The Santa Rosa Planning Commission met virtually on October 14, 2021, via Zoom webinar. The meeting included a study session on the Water Demand Offset (WDO) Policy and Fee Study, approval of minutes, public comments, department reports, and two public hearings: a conditional use permit for a cannabis retail dispensary and a modification of the Courtney Estates final map. Both public hearing items were approved unanimously on 6-0 votes, with Commissioner Vicki Duggan absent. Note: The agenda indicated a 4:30 p.m. start; the minutes record a 4:00 p.m. call to order.
Okay, uh Mike, we ready? Okay, so I see my fellow commissioners ready to go. So with that, I would like to call to order the October 14th, 2021 meeting of the Santa Rosa Planning Commission. Uh, before I start, I'd like to read the following statement. Due to the provisions of the governor's executive orders N-25-20 and N 29-20, which suspends certain requirements of the Brown Act and the order of the Health Officer of the County of Sonoma to Shelter in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19. The planning commissioners will be conducting today's meeting in a virtual setting using Zoom webinar. Commissioners and staff are participating from remote locations and are practicing appropriate social distancing. Members of the public may view and listen to the meeting as noted on the city's website and as noted on the agenda. Members of the public wishing to speak during item four public comment or during our public hearings tonight will be able to do so by raising their hand and will be given the ability to address the commission. So with that, I'd like to ask for a roll call. Thank you, Chair Weeks. Let the record reflect that all commissioners are present except Commissioner Dugan. Thank you. And with that, we'll go to item two, which is our study session tonight. It's the water demand offset policy and fee study. And Colin Close, Senior Water Resources Planner from Santa Rosa Water, is presenting. Welcome, Colin. Thank you very much, Chair Weeks, really appreciate that. I will share my screen so that you can view the presentation. And just want to make sure is that visible to all with just the uh title slide showing. Terrific. Thank you so much, Chair Weeks, for confirming that. So, yes, I'm Colin Close. I'm a senior water resources planner with the city's water department, Santa Rosa Water, and we're very pleased to be before you today to present information to you in a study session about the water demand offset policy and fee study. I also have with me today, Mark Hildebrand. He will be also presenting, uh he's a consultant that worked on the fee study with us. In addition, although she won't be presenting, uh, one of the key team members that we had is Katie Cole is present to uh potentially help answer questions as well. Katie is with Woodard and Curran. They're a consulting firm with expertise in the area of demand uh offsets, and uh we hired Woodard and Kern to help us in the development of the policy. So we have a team here for you to help uh address questions as well as some folks from legal. So just as a uh bit of information and background, the water demand offset policy is coming before you because it is a part of our uh urban water management planning effort. The state requires that we develop a long-range water supply plan. We do this every five years. We update it, we look out over a 25-year horizon. The law requires at least a 20-year horizon. We also need to put together a shortage plan. Our long-term uh horizon for water supply looks very good in normal years and even in years where we have a little bit below average rainfall. But when we have severely dry years and consecutive severely dry years as we're experiencing now, we certainly need to implement our water shortage plan. So the state asks that we have that plan prepared, and I'll be talking a little bit about that today because the offset policy is an instrument to allow us as a mechanism to implement part of that water shortage plan. The most recent versions of the urban water management plan and the water shortage plan were adopted by city council in June of this year. So they've just been recently updated. The water shortage contingency plan does have to meet certain regulatory requirements. So it is a standalone document. Years ago, it was part of the urban water management plan. Now it is a companion plan that stands alone next to the urban water management plan. We have to do a thorough analysis of what shortages mean, how we would address them, and have a very detailed operational plan for implementing during any stage of a water shortage, whether it's very mild or very severe. And because the urban water management plan and the water shortage contingency plan are considered CECA exempt under the water code, the policies and the implementation that follow from those documents are also CQ exempt. So this is not a project, the water demand offset policy and fee study, not a project under the CEQA regulations. The first shortage plan was adopted in 1992, so about 30 years ago. In that time, we've had a number of water shortages, whether they were related to infrastructure and Sonoma water being able to deliver enough water during peak summers while they're doing some infrastructure work, or whether it's due to long-term droughts, we've had probably six or seven different water shortage conditions that we have dealt with.