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Welcome back, everyone.

The time is two o'clock, and we'll call this meeting to order.

Madam City Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Rogers.

Councilmember McDonald.

Councilmember Ben Wells.

Councilmember Alvarez.

We will move to our closed session items.

We have four on the agenda today, items 3.1 through 3.2.

So with that, we'll open up open it up to public comment.

Are any members of the public here today?

Oh, apologies.

I'm getting my numbers wrong.

Alright, three point one through three point four.

Seeing no members of the public here, we will close public comment and we'll recess in a closed session.

All right.

Welcome back, everyone.

We're a we're a couple of minutes late, but we'll get going.

We'll reconvene an open session.

Madam City Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Thank you, Mayor.

Council Member Rogers, present.

Council Member McDonald, here.

Council Member Fleming, your Council Member Ben Wellows here.

Council Member Albrecht.

Vice Mayor Krepke.

Let the record show that all council members are present.

So just an announcement there.

We'll run to item six, a report, if any, on our closed sessions.

Madam City Attorney.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

There's no reportable action taken at today's closed sessions.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

We're gonna move the order of our next item around a little bit because we have a good group in the community coming out to hear our proclamation on Black History Month.

But some of those folks have not yet arrived.

So uh with your uh with your permission, we're gonna move on to item 7.2, which is our presentation on Sonoma Waters water on Sonoma Waters Water Transmission System Capital Projects and Maintenance Udate.

Uh I think we have David Royal and Kent Gilf.

Thank you both for coming out.

And the floor is yours.

Great, thank you very much, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, some technical assistance.

All right, thank you very much.

So good afternoon, Mayor Stapp and uh members of the council, uh Kent Gilfey, um Director of Engineering at Sonoma Water.

Um I'm joined by my colleague David Royal, um assistant general manager of our operations and maintenance, and we appreciate the opportunity being here again uh to present present updates on some of Sonoma Water's water supply transmission system projects and related maintenance updates and highlight some of the ways that Snowwater's um working to maintain the reliability and resiliency of our water transmission system that serves your Santa Rosa community.

So we were last here reporting on projects about the about this time last year, and I'll be giving some status updates on a number of those projects, followed by David's update on some maintenance uh efforts.

We do hope that you find the information helpful ahead of uh a presentation next month by our finance people on the budgets associated with the water transmission system.

Um so before jumping in, I just do want to acknowledge and thank uh the city for its leadership uh in this arena, particularly uh that of uh council member Rogers uh serving as uh chair of our WAC, our water advisory committee last year, as well as Jennifer Burke uh continuing to chair our technical advisory committee, and we appreciate all the coordination and partnership on water supply issues and working with the city on that front.

So moving right in, um, just quickly, just by way of introduction for anybody who may be a little less inter uh familiar with Sonoma Water.

We are a wholesale water supplier of some 600,000 residents in Sonoma and Marin counties.

Our direct customers are the retail water suppliers or our water contractors that are shown on this uh slide here, which are many of the cities and the water districts that supply directly to the homes and businesses within our service area.

Our primary source of water is the Russian River.

It's aided by two federally sponsored storage projects at Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma, depicted in that graphic on the right.

Um we divert water from the river at our pumping production facility in the Woller Mirabelle area near Forestville, and into our water transmission system, which is crudely depicted up there in the black dotted lines, which serves our water contractors and Santa Rosa is um our single largest direct customer served by our transmission system.

So I'll start here with a snapshot of our 2025 active and or completed construction projects.

They're ordered here on this list by their contract award date, um, construction contract award date.

This list provides an overview uh of the current schedule for completion of these various projects along with their awarded contract values.

Uh and the remain um a few of these projects are completed, and the remainder of them are in active construction and nearing completion in the first half of this year, uh except for that very last project that Wilford Booster Station that recently awarded.

So I'll take a look at some of those.

Uh take a look at that list a little bit closer here.

First, at the top of the list, we had the Eli Booster Pump Station.

Um it's a project along the Petaluma Aqueduct that comes off the Santa Rosa aqueduct.

It was last being reported last year as being subject to significant procurement delays associated with our electrical gear 2025.

Uh finally saw that gear delivered this past October.

There's a picture of it, those lower two photos being brought in to a very constrained site.

It's quite large gear.

Um I highlighted just for it.

We awarded this contract in March of 2022.

It took three and a half years for that gear to uh be delivered.

Um, and that is somewhat exceptional, but also somewhat indicative of long lead times we have been encountering our electrical gear.

Uh, we're hoping that future improves somewhat of it thus far has been a continuing challenge.

Um, this is a FEMA funded project, it's a resiliency project to replace electrical gear and protect it from flooding near Eli Road in the Pen Grove Petaluma area.

We're now scheduled to energize that switch gear this month, and the projects anticipated to be completed in May once we can relocate and elevate the generator at that site.

And under our multi-year tank rehabilitation program reported on that a bit last year too, wherein we are recoding the system's 18 above grade welded steel storage tanks.

In early 2025, we did wrap up the contract for the Catati 1 and Castagna tanks.

They provide a combined 18 million gallons of storage in our system.

Work for these two tanks included interior, interior, and exterior coatings, replacing and repairing corroded structural elements of the tanks, and a new cathodic or corrosion protection system.

Also the Catati 3 tank, it's a singular tank of 18 million gallons in capacity.

At last report, we had just advertised and awarded the recoding contract in early 2025.

So it was out of service for most of the year last year.

In addition to that coating work, this contract is also structurally retrofitting the foundation ring of the tank to address the seismic vulnerability.

So this tank also had a number of retainer clips that had failed.

Those lower two right hand pictures show the retainer clips that had failed and the beams that had tipped over as a result.

So those are structural elements that support the roof.

They had failed with all those have been repaired now.

So the exterior coating of that tank is done, the interior coating is primed, it's looking better.

That tiny little photo in the upper right, the less attractive tank up there is now all looking much better.

And we are working on the foundation widening scheduled through the end of March, which brings us to completion of the project.

In May, we completed the Oxidol Well number three drilling contract.

This is part of our work to complete the rehabilitation of three production wells in the Santa Rosa plain, primarily utilized for drought resiliency.

Two of those three wells are the Spastopol Road Well and the Occidental Road Well.

They are substantially funded with a $6.9 million state drought resiliency grant and include as part of their rehabilitation the enhanced functionality to operate as ASR or aquifer storage and recovery wells, having the capability to recharge groundwater with utilizing the wells and store available winter water for later withdrawal and use.

At the Occidental Road well, following closeout of the well drilling contract in 2025, the subsequent contract associated with installing the pumping and the piping and all the electrical work that was awarded last year as well and is completing construction this month, making the well functional for production purposes.

There will be pilot testing for the ASR elements implemented later this year, but it's not required under our grant, so that won't happen immediately, but but will happen later this year.

And at the Sebastipal Road well, the well activation contract was substantially completed this past fall.

Those lower two right-hand photos kind of show the site there.

It's quite a bit of underground work for a very constrained and small site.

We appreciate the coordination with city staff related to access on the adjacent property, as well as utilization of the city's recycle water line for some discharge needs associated with construction.

At this well, the pilot testing for the ASR elements is required under our grant and is currently underway.

It involves the pilot testing involves injection, periods of injection, storage, and then recovery of injected water.

It involves extensive water quality testing and groundwater level monitoring, and we're currently nearing the end of that testing.

We're in our last recovery period of our second cycle, and it that's scheduled to complete this month.

Moving quickly here to our corrosion protection on our aqueducts.

Our work converting our passive cathodic protection systems to an impressed current system for both the Santa Rosa and the Catati aqueducts.

Our phase one project awarded this past July.

The contractors currently procuring materials for that contract, and the contract is scheduled to complete in June of this year.

There's a larger phase two contract that's currently in design, and we're currently securing the right-of-way and the permits to advertise that in fiscal year 27-28.

Finally, on that 2025 list we were looking at, the last project was the Wilford Booster Station located along the Petaluma Aqueduct in Roanert Park.

We are updating outdated electrical equipment, addressing seismic vulnerabilities at the site, and installing redundant, a redundant pump set for resiliency.

I had mentioned last last report that while this station normally operates to pumps to the southern portion of our system, it does have a unique vital role for us in being our only pump station that allows us to pump north, take advantage of some of the 36 million gallons of storage we have at our Katati Tank farm to pump towards Santa Rosa or other northern contractors.

So it allows us that flexibility and provide benefit in this region.

As mentioned, this project was just awarded last month and it will continue into 2027.

So that was our list of 2025 projects.

The last slide here before my last slide before David steps in here is just looking forward in 2026 and other capital projects that are in design, scheduled and scheduled to advertise in 2026.

Those are shown here with just a couple exceptions regarding regarding the advertising.

I'll focus on those that are scheduled to advertise over the next few months.

So one is the Ralphine number one tank recoat.

It's a six million gallon tank located at the upstream end of our Sonoma Aqueduct and our Oakmont Pipeline serving eastern Santa Rosa as well as Sonoma Valley.

It's located in the Spring Lake Park.

Also our Sonoma Tank No.

Recot, it's at the terminal or southern end of our Sonoma Aqueduct.

There's also our river diversion structure resiliency improvements, which involves needed pump and motor control center replacements and seismic resiliency improvements for our for the facility that's located along the Russian River where our inflatable dam is located and where we divert water out of the river and pump into the transmission system.

And lastly, I'll just highlight that the Warm Springs Dam Hydropower project involving electrical upgrades to restore function of the hydroelectric facilities up at Lake Sonoma, the revenue of which do help to moderate water transmission system rate increases.

And then there's a couple projects there that are a little further out that we'll award later this year.

One project I didn't manage to get on this list that I reported on last year is our Bennett Valley Fault Crossing project.

It's located where our Sonoma Aqueduct and our Oakmont pipelines traverse the Bennett Valley Fault Zone along Montgomery Drive near the Spring Lake.

It will replace a seismically vulnerable portion of an existing pipeline that crosses the Bennett Valley Fault Zone.

That project is actively designing at about the 90% stage, though we have pushed off construction to pursue FEMA funding in an effort to mitigate rate impacts.

So we're currently looking to fund that construction 27-28, and that brings me comfort in view of some of those Bennett Valley earthquake swarms we've seen in the recent months.

So that concludes my presentation.

I'll hand it over to David.

Thank you, Kent.

Mayor Staff, Council members, thank you for the opportunity.

I just have a few slides if you want to change that.

What I'd like to share with you today is the implementation of our new computer maintenance management system.

It's next gen is the provider.

And we started the process back in January of 23.

It was a major undertaking for not only our implementation group but all of our maintenance staff as we had to update and include all the assets that we manage and all of our facilities.

Year one, we focus primarily on our water and wastewater systems.

And then in year two, we focused on the remainder of our OM functions.

Wrapping up now with our emergency management and safety group.

It's been a labor of love for all of our staff, but the benefit of having them all so intimately involved is that they they also feel like they have ownership in this system, and therefore they they use it heavily.

Fortunately, we're able to use field tablets for the uh use of this system, and so they can uh in real time update the work that they're conducting in the field uh and provide us with you know real-time measures for um upgraded, you know, equipment that needs to be replaced or repaired.

Uh some of the key features um include reporting on a variety of our maintenance activities, um, asset tracking, which will in time um assist the development of our asset management program um through our engineering group, and we can more efficiently understand the needs of replacement for some of our aging infrastructure.

Okay, you can change.

Uh so one of the projects that Kent was talking about was the um take maintenance program as well as the tank recoat program.

Um the benefit of next gen for these is that not only can we bring input our field information in real time into next gen, but our contractors can submit reports.

Uh engineers can then review that data.

Uh, we can create work orders as soon as that in for the input is made, and then field staff can review and make the repairs quickly.

And um again, the benefit of having tablets in the field and having it connected to our GIS, uh, is that they can do it efficiently without having to come back to the office at the end of the day and upload all the information they've accumulated in the field.

Uh and my last slide, I'll I'll be brief.

Uh basically I mentioned that we've incorporated this through our GIS team, uh, so we can include both our linear and vertical um assets into next-gen.

Um you can see some of the piping here that that would be our horizontal assets.

Field staff can click directly on those assets, get manufacturers' information, uh, maintenance activities, um, and update in real time the work that they're done that they've done on our system.

Uh so all in all, um I think through another benefit is to have upper management buy-in for the implementation implementation of next gen.

Um, it is really demonstrated to staff that we're taking this seriously and that their uh efforts here um will not be in vain, and that we can really use this system to improve not only our maintenance activities but replacement of our um aging infrastructure moving forward.

Uh that wraps up our presentation.

If there's any questions, I think there might be time for one or two.

Thank you, David and Kent.

That was great.

Bringing it back to council for questions.

I'm seeing head shaking on both sides.

All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask one.

Back to Bennett Valley for a second, the Bennett Valley fault line.

So you mentioned that there were that there's gonna be a pipeline replacement underneath Montgomery.

Is that did I hear that correctly?

That's correct.

And whereabouts on Montgomery is that is that taking place.

Um if you're familiar with our pump station, and the city has a pump station there as well.

Um, would we describe it's near the park in close proximity to where the park accesses their maintenance yard, the parks department accesses the maintenance yard there on Montgomery Drive.

Is this the backside?

This is the backside of Spring Lake.

If I'm trying to figure out, if Montgomery Drive, if you're considering drive the backside, then.

Is it running parallel to Montgomery?

Is it going underneath Montgomery?

Parallel to Montgomery.

Okay, so there won't there won't be an impact on that road traffic or significant impact.

There could be there could be traffic impacts that we'll have to address as part of the construction design.

Okay, is there is there a general time frame for that project?

Awarding in fiscal year 27-28.

Okay.

So we're a ways away from it.

All right.

Well, thank you for that.

And this is this is all good news because as we have discussed uh on a number of occasions, we we discussed it internally with Santa Rosa Water.

Sonoma, our Sonoma Water has been kind enough to come back and give a number of reports.

We know that we've got we've got deferred maintenance um left and right in the county.

If I may ask a slightly loaded question, we've been paying more as residents for a few years now, and that's going to continue in the years to come because we do want to we have to make up for this backlog for deferred maintenance both in the city and in the county.

Um, are we starting to make some progress?

Knowing that we have years to go, but with the projects that you're presenting today and the projects that are that are um in preparation, are we starting to to um make a dent in our deferred maintenance needs?

Uh it's hard to say that we're not making a dent because we're making significant investments.

I will also say there is we are in the process of developing a long-range uh uh master plan right now.

Um it's a twice it's got a 20-year planning horizon between natural hazard reliability issues, um, and climate adaptive type issues alone.

We already know there's there's quite a load of work still to do.

Um, condition-based uh and regulatory-based issues are really being taken a look, being looked at.

So I do expect there will continue to be substantial investments required moving into the into the future.

Um, but we are with like what we're seeing with the tank rehab, that is an 80 million dollar 10-year program.

We and we're as hopefully we're showing here that we're making progress on that, but there is significant more work that lies ahead.

We know it well, so thank you for your efforts.

Uh, and it's important to underline that not only are we making up we are we um doing things on the maintenance front, but on the innovation front as well.

The awkward the aquifer recharge program with the pilot programs that that you highlighted that both the city and the county are engaged with, um, that's that's potentially long-term good news for the community.

We if um allowing us to store additional water uh without creating a new um reservoir, um giving ourselves more water resilience.

So those everyone or a lot of people are waiting, waiting eagerly to see the results of those those pilot projects.

Thank you for highlighting those.

Absolutely.

Uh, any other questions from council?

Seeing none, we'll open up to public comment.

Would any members of the public like to uh make a comment on this presentation?

Seeing none, we will close public comment, and I will thank you both for taking the diamond present.

Oh, please, Ms.

Rogers.

Uh thank you for being here.

I would like to say I know um in the past we have definitely asked that you guys, you know, we hold you guys accountable for raising the rates for our residents, and please give us the let us know what it is that you're doing in the community.

So, was very pleased and happy to see this presentation, and that we didn't have the hard questions for you this time because we feel like you're being forthcoming with everything that's going on.

So, transparency definitely is key, and I feel like we're working great together, and I'd like to see that continue on as we continue to take care of all these maintenance requests that we know we have to do, both you guys and we also have the same.

So, thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And again, thank you both for taking the time to come out today.

Thanks.

All right, with that, we will we will pop back up to item 7.1, our proclamation concerning Black History Month.

Ms.

Rogers, may I turn this over to you?

Yes, Mayor, thank you.

Whereas every February, Americans honor the rich history and contributions of Black Americans who have shaped our nation in countless ways through centuries of struggle and triumph.

Whereas Black History Month was first proposed by scholar Dr.

Carter G.

Woodson in 1926 to lift the Black experience with a fuller telling of America's story, and whereas in 1976, as part of the nation's bicentennial, President Gerald Ford decreed Black History Month, African American history month, a national observance stating we can seize the opportunity to honor the two often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.

And whereas for 2026, the theme for Black History Month is a century of Black History Commemorations, marking a hundred years since Dr.

Woodson first establish this recognition and underscoring the enduring importance of remembrance, education, and collective reflection, and whereas the city of Santa Rosa recognizes that our community is enriched by black residents, families, leaders, educators, artists, entrepreneurs, and advocates who contribute to the cultural vibrancy, civic strength, and shared progress of our city.

And whereas, by recognizing Black History Month, a century of black History commemorations, the City of Santa Rosa reaffirms its commitment to uplift all residents, foster a community where learning, belonging, and mutual respect are central to our identity and cultivate a future rooted in shared understanding and unity.

Now, therefore, it be resolved that our mayor, Mark Stapp, on behalf of the entire city council, do hereby recognize February 2026 as national Black History Month, a century of Black History commemorations.

Thank you.

A few a few words of thanks before we get into the two additional remarks.

And I want to thank the community group, so many community groups for coming out today.

If I unless I miss my guess, we've got the North Blayback North Bay Black Chamber.

We've got 100 Black Men, we've got Community Equity Foundation, we got NAACP, the Sonoma or Santa Rosa Sonoma County Branch, and good representatives from each of those groups.

So thank you for taking the time to come out on a rainy day.

We're going to go now to a few remarks, and then we're going to invite everyone who wants to come down for a photo after the end of the remarks.

Again, what it's a this is always a fun moment for our council.

So we're glad so many so many people came out today.

And with that, Nancy from the North Bay Back Chamber, I'm gonna I'm gonna kick it over to you.

The floor is yours.

Thanks for coming out today.

All right, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, and members of the city council.

My name is Nancy Rogers, president of the North Bay Black Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow Foundation.

On behalf of our members and the community we serve, I want to sincerely thank you for presenting us with this proclamation in honor of Black History Month.

We truly appreciate your recognition and support.

It means a great deal to us to know that our city stands with us, especially at a time when in some parts of our country, there are efforts to erase a diminish Black history.

Your actions show that this city values truth, inclusion, and the contribution of Black Americans, past and present.

Black history is American history, and when we stand together as a team, united in respect and purpose, we will continue to succeed no matter what challenges come before us.

Thank you again for your leadership and your commitment and our entire community.

Nancy, thank you.

And Ruben Scott, last year's Santa Rosa Merit Award winner.

Are you up next?

Yes.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Um I want to say uh thank you.

Thank you for all your efforts in the community.

Um I I once again have to say um being part of the black community here in Sonoma County, um, at times it's a struggle for visibility to be seen, have support.

Um, I don't want to sound redundant, but it is a struggle to even know who's your partner who's on your side.

And when we're in the community and we're doing work, it's beautiful to look over and see uh council member Diana McDonald helping and assisting, just like Natalie Rogers in the trenches on on um our beautiful events like a day on, not a day off.

Once again, it's beautiful to see Eddie Alvarez always in the community.

Your job in the community has always been a steward, and you're also a leader as well.

So I gotta say thank you.

Our job in the community is to be visible and to be strong, and to make sure that our culture is seen.

And I thank you for all partnering with us on those journeys and that adventure.

Um Santa Rosa has been beautiful for me.

We have a lot of events, the Juneteenth, and then we also have an event coming up in Santa Rosa called the Black Joy Parade.

So please look forward to that.

Uh please come out, continue to come out, continue to support us.

We need the partnerships in our community, and you guys have given it to us.

You guys have given us the strength in order to allow us to go ahead and move forward, and together we have continued to move forward.

So thank you for being a part of us as we are a part of this community.

Reuben, thank you.

Arthur Cheney of 100 Black Men and Sonoma State University.

Uh, thank you, Mayor and City Council, and thanks to see everyone uh joining us here today.

I want to thank you for the proclamation, acknowledgement.

And I just want to say simply that uh this chapter's been around for thirty-five years now.

We appreciate their proclamation, but we more importantly we want you to continue doing the best thing for the city for the residents in the city government of Santa Rosa.

Thank you very much.

Arthur, thank you.

All right, we will open this up to public comment, and then we'll take a photo.

Are there any members of the public here today who would who would uh like to say a few words?

If so, make your way to either one of the podiums.

I'm seeing no one moving, so let's close public comment and we'll invite anyone who wants to be part of the photo to come down in the front here and we'll we'll s we'll snap a picture of the Mm-Mear.

I will let you do what you normally do.

Okay.

Do you want to take it?

Okay, here you can.

Thanks again to all the community organizations that came out today.

Great photos.

All right.

With that, we are going to move on then to item nine.

Our city manager and city attorney's reports.

Madam City Manager, any reports this evening?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, everyone.

I just have a couple of reports this evening.

The first is that the city has launched a brief five-question community survey to gather input on the selection of the city's next city manager.

We're asking community members to share what qualities they would like to see in this person and what the city council should consider when hiring the next city manager.

The survey is available in English and Spanish and can be found on the city's Facebook page and in the news section of the city's website.

The survey will remain open through March 9th at midnight, and community feedback is an important part of this process.

So we urge we urge all community members to please participate in the survey.

My second update is that Sonoma County Restaurant Week is underway right now.

Throughout this week, participating restaurants are offering special a la carte and set menu options for lunch and dinner.

The reason I'm grinning so heavily is because I love the food in Santa Rosa and the surrounding cities and have made quite a dent in all of our restaurants.

This annual event provides a delicious opportunity to support the local economy by visiting your favorite restaurants or trying new ones.

More information, including participating locations, are available at SOCO.

That's S O C O restaurantweek.org.

My next update is now's the time to sign up for after school programs and low cost or free activities happening this spring and summer for underserved youth and families.

These opportunities are offered through neighborhood services and the violence prevention partnership.

Learn more at SRCity.org slash neighborhood services.

So if you're in need of summer programs for your children, please avail yourself.

And then last but not least, we are now taking applications for the Cal Home Mobile Home Rehabilitation Loan Program.

The program offers affordable loans up to $50,000 for low-income residents to fix health and safety issues in their owner-occupied mobile homes.

So please apply at SRCity.org/slash mobile home rehab loans, or call our housing and community services department at 707-543-3300 option six.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam City Attorney.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I have a brief litigation report for the month of January.

There were no settlements previously authorized by council in closed session that were finalized in January.

In terms of ongoing litigation, our caseload remains at 33 current litigation matters with trial dates assigned to approximately a quarter of those matters.

We currently have four cases on appeal following rulings in favor of the city at the trial court level.

And as always, we continue to try to resolve smaller cases at little or no cost to the city.

That's the end of my report.

Thank you very much.

We'll go to public comment.

Would any members of the public like to comment on either of those reports?

Seeing none, we'll close public comment and we'll move on to item 10.

Statements of abstention or recusal by council members.

Are there any statements of abstention or recusal this evening?

Seeing none, we'll move on to mayor and council members' reports.

Um I will note that we have 20 minutes to get to five o'clock in our public hearing.

So for those of us who like to hold forth, now is your moment to shine.

You have we have plenty of time.

Having having said that, who would like to who would like to make any reports this evening?

Ms.

Fleming, kick us off.

Thank you.

Um I just wanted to put a plug out that um after you know years of working on the transit oriented communities um policy that tomorrow the Metropolitan Transportation Commission will be hearing this item for the the final time, God willing.

And that um if anybody's interested in continuing to see good urban policy and climate policy be implemented, uh you can watch this on Zoom and you can also comment via Zoom and uh the website for this is Bay Area Metro.gov.

Thank you.

Any other members of council with reports?

Today today of all days, we are being we're being terse.

Alright, fine.

I'll I'll I'll buy some time here.

Uh we did have a long-term finance uh subcommittee meeting a couple of a couple of weeks ago.

We looked at we looked in in detail at our fire budget, our center was a fire budget and our city communications team budget.

Um, as has been mentioned in the past, we are working through all of the city departments on the long-term finance subcommittee, getting a bit more granular into what goes into our different department budgets.

Uh it's been a good experience, I think, for everyone on the committee, and it will very much play into our extended conversations this this uh spring on the larger city budget.

Um I was all I also attended the uh most recent zero waste board meeting where we did a budget review and approval uh on a very happy note, and I'm very and I'm surprised my colleagues did not note this.

We had the opening for Dutch Floor Neighborhood Park on Saturday.

Uh a very well attended opening.

Thank you very much to our parks department and our community engagement office.

We must have had oh boy, 50 60 people out there, a lot of kids to celebrate that that neighborhood park, um, and great attendance from Santa Rosa Police.

Uh special thanks to Chief Cregan and the officers, the seven or eight officers who came out to um to honor the fact that that park is named after Dutch Floor, who was police chief in Santa Rosa for 34 years.

So a really nice uh a really nice moment for the city and the first of multiple parks renovations or parks openings in the coming years.

Uh stay tuned, folks.

There's a lot of good news on the parks front uh coming up.

Thank you very much to our transportation and public works department, Dan Hennessy.

Uh and then two different uh Sonoma County mayor and council members meetings in recent weeks.

Uh the legislative committee met last week.

We got legislative updates from our state lobbyists.

Uh it's a busy time in Sacramento right now.

Lots of bills being put forward, and they are being tracked for their uh for their relevance to all the cities in Sonoma County.

Um, no significant updates today, but just know that uh we are paying attention to what's going on in Sacramento.

Uh and then we had a full Sonoma County um mayor and council members uh board and general members meeting in Katati last week uh where a few of us attended and uh the main focus at that meeting was actually the the um Sonoma County crisis response.

So whether we're talking about national natural disasters, whether we're talking about immigration enforcement, uh we had representatives from the county, including the county administrator Christina or Christina Rivera, um talking about the steps that the county is taking in in cooperation with the city to make sure that our community is prepared uh for any crises that might emerge um in the near future.

Uh and that concludes my report.

We will go to public comment.

Would any members of the public like to make comment on anything they've heard in uh from from our mayor and council members' reports?

Seeing none, we will close public comment and we'll move on to our approval of minutes.

We have one set of minutes, the February 10th, 2026 regular meeting minutes.

Uh are there any edits to those minutes looking to my colleagues?

Seeing none, we'll go to public comment.

Would any members of the public like to comment on on those minutes?

For the record, I think we've only had one public comment ever on minutes during my tenure on council, but I always look forward to seeing if anybody steps forward.

Um, all right.

We'll close public comment and we will adopt the minutes as submitted.

Which brings us then to our consent our consent items.

Uh we've got, let's see, item 13.3 is being continued to the March 24th regular meeting.

So we have four items on consent today: 13.1, 13.2, 13.4, and 13.5.

Looking to my colleagues.

Any questions on any of those items?

Seeing none, we'll go to public comment.

Would any members of the public like to comment on any of the consent calendar items?

Seeing none, we'll close public comment and we'll bring it back to Vice Mayor Okropke for a motion.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I will move uh an adoption of consent items 13.1, 13.2, 13.4, 13.5, and 13.3 being continued.

Second.

We have a motion and a second by Ms.

Rogers.

And the city clerk, we can call the the vote whenever you're ready.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Rogers.

Councilmember McDonald.

Aye.

Councilmember Fleming?

Yes.

Councilmember Ben Wellos?

Yes.

Councilmember Alvarez.

All right.

Vice Mayor O'Krepke.

All right.

Mayor step.

Yes.

Let's make a record show.

This passes unanimously.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Well, we have bought ourselves a 15 minute break.

We cannot start with any of our next items until five o'clock.

So we will uh we will recess for the moment and we'll we will reconvene at four at five o'clock.

Thank you, everyone.

All right.

Welcome back, everyone.

Thank you for your patience.

Time is now officially five o'clock, so we can reconvene into open session.

Madam City Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Rogers.

Councilmember McDonald here.

Council Member Fleming.

Here, Councilmember Ben Wellows.

Here, Councilmember Alvarez.

Here.

Vice Mayor O'Krepke.

Here.

Mayor Stapp.

Let the record show all council members are present.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Before we get into our main items for the evening, we're going to do our first public comment on non-agenda matters.

So this is the public comment session for items not listed on the agenda, not the logo fresco, which I know so many so many of you are here for.

Would any members of the public like to speak?

All right, I see Janice moving to the podium.

If any other members of the public would like to speak on items not listed on the agenda, please make your way to both podiums or to one of the podiums right now so we can we can get through this quickly.

Thank you, Mayor.

Janice Carmen here.

Can't even say it.

Anyway, um, I just want to comment on the organizational uh meetings of recent.

And I've spoken at a different meeting about it, but last week there was a planning commission meeting, a finance meeting, uh, they overlap.

That's not the first time.

And the Mayoral meeting down in Qatati.

And whoever is doing the meeting uh arrangements and schedules, I think there should be time allowed.

You know, like I don't mind going to three meetings or five meetings a day, but I don't want them to overlap and have to leave one and make a choice between what I want to hear or if it's going to finish before I can get to the next one.

And I do attend a lot of the meetings here.

I've been very involved with the city, and I don't know who does the meeting uh agenda calendar, but I just like to say that um please be on notice that this is going on and that it should be correctable.

Thank you.

Janice, thank you very much.

Would any other members of the public like to speak on items not listed on the agenda?

I don't see anyone making their way to the podium.

All right.

So we will close public comment on non-agenda matters, and we will go to the item that is the reason that so many of you are here.

Item 16.1, our public hearing on the Lago Fresca Apartments appeal.

Alright, and we're gonna we're gonna follow an official order uh for this for this uh session that's a that's a little different than usual um or a little different than our our typical city council session.

It's gonna be an official public hearing.

Uh and we're gonna begin with ex parte disclosures by the council.

So I'm gonna look to my my uh fellow members.

Are there any ex parte disclosures?

Uh Miss McDonald, you may begin.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I'd like to uh make sure that I disclose um an ex parte communication with the applicant about the project and all the information that you're provided um in the reports are the same information that I got during that same meeting.

Ms.

Ben Wellos.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um let's see.

I went and looked at the property.

I also um spoke with my um appointee to the planning commission, um, and I also spoke with the developer as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Back to you, Miss McDonald.

Sorry about that.

Thank you for the um reminder, um Caroline.

Um I also went to the property and checked the property and drove down Hoen a couple different times to check the in and out um entrance on my own.

Thank you, Miss Rogers.

Ex parte, just I spoke to the applicant.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Alvarez.

Uh, visited the property, spoke with the applicant and also spoke with community members.

Thank you.

Miss Fleming.

I have nothing to disclose, no ex parte communications.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I visited the site and have nothing further to disclose.

Thank you.

And for my disclosures, uh I spoke to the applicant.

Um I live about three quarters of a mile down from the site.

This is my this is my neighborhood.

Um, it's on my ex commute path.

I drive this multiple times a week, uh, so I'm very familiar with the site.

Uh I was also formerly an SAY board member, uh, and I also spoke with the executive director of the Redwood Gospel Mission, which of course is also on the site as well.

So suffice it to say that um I've been paying a lot of attention to this site for a number of years.

Oh, and I was I was also on design review until 2022 when an earlier version of this project came before the design review committee, and so I uh reviewed it at that time as well.

Uh all right, so that concludes the ex parte disclosures.

We're gonna go now to a store to a five-minute staff presentation uh by Mene Shakraile.

So the presentation is more than five minutes.

More than four minutes.

The floor, the floor is yours, Mene.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

The project before you is the appeal of the Lago Fresca project.

The project is proposing a development of a 50-unit residential development, which uh includes four deed restricted affordable units for very low income.

It provides 63 parking spaces on site, and it also has qualified for a density bonus consistent with the state density bonus law.

Here is where the site is located, uh, shown within the yellow border.

It's at the corner of Hohen Avenue and Summerfield Road.

Here is the project site plan showing four proposed building, and the driveway is located on Hohen Avenue.

Also, as a part of this project, a crosswalk with enhanced uh devices, warning devices will be installed on Hohen Avenue.

The project site is zoned office commercial and multifamily residential users are permitted to uh to approval of a major conditional use permit.

A brief uh project background or history.

A neighborhood meeting was held in September 2021, and the concept design review in March of 2022, and the application was submitted in August of 2022.

A density bonus was approved last year in November, and on December 11, the Planning Commission approved the uh major conditional use permit.

And a week later, our design review and preservation board approved the design review of this project.

And on December 19, we received application appealing both those decisions.

So I'm gonna go over the grants for appeal.

This is a long portion, bear with me.

So uh I will provide also staff responses.

First grant for appeal.

The appellant states that the traffic study used for this project was conducted in 2021 during the COVID pandemic era, and it does not reflect current traffic or parking demand on Hohen Avenue.

So staff response is that the traffic counts were collected in February 2019 and they were provided by the city.

And the city council adopted local pandemic emergency on March of 2020, almost a year after the report was provided.

And the city traffic engineering staff also has confirmed that uh traffic counts on Hohen Avenue have decreased by 3,000 from 2019 to 2024.

As such, the traffic analysis from 2021 is still valid.

Another grant for appeal is that the appellant indicates that parking is not sufficient for the project, and the street parking assumption is inaccurate.

So staff response is that the site is providing 63 parking spaces on site, plus there are approximately about 52 parking spaces on Hohen Avenue.

And because this project is including four affordable units, it's eligible for the density bonus under the state law, which allows the applicant or any developer for request uh to request parking reduction beyond what our zoning code allows.

And based on the traffic study and state density bonus law, the information remains valid regarding parking, and there has been no evidence of safety of safety impacts as a result of the proposed parking.

Also, the appellant says that the traffic study relies on 2017 to 2022 collision data and fails to include a serious incident that happened in 2023 on Hohen Avenue near Sierra Creeks Lane crosswalk where two young pedestrians unfortunately were struck.

So staff response is that the traffic study only focused on the intersection of Hohen Avenue and Summerfield Road because that's between the study area and the Sierra Creek Lane is a minor street.

That's why it was not included in the study area.

And since those two incidents that happened in 2023, that crosswalk on Hohen Avenue has been updated and a rectangular rapid flashing beacon has been installed, the warning devices.

Also, the applicant has provided updated collision data from 2020 to 2024, showing that crash rates on Hohen Avenue and Summerfield Road are below the state average.

The study has also looked at the road segment between Yorupa Avenue and Summerfield Road, which has a crash rate lower than the statewide average for comparable three-lane roads.

This means that while overall crashes and fatalities are below average, the injury rate is above the average, indicating fewer crashes overall, but a higher proportion resulting in injuries.

The next grant for appeal is that the appellant indicates that traffic patterns has increased since the merging of Slater School into Montgomery School, and this change has not been included in the traffic study.

So staff response is that the traffic, the city traffic currently doesn't have the volume for uh traffic from 2025.

However, the closure of Slater School, which had 577 enrollment students, is not expected to significantly impact traffic along Hohen Avenue.

And as I mentioned, there is about 3,000 counts of the parking, the traffic that has increased from 2019 to 2024.

The next grant for appeal is that the appellant claims the lack of residence and visitor parking spaces would increase collision risk and it will spill parking into nearby businesses and residential streets.

And that the proposed crosswalk will not prevent unsafe pedestrian jaywalking or unsafe pedestrian behavior.

So staff response is that the projects provide a designated short-term loading space for deliveries and services.

And as I mentioned previously, because this project is providing affordable units, it is eligible for the state density bonus.

And the developer or the applicant can request for a parking reduction beyond what our zoning code allows.

And this is consistent with the state's goal for production of affordable housing.

And when it comes to the jaywalking, the pedestrians are having the right to cross anywhere outside of the site, outside of the crosswalk.

And unless it is specifically prohibited.

So staff have not received any evidence of safety impacts as a result of the proposed project.

Another grant for appeal is that the appellant states that the developer has not given any consideration to the safety of the pedestrian or bike entering or exiting through the driveway on Hohen Avenue.

So staff response is that the city's traffic department reviewed the traffic study and found that the site access is safe for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists.

The study, the traffic study has looked closely at side distance along Hohan Avenue and confirmed that it exceeds the Caltrans requirement for a 35 mile per hour road.

In fact, drivers will have more than enough visibility in both directions at the project driveway.

Also, the project is within a walking distance from a bus stop on Summerfield Road, and there is bus route 18 on Hohen Avenue.

And to improve the safety or pedestrian crossing on the street, as I mentioned, a crosswalk with flashing with rectangular rapid flashing beacons will be installed on Hohen Avenue about 300 feet from the summerfield intersections.

And the next grant for appeal is that the appellant is concerned that residents will face safety risks by having to cross two lanes to turn west from the proposed driveway.

The appellant states that when the driver slow down to enter the property at 4750 Hohen Avenue, this is the property right located on the corner, says that the drivers behind often mistakenly assume that they will turn south into summerfield road.

The concern is that the proposed driveway is too close to the driver on the adjacent property and will worsen the uh existing near existing near collision issues.

So staff response is that the project um the staff um the project provided traffic study has analyzed the side distance for the project driveway and confirmed that side distance is sufficient in both directions for the proposed speed limit based on the traffic study.

This project will provide a small number of trips, about 19 during the morning peak hour and about 20 during the evening hour.

As such, there is no evidence that the project would impact safety as a result of the proposed driveway.

And the next grant for appeal is that the app appellant says that the project does not align with the intent of the density bonus law, which is meant for areas with major public transportation and job access, as the site has only one bus stop that runs hourly.

Also, the appellant raises concerns about the existing bike lanes that they are not safe and poorly connected.

So staff response is that the project doesn't have to be near a major bus stop or transit or uh office commercial centers.

The state density bonus law allows it anywhere within the city, and the applicant can qualify for a density bonus as long as affordable housing is provided.

And regarding the unsafe bike lanes, the issue with the bike lanes is not caused by this project.

The applicant is only responsible for the improvement along their property.

And lastly, the appellant raises concerns about the fire evacuation that are chaotic and unpredictable, and relying on controlled traffic signals isn't realistic, especially since power often goes out.

As such, evacuating 200 residents from the complex is going to be unsafe.

So, as a council may know, critical intersections for large evacuations are now equipped with backup power to ensure functionality during emergencies.

The traffic signals are actively managed by transportation and public war staff in coordination with Santa Rosa Police Fire and Emergency Management.

While there was significant congestion during the 2017 wildfires, much of that was due to residents evacuating before formal evacuation zones were established.

And since 2017, the city has implemented substantial improvements during the uh glass fire in 2020, the majority of East Santa Rosa was successfully evacuated, reflecting those enhancements.

The city continues to enhance its alert system and conduct annual training on phase evacuation procedures to improve emergency response capabilities.

So those were the grants for appeal.

And lastly, the project has been reviewed in compliance with the Environmental Equality Act, and it qualifies for an infill exemption under section 15332.

And with that, it is um uh recommended by the planning commission and the design and preservation board and the planning and economic development department.

That cancelled by two resolution.

One, deny the appeal and uphold the planning commission's approval of the conditional use permit, and two deny the appeal and uphold the design review and preservation board's approval of the design leav you for the logo Frisco project located at 4744 Hohen Avenue.

And that concludes staff presentation.

I'm available for questions.

The appellant and applicant both have uh PowerPoints to present the cases.

Money, thank you very much.

We're gonna bring it back to council for questions, but before we do that, uh we've got a very full house tonight, and we do need to keep the doorways clear and the walkways clear.

Uh we do have open chairs.

Uh, if you're willing to take a chair and free up the walkways in the back, that's helpful.

Uh, if you are gonna stand in the back because you're gonna make comments if you can please stay against the walls and stay out of stay out of the walkways and stay out of the doorways.

Uh thank you very much for your consideration.

Uh bringing it back to council for some questions.

Vice Mayor, you want to kick us off?

Sure, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, my first question um is if I recall correctly, there is one traffic study, but two sets of traffic data that were used in this in 2019 and 24.

Is that correct?

So the data was collected in 2019, that's correct.

And in 2021, the applicant, when submitted application, 2022 included a traffic report, but traffic report has been updated in 2024.

But the data about the traffic volume was collected in 2019.

Okay, can you um go into a little bit of detail on the difference between the new data and the old data?

Well uh uh Mike maybe.

Yes, we have uh Mike Van Midi from our traffic engineering division here to help with that.

Hi, Mayor and Council members Mike Van Midi, acting deputy director of traffic engineering.

Uh we collected data.

Uh, this is part of our annual count contract.

Um, originally it was used uh the study did um collected or use the data that we collected from 2019.

Um they subsequently looked at um the same study with the data from 2024.

Um the 2024 data for the segment of Hoan between Yalupa and Summerfield showed roughly 3,000 fewer cars.

Um the turning movement counts.

Uh there's a lot more information associated with that, and that is reflected in the update from W-Trans.

Okay, and can you just let me know a little bit about the time period of both uh how long the data was collected for?

What time of year, week, any of that?

So it's always collected uh while school is in session on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.

It so happened that the data was uh on Tuesday during both counts.

This is 24-hour average daily traffic counts, so that counts all the vehicles on the road, uh, in this case on Hoenn, um, going in each in both directions.

So it's a cumulative um uh traffic study.

Okay, so just trying to distill it down.

That means from 2019 to 2024, using the same day of the week in a 24-hour period, there was three thousand less trips accounted for, correct.

Okay, my next question is um not for traffic.

Thank you for that.

Appreciate it.

Um I'm sure there will be more traffic questions, so don't race back to your seat yet.

Um the project includes very low income units which qualify for a state density bonus.

Can you walk us through what we as a council are legally allowed to do in terms of declining or uh decline this appeal or modifying the project?

Yes, uh, thank you for that question, Vice Mayor.

So uh Jessica Jones, Deputy Director of Planning.

Um, so yes, uh the project does qualify for a state density bonus, which includes um uh uh increased density plus various concessions and um uh uh incentives from our regular zoning regulations.

Um so in California, a local agency can only deny a requested density bonus incentive or concession by making a written finding based on substantial evidence that the request does not result in actual cost reductions, has an adverse impact on health safety or historic resources with no feasible mitigation, or is contrary to state and federal federal law.

Would you happen to have an example offhand of what that would include?

So I mean generally speaking, what we would be looking for are um safety impacts, and we would have to have some sort of like you said, substantial um evidence of that.

Um all of the evidence that has been provided to us um through the technical uh reports that have been provided for the project that have been reviewed by our traffic engineering, by our fire department, by all the our internal departments.

Um they've been verified that they are uh accurate, have stated that there is no safety impact for this project, and to date we do not have any evidence provided by anybody else identifying any safety impact.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

McDonald.

Thank you.

Just a follow-up from Vice Mayor's question.

So if you're saying that all of our reports show that there's not any of the impacts, what are the ramifications of the city actually denying a project like this if they have qualified for the density bonus to the state law?

So we would have to identify what the safety impact is to uh to substantiate a grounds for denial.

If the city were to adopt a resolution of denial without that information, um, very likely we would be contacted by um the state um HCD housing and community development, um, and there would be challenges to that action.

And when you say they chd from the state would challenge us, what would that mean to the city?

How does that work?

So I might bring our our legal expert down for this, uh Ashley Crocker from our city attorney's office can help out with this.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, uh Vice Mayor, Ashley Crocker, assistant city attorney.

Um I wanted to address a couple of of your questions if if I may.

Um, one of the questions you would ask is I think uh pertain to what is substantial evidence.

Um and substantial evidence is objective facts, reasonable inferences drawn from facts, expert opinions supported by facts.

It is not argument, speculation, or unsubstantiated opinion.

And an example of substantial evidence in this case would, for example, be a traffic engineering report showing that the project creates um you know documented collision risk.

So that would be an example of substantial evidence.

Uh if we were to conclude that the to deny the density bonus or deny the concessions, um, again, we would have to point to substantial evidence that shows a health and safety risk.

And I wanted to point out um in this case, it's that the city is mandated to grant the concession and the waiver unless you make the written findings, as noted by Ms.

Jones.

Um based on substantial evidence that the concession or waiver in this case we're focusing on would have a specific adverse impact on health and safety, and the concessions and waivers that are at issue are the location of the affordable units and the parking reduction or the concessions.

So we would have to show based upon substantial evidence that the location of the affordable units and the parking reduction would result in a specific adverse impact on health and safety.

And I wanted to note that a specific adverse impact is a significant, quantifiable, direct, and unavoidable impact based on objective identified written public health or safety standards policies or conditions as they existed on the date the application was deemed complete.

It is the intent of the legislator that the conditions would have a specific adverse impact would arise infrequently.

So this is supposed to be the exception rather than the rule.

And then I wanted to move on to waivers.

The waivers at issue are the building height, the front and set the front setbacks, the covered parking and parking width.

So in order to deny a waiver, the city would have to find that those waivers, the height, setbacks, and parking, would cause a public health or safety issue or an environmental issue.

And again, that's looking to substantial evidence, such as things like a traffic engineering report or perhaps a fire marshal's report.

And then in terms of legal risk, I also wanted to point out that this project is subject to the housing accountability act, separate and apart from density bonus law.

And under the Housing Accountability Act, if a housing development project meets all objective standards, and in this case, staff has determined that it has, except for those that are lawfully modified by the density bonus that we just discussed, that project cannot be denied.

And importantly, conditions cannot be imposed that force that project to be developed at a lower density unless the city makes written findings, and in this case, those findings have to be supported by a preponderance of the evidence, not substantial evidence, that a specific adverse impact on the public health or safety would result, and mitigation of the adverse impact is not possible.

So that's a pretty high burden, and I'm I'm very thankful that you guys asked the question.

I think it's important, um, as we get into this hearing to really frame the context.

The state has imposed a lot of restrictions that in many regards restricts the city's uh discretion in a number of these areas, in particular the density bonus, and then I just wanted to bring back around the housing accountability act, which is extremely important to keep in mind when we're looking at um a housing development such as this one.

I hope that answered your question.

That was a great answer and um a briefing on the law.

So I think the the thing for me is what I'm hearing from staff is there's no way for us to substantiate evidence if there was some type of denial of this project, and that the state laws supersede anything we might even want locally because of the way that it's written, as long as they meet the certain criteria.

Is that what I'm understanding from what you just gave us, Ashley?

I would say yes, in large part, and and tonight at the you know, throughout the process of the hearing, um, you will be listening to members of the public and keeping an ear out for substantial evidence or preponderance of the evidence.

To date, from what I have seen, I have not seen anything uh submitted in writing or in oral comments delivered at the planning commission that would rise to the level of substantial evidence to overturn a density bonus concession or waiver, or to rise to the level of a preponderance of the evidence to overturn a housing accountability act project.

Thank you.

Can you walk me through how we go from I believe it was maybe a proposed 38 units to 50 unit increase of the housing?

Jessica, you would you be able to go through some of that of how they were able to increase what originally was planned to this?

So for that, I'm gonna hand it over to our project planner, Monet.

Okay, okay.

Okay, I will go over this.

So the project start is zoned office commercial, which allows 35 units per acre.

The total lot size is 1.31, which uh would give them about 39 units.

When it comes to affordability, when you have a 39.3 units, the number will be rounded up.

So they will get 40 units.

And because they are providing four units, which is 10% increase, they can go up to 55 units, but they keep it to 50 units.

So because that four units, they can get 10% increase.

And every number with the like a point something can be rounded up.

That's how they are getting more units than what they can have.

So instead of 39 units, they are can they can get 55 bit, but they are keeping it to 50.

Okay, so just so I'm clear.

When they added the four very low um units, they were able to increase the project up to 55 units, but this developer still stayed at 50.

But by them doing the density housing law, then they're able to go all the way up to 55 because of those four very low units.

I should have said 53.

Sorry, 53.

Okay, but they kept it at 50.

But it was because of that law that allowed them to increase it, even though our zoning maybe was giving them something else.

Correct.

Okay.

So that just one thing.

The 10% density would give them the 10% affordable housing would give them 32.5% increase.

Okay.

So it would have given them a 32.5% increase of the 40 units of the four units, which would be equaled out to be, you said 13 units.

13 units.

On top of the 40, on top of the 40, which got them to 53.

Okay.

That was complex math to do right here on the day.

So I appreciate you walking me through that.

Um, and then can you walk me through how we went from 109 spaces down to the 63?

I'm assuming it's under the same law, but I just think it's important for everybody to understand because that seems to also be a large concern is the um parking along Hoenn and not actually being in the complex.

So per our zoning code for 50 units with the number of bedrooms that is provided, the applicant would need to provide 109 parking spaces.

But because they are providing affordable units, they have two options.

They can even go with the density bonus.

Density bonus has different parking requirements.

It's less than the city.

So with that, they would need to provide 72 parking spaces.

However, the applicant can request an at this uh for an additional reduction beyond what the density bonus allows, and it can be done through incentives.

When they provide affordable housing for 10% very low income, they can get two incentives.

So those two incentives, one is request for a parking reduction, and one was to place the affordable units into one building.

And that those are both based on state laws, correct, and imposed on local jurisdictions of how many parking spaces we can even demand of a development.

We've seen that around the city as well, correct?

Okay.

Um can you tell me if I had a question about how do we have four units when actually it would be five, would be 10% of 50, or how come only four are having to be very low income?

So you would go with the base density.

So the base density is 39.3, which will round it up to 40.

So 10% of the 40 is four units.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for the clarification on that.

Um, how does it work?

Um, one of the questions I had given to me was the entrance over off of Summerfield, because there's only an entrance right now off of Hoenn, that's all that was required.

Um, but we know that there's a driveway there that used to go to Warwick Hospital in the former SAY building.

How does that work when that was actually available?

Is it because it's private property and private property, the city has no jurisdiction over it, or how does that work for safety?

So I think the intent was to prevent additional cars going through the intersection of Hoenn and Summerfield.

So if we allowed vehicles to enter and exit on Summerfield, most likely many of them would go through the intersection of Holland and Summerfield.

So by only having the driveway entrance on Hoenn, you can prevent at least some of those trips from going through the intersection of Hoenn and Summerfield.

Okay.

So it wasn't necessarily that the property owner wouldn't allow that entrance.

It was really for the city that we decided the other way is safer for visibility.

It's um intersection operational.

It's related to improving operations at the intersection or at least not decreasing operations at the intersection as much.

Okay.

And I I know Ashley, you walked us through how the law actually works, but I didn't quite hear the consequences that could be imposed on the city if it was to deny the project.

Like do they put us in jail?

Do they what is the state do to us when we deny what they're trying to have in their law?

I think that's important for everybody to know, including council, what happens?

Thank you.

Um I would say we would be subject to potential claims for violating the state density bonus law and the state housing accountability act.

Um there are various uh, you know, I think there could be a writ and overturning the decision.

Also, there are fines that could be imposed specifically under the housing accountability act.

I don't have those at my fingertips, but there are definitely fines, and I believe potential actions from HCD, so we would probably get notified from them fairly quickly.

I know we've received the pro housing um, I'm sorry, what is it called the pro-housing designation?

What happens if we deny something like this?

What happens to that designation and what do we get by having that designation?

So our current pro housing designation is valid through the end of this calendar year.

Um so we are gearing up for the next round of pro housing designation.

Um, so it's a conversation that certainly we would be having with HCD.

Um, and I imagine that it would um have an impact on uh potential next round of pro housing designation.

Does that cost us money and funding for projects or how what is it actually do to get the title?

So the pro housing designation primarily uh provides opportunity for um funding for our housing and community services for housing development here in Santa Rosa.

Um and so without having that designation, it puts us at a disadvantage for that funding.

Okay, I understand that this was um zoned commercial, but um, can you walk me through how our commercial zoning allows for multifamily use and and how did that zoning change?

So, um yes, so the the designation is for office commercial, um, and I'm not sure if Monet was able to find out when the hotel designation was was put in place, but the site has been designated office for quite some time.

Um the office commercial zoning district allows for multifamily residential with the um approval of a major conditional use permit, as Money mentioned in her presentation, and that requirement for major conditional use permit in office for multifamily has been in our code um since about 2004 when the code was last comprehensively updated.

I think that's the majority of my um questions that were technical.

I appreciate all the concerns from the community that helped me to learn more about this process, and I really appreciate all the feedback from staff tonight as well as um when I've been seeking information about this.

I thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

McDonald.

May I just sorry, just uh one more thing for council member McDonald and for you all.

I just did happen to look up on um the violations.

In addition to uh HCD, um the violation would be reported to the Office of the Attorney General who could file a petition against the city.

Um in addition, the remedies could be an orc uh court compelling compliance with the housing accountability act within 60 days that would require the city to take action on the housing development during that time period, so it would come back to you.

So there are a whole host of uh remedies and violations that the city could be looking at.

Thank you.

That's great to have that information.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Um and actually, Ms.

Crocker, just to put that in layman's tour terms before you head back.

So what what you just summarized meant that if this the in potentially if the city attempted to deny an appeal without substantive reason for doing so, that we would be fined, we would incur legal fees, and we'd ultimately be compelled to build a project anyway.

Is that a fair summary?

The project would come back before you for consideration again, yes, under the the guidance of the housing accountability act.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you for underlining that.

And those are those are important facts for everyone to keep in mind.

Looking to counsel for other questions.

So Miss Ben Wellos.

And from and from the from the audience, please, please, no conversation back and forth.

We want to it's a it's a full crowd tonight, and there's a lot of there are a lot of strong feelings about this issue.

Uh but we need to keep we need to keep it civil.

So you know, snap your figures or or wave your hands if you want to if you want to approve, but no back and forth comment, please.

Ms.

Panwayos.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um let me start off by saying, first of all, I really really appreciate the staff report.

It was really well done, addressing every issue in depth.

I really really appreciate all the work that you did.

Um I just I actually council member McDonald asked some excellent questions and and really cleared up a lot of things for me.

Um so I sort of want to go down a different path about safety since this is supposed to be completely about safety from uh when I read the appellants um uh information.

So um I understand that there's only one way out, right?

That's correct.

Um, and that you can turn both left and right, or no, only one way.

You could turn in both directions.

Okay.

In or out, both directions.

Okay, great.

Okay.

That's that's good because I was told something different.

So thank you.

Um so thinking about that, so I'm just gonna say I I live in an apartment complex.

I'm a renter, full disclosure.

Uh I'm not ashamed of it.

Um I've done a lot of things in my life and now I'm renting.

So um the one of the biggest frustrations for when you only have one way out, even if you can turn left or right, is getting out at P peak traffic hours.

Um, it is the thing that drives me nuts, and I've lived there for 10 years.

So, and so I'm wondering, you know, what kinds of um both traffic calming, uh, uh making it in other words, I think the people that are gonna be the most frustrated are the residents that live there, more than more so than than the neighbors actually, um, because they're gonna be able to go go and then and ignore the people that are trying to get out.

And that's what they do.

Um, unless you put in one of the, and this is a suggestion, one of those um, you know, keep an area clear so that people that need to get out and in can do that.

Um that's one thing, and I actually think it will add to safe a safety issue as well.

And so I'm wondering along that line, what other things have you all thought about that fall into your jurisdiction, so to speak, um, that will um make things safer and maybe perhaps help the community feel it's safer.

Yeah, thank you for that.

Um the we do have a uh sort of an informal uh keep clear legend, uh which is what we call those markings.

Um I don't want to call it a policy, but um we generally only put them in locations where there's a documented history uh showing the need.

Um I think based on the volumes of vehicles coming out of there during the AM and the PM peak, it's um there's a chance that it wouldn't be needed.

And so um, you know, it's something that we could add later.

Um adding markings like that is not an expensive or difficult thing to do.

Um, but I I wouldn't um I wouldn't think it would be an issue that would need to be addressed uh beforehand uh with markings there.

So but if the residents came to you all and said we need some help getting in and out, because people will ignore them.

I'm gonna tell you right now that they will be ignored.

Um so along that line, uh, what about speed limits around that area?

I know there have been some accidents.

That's one of the huge concerns of the community has.

Um what do those look like and can those be adjusted in any way?

So I believe the speed limit is 35 out there.

Um we do an engineering and traffic survey once every seven years.

Um, I'm not sure when it was most recently done, but we keep up to date on that.

Um this hone Avenue being an arterial street, we are limited, and also being a a bus route, we are limited with some of the strategies that we could do uh with traffic calming measures.

Um, but it you know it's certainly something that uh we could look at uh to see what treatments Hoenn Avenue uh could have.

Um I think in our ATP it already called uh our active transportation plan, it already calls out for the buffered bike lanes which are existing out there.

Um so I I think we've done some of the improvements out there uh that we would be able to do, but we wouldn't be able to do things uh like what we might be able to do in a residential area, like speed humps or or any of those sorts of treatment.

Okay, I think that's all I have for now.

I'm looking forward to hearing from the community.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Ms.

Penguellos.

Um I'd like to pan out and go and review a couple of points that um Monet made nicely, but I think are important for this crowd.

Um so as I mentioned, my wife and I, we live down on Santa Rosia, which is uh just a little ways down Summerfield, and we remember well the hour and a half long journey from Santa Rosita out to 101 in 2017.

And I'm gonna assume that a good portion of of the people here tonight were sitting in that in that traffic jam.

Um yes, we all remember remember that.

One thing that Monet mentioned, but we really want to highlight is why that's not going to occur again.

And if you remember in 2020, for those of us who are also evacuating in 2020, it was better than because of the because of the um the warning system and the zones that we had wouldn't put into place.

But Monet, if you would, could you talk technically about what happens to our streets and our stoplights when we need to quote flush the city during an emergency that was not in place in 2017?

And regardless of what you think about this project, you should know you should you should understand what's different now than what within what happened eight years ago.

Monet, could you talk through the just the technicalities or are you Jessica?

Are you gonna field this one?

So actually I'm going to um pass this over to Paul Lowenthal with our fire department who is on Zoom, who is going to be well versed in answering that question.

That's excellent.

Let's get Mr.

Loenthal involved.

One moment will I get him promoted to panelists.

Good evening, Mayor.

Uh, members of the council, my name is Paul Lowenthal, Division Chief Fire Marshal.

Uh, thank you for the question, and yes, uh, you are correct.

Uh there were a number of improvements that have been made since 2017 that have substantially uh improved our ability to evacuate uh that portion of Santa Rosa.

Um a lot of people uh think back to the amount of traffic that you referred to in 2017, and I think what's really important to remember is that in 2017 there was a very small portion of uh Southeast Santa Rosa that was actually requested and required to evacuate, and that was on Summerfield Road between Anadil State Park and essentially uh to the uh south of uh Park Trail.

So more towards the Woodview, Brookshire Circle Area.

Um unfortunately and rightfully so a lot of people were concerned, and we ended up with a far number more people evacuating than actually required, uh which congested uh our streets.

Uh that being said, we were able to get the people out that we actually needed, but we took what happened in 2017 and made a number of improvements uh that uh allowed for the successful evacuation of East Santa Rosa during the glass fire.

Um and even with that, um we worked very closely with our traffic division uh as well as our police department, um, and to the point that you discussed earlier, um, have uh instituted the flush plan, which really allows for a lot of the traffic to move out of the Rinkin Valley and Oakmont areas a lot more smooth, which then has a trickle-down effect and will improve the evacuations as needed in the area in and around the project.

Um we also alluded to the fact that we didn't have evacuation zones, and a lot of effort has now been put into making sure that our zone system is used and used appropriately.

In fact, um it's also really important to note that during 2020 with the improvements that we've made to our alert and warning system, we actually had to slow down how we evacuated because we're almost too good now.

Um so now we um have a process where the buy-in from both police fire and emergency management relies not only on our communications with our traffic division, but also with our law enforcement teams that they're at some of the key intersections, again, allowing for a safe and smooth evacuation uh that would also affect this project area.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Lowenthal.

Can you can we pause on that last point just to make sure everyone's clear?

Because again, those of us who were there in 2017, we call sitting at those stoplights and going like car by car all the way to the freeway.

That's not the way it's gonna work.

That's not the way it works anymore.

What what happens at those intersections?

What would what would happen for those neighborhoods in Southeast Santa Rosa that would have to evacuate and get to one on one?

Yeah, so typically it's gonna depend on the direction of the incident um where the fire is originating from.

Uh we are very accustomed to unfortunately those north wind events uh where we get the strong gusty winds out of the northeast that have pushed the uh class fire, the tubs fire, the nuns fire uh from out of our city into our city.

Um if we were experiencing another type of event similar to what we had, um part of what we were talking about is actually before we send out those alert and warnings because of the advanced technology that we have with how we monitor fires, our communications, our network of cameras, uh the coordination uh would allow for us to communicate with the law enforcement, making sure that they're ready for those evacuations to take place.

Um, if you take an intersection like Hoenn and Yulupa, that would likely be in a location where we strategically place a law enforcement officer potentially uh to again to allow um the phase evacuation.

So it would not be uh in our plan or our game plan to evacuate all the zones within that Bennett Valley area.

Um again, what we do is phased evacuations, uh, so that it allows us to move from one zone to the next zone.

Um if the threat was coming from the fairgrounds, we would likely move from the Hall and Heights area through the Neotomas area into uh the Bennett Valley area.

Um it's uh something that we have planned for that we prepare for.

We now have an annual exercise where our police managers, fire managers, as well as our emergency manager for the city come together and actually train uh on this.

In fact, our last year's event as well as our planned event for this year is this specific area of Santa Rosa.

Um so if there's a community that is ready from an emergency management perspective to actually do phased evacuations, um it's us and it's for this specific area.

Um thank you for all that, and and not to get uh even too far into the weeds, but even our even our our traffic lighting policy changes, isn't that correct, Mr.

Lowenthal, in terms of uh how we're timing the lights to make sure that people could just essentially again be flushed out to the freeway um with a solid state of greens in addition to the law enforcement support?

Yeah, so currently right now the flush plan is primarily targeted for the farmers' lane, but as you know, if farmers land gets congested, it has the potential to affect uh a lot of the cross traffic.

Um so these uh processes all are designed to uh to help um the different portions of our city allow for a more successful um and streamline evacuation.

But I think, like we highlighted earlier, um it's uh thankful that no one uh was harmed in the East Santa Rosa area, but uh what we saw uh in uh in the Bennett Valley area was a lot of people evacuating uh unnecessarily and well outside of the evacuation zone areas.

We're hopeful that a lot of the work that we've done with know your alerts, know your zones, know your ways out, um, we'll greatly uh improve that.

Um, I'm from the Bennett Valley area, I grew up in Bennett Valley.

Um, my and I'll admit it here that my own parents were some of those people that were looking into evacuate in 2017, and um it's great to see how much has been done since 2017 to improve um our community, our resiliency and our ability to successfully evacuate in the event of a future wildfire.

Thank you, Paul.

Um, I I just wanted to highlight that, or we wanted to highlight that just to make sure that people were crystal clear on the differences between where we are now and 2017 irrelevant um or regardless of of the conversation tonight.

Uh and sticking with public safety, uh as has been mentioned, there have been at least a couple very high pri profile and tragic incidences along Hoenn, including the death of one uh local local um student.

We all remember those as well.

Um it is important.

I do want to to um spend a moment to talk about the changes the city has made already in response to those incidents that obviously caught everyone's attention.

Uh, do we have Mr.

Hennessy here still or somebody?

So we can can you speak to the changes we made in terms of the Hawk warning systems um in terms of the traffic or the evaluations we've done for for pedestrians um and bicyclists in that area.

Uh and more broadly, the fact that this is a priority throughout the city because we have we know we have other areas we need to do better, and this council and your department has been have been focused on on this issue for a few years now.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

So at the location uh where the tragedy uh happened, we have installed uh, as Monet mentioned, the rectangular rapid flashing beacons, which is a warning system for the crosswalk.

Um that is uh that achieves much better driver compliance.

We're trying to put those in as many locations as possible.

We've been averaging about a dozen a year.

Um, we're well over a hundred um of crosswalk warning signs uh throughout Santa Rosa.

Um we have been actively looking at our active transportation plan and where we could potentially um use existing um pavement projects to make improvements also to um crosswalks and traffic signals.

Um we saw that most recently on um uh West College and North Dutton, uh, where we did essentially a road diet on both those streets um in response to the pavement projects that were happening out there.

Um so we're we're certainly um you know looking safety first and and making improvements for both pedestrians and bicyclists in Santa Rosa.

Thank you.

Um, and to underline again, this is not to diminish the the tragedy of the two car crashes right in that vicinity, which again has sparked a lot of discussion here here in within the city.

But overall, in terms of our accident record on in that Hoenn Summerfield area, we're still below state average.

Did I understand that correctly?

That is correct.

We are below state average.

Um, and generally Santa Rosa is um in regards to traffic safety better than state average.

Thank you.

And this gets back to the um the point about needing to find substantive, really material reasons for grounds for an appeal.

Without that data, it makes it difficult to um uh to sub to support an appeal, as has been mentioned.

Um, let's see.

That those were the two points I wanted to make.

Again, I'm glad that my colleagues and and staff highlighted the the high bar for the discussion that we have tonight.

Um we're gonna come back to all these issues, I'm sir, because we have a few more.

Uh Ms.

McDonnell, did you want to bring us to a conclusion?

Yeah, just a clarification on the questioning.

I know you've done one lit crosswalk down where the incidents occurred in this plan.

My understanding is there's a proposal to add an additional lit crosswalk for um pedestrians going right there at the site for those who would park maybe potentially on each side of Hoen.

That's correct.

I think it's about a hundred and fifty feet to the west of the driveway, so it'll roughly be in the middle of the existing crosswalk in the driveway for this uh project.

And I think that's in the the plans or the applicants' plans that they can the community can see where that new crosswalk would be because I know that that's been a concern that was brought to my attention as well.

Thank you.

Any final questions?

Then we will move on to our planning commission chair, Miss Weeks.

Why don't you come down and share share a few thoughts with us?

And Miss Jones Carter, please come down as well.

Um Miss Weeks is our planning commission chair, and Miss Jones Carter is the chair of our design review and preservation board.

Ms.

Weeks, the floor is yours.

Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor Stepp, Vice Mayor Krepke, and members of the council.

Uh as the mayor mentioned, my name's Karen Weeks, and I'm uh chair of the planning commission.

With me today, uh is Melanie Jones Carter, who's chair of the design review and preservation board.

Both decisions by the Planning commission and design review and preservation board are being appealed today.

And we're here today to uh provide some context as to why the commission and the board took the actions that we did.

As you know, the Planning commission's responsibility is to implement plans, ordinances, and policies relating to land use matters.

On December 11th, 2025, the Planning commission reviewed the request for a conditional use permit for Lago Fresca apartments.

All seven members supported the approval of the conditional use permit.

At that meeting, we reviewed the proposal consistent with the traffic study prepared by the applicant and reviewed by the traffic engine and reviewed by traffic engineering among other issues.

Representative from traffic engineering spent quite a bit of time with us discussing the report and review process.

The commission was also supportive of providing a variety of housing types in alignment with the general plan.

The appeal submitted indicates concerns about traffic safety for the nearby residents and businesses as well as inadequate parking.

As referenced in the staff report and as this group, this group, explained quite adequate quite thoroughly, the traffic study was found to be adequate.

With respect to parking, the reduction is allowed by the state density bonus law, as Ms.

Crocker uh detailed that.

So because of that information reviewed and received, the conditional use permit was approved by the commission.

And now I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about what we did.

If not, I'll go ahead and turn it over to Chair Jones Carter.

Why don't we pause for a second?

Any questions for Ms.

Weeks?

Ms.

Jones Carter will turn to you.

Thank you.

As mentioned, my name is Melanie Jones Carter, and I'm the chair of the design review and preservation board.

I'm here to provide some information on the DRPB's decision to approve the design project.

To be clear, our charge is the is the design of the project and not the use permit that is being appealed.

This project came to us for the design concept in March of 2022.

And we gave our feedback to the developer and architect.

And when they returned in December of 2025, they had incorporated the changes we asked for.

You may see that we asked that three items be incorporated in the final design, and one is a shell consider.

We believe that this project fits with the general plan and the criteria as outlined by the design review and preservation board.

I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you very much.

Any questions for design review?

Thank you both for taking the time to be here tonight and for the work that your uh boards have done.

All right, now we are officially gonna open the public hearing.

Uh, and we're gonna begin with our appellate presentation.

Is it is it Kashire?

And my apologies if I'm not saying your name correctly.

All right.

Okay, please the um join us.

Uh let's see, is it up front or it probably the um podium in the back actually?

Wonderful.

Thank thanks to the appellate team for being here tonight.

Hello?

Am I good?

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of the city council.

My name is Katie Moranda, and I'm formally appealing the approval of the Lago Fresco Apartment Project at 4744 Hoen Avenue and 2445 Summerfield Drive.

I represent not only the community surrounding the proposed project, but residents, businesses, and visitors of Santa Rosa to our beloved Spring Lake community.

Next slide, please.

I want to be clear at the outset this appeal is not opposition to affordable housing.

It is a request that the project be modified to prevent specific identifiable public safety impacts tied to this exact location.

Under the California density bonus law, a concession may not result in a specific adverse impact on public health or safety that is site-specific, identifiable and factual, based on substantial evidence and capable of mitigation.

The safety concerns I am presenting tonight meet that standard.

Next slide, please.

This image shows the proposed site in direct proximity to the signalized intersection of Hoenn Avenue and Summerfield Road.

The driveway will be positioned immediately adjacent to the intersection within the functional influence area of the traffic signal.

Vehicles entering and exiting the development would operate within an active zone of turning movements, queuing traffic, signal phase changes, bike lane activity, and pedestrian crossings.

Next slide.

This slide shows a visual representation of the area on Hoenn Avenue, or what the locals like to call Hoenn Highway, where the speed is 35 miles per hour.

It is an arterial corridor with multiple travel lanes, striped bike lanes on both sides, and significant turning movements at the Summerfield intersection.

Vehicles are accelerating, decelerating, and changing lanes as they approach or leave the signal.

Next slide, please.

This project is adding a 50-unit residential complex directly next to an already busy and congested intersection.

This location already experiences heavy turning movements, peak hour backups, school and commuter traffic, adding a large residential single access driveway here creates a concentrated conflict area where vehicles will be entering and exiting near the intersection.

Next slide, please.

The driveway placement requires split second judgments.

Drivers exiting the complex must simultaneously judge limited traffic gaps, monitor bike lane activity, watch for pedestrians in and near the multiple crosswalks, and merge near a signalized intersection.

This increases the likelihood of rear-end collisions, side impact crashes, specifically left turning exiting cars from the proposed complex, and drivers forcing turns into limited gaps in traffic.

This is a site-specific safety concern tied to the driveway placement.

Next slide, please.

This slide shows approximately 800 feet of Hoenn Avenue from the Summerfield intersection to the Sierra Craig Lane's crosswalk.

Within this short span, there will be one signalized intersection, nine driveways, two crosswalks, striped bike lanes on both sides.

This corridor already contains a high concentration of vehicle turning movements, pedestrian crossings, and bicycle activity.

Each driveway introduces additional conflict points, locations where vehicles cross paths with cyclists, pedestrians, or opposing traffic.

Adding a 50-unit residential entry-exit point within this already dense corridor increases the frequency and concentration of those conflict events.

This is not a low conflict environment.

It is already operating with layered movement patterns.

Next slide, please.

The development includes 50 residential units served by a single access point.

The driveway is narrow with parking along both sides, and all ingress and egress traffic is concentrated at this one constrained location.

Because there is no secondary access, every vehicle entering or exiting the site must use this same driveway.

For a development of this size, concentrating all vehicle movements at a single narrow access points increases queuing potential, reduces maneuverability, and limits site distance at the exit.

Safe and functional circulation is a safety necessity, not simply a design preference.

Next slide.

There are 10 rows of tandem parking stalls that will need to be leased.

One unit must lease both spots, so there is a high probability that some of these tandem spots may remain vacant as an approximate charge of 1,000 per month for those tandem spots will be unattainable for some residents.

There is zero visitor parking.

This means that family, friends, Amazon, DoorDash, moving trucks to this 50-unit complex will need to park on Helbon Avenue, potentially illegally, or in nearby businesses and neighborhoods.

The proposed driveway is in close proximity to neighboring driveways to the east, west, and north.

This internal congestion reduces visibility when exiting the property.

These conditions create situations where drivers will be inching out blindly into traffic, internal congestion, and create conflicts between residents, pedestrians, and cyclists.

Next slide, please.

Within a short distance of the project entrance, there are multiple crosswalks in a newly proposed one, office and medical buildings, frequent foot and cyclist traffic.

This creates overlapping movement patterns with cars exiting the complex, pedestrians crossing, and potentially jaywalking due to the lack of parking in the complex, and vehicles entering adjacent businesses.

This area has already experienced severe and fatal incidents involving pedestrians.

There have been many vehicle accidents in recent times, and according to your own study, the severity of these accidents has increased.

Next slide, please.

Slide uh this corridor is heavily used by cyclists.

The usage will likely increase once the greenway is completed.

Increased vehicle trips and turning movements at the driveway will create additional conflict points between the entering and exiting vehicles and passing cyclists.

Reduced visibility and turning movements from the driveway, increased vehicle to cyclist collision risk.

Next slide, please.

There are fire and emergency access concerns.

The internal configuration includes narrow access lanes, parking along both sides, tandem spaces that may limit maneuverability, all within a single access point.

In an emergency, this could slow response times, create access challenges for fire apparatus, and cause severe and life-threatening fire evacuation bottlenecks.

For a development of this size, reliable and unobstructed access is critical.

Next slide, please.

This site combines multiple risk factors in one compact area.

A busy signalized intersection, multiple driveways, crosswalk activity, bike lane traffic, and a new 50-unit entry exit point.

Together, these create a concentrated safety conflict zone.

Each of these factors alone may appear manageable in combination with an 800 feet, they create a concentrated and foreseeable safety conflict zone.

Next slide, please.

Again, this request is seeking project modification and not a denial of housing.

I respectfully ask that the approval be reconsidered and that the project be modified to undergo an independent traffic and safety study, address concerns through driveway redesign or widening, parking layout adjustments, emergency access reevaluation, and fire evacuation reevaluation.

Next slide, please.

In closing, this appeal seeks to ensure the design does not introduce preventable safety risks to residents, pedestrians, cyclists, and emergency responders.

Thank you for your time and your consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right, folks.

Folks, again, we gotta get we have to get through our agenda tonight.

Please please hold your applause or your booing, whichever whichever you prefer.

We gotta we gotta keep this uh uh civil tonight.

Uh any questions from any questions from counselor for the applicant?

Uh all right, uh Vice Mayor, you have a question for staff regarding the applicant's uh presentation, is that correct?

All right, please.

Just a quick question.

Um, I don't know if we could bring the slide back up, but the request for modification, do those modifications that they're that that um the uh appellant is requesting um fall under those.

We are not allowed to consider under um the housing uh the density bonus and the the housing act.

So the the additional traffic analysis and independent study is that we're asking about?

No, there's a list of if I can go back to it.

Yeah, the requested action.

Yes, those.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rogers.

Um, do aside from the independent traffic study review, um, do any of those fall under things that we are not allowed by law um to modify.

Hello again, thank you for the question.

Um I would refer um specifically to the housing accountability act, um, because that does limit the application of conditions that would lower the residential density of the project.

Um, conditions that you would have to analyze for their effect on density um and potentially project feasibility that could include things of um design changes, um conditions that that may or may not or that would directly impact density.

So I'm not sure on a you know driveway design or widening parking layout revisions if you would be altering the design such that it could potentially reduce density.

So that would be something to be mindful of there.

Similarly, I mean I think with fire evacuation emergency access, I would probably have to defer to some of the traffic folks up here, but you you can't impose any conditions that would potentially reduce the density on the project.

All right, so just to simplify that for somebody like me, if any of those modifications remove one unit, that would be against uh the law essentially.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Any additional questions?

Mr.

Alvarez.

Quick question.

Uh here in the presentation, uh, was there any new information that you had not heard be prior?

No.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

McDonald.

So if I look at the design, it looks to me like there's two different driveways that I'm looking at, unless I'm I'm reading this incorrectly on the map.

So not of the appellate, but actually of the um applicant.

And so I'm trying if you can walk me through why we can't use the summer field entrance behind as an additional egress and entrance, if you could tell me why this design would something prevent that, or is it just strictly our opinion that it wouldn't be good because of a traffic study?

Can I I think that needs to be clarified to me?

So it's more of a design design decision.

Um it impacts traffic operations at the intersection of Hoenn and Summerfield if we if there were to be a driveway on um Summerfield.

So it would impact traffic in a negative way if they had put one on Summerfield.

Correct.

But we don't feel that it's impacting traffic in a negative way off of Hoenn, even though it's roughly the I I just I no, I mean, excuse me, I don't want anyone from the audience.

I'm trying to get clarification on this.

So the intersection of where the driveway is on Hoen, can you tell me about how far that is to that intersection and about how far it would have been from summerfield to that intersection?

So I'm clear.

Yes.

So I want to make sure to clarify it's more operational at the intersection than interactions with the driveway.

So what the traffic study is looking at is how much extra delay, for example, there is because of this development at the intersection of Hoenn and Summerfield.

And so if we exit vehicles onto Summerfield, they more likely will go through the intersection of Hoan and Summerfield in the northbound direction.

If they exit onto Hoenn, they will predominantly go to the left, go west on Hoenn, and so they don't actually go into the intersection of Hoenn and Summerfield.

So that is what one of the things that the traffic city was looking at.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any additional questions?

Thank you to the to the uh appellant.

We'll move on to the applicant's presentation for 10 minutes.

Uh Ms.

Anderson, are you here?

All right.

I see the appellant or the applicant is making the way to the podium.

Thank you both for being here.

The floor is yours.

Mr.

Mayor and Vice Mayor and City Council.

My name is Jan Verhawley, and I am the applicant.

I do want to speak to the opposition comments that they're not opposed to a project, just not this many units.

I understand all that, but I want to emphasize that this is a project that the city has had input into for more than five years.

And all of the apartment or all of the departments in the city have had input into this project to come up with the best project possible.

And at this time, it would not be just would not be possible or feasible to build the project if it was impacted again.

Let's just say.

The same measures were required.

And so what was being recommended, the concern was that for vehicles that are heading westbound, trying to turn left into the project driveway, that the way it's striped right now, vehicles can't go around to if they're if they're planning on going through.

So they would get backed up behind that turning vehicle waiting for a gap.

So by modifying the striping it would allow the through vehicles to pass to pass along.

So that's that's one thing that would help improve circulation there.

Um I also wanted to note that regarding the um park aid, the one of the concessions was to have a supply below what the code requires, and what we used was the Institute of Transportation Engineers has standard parking rates where they look at demand levels throughout the day, and it was determined that the we base our recommendation on what the peak demand was for that type of development from those standard rates.

So while there would be a nominal excess at the peak time of demand, and so there could be some vehicles that would be parking on the street.

That was um what was discussed earlier about adding the crosswalk since people might need to park on the north side of the street, but between the added crosswalk with the rectangular rapid flashing beacons, that would facilitate the um crossing of the street.

Um the other thing I wanted to mention was just regarding safety at the driveway is that we did use Caltrans standards and and it does meet the uh site line requirements so um so so it for the speed along that road and that it does uh meet the requirements in both directions for for people who are trying to exit from the driveway.

There we go.

Good evening, members of the council and the community.

My name is Don McNair, and I am the landscape architect for Lago Fresco project.

Can't hear.

We're gloser there.

There we go.

So I'm the landscape architect for the Lago Fresco project.

Joining me tomorrow tonight is my brother James McNair, uh, who is a certified arborist and is in attendance to address any technical or health-related arboreal concerns that may arise during any discussion tonight.

I want to begin by acknowledging the city's concerns regarding tree removals.

As a landscape professional, I understand that trees are vital to the character and safety of our neighborhoods.

My scope for this project is focused specifically on the design of the project, which includes tree removal and replacement strategy, ensuring that the site remains safe and sustainable while we develop this essential housing, which includes dedicated low-income component.

The trees slated for removal fall into three main categories.

Remnants of an old walnut orchard that have naturally declined over time, oak trees that have self-seated in locations that conflict with necessary infrastructure, and a few exotic ornamentals such as the dawn redwood.

While we recognize the history of the orchard, many of the trees are no longer structurally sound or viable within a high density residential environment.

Our replacement strategy is robust and designed for long-term success.

Our plan is fully compliant with City of Santa Rosa standards.

We're providing in loop fees for trees that it cannot be safely accommodated on site due to spacing requirements, ensuring the city can support canopy growth elsewhere.

To provide a more immediate impact, we have upsized many of the proposed trees.

Rather than sticking strictly to the standard 15-gallon size, we're planning larger specimens to jumpstart the canopy recovery and provide immediate aesthetic and environmental value.

By replacing declining orchard trees with healthy professionally selected species, we are creating a managed landscape that prioritizes the safety of future residents in the surrounding community.

Our goal is to deliver a project that respects the environment while providing safe quality housing for Santa Rosa.

James and I are happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the selection or technical health of species involved.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you to the applicant team.

Does that concluded the applicant's presentation?

Ms.

Anderson, another word from you.

I just want to reiterate that um we have over the last five years tried to include it in a thoughtful way every single comment we've received from the city and the neighborhood, starting with the pre-application development review when we first initiated the project, all the way to the fourth plan check round of plan check corrections from the design review process.

And even now with the letters that we've received from residents, I wanted to clarify that there is a dedicated pedestrian and bicycle entrance off from Hoen and onto Howen from the project from the interior of the project.

And it is on both sides.

They are located on both sides of the of the vehicular entrance on Hoen.

Also, when I can you bring up the crosswalk, I mean the on-street parking slide.

The next slide, thank you.

The crosswalk location, um, someone requested to know where that was, and I think the appellant uh did clarify that, but the relative distances I think are clearly shown here.

The crosswalk is to the new crosswalk, which is a flashing beacon crosswalk, is to be located um a bit away uh from the project driveway itself in a portion of Holland Avenue that is already red curved.

So it has very high-level high-quality visibility at that section.

There is no on-street parking there to um uh to somehow conflict with visibility of cars and and pedestrians and bicyclists to for each other's safety.

Um, the green area on that is on this diagram shows where up to 50 spaces are available during um off-peak parking hours and even during the day, all right.

Thank you to the applicant.

Uh any clarifying questions from council.

No questions from council.

Uh thank you, thank you again for that presentation.

Uh all right.

The moment that you've all been waiting for.

We're gonna go to public comment.

Um, a number of you have already submitted your names.

If you are interested in making a comment, you can submit your name at the back.

Um, we are going to we are going to allow two minutes for public comment.

There are a lot of people who want to speak, and we want to make sure that everyone is heard.

So, again, two minute maximum.

Um, I try this at every one of our meetings where we have a lot of community members coming out and a sincere thank you for coming out.

You are not required to use the full two minutes.

If the person in front of you says what you intended to say, it is perfectly allowable to say I second the last comment.

Uh, but again, you've got a full two minutes to express your thoughts.

We do want to keep this efficient, so we will use both podiums.

If you wish to speak, and I'll call out the order here.

If you wish to speak, please be waiting near the podium when your name is called so that we can we can keep this moving and everyone can have a chance.

So again, two minutes, and I've got the list in front of me.

We're gonna start out with Michael Ann Blatt and Jeanette McFall and Abby Arnold.

So, Michael, Jeanette, and Abby.

Please position yourself using both podiums.

But Michael and Blatt, if you want to kick us off.

Is it and is it is it Michelle?

Michael Ann.

Michael Ann, perfect.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure.

Alright, so Michael Ann, you have the floor.

Kick us off.

I've lived on in Sierra Creek Villages for 35 years.

Um I have been out going to the gym three days a week, and it's 6 a.m.

I have to wait for 20 cars to go in either direction, going east and west, because that's when the commute starts.

Twice I've almost been hit head on in the left-hand turn lane because of backed up traffic.

That was in the afternoon.

Uh the last one was in the last within the last year, and I can even describe what the guy looked like and what he was wearing.

He was that close to my car.

Um with the increased traffic, nobody will be able to get out of Sierra Creek Village.

Nobody, I don't care who you are.

And a fire truck won't be able to get in because people will not stop.

If you put that clear area, I guarantee you people will ignore it.

It's not gonna work.

Uh, we already have too much traffic as it is.

Three times a day, commute both directions, and I don't know when the traffic study was done, but not when I was on the road.

I had to wait for 25 cars to pass today before I could actually get out onto Hoenn Avenue.

And then I didn't feel safe.

I rarely make a left hand turn anymore.

I make a right hand turn and I get in the left-hand turn lane if I'm lucky, so I can turn around one of the doctor's offices because it's not safe to make that left hand turn.

I am totally opposed against this project.

Thank you.

Thank you, Michael Ann.

We'll move on to Jeanette.

Abby, and then Janice Carmen.

Jeanette.

So if it does not, we can't trash the corner, bad things will happen.

Uh my name is Jeanette McFall.

I'm a resident of Summerfield Hills.

I have here some of the letters opposing the prop uh the Lago Fresco apartments.

Objections are so overwhelming that our elected representatives can only vote no if they deserve their positions.

Best to add density to existing infrastructure for reasons of cost.

Um Algo Fresco bought that for uh uh 1.9 million a few years ago, knowing that they only had 34 years, but I just guess their attended objection was uh objective was to get the city council to allow them to increase their density with their certain exceptions they were allowed.

Exception is in placing 50 units and a lot size for 38.

Um density is for the out for the this is going to be in the area outlying the city and is supposed to be for the inside.

This does not meet the state state definition.

Number two was the exception of the 40 65 down to 145 spaces.

Rela uh relying on neighbors' frontage for parking is exploitive.

There will be a cost to our city for handling parking violations.

Okay.

Then they had the height requirement that's out of scale.

The existing development in the area is missing from the submission.

Okay, we were told we were getting a greenway, instead, we're getting a large box that sits on Rogers Fault.

The next exception is a setback from 15 to 18 feet.

This makes it even more room for FESCO folks to propose removing the beautiful oak trees.

By city standards, they must provide 180 trees, but I guess they're getting a bonus for that too.

The site does not support out of room for the building, let alone 180 trees.

The most aggressive uh exception is of course the traffic.

This waiver seems dangerous.

It will cut off evacuation, even if they don't think it will.

It's gonna hamper the access of emergency vehicles.

Jeanette, thank you very much.

All right, we're gonna go on to Abby, Janice Carmen, and then Richard Hunt Senior.

Abby, you're up.

Good evening, honorable mayor staff and city council members.

I'm Abby Arnold.

I'm a member of Santa Rosa Yimby and a homeowner in the Montgomery Village neighborhood.

I'm here to ask you to deny the appeal of the Lago Fresca Housing Development.

I'm dedicating my retirement years to reversing the damage to future generations done by my generation by restricting new housing and prioritizing cars over people.

Among the losses are the looming receivership of the Santa Rosa School District, the inability of young people to stay in Santa Rosa and build their lives and the next generation of leaders, and lack of local employees to staff our businesses.

Infill housing like this project protects our agricultural land while adding to the homes available for young families who want to stay here and raise their children in Santa Rosa.

I hope this project can be built quickly so that I'll be around to welcome our new neighbors and their children.

Thank you.

Abby, thank you.

All right, Janice, Richard Hunt, and then Annalisa Hunt.

Janice, you're up.

Thank you.

She's helping me.

I don't know.

Just this picture, please.

Okay.

Oh, good.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Um good evening.

Uh thank you.

Janice Carmen here.

I had the unique experience of having grown up on the property across the street.

My parents and family had had that property since the 40s.

And uh they had it for a long time, only selling it in the 20s somethings.

But that aside, I'm not against this project.

I've also looked at it quite a lot and been a party to the meetings that have taken place.

But the uh the traffic is for sure a horrible issue.

And the the driveway situation already uh looking at that.

Now I don't think that the density is a problem at a time.

I did think so, but compared to other cities, this is what's going on.

And uh one of the things I think about is that when these projects happen, there should be some consideration for the land that's near it, that uh maybe it has a uh moratorium on building or only certain zoning, something like that, because this property has a flood zone, and I went to a uh city count city meeting uh that was waste waste water waterways, and it was terribly interesting, and I talked about a project across the street from me where they clear cut is totally illegal, it's been a problem, and I've spoken about it many times.

But the uh it is a floodplain, and uh a hundred feet away is a creek, and that creek is Sonoma Creek, Santa Rosa's um Spring Creek, and the creek is flowing right now.

Now, this was a flood zone, and my former husband who's passed away, he was one of the people that worked at the county and helped get rid of the flooding there.

There's a lot of concrete, and the reason why I put the picture up is because thank you, Janice.

Uh, we'll move on to Richard, Annalisa, and then Ann Butler.

It's Richard Hunt, and my wife and I have lived uh at 4801 Lucy Court, which is 200 yards to the east of this proposed project, and we've raised four children there.

Uh we've I've been a small business owner for 30 years here in uh Sonoma County, and let me tell you what it's really like here in terms of this corridor.

I we've heard all the traffic studies and all that kind of stuff, but in reality, this it doesn't work.

Uh I've driven Hoen Road thousands of times going back and forth to work over my 29 years at this home.

And the issue is that drivers are merging in into the bike lanes.

They're going through those stoplights there at uh the intersection, and we've already talked about the closed calls with the with the accidents there, but this project's own uh traffic consultant updated the crash data and confirmed that the injury rate exceeds the statewide averages, and so to add another 227 vehicle trips per day, plus an additional 40 to 60 overflow cars on the same dangerous street is absolutely insane.

The parking plan will simply not work.

The census shows that there's 2.4 uh cars per family, and your data shows 1.3, so there's going to be an incredible amount of traffic that's not accounted for.

So you're forcing a high-density urban area into a suburban area, and so basically what you're doing with a four-story building there, it's a it's a college dormitory building, it's not an apartment complex.

So I'm urging that this appeal be approved and goes back for traffic studies, evacuation studies.

Thank you.

Thank you, Richard.

Uh Annalisa and Butler, and then Robert Osling.

Thank you.

Basically, I'm I'm on a Lisa Hunt, and basically my concern is for the fact that it's a high density.

I know that the density bonus law is a planning tool that is it has a good intention, however, it like my husband said, it's been forced into the wrong place.

And we moved there specifically because of the character of the neighborhood and for the activities there, and it's not gonna stay that way.

This will forever change that area, and also um basically he covered everything I wanted to say.

Um out of that um area where where the buildings are gonna be, I attend some of those um businesses.

I go to uh an acupuncture there, an acupuncturist there, and when I come out of the appointments, um, and I'm going the same way the traffic is going.

I will turn right, I will go east, and I cannot get out of there.

For several cars, and people don't let you let you in, and so I'm just another person just telling you the same thing you're hearing, and I just really hope that you will think about this.

This is this is not a good project in that area, and the impact will really just coming here listening to everyone speak and trying to understand that everything that is said, there's an opposition of we can't change it.

So I don't even know why we're here.

Thank you.

Thank you, Annalisa.

Ann, Robert, and then Michael Freedom I'm Ann Butler, and I live in the Sierra Creek Village neighborhood.

I will present my concerns as well as those of my neighbors.

Hone Avenue is loaded with traffic.

Vehicles speed by the exits of Sierra Creek village, making it dicey for drivers to merge onto Hoenn Avenue, compounding the challenge are vehicles parked along Hoenn, thus creating a poor line of vision.

One has to nose the car out onto the street and then gun the gas pedal just to reach the middle lane to wait for an opportunity to merge into the flow of traffic, and now comments from my neighbors.

I was trying to get onto Hoenn from Arroya Sierra Circle and almost caused a collision because I couldn't see beyond the SUV that was parked so close to my exit point.

It was a near miss and left me shaken.

That experience has made me make all my appointments after 9 a.m.

when people are at work and before 10 a.m.

when people are out running errands and shopping after stores open.

Hohen Avenue is the unofficial highway 12, and it's like a racetrack because there are no stop signs or lights in the stretch from Ulupa to Summerfield, so people go very fast on Hoenn, usually 50 plus miles per hour.

On Hoan Avenue near the proposed project are the Sutter Health Care Offices and Labs, Sierra Creek Village with 114 residential units, duplexes with inadequate on-site parking, Santa Rosa post-acute with 99 beds, and the Redwood Gospel Mission Family Campus, all with visitors, delivery, repair, and maintenance vehicles causing traffic, congestion, and vehicles parked along Hone Avenue.

With the addition of more vehicles, more traffic and congestion and decreased visibility, safety will be compromised.

This is not smart planning.

Thank you, Anne.

Robert, Michael, and then Anthony Nuno.

Do we have Robert here?

All right, Robert, you're up.

Thank you.

Can you hear me?

I want to introduce a concept here that I just picked up recently that uh met my focus on my opposition to this, and it's called the contextual fit.

Um I think very simply, I think it means how does what's proposed compare to things that are very close to it?

Uh what's close to it is residential properties.

Um, and the first time I read about this particular project, I actually was reading that it was capped at three stories.

Turned out after the uh December 11th vote, those figures got changed, and we were looking at four stories.

Uh I don't think that meets the rule for um a contextual fit that's really acceptable.

It's usually the red flag.

I'm sorry, does this building feel like it's belongs on the street or does it overwhelm?

The architectural character, nope, I have no problem with that.

It looks pretty good if it was not so tall.

Uh there's a problem with the neighbors, uh, who are in proximity to it with privacy and overlooking.

I think that's gonna happen on Summer Hayes Road, which is just north of the little bus stop, and it goes along the southern boundary.

We'll be looking up at this thing.

I don't understand the shadow study, so I won't comment on that.

But in general, going back to the my first point that four stories is very unusual.

I actually looked first around the oh, I've got to show this really quick.

My time's up.

I could only find one four-story building from here to Courthouse Square, and it was on Courthouse Square, Empire Building.

There's nothing on, there's nothing on Sonoma, there's nothing on Montgomery exceeding two stories.

Thank you.

Thank you, Robert.

Michael, Anthony, and then Mindy Shambaugh.

Good evening.

My name is Michael Freed.

My wife and I live at 4844 Hoen.

Our appeal is about one thing and one thing only safety.

I understand the bonus density law.

It's a badly written law, and it doesn't give you a hell of a lot of wiggle room.

But you do have wiggle room when it comes to safety.

Now the developers could have made this a safer project.

Why didn't they?

I'll tell you why.

If they'd have put in an ingress egress on Summerfield, it would have been safer.

Notwithstanding what the traffic engineer said.

He was talking about less cars going through the intersection, not the safety of cars trying to get out of the project.

I'll tell you another reason they didn't do it.

Pure and simple, this is a money grab.

And I'll tell you something.

My teacher told me the first day, government's main responsibility is to keep citizens safe.

I implore you, keep the residents of our neighborhood in Bennett Valley safe and keep the potential residents of this new monstrosity safe.

Thank you, Michael.

Anthony, Mindy, and then Katie Miranda.

Anthony, you have the floor.

Hello.

Um my name is Anthony Nunio, and we are uh relatively newcomers to the area of Summerfield and Park Trail and Glen Cannon.

Uh we're actually refugees from southwestern Santa Rosa.

We were forced to sell our property because horrible traffic and other uh safety problems with uh overcrowding.

And one of the things that we love about that area, obviously, it was um a that it looked like a functional neighborhood until we realize how bad the traffic is on Howen.

And just to get it some days and certain times of the day to the freeway on Hoen, it takes forever.

And um I guess my question to you would be uh steel is relatively safe.

Uh I every day I see senior citizens going for walks on summer field.

I see parents with their kids taking them for a walk.

I see uh teenagers and young adults driving their bikes.

It's certainly that's not gonna be possible anymore with this project.

This is the wrong project for for this area.

Like somebody said this, if this goes through, this will change uh negatively uh uh this area uh forever.

So again, I heard this from a refugee from a neighborhood with heavy traffic and so many problems with overcrowded, uh, being the uh situation of of uh just overcrowded.

And so obviously my question to you is why do you want to turn a functional neighborhood into a totally unfunctional neighborhood?

Um also think of the wildlife in this area.

Thank you.

Thank you, Anthony.

Mindy, Katie, and then Mary Alice.

Thank you, uh, for listening to our appeal tonight.

My name is Mindy Shambaugh.

I I wanted to just refer back to slide seven of the Appellance Um presentation.

This clearly shows that within 300 feet of the intersection at Hoenn at Summerfield, there's three driveways and one crosswalk and a four-way intersection.

For 300 feet, you have less than six seconds to make split second decisions at 35 miles per hour.

That margin is the difference between a near-miss and a collision.

As you deliberate tonight, I respectfully ask you to pause.

Just consider one question.

If a safer configuration is possible, why wouldn't we require it?

This does not have to be housing versus safety.

It can be win-win.

More affordable housing delivered in a way that reduces foreseeable risk to the community.

A pause tonight does not stop housing.

It simply ensures we build it responsibly.

The time to address preventable risk is before the construction, not after an accident.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mindy.

Uh Katie, you spoke for the uh the appellant presentation, so we we can't allow you to make public comment as well.

So you had the chance to say, I will check with our city attorney.

Are we allowed?

Is she able to speak on a I'm I'm afraid I couldn't hear what she said.

Can you repeat what you just said?

You're speaking on a group of neighborhood residents.

Is that correct?

Or you would like to?

I have uh comments from neighbors.

I am on the board of directors for the uh Sierra Creek Village Association, which abuts this project.

Mr.

Mayor, I would allow it.

Okay.

Alright, Katie, go ahead.

Thank you.

Okay.

Again, my name is Katie Miranda, and I thank you for your time.

I am on the board of directors, as I said, for the Sierra Creek Village Association, which abuts this property.

Several of our community members were unable to attend and have asked me to express some of their concerns.

Currently trying to exit our our property, which has four driveways.

There are four streets that exit onto Hoen.

We have an average of wait time in the mornings of anywhere from three to seven minutes to get in and out to get out of our driveways.

The number one concern for our neighborhood is the bike as the cyclists that are coming to and from Spring Lake.

Very often they ignore traffic rules and proceed at a high rate of speed down that this road.

The concern is that many cyclists will be injured because of this new driveway that is being proposed.

Our neighborhood has experienced loss due to there is no crosswalk.

We've put it you've put in the city has put in a new crosswalk.

Having two crosswalks back to back on a flashing symbol is of high concern to our residents.

That means that people coming from Summerfield taking the left to go east on Hoenn will be unprepared for a potential double backup.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Katie.

Uh Mary Annus, Madonna Feather Cruz, and Sonia Bear, or Sonia Barwick, excuse me.

Uh, or Sonya Pick, rather.

Um, all right, uh, Mary Alice, go ahead.

Yes, uh, I'm gonna give you a little different uh take, and that is I'm glad the arborist was here.

If he's still here, I'm concerned about the Don Redwood that's on the property, it is a prehistoric tree that I believe possibly was planted by Luther Burbank.

Uh he had a uh nursery or something that over there on Summerfield where he was working, and I really think that that might be one of the things.

Um that should be addressed, and I don't see any reason why somebody can't design a building to accommodate that tree.

It's only two feet, two and a half feet from the property line.

Um so I I know that I went to the design review board and I uh alerted them of this at the uh in that last meeting.

Uh they've chosen to ignore me.

Um we don't have a lot of Don Redwoods, and certainly not of that size.

Uh, one of the the design review board people said, Oh, I have one, it's a bonsai.

Okay, that's not the same.

Uh one last uh comment about the traffic.

The uh Hoenn Avenue is an auxiliary highway 12.

Half the traffic goes down that road, and they do speed, and they um it they aren't gonna slow down because of a driveway.

Thank you, Mary Alice.

Uh Madonna, Sonia, and then Diane Martini.

Is Madonna still here?

She does not, she does not appear to be.

Uh, Sonia, you have the floor.

Good evening, Mayor Stapp, Council members, and staff.

My name is Sonia Bick Barwick, and I'm with Generation Housing.

As you are aware, Santa Rosa continues to face a serious housing shortage.

The city has adopted clear and thoughtful goals to increase housing production, expand affordability, and focus new homes in areas already served by infrastructure.

The Lago Fresca project directly advances those commitments.

This project aligns with the city's housing action plan and is a smart in-field project located near jobs, transit, and services.

This is exactly the type of housing development Santa Rosa has said that it wants to see.

As you've heard tonight, the planning commission and design review board conducted a thorough review.

Traffic and safety concerns were studied, and the project includes four deed restricted, very low-income units, which are critically needed in our community.

If compliant in fill projects like this that meet zoning standards and undergo full public review can still be overturned at the appeal stage, it creates uncertainty for future housing proposals.

That uncertainty makes it harder to attract responsible developers and harder for the city to meet its housing goals.

We cannot say we support in-fill housing, affordability, and smart growth in principle, but then reject projects that meet those standards.

I respectfully urge you to support the staff's recommendations and deny the appeal.

Approving Lago Fresca sends a clear message that Santa Rosa continues to be serious about addressing its housing shortage and implementing the policies it has adopted.

Thank you for your leadership.

Thank you, Sonia.

Uh Diane Martini, then uh Cashey and Mike Raymond.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Council members.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

My name is Diane Martini, and I live on Hoenn Avenue.

My concern is for evacuation safety.

It's wonderful that they have this plan and they have these zones and all that.

But take it from somebody who's had to evacuate three times.

When you hear the word evacuate, you don't care what zone you're in, you just go.

And if there are going to be more cars and more people pouring on to Summerfield and to Hoenn, how are we going to get out?

It's almost impossible.

So I am truly concerned about fire safety in our neighborhood, as we all are.

The other concern I have is Summerfield Avenue.

Is there going to be parking on Summerfield Avenue?

Have you thought about that?

Or are they going to be parking all up and down Hoenn Avenue where we live?

That's what I'd like you to address next, please.

Thank you.

Thank you, Diane.

Cashy, Mike Raymond, and Steven Schwartz.

Good evening.

I just wanted to point out that if this was an ordinary project for City of Santa Rosa, and Michael can probably confirm that, they would have required about 107 parking spots.

Last go-around, we were at 65 because of the uh density bonus law.

Now it's 63 because they couldn't figure out where to put their trash bins.

That's how dense this thing is.

So they eliminated two parking spots.

And 20 of these 63 parking spots are tandem and potentially are not going to be used because if you want to rent a tandem spot, you have to rent both.

So here's a low-income project.

They want you to rent the space, and guess what?

If only tandem ones are left, you have to rent both.

I don't understand this concept.

It just doesn't make any sense.

So odds are 50% of the 63 parking spots are going to be left vacant, and people are going to park on the street and in adjacent businesses and adjacent residential properties.

This is just not going to work.

It's a disaster waiting to happen.

I think the city council members owe it to the public to at least do an independent study to understand this better.

Not a study that was commissioned by the developer and paid for by the developer for them to make it go through.

Thank you for your time.

With the complex having a driveway just 300 feet from that intersection, I think it's going to be a disaster, not only for people traveling on Hohen, but the people trying to enter and exit the property.

Uh street.

How many continued on Hohen?

I'm not sure if it's 10,000 or more.

But again, it's just I think it's with that driveway being so close to an intersection, there's going to be a lot of flu frustrated drivers and residents of the property.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mike.

Stephen, Rebecca, and then Jerry.

Yes, my name is Steven Schwartz, and I've owned uh a medical office building across the street from this project for over 30 years.

I do think that you have substantial safety issues that have been presented to you that give you the option to deny this uh to a you know, to honor our appeal.

The traffic engineer for the project pointed out that there would be the queuing of traffic so that it would block the entrance and exit to the project.

And in fact, they described that traveling west from the project to go uh into town would be challenging.

I think a better would be would be a better word would be unsafe.

The other thing that others have mentioned, but there has been a higher injury rate in on this area, and it's it's been higher than average.

That's another safety concern that we have.

I do think that there is the alternative of looking at access onto Summerfield Road.

That I realize there's a driveway that was existed that they couldn't get access to, but the project itself has direct access to Summerfield.

We've got to look at that option to try to mitigate the safety issue.

I think you have the evidence you need to go ahead and accept the uh the appellant.

Thank you, Stephen.

Uh Rebecca, Jerry, and then Richard.

I'm Rebecca Hopper.

What is the value of a human life?

Public safety should be the guiding principle in your decision making as a public servant.

The city of Santa Rosa has not always chosen wisely when it comes to traffic hazards along Hoenn Avenue.

A primary hazard that would be created by the logo fresco apartments is that tenants with on-site parking most likely would attempt to make a left turn from the sole apartment driveway into heavy westbound traffic on Hoenn during morning commuter hours.

If coming from the east in the afternoon, the tenants would have an even worse problem in attempting a left turn from Hoenn into the driveway through lanes of backed up traffic.

Because of the driveway's proximity to, and the reconfiguration of traffic lanes leading up to the Hoenn Summerfield intersection.

The closest lane to the driveway opening is where the bike lane becomes a right turn only lane onto Summerfield.

The next lane is both an eastbound through lane and left turn lane.

The next lane, the third, eliminates the middle turn lane and is left turn only.

The fourth is the westbound through lane.

If approved, this will create hazardous traffic exits and entrances via the single driveway serving the apartment complex.

Please look at the Lago Fresca Apartments project with a clear eye and mind regarding public safety.

The City of Santa Rosa has made questionable judgment errors in the past.

Do not let this be another one.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rebecca.

Jerry, Richard, and then Patty.

Hi.

Hello.

Thanks for the chance to speak.

I've been a resident of Arroyo Sierra Drive, Fifth Driveway down from Summerfield for 35 years.

Over the years, a number of pedestrians have been killed on Hoan.

As you may know, traffic during commute hours in the afternoon.

Hoenn is the alternative to Farmers Lane.

Traffic often backs up to Francette Avenue.

And by the time it becomes impossible to get across Hoenn Avenue if you're making a left turn.

And one thing was addressed that showed like 50 parking spaces on the north side of Hoenn.

My experience over the years is that there's virtually no parking along that street at times.

So to figure that 50 people are going to be able to park their car, they're probably going to have to walk down to Whole Foods somewhere to be able to do it.

Drivers continuously ignore the flashing lights.

I use that sidewalk to cross, and it's taking your life into your own hands to try and get across that street.

People drive fast.

I've seen people going probably in excess of 70, 80 miles an hour down Hoenn, sometimes multiple cars at a time.

So I just hope that you have taken your consideration about the parking and about the amount of traffic and what kind of uh obstruction it's going to be to have that driveway and a second crosswalk and a flashing light so close to that corner.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jerry.

Richard, and then Patty.

Hello.

There we go.

Yep.

Good evening, Council, fellow citizens.

My name is Richard Malloy.

I live about 200 yards to the east of the project, the proposed project.

I am a teacher at LC Allen High School.

I ride my bicycle to uh work.

Um sometimes, and sometimes I drive.

And one night when I was driving home, March 3rd, 2023.

I was actually driving home from Taylor Mountain because I had stopped there to do a hike after work, and it was dusk, and I was passing that inner that that um well there was no flashing light back then, but that crosswalk where two people have been struck, and I saw a young lady, um, 19 years old, turns out.

Um, she was waiting to cross the street.

Um, I didn't know she was about to get hit by a car.

I passed her.

I noticed her because she's about the same age as my students at Elsie Allen.

Um, and a lot of them want to go into um CNA programs and health care.

When I got home, I found I saw the lights flashing because I could see them from my from my door, and I said, Oh my god, I just passed that woman.

And she was struck there.

And you know what?

My family also knew the boy that died there.

It was my son's best friend in middle school, his best friend's uh brother, younger brother, and um it's it's just it's just heartbreaking when you see that happen, and it's not safe.

And it's not just safe for pedestrians, but my dog was also killed at that stop sign that people come down from the park and they don't they don't stop at at uminga and hoen.

And it's not safe for bicyclists because people leave on Hoenn, they leave their trash cans in the bike lane, and we have to swerve around them.

So that's all I have.

I hope that you consider uh this appeal.

Thank you.

Thank you, Richard.

Patty.

Good evening.

My name is Patty Fitch, and I've lived on Fernglen Drive, which is very close to that intersection for the last 30 plus years.

Um what I would like to address tonight.

First of all, I just like to say I did owe everything that everyone's talking about here regarding the traffic.

The one thing that hasn't been mentioned tonight is something that council member Ben Wellos mentioned earlier this evening, and that's from the perspective of the tenants that will be living there.

If a tenant needs to park on Hoenn, what I'm looking at is a potential young mom or young father parking their car and trying to get their child out of the car seat while exiting a very busy street.

That is a very busy street, as has been mentioned before.

It's like a it is a major artery to get from highway 12 over to the next part of highway 12.

I can't imagine what it would be like to unload your groceries on that street.

I can't imagine what it'd be like to get your children out of the car on that street.

I can't imagine what it would be like to help an elderly person get out of the car on that street.

And that in itself, if that's not a safety issue for the residents that would live there, then I don't know what is, and that's what I wanted to say tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you, Patty.

Are there any other members of the public who would like to make comment?

All right, make your way to the microphone.

If there are others, please be waiting by the microphone so that we can keep this efficient.

The floor is yours.

Thank you.

Uh good evening.

My name is Fred Olibuck.

Um, I will encourage you to deny the appeal and uh I have a couple points to make.

I think this is the perfect place for dense infill.

It's a tax credit, high resource opportunity area.

There's a high medium household income, uh, high educational attainment, high home value.

So this is the kind of place that the housing element urges there to be development in.

The city needs to keep in mind keeping a fair distribution of density around the city because you don't want to, you're especially in your considering putting thousands of units on uh Santa Santa Rosa Avenue.

Um let's see, and so single family housing is the most unsustainable type of housing, and then single family housing stakeholders here are are wanting to block the most type of sustainable housing, which is dense housing.

Um, so you know, I think that it's it's a it's a it it adds up to want to put it here because it's fair for the city.

And um also it's it's interesting that north I mean, I think southeast of Summerfield is a high wildland or urban interface, high fire at hazard area.

It's and that's also exactly equivalent to a high median household income.

So that's what makes it an area where you would want to um add density to.

And so some of the appellants made a point that Hoenn was like a super highway, but then they said that that it was also not a major transit route, so I don't think those points added up.

And it's not an affordable housing project because there's only four out of 50 units that are affordable.

So I'd encourage the city to up their inclusionary ordinance to maybe 20 percent, so you could at least get eight or ten affordable units out of 50.

Um, so I like to back the generation housing and yimbi lady as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Fred.

Are there other members of the public who'd like to speak?

I would like to speak.

Please go ahead.

Hi, my name is Keith Boxerman, and thank you, counsel, for letting me speak.

I've lived in that area for 45 years, and I just have a few questions.

One is I'd like to read something.

It says, What is leadership?

Leadership is defined by three outcomes: direction, alignment, and commitment.

It's a social process where individuals work together to produce results that they could never achieve alone.

We define leadership as a social project that enables individuals to work together to achieve results that they could never achieve working alone.

This relational approach to leadership is essential in today's complex, rapidly changing, uncertain environment.

City council, I do not envy your position, and I have great empathy for you.

To me, it seems as if you're in a double bind.

You're caught between us, you're caught between the developer, and you're caught between the state.

There seems to be ample property.

I don't know if that is an alternative to denying a project like this and building something on vast lands that otherwise our schools are are have closed.

Also, I just wonder there are fines that would come from the state and other penalties.

What happens when there's a lawsuit and the city is charged or this project is charged and sued should there be another fatality or another accident.

So I just leave you with this to consider the whole circle of ramifications in terms of a project I've been living there for 45 years.

To me, it seems a very lacking in prudence project, whether you mitigate it, whether you change it, whatever, it's just a very bad site to me from the beginning.

Thank you.

Thank you, Keith.

Are there any other members of the public who'd like to speak?

Please go ahead.

Um hello.

Um I live actually just down the street from Keith.

I've only been in this neighborhood for uh four years.

Um hello?

Can you hear me now?

Okay.

Um I live down the street from Keith.

I've been here only four years, um, but I see this project as uh come and gone uh a couple times.

Um it seems like it's in a bit of uh pickle in because it has this um low uh income housing, apparently we can't uh object to the density, and we also can't object to the height.

The only thing we're allowed to object to is the safety.

So the only real alternative uh we're discussing here is is there a safety issue or not?

Um I'm kind of disappointed that it's come down to that.

That's the only object we can uh address.

But uh since we have to address that, yes, uh, there is a safety issue at this uh intersection, and um many people uh know that intersection uh very well, and um adding these extra units, these extra parking, you know, is um raising the threshold, the danger, and um I don't know how well the traffic studies have captured that.

My impression is that they have not, that they basically limited the scope of time they've looked at in uh recent years, or they've limited the uh geographical area.

If you want grounds to pass it, you can use the limited traffic studies and uh proceed with the project.

If you're interested, perhaps in doing more studies, you can expand the traffic uh studies to basically include the areas where there have been fatalities, and um expand the uh duration of the data that you're um looking into.

Anyway, thank you very much for listening to me.

Thank you.

Uh is there another speaker?

Please go ahead.

Yes, my name is Amad Amadi, and I live off Hoven Avenue.

Uh many negative aspects of this project has been already addressed, and there are many more issues to be really concerned about it.

But I'd like to summarize it.

I believe this project is a recipe for disaster.

That's it.

Besides all the problem that we have with a parking shortage, traffic congestion, J Walker, that God forbid and they could be hit by the car as has happened in the past, and also potential of many accidents because of the proximity of this project.

One issue has not been talked too much about it, and that's emergency evacuation.

I know city officials have told us that they have considered everything and planned everything right, but this project reminds me of a documentary I saw about the city of Paradise Fire, which on that 80 some people lost their life.

I'm sure the their official had the emergency evacuation plan too.

So I respectfully urging their honorable member of the city council to reject this project as is and send it back to be modified with safety of the resident of this project, as well as the everyone in the surrounding committees in mind.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir.

Are there any other members of the public who would like to speak?

Seeing none, we're going to close the public hearing.

Um, but I will then.

Oh, I'm sorry, we're not closing the public hearing yet.

Forget that forget that I by bang the gavel.

Uh we got to do the opportunity for rebuttal for both applicant and appellant.

Um, does the applicant wish to uh the applicant has three minutes to speak if they desire?

Is the applicant any members of the applicant team here?

Katie Katie, if you wish, you can make your way to the podium.

We have three minutes to address any of the uh any of the public comments that you heard.

And then after that, the appellant team will also have three minutes to rebut.

Okay.

Katie, go ahead.

Uh again, my name is Katie Moranda, and I want to express that this is we are not opposing the entire project.

We are appealing this decision for the safety purposes of all residents of Santa Rosa who utilize Hohen Avenue.

This also goes to all of the visitors that are going to Spring Lake, the cyclists who use Howarth Park in Spring Lake, the dog walkers, etc.

In addition, with no current visitor parking, that does mean that they people will be utilizing those spaces on Howen Avenue.

May I please remind the members, the council members, and the mayor that there is a post-acute on that street as well.

So that's where that CNA person was coming from.

She was coming from work.

So there is a post-acute where all of those staff members need to park on Hoen.

So the availability of these parking spaces that the applicant that the developer has suggested is unrealistic.

If you can imagine having to pull out onto Howan Avenue, take that left to go west, and potentially running into one crosswalk and then another crosswalk.

People coming from Summerfield turning on to Howen, what that will look like and how many accidents there will be.

Again, we are not opposing the entire project, but there are other options that the city and the developer can do to make sure that we that everyone is safe.

We want to make sure that cyclists can get to Spring Lake and Howarth Park.

We want to make sure our kids can get to school.

Even if there were 50 available spots on Hoenn Avenue, there are there's still not adequate parking for all of the residents, the average household has two cars.

What does a four-bedroom apartment potentially have?

How many?

How many cars would that would that apartment have?

We are also trying to make sure that the city please realize it's a safety issue.

It is plain and simple.

Just keep Santa Rosa safe.

Thank you, Katie, and thank you to the applicant team.

Uh, do we have any members of the appellate team who would like to speak?

Or I'm sorry, I got that back.

The I thank you, thank you, Katie and the applicant team.

Um I reverse them.

What am I doing?

So apologies, folks.

We've been at this for uh five hours now.

All right.

So the applicant just spoke, or the appellant just spoke, is the applicant team here.

Are any members of the applicant team wish to speak?

There we go.

I finally got it right.

Thanks to everyone for their patience.

I think the only thing that I would add at this point, I have certainly heard your concerns about traffic.

We have spent uh five years plus working with every city department.

We have changed the design.

Our original design actually was to exit onto Summerfield also to have two entrances, but city staff didn't feel that was in the best interest of the city, so we redesigned it again in order to get what you have.

So, what we have here is a project that has been looked at by every every uh relevant uh department in the city.

We have had input, we have changed the design time after time after time after time to get to this point where we are now.

We've been to public hearings, we have taken comments, we have changed the design, we have worked and worked and worked to get to this middle ground where we are now.

We did not maximize our number of units.

We tried to balance what can be can actually work with the low-income units and the market rate income units for a sustainable project that we have done our best to work with everyone involved.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you very much.

Uh now I will turn back to council.

Any questions?

Mr.

R I Let's start with Mr.

Alvarez and Ms.

Rogers.

Thank you, Mayor.

In regards to the size of this project, what's the minimum parking spaces required by the state?

So when you say by the state, like under the density bonus law, that is correct.

It is 72.

That would be the maximum or minimum.

Oh, that's a minimum requirement by the state's 72.

If they use a density bonus parking requirement.

Okay.

And if we just look at the size of the project with all the stipulations from the state, what could the developer get away with?

What's the minimum amount of spaces?

Because right now, I believe it's 50 spaces.

63.

Could they actually go lower than that number?

So the state would require seventy-two, and they are providing 63.

So nine less parking spaces.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Rogers.

Okay.

Um I had a couple of questions.

One on the map, it had EV parking.

Um, but that was near what I call the Uber spot in the DoorDash spot because one of the public commenters brought that up about people needing to park really quickly on Hoenn.

But I think that there were two designated spots for um, I say Uber spot and Doordash, but it's a car share and loading.

So they have one space, I think is number 52 on the map.

Uh Ingrid, can correct me.

Is on for the deliveries and services.

So it's for the short term uh like a services Uber.

Ten minutes.

And uh 53 was also marked as um 53 was also marked as something.

Is it car share?

Oh, I will ask the architect to explain that.

Ingrid.

As part of the partner, Ingrid, so as part of the parking management plan, the applicant proposed that he provide some supplementary methods of getting around for to encourage residents to uh look at reducing the number of cars they were bringing into the project, and one of those is to potentially provide a car share um service on site, and so we provided one space for that car share service, and it the these plans are uh dated prior to the 2025 building code, which was enacted this year, and um there would be an additional number of EV spaces provided should the project move forward into construction permitting, but um the EV indicates spaces which uh are designated for electric cars, and uh it makes sense to make a EV space from a car space, a car share space.

You said it makes sense to make an EV space, a car share space, a car share space is like Uber, right?

Right, and so if there was a car share service provided on the site, then there would be an um that type of short-term use car provided on the site for resident use.

So it's not like Uber, a car share.

You're talking about like in San Francisco when the complex, everyone shares the same car, so they don't have to own their own car.

So it's not like Uber.

Um and then my other question is uh someone made a comment about a um parking spot being a thousand dollars.

I don't know where that data came from.

We have not published that in any of our documents.

Okay, because I was just thinking, I don't know who would be able to afford the parking.

I would have to park on Hoenn Avenue.

Um, and then that's even more than the spots that are allowed.

So um just some concerns that I had as far as people dropping off stuff and not being able to load and unload um when they have children or someone's older, they need to access their um apartment.

This complex that's right, the space that Monet identified is for that type of short-term use.

Perfect.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

My question was along that line too.

That was the first time I heard about renting parking spaces.

Someone also brought up the um idea of parking on Summerfield.

Is that like something that there is no parking available on Summerfield?

Not at all.

I mean, I don't know.

I don't remember off the top of my head.

So we restriped Summerfield to provide a buffered bike lane south of Hoenn Avenue and first stretch north of Hoenn Avenue.

Uh so there's no parking allowed on Summerfield.

Okay, all right.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

McDonald.

Yeah, just for clarification, what we had heard earlier was that the tandem spots were spots for rent.

Can we get clarification from the applicant on that?

Should I turn this on?

Um, the spaces that are tandem, they're 10, I believe, of the um space of the spaces or 20, I suppose you you would say um would of the 63 are tandem, and so those are reserved for residents who have two cars.

They would need to rent both spaces, and um residents who have only one car would not be permitted to use a tandem space to discourage the use of garage area for storage.

Garage areas are dedicated only for parking spaces, okay.

Um, if I could add just real quickly, um, sorry, council member um please sorry I'm looking around who was talking to me.

Sorry about that.

Go ahead.

Sorry about that.

Uh Jessica Jones, Deputy Director of Planning.

Um, so just to um add to the question about um uh a separate cost for parking spaces, our zoning code does allow for what we call unbundled parking, where the cost of the parking unit is separate from the cost of the residential unit.

Um so somebody who is living in a residential unit that may or may not have a car or the need for parking space would pay less because they don't have that parking space.

So I just wanted to add that.

Okay, thank you for the clarification on that.

I want to go back for a minute on the emergency in and out exit on Summerfield Road, and I I'm not a traffic engineer, so I'm not even gonna pretend to be one today on TV.

But I think that what I'm hearing is that the city made the decision to not allow that to go in and out, and that the developers even had a plan at one time to allow Summerfield um in and out exit.

So it does go back to safety, and I I don't want to dismiss the concerns of the community on um the concern around fire and emergency exits and the concern around people getting in and out on Hoenn Avenue, which I was born at Warwick Hospital, so I'm very familiar of that side of town and have lived um on that side of town the last about 10 years, but but truthfully, I I think when I go back to that, um, how would the city work with the developer if there was potential for an egress or an entrance specifically during an emergency off of Summerfield Road?

If we were to just say during emergencies, is there a way to to have that, or do you still have the design?

I guess the question is of the applicant as well as the city.

So I wasn't involved in the initial conversations that led to the design decision to not have a driveway on Summerfield Road, so I can't really speak to that, and maybe the applicant can address that question first, and then I could address the uh traffic safety concerns.

Um at the pre-application development review or pre-development application review, the traffic engineers strongly discouraged us from using or from providing a new entrance or exit onto Summerfield Road.

Um, ideally, I mean, one would want to have two entrances and exits, and so we explored the possibility of um using what appeared to be a common use egress and ingress that already exists to the campus.

But I as I explained, um, the ownership rights to that easement are the majority is held by one owner, and that didn't work out.

So then as it as it relates to traffic safety entering or exiting on Summerfield Road, I don't have any objections with that.

It's not that it's unsafe to have driveways on Summerfield Road, um, uh particularly on this uh at this parcel, um, and it's it's a design decision at this point um to just have the driveway on Hoenn Avenue operationally, the intersection of Hoenn and Summerfield operates better without having additional traffic enter um from northbound Summerfield.

I've seen specifically like around Sonoma Avenue where they'll have an exit on to Sonoma Avenue, but you can only turn right.

But the reason that I think you're concerned about was that going over that kind of divide to be able to go left on Summerfield then left on Hoen.

Would there be a potential of having an egress that allowed anyone to just go right on Summerfield so that they would have to then maybe go down to Bethards and go cut across?

There's ways to get around through that area, but but to have another exit um area and an entrance area because they could go down Summerfield then to pull into that same driveway.

Would there be opposition from traffic and engineering on that?

No, it would it would require further study um to see what the impacts would be related to the intersection of Hoenn and Summerfield.

Um but uh I I couldn't guess as to what those would be.

Um again, though, the trips are not high, so probably not very significant, right?

We're looking at 19 trips in the morning peak period and 20 trips, and that's total in and out uh in the PMP.

And wouldn't there be anything in the density bonus law that would prevent the city from asking us to go back and just see if the applicant there was a feasibility for them to create another access on Summerfield?

So uh we certainly can do that.

Um there's a couple things we need to keep in mind.

One that um any redesign would need to demonstrate that it's not gonna reduce the total units that they're proposing.

Um, but we also are challenged with um timing of getting this process through.

Um we have already received um contact from HCD with concerns about the timeline of this project.

So um it is likely that we would continue those conversations with HCD um if there were further delays, and just looking, and I'm I'm no architect, so I can't really say um just looking at this on the map when I'm looking at the parking, it looks to be some of the landscape and design that may be able to open up to the what looks like a driveway on on this particular slide, which is slide one of the site plan.

It looks like driveways to me, but maybe it's something else if you can put slide one from the applicants presentation up.

Do you see that?

Is that a driveway that I see not the in and out on Hoenn, but it looks like down and it's a gray area, it looks like a cemented area to me.

Uh up a little bit, up a little bit more there.

That's the adjacent one.

Yeah, that's the adjacent property at the corner.

That's a private property.

It that's already a building, it's a separate properties parking lot.

It is parking.

Yes, okay.

So that's parking, and it goes, is there a driveway that goes out on Summerfield right there?

Well, that is a separate parcel that have its own driveway, and they have the driveway on Summerfield and Hoenn Avenue.

And that's the one that they're not allowed to have access to because somebody else owns it.

Uh, correct.

And there's also driveway on the south side, which goes to SAY or is it former SAY, yes.

Thank you for the clarification on that, because to me it looked like part of this entire um project, and it isn't, sounds like it's a separate area.

Thank you.

So let's see if I go back to my questions, and I I heard a question of a about a potential of a heritage tree.

Do we have any heritage trees on this lot?

Do we know if there's been any heritage trees that had to go through that permitting process to take those down?

So uh McNeil will go over that, but when there's a project proposed for development, there's a requirement for replacement of the trees for every six inch of the trees being proposed for removal, two fifteen gallon trees needs to be replaced.

Okay, okay.

So hello, I'm James McNair.

I was on the Arborist that did the initial inventory of all the trees on the site, and there's uh in my report I didn't find number of protected species, these would require mitigation if they are removed.

Um earlier one uh Don Redwood was mentioned, and it's uh it's not a rare tree.

Uh it's around in the city I see it often.

But anyway, the the problem with the site, there was just not enough room to retain any trees and have the correct protection for them, the tree protection zones to eliminate utilities, all this.

So the reality was uh that the uh you know all the trees had to be designated from for removal.

Thank you for the clarification on that.

So I I don't want to dismiss what I've heard from the community as far as the concerns on traffic on Hoen Avenue.

It is very busy all the time.

I don't think I've ever gone down Hoen without hitting that light and having to sit there for quite a few minutes.

Um I think that it does create some concerns, but what I'm hearing from staff is that even though there's a high level of concern, a high level of traffic, it wouldn't meet the requirement that we would have to be able to deliver um for the state's issue of the density bonus.

Is that correct?

Yeah, so really we're looking at substantial evidence, and um, you know, while we're hearing all the concerns that are being raised, um the the technical um information and evidence that we have indicates that there is not a safety impact.

Um, so you know.

Yeah, okay.

I appreciate you answering all the questions.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you.

Uh I'd like to expand on that just a little bit too the the safety impact related to this development is the interaction of the cars coming out of the development with Hoenn Avenue.

And so the study did look at uh what we call site distance, and that was um measured and compared to what Caltrans uh specifies related to how far you could see in each direction as you exit the driveway, those were found to be adequate.

With that said, um, uh and uh Councilmember Ben Willis uh had a uh a previous question related to the corridor as well, and so I just wanted to touch on that.

Um the the most recent study from Wrans, um did an analysis on the collision rate, and so I just wanted to expand on that.

So the collision rate is based on the number of crashes per million vehicle miles, and so um statewide average for a street like Hohen Avenue is 1.61.

Um it's measured based on the last five years of collisions at 0.94.

Um, so roughly 50% less.

Um again, that's per million vehicle miles traveled, and so again, we're we're talking 227 trips, uh, which is out and in.

So one trip away from this project is one, and then back is two.

Um so I just wanted to add some clarification related to that.

That's very helpful.

Does the 227 trips only count on people residing there, or does that count for deliveries and other emergency vehicles access that type of thing?

I think there's a formula for that as well.

Yeah, that it is in it is all inclusive of all trips, mail delivery, all of those trips associated with the 50 dwelling units.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thanks again for answering all my questions tonight.

Thank you.

Are there any any other questions from council?

All right, let me double check to make sure I do it right this time.

Um now we are officially closing the public hearing.

Um we do from council, we've had a lot of discussion tonight.

Are there other questions that we want to address either to staff, to staff, the applicant or the appellant?

Mr.

Alvarez.

And I'll ask it again as this has already been asked, but just to reiterate, uh, has there any has there been any information presented by either commenters from council that merits a reason for us to deny this project or or that you could substantiate as being a valid without assumption or or bias.

So I'll I'll let Mike speak to this also.

But um from our perspective, no, there's not been any additional information.

No additional information.

Um if I could add one more thing related to traffic because I know it's uh a very popular topic tonight.

Um traffic safety and traffic throughput are often at odds.

And so there are some steps that we could do to Hohen Avenue that would make it a um I'll say safer street that would drastically impact the amount of delay uh that the drivers that use Hoenn Avenue would experience things like removing traffic lanes.

Um for example, we could take one of the lanes, uh the left turn lane for eastbound Hoenn Avenue.

There's two left turn lanes there.

We could take one of those away, uh, provide some refuge for pedestrians that would make it inherently a safer intersection.

It would also increase the delay.

So um there are some steps that we could take.

We could potentially lower the speed limit on Hohen Avenue.

Um again, um measures that actually provide safe refuge for pedestrians and bicycles uh again by taking away traffic lanes would make it safer.

Um but uh this this project is not uh does not relate to any of those improvements that we could make.

Thank you.

Other other questions?

All right, then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna call for a motion and a second, and then we can have final discussion.

Mr.

All Rose, would you mind putting a motion on the on the floor?

Very well, Mayor.

Uh I would like to make a motion to adopt resolution one and resolution two was presented by staff.

All right, we have a motion and a second by Ms.

Rogers.

Any final discussion?

Ms.

McDonald.

I just want to thank the residents for coming out tonight and voicing concern over your um concerns around safety for the people that would be living in the apartments, but also what you've been through as far as the fires go and the concerns that we have on the east side of town that um aren't lost on either mayor staff or myself.

Um and so I although it sounds um like you didn't get anyway.

I think we all heard you, we heard from traffic and engineering that there's potential for improvements that we can do on Hoenn Avenue to make it safer, even the current condition, which isn't safe, and so um I I think that I've learned a lot in this process.

I learned a lot about state laws and how that will supersede what local jurisdictions even can do, specifically in times like this around housing, and so um I I think staff and I think the legal department, everybody who's done all their work and and helping us to understand this better, and um I think the project, while it is inclusive of families, is has a lot of merit.

There's not a lot of opportunities for families to move into housing and go to your great schools on the east side of town.

So um I think that there is some merit to the project as well, and I don't want to dismiss that, but I I think the traffic and the concerns for safety are weighing on me heavily as we make the decision tonight, but also know that we might not have any choices when it comes to the state law.

So thank you.

Ms.

Rogers.

Sorry.

I just want to say I didn't hear him say that it was not safe.

I just heard him say that there are other things that we can do to try to make it safer.

And I just want to clarify that because I did not hear him say that it was not safe, just that we can make other modifications on that street, which will indeed impact the residents that live there also.

So I just wanted to clarify that.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Again, to thank everyone for coming out tonight, and to and to acknowledge that the concerns that that were raised, both in the letters and here in person, they're all valid.

Um I'm a I'm a runner.

I'm running down Hoenn and Summerfield regularly.

I'm my wife and I are walking our dogs out there.

Um we're becoming a bigger city in Santa Rosa.

So over in that part of town, we've had the side shows, we've had the drag racing.

Uh we're having these urban issues.

Um it's not only in our part of town, it's not only in in Bennett Valley.

Frankly, we're dealing with issues like this throughout the city.

Uh it's a consequence of Santa Rosa being bigger than we were.

We're growing.

We're the fifth largest city in the Bay Area, and we're starting to have have problems that we associate more with cities like Santa Clara or even you know the sort of San Francisco's and the and the San Jose's in terms of the difficulties with parking and the traffic congestion and and the crowded streets, and we are catching up in the city, and we were starting to get we have been catching up even before this conversation.

I want to commend our TPW department because they've been bringing this these issues to us, including our including our traffic department, showing us or showing us how many streets in the cities that in the city that we can improve, whether it's by putting in new crosswalks, by making making our existing crosswalks safer, by doing the traffic calming that we've been doing throughout the city.

Because that's a crowded, that's a crowded street, and it's gonna get to be more crowded as the as the city's population increases.

Uh, but just know that it is on the city's radar screen, and it's something that's not specific to Bennett Valley.

We're we are Santa Rosa's growing up, and we're gonna be dealing with this throughout the city.

Don't forget we've got urban growth boundaries.

We're not expanding, we're we're building in and we're building up.

Uh, as a little bit of a sweetener, I know it's not not much given the way the discussion is going tonight, but do recall that the city is building a brand new large park a block away from this development.

I'm sure a lot of you have either volunteered for the Southeast Greenway or followed that project closely.

It is we are beginning our community planning sessions this year.

We've got the funding thanks to Sonoma Land Trust.

So you're gonna have 48 acres all the way from Montgomery High School up into Anadele, and what's the focus in that park?

It's bike and pedestrian lanes, right?

We want to get our we want to get our kids and our residents off of Hoenn over in the Southeast Greenway for that what's gonna be just a gorgeous new park.

So as we're as for those of you who are dealing with the frustration on this development, know that like remember what's happening a block away and the great things that that's gonna do for the entire uh for that entire neighborhood and for the rest of the city.

So I'll I'll leave you with that.

Are there any final comments from from the dais?

All right, we've got a motion and a second on the floor.

Madam City Clerk, if there's no further discussion, I think we can call the vote.

Thank you, Mayor Councilmember Rogers.

Aye, Councilmember McDonald, aye, Councilmember Fleming?

Yes, Councilmember Ben Wellos?

Yes, Councilmember Alvarez.

Oh, Vice Mayor O'Krepke.

Aye.

Mayor Stepp.

Yes.

Let the record show this passes with seven affirmative votes.

Thank you.

And again, thanks to all the community members who came out tonight and sat through a long discussion.

And if anyone is interested in staying, we do have a second public hearing on the books.

Let me advertise that right now.

It's our first 2026 general plan amendment package.

There are seats down here in the front.

Miss Nicholson, are you ready for more fun?

All right, we've got we've got folks clearing out.

Thank you again, everyone.

It looks like it's raining hard.

Drive safely on your way home.

All right, Miss Mickelson.

Whenever, whenever you're ready, and Miss Jones, whenever you're ready, let's let's go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor and Council members.

Amy Nicholson supervising planner presenting the first general plan amendment package of this calendar year.

Sorry to interrupt, Amy.

If we can just if if you're exiting, can you please wait to have your conversations outside?

We still have other items that we need to get to.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

And um, in the interest of time, I will go through this quickly, and of course, I'm happy to answer any questions.

So the project before you consists of general plan amendments, so to both the land use diagram as well as to the text of the general plan 2050.

There is also an ordinance before you which would rezone 10 properties to be consistent with the proposed land use designations, and also a resolution which would adopt the required environmental document under the California Environmental Quality Act.

So the council adopted the city's general plan 2050 in June.

That was followed by the council's adoption of the city's active transportation plan just about a month later.

And then in fall of last year, planning staff brought forward the general plan implementation item, which consisted of quite a bit of material.

One of the main focuses of that item, however, was to ensure that zoning and land use were consistent.

And in many cases, the uh focus was uh to resolve uh pre-existing or um inconsistencies that preceded the general plan 2050.

So you may recall through that process we did send notices to affected property owners and heard from several uh who came to the council meeting, and the bulk of the item before you this evening is really to address those land use concerns that were raised and to resolve them by way of general plan land use amendments.

So just as a refresher, this is the city's general plan land use diagram, which establishes land use for every property within the city's urban growth boundary.

I'm gonna start by um going over the land use changes based on public feedback that was received.

This first example is uh just east of Memorial Hospital.

Uh, in this particular case, the properties that are surrounded by orange have been designated as office dating back to the uh at least the 1970s, but the area has been developed as a single-family neighborhood since the 1940s.

So staff is recommending, and the planning commission is as well, that the land use here be changed to low density residential.

This would allow the existing zoning to remain and reflect the existing development of the area.

This slide shows two properties on Mountain Hawk Drive fronting highway 12.

These two sites have been developed as a mixed-use center since 2006.

The general plan land use is very low density residential, and staff is recommending a change to retail and business services and medium density residential.

So this is a common combination of land uses applied to mixed use areas and is consistent with the existing zoning of neighborhood commercial.

This property on Giffen Avenue has been developed as a single family residence since 1939.

The existing general plan land use is low density residential, and the property owner is interested in being able to have some type of limited animal keeping as well as agricultural use.

And for that reason, staff is recommending that the zoning that exists now remain and that the general plan land use be changed to very low density residential, and that's acceptable just given the mix of land uses in this general area and the fact that it could change if requested at a date in the future.

So this is just north of the Southeast Greenway.

This particular property, and it's hard to see, it has a star on it, is owned by the same individual who owns the property directly north.

For some reason, this property doesn't have a general plan land use designation, and this property owner is interested in potentially constructing missing middle housing or an accessory dwelling unit, and so staff is recommending the application of a land use designation to this parcel that would be medium density residential, which would align with the surrounding properties, and then also the application of the consistent zoning.

This slide shows seven properties that are located off of Maxwell Drive.

So this is just west of the smart rail and within the boundaries of the downtown station area specific plan.

This currently has a bodine asphalt plant on it.

This area received a lot of attention as part of the downtown station area specific plan update.

It was identified as an opportunity site where there was a desire to see change in this area and residential development as well as other supporting type uses.

Staff is recommending a change here from the neighborhood mixed use designation to the maker mixed use designation.

There would be no change in the allowed residential development in this case, but neighborhood mixed use is much more limiting in terms of commercial and very light industrial type land uses, and given the surrounding properties, staff finds that this would be a more compatible.

And then this last example here was inadvertently left out of the general plan 2050.

You may recall that the general plan is focused on establishing neighborhood centers throughout the city and activating some of our major streets.

Uh, to be consistent with the land use change.

So that concludes the land use changes that are included in the general plan resolution before the council.

This next set of slides just summarizes the one text change that is being proposed at this time.

The general plan has what's called a circulation element.

As I mentioned earlier, the council adopted our active transportation plan just one month after the general plan was adopted.

And so, in order to ensure that those documents are speaking to one another, staff is recommending the inclusion of active transportation maps into the city's general plan just for ease of reference for staff and community members and developers.

And then the resolution one that's before you, so that is to adopt an addendum to the city's general plan environmental impact report.

What this addendum shows is that the project outlined this evening would not result in any additional environmental impacts outside of what was identified in the general plan EIR.

This item was noticed in accordance with the zoning code and state law requirements.

And with that, the planning commission and planning and economic development department recommends that the council adopt an addendum to the general plan EIR, adopt amendments to the land use diagram and text of the general plan 2050, as well as to the downtown station area specific plan land use figure, and approve the first reading and introduce an ordinance to adopt zoning map amendments for consistency with proposed general plan land uses.

And happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much.

Well, I for one am gotten a second wind.

I'm ready to get into this.

No to the getting all into it, but just let's get it done so that everyone, especially our staff who we value so much can get home to their families.

Amy, I know you and I uh or uh Jessica, we spoke about this earlier today.

I just wanted to ask where the appropriate place is for additional cleanup specifically around the active transportation plan and the Lomitas cut through that's on that plan.

Yes, uh, thank you, council member.

Great question.

So yes, if there are desired changes to the maps in the active transportation plan, and in particular any specific um uh segments as you mentioned, um the uh best way to do that is to provide direction to staff to um review the active transportation plan to identify if changes need to be made, um, and then uh item would come before council for first an amendment to the active transportation plan, and then alongside that um an amendment to the general plan to reflect those changes.

Okay, I would I know it's a little bit outside of the scope of the suggestions tonight, but I thought this was the best venue to initiate that change.

Um, I think that was a made in error, not a staff error, but just an error that that we should clean up.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

McDonald.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

I have a specific question on slide number seven, where um I just want to make sure that I'm understanding this.

It says develop this mixed use center in conjunction with Skyhawk residential subdivision in 20 or 2006, and then it says general plan amendment, very low density residential to retail and business services with medium density residential.

What would that mean?

Thank you for the question.

The retail and business services land use is one of the most common commercial land uses that is applied throughout the city, so it allows for a range of different uh retail type uses and services.

It does not allow for industrial type uses at all, so it's really focused on retail and services.

The medium density residential land use allows a higher residential density than uh the existing very low density residential development.

Uh it's it's getting late, and so I want to make sure I'm remembering I'm pr nearly certain, and Ms.

Jones will correct me if I'm wrong, it allows it between eight and eighteen units per acre.

Um, and so it's very common throughout the city that you'll see those two land uses combined, and that is consistent with the neighborhood commercial zoning that the site already has.

So it can allow either or a combination thereof.

And so the particular example here, um the way it's developed is essentially as a mixed use site, and so this is the land use that is most consistent with what's on the ground.

So I'll just add um so just uh what everything that Amy mentioned um is is accurate, but just to add on to that, um, we typically do see this mix of we call it the striped like general plan land use.

It's typically with the medium density residential and retail business services in our mixed use areas, um and so the proposed change here would reflect both the um existing zoning for the site, uh neighborhood commercial, as well as the existing mixed use structure that is already constructed on site.

Okay, I think that answers my question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Other questions from council.

All right, then let's officially open the public hearing.

Ken, Fred, which one of you wants to be first?

Ken, you've got you got the mic.

I beat them up here.

Uh thank you.

Uh good evening, mayor staff, council members, Ken McNabb, KMAC advising, representing the owner of the Maxwell Drive properties, uh, that are part of your amendment package tonight.

Um we have reviewed the proposed land use changes.

We agree with staff that the maker mixed use is a more appropriate designation, and it also provides a greater range and flexibility and non-residentials uh use is allowed.

So we support the recommended changes and ask you to do the same.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ken.

Fred.

Well, I don't have any any uh bones to pick about the the um uh changes that are recommended here, but I would like to make a comment on on uh land use compatibility, especially in light of um zoning and land use compatibility in light of the previous uh agenda item, and then I do have a I saw that down on College Avenue, you have the asphalt plant, you that's where Sonoma uh Paint Center is um or Benjamin Moore is and so I saw there was a lot of of uh zoning down there that was that didn't seem like it was compatible, it was different, and so I'd like to encourage the city to um to to be flexible and in the idea of compatibility going forward in terms of east side, northeast and southeast quadrant uh zoning and general plan changes to the land use because if you look down along Santa Rosa Avenue and along the freeway, you have all kind of of uh really spicy variety of land use right next to each other.

But then when you went come into the east side and look at at compatibility, then you want people who don't want any change at all.

So as uh Mark pointed out with the urban growth boundary, it's sort of like a pressure cooker, and if if you're gonna add thousands of new units, then the compatibility issue is gonna come up, and it's really only fair that that that kind of variety of compatibility gets spread all over town rather than then you have the the kind of disjunct land uses that you see along uh the highway 101 corridor and Santa Rosa Avenue, but then if you want to put those same kind of uses on Hoenn or on Highway 12 or on mission or whatever, then it's like World War Three.

So I just wanted to encourage you to be flexible about about that idea of compatibility and so that it's fair around town.

Fred, thank you.

All right, since there are no other members of the public here, we will close the public hearing and bring it back for a motion and a s uh from Miss Ben Wellos and then a second.

Thank you.

Um I move to adopt uh resolution one and resolution two and introduce ordinance as presented by staff.

Second, all right.

We have a motion and a second by the vice mayor.

Uh any final discussion from council.

A little disappointed in the lack of energy here at the end, but all right.

We have a motion, a second.

You may call the vote whenever you're whenever you're ready.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Rogers.

Councilmember McDonald.

Aye.

Council Member Fleming.

Yes, Council Member Ben Wellows.

Yes.

Councilmember Alvarez.

Aye.

Vice Mayor O'Crecky.

Aye.

Mayor Stepp.

Yes.

Let the record show this passes unanimously.

Thank you for that.

All right, we'll go to our final public conda on non on non-agenda matters.

Ken, are you really going to the door?

This is your last chance.

All right.

Well, there's no members of the public here.

We are officially adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.

And thank thank you, Amy and Jessica.

Thanks for getting us through that.

Okay.