Good afternoon, everyone.

I'd like to call the February twenty sixth, twenty twenty-six meeting of the Planning Commission to order, and if we could please have roll call.

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioner Carter.

Let the record reflect that all commissioners are present with the exception of Commissioner Sisko.

Thank you.

No changes or corrections on those, so they will be approved as submitted.

And then we'll move on to public comment.

And I would like to mention that the two items, we have two items that on the agenda today that are being continued to a date certain.

And they are the public hearing 11.1, MD Market Conditional Use Permit, and item 11.2, the Meadowwood Ranch Tentative Map Amendment.

So if you are here to speak on either of those items, now would be the time to make your comments since they are not technically on this agenda.

So with that, if anybody has um comments that they would like to make on the on items that are not on the agenda today, please make your way to the podium.

You'll have three minutes.

And you'll see a timer coming.

So hi everyone, my name's Anna Diaz, and I am from the Roseland area.

I just wanted to give my public comment regarding one of the previous meetings that you guys had regarding the restaurant del Valle.

I was watching it through Zoom because I was not in town that day.

However, I was very, very upset and very, very concerned, and I'm gonna continue to say I'm very concerned for the future of the planning commission and how you guys are going about things because in all reality I did hear from like you know, Pat Cisco and from other people that said that they were at the location themselves that you know that they just didn't believe that it would be a right fit for the area.

My honest opinion as a long-lived Rosen area resident is that for people that don't live in the area, I don't think it was valid to even think that some of those comments were even made, especially when you do not live in the area.

Regardless, that street, my sisters lived off Gardner for several years since I was a cook student, and regardless, that street's always gonna be busy.

There was comments about Santa Rosa City Schools, which is now Cesar Chavez's academy, and that again was a so like a comment that was totally off of topic and honestly didn't even pertain to the project itself.

There was also comments from the business owners themselves that some of the people that came to the location to take notes or to observe the location, didn't even come inside to say hi, not even go inside to order a taco, just it kind of made them feel uncomfortable, and especially with the topic of ice, it made them feel that they were being inspected.

So I need you guys to really pay caution, especially going to a majority Latino area, that when people are not familiar with you and you're looking like you're taking notes or quote-unquote looking like a code enforcement officer, at least go inside and say hi, at least introduce yourselves, and if you don't want to introduce yourselves, go inside and order an orchata.

That's all it took because it made the owners themselves feel very uncomfortable.

And I said this to you guys in um a personal email as well.

So I do want to give a special thank you to I believe Commissioner Pardo and to Commissioner Standards for truly being in United with the with the owners themselves.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anybody else making public comments?

Ms.

Carmen.

Yes, thank you.

Hello?

Yes, hi.

Um good evening to the board, uh Janice Carman here, and um I want to make uh two um comments about uh the meetings and the scheduling of the meetings, and uh this is I'm gonna refer to the last time we had the meeting.

Um, there was the uh finance meeting at four o'clock, and then this at 4 30, the my oral meeting was at uh 6 and Qatati, and um I've spoken at other meetings about this, but just to put it in the awareness of whoever is doing the calendars to um try to do the calendars so that people can make the meetings, and I try to go to most of the meetings.

I I'm particularly interested in the planning and uh the waterways and the things related, design review, etc., related to the planning, but it it makes it extremely challenging and frustrating.

And uh then today, um, I went to a waterways meeting and I hadn't been to the waterways meeting in.

Well, I went to the last one, which I guess was May.

I can't believe it that it was that long ago but um the uh there was quite a lot of discussion that went around the um Terry Saunders was there he's now on that board as well uh the around the uh meeting agenda for that uh particular um area of the uh city and uh they were talking about meeting uh at not at will but something like that you know if something came up they would they would meet and uh I think it makes it even more challenging for somebody to be part of it when you don't know when the meetings are gonna come up but I think that things that are related to planning and things like the waterways are really important and they should have uh at least quarterly uh meetings and then um it's actually running into a third thing but after I left the meeting this morning I wanted to go to the zoning meeting well I was actually an hour behind and I didn't even realize it because I still was going to get the meeting arrangements for Tuesdays there's at least three maybe five meetings at five o'clock during the city council meeting and all I wanted was the half page for the meeting and I went once to the office once to the office down there and I also asked at waterways if they could help me over there.

Nobody could help me so I still don't have it and then I got a paper from the um planning over here and it said that I'd have to wait two days I'd have to apply for these half page that are public announcements of the meetings and I just wanted to have the backup page for the meeting on Tuesday which is only two days away they are open tomorrow but I shouldn't have to come down here just to do that.

I don't have email that's part of it but but I'm just saying it's challenging.

Any other comments on non-agenda items.

Okay so with that I will go ahead and close the public comment period and bring it to item five commission business the planning commission is charged with carrying out the California planning and zoning laws in the city of Santa Rosa duties include implementation of plans ordinances and policies relating to land use matters assisting in writing and implementing the general plan and area plans holding public hearings and acting on proposed changes to the zoning code zoning map general plan to tentative subdivision maps and undertaking special planning studies as needed so with that we'll move to commissioner reports uh commissioner sanders yes thank you chair um we had a great waterways um meeting today and I was there too uh and I just want to kind of report out some of the things that we discussed um we have a new member of the um committee committee uh Drew Fagent I believe is how you pronounce his last name he's uh uh from design review and we're really happy to have him uh actually his first day gave a lot of great input so way better than I did my first day so good on him glad to have him there Vic Libtak is also back um as the uh representative uh citizen at large we also elected um our chair our dikey to continue as the chair and Kevin Dr.

Kevin C to be vice chair a couple of things that are coming up the Santa Rosa um South Santa Rosa specific plan community involvement meetings are going to be happening uh in March 4th at Amarosa March 5th at Taylor Mountain uh elementary school and you can get those details at the city website um FEMA is we we talked about this a little while ago um the flood maps that FEMA is redoing and uh at this point um we're in the appeal stage of that which started January 20th and will end April 20th uh with the final uh flood map to be um released um I believe it was May don't quote me on that but it's definitely in uh 2027 one of the favorite my favorite updates is on our cleanups of our creeks and waterways um we had a hundred and thirty volunteer um cleanups and they removed uh 1200 cubic yards of trash from the uh creek which is amazing and i we asked for a visual representation of what that looks like and that's a hundred and twenty dumpsters or my favorite it's a football field covered six inches deep and that doesn't include sidelines i i asked about the sidelines not sidelines just the football field but that's an amazing amount of trash to be pulled out and it's it's it's so great that we have these volunteers that do that uh every year last um the three earth day cleanups which are also coming up um and you can they didn't have specific dates so please visit the um earth day website to get those specific dates if you want to participate in these cleanups they're fantastic events and it's really a a great way to to give back so if you if you uh frequent our creeks and streams please consider it thank you thank you any other comments from commissioners okay so with that I'll go ahead and open the public comment on the commissioner reports if there's anybody who would like to make a comment please make your way to the podium seeing no one rise and this is on the waterways the comments made by Mr.

Sanders okay um so with that we'll move on to um uh department report thank you chair weeks and members of the commission uh jessica jones deputy director of planning um just uh a few things here just uh uh updates on some of the projects um that the commission has heard recently um at this week's city council meeting uh the council uh held a public hearing on an appeal of the logo fresca apartment project that the commission um took action and approved uh that uh action was upheld by the council at this week's meeting so just want to give you an update on that um we also have an appeal um pending for the pure vita um community care facility project that the council that the commission approved that is scheduled for the March 24th city council meeting um and then we just recently received an appeal of the Del Valle drive thru that the commission um denied uh we do not yet have a date for that for council but um we'll certainly update you once we do that's it thank you any questions of staff on that okay so with that I will go ahead and open the public comment on department report if you have any comments you'd like to make on what Ms.

Jones just said please make your way to the podium seeing no one rise we'll go ahead and close that and we will move on to number nine consent items we have none we have no report chair we're gonna go first into item seven statements of abstention and then our first scheduled study session item gosh I skipped right over that I'm sorry.

Sorry uh statement of abstentions or recusals anybody okay now we go on to study session I'm not used to us having a study session so um thank you Madeline uh so study session 8.1 South Santa Rosa specific plan study file it's a citywide st 23-004 and Connor McKay will be giving us our presentation.

Great thank you Chair Weeks and members of the planning commission as mentioned my name is Connor McKay I'm a senior planner I'm very excited to be presenting this study session on the land use and circulation alternatives report associated with the South Santa Rosa specific plan.

So we'll discuss what a specific plan is and kind of where we've um come and uh what we've heard from our community in terms of feedback and opportunities and issues with the South Santa Rosa Pacific Plan.

I think it's been quite some time, or this might be the first time that we've presented to the commission on the South Santa Rosa specific plan.

So I wanted to give some additional background on the plan itself.

And then we'll go right into the uh each of the alternatives that are included in the report.

That was included as attachment one of your packet um and then we'll kind of go into next steps and facilitate a discussion about each alternative.

So in terms of what a specific plan is, so specific plans are a long-range planning document for a very specifically defined area.

So while a general plan establishes citywide vision and policies, specific plans would zoom in on a defined geographic area, and that can be areas of the city or areas of unincorporated county, which is the case for this, and we'll get into that in later slides.

So specific plans address land use.

So what kinds of housing, jobs, shops, services, where should those go, and at what intensity or density.

Also addresses circulation and transportation issues.

So how do people move into, out of, and within the specific plan area, and what types of transportation do they use?

Do they walk, bike, use a scooter, take public transportation, or do they drive, and what kind of issues do folks using those different modes of transportation face.

Also, they address the infrastructure that is needed to support both existing development and future development that would be associated with the future build out of the specific plan itself.

Finally, they address public facilities such as parks, open space, and things such as pathways as well.

So, as mentioned, the specific plan area includes both city and county areas.

As you can see on each of these maps, it's somewhat more clear in the smaller diagram.

Believe it or not, the black outline is existing city limits, and the red outline is the specific plan area boundary.

And then the left diagram is kind of a zoom in where you can see what streets the boundaries follow.

So it's a very large specific plan area.

500 acres of the 1900 acres are in city limits, and the remaining 1400 are in the county.

As the slides mentions, it includes the Moreland neighborhood, but it also includes portions of South Park.

I also wanted to come make a note here that the specific plan area includes a broad mosaic of different neighborhoods.

So the outreach that we've conducted has been very intentional and specific and tries to avoid kind of conglomerating the entire specific plan area as kind of one population or one uh neighborhood.

Um, and then the boundary also follows the same boundary as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission or MTC's priority development area, which is why, which is uh the group that funded the preparation of the specific plan via grant.

Um also the boundary follows the city's sphere of influence.

Um so I won't get into each of these statistics in great detail, but I think kind of some takeaways of the demographic information of the plan area is that it is a younger and lower income population when compared with the city and both the county at large.

Um there is a high percentage of Latino and foreign-born residents and residents that are either bilingual or only speak a non-English language.

Again, won't get into the specifics here on this slide, but the takeaways here for the housing profile is that the household sizes are generally larger than both the city and the county at large, and the single-family detached housing type is the vast majority of the housing types in the plan area.

Um, another interesting tidbit here is that the mobile homes come in second at 17.5% of uh residential unit types in the plan area, which is uh quite high given the uh given the percentage of that in the city.

Um, and then we discuss overcrowding and um percentage of income uh spent on housing.

So the California Department of Housing and Community Development or HCD defines overcrowding as more than one person per room, and they don't define a room as bedroom, they define room as any room that is not a kitchen or a bathroom.

So that is good to kind of reference when you're looking at these statistics.

So this as you see on the slide, 9.5% of our units are overcrowded, and 2.1% are severely overcrowded, which is much higher than the city average of 3.8%.

Also, the overpaying kind of follows a similar line as the overcrowding.

HCD says that if you are spending more than 30% of your income, you are overpaying for your housing.

60% of the residents in the plan area are overpaying, and 28% of those are severely overpaying by paying more than 50% of their income on their housing.

And those figures are also higher than both the city and the county.

Okay, so um as part of the initial phase of this specific plan process, we conducted a lot of community outreach to understand people's lived experiences in the plan area.

A lot of us are quite familiar and spend a lot of time in the plan area, but we wanted to hear from the people in the ground on the ground.

So we conducted a series of workshops in October of 2024.

We distributed a survey that solicited feedback about different opportunities and issues that folks were experiencing, both residents and shoppers and people that may visit for a variety of reasons.

We also attended existing community pop-up events such as the Cingo de Mayo Celebration on Sebasto Road, the hardest festival at Bayer Farm.

We actually went to that one twice.

We were at the Vince Harper South Park Day and Night Festival, and we helped with a Sonoma County Regional Parks cleanup at Andy Lopez Unity Park.

There's a lot of different topics on the slide, but what we've heard is that, like I mentioned, there's a lot of disparate experiences in different neighborhoods in the plan area.

Some folks might feel happy about the state of their sidewalks, some might not have sidewalks at all.

A lot of most of the areas are quite underserved by pedestrian and transit services and just circulation and transportation is a big topic area for improvement.

Particularly particularly east-west connectivity issues between Moreland and the Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor.

Not a lot of commercial retail and services on the west side of 101 and the specific plan area, and folks find it uh very hard to travel eastward, even in a car, let alone feeling safe enough to use any other form of uh transportation to meet their daily shopping and service needs.

There's also a lack of medical facilities throughout this the plan area, so folks are having to drive great distances to uh go to doctor's appointments or other types of medical needs as well.

Um, and there's lack of uh parks and open space.

There's uh I think just three parks in the plan area, so there's Andy Lopez Unity Park and the Harvest Harvest Park on the east side, and then um I mentioned uh there's a lack of grocery stores on the west side, so in Moreland, uh like I said, they have to travel uh east of 101 to the Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor for their uh grocery needs.

Um this slide shows existing land uses.

Um commercial uses are concentrated along the Santa Rosa Avenue corridor.

Um the industrial uses in the plan area are quite um extensive, and those are to the west of Moreland, the west of Andy Lopez Unity Park, as well as the southwest portion of the plan area and the southern uh boundary towards the runner park city limits.

Umoreland has the kind of higher highest concentration of residential development, and that is single family residential, and we also have some mobile home parks along Santa Rosa Avenue.

Um, I'd also also like to note that the portions of this map that don't have a color are vacant.

They also kind of have that hatching pattern, so that will be important as we're uh talking about underutilized sites and the following slides.

So, as the commission is aware, we just adopted the general plan 2050 update in June of last year.

Um, the general plan land use designations largely follow the existing land use pattern in the area.

I want to make a note that they're um not on this slide, but there are community and neighborhood parks envisioned in kind of the southeast and southwest portion of the specific plan area.

And there's also a transit hub envisioned at the intersection of Todd Creek and Santa Rosa Avenue.

So the specific location of those is kind of flexible as we were through the specific plan process, but the general plan does envision those to be present in the plan area.

I mentioned the vacant sites, so we conducted an analysis of opportunity sites, which are identified as a function of the scale of existing development and assessed land value.

So we're thinking that these are sites that could be reasonably concluded.

You can reasonably conclude that they would be developed as a result of land use change, land use designation changes associated with the specific plan.

Okay, so getting into the alternatives themselves.

So the land use and circulation alternatives report takes the feedback that we received about people's experiences in the plan area and presents distinct approaches to addressing those issues.

Feedback on these alternatives will eventually will inform the creation of a preferred alternative, which would serve as the foundation for the land use changes associated with the adoption of the specific plan.

So our first alternative is a mixed use corridor.

So this alternative reimagines the central and southern portion of the south of the Santa Rosa Avenue corridor as a walkable mixed use hub with higher density residential and higher intensity of employment centers along Santa Rosa Avenue.

The retail components of the mixed use areas would also be supported by medium and low density residential development to the east with enhanced connection via new through streets.

The southern portion of the mixed use corridor would incorporate the transit hub at the intersection of Todd Road and Santa Rosa Avenue, as I mentioned.

And it would connect to the west side of 101 and Moreland via an improved 101 crossing at Todd Road.

You'll see some components of each alternative are prevalent throughout, and I think that is kind of just a testament to the consistent feedback we received about connectivity and use of green space and increasing the open space areas in general.

So you'll see on this slide that the there's a greenway connection, kind of following along that Todd Creek area, and we really see that as an opportunity to connect people throughout the plan area, keeping them off streets and onto a nicely improved creek pathway.

As well, so either going north or south down to the Reno Park Smart Station, which is uh two miles to the south of that point identified on this map.

Um, another thing you'll see across a lot of the alternatives is that we are mostly maintaining our industrial areas.

Um, this is to preserve our existing economic base and to avoid introducing new conflicts between uh existing industrial uses and new residential development.

Our second alternative is called city-centered growth.

Um, so this alternative focuses new residential density surrounding the Santa Rosa marketplace or where the Costco is located.

Um you'll see those two orange sites on the northern portion of this of the specific plan area are kind of straddling that uh Costco shopping center.

Um, this has also has similar low density uh east of the Santa Rosa Avenue to support the retail that already exists on the Santa Rosa Avenue corridor, but does not include any intensification of that retail or introduction of additional residential density.

This also increases the residential density in Moreland and proposes a new commercial center to serve daily needs of residents and folks using Andy Lopez Unity Park.

Our third and final alternative is called centers.

This alternative contains aspects of each of the first two alternatives at but at a smaller and more distributed scale.

There's uh increased residential density on this alternative south of the Costco shopping center, and between the two mixed-use commercial centers surrounding the transit hub at Todd and Santa Rosa Avenue.

But each of those are, like I said, uh reduced intensity and residential density than the previous two alternatives.

This also includes a new commercial center near Andy Lopez Unity Park, supported by a smaller block of medium density housing as opposed to the larger area proposed for a higher density in the previous alternative.

So as you'll see, there is all of these alternatives, according to our um kind of rough calculations, would add 9,500 to 10,000 new residential units.

And you'll notice here the uh industrial uh square footage reflected on the right side of the slide just reflects that we are maintaining, as I mentioned, a lot of the existing industrial spaces on the west side of Moreland and on the south side of the uh specific plan area.

Um don't want to get too deep into this.

I just this is a good opportunity to share that the specific plan will also include the preparation of an environmental impact report that will analyze the broad variety of uh environmental topic areas pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act and a traffic, a full traffic analysis would also be prepared as a result of that.

Okay, so um going into our next steps.

We do have a survey on the return the alternatives report open right now.

My next slide will have a QR code that folks uh watching on Zoom or on YouTube or in the crowd can scan and get to kind of dive into the report and the survey that we've prepared.

Um as Commissioner Sanders uh noted, we do have workshops scheduled for March 4th and March 5th, which is Wednesday and Thursday of next week from 6 to 7:30.

Um Wednesday is Amorous Academy and Thursday is Taylor Mountain Elementary, and we will also be holding a virtual option on Zoom on March 11th to hopefully accommodate folks that were a virtual option is better for their needs.

And then sometime in spring, we'll draft a preferred alternative that will incorporate all the feedback that we received on each of these alternatives that will likely include a synthesis of all each of aspects of each of these that we hear that are the kind of the favorite portions of each alternative, and then once we have that prepared, we'll hit the streets again and make sure that we got it right.

We'll do a lot of community outreach and workshops and presentations and pop-ups as we've been doing throughout this process.

Finally, we'll have a public review of the draft specific plan itself in fall of 2026 and the associated draft environmental impact report.

So as I mentioned, I have a few helpful QR codes that folks can scan or the contact information for the specific plan and our phone numbers both in English and Spanish options on this screen.

But that kind of concludes my presentation.

I'm looking forward to fielding questions and facilitating an exciting discussion on this project.

Thank you.

So I have a couple of questions, if I can start.

When will the city council see this for the first time?

Um the city council will be uh will hold a study session at the city council on March 24th.

Okay, and if you already said that, I apologize.

And then uh the public workshop uh on Zoom on the 11th of March.

What time?

Same times?

Uh 5 30.

Okay.

Okay, so I think that's all I have for right now, but I'll pass it on to my fellow commissioners for questions before we open the public comment.

Commissioner Carter.

Thank you.

Because I had a question kind of related to the schedule.

Given the fact that I understand all the planning areas within the sphere of influence for Santa Rosa and becomes our planning responsibility, given the fact that much of the land is unincorporated county.

Is there any county involvement in the approval process for this?

Yeah, thanks.

Thanks for the question.

Um the county has been serving as a partner in this process.

Um we are the city is the lead on the on the process itself, but we do meet with them, we coordinate with them regularly.

Um ultimately the goal is to have the board of supervisors adopt the plan as well.

So the same land use regulations would apply, whether you're in the city or the county, um, and annexation, as I should have mentioned in the my presentation as well, is not part of this process.

Um, so as with not uh the Roseland's specific plan preparation included a city-initiated annexation.

There is no city initiated annexation as uh a result of this project, so annexation would come as a on as development is proposed.

Um so yes, the let's answer your question, get back to your question.

The county um has been uh a partner in this process, and their approval would normally come after the city is done with it.

Yes, we are tentatively uh planning a study session with the Board of Supervisors this summer, and um I do have uh the director of permit Sonoma here, Scott, or if you do have questions for the county themselves.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll go.

Commissioner Sanders and then just really quickly for the um March 4th and 5th community meetings.

Uh, will there be like child care?

Will there be you know resources for families so they can show up and actually focus?

So we're working on getting some refreshments and we're coordinating child care.

I'm not a hundred percent sure on that yet, but we have made uh inquiries to that end.

Thank you.

And uh just piggybacking on that question.

Uh translation services.

Will they be available at all the workshops?

Yes.

Okay, and also just um a question of the plan area itself on the southeastern part.

Is that part of the urban grow growth boundary?

Is the uh do they match up the extent of the plan area and the urban growth boundary?

Yes, the urban growth boundary and the sphere of influence and the specific plan boundary are all the same.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

Um I think probably after the public comments we may have some more.

Uh, but so with that, I will go ahead and open the public comments on this item.

If you are here and you would like to make a comment, please make your way to either one of the podiums, and you'll have three minutes, and we'll go ahead and start over here.

Thank you.

Uh my name is Fred Allabach, and um my primary recommendation here would be to send this alternative report back to the drawing board so that the uh present a full cost accounting triple bottom line based set of alternatives that includes the social costs of the uh project.

Overall, that would that would that would mean sustainable growth frame that would um that would acknowledge their environmental costs and social inequity of business as usual development, and uh those things are usually alighted and hope that an invisible hand will deliver the benefits through a project like this.

But uh this this uh is basically a modern urban renewal project and urban renewal is known for displacement of low-income communities, and this project area has got tons of low income communities, so I think that the the uh absence of any accounting for that in the presentation so far is is uh is a serious omission um so let's see so I was I gave you a comment uh uh piece of my comments I'm a little nervous now because I've studied this for like a month and I only get three minutes to uh talk to you guys so um I don't think that that people in the survey can can make an informed choice unless they see the consequences of what these alternatives are for for potential displacement um and I made and in my uh paper that I gave you today I made some specific alternatives recommendations particularly in Moreland to make a hybrid set of alternatives so you put a commercial center there a road place avenue crossing um let's see and and then make sure that connects with the greenway and then uh let's see um also with the commercial centers I think that it's not enough to just have a commercial center but the city should have an intentional um uh recruiting of anchor tenants that will actually serve the people and not just be walkable in name only so that for example in Moreland that there would be a Hispanic market there or grocery outlet to uh serve the lower income people in the um plan area now the I would also suggest that the comment period is supposed to last six weeks but the Spanish alternative survey only came out today so I think that the um Spanish translation uh outreach it should extend another six weeks from today rather than six weeks from the original start and let's see sorry three minutes isn't really enough to address a plan like this but I hope you had a chance to read my comments that I sent in and my little sheet here so thanks very much thank you and we'll go to Mr Alvarez.

Buenas tardes members del Consejo my name is Concepcion Dominguez so resident of Morland Santa Rosa.

Primero much in Morland as a integration con la ciudad de Santa Rosa and is nuestra meta largo plazo because infrastructure and inversion comes connections at the autopista USCN1 hoy una barrera muchos dependemos del lado este para tiendas services para cruzar is difficile y a veces inseguro especialmente fornes personnel familias in transport confiable Morland care starts connectado a la ciudad y a las opportunidades central del plan questionamiento is not a quien refer me a quien decidle pero necessitamos que el mural de Andy Lopez se instalado iny unity parking el mural de Andy por favor les pido que tome su tiempo muchas gracias por todo city council member, but I come to you, uh reserve my comments uh with my purpose of only uh translating uh concepcion statement.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

My name is Concepcion Dominguez.

I am a resident of Moreland here in the South Santa Rosa.

While you revisit the plan and view the plan, I want to share with you the important priorities for our community.

First of all, a lot of folks in Moreland want to advance the integration with the city of Santa Rosa.

Our goal or long-term goal in our life is that we are here, we work here, we study here, we buy and purchase here, and we use the services here in the city of Santa Rosa.

We want to have access, equitable access to the services and infrastructure, and investments similar to that of the city of Santa Rosa.

Secondly, we need better connections to the streetways and highways, such as the US 101.

Currently, there is simply a wall that separates us from the rest of the city.

A lot of us depend on this mode of transportation to visit stores to work to access the services, but traversing these roads is difficult and sometimes dangerous, especially for the pedestrians, elderly, and familiar families without modes of transportation such as vehicles.

Moreland wants to be more connected with the city of Santa Rosa, its opportunities.

So we ask you that you prioritize us becoming part of this plan.

Thank you for your time.

And I also want to share with you the mural that is still not in Annie's Park.

He's our he was our neighbor, he was our child, and we find it very offensive that this mural has not been constructed.

I do not know who to speak with to make this happen, but I'm hoping that it could be done sooner than later.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Alvarez, can you help with the button for the thank you?

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

Let me know what it's reading.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

My name is Irene Rosario.

I have been in the lived in the Moreland area for over 40 years.

I belong to a community group that's called the Moreland Neighborhood Action Team, and we're trying to develop a sense of community and inform our our neighbors and just work together building community.

With that said, I want as you consider the South Santa Rosa plan.

I want to share priorities that are critical to our community's future.

A stronger physical connection with the rest of the city and planning that moves for Moreland forward to long-term integration with the city of Santa Rosa.

As the previous people have said, we buy in Santa Rosa, we shop in Santa Rosa.

Everything happens around Santa Rosa.

I I'm not only a 40-year resident, uh resident in Moreland, I'm a life, I'm a native of Santa Rosa.

My kids are natives and my grandchildren are native.

Um with that said, we understand that annexation is not in itself, we understand that annexation itself is outside the scope of the specific plan.

However, many Moreland residents see annexation as a long-term goal because our daily lives, we're already there, we're already doing it.

We're already Santa Rosans.

We encourage the city and the county to use this planning process to lay the groundwork for the future through a coordinated infrastructure service planning and investment that brings our community closer in alignment with the city.

Our most urgent request is better east-west um connectivity.

I feel like we're the red-headed stepchild.

You're creating an east-west wall.

We need to change that because we're all part of the community.

The freeway currently divides us, as you know.

Um, and that's part of the problem.

There's lacking in bus services.

Uh we a lot of times our street is used as a bypass for the freeway.

We need uh a better connection to the other side of the street, meaning the highway, freeway.

We ask that um specific plan prioritizes safer and more direct pedestrian crossing, bicycle, transit, vehicle connections across the freeway.

Improving these things would expand access and opportunities support local economic act activity and help Moreland residents stay connected to the resources they rely on every day and again we are a working class community you know we are just striving like everybody else and we consider ourselves Santa Rosans so please consider all of these comments as you move forward thank you thank you uh we'll go ahead and do the uh West podium and there's a button on the side of the podium on the right hand side of the podium if you want to lower it and you have to speak really closely into the microphone so we can hear you good afternoon chair and members of the council my name is Esther Lemles and I've been a resident of Moreland for 55 years so I've seen the progress that uh changes that's happened there from my house flooding from the creek uh that passes through my house to have it to where high boots would take my kids to school uh and and I know now it's changed there's more it's more like it used to be rural more open space now it's more like a little town there built houses and a beautiful park and I know my uh the last speaker spoke on the different needs that we have and there's also a need uh if you gone through uh Corby and and go over across Bellevue you've seen a mount that's right by the freeway when I purchased that house 55 years ago they said that that was going to be a crossing over the freeway and that's 55 years later has it happened uh but anyway uh we do need a lot of infrastructure and we are really in agreement and happy that we can uh uh annex uh our area to city of Santa Rosa thank you thank you and we'll go to the East Podium yes okay I see the three minutes my name's David Harris I'm a longtime resident of Santa Rosa and having moved to Washington Street which most people don't know in Santa Rosa because it got wiped out by 101 uh down uh by uh where the old general hospital was and uh St.

Rose Church but uh I had been in Berlin as a student in 1970 and my immediate reaction was Highway 101 in Santa Rosa is a Berlin wall that we have to contend with and uh the Berlin wall has come down but 101 and you're hearing from these previous speakers we are doing a very poor job of addressing the barrier that it presents particularly to alternative transportation I have been serving for four months now on the Soma County Transportation Climate Authorities Citizens Advisory Committee and they are in the process of uh doing a revision on the plan 2050 and in the whole alternative planning section there's not a mention of a 101 overcrossing so we and I participated in a couple years ago when the city was doing what was then called the bicycle pedestrian long term plan and I put red dots on 101 for overcrossings but it has not made its way to the comprehensive transportation plan.

So I am very concerned that we're making these pleas and it is not getting through the system and uh it's really quite exasperating that uh you know in that section there south between Todd Road I mean we have had a big improvement with the Hearn overcrossing but a Todd Road and Earl Street is the one pedestrian overcrossing.

And look at the rest of it, you know.

So the one overcrossing uh at Hearn is combined automobile vehicle and uh alternative transportation.

But there needs to be a at least two more alternative transportation over crossings.

And of course in in that section also, the rail becomes more of a barrier to east-west movement than it is in central and farther north in Santa Rosa.

When there are more streets that cross uh the rail uh in Santa Rosa farther north than there are in South Santa Rosa.

So uh I want to mention also the the alternatives for East alternative transportation across 101 and the rail both.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Farron.

Chair Weeks and members of the planning commission.

My name is Gregory Farron.

I'm not here to speak to any specific part of the plan, but in fact, the process of adopting the plan.

Uh plans are hard to get citizens engaged in.

I've got decades of uh work trying to get individual citizens to come and talk about what they believe when a city city or a county or any other governmental body tries to you know present it to them.

I want to recommend something that I thought you were doing in the downtown specific area plan, and in fact, I pushed the county into trying to adopt in its uh now adoption of a 166-page integrated plan for all of the health services, and that is trying to put the plan in a way on the website in which citizens can actually comment on the plan itself.

We have taken up your challenge, which you did when you did the specific area plan to allow people not to necessarily have to come to a meeting or send an email or try to figure out a way of getting the right person the right information, but actually put their comments on the plan.

Adobe Acrobat and others all have that capability, and your IT department certainly has the ability to be able to allow people to do what I'm suggesting.

But it is in my experience been the best way to get people to actually tell you what's what they like and what they don't like about your specific plan line by line, place by place.

So I recommend that for this, it's maybe too late, but um going forward, we've all got to do a better job of engaging our citizens in giving us their advice.

Uh and a lot more people can write on a web page with their laptop or their cell phone than come to a meeting.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Miss Carmen.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh thanks to uh Greg Fueron and uh Alvarez and the woman that spoke to before him, and uh a recurring theme with the building here is traffic safety danger related to the building that's uh the buildings that end up on the property.

And you've probably heard me talk before about the illegal project across the street from me that got by the city, and the the trees were all cut down.

Now I'm familiar with the Hearn Avenue.

I I've driven all around there.

I'm a very long time um resident of Santa Rosa, and um familiar with a lot of places for a lot of different reasons, and the the roads still are not taken care of, and uh highway 12 to Maria Carrillo was supposed to be taken care of.

I found out about that when I went to a bicycle uh and rec um uh pedestrian uh meeting that that was on the uh agenda to get done, and then there were two more times that I heard something about it, but it's still not been done, and that was way back, I don't know, September.

I think it was that I went to that meeting.

And that was the only time I went to that meeting, and I couldn't believe it that I find out about it then.

But it hasn't happened.

And instead of building, building, building, and increasing the traffic, increasing the transportation uh challenges.

We really need to look at getting these roads up to so that the roads will support, the infrastructure will support the safety will be there before before we start building and and bringing all these other people in.

And there's a lot of excuses.

There's a lot of antagonism toward the city because of the traffic, and it continues, it's just it's gone so everybody's deaf to it.

There are the roads are terrible in most places.

And small areas with a former person here.

Small areas were being chosen to be taken care of, and they were, but we need to do the whole thing.

We need to get our roads done before we start building more.

And the other thing is the ground collapses when you cut down all the trees, and there's other issues around that, and they're related to the roads.

So I hope you think about that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms.

Diaz.

Good afternoon, commissioners and members of the community.

My name's Anna Diaz, and I am from Roseland.

I just wanted to mention that as we continue with these updates, just to be more considerate of having an interpreter present and more bilingual services, meaning the presentation, I did see online that there wasn't a Spanish version.

So I don't know if one will be posted later, but that would be really beneficial for those who are maybe on Zoom or not present, so they could look at it later.

But going back to what some of the people before me had spoken is that these areas that are in this presentation is majority Hispanic slash Latino.

And I really do think that as you guys take a moment to continue with these presentations and these meetings going forward, that you guys really do take into account what the people of these areas are saying as lived residents of these areas.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any other comments on this item?

Okay, so with that, I will go ahead and close the public comments on this item and bring it back to the commission.

Um with a couple of questions that I heard from the audience, and then if you would my fellow commissioners weigh in if I've missed something, which I'm sure I probably have missed something.

Um there's a lot of talk about annexation, and I know annexation's not a part of this.

Could you talk about the process of annexation?

Yeah, so um I'll take the first correct I might need some reinforcements here.

Um so there's kind of two different pathways that we see annexation in the city.

Um, one would be um brought about by a property owner, you know, neighborhood group or developer, um, and they would submit a uh development application through the city and a separate process through the local agency formation commission or LAFCO would be to actually file the annexation um documents and receive that approval.

Um, so that would be kind of one way, and then the other way is a city-initiated annexation, and like I mentioned in my presentation or my response to Commissioner Carter's question.

Um, the Roseland specific plan process did include a city initiated annexation.

Um, and as I mentioned as well, that that is not uh the case in this um effort.

I don't know if you all have anything else to say about that.

Okay, cool.

Okay, um I know that the city has recently embarked on an aggressive economic development plan to and has talked to a lot of major retailers.

Has there been interest in this area from major retailers?

Because there was Mr.

Albach talked about uh you know anchor tenants.

Uh so can you shed a little bit of light on that?

If you have it, if not.

Thanks for the question, Chair.

Uh, we're not aware of any specific interest from tenants at this point in time.

We have been working with our economic development team in planning and economic development uh through this process, and so um we will continue that conversation with them just to better understand if they've had any conversations with potential tenants.

And maybe the county or city land use designation doesn't allow that type of use.

And so I'm taking kind of the I'm taking those on a case-by-case basis and seeing if we can introduce land use changes to those properties that both fit the overall vision of the specific plan area and uh facilitate greater economic um output.

Thank you.

Uh Amazon Distribution Center to help our budget perhaps.

Mr.

Auback also talked about the Spanish alternative survey that it was only up recently, and could that be extended to have the full length?

Yeah, so that earlier this week we did um publish a summary of the alternatives report and a survey translated into Spanish, and we do intend on keeping the both surveys open until mid-April, so yes.

Okay, thank you.

Uh comment about Andy's Unity Park.

I believe that's in the county.

Is that correct?

So if people were interested in talking to somebody at the county about the mural, they should contact county parks.

Is that correct?

Yes, um, we certainly have hear that feedback and we can relay it to the appropriate folks and coordinate with the county on that.

Okay.

Um a lot of talk about the connection, how it one-on-one overcrossing or lack thereof.

Um, which I'm sure you have heard in before.

Yeah, so as I noted in my presentation, we did hear a lot of feedback about just general transportation circulation issues, particularly the east-west connection.

Um, each alternative does introduce different approaches, either a new overcrossing at Bellevue, a new overcrossing at Robles, and also improved overcrossings at existing um freeway interchanges.

Chair Weeks, sorry to interrupt.

Um, we seem to be having some trouble with our streaming of the meeting, so we need to take a short little break.

With backup, okay.

Never mind.

Thank you.

There's somebody watching, uh, which is a good thing.

Um, Mr.

Fearn talked about uh citizen comment on the website on the plan.

Um I know you do have a section where you can make comments, but uh are you getting a lot of those comments?

And I believe he was probably talking about specifically like on the page of the plan.

Yeah, so we have received comments through a variety of means as I described in my presentation, um, and we did do what he was describing with the general plan update where somebody who was looking at our website could open the document and comment on it as if it was a Google Doc or a um Microsoft Word document where you could see other people's comments, and I do certainly see the benefit of that, and we can definitely look into making that possible for different documents moving forward.

Certainly not too late to do that.

And then uh Ms.

Diaz's comments about Spanish translation, and I know you had said that at the meetings you do have Spanish translations, and if somebody, and I know at the council meeting, you can listen in uh via Zoom on to the Spanish channel.

Is that still correct?

That is correct for council meetings.

I do not believe it is the case for planning commission meetings.

Okay.

So that is perhaps something we could look into when this comes back to us.

Yes, um, so we typically for the planning commission, um, we do not provide Spanish translation unless it is requested.

Um we did not receive a request for translation at today's meeting, but we can certainly do that uh for future meetings uh related to the specific plan now that we've gotten that comment.

But yes, we do provide translation at all of the workshops.

Um to the extent that we can translate documents for the project, we do that as well.

Thank you.

So those are the questions I had.

So let me okay, Commissioner Sanders.

I just have one question.

Um it was mentioned about an accounting for potential displacement.

Found that interesting.

Um is there a metric um by which we can measure that?

Is that something that's been considered at all?

Um I don't know that there's a specific metric that I would feel confident pointing towards uh in that regard.

I will say kind of to that point we did prepare.

Um I just had it open an anti-displacement and anti-homelessness strategy as part of the existing conditions report effort of this project, and it kind of outlined potential policy concepts that we could incorporate into the specific plan that would specifically uh re reduce or prevent displacement or gentrification, and that is available on our website as well.

And is that being talked about at the meetings, like the March meetings?

Will we will that subject be something that we're talking to residents about?

Yeah, certainly.

I think we would take feedback kind of on all aspects of the plan, but I think the purpose of the workshop um next week is to discuss the land use alternatives, and we will have future outreach um events and discussions about specific policies associated with a specific plan, and that would probably be the more appropriate time to um deliberate on different strategies to reduce displacement and gentrification.

Thank you.

And my last question uh what's going on with the mural at the park?

Is there that's as I as I mentioned, that's the county.

Oh, that okay, you did say that.

I'm sorry, thank you.

We did certainly hear that feedback and can we will look into that.

Okay, any other questions?

Commissioner Horton.

Thank you.

I I have a comment is now the time.

Go ahead.

Thank you so much.

Questions, comments.

Perfect.

Well, thank you to the staff and consultants for your great work, and thank you to everyone in the public who came out.

Um, so I really I really just had one comment.

I was very pleased with what I saw in these different alternatives.

And I think my big takeaway, and especially after hearing the um feedback from the public that there's this real desire for more infrastructure and more kind of smart development on a larger scale.

I think my comment is um I'd hope that there'd be like a fourth alternative or a sort of synthesis that could look at um doing kind of a combination of all three.

Because when you think about it, like that northern part that could look at the downtown oriented development, that's farther from the sort of southern, like you know, Roblace area than we are from the JC right now.

I mean, it's it's really it's two different areas, and then as we heard, obviously, more land is sort of its own thing too.

And so if we want the kind of economic growth in this area, which I think we want, I think we heard the the public wants this, that can then support the level of you know overcrossings, uh retail, all the other good stuff that we want.

What I'd want to see is kind of this like ambitious alternative uh number four, or maybe you could just sort of mix and match different components where we have a downtown-oriented development in the northern part of Santa Rosa Ave.

We have this mixed-use corridor and development in the southern part, and then we have a sort of moral and focus strategy as well, and we can really kind of take it to the next level, um, and and get I think a lot more exciting results rather than this sort of, and I'm not saying this critically, but this kind of self-imposed sort of scarcity of we've got to choose one.

So uh love it and would just like to even see it go further.

Thank you.

Yeah, uh thanks for that.

Um, appreciate that.

So as I mentioned in my presentation as well, we this kind of forum is to get that type of feedback on what portions of each alternative that the commission and the public likes.

And as we get feedback from the commission and the community and the workshops and such, we will synthesize everybody's best, everybody's favorite kind of aspects of each alternative and create the preferred alternative that would then serve as the basis for land use changes associated with the specific plan.

So that like specific type of feedback about what you liked about the alternatives, that is actually what we would love to hear from the commission.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Pardo.

Um you mentioned that people can request for a Spanish translator.

Uh where can they make that request?

So there's information on the notices that go out as well as on our agenda on how people can request that translation.

Um again for this particular project.

Now that we've had that request, we will go ahead and do that for meetings moving forward with the planning commission.

Um, but that uh contact information is on the notices and on our agenda.

Okay.

And the city pays for that, I'm assuming.

Yes.

Okay.

Is it expensive?

I'm not sure what the cost is, but generally speaking, yes.

I think.

Thank you.

Any other vice chair?

Uh, this is uh just sort of popped in my head, so it's not fully formed.

But um if we go ahead and sort of intensify the housing density and um, you know, propose a commercial center and such in the Moorland neighborhood, and don't go ahead with annexation, even if the county buys into this plan, like how is that gonna happen that improvements get made and water connections and sewer and all that happens without annexing that that neighborhood into the city?

Yeah, so um the specific plan would be adopted by both city council and the board of supervisors.

That would change the land use regulations to accommodate increased residential density in a commercial center in Moreland in in theory in this hypothetical situation.

Um, then in theory, a developer could come along and say, look at this new site for a commercial center.

There's a population here that obviously needs more daily needs in their neighborhood, um, and then they would propose that development project, and that would go through either the county, well, it would go through the the county in this case, and um they would then annex and go through the utility connection process as is required by the LAFCO, the local agency formation commission.

Is that correct?

Please forgive me if I'm mistaken.

Yeah, so I think you know the idea of having both the city and the county adopt the plan is that any development that would happen in the county prior to annexation would be consistent with the vision that is identified in this document.

Um, there has been discussion and there's going to be continuing discussion about potential future annexation in this area.

Um the information that we provided to the council the last time this was provided um indicated a pretty high cost of providing services and um infrastructure and maintenance uh to the entire area, um, and so it was not feasible at that time, but I we expect that those conversations will continue moving forward.

Yeah, I think what I'm getting at is if specific parcels are redeveloped with higher density housing and they get what this what we would require for um improvements that that would not extend to the housing that's actually right there now, like water connections and sewer connections and and curbs and sidewalks and all the improvements that we go along with being part of the city.

So it would just be more a piecemeal fashion.

Yeah, so until annexation occurs and until you know if and when annexation does occur and there is funding for um improvements, infrastructure improvements, uh areas where there's existing development, uh, you're correct, would not have improvements to the street uh or existing infrastructure that's out there.

Thank you.

Have you um, do you know about uh an instant incident in in whatever?

Uh that where the city would approve the plan, but the county wouldn't.

So uh as um uh Mr.

McKay mentioned, we are working uh uh alongside in partnership with the county.

So uh I think this is a process that I I would not expect there to be an issue with that.

Um you know, certainly if there are issues that come up uh when this goes before the board of supervisors, uh we would look into what those might be and and work together to address them so that we can have a project uh that ultimately is is adopted by both.

Great, thank you.

Uh Commissioner Horton.

Thank you.

I I just had a follow-up to the vice chair's question, and sorry if I'm just like completely missing the point, let me know.

But I think what what I'm struggling with, having heard you ask that question in your response is like if we're considering annexation in the future, which I think is a good idea to consider that, like certain things like the sidewalk, let's say a new high density housing development goes in on a specific block or whatever, right?

And that's good.

Like certain things like the sidewalk, they can do it there, and then obviously, even if there's not sidewalks on the adjacent streets, you know, we can look at that down the road.

But other things, like if they're running a new water line, like are we shooting ourselves in the foot if they're digging up the street to do the new water line and they're just bypassing a whole block because that's not required because we haven't annexed yet, but then we have to if annexation happens two years later, we have to go in and dig up the street again and do all those other water connections, and it's like we we kind of missed a chance to save money there, right?

So again, maybe maybe that's off base, but let me know if that's something you're thinking about based on that question.

So I would also say that uh if and when this area is annexed, the city uh it's unlikely to be coming in and putting in water lines right away.

You know, that typically is done with new development or as needed.

You know, if there's you know issues or you know, it would it's old and needs to be replaced, then it gets prioritized um with other uh infrastructure projects throughout the city.

So uh, you know, certainly something that you know we will be looking at um as this process moves forward.

Um so your comment is noted.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Carter.

Yeah, a couple of real quick questions and then some follow-up um recommendations for how to proceed.

Um first of all, as I drive in the area, it has a and look around the area.

I I ride my bike out there a lot too, has it distinctively parts of it have a distinctively rural feel.

And I'm aware of some what appear to be agricultural activities there.

I don't see any reference to that in the existing conditions, and I don't see any reference to that in the alternative land uses.

Do we anticipate that any agricultural use that's out there is just incidental, and we're not gonna accommodate any of that in the plan.

Do you want to we'll we'll go with that question for now?

Yeah, so I think existing agricultural operations would likely continue.

Um we're not gonna tell anybody to stop doing what they want to do.

I will say the general plan 2050 update did designate all of the areas within this uh specific plan area as um there's no agricultural designation, and we would uh bring forward designations that were established by the general plan to that end.

I I don't anticipate in including any agricultural designations as part of the specific plan.

Uh the other thing that I was made aware of through the existing conditions report is a distinct lack of public services in the plan area.

Um I know there's a couple of elementary schools and an academy.

Um I need to jump ahead to my recommendation, which is to do as many centers and as many connections and as much higher density housing as you can in the plan area.

But with those centers, I think we need to look at how we're gonna accommodate public uh facilities and public services.

We've already acknowledged that there's a lack of that out there.

If it can occur in the commercially designated areas, so be it.

But we don't see any sort of public facilities, uh, institutional uh land use designation out there, and I wonder how we're gonna accommodate the the public services needs of the community without that.

Um with respect to the connections, I really do believe all of the connections are needed.

We've heard from the community that they need more connections back to the east, which means Roblis and Bellevue ought to go through it.

But I think that should be an aspirational connection, but the Bellevue connection is really important.

You got a high school on the west side, you got parks in the middle of the plan area that need access.

So the Bellevue Connection, I totally support the the Hearn improvements look great.

I hope to see something similar at Todd Road, and I don't know if we ever do this, but it would be great to have an implementation plan for this.

I would love to see the infrastructure happen, not with projects, but before projects, and so that the people that are out there now with substandard infrastructure have some hope of improvement.

So those are my suggestions, and I'm happy to talk further if you like.

Commissioner Sanders.

Um also there's not very much mention of the creeks in the area and access connectivity to those.

So if that can be addressed, that'd be great.

Sorry.

If I can continue.

With an emphasis on, you know, eyes on the creek, you know, making them safe, well lit, well maintained.

Thanks, Chair.

Looking at Mr.

Pardo.

Um, I don't have I I love all of the comments we've heard so far, and I second all of those.

And I um just want to mention that if we add a lot of housing on the south end of the project area, I think we're really gonna have to address safety on Santa Rosa Avenue.

It's so many people have experienced what happens to me every time I come from the south on the highway where traffic pretty much crawls to a stop right beyond golf course, and you get off and drive up Santa Rose Avenue.

And I think unless there's a way to keep that from happening in the future, uh, we're gonna have to have mechanisms for slowing down traffic and making all sorts of any and all um safe crossings for pedestrians and bicyclists that we can because it's it's just a speedway on the south end, and I don't think it's fair to put new houses and new people down there if there's not a safe way to get around.

But I've also second all their comments, and I have no none other to add any other comments.

Okay, so I would also uh second the comments of my fellow commissioners.

Um I guess that's it.

So do you have what you need, Connor?

At least for now.

Yeah, I'd say so.

Thank you so much, Commissioner.

Okay.

So with that, I will close uh this item unless there's any other comments.

Okay, and um we'll move on to the rest of the agenda.

We have no consent items, no report items.

We have um two items that are being continued to the March 12th 2026 Planning Commission meeting, and they are 11.1 public hearing for MD Market, conditional use permit 1478 Greenville Road, CUP 24-027, and 11.2, also public hearing, Meadowwood Ranch Tentative Map Amendment Planning Record.

2875 Dutton Meadow, PLN 25-0563, and then we'll move on to the uh final item, a public hearing.

Zoning code amendment pertaining to massage ordinance and uh Mr.

Kirk.

Thank you.

Good evening, Chair Weeks and Vice Chair Dugan and members of the commission.

I'm pleased to present to you tonight.

This will hopefully be a brief presentation.

My name is Lou Kirk.

I'm the excuse me, I'm the plan review coordinator for the city, and I'm here tonight to talk about some amendments we're making or proposing to the city's massage ordinance.

So as you may recall, it was about a year ago.

We came through and we discussed some amendments with you and ultimately with the city council to modernize our massage massage establishment ordinance and enhance public safety.

One of the fundamental parts of that ordinance was the ability to have criminal background checks for owners and employees that were not otherwise certified by Camtech, which is the state certifying agency.

So that code enforcement will be able to do those criminal background checks, which involve the use of fingerprinting.

The amendments as proposed will support uh what the DOJ requires, and also it gave us an opportunity because uh within any ordinance uh after its first year, you find things that need fine-tuning.

And so we're taking advantage of this need to do an amendment and moving forward with some additional minor amendments.

So to go into detail, we're adding some definitions.

We're defining owner, ownership, partner, and partnership.

Ironically, these were the main requests of the DOJ in making the ordinance fit their needs.

Um we added clarifying language pertaining to lease agreements.

We added clarifying language pertaining to how zoning clearances work when there are cooperative uh business arrangements.

In other words, if you have a shared space with 10 different practitioners, we don't want each one of them to have to pay for a zoning clearance when one will do the job for that space.

Um we've added clarifying resolution uh language pertaining to registration renewal and also to general operational requirements.

So the analysis of this is that we're going to align the city code with the FBI's PL9254 criteria.

This is a public law, a federal prerequisite uh for sharing criminal records with local governments, which is exactly what we want to do.

It formalizes the link between background checks and permit eligibility, so that we can uh frankly deny permits to those that are bad actors, to those that have criminal uh convictions or are gross violators as defined in our ordinance.

Uh we want to continue to establish transparent objective criteria for the approval and denial of establishment permits, and these amendments take that a step further.

It makes it even better.

And we're adding specific healthy safety requirements concerning the storage and use of liquid screams and preparations.

This was actually something that was historically in our massage ordinance, and it just fell through the cracks when we did this update uh with the new comprehensive ordinance, and uh Officer Devaca actually identified it as something we needed to bring back.

So we're uh we're including that in as well.

Um so our recommendation, I told you this would be quick, is uh that you recommend uh to the city council that um they introduce an ordinance amending this massage ordinance and and then we can move forward with them.

They can approve a resolution that we would then give to the Department of Justice and be able to move forward with having this background check capability.

Uh with that, that concludes my very quick report, and I'm open to any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Uh I do have uh one question.

Um so then staff will be trained to use the live scan machine.

It's actually uh it actually requires very little of us.

What we would do is send an applicant to a live scan station, they're scattered all over the place.

For example, when I um applied for a position here with the city, I believe I went to a UPS store and in the back they had a live scan machine, and I had my fingerprints taken.

As a live scan operator, they send them off to the Department of Justice, and all we get at the end is a report.

So it's a very simple process for us.

It just gives us a background report.

Okay, I was thought you said that you would have the live scan machine.

No, no, we're just we have to be licensed to transact that information.

Got it.

Okay.

And then uh if you could give us just a quick kind of status, how it's going with the enforcement.

I'm gonna turn you over to the expert, Officer Daniela Debaca.

Good evening.

Um we've been okay.

Uh we've actually had some very good results.

Uh right now, um we have 80 applications that have been submitted in total, and that was beginning uh I'd say around March or so at the very earliest, and the deadline what to file an application was October 18th.

Um we have actually received uh or continue to receive applications um kind of trickling in now, but there was a very heavy push around that deadline time.

So now we have 80 applications.

Of those 80, we have 38 that have been approved, and the remaining 42 are in various stages of the review process.

And right now we have one application that is in the process of denial.

Um we have surprisingly only four um applications for mobile massage, um, and and those have all been approved.

Um, and that's very good results actually in the in the fact that we have very uh very limited staffing to actually progress in a lot of this review.

However, um we've had very good uh outcome and connections, communications with the variety of massage businesses.

Is there still a discussion among all the cities and the chiefs about having this city wide or countywide?

The ordinance county wide, so somebody doesn't go from here to city to city.

My understanding at the time that the ordinance was adopted was that our chief of police was going to speak with the other chiefs in the county, and uh I've certainly made it known with the other code enforcement agencies in the county.

I don't know if anyone is adopted yet, but I know that um a lot of people are looking to this ordinance, and um it again it's a good ordinance.

The staff did a great job on it, and it's gonna uh it's gonna accomplish our needs, especially uh once we get it tightened up with these last remaining amendments.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions?

Okay, Commissioner Carter.

Yeah, do these amendments affect the schedule or the status of any applications that have been approved or in process now?

No, not at all.

Thank you.

Commissioner Sanders.

Um, um I'm looking at this um on page four.

It says at specific health and safety requirements for the use and storage of liquids, creams, and preparations.

Does it also talk about the types of liquids, creams, and preparations?

It's all in c it's it's all encompassing.

So yeah, yeah.

If it's in there, um we want to know what it is, and we want to know how it's being used.

Now, is it legal for them to use um like these really high THC type of lotions in their practice?

That's not something our ordinance contemplates.

If it's I'm gonna hazard a guess, and I may defer to Ashley, but I would say if it's legal elsewhere, it's probably legal in this instance, but our ordinance didn't anticipate uh that type of question.

Yeah.

Of course that's where my brain goes.

Um and then lastly, I know we we just did the sign part of it, no neon signs.

What I'm noticing, because for whatever reason I'm surrounded by them, um there are other lights that may not necessarily be the sign light, but there's also a lot of uh bright other string neon lights.

Does that ordinance address that?

Is that is that you know, sort of not playing within the intent of the neon sign?

I believe the ordinance talked about the outlining of uh buildings or windows with um with blinking lights or moving lights.

Let me just check really quickly, and I apologize if that's out of the scope of what we're talking about right now, but it just sort of came to my mind.

Yeah, I'm gonna uh Officer DeBaca says that she believes that's correct, so I'm gonna I'm gonna go with the experts' opinion.

Um so we have some ability, it's gonna be a case-by-case determination.

Uh, you know, we're not trying we we were not trying to rewrite the sign code when we did this.

It was very targeted in its in its uh intent.

But um it's certainly something if um if you find that um once we get I know there's some still out there, once we get those under control, if we're still having issues, we can always revisit that.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Uh, just out of curiosity, how's it gone on the enforcement side as far as shutting down bad actors?

Currently, we're focused on on getting all of these certificates issued.

Um so we're we are very well aware of the bad actors that are there.

We continue to receive complaints and we add all of the the very valuable information to our cases.

If there's not already an open case, then we open one accordingly.

Um, however, because of the bad actors, it takes a very large amount of time and coordination, not only just within code enforcement, but we also work very closely with um police, FBI, Verity, any other um agencies that that may be uh related to to an incident.

So uh right now what we're trying to do is actually focus on getting implementing the the ordinance um for the certifications first, and then salting in the enforcement measures for the bad actors.

And we do come across them in between, so that's why it's kind of needed to have a little bit of salting in little by little.

I would just like to add to that that for obvious reasons we don't want to talk too much about what's happening with our investigations and with the police department's investigations.

Just know that they're happening.

Okay, any other questions before I open the public hearing.

Okay, so with that, I will go ahead and open the public hearing on this item.

If you are in the chambers and wish to make comment, please make your way to the podium.

You'll have three minutes.

Uh once the countdown timer is set.

Ms.

Carmen.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I wonder what the difference of this, and I was present uh before when they came with their uh presentation, I don't know, city council or um, possibly got an awarded the county, but um this is my thing.

I I see this as a possible violation of privacy, and um I I'm a uh licensed cosmetologist.

I've been in the alternative healing uh for my own body for over 30 years, and I've never had a problem.

Well, I shouldn't say I never had a problem.

The only time I had a problem was with a school that had massage.

But I had the same massage therapist also for almost 20 years.

And um I know that it could be changing.

Like he says there's bad actors, but I wonder what is the difference between this uh and a regular uh scan that they do.

Uh, I also took the notary twice, even though I never uh worked in it.

I passed it, I I got the booklet, everything.

I just never became a notary because I figured somebody could sue you if something happened, and I didn't ever want to be in that position.

But uh I I have had to do these other things as well, and uh I just wonder what is the difference because you can get that those tests done and you can check on people if there is a red flag.

But I also see a possibility of an inroad into other vocations and things where they're live checking and looking at possible criminal activity and expanding this to something I'm not saying they, I'm saying the process becoming a lighter and a violation of privacy.

Anyway, that's what I think.

Thank you.

Are there any other members of the public?

Okay, with that, I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the commission.

Uh Mr.

Kirk, I forgot to ask you when is this going to be going to council?

It will be going on March 10th.

Okay.

Thank you.

So with that, are there any other questions?

And if somebody would like to enter the resolution.

I'll second.

Okay, so that would was moved by Commissioner Sanders, seconded by Vice Chair Duggan.

Let's start with Mr.

Horton.

Thank you, Chair.

I can uh make all the required findings.

I support this and just thank the staff for their great work and keep it up.

Commissioner Sanders.

Thank you, Mr.

Kirk.

Always, always top shelf.

And I can make all the findings and we'll support.

Commissioner Carter.

I can also support the resolution and make all the necessary findings.

Thank you.

Commissioner Pardeaux?

I can too also make the required findings and an approval of this.

Thank you, Vice Chair Duggan.

I can make all the required findings.

And I also can make all the required findings and thank you for the good work.

Thank you very much.

Um so with that, if we could have the vote, please.

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioner Carter.

Aye.

Commissioner Horton?

Aye.

Commissioner Pardot?

Aye.

Commissioner Sanders.

Aye.

Vice Chair Duggan?

Aye.

Chair Weeks.

Aye.

Let the record reflect that that passes with six eyes.

Great.

Thank you.

And so with that, I will go ahead and adjourn tonight's meeting of the Planning Commission.

Thank you.