The Santa Rosa Planning Commission held a regular meeting on April 11, 2024, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:41 p.m. The meeting included approval of minutes, public comments, department reports, a presentation on the FEMA flood risk mapping project, and three public hearings. All actions were approved unanimously (6-0), with Commissioner Peterson absent.
Chair Weeks, it's four thirty, if you'd like to call the meeting to order. Okay, thank you. Commissioner Carter. Commissioner Peterson. Commissioner Peterson? Yes. We have draft minutes from March twenty eighth, twenty twenty-four. Are there any changes to the minutes? Okay, seeing none. Do we have any public comments on the minutes? My apologies. That's okay. So if we do, please go to one of the podiums. Not seeing anybody rise for this item. Go uh we'll go ahead and uh approve the minutes as they stand. And now we move on to item three, public comments. Uh we're now taking public comments on item three, non-agenda matters. This is the time when any person may address the commission on matters not listed on the agenda, but which are within our subject matter jurisdiction of the commission. And so with that, uh, we'll go ahead and start with uh Mr. DeWitt. Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to use the overhead. Okay. There you go. Let's get it in sight here. All right. Is the microphone on? Yes. Hello, my name is Duane DeWitt. I'm from Roseland. I wanted to thank you folks, you volunteers for what you do. Wanted to tell you about this event we're having on Burbank Avenue at what we call the Roseland Neighborhood. It's a area that's been preserved by the Sonoma County Open Space District and donated to the City of Santa Rosa. There is a neighborhood there that we've been working to keep as natural as possible for over 20 years. This April 20th Earth Day, that's Saturday. We're going to be out there like we've been out there for over 20 years cleaning up the area, doing good things. We'd like to invite you to come there, especially because trees are really important for all the goals that the city has said they want to do for climate adaptation, resiliency and sustainability, and every other buzzword you can think of. Basically, trees are right front and center for what can help us with pollution. We have the highest rate of childhood asthma in Rosalind. We have a high rate of adult diseases that are related to what's called particulate diesel matter and other pollutants that come from driving in the area. Unfortunately, what's been happening is even more developments going in there, relying upon old traffic studies and not looking at what the cumulative effects are of what happens when you folks do what you do. So with that in mind, traffic on Burbank Avenue, because there's an elementary school there now, is packed many times of the day. Did you remember that Burbank Avenue was actually given a scenic road designation in the past? That Marsha Voss Dupree, when she was on the city council, worked to make sure that we had that scenic road designation. But unfortunately, some planners in the city's departments of planning, they don't look at that as if it's important, and they've allowed numerous trees to be cut down along Burbank Avenue, especially big old redwoods, which are the best carbon sequester sequestering trees that are available. Unfortunately, this has happened at a place called Burbank Avenue apartments, and that housing is going in right now. And no one's been looking at the cumulative effects of what's happening over in Roseland with all this extra housing being pushed in there, and no one really taking account with current traffic impacts, current cumulative impacts being studied. You folks could change that by saying that's what needs to be done and get that on somebody's agenda. Burbank Avenue apartments may even be bamboozling you folks because they came forward saying they were gonna put in affordable housing first and foremost. That's how they got some of their funding.