All right.

Good morning, everyone.

I will now call the city council meeting of Tuesday, July 7th, 2026, to order.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Campbell.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Councilmember Campillo.

Here.

Councilmember Moreno.

President.

Councilmember Ela Rivera.

And Council President LaCava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting.

Our Chief Deputy City Attorney Corinne Newfer.

Independent budget analyst Charles Monica and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Thank you, Madam City Clerk.

Quorum is now present.

We will begin this morning with the land acknowledgement and the pledge of allegiance led by Councilmember Campbell.

Please stand if you're able.

We respectfully acknowledge that the Kumiai Nation are the original inhabitants of the unceded land now known as San Diego.

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

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

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

All right.

Thank you, Council President.

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

Please note the time allocations for proclamations and consent items for meeting management purposes.

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

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.

There have been no organized presentations submitted for this morning's session, and 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, City Clerk.

Uh, and as a reminder, this is actually day two of our implementation of new public comment rules under State Bill 707.

Yesterday seemed to have gone very well.

There seems to be all indication today will go well as well.

And as a friendly reminder, when you're speaking to a docket item, please focus your comments on that item.

Non-agenda public comment is your opportunity to speak more broadly about anything under the City of San Diego purview.

So with that, we will now dispense with the approval of the proclamation item.

Please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

The public comment period for proclamation items is now open.

Each speaker will have one minute per item per person.

If you would like to speak on three or more items, there's only one item on the agenda.

You would have a maximum of three minutes.

Those participating virtually that are part, um, please be sure to submit to raise your hand now if you were wanting to speak on proclamations.

We did not receive any e-comments.

Floyd Johnson, if you can please come forward after that will be allegedly Audra.

You'll be speaking on item S 501 Tia Turner Day.

Floyd.

Well, I'm here on behalf of Tia Turner.

She's just set in a um some acknowledgement today.

And I just want to say that I'm very happy to be a part of her life and have her be a part of mine.

I've known her for years when I first worked for the city when I was fresh out of high school.

She was my supervisor.

Very energetic, very taskful.

You know, she has a lot of gumption, you know, very intelligent.

And uh, she kind of like took me under the wing and like treating me like a uh a little brother.

So I'm just happy to be here on behalf of her accepting her award, which she earned very much.

And uh, that's all I gotta say.

Have a good day.

Thank you.

Allegedly, Audra, if you can please come forward.

Actually, I thought I'd said Tina Turner at first when I realized she's not here anymore.

Um is when you guys do proclamations, and I'm always gonna say this is that it's just sad that there's things that just get brushed under the rug that we don't talk about, like different murders and rapes that are happening at the parks and recreations.

Um, you know, we can appreciate these people, but then it's like if we don't acknowledge the things that are taking place there at different parks throughout the city, um, and you guys, you know, don't concentrate on making them safer and putting lights and things like that, that I feel like you know, we need to acknowledge those things, and um instead of you know pretending like they don't happen because we're you know uh supporting somebody, which is great, but at the same time, I just feel like like with Tent City, you know, all these things get brushed under the rug, and it's very disturbing to me.

That does conclude proclamations here in council chambers going to those participating remotely, starting with Francine Maxwell, if you can please unmute.

Francine Maxwell Southeastern San Diego well deserved proclamation for Sister Tia, where she has exemplified black excellence working for the city of San Diego, no matter how much she went to leadership and shared what was happening, especially um under the chief race and equity office when we had it.

Now it's under the IBA with the um executive director.

None of the things that Tia brought forward has changed over the years, but she persevered.

She continued to teach her programming was second to none.

Um, this is such a great day for her to receive a proclamation in the city of San Diego, the eighth largest city, because of what she had to endure in the eighth largest city, working with parking direct, and she was blessed to get a transfer, and she went and finished what she needed to do.

Um, we are excited for her next chapter, and it's been a privilege to watch and learn um what things could be in this city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Peggy Walker, if you can please unmute.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to raise my hand.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Uh, when I saw this proclamation, it seemed kind of interesting.

Um, I was hoping someone like Francine Maxwell would offer public comment, and she has.

I now have a history and understanding of this person, and uh sounds like um she's done good work, a lot of good work over the years, many years.

Uh congratulations to her work in life and what she'll be doing next.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes public comment on the proclamation items.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And with that, I'll turn over to Council members for questions, comments, and entertaining a motion, and we'll start with Council Member Foster.

Uh yes, thank you.

Um, Council President, and um I would like to um provide comments for item S.

I'm sorry, for item 30, Tia Turner Day.

Today I'm proud to join the mayor in recognizing Tia Turner for more than 38 years of dedicated service to the city of San Diego.

Throughout her career, Tia exemplified public service by showing up for residents, building relationships, and creating programs that brought families and communities together.

Through parks and recreation, Tia served communities across every single council district and worked at recreation centers throughout San Diego, including Paradise Hills, Skyline Hills, Martin Luther King Jr., Linda Vista, Scripps Ranch, Mira Mesa, La Jolla, Tira Santa, and many others.

Tia helped bring meaningful programs and events to life, including the first annual Juneteenth Festival at Skyline Hills Recreation Center, the first Cackleberry Festival nighttime egg hunt at Tierra Santa Recreation Center, and summer meal programming for children and families.

She also stepped up during critical moments, including helping set up Scripps Ranch Recreation Center to support FEMA operations during the Cedar Fire some years ago.

Tia's impact can be seen in the program she helped lead and the community partnership she built among city departments, schools, community organizations, public officials, and neighborhood stakeholders.

While her service reached across San Diego, Tia has always remained rooted in Council District 4 as a lifelong resident and Lincoln Park homeowner, a proud Lincoln High School graduate and the parent of two Lincoln graduates.

Tia, your legacy will live in the lasting difference you have made in the lives of San Diego residents, especially the families and communities of District 4.

Thank you for all you have done for our community, and I wish you the very best in retirement.

Tia, if you would like to say a few words, please.

And to you all, because you guys help our run amazing city.

I am my heart is full.

I don't have I don't know what to say.

I don't have the words to express how I feel.

Um I'm just grateful that I received a job for the city and I got to work 38 years.

Um I'm thankful for everything.

Uh I'm I don't have any words.

I'm just grateful.

Thank you.

So Tia, thank you for those words.

And again, just on behalf of District 4, just thank you for everything that you have done for our community.

I know as you retire, you will not be going anywhere.

We will see you actively throughout the district and the community.

So thank you for everything that you have done.

And so with that, Council President, I move our proclamations or proclamation.

Okay.

Sorry.

Uh so we have a motion by Councilmember Foster to move the proclamation, and we'll go to Councilmember Elo.

Oh, actually, for the record, uh that was item S501.

Uh but we have a motion by Councilmember Foster to move S501, and we will go next to Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, I wanted to second Councilmember Foster's motion and uh express my gratitude as well to uh Ms.

Turner for her service to the city.

Uh Councilmember Foster said it very, very well.

Um, but I I just um one wanted to say thank you for your service to the Mid-city uh community, uh City Heights Rec Center, Mid City Gym, uh and Mid City Police Station.

And then, you know, I was listening to your comments, Tia, and um you said you you got to have a job for 38 years.

I you you you uh you earned the job and you kept the job because you were doing incredible work.

Um, and the gratitude that you expressed here, just know that it's it's um right back at you.

Um 38 years is an incredible amount of time to dedicate to the city.

Um, and I I was thinking about some of the programs that were named that you uh helped support, and those are um you helped create lifelong memories for folks, and when our city staff pours love into our parks and our rec centers, uh it it has such an incredible impact on communities.

I know you know that, but um, the young people who grow up there and will always remember fondly the experiences they had, the seniors who found find um find connection there.

Uh it's just really really important work, and so um thank you and just know that um you are grateful and we are grateful for your service.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember.

So again, we have a motion by Councilmember Foster and a second by Councilmember Elo Rivera to move the proclamation item.

We'll go next to Councilmember von Wolbert.

Thank you very much.

And and I would also want to thank you, Tia, for your service to our community.

I mean, the parks and rec department provide joy to our city, which is such a huge part of a city.

You know, we can build roads, we can have public safety, but if you can't provide community, it's not a city.

And so thank you for all you've done.

I really appreciate you.

And on behalf of the residents of Scripps Ranch in particular, you know, um my family went through the cedar fire.

And I know how hard you worked to keep the rec center to be a place of refuge, be a place where if the community could get information.

Um, you know, I've been told many, many stories about people sitting down and being told to call their home voicemails to see if it picked up, and if it didn't pick up, that meant their house had burned.

So I just just know that we so appreciate the overarching dedication you had to our community.

Congratulations on your retirement.

Thank you for your service on the municipal employees association board as well.

You've not only helped our city, you've helped other people.

Um, and so thank you for everything, congratulations on your retirement.

Don't be a stranger.

Come back anytime.

So thank you.

All right, thank Councilmember Von Wolpert.

Not seeing anybody else in the lights.

Um, I'll add my thanks.

Uh thank you for taking a job with the city.

Thank you for believing in the city and giving everything that uh is what a public servant is all about.

So we are very blessed to have had you.

And this is a small token of our opportunity to say thank you with this proclamation.

And that's that's what we're talking about this morning.

So thank you, and wish you the very best on your retirement.

So with that, again, we have a motion by Councilmember Foster, a second by Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Uh please call the vote.

A star's voting system, please cast your vote.

And that passes unanimously nine to zero.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And with that, we will now pause for a photo.

So this is a time to come on up into the pit.

All right.

With that, we will now proceed with the approval of consent items.

So first, are there any requests to pull an item by council?

Not saying any request.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment on the consent items.

Thank you, Council President.

Please know each speaker will have one minute per item per person.

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

Those participating virtually, please be sure to raise your hands at this time if you would like to be in the virtual queue for consent items.

We did receive one comment in opposition to item one hundred via our e-comment form, which have been distributed to the council.

Also, let me note for the record the potential reappointments that are on the agenda this morning.

Item one hundred three is the potential reappointments of Antoinette Alioto, Gwen Marie Hillary, Jacqueline Jackson, and William Pitum to the seniors affairs advisory board.

Now if Maximilian Schmidt and allegedly Audrey can please come forward to the other reserve seats.

Maximilian, you will be speaking on items fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two, and one oh four.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed when ready when you get up to the microphone.

As for cannabis uh delivery services item 50, um, I thought that we could uh loosen cannabis um uh zoning and restrictions, and we could put a dispensary um downtown, maybe by like Petco Park or in the East Village or in Little Italy somewhere, and have downtown full of cannabis dispensaries, kind of like Los Angeles, downtown Los Angeles or New York City.

And then um, I think that would be cool because the only cannabis shops we have are um in Middletown, and then one past Barrio Logan.

So that's kind of I don't know what other cities on the West Coast don't even have a cannabis dispensary downtown, it's just kind of inconvenient.

And I have a really exciting idea for the electric uh bicycle safety regulations is a total which I think many people on the city council maybe would support, and but it's just considered radical, but it's an exciting idea.

Uh, a total citywide ban on electric bicycles to promote exercise.

And because an average bicycle can go 10-15 miles per hour, that should be enough.

And I say that because I'm a skateboarder and I have a story to tell.

This is going to sound crazy, but I will never look at an e-bike the same, because I was on a bike trail.

Um, this is actually not in San Diego and Los Angeles, but I was on my skateboard and I was skateboarding on the bike trail, and there was the little white line that's on the bike trail.

And an e-bike went by me at like thirty-five miles per hour, like inches uh away from me.

My life flashed before my eyes.

And I think it was the closest uh experience I've had to death in my life, and it was extremely dangerous.

So, yeah, total citywide ban on electric bicycles.

Just uh only can uh I say that as a skateboarder who rides a non-electric skateboard, just a normal skateboard.

I think skateboards should be allowed.

I think normal bicycles should be allowed, and then ban the like oil electric, everything electric.

And then um, just to um uh finish up.

Uh I just wanted to um say, as for the state of emergency for the Tijuana Mexico, um, I think we could uh have the state of emergencies for much more serious things like uh Freemason Zurzit song.

Um that would be more appropriate.

And this is kind of a strange uh form of corruption that many people don't like to talk about, but it's medical fraud, and where people's Medicaid and Medical gets charged to get unnecessary um hospital procedures and even ambulance procedures in the form of mobile crisis that they don't need because that will be.

Okay, for that concluding comment, allegedly, Audra.

You'll be speaking on 50 51, 52, 100, 102, 104, and S500.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Guys might not like people, but Max was, you know, right on that.

I mean, electric bikes don't promote health.

I mean, it actually keeps you from riding a bike.

I mean, you're not peddling like my dad was all excited to ride 20 miles and it's like your bike did it, but whatever.

Um, yeah, so this cannabis stuff, it's so interesting that you guys use the war on drugs as a reason to rob people from selling drugs or while they're selling them.

Uh, and then using that money, you know, the billions of dollars that the government's taken, uh, and people still think it's a profitable business.

Uh, all you do is want to regulate it.

It's crazy.

It's like people can't come in here and you know deliver this if we don't, you know, make them get a permit.

I mean, who's gonna know that?

Anyway, you're just gonna like, but it's good because you have the enforcement.

That's that's where you guys come in to.

Um, and this electric bike stuff for like it's thing is that you're gonna make it so nobody can ride a bike until they have insurance, get it registered, just like a car.

Get them out of their cars and then put them in on a bike and then treat it like a car.

Um, and uh he was also right about medical billing and things like that, or just you know, fraud that happens in addition to the falk ambulance sexual assaults uh where women are you know get to the hospital naked and having you know stuff injected into their necks, but we don't need to worry about that.

That's just another business.

Um, and then I just find it interesting when it's like urban area security initiative.

Like we had a border invasion, we have all these things, like I just don't think you guys can be trusted with that.

But it's another way to make money, so good.

Um, let's see.

Yes, and the uh homeless housing assistance and prevention grant.

Is your guys' way of preventing homelessness?

Uh murdering people in Tent City.

I'm wondering because people are being murdered there, strangled.

Black men are being strangled there.

But it's cool, it's another business.

You can just get more money, you know what I mean?

Um, and then the Tijuana River Valley.

So the lady that came yesterday, it's interesting.

She's talking about these leech fields of sewage that are potentially coming.

I'm wondering how that's any better than it just going right where it is.

Uh, who knows?

Uh, and at least, I mean, and it's gonna come back in the form of pure water, right?

It might taste different, a little bit spicy.

Who knows?

Um, and then just any surveillance that you guys need.

I just, you know, we can't even use ALPR right, we chase cars to the mall when they're out shooting people at a mosque.

But, but you know, it's good.

Let's get more of them, right?

And uh pay the police more for that.

So I don't know.

Just good job.

You guys are doing good business racketeering and making sure that people are being murdered and don't care.

But it's cool, it happens in your parks, huh, Raul?

Good job.

That concludes public comment for consent hearing council Chambers.

Going to those participating online.

Becky Rapp, if you can please unmute.

This is for the consent agenda.

We currently have eight speakers in the queue.

Becky Rap, I can't unmute for you.

Yep.

There you go.

Good morning.

My name is Becky Rapp, and I'd like to speak to item number 50.

I support strengthening enforcement against illegal marijuana delivery operations, especially when out of town businesses are delivering into San Diego without complying with our local rules.

Businesses that profit from the San Diego market should be held to the same standards as those that have invested in permits and comply with our regulations.

Strong penalties are appropriate when operators choose to ignore those requirements.

However, I encourage the council to go a step further.

The same enforcement should apply to any business operating within San Diego that is selling illegal marijuana products, not just delivery services.

Whether the violation comes from outside the city or from a storefront or other business such as a smoke or vape shop inside our city limits.

The harm is the same.

It reduces consumer protections and weakens respect for the law.

If we're gonna create strong penalties and enforcement tools today, then they should be applied consistently to all illegal activity.

Your time has concluded.

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

51 103.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Francine Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego, so excited for the bike safety AB 2234.

Um, really encouraged.

Um, would also like to make sure that if someone is throwing a free helmet giveaway that you look at our Encanto CRG to host.

Um, we have a lot of children, their grandparents have purchased, but did not purchase the helmet, and we want everyone safe.

We want to change those numbers absolutely at Raby's um children's hospital for the appointment.

I continue to stay excited for those individuals that serve on our boards and commissions, which consistently continue to help our city of San Diego move and make decisions.

I'm hoping that the diocese will consider.

Every um council office has a newsletter, the same way we're asking you to maybe have a clerk's corner in your newsletter to educate the community as a whole on things that they can access in the clerk's office or even um learn what is happening.

We need to know what's going on in the boards and commissions.

So maybe every quarter, the city council can take out a picture of you handing out a resolution and put in what is happening with the boards and commissions that you've assigned to community members because the information and the things that they work on are just so important, but it's not getting out to the entire community that they represent.

Or maybe there could be um a conversation about uh boards and commissions newsletter that can be placed in all our libraries and all our CRGs, because a lot of community members are still Wi-Fi deficient.

Again, appreciative of the appointments and very appreciative of AB 2234.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you.

Next is 8700.

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

Uh, all of them except for 50.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Uh Joy Sanyaka, uh 51.

Yes to the electric bicycle safety uh regulations for under 12-year-old children.

Yes to guiding our children in the ways of safety.

I support tough love.

52.

No to the contract with Whitman Enterprises for emergency ambulance transport billing and collection services until I know for certain they have a program to help low-income people who can be a very challenging time.

I will not support this contract.

Thank you.

100.

Yes to grants.

I love grants.

This is a large amount.

I wasn't clear how the funds will be distributed, monitored, and so forth.

Please oversee these precious funds stringently.

Thank you.

102.

A big yes to round six of HAP.

I love that.

Uh grant funds.

Blessings and thank you, Governor Newsom.

Love to you and your family.

The magic word on this is prevention.

Thank you.

On 104.

This is uh the raw sewage situation.

President Terry Truman has a sign in the Oval Office.

It said the buck stops here in the United States, Mexico sewage pollution crisis.

Where does the buck stop?

Thank you.

And then F 500, yes to Cat Cat Tech under the Trust Ordinance.

I love the trust ordinance.

Thank you, San Diego SWAT association for the donation of a robotic platform that has situational awareness.

That word is so powerful.

We all know everything starts with awareness, situational awareness.

And this protects our very very human police.

Thank you for listening.

It's already been a great start to the daily love to all.

Thank you.

Next is Peggy Walker.

If you can please unmute.

The five-minute timer also concluded.

There were eight speakers in the queue.

No additional speakers will be taken.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm thought and support item 50.

Registration and fees are good.

Um, but the fees seem low, and it's not clear if there's a means for substantiating the seller's other city license.

I think we need to recognize that wherever marijuana is permitted, there will always be an illegal market undercutting prices.

That's underscored by the fact that 40% of sales in our county currently are illegal.

Illegal deliveries represent the bulk of those sales, and black market products are selling at 40 to 50% off permitted sales prices.

That all means that ongoing enforcement will be crucial at challenging for the success of this, especially when unlicensed operators have a history of popping up, shutting down, and opening again.

This breeds public confusion, and those operators often care little about fines.

Thank you, and good luck with this.

Thank you, Madison.

If you can please unmute.

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

Hi, I'm speaking to item 50.

Um, I appreciate the effort in item 50 to strengthen enforcement against illegal cannabis delivery operations.

Unauthorized delivery businesses should not be allowed to operate outside the rules while neighborhoods bear the impacts.

At the same time, I want to express concern about the portion of this item that creates a new cannabis delivery business permit for operators delivering into San Diego from other jurisdictions.

The proposed registration fees appear very low, and the ordinance does not appear to require meaningful verification of the originating city's authorization before allowing deliveries here.

I believe we should be moving towards stronger oversight and fewer marijuana businesses in our communities, not creating pathways that could make expansion easier.

High potency marijuana products are already heavily marketed and increasingly normalized to young people.

I ask the council to ensure that any delivery permitting system includes robust verification and safeguards that do not unintentionally increase marijuana business activity in San Diego.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Judy Strang.

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

Judy, I can't unmute for you.

There you go.

Yes.

Good morning, City Council.

I came to speak on item 50 on consent.

I support City Council person's cape and his efforts to have some idea of who it is that's wandering around in our city delivering pot when it doesn't come from our own retail storefronts.

As we know, the ordinance is three-pronged.

Most importantly, it's to increase the penalties, at least from my point of view, regarding non-compliance.

And second, it'll give others the right to sue against this illegal cannabis activity occurring in our city.

Three, probably the one that's a little problematic to me, is what this permitting process might look for out of towners and out of towners they will be.

And we've watched that process in oceanside and no one ever registered.

So reason to be concerned in San Diego, we might see the same thing.

They figured out how to do it illegally, they'll just continue.

That's enforcement and those fines and penalties are gonna be of primal importance.

Thank you.

Thank you, Terry Ann Skelly.

If you can please unmute.

Good morning, San Diego City Council.

My name is Terry Ann Skelly.

I came to support consent item 50 regarding higher penalties for illegal pot deliveries into and around our city.

I appreciate the city's effort to know who is selling pot in our city and where the pot is coming from, since they don't have a physical location here within the city.

And they are in direct competition with the city's permitted retail storefronts that are already delivering.

I realize that the first step is to require a registration process.

However, our business tax certificate is a nominal fee and does nothing to contribute to the cost of enforcement.

So I will be most interested to see what the fee to establish by the city manager will be.

And I hope the system of fines and penalties will enable law enforcement to mitigate the dangers that unlawful pot delivery vehicles create.

Thank you for hearing my concerns this morning.

Thank you, Natalie Rashke.

If you can please unmute.

Hi, Natalie Rashke.

I'll speak to 50 uh 102, 103, and 104.

Um, listening to the marijuana stuff.

People are acting like this that this is not some plant that you can just grow in your pot, in your balcony, wherever you may be, it can be grown.

It's not gonna stop growing.

People aren't gonna stop smoking pot.

That it's become this every day they call and talk about how evil it is.

Maybe they need to smoke a joint themselves, but it's always gonna grow and it's always gonna be distributed.

102, the housing prevention grant.

Yes, I hope this prevents all of the EHV holders from becoming homeless on November 30th.

With the advisory board, I agree with uh one of the callers who said it needs to be stated or put maybe in libraries or other places when they're holding these advisory boards or committees to be on the board.

Um, just like there's uh a homeless advisory board that I was unaware of, and I couldn't even apply to get on it because it's locked on the screen.

And yes to the emergency sewage.

I don't know how the federal government hasn't stepped up and made this correct in the first place.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tony.

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

Uh all of them, please.

Please proceed.

Yes, I just wanted to start by saying uh great job to uh I believe his name is uh Matt, he was the first person who spoke in person.

But um, I just wanted to say I was very much in support of his comments and the way that he articulated his points this morning, and I really appreciated that.

Um, and I wanted to support Natalie Rashke's comments as well.

Um, marijuana's a plant that's been growing uh and been used as traditional medicine and Chinese culture for the last five thousand years.

Uh people have been using it all over the plant as a medicine.

Um, I think we really need to get over the marijuana phobia that we are that we are exposed to when we come to these city council meetings every single day.

Um, we hear a new song and dance about how this medicine um that Jack Carrer has a bunch of science that talks about how we could be using it uh for hemp, fuels, and fiber, paper, uh, clothes, uh, books, um, as an alternative as a uh pesticide-free organic natural alternative.

Um, you know, we could cut away with our pharmaceutical use, cut away with so many industries.

Uh, but I don't support um the proposal to increase the punishment and the taxes.

I don't support item 50, uh, because I don't want to live in this super litigious society where the only one that stands to benefit are the lawyers that know the law.

Raul Campbell.

Um, we already live in a super skate stopper society where skateboarders already have enough time uh navigating through uh society having fun.

I mean, we've really put a paywall up for skateboarders where you now have to pay to go to a skate park, and uh my point is that um there shouldn't be these obsessive paywalls and these fees and these fines for the society that we're living in.

Moving on to the uh e-bike uh uh policy, I completely support the e-bike regulations because uh they're out of control and kids using them are uh way too young to be going that fast.

Um, with regard to the um trust ordinance and the policy regarding the uh funds, the grant to be spent on homeland security to apply for more homeland security funds.

Uh I think it's absolutely absurd.

We've closed how many homeless shelters, uh, we've closed how many parks, we've closed how many library hours, and we're applying for grants for terrorism that doesn't exist in San Diego at a time when the federal government is calling activists terrorists.

It's freaking ridiculous.

One is enough enough.

And this militarism and end this uh police uh oversight with lack of accountability.

I love what Francine was saying about uh we don't have enough council members going to our commission meetings.

I go to the CPP meetings, I don't see a single one of the council members who's willing to give all the SCPD all the toys that they want in the world.

I don't see a single one of you showing up to the CPP meetings.

I don't see a single one of you showing up to the privacy advisory board meetings.

So I would love to see a lot more um oversight from y'all with regard to concluded.

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

I can't unmute for you.

I will need to move on if you can unmute yourself at this time.

All right, Blair Beekman.

My zoom is cutting out.

This is life and Tijuana for me.

I'm sorry.

Um hopefully I can still be here.

Um I wanted to speak on items 52.

Um uh 100, uh 104, and S500.

Please proceed.

Is that okay?

Thank you.

Thanks that you can hear me.

Um, first about the uh item 52, the ambulance transport billing and collection services.

Um, I'm really concerned about the situation with Andrea Ebbing.

Um, she's had to get a rape test kit after her ambulance ride and her uh, you know, uh police uh incident.

I hope her situation can be really really looked at with care and um sensitivity and that we are pulling for her and humanity and not uh for her to be institutionalized.

I I think there's really serious problems with that, and you guys know that.

And uh, she deserves to be living freely, and we have to talk more clearly on those concepts and and be more clear on that.

Uh, good luck in all of our efforts to understand the situation better and the and the ambulance role in all of this.

What was it?

What were they doing with her situation?

What were the police doing?

Um, good luck on those efforts.

Um for item 100 is uh fiscal year urban area security initiative grant program.

You guys had um this item at a committee meeting a few weeks ago.

Quite possibly this item will be uh the the San Diego UASI may it was suggested that they could appear at at public meetings a bit more often to describe what they're doing in their programs.

They also are at the uh quarterly uh county, uh San Diego County Office of Emergency Services.

So those are two places that if we keep uh UASI open and accountable and transparent as part of the public process, we'll be in good shape and they need it.

And if we do that, we'll be practicing well.

So really demand that of our UASC.

We can attend their meetings.

We don't have to be excluded.

There are ways to attend their public meetings.

I really invite everyone to check out what groups like UWASI are doing to our local cities and what their role is and how you can contribute and make asks and demands.

You have that ability.

We don't we don't uh exercise that very well.

Good luck on those sort of efforts.

About the um raw sewage issues, solid waste coming from Tijuana.

A council person from Tijuana is visiting oceanside these days to check out pure water systems.

I that's an incredible concept.

It may take 10 or 15 years to really work on better, but in the very least, we're communicating with each other.

Good luck on continuing that communication.

And it just stresses the incredible importance in working with Tijuana, even with them when we disagree.

We can be just as snobby towards Tijuana as Tijuana can be towards us.

So good luck and good communication.

It's a really good skill to have for a great area for a great region that we all share.

And about the Cat Cat issues, um, you know, we just have we're in we've been in a state of war for the past two decades.

Good luck that we're learning better and better practices of peace.

We're talking about peace of our policymaking and openness and accountability instead of war.

That's an important concept for learning.

Hector is our final speaker.

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

I'd like to speak to all of them.

Yeah, thanks for taking my call because my my zoom has been going off three or four times.

Kind of keeps reloading.

I'm trying to use it.

But thanks for taking my call.

Well, on the dope thing, it's gonna be hard to go against the drug dealers that are on the side.

They've already got their customers, but we got some legitimate businesses trying to compete with them.

But until like Trump makes a move on the drug dealers big time, they're always gonna win out in the end.

They have cheaper prices, but you guys are giving it a try.

On the e-bikes, I think uh we should have more enforcement on the boardwalk.

There's always guys flying by on the boardwalk in Mission Bay and on Mission Beach on the oceanside and Bayside.

Some are tourists, some are just young kids going crazy, but uh they could make tickets like 400 and really stick it to them just for e-bike and on the sidewalks.

And the TJ's the sewer plant.

We need to get a plan.

Forget all these this and that.

We need a plan.

We need like six Olympics size swimming pools, basically what it is, to hold the stuff and aerate it.

Sewer plants are basic stuff.

I worked on one in Colorado for two years in the 80s.

I know how they were work.

They're basic stuff, it's nothing high tech about it.

You know, we can do a little bit better job of doing the water, but we can either use the water for irrigation, and uh that should be a number one priority of our city, even the county, too.

It's it's just it's just embarrassing, you know, that that that's happening and the kids are suffering, the poor people that live in the downwind from that stuff.

It's disgusting.

And then uh the grants.

Now, I've been looking into those flock cameras, they can go super high tech.

If they get your license plate, they can get they can get access to your bank account, everything you bought on eBay, everything you ever did.

It's getting good better for them, it's getting better and better for information.

So they can just and do it in a split second, too.

It doesn't take a long time.

So I think they've already passed the point of no return.

Like five years ago in China, they got your face.

If a guy would cross jaywalk on the street, they get his face in the camera.

By the time he crossed the street and got to the other side, they took the fine out of his bank account.

That's how quick it works.

I'm sure they can do that here.

They link it to our bank accounts and we break the law like Jaywalking, let alone drug dealer illegal alien, it's gonna help with a rapid deportation.

Because if you have a face, facial recognition, if you're not in the database, you're a legal alien.

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

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And with that, we'll turn it to my council colleagues for any questions, comments, and entertain a motion, and we'll start with council member Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

With item 102, the city council is giving approval to spend round six of the state's homeless housing assistance and prevention grant.

This is the HAP funding that the city applied for.

It was awarded last year.

The city is receiving nearly 26 million dollars.

It'll be used to help people prevent homelessness.

Also help people who have fallen into homelessness get back into housing as quickly as possible.

There's also an allocation to help homeless youth.

Thanks to Sarah Jarmin and the staff at the homeless strategies and solutions department for successfully securing round six hat grant funding from the state.

I also want to thank the mayor for going up to Sacramento to ask for even more money for the program for this year.

And I thank our local legislative delegation of the governor for agreeing to do so and increasing that allocation.

I'll make the motion to approve the consent agenda.

All right, thank you, sir.

So we have a motion by Council Member Whitburn to move the consent items.

We'll go next to Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you, Council President.

I am happy to second the motion.

I approve of all the consent items.

I would like to speak about item 51 about the e-bikes.

I want to say a special thank you to our state assembly member uh from the San Diego, and that is Tasha Berner, for providing us with this new law in the state, AB 2234, which is a compromise item.

And so we have the children, 12 and up are able to ride e-bikes number one and number two class, not number three class.

Of course, children always have to wear their helmets if they're on a bike or an e-bike.

They should on a skateboard, anything they do, they should wear a helmet.

Uh this law was necessary.

It's kind of a pilot study, to tell you the truth, around the state.

It does uh sunset uh January first, 2029.

So we will have a couple of years of data from around the state.

But so far in San Diego, uh we have found a tremendous increase in the emergency rooms in e-bike accidents and injuries uh since 2021 when they started to become very popular.

Uh injuries include heads, trauma, head trauma, torso drama, fractures of the ribs, spinal fractures, and extremity fractures.

So it hits the whole body, and it's not good for anybody.

And those of us who are old know that all these injuries stay with us and really crop up once we reach a certain age.

So it's really important to prevent.

Remember Ben Franklin, of course, I'm about as old as he was when he was still alive.

But he said uh prevent uh uh an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

And so I think that's what um assembly member Berner was trying to help us with.

Our local collection data reflects the growing prevalence of e-bike crashes, uh, and it is a crisis uh in San Diego Police Department data.

We see that since uh 2021, e-bike accidents that are reported have increased four times, quadrupled.

There were 23 incidents in 2021, and now at least 84 incidents have been reported for 2025.

So you can see that improving the safety of children is so important.

Uh I think the age restriction is too low.

Uh, but I think once we get the data from from this study or from around the state, we'll see that we probably should make it 16.

And we probably should insist they have training and a license before they ride their e-bikes because uh I see these kids and I it's my my heart leaps.

I'm really worried about them getting hurt, and as a family doctor, I I know better.

So I hope that that it helps.

I want to give a shout out to State Senator Katherine Blakespeer.

Uh she is also uh helping to make us safer by uh proposing Senate Bill 1167 that addresses e-motorcycles and puts more responsibility on manufacturers to differentiate between the different classes of e-bikes, which usually you don't even find in the store.

They don't tell you, oh, this is class three, your kid can't ride it legally.

But uh we need to know all that, and uh we need to have the manufacturers be responsible for what they're selling, and uh hopefully uh her legislation will advance as well to uh continue to improve safety for the riders.

And uh I just want to say thank you to my colleagues and uh for bringing all these consent items forward and to the council president, and I am definitely in favor, so thank you so much.

All right, thank you.

And with that, we have a motion by Councilmember Whipper and the second by Councilmember Campbell to move the consent items.

We'll go next to Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Thank you very much.

Um I've spoken on many of these items previously, so I will keep this short, but on item 51 electric bicycle, electric bicycle safety regulations.

I am pleased to support this item.

As we've seen across San Diego, there have been a troubling increase in serious crashes involving high-powered electric bikes and electric motorcycles operated by miners.

Uh recently in Black Mountain and Script Ranch, where young people suffered serious injury injuries, we have seen the importance of taking a thoughtful look about whether our current state laws and enforcement tools are keeping pace with these emerging safety concerns.

Um, what happened is riding a regular bike.

We can still use those two.

Um, but I appreciate the work of uh Councilmember Campillo, Assemblymember Tasha Berner, Senator Blakespear, and our city staff and our partners on this.

On item 103 with the reappointments to the senior affairs advisory board, I'm very pleased to point the reappointment of Buen Marie Hillary to the senior affairs advisory board from their two year term.

Um Ms.

Hillary brings dedicated uh decades of health care leadership and operational experience with a proven track record of managing complex healthcare organizations throughout her career.

She has overseen large scale health care operations, including administering a Medicare five-star 192-bed long-term care hospital with a budget of 36 million dollars.

It's a lot of work that you have done.

Um you've also founded and led nonprofit organizations, bringing valuable governing experience, financial oversight, and organizational management to your role on this board.

Um she's also worked to strengthen collaboration across the health care system by establishing eight post-acute care and hospital community forums, demonstrating her commitment to improving coordination and patient care.

We are grateful to have your experience on the board.

Thank you for serving again and for serving your city.

And with that, I will support the consent agenda.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Baumwolpert.

We'll go next to council member Elo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Um wanted to start by just quickly saying that um item S 500, I appreciate the work done by the privacy advisory board to approve uh the use of this technology.

Uh I see that that happened on April 9th, um, which is why I'll be supporting what's in front of us today.

And then I did want to turn to item 102.

Um, so I don't know if Sarah or Coda, I do have a few questions here, um, around um our acceptance appropriation and expending of round six of HAP funding.

So, um I spent some time going through um the documents here, and first Sarah, as always, thanks for all of your work.

You have a uh incredibly difficult job with not nearly enough resources, and I want to acknowledge uh that before I get into my questions here.

Um, the table that I am looking at for the um for the plan is pretty light on details.

It's a simple table.

Um labeled HAPSIX funding plan.

In that table, there's uh 2.2 million for prevention and shelter diversion uh and almost 18 million for operating subsidies for interim housing.

Uh can you talk to us about the the ratio there and the choices that fed into this being the ratio?

Sure.

Uh I will point that in the presentation that's attached to the item, there is a little bit more detail on each of those, so it'll be split between what sorts of prevention and diversion are funded along with what uh interim housing subsidies there are there, which is mostly the shelter system.

Um I will say that for just so I is that the the bullet points under each of those because I had a difficult time finding specifically which programs or shelters are being funded with um with these HAP dollars.

Sure.

Would it be helpful if I run through it really quickly?

Sure.

So for prevention and shelter diversion, the city is proposing to fund family reunification, the housing instability prevention program, and the diversion program.

That's the new program that we discussed back when we brought this item before previously.

For operating subsidies, interim housing, we're funding the 16th and Newton Bridge Shelter, the single adult and seniors interim shelter, the women and family shelter, the Salvation Army interim family shelter, and the travel lodge family shelter.

In addition to that, under the youth set aside, we are funding a significant portion of our youth shelters within the system, and then we do have administrative costs for both the city, the housing commission, and for HMIS that will go to the continuum of care.

In terms of the ratio that you mentioned previously, I will say that as we do this application, we do it as a collective unit between the city, the county, and the regional task force.

Um for the city's pro the city's proposed allocation, a large portion of that does come from the shelter system because it is an eligible expense.

Um so if you recall, at least 50% of our HAP application needs to be for housing focused programs, housing focused programs do include shelter, they do include prevention, they would include permanent housing.

Um, but as this fits into the larger puzzle piece of the budget system, uh this is this is the proposal that we came forward.

It only differs very slightly from when you saw this previously in January, so I would like to touch on that for you.

The one major change is within safe parking.

So safe parking was no longer considered a housing focused program, so we did swap out safe parking to fund additional shelter beds to kind of meet that um match, and then also we did make once one slight change um in funding the housing instability prevention program to offset some of the general fund that came out of the final budget council action.

Right.

Thank you.

Um appreciate the that detail.

The shelters that are being funded, can you talk to us about how the success rate of placing folks into housing is factored into which shelters will be funded with HAP dollars?

Uh it's not necessarily factored in.

Each of our shelter contracts have uh contracted kind of metrics to meet those success rates.

I don't have those in front of me today, but it's not necessarily uh factor.

Generally across the board.

Uh we see we see a similar kind of goal target for success rate within our shelter system.

Right.

And I know the goal target is pretty similar, the actual rate though, and obviously different populations with different challenges means um that the timeline might look different.

Uh, but I do think it's important for us to have that be the goal, and thus to hold both the providers accountable to that goal and ourselves.

Um to what extent, if at all, does um what we are utilizing this round of HAP funding account for um the emergency housing voucher program and and what's happening there.

Uh this funding, other than really the diversion funding included here and the diversion collective with the housing commission, um, in my opinion would be the largest kind of a step forward for folks under the emergency housing voucher program.

If you'd like more information, I'd be happy to go back to the housing commission and we can we can bring that information forward to you.

Well, I'm familiar with I I mean I'm I think I'm pretty well versed in what the housing commission is doing.

We have, and I I am glad the city in invested in uh prevention and diversion in the budget that was just approved.

At the same time, we have a specific number of um very vulnerable families that are going to be losing assistance that keeps them housed, and it would seem important that we account for that in the housing in the in the homelessness housing and prevention funding that we're receiving from the state.

Um turning quickly to round seven.

If I understand it, round seven is going to be allocated toward the to the same cities that received HOP 6 funding, not necessarily the same amounts.

Um that's to be determined in a couple months.

That's correct.

So the state of California will release the notice of funding availability for the city along with the counties and the COCs.

HAP 7 is at 900 million right now, which is more apples to apples than HAP 6 was funded for.

So back of the napkin math, we could anticipate anywhere between 26 and 30 million dollars.

That how however that is uh dependent upon various factors.

Um a lot of it is of course block and formula based and it would be based upon our point-in-time count across the state.

Okay.

The one of the things that I was unsure of is whether or not so, my if I'm understanding correctly, the the purpose of um providing funding to the same cities was to reduce administrative cost and administrative time and getting HAP seven dollars out the door, making the best use of those funds.

But I didn't necessarily understand, at least at first glance, is whether or not we will be bound by the way we're spending Hap 6 funding in how we spend HAP 7.

No, so HAP 7 will we'll still be able to allocate HAP 7 separately, and HAP 7 will still have to come before the City Council for us to accept appropriate and expend it.

The process for the application, as far as we understand today, will be uh slightly administratively better, where instead of an entirely kind of new application, we'll be able to amend the application, but that does not um tie our hands to the allocations that you have in front of you today, and it also would require council approval.

Okay, I appreciate that.

So one of the the um feels like if there's a it's like a right of um seasonal uh right of me saying that I want to make sure that the city council not only has an opportunity to approve but um to weigh in on the application and the way that we are going, what we're going to be pursuing funding for.

Um so is there a plan to engage the council before the application is submitted?

Because at that point in front of us, I'm not gonna say no to receiving the funds, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the the funds that we're pursuing are being uh then that that does not necessarily mean that it's the it's the best use of the funds in my mind or the mind of the council, and maybe it may not be, but we haven't necessarily had the opportunity to weigh in uh if we don't have a chance to do that with the application before it's submitted.

So, what is what will that process look like?

Council member, uh my department is happy to bring forward our proposed allocation similarly to what we did with HAP Six prior to actually submitting our application if that seems agreeable.

Uh ultimately, uh council president and the chair of the Landing Housing Committee put uh certainly my preference that we would have an opportunity to weigh in before that application is submitted.

And then uh last question, I don't see it listed here, and I didn't hear you mention it.

Um safe camping not funded with HAP funds.

That's correct.

And is that as because they're not eligible or just a different decision by the city?

Uh safe sleeping is similarly to safe parking, is not uh considered shelter under HUD's definitions and therefore doesn't qualify under the 50% necessary to be allocated towards housing focused solutions.

So, as the three jurisdictions collaborated for this application, we did not include anything that would not be counted in that category.

So safe sleeping does not count in that category, and therefore it's not funded here.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh sorry, before you leave and before I go to Council Member Campio, um the NOFA hasn't been released.

Do we know what the submittal deadline is?

We do not, not to my understanding.

Okay, I'm just thinking about trying to respond to the request.

So if you could let my office know, once that NOFA comes out.

Council President, we'll pull all that information together and we'll get in touch with your office.

Okay, just determine whether we can actually schedule it for council, or you'll have to have individual briefings given the council meetings.

All right, thank you very much, Sarah.

Uh with that, let's go to Councilmember Campio.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll keep it brief.

I want to thank my colleagues for their support over the previous weeks on item 5051, the cannabis delivery services business permit and the electric bike safety regulations.

But most of all, I want to uh thank our two staff members who put in months and months and even years of time into those policies.

Carrie Shaw working on the electric bicycle safety regulations and summer patent working on the cannabis delivery permit, uh meeting with uh hundreds of stakeholders on that and dozens of meetings.

So just wanted to give them a shout-out for their very, very good work on getting unanimous votes on those.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Campilla.

We're the pretty faces, they're the ones that do the hard work.

Good that you acknowledge them.

Uh and we'll go back to Councilmember Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Very briefly, I just want to thank Ms.

Jarmin for answering the questions in regard to the allocations.

I fully support uh the council having the opportunity to review the applications.

The one thing I would say is that when we do that, uh I think it'd be helpful uh to do that in the context of the overall city spending on homelessness services, because if you just look at one slice, um it could look weighted very differently than it does when you look at the entirety of homelessness spending uh as a whole.

So I just think that any time we're looking at homeless spending, we should look at it in the context of what the city's spending is overall.

That's all I would say.

Thank you.

Uh all right, thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

Um, I think a point uh well taken.

Uh Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, I wanted to take a moment to congratulate uh Mr.

Patun for his continued uh service on the senior advisory board um and uh certainly long history in terms of um serving the Filipino American community and your service on this board has uh been appreciated for quite some time.

So thank you for continuing that.

Um then uh similar follow-up to the HAP funding as well.

Uh I I do think we should appreciate and acknowledge that the final uh movements on the budget at the state level ended up trending in a very positive direction and increasing those dollars because they've continued to be um at risk, it seems like year after year.

Um I don't feel as strong of a need, and this is just my feedback, Council President, to have an entire hearing item to review the specifics of what we're submitting grant-wise, but it I mean the details would be helpful.

So if there was a larger discussion around homelessness in terms of grant funding, how that ties to expenditures, does feel like we do some of that during the budget as well.

Um, but just knowing that docketing can be difficult at times, just want to appreciate how we can get information in the best way that would help us.

So thank you.

Sure.

Absolutely, uh we'll all kind of weigh that in and work with uh Sarah and her team uh and the mayor's office about how to navigate that.

Um so uh not seeing anybody else in the lights um uh clearly item 102 was the popular one on the consent agenda and offer some closing thoughts.

Uh and I'll start out by thanking Sarah, you uh and HSD team for your work in securing the round six grant um and your command of what you're doing and how you're doing it, and every little detail about it.

Uh, was a good uh testimony in your answers to uh my colleague there.

Uh the allocated funding for the city as well as the county and the RTFH through the joint application to some demonstrates the previous and ongoing efforts of this region to deliver on results and use the funding strategically and effectively in our city's ability to apply this funding over the past six years is also the reason the governor and the state legislator agreed on full funding for HAPS 7 in the current budget.

Um that was certainly a moment to celebrate.

Earlier in the state's budget cycle, I had the opportunity to join PATH and other housing leaders across the state in Sacramento to speak to the importance of HAP and how cities like San Diego both use this grant to reduce homelessness and provide housing as well as leverage those dollars with local resources.

And this is what we're doing with uh HAP Route Six, and I appreciate every effort's efforts to maintain this grant.

We have a lot of work to do.

And this grant provides the annual funding, and I think that it goes to speaks to what my colleagues referred to, the challenge of this is an ongoing issue.

These are people's lives, and we're trying to create sustainable, sustainable solutions, and every year we have to apply for those grants.

And even though we have a track record of getting those grants, the being on pins and needles when people's lives are at stake makes this so problematic.

For now, we can be grateful.

For now, we can be grateful that HAP 7 will be a bigger uh chunk than HAP 6.

Uh, but there is a lot more work to do.

Councilmember Hilo Rivera mentioned the emergency housing vouchers, which is a separate but important conversation about that vulnerability.

Um Councilmember Whipper and I talked with uh Senator Shift about the 13,000 units that are currently housing units are currently under contract and whether they will remain under contract for the people who live there.

Uh there are so many things that require sustainable ongoing funding.

We're not there yet, but hopefully we can work together to get to better solutions.

Uh, and before I call for the vote, we'll go back to Councilmember Ilo Rivera one more time.

Thank you, Council President.

I I just want to add some additional context here.

I think one of the things that I've just frankly struggled with over the last five and a half years is this idea that it's important to recognize the work that is being done, and also simultaneously, not for a second, pretend that I'm satisfied with the progress that's being made, and we only get so many bites at the apple when it comes to the funding that we receive, that we receive specifically for homelessness, and I want to make sure that we are being as thoughtful as possible every single time we get that bite at the Apple.

And I'm gonna be very frank that for those of us who joined the council in 2020, and those who were already here starting in 2018, the administration was not nearly open enough with our input, not feedback, but input about how we would spend our precious resources as it relates to homelessness, and it was a a a tug of war to simply get the opportunity for the council to weigh in before the cake was baked, and we were essentially told do you want the money or not?

Not how do you want to spend it, which is the most important power that we hold as a council, but will you will we or or won't we receive it?

Which is obviously a choice that we would never say no to.

So that is why I just want to provide some additional context for why I guard so jealously the council's ability to weigh in on the front end.

Um, and if I had my way, we would be having these conversations on a much more regular basis.

But they they are I recognize they are exhausting and challenging.

But the reality is is that despite this being a priority for the council, despite the amount of time we spent on it, despite the way that I know it keeps some of us up at night.

If tonight's meeting runs long, we're gonna walk out of this building and there's going to be people sleeping outside the doors of City Hall.

And we may not like the way that that's told to us as a council, but it is a fact, and so long as that is the case, I I want to make sure that we are not sacrificing for a second any opportunity we have to determine how those dollars are spent and whether or not they're being spent well.

And we can have that conversation without for a second dismissing or disrespecting or denying the incredible work that city staff does on an issue that is not their making and far beyond any one individual's ability or even one city's ability to solve for.

So thank you for the additional time, Council President.

I just wanted to add that context.

Uh no, I appreciate that, and I think that without drifting too far off course, uh, that's the continuing challenge of incremental things that staff is responding to deadlines and different buckets of money and different red tape and different bureaucracy, where it's difficult to grab hold of the totality of what we're trying to do and what our priorities are.

Uh, and then we scramble in June to try to make sense of the overall budget when we've already predetermined so many decisions along the way.

We can always always do better.

Um, okay, with that, uh, we do have a motion by Councilmember Whitburn, a second by Councilmember Campbell.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Sorry, the voting system, please cast your vote.

That passes eight to that passes unanimously nine to zero.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Uh thank you, Clerk.

Thank you to my colleagues.

Uh thank you to staff for making yourselves available on the consent items.

So before we go to non-agenda or um public comment, are there any comments from the mayor's office, council members, city attorney, independent budget analyst, or city clerk.

Not seeing anything for the mayor's office, uh, but we see the city clerk is on the lights.

Thank you, Council President.

I did just want to um make an additional announcement.

Due to the changes with organized presentations, we have found capacity and new technology assets to be able to also allow any individual speakers to also be able to submit any organ any type of PowerPoint video, audio to www.sandiego.gov slash materials two hours before the meeting, whether they are presenting here in council chambers or virtually.

So this is for individual speakers, not just group presentations.

If they would like to share a PowerPoint or an audio video, they can submit that again to San Diego.gov slash materials two hours before the meeting.

And if you'd like additional information, please be sure to go to www.sandiego.gov slash participate.

Thank you so much, Council President.

All right, thank you for that continuous efforts.

Um we'll go to Councilmember Von Wolpert.

Um, thank you.

I just wanted to commemorate the three firefighters who were killed uh a few days ago um battling the Sydney fire in the board of Utah and Colorado.

Uh they were young.

Emily Barker, Nick Hutchardson, and Sydney Watson were killed while battling the fire.

Um the U.S.

Forest Service says they were part of the rifle heat lack crew that jumped into they were smoke jumpers that helped um to try and prevent fires.

And so we here in San Diego have just commemorated the Cedar Fire Anniversary and the Wood Creek fire anniversary recently.

So thank you for your service to our country, and we need to do better to protect our our workers.

So thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Not seeing any other requests to speak, uh, we will now take up non-agenda public comment.

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

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

Pearl 2.7 non-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 16 minutes.

If you're in chambers, please submit your speaker slip.

If you're joining us virtually, please raise your hand at this time by tapping the raise your hand icon, or if you're a call-in participant, star nine.

If I can have Damian Robertson, please come up to the microphone.

After that, if I can get Stephen Gerard to please come up to the yellow reserve seats, Taylor Partridge, and then we'll be Maximilian Schmidt and allegedly Audra.

Damien, please proceed.

Hey, how are we doing?

Um, my name is Damian Roberson.

I would ask for a little bit more than two minutes.

I will come back in the afternoon if I have to.

Um, starting off, I am part of the circle of service.

Uh I'm got my eyes on you now, Mr.

Sean Elo Rivera.

Um, basically, I have a plan that is about homeless outreach, people, places, and things.

I can see I've seen all the budgets, I seen how it works.

I created my own companies that are employee-owned, and then I created another resource that is let us empower, which is a stamp.

If you were an organization, if you were Joe Lacava, if you were my man Jeff over here, who's a great mayor's detail.

I know this city pretty well.

I've been in part of everything of it.

And I would like to be heard on ways to allocate these budgets funding, maybe even put a partnership, sponsorship, apprenticeship for resources.

It's a job source.

I've created the companies myself.

They're a part of a lettuce brand companies, which is let us clean, cater, entertain, and build.

They're incorporated.

And so that is the people, and anybody who wants to be a part of that, the people that we are an organization.

This city of San Diego is a great city.

I can take us from number eight economy at least minimum to number three in the world.

And that's just based off what I see in Allocate from people, paces, and things.

MTS, they do a great job, Father Joe's.

And these are in the circle of services, I say uh places that I work with personally.

Um the homeless outreach, I would want to make a homeless outreach advisory board that might include some homeless or people that represent that.

I'm a voice of the city, and each one of you guys, even the city attorney from the DA's attorney to the public defender.

I've had personal dealings with even the when in community, Brittany Daniels is officer.

I shake hands and make fun of that.

Thank you for that kind of thing.

So that's what I'm working on.

Anybody wants to understand and see you guys.

But thank you for that concluding comment.

Stephen Gerard.

I understand you have something for the uh something to put up.

So we will put that up right now.

Thank you.

And you'll have two minutes, please proceed.

San Diego City Council and Citizens, Stephen Gerard Sudlovsky.

Uh, I'd like to open since we're celebrating 250 years and we're a Judeo Christian nation.

I'd like to open up with just a random holy Bible, starting with Hebrews 9.

Then verily, the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary.

For there was a tabernacle made the first, wherein was the candlestick and the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary.

And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censor and the ark of the covenant overlaid.

Please read all of Hebrews 9.

I smile when you embrace the Holy Bible and read it daily, as I try to do myself.

I frown if you don't.

I encourage that.

Looking at the slide here, San Diego will be hosting another wonderful walk for life coming January 23rd.

I encourage you to put that on your schedule and attend it.

Next weekend, Mission San Diego.

The Diocala Festival, the Vells will be occurring also.

I encourage you to attend that.

I often play at the Blessing of the Animals events with my guitar.

I continue to uh amplify new USA pre-born personage cities as a pro-life speaker.

It's something that we can do now.

I hope you are already reading the correspondence that has been placed before you.

Thank you for permitting me to speak.

And remember, let the beating heart show you there is life in the womb.

God bless you all.

Thank you.

Next is Taylor Partridge.

If you can please come forward, Taylor.

Are you here?

Taylor Partridge.

Going once.

Right, Maximilian Schmidt, if you can please come forward.

Hi, I just wanted to give a big thank you to Councilmember Campbell for um uh saying that the e-bike, the e-bikes are a crisis because they are, and um, I think that it we need to be super aggressive about um a full out ban on electric scooters, bicycles, and um skateboards.

Completely ban them.

Um they're way too dangerous, in my opinion.

They actually ruin the sidewalks completely.

The sidewalks don't even feel safe to walk down at all.

Ban everything electric, we could be the first city on the West Coast to do it.

And I think if we took a vote of everyone's San Diego, everyone would support that.

And San Diego could be like big heroes, and they could be set to um be the first city to do it in the US.

And I think we need to be super aggressive about a full-out ban on everything electric because it's oh yeah, I liked what Councilmember Campbell's saying.

Where it's also a helmet issue where maybe like teens don't want to wear helmets, they go on the bike path where it's safer, where a lot of skilled people with like the one-wheeled skateboards, they'll wear helmet and they'll go on the road.

So if you want to do something electric, you have to ride on the road with a helmet, and then the sidewalks, nothing electric's allowed on the sidewalks.

Pretty basic.

And then I also want to talk about a Freemason Zerzit song.

We can help people across the um planet, but in every downtown urban center in the world, there's someone who's lonely and isolated and going crazy because they can't grasp or wrap their mind around the fact that someone can read your mind and they're becoming um mentally ill.

And if we send a public service announcement across the world to let these people know that people can read your mind um by doing a cult group rituals in Osonic Lodges, you're not crazy.

In fact, that person is evil trying to make you crazy.

We can actually save lives.

Allegedly, Andre, if you can please come forward.

And um, it's interesting to hear you guys talk about that being your favorite item about the hat funding, and you know, talking about when people's lives are at stake, these are people's lives, you know, talking about money being at risk, efforts to maintain grants, ongoing funding.

You know, do you want the money or not?

And it's like you're using these people's lives, and it's so sad because I wish you cared about those people just as much as you care about this money that you get, because like you're talking about you walk over them and you don't like how I talk to you about it.

Well, I don't like watching that.

Really hard.

And it's really hard to listen to you guys talk like this when I come to you year after year and tell you about people dying at Taint City, and then you use them as a means to get money, and it's like, how sad is that?

Um a man was strangled yesterday at Tent City, and he's part of the lawsuit.

And people have been dying there from fentanyl overdoses that don't do fentanyl.

And I'm just like, what the fuck?

You guys, you're the ones that are supposed to like you have this opportunity to do something.

You have the power to do it.

Why do you just walk over them?

I asked them if they've gotten help and they say no and they want it.

And it's like you have all these people that are set to lose housing, and they are about to they could die if you send them to Tent City.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

I've started the five-minute timer.

We currently have 11 people in the queue, starting with Lori Saldania, if you can please unmute.

Uh, thank you.

Good morning, and thank you for instituting the way for people to submit uh documents and other things before non-agenda comment.

Um, I want to address collapsing infrastructure and climate change in San Diego, and also the cost of change orders that are increasing the the cost for these projects by hundreds of millions of dollars in coastal areas.

Pardon my sore throat.

I'm getting over bronchitis.

There has been a 35% increase in cost due to higher groundwater levels around a pure water pump station along the San Diego River.

This overall is a billion dollar plus project, which means hundreds of millions of dollars in change orders for specifically that one pump station along Friars Road, very close to where you're proposing to build thousands of new homes in the Midway project, what I call the Midway Sinking Project across the river adjacent to the San Diego River.

Until and unless you investigate changes in groundwater in these communities, the citizens will continue to put more taxpayer money into addressing these change orders, and they will also have to pay for emergency repairs.

And one company in particular has received almost a hundred million dollars.

This is the uh cast construction.

They have received these emergency change orders, close to a hundred million dollars now, because the city is simply not evaluating the risk of these coastal communities.

High tides are routinely now flooding Mission Bay, and very soon we will have El Niño driven storms pushing those tides even more into the community.

These the floodwaters are reaching the streets, the alleys, and soon the homes in Mission Beach.

And any high tide, you simply go down to those areas and you see the tides are going up through the storm drains that are supposed to drain water away from the land.

Sea level is changing, groundwater is changing, our communities are sinking.

Please investigate these changes before you spend more money on change orders.

Thank you.

Next is Becky Rapp, if you can please unmute.

Good morning.

My name is Becky Rapp, and today I'd like to share data provided in the San Diego County Cannabis Public Health Initiative report.

The data in the 2025 report makes one thing very clear.

We're seeing increases in cannabis-related emergency department visits, poison control calls, highly potent products, synthetic cannabinoids, and new forms of access that simply did not exist a few years ago.

Perhaps most concerning is that many young people still don't recognize the risks.

A significant percentage of students report believing that daily marijuana use is not harmful.

While justice involved youth continue to report early initiation, frequent use, and easy easy access.

That tells us education and prevention efforts are still desperately needed.

We also need to be honest about what we're talking about today.

This is not the marijuana many people remember from decades ago.

This is not simply a plant growing in a pot on our balcony.

Today's cannabis includes highly concentrated THC products, vapes, edibles, and other products designed to deliver much stronger doses than previous generations experienced.

The potency and accessibility of these products have changed, and our prevention efforts must change with them.

We also cannot ignore the mental health impacts on young people.

Adolescence is a critical period of brain development, and research continues to show that early and frequent marijuana use can affect attention, memory, learning, motivation, and emotional well-being, especially those who are already vulnerable.

It can increase the risk of anxiety, depression, psychosis, and other serious mental health challenges.

At a time when youth mental health concerns are already at historic levels.

We must take every opportunity to educate and protect our children.

The data has been provided.

Local current data impacting our communities and neighborhoods.

We have an opportunity and a responsibility to act before these problems become even more difficult.

So my concluded, Kathleen Lippin, if you can please unmute.

Thank you.

Good morning, Council.

As a prevention policy advocate, getting elected to support prevention strategies is challeng is unnecessarily challenging with local government officials and sometimes with the public, because their outcomes are not immediately seen.

But no other strategy for addressing public health and safety challenges work better for their efficacy, sustainability, and economics.

Having the failures of harm reduction policies and ineffective city policies influenced by addiction industries point it out to city elected officials they're not appreciated.

That's understandable.

None of us enjoy being criticized.

But instead of ignoring the words of those whose heartfelt concerns prompt them to be repetitive, please consider what they have to say.

Audra is one of those whose passion for the homeless motivates her intrepid, conscientious, undaunted efforts to shine a light on preventable deaths of those who end up in homeless shelters, encampments, tents, or on our street.

Kelly Davis was a similar voice who spent three decades to prevent those in our prisons from dying unnecessarily.

Although the jails should be one of the most controlled environments, it remains a mystery as to why they are not.

There seems to be no good reason why drugs, weapons, suicides take place in our jails and prisons.

Ms.

Davis spent three decades shining this light, and she could bring attention to their plight in a touching tribute to her efforts, the families of those whose loved ones were passed away in jails, attended her funeral to pay their respects.

We lost a powerful and principled voice on behalf of those in prison.

And we need to remind ourselves that voices like Kelly and Audra deserve to be respected and listened to.

Unlike many of the politically influenced voices we hear, they're clearly.

Madison, if you can please unmute.

Yes, hi.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak again today.

I wanted to focus on the important mental health consequences of drug impairment and the impact on our young people.

A new UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Study found that California adolescents who currently use substances experience significantly higher rates of psychological distress and suicidal thoughts or attempts than their peers.

Nearly half of youth who used drugs, alcohol, and tobacco reported serious psychological distress.

Even more concerning, adolescents who used both substances and experienced psychological distress were nearly six times more likely to report suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts than those who use substances without psychological distress.

These findings remind us that substance use prevention is mental health prevention.

Every effort we make to delay or reduce substance use has the potential to improve emotional well-being and reduce the risk of tragic outcomes.

I encourage you to prioritize evidence-based prevention programs alongside treatment services.

Prevention is often the most effective behavioral health investment we can make because it keeps young people from ever needing more intensive services later.

Thank you.

Thank you, Terry.

Terri Ann Skelly, if you can please unmute.

Good morning, San Diego City Council.

My name is Terry Ann Skelly.

I'm a parent of three adult sons and a planning group member.

My planning group had a presentation regarding fire safety from the county's fire safe council last week.

My planning group is concerned about tobacco and marijuana smoking and vaping on the hiking trails on the small sidewalks that connect the neighborhoods in my area.

Marijuana and tobacco products are discarded out on the trails and the sidewalks, creating a hazard for fires.

And legally, vaping products are considered a toxic waste.

We need much better signage in those areas this summer, indicating that they are smoke-free and vape-free.

I'm hoping the city departments that would be responsible for this type of signage could do so soon.

And that would be a great time to prohibit smoking and vaping in all public places in our city where our citizens live and play.

The city could signal their understanding that the water we drink, the land we enjoy, and especially the air that we breathe are all very precious.

It would be great by bringing forward a smoke-free and vape-free public places ordinance, like many other cities throughout our county.

This would work towards creating a smoke-free, vape-free generation of young Americans that reject, reject tobacco and marijuana use and the physical and health mental problems they create.

Thank you for hearing my concerns this morning.

Thank you.

Good morning, San Diego City Council.

Thank you for letting me share some personal thoughts here.

When I heard, and I I'm not being unkind here, I hope the idea that people grow their marijuana in pots.

And the circle of people that I care about, I have visited one of them now three times as they've been hospitalized because of their psychotic and mental distress because of their marijuana use.

I know what it looks like in the 20s, the 30s and the 40s and the 50s, and it is scary.

And it causes whether it causes distress to the person smoking.

Well, we'd have to have them come in and talk to you.

But I've seen some pretty agitated, depressed state.

But let me tell you for those of us around them who love them and care them and try to protect them, it's a horrific experience.

So if we speak about our concerns, I want you to understand it's a personal issue for many of us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you.

Um there was um now that we're having the rollout of the um the new um public uh comment time period, um, what speakers can do and and working in groups, thanks that it started.

Um I'm interested how um uh if needed, the city clerk can know how to uh use the 130 time a bit more frequently and more flexibly as appropriate.

I offered that yesterday, and I realized the meeting went on to about six or seven, so you know she actually yourselves made a very wise decision um in how to uh garner one minute for public comment, but um just sometimes some items deserve a bit longer time and to be flexible and open to the 130 time.

Um, I think you guys do that really well and should know how to use it a little more regularly as needed.

I thought I just mentioned this time.

Um, in this new public comment age we're entering.

Um, I also wanted to comment on the words of Lori Soldano, um, who I think did a really nice job to describe that.

If nothing else, we have to with the Midway Rising project, we have to be aware of uh our options and choices.

And Lori Soldani has made it clear that I hope her words become a part of the regular conversation in how to address the future of midway rising.

I think she's on a really important uh tact in how to talk about it that needs respect and um I I hope it's it's just a regular part of the future of our cars conversations and not kept hidden and tucked away and not talked about.

And um I'm really hopeful about the future of um accountability with with public policies with tech accountability.

We've taken a bit of a break over the past few years.

It's really time that when good policies present themselves, we need to really move forward and work towards them on a number of issues.

We can be working towards peace, not war.

That's an interesting process.

Sorry, Francine Maxwell, if you can please unmute.

Good morning, Francine Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego resident.

I want to make sure that um you know how much we appreciate our CPP commissioners.

We appreciate the time that they spend away from their family, the extra meetings, the extra training, but the community is a little concerned with the 185k.

That seems a little bit low ball for us to get our own attorney.

And so I say us because we are all in this together.

And so, as a taxpayer, knowing that you guys have some money that may not have been counted on for 2027 FY, maybe somebody can look and see if there's some scraps left to up the uh scale from the 185k for uh independent attorney for our independent CPP.

RCPP works hard.

They have absolutely got some things changed.

Um, recently, the community has begun to receive letters again that tells you that there was no um no misconduct for the officers, and although the you may not be happy with the letter you receive, you're receiving them again.

We are moving towards uh better customer service with internal affairs.

We leave a message, and you sometimes get a return call within the same day.

And so we want to make sure that we continue to work in partnership, but you need to help us get our independent arm a little bit stronger, and so an independent attorney to advise our commissioners.

Although we do have some attorneys on the commission, we still need to have that seat filled along with a couple others.

So please consider holding some type of hearing, add it to the agenda last minute, like you guys do, many things that you want to, and let's get our oversight, our independent oversight really um going over the summer while you're on legislative break.

There's some things that can absolutely be done because they are city employees that are um staffing the CPP.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Peggy Walker, if you can please unmute.

Okay, thank you again.

Um, I is social wellness month, a call to improve the health and mental well-being of our communities, which is a goal of those who work for safe marijuana and other drug policies to protect youth.

That effort isn't about the marijuana plant, by the way, as mentioned earlier.

It's about an industry engineering THC content of those plants far beyond anything natural, about highly potent synthesized products designed and packaged to attract young people while falsely presented as safe or even as medicine with no scientific data back up and lacking pharmaceutical protocols.

Today it's highly potent products, not visualized with Prop 64, have introduced public health risks that local enforcement and health care infrastructure are proving ill-equipped to absorb.

This is demonstrated by item 50 today, regarding uncontrollable illegal marijuana delivery activities that present challenging enforcement issues, especially regarding deliveries to youth.

It's challenged by the public health burdens of young addiction and increased demand for mental support services that offset projected tax revenues by surging ER visits, highlighting the unanticipated medical costs of increased youth access to marijuana.

It's about need for greater prevention efforts because allowing an industry to mess with a kid's mind before he even has a chance to comprehend the damage PAC can do to young brains just isn't justified.

Judging policies by how they work for the betterment of the community, the marijuana industry practices currently allowed, fail the test for youth safety.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Your time has concluded.

Natalie Rashke, if you can please unmute.

Then we have Hector and 8700, our final speakers.

Please proceed.

Hi, Natalie Rashki here.

Just a couple things.

My uh, I want to talk about, but I'm gonna respond to the women that have responded to what I have said.

I understand that marijuana is more potent.

I have four children.

I talk to them about what is out there and what is good and what is bad, and that they have consequences when they make these choices.

Some of these people have other mental issues that may be affected by marijuana.

I understand that, but to make it that it's illegal for everybody, it's not something I'm okay about.

MKUltra is a real thing, though that was classified.

Big pharma is our biggest drug producing, addictive, it's crazy.

And my whole original was coming on here and talking to the city of San Diego and how we're moving forward and looking at our future with innovation and protecting the people against big pharma against MK Ultra.

That is real stuff, and they do manipulate minds and it is out there, and you can do the research.

We moving forward, I have four children, and I want them to be contributing members to society.

We need to start looking at innovation.

I don't know how many of you on the diet are researching how AI is moving and how all these technologies are moving forward.

I think we need to start being more innovative.

I just produced a book.

We just received our first robot AI teacher in the city of San Diego.

That is huge.

I wrote a book on how to introduce AI to your teens.

We need to start thinking in this fashion so that we are not at the end of the day in new world order.

That is serious to me, and I hope it's serious to everyone on the dais, especially if you have young children.

Thank you.

Hector, if you can please unmute.

Hi, guys.

Yeah, I want to remind you guys it's July, and it's uh white history month.

And I was just thinking about I grew up in San Diego in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and the white history at that time.

San Diego was great, man.

All the white guys were running the show, mainly guys, some white women, a couple black guys were out there, Archie Moore's house.

We used to drive uh over his uh freeway on prints, going down to 32nd Street in the Navy.

My parents were both in the Navy, and he had a uh uh he probably shows God, he has a boxing glove for a swimming pool and my Archie Moore, the famous uh the mongoose black guy in San Diego.

My dad would point him out to me and stuff, he's pretty cool.

But I don't remember it being that super racist.

Like the one lady's talking about racist racist racist kind of thing, playing the race card all the time and not getting jobs, or when I was growing up, it wasn't I don't think it was like that.

We had black guys in our neighborhood, Mexican kids, Jewish guys.

It was like, you know, there was nobody stealing stuff from the store.

There was no guy getting shot.

You'd have a fist fight with a kid, it didn't matter what color he was, it wasn't nobody was pulling out a knife.

You could take the bus.

Other neighbors could kick your ass when you got out of line, the neighbor could uh tell your parents and they'd believe the neighbor.

They wouldn't believe the kid who was lying.

So it was great, man.

Growing up in San Diego was cheap.

I had a 69 Camaro in high school in the set in 70 for like 2200.

And I I worked and I made the money myself, man.

It was nice growing up here, man.

But I think quit playing the race card.

Only once a month.

Play the race card, please.

Thank you.

Our final speaker is eighty seven hundred, if you can please unmute, press star six.

There you go.

Joy, Sanyata.

Audra.

Thank you.

For your tears.

Tears are the sweetness.

Our voice.

They speak ten thousand words.

I love you.

I'm saying this again because it's my big message.

Thank you, Audra, for your tears.

Tears are the sweetness of our voice.

They speak ten thousand words.

I love you, Audra.

Now I want to tell you something beautiful I feel that's happening at City Council.

And President Lakava started it.

He started connecting with the public.

She answered a question that was critical to be answered from a public.

And a police officer who had presented offered me a suggestion about how as to how I could be part of the patrol, the senior patrol, even though I can't drive anymore.

I feel this, and Campbell also addressed a comment that Audra said, I believe.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh and terms of connecting with the public, uh, respectfully, the job opening for the commission on police practices general counsel is listed at one eighty five to two hundred and ten thousand.

So don't want anybody to be scared off of the one eighty five.

So with that, we will now adjourn for the noon recess and reconvene.

Open session at two PM or shortly thereafter.

All right, good afternoon.

And we'll now reconvene the city council meeting of Tuesday, July 7th, 2026.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell?

Here.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Here.

Council Member Moreno.

Councilmember Elo Rivera.

And Council President Lacava.

Also attending the meeting, our assistant city attorney Leslie Fitzgerald, independent budget analysts Charles Monica and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk Quorum's now present.

Uh when we have meetings of this type, uh, when we have folks that may be here for the first or maybe the only time they ever show up in council chambers, uh, I like to provide a gentle reminder of how we conduct business in City Council.

I know the city clerk gave some uh suggestions already.

Before we start today's meeting, I want to remind everyone about the city's practices and procedures for public comment at City Council meetings.

The city welcomes public participation at City Council meetings.

Speakers may address the council during public comment, also connection with a specific line of business on the agenda.

However, the city must make sure that no one person or group of people disrupt the meeting away that prohibits other speakers from expressing their opinions and ideas.

So to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to adjust the council, we'll alert an individual or individuals.

If I think their conduct becomes disruptive and a disruption continues, I will roll the individual out of order.

And if the disruption continues further, I will declare recess so we can restore order.

At that point, I will direct the individual to leave the room, and if the individual refuses, police will escort the individual out of the building.

And if we have to repeat this process of warning and recessing the meeting, which we will not, because you're all good people out there, all members of the public will be exclusive from this council chambers, credential media will be allowed to remain.

Once again, we have these practices and procedures to protect the rights of other speakers who wish to readress the council and to allow the council to conduct the public's business.

And to uh repeat the advice given by our city clerk.

If you agree with someone is saying, thumbs up, it's very, uh very strong visual from up here.

And if you disagree, thumbs down, it's a very strong visual as well.

Um, although I only see one sign here.

If you have a sign, please extend the courtesy to people sitting behind you who may want to see our smiling faces during the course of chambers.

Uh, and don't restrict those lines of vision.

And I think for also for public safety there.

So I'm gonna ask you to take that sign down.

If you want to go in the back and flash it and show it up, you certainly are more than welcome to do that.

So with that, Clerk, please introduce item 331.

Thank you, Council President.

Item 331 is the appeal of Planning Commission process for decision of the Emerald Hills project at 5702 Old Memory Lane project number PRJ-1107 880.

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

We do have several organized presentations on this item, but all of them are here in person.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Staff, I see they sent you out there all by yourself.

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

Thank you, Council President La Cava.

Good afternoon, esteemed uh council president La Cava and Council members.

My name is Martin Mendez.

I am the development project manager with Development Services, and I will be presenting the project appeal for the Emerald Hills project today.

Before we move forward, I would like to read into the record that prior to today's city council hearing.

Uh staff received a traffic analysis report for an all-way stop analysis at the proposed intersection at 60th Street.

That report has been distributed to the council members, and copies are made available to the general public.

Also would like to point out that the analysis was voluntarily provided, prepared and provided by the applicant in response to a comment raised during the planning commission hearing.

And how much time do you think?

I will need approximately 30 minutes.

Okay, the project, just to give you some background, the project location.

The project is located at 5702 Old Memory Lane in the Encanto neighborhoods.

And the parcel size is 31.18 acres.

The approvals for this project include a vesting tentative map, a site development permit for the subdivision of land containing environmentally sensitive lands, and for encroachments within the public right-of-way, a neighborhood development permit, and a neighborhood use permit for a neighborhood identification sign.

Okay, this slide shows the 123 residential lots that are being proposed.

110 of those units would be market rate units, and 13 would be affordable rate units.

The project as you can see on the map is located uh south of highway 94, uh east of Interstate 805, and then southeast of the existing Emerald Hills Neighborhood Park within the Encanto neighborhoods community planning area.

This aerial photograph shows the aerial view of the project site as it exists today.

The community plan land use or the community plan for the project site designates a site for uh residential very low land uses at zero to four dwelling units per acre.

Uh that's land use designation allows 125 dwelling units and the existing zoning for the project site as previously mentioned as RS 12.

Um and so just for clarification the 31.8 acre site multiplied by the four dwelling units per acre equals 124 and 72, where the project is proposing 123 dwelling units.

The project is utilizing uh footnote seven.

Uh, this project was deemed complete on December 6, 2023.

Um the footnote seven was repealed by the city council on April 24th, 2025.

This project went before uh planning commission on November 20th, 2025, and we are here today uh to hear the appeal hearing July 7th, 2026.

The project um currently has vested rights to continue to rely upon footnote seven.

This is a proposed site plan, again, identifying the uh 123 residential dwelling units and then the common space areas, including the parks.

All the common space areas will be maintained by the homeowners association.

The project also includes a five-foot-wide trail within private property adjacent to the 60th Street right-of-way, and then as part of the 60th Street wide right-of-way improvements.

The project is proposing the replacement of sidewalks and providing additional landscaping.

Okay, this project is requesting incentives and waivers.

This project went before the planning commission on November 20th, 2025 and was approved with modifications.

On December 1st, 2025, the Choyas Valley and Canto Neighborhoods Community Planning Group appealed the pro the planning commission's decision based on the following grounds: factual error, conflict with other matters, findings not supported, new information, and citywide significance.

I would like to identify that in accordance with the San Diego Municipal Code, Chapter 11, Article 2, Division 3.

All notices for the project were distributed via United States Postal Service to all addresses within 300 feet of the boundary of the project site, including owners and occupants.

It was also circulated to the officially recognized community planning group and the applicant.

The notice of application was distributed on March 7, 2024, which identified that there would be a decision at a public hearing to approve or deny the project and identified that the project was undergoing environmental review.

The notice of the application was also posted on the project site as request as required by the municipal code, and verification of posting was submitted by the applicant to development services.

On November 6, 2025, the planning commission notice of public hearing for the November 20th, 2025 hearing was distributed to parties previously mentioned and interested parties who had requested noticing for the project.

That was over 200 recipients, and the notice was also published in the San Diego transcript, San Diego Daily Transcript.

Staff visited the project site prior to the hearing to confirm the notice of application posts were still present on the site, and the applicant also posted the planning commission notice of public hearing at the project site as a courtesy.

The notice of the city council peer hearing for today's hearing was distributed on June 22nd, 2026.

The notice was mailed to interested parties and those previously mentioned.

The notice was also published in the San Diego Daily Transcript and posted on the City Council's website.

And as of this morning, I visited the project site to confirm that the notice of application and the notice of today's hearing was present and visible at the project site with three signs for today's hearing posted on 60th Street and then one side for the driveway off of Old Memory Lane.

Okay, summary of the appellants' issues are as follows: the issues related to the utilization of footnote seven for the project, adequacy of the environmental analysis, deficiencies in public facilities for the community, including parkland, environmental justice concerns, including concentration of density in disadvantaged communities, inadequate community involvement, including inadequate noticing of the project and the environmental determination.

I will now move forward with uh the appeal issues as they were submitted.

The appeal ish the first appeal issue is in relation to factual error.

Um issue number one stated that the project far exceeds the zero to four dwelling units per acre density for which the site is owned.

Our response is that the project is in conformance with the residential very low designation from the community plan, which allows zero to four dwelling units per acre.

And as previously mentioned, that would be in conformance with the requirements by proposing 123 dwelling units.

The next issue raised was the project does not conform to the RS 1-2 zoning and far exceeds the number of lots allowed for the zone, 67.

And again, the project is utilizing footnote seven for the development and would be in conformance with the applicable regulations of the RS 1-zone through the utilization of for utilization of Footnote 7.

The third issue is the project does not appear to be consistent with the Troyes Valley Community Plan, Encanto Neighborhoods Community Plan.

Urban Design Policy PUD-26 states the following.

Preserve large lots, single family neighborhoods, in order to retain the rural atmosphere, which is characteristic of Encanto neighborhoods.

The project site was previously developed as a radio transmitter facility without a residential subdivision.

Therefore, is not subject to the preservation of existing single family large lot development.

The proposed subdivision is consistent with the adjacent developments to the north, south, and west by proposing one and two-story single dwelling units, having minimum lot sizes of 5,000 square feet, and site design that follows the topography of the land.

The project appeals to be neither consistent with the community plan nor zoning.

Residential land use section 2.4 of the community plan states the following.

The plan seeks to expand and preserve the supply of affordable housing through construction of new units as well as the preservation and restoration of older homes.

The substantial amount of vacant and underutilized land and access to transit within the encanto neighborhood provides an opportunity for well-located mixed-use infill development.

The community has an extensive stock of single-family housing, much of it on large lots.

Although they have already been developed, these large lots provide an opportunity for infill development through the construction of accessory dwelling units on the lower density residential sites.

Accessory dwelling units increase the housing stock, allow for multi-generational housing opportunity, and can provide rental income for lower-income residents.

The project was found to be consistent with the policies identified on the screen, which include land use, noise, mobility, urban design, and conservation and sustainability, as well as goals and policies found in the general plan.

Furthermore, regarding zoning consistency as previously described, the project is utilizing footnote seven and adheres to the RS 17 regulations with allowed incentives and waivers for the provision of affordable housing in accordance with the applicable regulations of the municipal code.

The next appeal issue is violation of the 2015 Neighborhoods Community Plan, which identified the proposed development site as a potential community park.

Despite this designation, the city made no attempt to purchase all or part of the land for the intended community purpose, nor was a community plan amendment developed to mitigate the loss of potential future park space.

This is not just a loss for the Choice Valley communities, but for all residents of San Diego, which will forever lose access to one of the most remarkable vistas in the city.

The recreation section of the community plan identified the project site as a potential park and clarifies that identification of private property as a potential park site does not preclude permitted development per the underlying land use or zone.

The acreage figures represented existing and planned sites anticipated at the time of adoption of the community plan.

Acreage may further may be further refined over time without the need to amend the community plan.

In accordance with the statement, the community with this statement from the community plan, a change in proposed usable park acreages does not warrant an amendment.

Table 7-2 identifies the project as a major park with 19.8 acres allocated for proposed usable acreage, which would require acquisition of privately owned of the privately owned parcel.

This is a figure 7.2 from the community plan that identifies again identifies the project site as a potential park, but also has the statements that were previously read about identification of private property.

Also, I think just to address some additional questions that were brought up prior to today's hearing, city staff does not have records related to contracting the property or contacting the property owner at the time for possible acquisition or purchase of the site for purpose of a park.

And based on the information contained in a historic resources report, which identified property ownership dating back to 1956, the site has been in private ownership since then, and the city has not had control of the property.

Appeal issue six is factual error.

This is a flawed assertion in the staff report that the site has walkable access to the Encanto Trolley Station and Euclid Avenue Station, which in fact the path to those transit stops requires for traversing a very hilly, narrow, unlit and dangerous road without sidewalks.

In violation of recent revisions to the San Diego Municipal Code, clarifying that the transit must be reachable via sidewalks.

San Diego Municipal Code section 1130103.

SDA definition.

Failure to properly assess the difficulty of reaching transit leads to the staff report to vastly overestimate VMT reduction for the project.

The staff report described the following.

Two regional transit hubs, the Encanto Trolley Station and Yukala Avenue Station are located approximately one mile from the project site.

Metropolitan Transit Service MTS Bus Route 917 is located near the intersection of Kelton Road and Roswell Street, approximately one-half mile southwest of the project site.

The picture shows where the current bus stops are located, and the image to the right shows the proximity of that bus stop to the site, and then the proximity of the two trolley stations to the site.

Okay, appeal issue factual error, issue number seven, failure to consider the potential impacts of the project, including increased traffic and safety concerns on 60th Street, both for daily neighborhood traffic and for fire evacuation.

City's responses city staff reviewed the project for potential impacts, including transportation impacts, safety concerns on 60th Street, and emergency access and emergency response.

Factual error number eight.

The project documentation does not include the fire marshal rapport nor an evacuation plan as required by state and local law, even though the proposed site is within San Diego's very high fire hazard severity zone.

Our responses is the project did not trigger the requirement for a fire marshal report or a fire evacuation report.

In this case, the project is consistent with the plan density for the project site, which, as previously discussed, would be up to four dwelling units per acre, and the project is consistent with that density.

Therefore, again, the project did not trigger the requirement for fire marshal report or an evacuation plan.

All of the 234 waivers being requested to permit this project, including but not limited to street frontage waiver, the driveway width requirements waiver, and the minimum lot dimensions RS 17 waiver.

These waivers would defeat the intent of the city's recent repeal of footnote seven, create a concentrated environmental justice burden in a historically red-lined majority Black Latino low resource neighborhood, produce a starkly discriminatory outcome when compared to low density approvals in wealthy, major majority white neighborhoods such as Fox Hill, La Jolla, and expose the city to legal policy and public health risk.

Fair Housing Act, disparate impact, exposure, and SB 1000 and CEQA vulnerabilities and CEQA being California Environmental Quality Act.

As previous as previously stated, the project application was deemed complete while footnote 7 was still in effect.

One incentive and five waivers are available to the project in accordance with the municipal code for the provision of 13 affordable dwelling units made available to moderate income households.

The project would comply with the RS 17 regulations with the allowed incentives and waivers, and the requested incentives and waivers are supported for the provision of on-site affordable housing.

Furthermore, the project supports general plan policy EJ-C1 and EJ-C3, EJ being environmental justice, through the provision of publicly accessible pocket parks located on site.

The project also enhances connectivity and accessibility for all residents via public accessible pathways, parkways, and open spaces available on the project site.

Okay, the project supports the general plan commitment of creating and maintaining economically and socially diverse communities.

The project would help the city meet the regional housing needs allocation targets, and the project would provide safe and healthy homes for people of all groups, allowing them to thrive in their communities.

As to the differences between the Foxville La Jolla development and this development, just like to identify that the difference between the two projects are driven by the development teams, marketing conditions, and the applicable regulations for each project.

Each project is evaluated independently, and both projects as proposed were equitably reviewed for conformance with the applicable regulations.

As to the issue of legal exposure, the city council will consider the appeal issues and make determination affirming or denying the appeal based on supporting information.

Senate Bill SB 1000 adopted in 2016 promotes environmental justice through local land use planning.

The law requires local governments with disadvantaged communities in their planning areas to develop environmental justice policies as part of the general plans.

The city general plan is required by SB 1000, includes an environmental justice element, and is cross-referenced with goals and policies of other elements in the general plan, including the housing element, the safety element, and the climate action plan, and their respective implementation plans.

Regarding compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, the city as lead agency performed a review of the project's impacts on the environment and prepared an addendum to the 2015 Community Plan Update Program Environmental Impact Report.

Based upon the review, no changes in circumstances have occurred and no new information of substantial importance has manifested, which would result in new significant or substantially increased adverse impacts as a result of the proposed project.

Therefore, the addendum was prepared in accordance with section 15164 of the CEQA guidelines and use of the addendum for the project complies with CEQA Guidelines Section 15168C.

The project is within the scope of the 2015 community plan update program EIR and in accordance with the mitigation framework from the program EIR, the project was conditioned to include a mitigation, monitoring, and reporting program related to biological resources and paleontological resources.

Conflict with other matters, issue two.

The lot is in direct conflict with the San Diego General Plan from 2024, the Parks Master Plan 2021, the Climate Action Plan from 2022, as well as the 2023 implementation plan.

Policy LUH.1, affirmly further fair housing choice, promote equal housing opportunity, and promote the development of plan of balanced and equitable communities that take into account community wide involvement, participation, and needs.

Subitem A, plan village development, with the involvement of a broad range of neighborhood and business stakeholders, including traditionally underserved communities, and take into consideration the needs of individual neighborhoods, available resources, and willing partners, invest strategically in public infrastructure, and offer development incentives that are consistent with the neighborhood's vision, and then plan for more homes in village areas that are located in communities with high economic opportunity.

The proposed project supports the goal, the goals of policy LUH point one by proposing new dwelling units, built in performance with current building codes, providing fair housing choice and promoting equal housing opportunity, providing balanced housing options within the development.

And just for reference, uh LUH.1 is found under Section H of the General Plan under balanced communities and equitable development.

Okay, appeal issue, conflict with other matters.

Also, as far as community wide involvement and participation, discretionary applicants are encouraged to work with the community planning groups.

For this project, the applicant presented as an action item to the Choice Valley Community Planning Group on October 28th, 2024 at a special meeting.

The community planning group voted to deny the project with a vote of zero yes to approve and 13 no to deny without conditions or recommendations and submitted the form to the development services department.

The project supports the following general plan goals.

Invest in public infrastructure by providing improvements on 60th Streets, which 60th Street, which include road widening and lighting, public stormwater system improvements, supports housing element goals and policies to support the development of residential dwelling units within all communities citywide, offering development incentives consistent with the neighborhood's vision.

The project uses utilizes incentives and waivers in exchange for new affordable housing.

Page 2-21 of the community plan states the plan seeks to expand and preserve the supply of affordable housing.

The project will also be playing paying into the development impact fees and San Diego Municipal Code regulations incentivize additional dwelling units.

Conflict with other matters.

Areas of the city where we know that the greatest need exists by ensuring equal access to meaningful recreational opportunities.

The city's park and recreation needs have evolved, influenced by change in population and demographics and development patterns.

Communities vary in the quality and availability of park space due to patterns of historical growth.

Prior development patterns have also left parts of the city with fewer connections to parks and natural areas, more growth located in existing neighborhoods, increases demand for parks that meet the unique needs of these developed areas that contain limited land for new park spaces.

Prioritizing parks in these neighborhoods that are experiencing the greatest rates of residential growth is critical.

The project to address the current park inequities, the city is prioritizing park deficient and underserved communities by allocating at a minimum 80% of the citywide park development impact to park deficient communities with at least 50% of that amount to be prioritized solely within traditionally underserved communities for at least five years.

This project would meet that goal by paying their uh development impact fees.

The project will support the city's park master plan by again paying the applicable impact fees, public improvements to 60th Street, providing accessible paths throughout the project site that connect the existing that connect to the existing and Canto neighborhood park, and providing four on-site pocket parks that will be publicly accessible.

Conflict with other matters, appeal issue C.

San Diego Climate Action Plan from 2022 states addressing inequality and systemic racism requires a thoughtful and intentional approach that empowers and includes our communities experiencing structural exclusion.

To create equitable outcomes, we must prioritize action and invest where the need is greatest by involving impacted community members in the city's decision-making process early and through continual partnerships.

For this reason, the concept of climate equity is critical throughout the climate action plan.

Page 11.

The project works against the City of San Diego's climate action goals that came out today stating the city's climate objectives are exceeded by two percent carbon emissions.

Creating a park instead of dense housing will help with this objective.

California law requires jurisdictions to consider environmental justice and reduce concentrated environmental burdens in disadvantaged communities.

EPA and peer-reviewed literature document worse document worse health outcomes where burdens concentrate.

SB 1000 environmental justice obligations require local governments to identify disadvantaged communities and adopt policies to reduce disproportionate environmental and public health burdens.

A decision that concentrates density and the and the discrete burdens that often accompany rapid infill, construction, vehicle emissions, inadequate public facilities, loss of planned parkland in an environmental justice community without robust mitigation is inconsistency inconsistent with the law, SB 1000 mandate.

Programs and approvals that systemic systematically locate greater housing burdens in communities of color can create a disparate impact claim under federal and state fair housing law.

The clear difference between allowing dense approvals in historically black Latino neighborhoods creates a prima phase discriminatory pattern that the city must explicitly justify with legitimate non-discriminatory reasons and evidence.

To create equitable outcomes, we must prioritize action and investment where the need is greatest by involving impacted community members in the city's decision-making process early and through continual partnerships.

The applicant for the project involve the community by presenting their project to the community planning group and through other outreach efforts that the applicant will describe during their presentation.

The project supports investment in and prioritize the community by conforming to the requirements of the climate action plan by paying the development impact fees in accordance with the city's park master plan, which fund public infrastructure and services like parks, mobility, libraries, and emergency services, including fire, improving existing infrastructure within public widerways to improve accessibility and connectivity, and conformance with the entirety of the climate action plan goals and policies related to the development of housing.

The project supports environmental justice by providing improved and diversified opportunities for play in public spaces for all people, homeownership and opportunities, including affordable housing, housing for a variety of household sizes, encouraging location and resource efficient development near established community resources, and safe and healthy homes, meaning current building codes.

Conflict with other matters.

States prioritizing communities of concern while preparing the 2022 climate action plan.

City staff work closely closely with stakeholders to develop a method for scoring each CAP action to understand its potential to prioritize and empower residents within communities that have been historically underinvested in and to address those disparities.

To create equitable outcomes, we must prioritize action and invest where the need is greatest by involving impacted community members in the city's decision-making process early and through continual partnerships.

For this reason, the concept of climate equity is critical throughout the 2022 climate action plan and this implementation plan.

The city will continue to frequently consult with CBOs on climate equity policy on use of these tools specifically and on equitable CAP implementation generally.

Page six.

Yeah.

On the funding sources already, one of the funding sources already used to invest in structurally excluded communities is the city's uh climate equity fund, which the city established in 2021, and as a dedicated source of supplemental funding for infrastructure projects in communities of concern.

The implementation plan also referenced Council Policy 800-14, which prioritize capital improvement program projects and the goal of parks master plan to prioritize park diffs to park deficient communities.

The project supports the climate action plan implementation plan by paying the required development impact fees, investing in improvement of existing infrastructure within the community through public through project related public improvements, and by presenting the project to the community planning group on October 28th, 2024.

Findings not supported issue one, allowance of the subdivision map based on the interpretation that the project was deemed complete before repeal of footnote seven.

This assertion assertion disregards that it is the approval of the project, not the date of application that determines vesting rights under state law as evidenced by the discriminator discretionary approval for the project that are being asked of the planning commission at the November 20th, 2025 hearing.

Pursuant to state law, development applications that have been deemed complete are entitled to proceed under the law and policies in effect at the time the application was deemed complete.

Findings not supported, issue two.

This project creates a concentrated environmental justice burden in a historically red-lined majority black Latino low resource neighborhood.

It will produce a starkly discriminatory outcome when compared to with low density approvals in wealthy majority white neighborhoods such as Fox Hill, La Jolla.

This was previously addressed under conflicts with other matters.

New information appeal issue one.

This project defeats the intent of the repeal of Footnote 7.

The City of San Diego Council agreed upon in April of 2025.

This was also previously discussed in the response in the same issue under findings not supported.

New information appeal issue two insufficient time to review hundreds of pages of project documents, which were only provided to the public on public on November 14th, 2025, less than one week before the hearing.

New information issue three, failure to consult the community, the staff report sites, vote by the community planning group on October 2024.

However, this vote was taken while Footnote 7 was still in effect, and in fact, the project triggered the public discovery of Footnote 7 in the municipal code and the legally disputable process by which footnote 7 was adopted.

Engagement with the community would allow the developer, the community, and the city of San Diego to explore alternative uses of the site that would be acceptable to all parties.

Again, the project was presented to the community planning group on October 28, 2024, and staff has been made available to respond to phone calls and correspondence.

Development services did not receive a request for additional coordination with the community planning group, and staff acknowledged the receipt of the vote for denial from the community planning group.

Citywide implication issue one.

Residents neighboring a proposed development may have due process rights connected to their property interests if they believe it will decrease their tangible or intangible property value.

Troyus Valley and Canto Planning Group was not identity was not notified of this project by the applicant or by the city of San Diego before the CECO determination was made.

The community planning group is not aware of notice being given to the potentially affected neighbors by other substantive means, thus, the residents have not been have been deprived of procedural due process on this matter because they were not given a chance to voice their concerns at a community planning group meeting, public hearing, or other procedural mechanism after substantive notice with respect to content and time to the extent that this lack of notice of development applications or permits extends to other community plan areas.

This matter has citywide implications.

As stated earlier, the project was noticed in accordance with requirements of the municipal code in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act Statutes and Guidelines, Section 15164C.

An addendum need not be circulated for public review but can be included in or attached to the final environmental impact report.

The addendum to the 2025 community plan update program environmental impact report was posted on the city's California Environmental Quality Act website for final environmental documents on November 14, 2025, and a leak to the document a link to the document was included in the staff reports of the planning commission.

Citywide implication issue two exposes the city to legal policy and public health risk based on fair housing disparate impact exposure and SB 1000 sequel vulnerabilities.

This was previously addressed under conflict with other matters, appeal issue one.

Citywide implication appeal issue three.

The 31 acres have been slated for park for many years.

A park not only for our communities of Choice Valley, but for the entire city of San Diego.

The views alone are worthy of upgrading quality of life for residents of our city.

This was previously addressed under factual errors.

Appeal issue item five.

Okay, staff's recommendation is um city council deny the appeal and affirm the planning commission's decision to approve vesting tenant of the vesting tenant of map, the site development permit, the neighborhood development permit, and a neighborhood use permit.

That concludes uh staff's presentation.

We have sorry, we have the applicants and then city staff to answer any questions.

All right.

Thank you for that.

First, I'll turn it over to the office of the city attorney for comments.

Thank you, Council President.

Our office will outline some legal considerations for today's item.

When hearing and deciding upon a project appeal, the council may affirm, reverse, or modify the planning commission's decision.

A decision to reverse or modify the planning commission's decision must be based on one or more of the following.

One, factual error, two, new information, three, findings that are not supported for conflict with the land use plan, council policy or their municipal code, or five, citywide significance.

In addition to approving the project, the planning commission considered and adopted an environmental addendum prepared by staff.

An addendum is not an environmental determination that is subject to appeal under the municipal code or CEQA and therefore may not be appealed.

That conclusion is supported by an appellate opinion from the fourth appellate district in California.

This project is subject to the state's housing accountability act because it meets the definition of a housing development project.

Under this state law, the city may not apply development standards that were not in effect at the time the application was deemed complete.

At the time the application for this project was deemed complete, footnote seven was in effect.

If after hearing the evidence presented, council would like to deny the project or impose conditions that the project be developed at a lower density, state law requires that council base that decision upon written findings supported by a preponderance of the evidence on the record that each of the following exists.

One, the project would have a specific adverse impact upon the public health or safety, and two, there is no feasible method to satisfactorily mitigate or avoid that adverse impact.

That concludes my comments.

All right, thank you for that.

So before we open it up to public comment, uh we'll have we'll hear from the appellant and then we'll hear from the applicant.

So I invite the applicant.

Excuse me, the appellant to come up.

My apologies.

And how much time do you need for your presentation?

Do I get 35 minutes?

If you need 35 minutes, that's what they took.

Yes.

No, I don't.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sarah.

Can you tell me though?

How much time so I can put it on the timeline?

Probably 15.

Okay.

Um I would like to thank all the community community members who are here today, um, from our beautiful city.

Excuse me, who have showed up today in person and online.

I appreciate the time, the energy, and the effort it took folks to have spent to support parks and justice in our community.

Honorable Council President Macaba and honorable council members.

Today our neighborhoods of Alta Vista, Broadway Heights, Choice View, Emerald Hills, Incanto, Lincoln Park, O'Farrell, and Valencia Park are sending a signal to our leaders to envision the opportunity to create an urban sanctuary, investing in our children, investing in our environment, and investing in our health.

I respectfully request if everyone on the dies would raise their hands if they've ever been to the radio tower site.

Okay, next slide, please.

Today we are sending a signal.

Support the appeal and use your discretionary authority.

City Council has a choice to support our appeal and deny the Emerald Hills project.

This did this discretionary review allows the council to exercise your legal power and authority to consider whether this project follows the legally binding Encanto community plan, complying with zoning laws and variances.

DSD deemed project complete with just the application, triggering vesting rights, properly qualifies for the city's CEQA determination.

This project protects public safety and infrastructure in very high fire severity zones and evacuation routes and follows SB 1000, an environmental justice obligation, and meets the requirements of the discretionary permits.

From the very first presentation.

Next slide, please.

This project conflicts with the Encanto Neighborhoods Community Plan.

The Encanto Neighborhoods Community Plan calls for for preserving large lots and single-family neighborhoods.

Footnote 7 changed the rules without due process by reducing minimum lot sizes from 20,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet in Encanto and Emerald Hills only.

DSD deemed the project complete and engaged vesting rights for a mere application.

Community members invested, next slide, please.

Community members invested extensive volunteer time reviewing city records and public documents, leading to the discovery that footnote seven was adopted improperly and was never valid and must not be applied to any project.

The process undermines due process, transparency, and meaningful community engagement.

Our community is fed up with being undermined by the color of law.

The project increases density by 75% and has to add 2354 variances on top of that.

There are steep slopes on this parcel.

Some waivers are street front waivers, drive it driveway with requirement waivers, and minimum law dimension are one through seven waivers.

Next slide, please.

The council should support this appeal and deny the project.

Unequal land use outcomes.

The council should not approve land use patterns that place greater density and concentrate environmental burdens in Emerald Hills while preserving lower density outcomes in wealthier communities.

This appeal compares this Emerald Hill subdivision with the low density approval at Fox Hill Farms in La Jolla of 18 homes on the same 32 acre parcel compared to our 123.

Your decision today will or will not perpetuate patterns of discrimination.

Wealthier communities preserve lower density development, producing a stark discriminatory outcome.

Historically underserved, structurally neglected, communities receive greater density without any infrastructure improvements, losing the opportunity to right size park inequities in communities of concern with scale.

Environmental and infrastructural infrastructure burdens are concentrated in low resource communities and communities of color.

Land use decisions either expand or reinforce existing inequities by defying environmental justice opportunities.

Public health burdens like air quality and environmental justice obligations where local governments adopt policies reduce these burdens.

The council should support this appeal and deny the project.

Next slide, please.

Park equity and environmental justice.

Invest in our children, invest in our health, invest in our safety.

The council has an opportunity to set a precedent that our leaders will no longer tolerate environmental injustices.

Support a sizable park in Emerald Hills.

In San Diego, neighborhoods of color have 64% less park space per person versus white neighborhoods.

Low resource neighbors have neighborhoods have 71% less park space than high income neighborhoods per TPL.org.

Next slide.

San Diego County faces serious air quality burdens.

We are the seventh worst nationally for ozone and the fifth worst year for year-round particle pollution in the 2026 state of the air report.

A park could mitigate some of this.

Right sizing historic disinvestment and neglect in our underserved communities by investing in our children, enriching educational and economic opportunities through health, well-being, and social impact.

This is the medicine of our times.

A sizable park would also support park equity, climate equity, public health, and community quality of life.

Next slide, please.

The council should support the appeal and deny the project.

SB 1000 and environmental justice obligations.

This project is an environmental burden because the community loses sizable parkland, a climate action goal.

The city has an obligation to decrease the burden on environmental degradation.

Right size neighborhoods disproportionately burdened by pollution or environmental hazards.

Ensure residents are actively involved in municipal decision making and land use planning.

Adopt tailored goals and policy to reduce pollution exposure, improve air quality, and promote public health.

Address systemic inequities that focused heavily on accessible parks, equitable access to healthy food, and safe housing.

Next slide, please.

The council should support the appeal and deny the project.

Fire evacuation risks and public safety issues.

Poor evacuation routes can turn added density into a serious fire safety risk.

This project is in a very high fire severity zone.

Imagine 123 more homes or possibly 492 homes with a bonus ADU law.

The surrounding area also has limited nearby fire station coverage, making safe evacuation routes and emergency access even more important.

In a wildfire emergency, narrow or constrained roads can create traffic bottlenecks, delayed evacuation, slower emergency response, public safety concerns during evacuations.

The surrounding road network cannot safely handle evacuation under emergency conditions.

Next slide, please.

The council should support the appeal and deny the project.

Okay, next slide.

So this is our solution, the land swap solution for a legacy park.

A community centered solution that prioritizes public parkland and environmental protection and public safety, a legacy park.

Proposing a solution that would facilitate an alternative development for DR Horton in exchange for radio towers parcels as permanent parkland.

The framework for this is not an untested idea in California.

The developer receives a viable low-risk alternative.

The city advances housing production on a more suitable site while honoring the community plan.

The residents of Southeastern San Diego receive a once in a generation destination park.

This is pragmatic, equity centered, problem solving solution.

We are asking the city council to champion.

A legacy park could honor our veterans, could honor our sports icons, could honor our cultural icons from our community.

A place for the rest of the city to take in the vistas and the beauty of our amazing city.

This council should support this appeal and deny the project.

Next slide, please.

Today we are sending a signal to City Council to support our appeal and to exercise your legal power of discretionary review.

This council has the authority to support the appeal.

This council has an opportunity to right size historic disinvestment and neglect in Choyas Valley communities.

See the vision our community has.

She has more to do, give her a chance.

Um, Miss Fuentes, can you play the next um slide, which is the news article from KPBS?

Is that allowable?

There's nothing on the slide but a white screen.

I'm sorry, but we can definitely put it into the record.

No, this is the last slide that we received.

Okay, and now I'll invite the applicant on the project.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Council President.

We give equal time to the applicant and the appellant.

They took 15.

I'm sorry.

They took 15 minutes, so 15 is fine.

Okay, introduce yourself for the record.

Thank you.

Uh good evening, Mr.

Good afternoon, Council President, members of the city council.

My name is Daniel Boyd, Vice President for Entitlement for DR Horton.

We're very pleased to present and defend our project proposal, item number 331 before you today.

First of all, we must very much appreciate staff's dedication and time over the past several months, if not years.

We also appreciate the appellants' presentation, and we appreciate the community standing behind me.

We have been very involved with the community.

I'll be short with our overall visual presentation.

That was your first warning.

I'll be very brief as to uh our next slide, please.

I'll be very brief as uh the staff report was very thorough, and I don't need to be redundant.

Our project includes, as we heard, 123 single-family detached homes set on a minimum of 5,000 square foot lots.

These lots, however, near average nearly 6,000 square foot lots.

These lots also stretch into sevens, eights, and nines.

The proposal also includes open space areas designed for passive recreation for the community residences and open to the public for the general community to enjoy.

These open spaces will include typical passive amenities such as park benches, fountains, uh accommodations for your dogs, but really more importantly, provides an opportunity for the community to converse, meet, and just discuss and of course enjoy the views.

Next slide, please.

The project is accessed off of 60th Street.

It has one access off 60th with emergency vehicle access off of old memory lane.

That wasn't done by chance, that was done by design and in conformance with all the mobility requirements set forth under this project.

We are very pleased that part of this project is going to include substantial public infrastructure improvements to the city, namely 60th Street.

60th Street, next slide, please.

60th Street in its present condition looks like that.

And that's what we've been seeing for years with this community.

This is a situation that right now, and staff will confirm does not meet all the safety requirements of the city, namely site distance.

Next slide, please.

What we plan on doing with our proposal is to improve 60th Street and widen 60th Street by 18 feet.

This will give us the ability to provide sidewalks, provide DG trails, provide curb separated landscaping, and of course, drainage facilities.

This will be representative of what we believe is a great entry to this community and enjoyed by all of the community.

Next slide, please.

This is a uh quick diagram that shows the street section of 60th Street.

It's a little small, so I'm not expecting you to look at that.

But what we're trying to show here is that there is no question that the community has not have a great record for sidewalks.

It does not have a great planning from decades ago, and we hear that loud and clear.

What we're trying to represent here is what we are being required to provide in terms of what the city policies and guidelines require, and we are providing that.

Next slide.

And we should make a quick notation that we're very proud.

The purpose why we're here, our proposal is to provide home ownership, generational wealth.

We're here to provide opportunities for all, and in doing that, we're presenting four distinct architectural plans between craftsmen, traditional.

It just goes to show that what we're trying to do here is bring home ownership that's compatible with the existing neighborhood.

We're proud of this, and we think that the city should be proud of this, and we know the folks behind me won't support this, but home ownership shouldn't be a privilege, it should be a right, and it should be something afforded to everyone.

And we believe wholeheartedly that we're part of that objective of the city of San Diego.

Next slide.

The very beginning of this proposal, and I will just describe in very detail here in a moment.

We started our community outreach nearly four years ago, a year in advance of technically a formal review by the city.

We were introduced and we became very involved with a wide variety of interest groups and organizations.

Aside from the Pioneer Group and the local Emerald Hills neighborhood group, we became very close with the National Black Contractors Association and why we want to bring jobs to the community.

We heard loud and clear from this association.

We want jobs in San Diego.

Do not give our jobs away to outside counties.

So we became members of this association and we're acting on that commitment.

The National Association of Real Estate Brokers.

They're not just brokers, they're folks that have devoted themselves to this culture and to this community and to the betterment of fair housing for all.

No, they're just not brokers, they're not just real estate agents, they're advocates, and I believe that we are very proud to be part of that organization, and we've worked very closely with NARAB, and we are going to continue our relationship beyond hopeful approval of this project.

We believe in what their objectives are and we stand firm with their commitments.

We've made notation with San Diego County Urban League, but most importantly, is meeting with homeowners, meeting with individuals like Kenny Keys.

I like Kenny Keys.

He's inviting me to his living room.

I don't know if he likes me now, but we started out as friends, but we started out opening up a dialogue.

Next slide, please.

We opened up a dialogue represented by this diagram here.

This is a process and a timeline, and I'll briefly go through it.

It's pretty amazing.

As I said earlier, we spent the first 12 months working with the plan area group and the neighborhood council groups.

We went to neighborhoods, we went to living rooms, we had conducted meetings, not required, not required by the applicant.

We volunteered to get ourselves out in front of the issues.

Twelve months, in fact.

Don't say we didn't do our best with community outreach because the next steps included meeting with individual homeowners.

We finally get to a point where the city blessed all of our paperwork, all of our reports, and then we began.

The next step was the formal review of the city staff.

Twenty-four months later, we end up at Planning Commission.

Planning Commission, as we heard, approved this project 7-0 unanimous recommendation.

Well, we're pretty pleased with that.

That's not an easy feat.

And that means they supported the technical aspects of everything that your staff worked very hard over a period of years to bring forth.

They reviewed all the technical aspects, and I don't need to be redundant.

But moving from that point, did we stop our community outreach just because we got planning commission approval?

No, we did not.

We continued.

We continued to meet with various individuals with also the plan area group and the environmental neighborhood group.

We met at coffee shops.

We met with folks pro and against, we stuck with it.

We did not walk away from our passionate DR Horton, which is to provide quality home ownership to the city of San Diego.

We could have walked, and many competitors would have said, forget this madness, we're out of here.

We stuck by our guns.

And these people behind me, they know that.

Do they like me?

Probably not.

But they can't say for a moment that we did not do our business in terms of community outreach.

Now, we're here.

Next slide.

We're here not just to represent another home proposal.

We're proud that we represent 18, over 18 land use policies established by this city.

We're proud of that.

We're proud of that.

Next slide.

We're proud that we're able to comply with a number of very, very technical policies.

But I'm particularly proud of what I've highlighted here in yellow.

The top one, and I bring emphasis to it.

We're helping the city of San Diego with their goal of reaching over 109,000 residences, of which you've achieved a little over 36,000 homes.

Well, 123 doesn't seem like a big number.

Every home counts.

And I'm going to quote one of your council members.

I can't remember who it was, but it resonated with me.

And you can raise your hand if you recognize this quote.

Every new front door built in the city of San Diego affords an opportunity for a family to walk in.

And that is our passion at D.R.

Horton, and we're pleased to share that passion with the city.

But moving forward, we have another land use policy.

It directs the city to efficiently use on remain property for residential use at a minimum of density stated in the code.

We appreciate that.

But the last one I think is really good.

Simply provide home ownership to old to young big families and small families.

Bring home ownership to a wide variety of folks.

Next slide, please.

Early on, we were challenged with compatibility, and this chart was produced by empirical data, and it clearly shows west of 60th Street, 86% of the existing lots are under 10,000 square feet.

50% are between five and six thousand square feet.

There is no question that our lot sizes, our architecture, our homes, and our community are very much compatible with the existing community.

And let me say this for the record.

Building in fill development is one of the toughest types of development any developer can experience because we have to listen to the community.

We have to pay attention to the rules and regulations.

We have to drop our proposal to be compatible.

That's not an easy feat, but we started months in advance by photo documenting the existing neighborhood so that we could produce a project compatible.

Next slide, please.

One of the more prominent issues raised of this project has been drainage.

And I will not go into a level of technical levels, but I will say this.

Think of our project as a tabletop in your home.

The existing condition, which is uncontrolled drainage flowing off the north, the south, and the west slopes.

When I say uncontrolled, there's no measures to collect drainage presently.

That's not what we're doing.

Through the review of your city staff, they have approved our drainage plan, which reduces the flows by upwards of 86% on the south, 84% on the north, and up to 84% to the west.

How do we do that?

It's real simple.

The same tabletop, we now have streets, curb, gutter, and we have biofilter basins on site to collect the water.

The water then is collected and disposed into city systems.

We met the requirement, but did we stop at meeting just the requirement with this community?

Hell no, we did not.

We continued to say, let's go further.

And by that, I listened to Kenny Keys.

I listened in his neighborhood.

I listened to his neighbors, and they didn't like what was done years ago.

They had a culvert installed in their private backyards, not maintained, and they were fearful that this project would inundate their project.

Not true.

We agreed that we would install yet another V ditch so that whatever remnant water would come off that slope would be intercepted by that ditch.

We weren't required to do that, but we are doing that.

And by the way, we're maintaining it.

Not the city, not the community, our HOA.

The same holds true for the North.

They have a little different situation.

They actually have an inlet system that collects the water and disposes into the system.

What's good for the South, it's good for the North.

We're doing the same there.

My point is, in conclusion, on drainage.

We're improving substantially the drainage condition.

And we're proud of that.

Next slide.

In conclusion, I want to take a moment to talk a little bit about the company I worked for for 27 years.

And I'm damn proud of that.

But I'm more proud of Don Horton, who founded our company with a few dollars in his pocket.

He was raised in a home with no utilities, no water, no sewage.

They were so pissed poor that they had to live on top of a jail house, county jailhouse with the siblings.

His mother made 50 cents a meal.

Do not tell me that anyone is with a golden spoon at D.R.

Horton.

We work with some of the greatest team members of our company.

And he grew that company today under one thing and one thing only.

He remodeled a small house in Arkansas, and he felt so much pleasure he wanted to bring home ownership experiences to many.

That single man with not a couple of hundred bucks in his pocket and a cell phone the size of our shoe, grew a company to be the largest home building company in the United States.

I wish that man well.

Lives with all of our employees, lives with me, and I'm sharing that wonderful experience with you because I know this city too appreciates home ownership.

It's a thrill.

And I'm not going to take anything away from the opposition.

And in closing, everyone deserves home ownership in the city of San Diego.

Thank you very much.

I will be available for questions.

All right, thank you.

So with that, we've now heard from the appellant, we've heard from the applicant, and we will proceed with public comment.

Uh and uh I will extend a courtesy as council president and invite supervisor Monica Montgomery Step to start off.

I believe you requested five minutes.

Yes, and someone left their phone up here, so just FII.

Okay.

Thank you so much, Council President, and thank you for allowing me to speak.

I am here to speak today in strong support of the project that we are discussing here today, and I'm asking the city council to deny the appeal.

I support this project because it will enhance the community of District 4 and provide an opportunity for first-time homebuyers throughout San Diego, which is very rare these days.

The project contains 123 single family homes, and that means there will be 123 families that will be able to provide a home for their children, a family legacy, and family stability, like my grandmother did for her children, albeit in the latter years of her life, and like my mom and dad did for their children.

My motivation in supporting this project lies in the principle that I want others to have access to the same opportunity that I had in life, a chance to grow up in a home that I knew would always be there for me to dwell in.

The project also abuts the Emerald Hills neighborhood park and includes four pocket parks on the property, along with the widening of 60th Street, which I've driven down almost my entire life, and it has never changed.

500 trees, beautiful landscaping, 13 affordable rate homes, on-site water quality treatment facilities, public pedestrian circulation and trails, and a secondary vehicle emergency access drive.

Many of these amenities were added at the request of community members, and the ideas came from community discussions that the district court office insisted on, and the D.R.

Horton engaged in.

When I ran for the city council office, I knocked on a lot of doors in my community, and the feedback was consistent.

My neighbors wanted more economic opportunities.

We know that a big part of economic opportunities are homes, especially these types of homes.

They provide more customers for neighborhood businesses and increase the property tax base.

I also distinctly remember hosting a forum and discussing measure A, an affordable housing bond measure that was on the ballot in 2020.

One community member challenged me at that forum and asked me why does the focus always stay on low-income housing?

What opportunities are there for those of us who want to own a home one day?

Those words stuck with me.

And during my time as a city council member, the district for office prioritized home ownership by way of first-time home buyer programs, down payment assistance, and credit repair programs.

Through the reinvestment task force, which I co-chaired, we became one of only eight cities in the entire nation to receive a Wells Fargo worth grant to supplement our down payment assistance programs at the San Diego Housing Commission.

This project puts that advocacy into action.

It makes what we do real and tangible, not abstract.

That's why I strongly support the project.

Footnote 7 is being used as a pretext for people who one want to demean the current leadership and two don't want this project in their backyard.

I understand that everyone has a right to feel the way that they feel, and I acknowledge that.

What has been disappointing is the lack of professionalism, harassment, and lack of ability to hold a decent fact-based conversation about this project and other issues in our community.

That's why I thought it was important for me to come here today.

I want to address my role, community sentiment, and images like this, that are deeply rooted in racist history and used as a humiliation tactic that have been promoted by the opposition.

I thank the council for repealing Footnote 7.

I sat in that seat and voted for the land use code updates that included Footnote 7 back in 2019.

At that time, community feedback, though limited, supported the function of the footnote to reduce minimum large lot sizes because they knew it would drive economic opportunity.

They also understood the impact of large lot size minimums, keeping hardworking people of color out of neighborhoods.

However, I do agree the minimum lot sizes should be reduced in the additional seven San Diego neighborhoods out of over 100 that it still exists in, so that there is no neighborhood in San Diego that have minimum lot sizes of 20,000 square feet.

Because history tells us that lot sizes of that magnitude are wrapped up in inherent racist land use policies that have been used over our countries and our city's history to keep people of color out of certain neighborhoods.

So the question becomes why would I support a policy in any neighborhood, especially my own, that has been used against black people like me?

And the answer is I wouldn't and I won't.

Not now, not ever.

And why would anyone produce and promote demeaning images across the internet?

Because of racist undertones, the same rose undertones that exist in large lot size minimums.

So if you know your history, it makes sense.

If you don't, I hope you learn it today.

To close, this project is for the future.

The future is now.

We are charged to provide a vision for the city.

I envision a city where every person can have a roof over their head and provide for their families.

This project is a part of that vision.

Please vote no on the pill.

Thank you for your time.

All right.

Thank you, Council Supervisor Monica Montgomery's step for taking time out of your busy day.

So with that, we will now proceed with the rest of the public comment, and our city clerk will explain uh the steps going forward.

And you know you've been pretty well behaved.

We're gonna conduct ourselves with civility.

You're gonna hear things you like, you're gonna hear things you don't like, maybe even hate.

Uh, but I think everybody's had a uh we want to hear from everybody, whatever your point of view is, and I think we can conduct the rest of the hearing with civility.

Uh going forward.

I think that'll be throw that out here.

Okay, do you want to challenge the disruption of that I outlined at the beginning?

Let's let people speak.

You may agree, you may disagree.

It is disruption of the meeting that I am particularly focused on.

That's been my credo for the year and a half that I've been honored to be council president.

Let's get on with the meeting.

We have a lot of talk in front of us.

We have what six group presentations?

Uh so that's a good 46 minutes right there, plus any individual speakers.

We got a long way to go.

All right, city clerk.

Please explain what happens next.

Thank you, Council President.

For the record, I would also like to know that this item received 28 comments in favor and four comments in opposition via our e-comment form, which have been distributed to the council.

We will begin the public comment period with organized presentations that were submitted via the city's organized presentation web form.

An organized presentation requires all listed participants to be present and raise their hand.

If all participants are not present or do not raise their hand, the allotted time may be reduced accordingly.

We will begin with in-person organized presentations, and as noted earlier, we only received in-person requests.

There are no virtual organized presentations today.

Can you make sure the people who signed up stay?

Yes.

If you did sign up, I will be calling your name when that organized lead presenter comes up and you need to raise your hand at that time.

If you are not here at that time, the time of the lead presenter will be minimized.

We will be starting with Hazel Higgins.

Hazel Higgins, if you can come up to the microphone.

You have Michael Sewis and Billy Carter that are on your participant list.

Can they raise your hand?

One is uh Michael Sewis.

Are you Michael Sewis?

Billy Carter.

One of your speakers, I only see one hand raised.

I'll ask Kenny Key, Victoria Labruzzo, Andrea, Het Heyru, Mary Young, and Thomas Malaney to please all come up to the yellow reserve seats at the front of the room.

For Hazel, you have Michael and Billy Carter.

I still only see, are those two?

Michael and Billy.

Okay.

You'll have three minutes, please, Chris.

You don't have to come up if you're ceding your time to the organized presentation.

You can stay seated and stay comfortable.

If you want to come up and join the speakers, you're welcome to do that, but you don't need to.

I just need you to raise your hand.

And my apologies for jumping in, but please proceed.

You were me to begin.

Yes, please, thank you.

My name is Hazel Higgins.

It is ironic that some 47 years ago I stood in this council chambers to request that the designated adopted open space abutting this property not be allowed to take away our open space.

Carnado views and uh mobile home park was predicated, was designated for the designated adopted open space abutting this property.

In the 70s and 60s, the Encanto Task Force petitioned the city to rezone certain canto properties, R110, R115, R 120.

We asked for that.

That's where we lived.

We wanted our La Jolla, we wanted our point Loma and our community.

We asked for that.

I'm black as black can be.

I asked for that with the Encanto task force.

I'm 88 years old, not dead yet.

Most of my friends are, cannot speak against what the previous speaker said.

We asked for that.

We asked for our one PNR 120 lots because we wanted big lots.

As open space chairman, when proposition C was passed, I witnessed four PRDs immediately submitted for our designated adopted open space.

Like these fine people who want to help us.

I wish they would quit helping us in the Southeast community.

My credibility is substantiated by Mr.

Jankowski in the association of governments.

He writes me a letter thanking me for my input.

As open space chairman.

He tells me he could not have completed his projects without my input.

Want to talk about carinata views, which abuts this property.

This site was an Indian burial ground.

It was designated, adopted open space through proposition C.

It voted five hundred and fifty endangered.

And when it was presented for open space to for purchase, it appraised it a million dollars.

5.39 acres in Southeast San Diego.

My property was like 12 to 20,000 for an acre.

But this property, so that we could not appraise ourselves of this open space, appraised at a million dollars.

So the city did not buy that land.

That land was lost to us.

5.39 acres of designated adopted open space and the community plan.

It's there, it's in the environmental impact reports.

Next, we have Kenny Key.

If the following individuals can please raise their hand, Gerald Johnson.

Gerald Johnson.

I don't see a Gerald Johnson raising his hand.

Stephanie Overstreet.

Stephanie Overstreet.

I don't see a Stephanie Overstreet raising her hand.

Thank you.

Kathy Caraway.

Thank you.

Carl Davis.

Carl Davis.

I don't see a Carl Davis raising his hand.

Cynthia Santos.

Thank you.

And Joseph Sapp.

Thank you.

That is five minutes.

And you have your presentation that will go up.

Uh, yeah, because you're going to start the time once I start talking, so we're going to play that.

Okay, we'll play it.

But uh, I just want to say uh uh while it's playing, uh, that I wish I had that much energy from supervisor for us.

We don't understand how she was so aggressive in support for development, that blew me away.

Watch this video.

This is not just Kenny, this is a bunch of us that are gonna represent this.

It was founded because of pushback.

But please, guys, I want you guys to weigh in with us and connect with us.

This is election year.

Today I stand before you not just as a resident, not just as a veteran, not just as a community advocate.

I stand here as someone fighting for future generations.

Because this land is more than dirt, it is more than real estate.

It is a diamond in the heart of San Diego.

Mr.

Foster is gonna be Monica.

To push this through, it was RS1R.

There's no need to change it.

Only to get this project through it wasn't changed.

We have no saying those questions.

Okay, we've been waiting for you for y'all to target it.

Five years for her to come up here finally say something.

Now you guys have been covered up.

Dismissing us.

This is the last chance for us to do.

I was farm 120.

This was last week ago.

It's ridiculous.

Not quick.

No, we're told not to.

Iris Farzone, you guys just keep dismissing our segments.

We got an elementary school there.

Within two thousand feet of this project.

How are you not gonna say you care about our kids in our streets?

To make some money.

Those are reasonable questions.

Housing policies should not be dictated by the property of companies.

The company didn't elect you.

We elected you.

Represent us.

How dare you dismiss us, Mr.

Falker?

You don't need to be reelected.

We got somebody else, that cares about us.

You've proven, you've shown your hand, all of you guys defend themselves.

And in November, we're gonna deal with y'all.

Whoever's up for elections, we're gonna deal with y'all for dismissing us.

This is ridiculous.

We should not be fighting you guys.

What did they promise you?

Let's be honest.

That's what we were.

You gotta be insane ourselves.

Imagine observation towers.

This is our vision.

Imagine museums.

You refuse to look at it, refuse to show it on TV, imagine D.R.

Horton's little shallow vision, rendering all this four years.

We gotta fight our councilman, kick me out of your office, disrespect me, publicly and my mother.

You never apologize to the people of San Diego.

Yeah, you apologize to me.

And I should not be arguing with you.

I should be focused on this.

Because I love Emerald Hills.

And this is a hundred million dollar potential property in revenues a year.

Y'all got devil.

DR Horton's blueprints ain't giving y'all no money.

No return.

We need long-term investment in Southeast San Diego.

Quit denying us.

Money.

Money.

Some people, this is a puppet show we're watching.

Y'all all got strings and physical strings to vote.

We are tired of this puppet show.

Represent us.

Stand for the will of the people.

D.R.

Horton's fox is so deep.

Now we're told that we find because these applications were deemed complete.

Look at our vision.

Why was it repealed?

Give us some.

I mean, look at us.

Y'all see how long we've been coming in here in these chambers.

Why do you keep dismissing us, man?

50 years.

I've lived up there over 50 years.

I'm simply air force veterans.

I'm a retired county employee.

I'm a community activist, and I'm thinking about kids, the future.

And that park is a juggernaut, economic juggernaut.

If you guys would just open your eyes, every last one of y'all need to go up there and visit.

DR Horton, let them go up there.

Don't they need to go up there and take that view?

Take that view in.

And you guys are gonna see how you guys almost messed up and let a diamond jewel get away from San Diego.

You control the permitting process.

Okay, you control the pimp.

How you gonna say you ain't got the power?

We don't have developers coming in our city telling us what what they're gonna do.

I'm gonna do this here, and I'm gonna do that there.

No, they gotta come to each of y'all.

Stop bowing over to them.

When we're begging you to stop it.

Thank you for that conclusion.

Next is Victoria Labruzo.

Victoria, you have time seated.

Um you have the participants.

I'm gonna get that out of my mouth.

Uh participants listed are William Crooks and Paul Krueger.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Thank you, good afternoon, Councilmember, Council President.

My name's Victoria Labruzo, and I'm with the CPC.

We are commenting today because this appeal reveals something much larger than the project itself.

It's about confidence in San Diego's planning process.

By the time Choice Valley CPG began asking fundamental questions about footnote seven.

Why it existed, what planning purpose it served, and why it applied to only two communities.

It appears the process for this project had already moved too far forward to have any impact.

That's a problem.

Those questions should have been answered long before they reached this council and demonstrates exactly why CPGs remain an essential part of San Diego's planning process.

Footnote 7 has become much more than a municipal code.

Footnote.

It's become a symbol of something many communities are increasingly mindful of.

Planning policies are being developed without transparency, without context, and without making use of the industrial knowledge that exists within the city's own communities.

If Choyas Valley CPG had been invited into the process at the beginning, yes, singled out during the land development code update that specifically affected them.

Had they been given their seat at the table, we might not be here today.

Instead, the communities to the communities, this has the appearance of a backroom deal rather than an open transparent process.

If the policy reflected in footnote seven had instead been considered through the normal community plan amendment and rezone process, it would have involved a more deliberate public discussion, greater transparency, and direct council review.

Yes, this process takes more time.

Yes, it costs the applicant more money, but those processes exist for a reason.

They allow communities, applicants, and the city to work through difficult planning questions before anyone becomes locked into opposing positions.

Instead, we're here today trying to answer those questions.

That benefits no one.

This appeal demonstrates the values of CPGs.

Throughout this process, Choyas Valley had demonstrated thoughtful leadership, a commitment to understanding a complex planning issue, and a deep sense of responsibility to the neighbors they were elected to represent.

Community planning groups are not simply another opportunity for public comment.

They are the city's established community planning bodies.

They understand the community plans.

They understand their neighborhoods.

A planning process should never leave communities asking fundamental questions about a significant policy only after it's too late.

This is how trust is lost.

Rebuilding that trust begins with giving planning groups a seat at the table to the policy conversations earlier, sharing planning context openly, and making better use of the institutional knowledge they provide.

When an appeal raises questions that reach beyond one project and into the integrity of the process, those questions deserve.

Your time is concluded.

Thank you.

Andrea.

Andrea, you have several people on your participants list.

If they can please raise their hands.

Ken Hunricks, please raise your hand.

Maria Conrad.

Lorna Zucas.

Thank you.

Alex Azukas.

Don Houston.

Peter Walden.

Susan Baldwin.

Paul DiPaolo.

Connor Rector.

Lisa Barron.

Nigel Brooks.

Margaret Brooks.

Anne Scott.

Dave Nicolay.

Scott Case.

Mark Santos.

Evette Porter Moore.

I do not see a hand for Evette Porter Moore.

Yvonne Jones.

Catalina Arenas.

Kirsten Scatterberg.

Angel Phoebus or Phoebus.

And Jeanette Clower.

You'll have 15 minutes, please proceed.

Before I begin my land use remarks, I want to preserve one procedural matter for the record.

I ask that the declaration attached still photos, excerpted from video, planning department email, city clerk's July 6th email with notice recipient lists and written notice and due process statement be distributed to council and incorporated into the record.

The underlying video footage was submitted into the record on Sunday, July 5th at 8 a.m., consistent with instructions provided at the time.

I have submitted a declaration under penalty of perjury, attesting that the attached still images were taken from video footage recorded on June 29th, 2026 after 2.30 p.m., showing the absence of the required appeal hearing signed at the project site, at least one day too late by law.

I have also submitted the planning department email stating that correct appeal hearing signage was not posted until June 30th, although the hearing notice was publicly posted on June 22nd, at least two days later by law.

On July 6th at 2 p.m., exactly 24 hours before this hearing, the city clerk produced the notice recipient list to me for the first time.

The interested party's list included my physical mailing address, yet I did not receive mailed notice.

I understand counsel may also hear testimony today from other affected persons who did not receive mailed notice.

That raises unresolved compliance issues under San Diego Municipal Code sections 112 0301 and 112.0304, including the required posting, mailing, and verification of notice.

These issues are not harmless if founded.

Notice is what gives affected residents time to see, prepare, organize, submit evidence, and participate.

That would matter in any district in San Diego, and that includes District 4.

I ask counsel to continue the hearing or take the matter off calendar until notice record is complete, and legally meaningful participation has been provided.

I also want to be clear that the community is not abandoning the footnote 7 issue.

In the Clober appeal, Council Member Campillo called Footnote 7 a poison tree.

This proposed project grows from that same tree.

With that preserved, I will turn to issues of this project's more particular record.

Council members, this decision is about scale, and scale determines trajectory.

Scale determines whether the site functions as a generational infrastructure or becomes another isolated subdivision placed into a community already disordered by generations of public and private disinvestment.

District 4 is already one of the densest councils in dis in San Diego, and it has the worst resource to density ratio in the city.

That means district 4 is not simply underbuilt, it is overburdened and under-resourced.

It has carried more than its proportionate share of income restricted housing.

And because disinvestment suppresses surrounding value, even market rate housing on this hill would be discounted by the very conditions the city has allowed to persist.

That does not change trajectory.

Scale can.

This hill is the only site in District 4 capable of operating at that level of scale and prominence.

Its elevation, acreage, and 360 degree vantage point make it uniquely suited to function as a regional destination, not a pocket park, not a neighborhood amenity, but a city-wide draw.

You have been told that you are constrained by state housing law.

You are not.

Skips the very first step of the statute.

Whether the project complies with objective standards.

That step matters here.

Staff says the community plan allows up to 125 units, and this project proposes 123.

Staff also says the applicant qualifies for a 5% density bonus, but is not using that bonus density, that bonus to increase density.

So, the question is narrow.

Can the legally protected number of homes be physically built on this site if objective standards in the community plan are applied?

Or do the standards only interfere with this developer's preferred subdivision map?

The objective standards at issue are not vague or mysterious in this proposed project.

They are street frontage, lot width, corner lot width, lot depth, and driveway curb opening limits.

A developer may prefer 123 detached lots, a particular street layout, a particular pocket park placement, a particular open space buffer, particular driveway curb openings, particular lot dimensions.

But density bonus law does not protect every preferred design choice.

It protects against objective standards that physically preclude the legally protected density.

Staff's own report says strict compliance could reduce the project by eight to 14 lots and could potentially reduce up to two affordable units.

But the report frames that as a loss of maximization, development potential, and site layout preference.

That is not the same as a finding that no compliant design can physically achieve the density protected by law.

If the record does not prove that the standards physically preclude the legally protected number of units, HAA does not compel approval.

Council is not bound to approve this project.

Now, because you retain discretion, the next question is how that discretion should be exercised.

This is not simply another housing site.

This is the only remaining site capable of changing the long-term trajectory of District 4.

We have had many council members sit in that spot, and we are still in the condition that we are in.

Denying this project would not be arbitrary or unequal treatment.

Equal protection protects similarly situated applicants from being treated differently under the law.

But this is a discretionary land use decision, and this site is not similarly situated to ordinary development sites.

Council may evaluate this application on the record before it, including the site's singular public value.

It is not merely the acreage, it is the combination, elevation, sweeping views, regional visibility, symbolic prominence, and location, and how much it would affirmatively further fair housing.

Views of downtown, the bay, the ocean, and the surrounding mountains are not cosmetic, they are economic.

Even the applicant's own presentation uses those views to establish value.

That value should become public value for District 4 and the city at large.

They create the kind of destination that can attract institutions that usually bypass low resource communities.

Satellite college campuses, market rate health care, nationally recognized nonprofits, higher quality retail and middle income households.

There is no second site waiting in reserve.

And because this is a discretionary entitlement, the developer could never guarantee that entitlements would be granted.

Council's duty is not to protect the private development expectation.

Council's duty is to make an independent lawful decision on the record before it.

These are not side streets.

These are Euclid and Imperial Avenues, the two most iconic thoroughfares in District 4.

One runs east-west, the other runs north-south.

They show worn commercial frontage, abandoned and defaced commercial properties, harsh heat island infrastructure, a weak pedestrian environment, corridor conditions that suppress value rather than attract it.

Ordinary subdivision adds units into that disordered landscape.

It does not reverse it.

Southeastern San Diego has carried a disproportionate and shameful share of the city's very low and extremely low restricted housing obligations.

That imbalance became serious enough that the city settled the Baker case.

The lesson is not that affordable housing is bad.

The lesson is that concentrating income restricted units in low resource communities before building capacity around them does not produce opportunity.

It does not affirmatively further fair housing.

Matthew Desmond made that point plainly in his book, Poverty by America.

Concentrated poverty chokes opportunity from children and families.

And District 4 is not experiencing that concentration by accident.

District 4 has roughly two and a half times the citywide percentage of black residents.

The disadvantage created by the concentration accrues to everyone who lives there across race and ethnicity, even when their long-term group trajectories differ from that of the black residents.

Housing is not just rooftops.

People do not live only inside four walls.

People live in communities, and opportunity is not abstract.

It shows up in years of healthy life, educational attainment, income of children matured into adulthood, institutional presence, quality retail, and whether children grow up surrounded by signals of investment or abandonment.

We have produced units.

What we have not produced is capacity.

Capacity before density is the principle here.

Capacity that signals stability to businesses and institutions and to attract a broader income mix.

If density alone created resources, District 4 would already be one of the best served communities in San Diego.

The data confirm what residents have lived for decades.

District 4 carries high density with almost no resource capacity underneath it.

Look at that bar graph.

Among all nine council districts, District 4 has the lowest resource to density ratio.

This is why the answer cannot be more density on the one site capable of building capacity at scale.

I expect you may hear about recent improvements that have been made.

The MLK pool, Marie Whitman Park, the skate park, community stewardship.

I welcome every one of those investments.

But improvements are not the same as transformation.

A renovated pool does not replace these 31 acres.

A skate park does not.

Resident stewardship grants and plans do not, nor do frontage improvements or 60th Street widening replace these 31 acres.

Those investments matter, but they are incremental.

This hill is structural.

Residents have been asked to trust assurances before.

On Clauber, Council was assured that the required public notice had occurred.

But the staff report did not contain the proof.

Responsive public records later showed that the developer certification of proper public notice was blank and unsigned.

That history matters today.

When staff now says HAA leaves no discretion, the record has to support that claim.

Here, the record before you does not.

Once residential stakeholders are introduced, scale is foreclosed.

New homeowners gain standing to challenge grading, programming, lighting, traffic, every future effort to assemble a regional park that is a citywide and tourists draw.

Delay becomes attrition of land and of the energy of working class volunteers in the community, including those on community planning groups.

Attrition becomes permanent loss.

The city can renovate another facility, the city can fund another improvement project, but the city cannot recreate or relocate Radio Towers Hill once it is gone.

Granting the appeal should be the beginning of the preservation pathway, not the end of it.

Council should direct staff to return with options for acquisition, conservation funding, and a possible value exchange framework, including work with other levels of government, regional park partners, land trusts, conservancies, philanthropic foundations, and public private partners.

Council Member Foster, you can bring this home for District 4.

And when you make that move, the beloved community that Dr.

King called us toward will stand behind you.

Each of your names will be entered into history as a result of the vote on this project.

The question is how?

Will this be the council that permanently locked District 4 into the continuing legacy of redlining?

Or will it be the council that finally came to terms with that legacy and created a mechanism to save countless years of healthy life of the now living and yet unborn due to more than seven decades of disinvestment the city has allowed to continue?

Council members, we ask you to grant this appeal.

Our next organized presentation is Mary Young.

Mary Young, if you can please come forward to the lectern.

You also have several speakers on your participant list or several people on your participant list.

You can please raise your hand.

Butch McCray.

Thank you.

Hondo Hamill.

Here, here.

Marisol Campbell.

Kay Thomas.

I guess so, yeah.

Dorothy James.

If I can ask you just to put that down for one second so I can see the hand.

I'm a vertically challenged.

Dorothy James, thank you.

Becca Batista.

Bowie Batista.

Bowie Batista.

Okay.

Thank you.

Gus Baltista.

Sean McHenry.

Sean McHenry.

Oh, he gone.

Okay.

Maverick Garcia.

She's sick.

Max Walding.

Thank you.

Hank Karens.

Hank Karens.

I do not see a Hank Cairns.

Danielle Kunov.

Or kind of.

And uh Shaney McPherson.

She's not here.

Okay, so that's one, two, three, four, five.

So you will have ten minutes.

Thank you.

Please proceed to ready.

Good afternoon.

Um, I'm really uh disturbed about what happened earlier, and um, probably the first time that I ever felt uh disconnected from my community official.

Um good afternoon, my name is Mary Young.

I come from a community of greatness.

I am here to honor that legacy and to remind you that our history, our people, our neighborhood deserves respect, protection, and a real voice in decisions that affect us.

My family story begins in Concord, California, where we lived in an integrated DOD housing, and my brother attended an integrated DOD school.

My father, Worcester Duke Young, served in the U.S.

Navy.

My mother, Sizika Young, became American citizen on September 8th, 1960.

We had freedom, safety, and opportunity there, but when my father was transferred to San Diego, everything changed.

DOD housing was closed to us, redlining shaped where families of color live, and racism followed us as we searched for our home.

For a year, every Sunday, my family drove through neighborhoods looking for a house, while my mother reminded realtors that her husband had served in two wars, and that she was an American citizen.

Eventually, we found Rancho Cierro and Alta Vista, a development built for military families and minorities.

Walking through that front door felt like walking through the gates of heaven, where those red lines, we found a place of dignity, safety, and greatness.

So I want you to be sure that this issue here is not about housing, the greatness is everywhere in our community.

It is in neighbors like Mr.

Robinson, a retired fire chief and master gardener who taught children about urban gardening and protecting the earth.

It is in our Filipino Navy families who advocated for nigh elementary school, one of California's top schools, 20%, that has 95% minority enrollment.

It is about our Monford Point Marines, congressional gold medal recipients.

We have the majority of them west of the Mississippi living in the Fourth District, the one remaining.

It is about Morris.

Raphael Fotella, Navy Cross recipient who threw himself on a grenade.

Marine.

He has a ship named after him for Morris.

Excellence.

It is about the graduates of Lincoln and Morris who went on to serve, coach, compete, lead at the highest level.

It is Willie Saul's legacy.

It is Moore's athletes who reach Major League's baseball legacy.

Thirty of them went to Major League.

It is about Lincoln's football legacy, number four in the nation's produced professional players.

We produced four Heisman trophy winners.

Jackie Thompson, Olympian.

Monique Henderson, Olympian.

And in Ross King, a retired nurse from Encanta who began playing tennis at 40.

She is now ranked number one in the world in doubles for her age group.

Excellence.

And even when our young people face neglect, they still rose to the occasion.

Lincoln High School football players lost access to their fields because of floods.

And had to practice outside their community.

Yet they brought a champion home to their community and their city.

Our planning groups reflect greatness also.

Members from our planning groups, their own, secured a voucher program to reduce segregation and expand opportunities.

Others have fought for the fought freeway encroachments through our community, participated in the concentration of poverty lawsuits, and continue to stay engaged even though we lost the power, support, and investment of SEDC.

That's when the uh city just uh rolled over us.

We listen to our community, we invite people in, we stay engaged, but too often the city ignores our community plan, opens the doors to predator, investors, and developers, they invite and write policies, and then fails to correct them.

We are the people who know our community the best.

We are the people who carry the history forward, we are your people, not policymakers.

We are your people.

The legacy that belongs to the people who have built it here.

We want you to protect it.

We want to continue to live it.

Again, we are the people.

Please respect our history, protect our community, and stand with us.

Support the appeal.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our final organized presentation here in Council Chambers is Thomas Malaney.

Thomas Malaney, you have time, you have a participant on your list as Janet O'Dea.

You'll have two minutes.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

I'm Tom Mullaney, representing a group of Liverpool San Diego.

We support the appeal by the planning group.

I want to describe some of the reasons why that appeal should be appealed in the decision of the planning commission reversed.

First is footnote, sir.

This fine print shows how far DSD and the planning department will go to fool the public.

Staff report focused on the time three years ago when the application was made.

They ignored a unique aspect of footnote seven.

It was inserted into the zoning code improperly and was invalid from the start.

I've submitted an attorney's letter which explains that in detail.

The lesson from footnote seven is the residents of the city cannot trust the city staff who work at the direction of the mayor.

We do not trust those council members who go along with every bad project and every upzoning program the mayor can think of.

Even after the city has provided enough allowable capacity for hundreds of thousands more units than the forecast calls for.

Relying on a housing shortage for all decisions is becoming more absurd as vacancy rates climb and property managers uh offer rent discounts.

The second reason why you should uphold the appeal is the discretionary nature of the project.

The conditions of the development permits have not been met.

The findings cannot reasonably be supported.

This does not require your legal expert.

It requires common sense and good judgment.

For one, it's appearance the community plan calls for large lot development and a rural atmosphere.

Covering the entire hilltop with this project and using the last sizable open space is not consistent with the community plan.

So this appeal should be upheld and the project united.

This will allow an opportunity for city officials and the community to work together with the applicant for a project which meets the needs of the applicant and the community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This does include all organized presentations for item 331 that were submitted to the Office of the City Clerk.

We'll now move on to in-person public comment.

We currently have 30 speakers with in-person and virtual, so 20 in-person and 10 virtual.

If Zach DeFazio Farrell can please come up to the lectern to the microphone, and if I can have the following individuals, please come up to the yellow reserve seats in the front row, allegedly Audra, Mohamed Omar, Jesse Schmidty, Manny Rodriguez, Bruce Mayburn, Erica Becerra, Andrew Hollingworth, Kathleen McLoyd, Eric Law, and Maximilian Schmidt.

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

And then Zach, are you here?

Oh, please come up to the microphone and you can begin.

You'll have one minute.

Yep.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Zach DeFazio Farrell, and I'm the treasure of the YME Democrats of San Diego County.

We urge you to deny the appeal and approve Emerald Hills, including its 13 affordable homes.

First, the potential park designation is aspirational, not binding.

The plan does not require denial.

It expressly allows this project.

Secondly, there's no park to lose.

This parcel is privately owned.

The city never purchased it, never funded it, and never offered to acquire it.

Denying these homes does not produce a park, it only produces no homes.

San Diego desperately needs housing, especially affordable housing.

Please deny the appeal and approve Emerald Hills.

Thank you.

Allegedly, Audra, if you can please come forward.

I need to call a point of order because this hasn't been properly noticed like the item that you guys did yesterday with the Southwest Village.

You can't continue when these are not properly noticed to the public because you're circumventing the will of the people when you don't do that.

And so you cannot continue legally by even uh accepting the appeal or not.

You have to uh properly notice it.

So you're disenfranchising all of these people by uh not following the law as far as what you need to to bring these projects forward.

So it's very concerning that you guys keep doing this, and it seems like obviously if it's not something the people want, then you don't properly notice it so that they don't have an opportunity to come in and make sure that things are or done legally.

I hear your point of order.

The allegations are it wasn't properly noticed.

The city believes that it was properly noticed.

There are other avenues for people to pursue, but there is every evidence that it was properly noticed.

So we'll give you your minute back so you can talk to the project.

Um it's unfortunate that you know uh people like Monica and Henry will be sitting here and using the black and brown community acting like you really care about them when you actually gaslight them in uh your pursuit to bring forward a project.

So I would suggest that you quit doing that to your own community because it is a disservice to them.

And it's sad because it's like if you guys cannot comply with properly noticing things.

I mean, I had to hold you guys accountable for having a quorum, and now you do, but I was almost arrested three times for bringing that point of order.

So you guys need to respect the people that come in here, and this is their community.

They have said no, yet you have developers that come in and people who are supposed to represent these communities, and you guys are basically not giving a shit about what they have to say.

You're not doing it legally, and so I suggest that you guys take proper legal action to not even allow any of this to continue.

Your time has concluded.

Hi, um, my name is Mohammed Omar, and I'm speaking on behalf of Partnership for Advancement of New Americans, a member of the Coalition for Equitable Development in support of the Emerald Hills Housing Project.

San Diego cannot solve its housing crisis without building more homes, and we believe this project represents an opportunity to add much needed housing to our city supply.

This project also airs infrastructure, street lights, and storm water basins.

We appreciate that the project includes deed restricted affordable homes, which are an important part of ensuring that new development benefits a range of San Diego's site is also adjacent to Emerald Hills Park and a school which has a potential joint use space to double as a park.

At this time, we strongly encourage city and the developer to continue exploring.

At the same time, we strongly encourage the city and the developer to continue exploring opportunities to strengthen the project affordability while we are we while we understand today's hearings focus on the appeal before the council.

Thank you.

Thank you for those comments, Jesse Schmidt.

Good afternoon, Council President, Council members.

My name is Jesse Schwiddy, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Coalition for Equitable Development Today, a coalition that represents nearly 20 organizations across the city of San Diego.

Let's tether this conversation in facts.

San Diego cannot solve its housing crisis without building more homes.

And we believe that this project represents a rich opportunity to add much needed housing to our city's lacking supply.

This project also adds infrastructure, street lights, and stormwater basins, all issues that we've heard the community asking for today.

We appreciate that the project includes deed restricted affordable homes, which are absolutely an important part of ensuring that new development benefits are range of San Diegans.

At the same time, we strongly encourage the city and developer to continue exploring opportunities to strengthen the project's affordability.

What we understand today's hearing is focused on the appeal before council.

We hope that this project can serve as an example of how market rate development can also contribute more meaningfully to our city's affordable housing goals.

Thank you.

Manny Rodriguez.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Manny.

I lead the UMB Democrats of San Diego County, and as the progressive advocates before me have mentioned, this city cannot solve its housing crisis without building more homes.

I won't belabor that point, but I will share that I looked at the U.S.

Census Bureau's website, and I thought that if that approximately half of adults aged 18 to 34 in this zip code still live with their parents.

I'm from the county.

Most of the friends I grew up with still live with their parents, or they moved out of state.

These homes provide a great opportunity for people in the community, people in the city to move in and build that home ownership and build those roots in their community and to, you know, move out of their parents' home, which a lot of people my age desperately want to do.

So I urge you to approve these homes to approve new opportunities for people 18 to 34 to have their own homeownership, a place to build wealth, and a place to grow a family.

Thank you very much.

Bruce Mayberry, Bruce Mayberry.

Going once, Ms.

Bruce Mayberry.

Eric Becerra.

No, I don't see a Bruce, so Eric Bassettra, you can come up.

Hello, guys.

First of all, I want to thank all my neighbors here, especially the neighbors with all the young kids.

It is extremely hard for us to take time off and be here.

So thank you guys.

Now this footnote seven.

How did the developer know before we knew?

Right?

How did they know?

Remember, guys, was this something that was put in there?

And we need to hold the law, right?

So how did they know what's going on what's going on?

Are you guys gonna approve something that later on when the truth comes out?

It's gonna be like, oh man, we've made a mistake.

Is that what's gonna happen?

Right?

Now, you guys, you guys have the power to make San Diego great, make it better.

You know, um, just imagine back in the days.

What if what if they voted to mow down Bobo Park and put homes there?

Right?

Earlier, Sage.

Thank you.

Andrew Hollingworth.

I have Kathleen McLeod after Andrew Hollingworth.

Andrew Hollingworth, are you here?

Andrew?

Going once, Andrew.

Okay, Kathleen.

If you can please come forward, and if I can ask the following individuals to please come up to the front row, Eric Law, Maximilian Schmidt, Alan Conrad, Patricia Montgomery, Ellen Walsh, Dr.

Ethel Sims, and Ozzy Menessis.

If you can please come up to the front row.

Please proceed when ready.

Yes.

Good afternoon, council members.

I'm a plaintiff in the Baker settlement opposed to concentrated poverty in low resource areas.

Remedies focus on rebuilding infrastructure, housing equity, and neighborhood wealth.

I read the city owned this site for 20 years, then sold it decades ago as surplus property to meet budget needs.

It was a paper park that DIF would fund in future years.

These fees didn't accrue because the lack of balanced income housing couldn't sustain an economic hub and tax base.

Choice Valley is owed this scarce land for the public good.

Consider a park bond financed by the city diffund.

Unlike other resource areas, we were denied the opportunity to generate this revenue over decades to pay for our infrastructure.

Please support the appeal to invest anew in Choice Valley.

Thank you.

Thank you, Eric Law.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Eric Law from San Diego United Communities here in support of the appeal.

That's the bottom line.

What we're here to support is writing the injustices that have gone on for this century of shame.

This community of concern lies behind the traditional red lines.

We know that they have a shortage of resources.

The park is a resource.

They're supposed to get prioritized diff funds.

That's why the mayor consolidated diff funds so that it could fund parks, especially in the communities of concern.

And yet we're seeing the opposite occur here.

We're seeing gentrification for displacement here.

This community was promised in 2015 a park on the hill.

It's a beautiful hill.

If you haven't been there, go see it.

Thank you for that concluding statement.

Maximilian Schmidt.

Maximilian Schmidt.

I don't see him here.

Alan Conrad, if you can please come forward.

I'm here in support of the appeal.

And I also want to just bring a little uh clarity about accountability that people guys like to talk about.

Footnote seven was more more than just not best practices.

It was illegally placed there by some of you and some of the lady that was here was a conspirator of this, and those should have consequences.

Illegal acts should have consequences, and the natural consequence of these illegal insertions of code is that the things that are passed under that code should not be allowed to continue.

It's really simple.

Patricia Montgomery.

Patricia Montgomery, are you here?

I am here.

I am Patricia Montgomery, and I am here in support of the project because I live in the community, and I like to see growth.

I'm 70 years old, and over that period of time, change comes.

It's come to me.

Things change.

I'm hoping that things will change for the better.

I'm hoping that people in the community will have the opportunity to not just live in an apartment or a rented property, but that's owned by someone else, but be able to go and purchase their own home.

We need single family development in our area.

It's nothing wrong with that.

And Monica Montgomery Steppe loves the fourth district, the whole fourth district.

She loves them all for that.

And she is going to do what is right for all I appreciate, but your time is I need to be fair to everybody.

Lisa um, sorry, Catalina.

If you can please come forward, Catalina Arenas, my staff is going to speak with you after that.

Ellen Wash, if you can please come forward to the microphone.

Ellen Walsh, are you here?

Oh, my apologies.

Is it on?

Yes, now you can speak.

Hi, I'm Ellen Nash.

Um, I'm a lifetime resident of Southeast San Diego.

Uh so my family home where I was born and raised is in Shoyas View.

I want to say that that I have listened to all of the wonderful presentations by the residents of uh of District 4, particularly of Emerald Hills, which is one of the most pristine areas that growing up there in Shoyas View, that I look to Emerald Hills as one of the most beautiful areas that we've ever seen.

We were always proud of that area, and I want I do support proceeding with this project.

It is necessary.

I am a mother of three grown children who cannot afford to buy a house here in San Diego.

We need housing.

We I'm gonna say that again.

We need housing in San Diego.

We need housing in Southeast San Diego.

Particularly for those mothers like myself who want my kids to stay in the need housing, like support.

Thank you.

I must be fair with the time.

Dr.

Ethel Sims, if you can please come to the microphone.

Hello, thank you, everybody, for having this forum.

I do appreciate everybody and everything that's been said.

I'm a native of um, well, not really a native of San Diego.

I've been here long enough.

I'm a I'm a homeowner in Coronado View Estates, which is right adjacent to the project.

And I'm and it's been there 46 years.

In 1978, my mom bought there.

That was her first time owning a brand new home.

We need brand new homes in San Diego that is gonna actually increase and upgrade the community.

It's gonna bring us housing.

So as a broker in a real estate and actually as a mother, I also want to actually be able to see my children, my children's children be able to come to the community which has such diversity and rich history like Ember Hills.

123 new homes and us trying to work together to make lemonade out of the out of the footnote seven is a great opportunity.

We now have a chance to increase the things that we need in this community.

So we're gonna start with a coalition that's gonna actually talk about why the housing not only bringing housing, but why brings community benefits and beautification to this area.

We're not gonna be erased within the upgrading.

Thank you.

We support housing to the previous speakers, but in the right place.

Good afternoon, when I started this.

My name is Ozzie Menesis, and I'm here with our community to support this appeal.

Southeastern San Diego has 64% less park space than wealthier parts of the city.

That is not a coincidence.

It is the result of repeated decisions.

Today this council has the opportunity to make a difference.

This boat is bigger than one hilltop in one neighborhood.

Every San Diego community is watching how this council treats its public green spaces.

Every resident wants to know that when a community plan designates land for a park, that promise will be honored.

Today you have a chance to show all of San Diego that this council protects public land, listens to communities, and we have alternate places for housing.

We support housing.

I can't afford a house either.

Make the right choice.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Gregory?

Gregory Nill or Hill.

After that, if I can have Johnny Lee Dang, Jeffrey Huter, Dr.

Cornwell Clark, and Kimberly Reals, as well as Lisa Becerra, please come up to the front row.

Please begin when ready.

Good afternoon, Council President and members of the council.

My name is Greg Hill.

I'm the local president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.

Since 1947, NAREB has championed the principle of democracy in housing, advocating for equitable access to housing and expanding opportunities for families to build stability and generational wealth through home ownership.

That is why I'm here today in support of the Emerald Hills development.

San Diego continues to face a critical housing shortage, and increasing our housing supply is an essential part of addressing affordability.

This project helps move us in the right direction by adding much needed homes, including affordable housing that will create opportunities for working families, seniors, and essential workers to remain in the communities they serve.

The Enerral Hills development is also an investment in the broader community.

It includes improvements to 60th Street along the new parks and trails that'll be open for public use.

These enhancements improve connectivity, expand access to recreational space, and create lasting benefits for both current and future residents.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

Johnny Lee Dang.

Johnny Dang, are you here?

Okay, going to Jeffrey Hooter.

Thank you, Council members.

Um, you know, it's disappointing that we got here because um the city never really tried to turn this into a park.

I mean, it's literally the most spectacular place in San Diego on par with Solidad Mountain.

And if we were here discussing whether to declare a Solar Dead Mountain, a surplus land and turn it into housing, we would, you know, we'd be outraged by that, and we should also be outraged about this loss of a resource.

But given that we're here, what this is really gonna turn on is whether or not footnote seven was legally adopted, and the question for the city attorney is gonna be in effect.

Um, as the footnote seven only applied to the Choice Valley Community Planning Group.

There are no RS 12 watts in Southeastern, so it's really only applied to one community plan update.

And if that's the case, was it legally adopted as opposed to going through a community plan update?

Thank you.

Dr.

Cornell Cornwell Clark, my apologies.

Hello, City Council.

I'm Dr.

Cornwall Clark.

And I respectfully ask that you reject the footnote seven.

As many of us, it feels like less responsible planning and more like a land grab sold to the highest bidder.

As a sociologist, I can't ignore the historical echoes.

While people were once bought and sold through chattel slavery, today it feels as though the land our community have built is being sold with little regard to the people who have called it home for generations.

My parents bought their home in 1975, and we still maintain it on that property.

Communities are more than property value.

They are history, relationships, and legacy.

Adding more than a hundred homes is not in the best interest for Emerald Hills.

It will increase traffic, sustain our infrastructure, and permanently change the character of the community that families like mine have invested in for decades.

This is environmental racism.

Please put our people before profit, reject footnote seven and protect the legacy of Emerald Hills from Emerald Hills, and I'm standing on town business.

I'm Dr.

Tasha Cornwall Clark.

Thank you.

For that concluding comment.

Kimberly Reels.

Oh boy.

Hello, everyone.

Okay, I wasn't really intending to speak today, but after listening to you, Mr.

Boyd, I I could I can't help myself.

Unfortunately, I just had cataract surgery, so I'm not seeing that well, so bear with me.

Okay, so here's the thing.

I I um Mr.

Boyd, Horton Dear Horton began this project in 1997 when they bought the property.

Don't I have the paperwork, okay?

So that so don't.

And anything I say up here, I have my receipts.

I just want you to know that.

Okay, so here we go.

So, and you you you activated it.

I'm I'm assuming that what you waited to do is for a council because you couldn't have got it in through George Stevens.

So you're waiting for representation that was more malleable, more palatable to the idea of dense housing, um, and less commercial things that might bring revenue to the community, but in any case.

So you would you you uh I'm done?

That is a minute, yes.

Well, damn.

You're more than welcome to email in any comments to make them a part of the record to City Clerk at San Diego.gov.

Okay.

And they will be part of the record.

But you were damn good, so thank you.

Thank you.

And if anybody would like to see my receipt, baby, I got them here.

Our last speaker here in person is Lisa Becerra.

Lisa Becerra?

You're our final speaker here in Council Chambers, and then we'll go to those participating online.

Before I start, I want my family up here with me.

Sure, they can come up then, honey.

Please proceed.

I want to note that we are not an organization.

This can be part of your comments.

Please begin.

We're talking about a project with DR Horton.

Cities across the nation have come to city council chambers residents, and city councils across the nation have denied DR Horton from building because it's bad business.

Dear Horton has lawsuits in multiple states for both having shoddy ass freaking shoddy ass construction, right?

They're harming their residents after they're living in there.

They're getting freaking sick, and then they're also saying, here, take this mortgage, and then not having proper disclosure.

So when the people are having to redo their mortgage after their lending arm is done with it, their freaking mortgage rates go up a thousand dollars.

You're talking about freaking affordable housing.

That's not affordable.

That's not what we need, and that's not gonna help our frickin' community.

We need quality construction.

We need places where I can gather my family over there for a freaking birthday party for a celebration that it's thank you for nothing.

Not taking advantage and not freaking sniggling and dining.

And I do need to be consistent, but thank you so much for your comments.

That does conclude public comment here in Council Chambers.

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

We currently have 12 speakers in the queue.

Okay, I haven't started.

Please come up to the podium.

I'll take your speaker slip.

Please begin.

Hi.

I think we should all consider that if something starts inethically, it shouldn't be because you started something inethically, you can bury it.

I work in construction and having construction is also gonna deteriorate our land.

All of the moving trucks, has anyone actually done all of the civil from a third party, not from someone bought to make all of how are we putting all construction materials?

We also have a lot of industrial area, which means we are required to have land environment that is green so that we don't have lung issues, everything else issues.

I understand people wanting affordable housing, but do you want affordable housing where people have mold, have issues with lungs, have bigger issues later down the line where they die, and then that is more costly to the city to go and send them to hospitals to have all the other issues.

I don't think you should be having this construction ceiling.

Not just because I, but like all of the way that it was built is not an ethical way as a community.

You want to build something on an ethical.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

For the record, that was Megan Garcia.

Now, sorry, the five-minute timer, and I'm going to those participating online.

We have 12 speakers in the queue currently.

Doreen Diaz, if you can please unmute.

You are unmuted.

There you go.

Hello, Doreen Diaz.

One thing I want to make very clear is I support this appeal.

I support Emerald Hill's right for justice and fight against racism.

And to all these people that are saying, Oh, we need more house, we need more housing.

Where were you?

Where the hell were you when projects in Lahoya the same size were getting measly 24 homes, and they want to put a hundred and twenty-three here?

I also have a concern with the water main and the fact um on the water main report that's supposed to have two sources or a reservoir, and this community needs this.

All these people with housing, if you want to fight for housing, you get discounseled to copy habitat for humanity and what cities in Massachusetts are doing with lottery systems selling eight hundred thousand dollar homes for two hundred thousand dollars.

Your time has concluded.

Hello, my name is Nicole Lilly.

I'm the executive director of our time to act and a member of the coalition for equitable development.

I would like to uplift the comments of cat.

I'm sorry, of county vice chair Monica Montgomery Step.

Large sprawling minimum lot sizes are historically segregationist tool.

And while footnote seven never should have targeted the reduction of minimum lot sizes in just one neighborhood, it does not negate the fact that minimizing minimum lot sizes reduces environmental impacts and housing exclusion, not increases them.

This project unfortunately reduces currently open space, but with this area being zoned as entirely residential and without any actual city plans to create a park there.

The inclusion of pocket parks and significant infrastructure improvements goes towards mitigating the impact of this new development.

Ultimately, this project will significantly increase homeownership opportunity in this neighborhood.

And additionally, the development should also increase the percentage of and depth of affordability of homes in this project as outlined by CED.

I respectfully ask that you deny this appeal and continue to encourage greater density in every district, especially high resource areas going forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is John Stump.

If you can please unmute.