternoon, Council President, Council members.

Thank you for this opportunity.

My name is Carrie Purcell.

I'm a deputy director with Engineering Capital Projects Department over the program project development division.

And with me today presenting this item is Nancy Graham.

She is a program manager over our CECA and entitlements section for the department.

The item before you today is the work of many years of hard work of ECP staff working in collaboration with staff from Parks and Rec.

We've also been working with key departments such as the planning department.

The item before you today would be to approve the Mission Bay Park Improvement Plan and implementing framework.

We would like to acknowledge our consultant, DUDEC, who is with us here today.

They provided the technical studies, the analysis, the preliminary engineering reports.

They also supported us during the public outreach during this effort, during this time.

We'd also like to thank the members of the public and the outside agencies, outside organizations, other stakeholders that provided very important feedback and input throughout this process.

This information was used to help shape these projects and the program alternatives.

While this might be the end of this process in terms of the CEQA process, it's also the beginning of the next process, which would be how to implement these important projects in Mission Bay.

And with that, I would like to turn it over to Nancy Graham.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carrie.

Again, I'm Nancy Graham, program manager in the engineering capital projects department.

The overview of our presentation, I'll go through some project history, our implementation framework, the environmental impact report, and the actions before you today.

So for some context, proposition C in 2008 and Measure J in 2016 significantly changed how funding works for Mission Bay Park.

It created the Mission Bay Park Improvement Zone as well as the Mission Bay Park Oversight Committee and Fund.

The fund itself dedicates lease revenue and directs it towards capital improvement projects.

Within those measures also identified priority projects within the charter.

So the priorities in the charter include wetland expansion, water quality improvements, and protection and expansion of eelgrass beds, shoreline restoration, expansion of endangered or threatened species preserves and upland habitats, deferred maintenance projects, addressing deficiencies in the bicycle and pedestrian circulation network, and also restoring the seawall bulkhead within Mission Beach.

So the charter laid out all of these priorities, but we were tasked with turning this into a program in order for them to be implemented.

So to do that, we did a significant amount of community outreach.

We did baseline studies when you have the task is to improve water quality, but we had to study both what are the water quality issues as well as the engineering solutions that could be developed to improve water quality.

So all of this work was done collaboratively with the community where we reported our study results and they were presented.

We worked with stakeholders to develop preliminary engineering reports or the PERS that were used as the basis for this project.

We had a public scoping meeting for our environmental impact report, and all along the way we've been working with the Mission Bay Park Committee, and we got a vote in favor of program approval this month.

I'm sorry, last month, and it was unanimous with one abstention.

So this program began all the way back in 2018, and we've been working through each of the steps from our scoping of the projects, we developed the implementation framework, we put the draft EIR out last fall, and then we presented the final EIR.

It has been posted on our website now, and we're here bringing it forward to you for adoption.

So the program itself has some core elements.

Those include wetland and water quality improvements, shoreline restoration, upland habitat expansion, seawall restoration, and bike and pet improvements, all of these within the Mission Bay Park Improvement Zone.

So our wetland projects, those include Techloty Creek and Fiesta Island Causeway, North Fiesta Island creating a significant new wetland piece on the north side, as well as restoration of the Cudahay Creek wetlands.

Shoreline restoration happens primarily in the western side of Mission Bay, and it includes both structured solutions as well as more nature-based solutions like oyster reef balls in order to protect the different beach areas.

Our upland habitat expansion occurs in North and South Fiesta Island, and that includes the dedicated lease turn sites, South Shores, the triangle parcel, as well as the cloverleaf parcel.

Bicycle improvements include the Ocean Beach Bike Path, the Rose Creek Bike Path, and the Fiesta Island Causeway.

And that includes a new segment between Grand Avenue and Thomas Avenue, upgraded beach access points, and also replacing the deteriorated parapet.

To be clear, De Anza Cove is not part of this program.

It was originally part of this project, but it was identified that we a land use plan amendment to the Mission Bay Park Plan needed to be completed, and so that was transferred to the City Planning Department and became DANSA Natural.

That project is currently under review by the Coastal Commission.

Our project does not require a Mission Bay Park master plan amendment, so therefore that will not require Coastal Commission approval what you are seeing today, though individual permits will go to them in the future.

DEANSA itself is working towards a general development plan.

Our program focused on the implementation framework document.

This document establishes how to implement the charter as an interim step to funding and prioritization.

It identifies the approach for implementing the projects, maintenance needs as well as resilience to sea level rise.

It lays out the applicable engineering and permitting procedures to realize each project.

The document itself consolidates the various elements and components into a single document.

It's a tool for city engineers and planners to implement the program.

It's intended to be transparent and digestible to the public, and it supports funding decisions for prioritizing and implementing the charter, and it's the basis of our environmental impact report.

The environmental impact report is required per the California Environmental Quality Act and informs the public and decision makers of potential adverse effects of implementation of our program.

It affords mandated opportunities for public input and it identifies required feasible mitigation measures to reduce the effects as well as alternative.

But particularly a program document allows the engineering and capital projects department to be able to fulfill the desire to streamline capital improvement projects and bring them online faster because this document will establish a basis for tiering.

So when each of these projects moves forward in the future, we'll be able to adopt them more quickly and easily.

The program EIR identifies any potential significant impacts and required mitigation as well as feasible alternatives.

In addition, we developed conceptual habitat restoration and monitoring plans for all the restoration projects.

In most resource areas, actually has no impacts or less than significant impacts.

The few areas that we do have the potential for significant impacts are air quality, biological resources, cultural resources, historic resources, noise, and recreation.

Our mitigation reduces the effects to less than significant for air quality and cultural resources.

For biological resources, because these are complex projects, and SEQAS says that any impact to biological resources, if you take something offline, and they're potentially as part of construction, bringing it forward, there could be a delay.

So there is potential for biological impacts.

Historic resources is because the seawall itself is a historic resource, so you have the potential for impacts.

So we're following all the Secretary of the Interior standards.

Noise, noise impacts.

These are large construction projects, so there is potential for noise, and because it's a park, any impacts within the park would be considered a restoration impact, sorry, recreation impact.

We also looked at project alternatives, including the no project alternative, an increased public access alternative, and a reduced hardscape alternative.

The CEQA required environmentally superior alternative is the reduced hardscape alternative because it reduces impacts to cultural resources near the seawall.

The actions before you today, and staff's recommendation is to certify the final program environmental impact report and adopt the implementation framework.

And we're available for any questions.

Thank you.

Alright, again, thank you for the work and thank you for the presentation.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

Stephanie Saitov, if you can please come forward, and then after that, we have Blair Beekman.

I'll have two minutes.

I promise not to take them all.

I'm here for Mission Bay Lessies Association today.

We consider ourselves partners in stewardship of Mission Bay with all of you.

It is a part for visitors and San Diegans.

In fact, San Diegans are by far the biggest users.

It is the nearest beach or sand and water access for recreation for most San Diegans.

We participated in the PEIR process.

We encourage you to move ahead today with key priorities.

The bike and pedestrian path improvements are safety issues.

The wayfinding signage, we are very excited, is long overdue.

And deferred maintenance.

It is a charter priority.

It is a safety issue also before we add new features that we struggle to maintain.

We encourage first taking care of what we have.

So thank you to Nancy Graham and the staff for getting us to this point.

We look forward to your approval today so all of the Mission Bay priorities can move forward.

Thank you.

Blair Beekman.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

I thought Councilperson Foster was here today.

It seems like he isn't.

I hope if he's not if he's not here, I hope he can come back soon and things can be going well for him.

Thank you for this item.

Thank you for the presentation.

I don't know how much.

Well, I guess first to start is I talk here often, you know, the importance of that there is a lot of surveillance technology in wildlife trails, and how I'm sure you'll be planning this item in some form.

So data collection, you know, what's the endangered speech species count?

You know, technology is used for that these days.

Uh you know, the air quality samples.

Um the city of Davis, as I've described before, has created a really good set of uh uh public policies around wildlife ordnance uh wildlife technology issues, and it gives clear definitions how it can be good public policies with the, you know, the tech can be with the public, but I think possibly can give us good examples how to feel more safe and trusting about how to talk about our overall day to day tech issues.

Uh and uh you know, I always been trying to find ways it can be easier to talk about, and that can be a way uh the city of Davis is over by Sacramento it's home of UC Davis and uh yeah they they had a really good start on this stuff I mean people would flock there it would not flock but people would um it was a pilgrimage for city governments to go to Davis and check out what they do with their wildlife policies uh with tech and uh um so good luck in those efforts um what you can be doing uh council person la carbo thank you very much for your questions uh a few items back around uh technology use uh and broadband uh important thank you thank you sorry the five minute time are going to those participating remotely we can only have five speakers in the queue the original if you can please unmute can you hear me please proceed hello okay yes so it's interesting to hear you guys talk about like wildlife preservation and things like that and anything going on with uh mission bay park especially if you guys say that the water level is gonna rise right so I don't know why we do leases down there seems a little bit counterproductive um but for you guys to be trusted with wildlife and preserving anything is a little bit scary because I mean not only has it been shown and proven by the birds that have been dying there and the other people having to come in and mitigate those things because you guys refuse to it's like you can't even help anybody that's living better their life.

I mean you have you sit here and say that you're helping the homeless when in reality you're killing homeless.

I mean you're surely doing that you're keeping them homeless so it's a wonder if this is you know just your way to get money to pretend to preserve stuff I mean you guys give us back water that's tainted like you you literally put things like and chlorine I mean all this stuff claiming that it's healthy when it's like I guarantee if I gave you a cup of that stuff you guys wouldn't drink it because you'd be like you're poisoning me but you do it on a massive scale to the people and I mean hey there's Florida in the water which is a total neurotoxin right but it's good for our teeth yeah right like you guys just you invert everything and you want to sit here and you know virtue signal as though you actually can preserve anything and I don't know I mean you'd be better at preserving your own crap I mean at this point because it's like you can't even preserve money.

I mean you guys basically just come and take people's money and pretend to do something that is better for us and all we have to do is again look at the world around us and see what you're doing is not beneficial.

Especially when you like on one hand say that you're like doing something healthy and like you want people to inject themselves with a bioweapon.

Like come on everything that you guys have done over the years has been totally detrimental to every living thing so get a grip let's be where your time has concluded Catherine Rhodes if you can please unmute.

Hello this is Catherine Reds and first I want to say that I really liked the um the EIR and Mission Bay Park improvements super supportive of the um rewild um PB and um I think that this EIR should be an example for the midway rising EIR where this one was complete that this one went through um so many things that I haven't even been able to read the report because it's so long you know it's thousands and thousands of pages long um with this great information so I just wanted to say to you um city staff that and and your contractors that you did a great job and I wish you would do the same exact job at um midway rising and specifically for midway rising not go along with the um Senate Bill 958 which is trying to get rid of the um requirements for height to be analyzed in the EIR and geology and hydrology.

That means that if that passes, that means that you can do um high-rise hotels all over Mission Bay on map foundations that are not safe.

And the solution for that is to call in the state seismic safety advisory board that has engineers from Caltech Berkeley, and there were two of them from UCSD to actually give you information if you're going to be doing high-rise structures, actually give you information on how to create bath sub foundations.

And so thank you so much for this.

And I really also like that you talked about our aging seawall.

And I was thinking that RC wall, instead of doing it what you have right now, you should look at the study of Coronado and see how they put the big rock rip wraps and then the sands and created sand dunes.

Thank you.

Bye.

Thank you, next is Tony.

If you can please unmute.

Hello?

Can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Hey, thank you.

Good afternoon, City Council.

I hope you're having a good day.

Just wanted to say I really appreciate all of the input that Catherine Rhodes gives routinely on all of these calls.

I think she has some really brilliant advice.

And uh and I was just looking at the agenda for today.

Uh, and when I looked at the bottom, I saw that she had actually uh been responsible for implementing one of the ballot proposals, the one for uh amending the municipal code related to transient occupancy tax, including reclassifying online travel companies agencies as hotel operators.

Um, and I believe I was there either in count like in person in council or I uh heard that discussion online, but I I vaguely remember um the conversation about it.

But anyway, I just really spoke to the power of um individuals being able to affect change.

And I know that a lot of us feel like we're sometimes in an echo chamber, or sometimes we feel we get frustrated feeling like y'all aren't listening, but throughout the day today, y'all have given us continuous examples of the fact that you are listening, whether it was Raul Campio uh responding to a question or rather uh uh wanting clarification on a question that a caller was asking, um, or whether it was uh uh Joe Locava uh responding or Shawnee Rivera responding.

I just appreciate the conversation that's that's being had back and forth.

I appreciate y'all acknowledging uh the things that we say when we call in uh to say them.

And uh great work to the staff that put together this presentation.

I think it's uh tremendous job.

Um and I totally agree with what Catherine Rhodes was saying about uh it being a good idea to put some rocks.

I went to high school near Coronado and have seen all the work that they've done recently to expand uh the sidewalk and and put up those rocks to pre uh to prevent further uh sand erosion, um, which is a big problem, you know, in all the beaches in San Diego and including Coronado.

But uh yeah, so good luck with it with all of that and uh thanks for everything.

Thank you.

The five-minute timer has concluded, no additional speakers will be taken.

We have three speakers in the queue, 8700.

If you can please unmute.

Years ago when I started being active in C C D C I was really enthralled with EIRs, and and of course found them very complicated, but I was enthralled with them, and even more so.

I never could get a handle on the MMIR, the mitigation and monitoring uh reports, and I'll tell you why.

Now, in regards to this on sub item A, you've got a reso certifying the EIR.

And by the way, I agree, it is a great EIR, it's absolutely excellent a model.

Uh, but anyway, we've got the reso certifying the EIR and the MMRP.

So uh the MRP, how does it become transparent?

That these mitigations, there were six areas, four of them were green, which were the bigger ones, I believe, and two of them that were blue.

The blue was air quality, and I think the other one I may have written this wrong, cultural re resources.

But I've always wondered and never really gotten a full answer.

Is there data accumulated or cool, follows up on the implementation and watches over these mitigations?

And that's still sort of gnaws at me.

So I wish I could get that answer.

I didn't have time to do much work with this item.

But uh I'm very concerned about the MMRPs and how we're watching over, because it does tweak the requirements of the EIR, and and I'm not against that, but I I just hope that somebody is watching over the monitoring.

Somebody is monitoring the mitigation in its implementation and protecting our beautiful mission Bay Park in that in that area.

Okay, thank you for listening.

Thank you, Kathleen Lippett, if you can please unmute.

Then Peggy Walker's our last speaker.

The same reason that cigarette butts remain a top pollutant of coastal ecosystems, endangering wildlife, releasing toxic chemicals like arsenic, lead and nicotine into the water is the same reason we see people throwing litter onto public streets and sidewalks.

They perceive no risk of consequence.

What good are a thousand dollar litter fines if no one is ever fined for littering?

If we are serious about keeping toxic pollutants off our beach, then the potential for being fine must be real.

And we must the public must be seen as being fined for littering, and making sure that we protect the beaches that we say that we care about.

These items are non-biodegradable.

The plastic base filters are ingested by seabirds, sea turtles, fish, and causing malnutrition, poisoning, and death.

Please consider adding more enforcement to such these are these really go along the way of broken window theories, and they may seem un inconsequential, but they are not.

You find people for making sure that they take care and prevent and don't engage in minor crimes, they won't go on to be worse.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you, Peggy Walker.

Thank you.

I just want to follow up on that last speaker to say that considering the hazards of cigarette butts and um single-use plastic vape devices, that we should be as vigilant about um getting our resources, our precious resources like parks and beaches, of these as we are of plastic food containers, and as vigilant about the enforcement, cigarette butts, uh, and I think the previous speaker mentioned this, are the largest source of microplastic waste in the world, and single-use plastic vape devices or e6, um, are hazardous waste due to toxic chemicals, the plastic um device itself, and flammable um lithium ion batteries that can flame up at any time anywhere.

So good mitigation policy would be to prohibit the use of these and environment environmentally um and any other environmentally detrimental tobacco or pop products in and around our most precious resources.

I hope you'll consider further enforcement um strategies.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And my apologies, Hector, I thought we had uh heard from you, but maybe that was Tony.

Can you please unmute?

Oh, yeah, thanks a lot.

I I haven't talked yet, I've been thinking about it.

Yeah, I grew up in San Diego, I've been riding the boardwalk since 1965.

I wrote it this week, I write a couple times a week.

And I'm really excited about I didn't know this was all going on, but the boardwalk itself.

I do know something about the boardwalk.

When you guys redid the northern part, you built it in the same spot where you should have widened it like 10 feet, and you built it brand new like 10 years ago.

I go, How is the city gonna mess this up?

You've spend all this money, they're building, why don't you just make it 10 feet wider.

You guys probably ride the boardwalk.

That's where it's really restricted in there.

It's hard to ride your bike and stuff, a lot of people.

So when you do the southern part, it looks like you're gonna do a new southern wall down there on the southern part by the jetty.

Make that 10 feet wider.

And actually, the people down there, the owners, property owners down there.

I used to live on Bellball Court there on the front.

The property owners have incringed on our land.

The guys that owners of that land, it's not their land in the very front, but it's about 15 feet that belongs to the city.

So maybe charge those guys for the land.

I hope you guys know this, because and make that wider down there at South Mission.

It's really restricted too, and it needs to be, you know, built up.

But if you do a good job, build the wall first, and then do the sidewalk.

You know, you gotta do it so it works for everybody.

But that sounds really cool, man.

And then uh, but either charge the guys, they're not gonna tell you that.

I hope you guys know that it's actually our land, they've actually just kind of took it over time.

They just put the chairs on it.

Then they built a little fence, and they got the land now, it looks like it.

But uh, there's some shady thing going on down there.

It's a power play, so hopefully, and I guess you're gonna make the wall a little higher for the sea low seawater rise.

So thanks a lot for taking.

The time has concluded, and so has the public comment on this item.

All right, thank you.

So we'll quickly turn to council member questions, comments, entertain a motion, and we'll start with uh council member Campbell.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll be very brief.

I just want to start by thanking staff for all your hard work on this and for your presentation.

Long term plans to upgrade Mission Bay Park are critical for our aging park as it's been environmentally down uh degraded in some areas, partly due to its heavy use.

It is very popular, and it is the largest man-made aquatic park in America and possibly in the world.

Uh the public amenities will be important to preserving the park for residents and visitors alike.

Mission Bay is one of the city's most important recreational environment and environmental assets, and taking the proactive approach now will help avoid larger maintenance and environmental challenges in the future.

So I would like to make the motion to move staff's recommendation.

And again, thank you so much for the good work.

Alright, we have a motion by Council Member Campbell to move the staff recommendation since I have the other part of Mission Bay.

Uh, I'll make the second.

I had extensive comments at environment committee, which I will not repeat here in the interest of time.

Uh, thank you for the very good work.

This is a big deal to get to this moment, and thank you for that.

Um, not to anybody else in the lights.

Uh, we have a motion by council member Campbell, a second by myself to move the staff recommendation.

Please call the rule.

As far as the voting system, please cast your vote.

That passes unanimously.

Five two zero with Councilmember Reno, Council Morecampio, Councilmember Von Wilfer, and Councilmember Foster absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

So we're gonna return item 200 to staff because we're going to lose quorum.

Um, I apologize to the staff that stuck around for that.

Uh, and I'm gonna ask my colleagues to stick around for the in-person non-agenda public comment uh as a courtesy to people who have been sticking around, and we will take up remote uh as part of tomorrow's agenda.

My apologies for that as well.

Uh, 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 the in-person public comment.

Again, we'll be taking remote uh as part of tomorrow's agenda.

Parole 2.7 on agenda public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on items that are not on the agenda, but within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

Please note if there are eight or more speakers on a single topic.

The maximum time for the topic will be sixteen minutes if you're in chambers.

Please submit your speaker slip now.

Blair Beekman, if you can please come forward.

After that will be Bob Kazuski.

Um it'll be nice to hear Bob after myself.

They have these revenue sources that they can rely on, but San Diego does not.

Really good luck what we can be doing.

I still think we can take a more broader view to give some sort of picture of what we can be working towards and make things into a eight to ten-year plan instead of a three to five year plan.

And that way we can be working on social services still.

It was really disheartening to hear uh the retaliation things that are going on in the police department.

And I think it's indicative of what's also been happening in the mayor's office.

And I think it's an issue to really want to address here in the city.

If we do, I think we'd be doing something really positive, and we we'd have something to really be working on together and wanting to do better.

And I think it'd be helpful help for ourselves to find ways to address uh the retaliatory things on a number of items.

And um, including, of course, Andrea Ebbing, who I've been talking about recently.

I hope her situation can be much more clearly understood.

Um, and uh with that, um, there's other stuff, there's a lot of other stuff.

I hope we can be working on uh making the words biometric technology okay to say in public.

We're not afraid of those conversations.

And Oakland, oh my gosh, they're doing it again.

They are really working on technology issues, people really check out what they're doing.

It's not fearful, they are building our future for all of us.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bob Kazuski.

I know you have a video, so I won't start your time until the video is up.

That concludes his public comment and public comment here in Council Chambers.

All right, that includes everybody here in um in person.

Uh again, we'll take remote uh as part of tomorrow's uh meeting.

My apologize for anybody that will sticking around for that.

So with that, um, does the city attorney have anything to report out from closed session?

Yes, thank you, Council President.

Today, in a closed session meeting, the City Council took the following actions.

City Council voted on closed session item number one.

In Ray National Prescription Opiate Litigation, United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern District Case Number 117 MD 2804, MDL number two eight oh four to intervene into proceedings with several pharmaceutical companies and distributors.

The motion passed eight to zero with councilmember Foster absent.

The City Council also voted on closed session item number two, CAP Inc.

et al.

versus Discover Financial Services et al.

Discover Cards Merchant Class Action United States District Court for Northern District of Illinois, case number one twenty-three CV 04676 to intervene into litigation proceedings against Discover Financial Services.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, the Office of the City Attorney.

We will now adjourn council to the regularly scheduled council meeting on Tuesday, May 12th, 2026 at 10 a.m.