The Santa Rosa City Council held a regular meeting on December 12, 2023, beginning with a closed session at 2:00 p.m., followed by a study session at 3:00 p.m., and the regular session at 4:00 p.m. The meeting included a study session on the Draft Economic Development Strategic Action Plan, the approval of consent items, declarations of city-owned surplus parcels, an update on the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) spending plan, and extensive public comment on non‑agenda matters, primarily concerning the conflict in Gaza. No reportable action was taken in closed session.
Good afternoon. I'd like to ask the interpreter currently on the Spanish channel to commence translation of the meeting. For those just joining the meeting, live translation in Spanish is available, and members of the public or staff wishing to listen in Spanish can join the Spanish channel by clicking on the interpretation icon in the Zoom toolbar. It looks like a globe. Seeing a quorum, Madam City Clerk, may you please call the roll. Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Chris Rogers. Hello, we will now be reconvening our December twelve, twenty twenty three meeting. Council Member Fleming. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of the council. Gabe Osburn, Acting Director of Planning and Economic Development. And I'm here today with uh Jill Scott and Darielle Dunstan, our assistant city manager and our real properties manager. And our topic of conversation today is our draft strategic plan for economic development. And I'll begin by uh providing just a brief overview on the goal of the Strat Plan. Uh typically strategic plans are a five-year plan. They deal with overall goals and initiatives and strategies at a more high level, and they work their way down to all of a sudden an implementation strategy on how we implement those goals and strategies. Um where we are today in the document that you'll see attached to this item is more of a skeleton for those main pillars and those objectives. As we move forward with adoption, we will be branding the document, we will be adding the aesthetic value to the document. So really what we're seeing now, what we're hoping to gain feedback on are simply the pillars and the strategies and any ideas you may have or ways that you would want to see those modified. And I'll talk a bit more about that at the end of the presentation. So, really, when we look at our economic development initiatives, uh, we try to obviously create alignment with with other goals and initiatives in the city. Um, this one aligns with city council goal statement under economic and community vibrancy, sustain and develop a diverse and thriving economy that benefits Santa Rosa residents and businesses and contributes to communities' economic health while preserving historic and cultural integrity. It also aligns with our City of Santa Rosa mission statement, which is to provide high quality public services and cultivate a vibrant, resilient, and livable city. Um, one of the unique uh elements of where we are right now with the strategic plan is running in parallel with our general plan. Uh both the general plan and the strategic plan cover the same items. So as we move through this, we're we're trying to create alignment on both documents. Um what we really see with emerging themes as the general plan moves forward and as this the uh strategic plan are moving forward is really they're focusing on some of the main core elements of the city, which are really the live ability, um, can I work here, the work aspect of it, and then also the play aspect of it or recreation, and that gets into tourism and some of the activities that our community members like. So we're seeing those same themes play out in both documents. So to talk a little bit about how we got to where we are today, uh, there's been some effort that's been put in this document throughout the year. In July and August, we developed the pillars and the elements that went into the document, the vision, the goal statements. Um we also vetted this out through the economic development subcommittee. In August and September, there was quite a bit of internal engagement and external engagement. Um, as we got into September, um, we started developing drafts by staff. Um the draft was reviewed by the economic development subcommittee. Um, obviously, through that process, we incorporate changes into October and November. Uh there was a review of the final draft by staff, and then the review of the draft by the economic development subcommittee. That brings us to December. We're here today to gain feedback from the council on any changes to this document. We will be reviewing those. And as we progress through budget hearings and goal setting this year, we'll set uh not to exceed target date of the end of the fiscal year to develop this document. At this point, we're anticipating adoption to occur prior to that, uh, but that that's looking it's a worst-case scenario for our timeline. Uh so just a quick snapshot on where Santa Rosa is from an economy standpoint. Uh healthcare is the largest industry in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. We have two of the major hospitals in Santa Rosa that serve the greater region. A good number of our commercial development activity permitting-wise is in the healthcare industry. It's a big driver. Uh, we also have significant retail trade. It's the second largest industry, and Santa Rosa is one of the biggest urban uh centers in the North Bay for that. Uh we also have manufacturing, and much of that in the area is around agriculture relative to the county, Santa Rosa includes a relatively small share of that manufacturing. Um we also have some niche industries and their advanced technology research and development.