Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon everyone. I'd like to call the Anaheim City Council meeting to order. Clerk, can you please call roll? Council member Bis here. Council member Curtz here. Council member Mos here. Council member Meeks here. Mayor Prom Leon present. Mayor Aken present. Let the record show we have six members present. Clerk, are there any additions or deletions to our closed session agenda? Mayor, there are none. So, we're going to uh do we have any public comments to address the close session agenda? We didn't receive any inerson comments on the closed session and we didn't receive any electronic comments on the close session agenda.

Thank you. So, we're now going to close the public comment on close session agenda and recess to close session. We will be back at five o'clock. Thank you.

Good evening everyone. I'd like to reconvene the Anaheim City Council meeting to order. And the first item on our agenda is an invocation that is going to be provided tonight by Pastor Scott Rubin from Saddleach Church in Anaheim. And then following that, we will have C uh sorry, Mayor Prom Leyon uh lead us in the flag salute. Uh Pastor Ruben, please begin when you are ready.

I would love to. Um and just momentarily just say thank you to all of you. This is the first meeting that I've attended in person. uh I've seen you all online but just to feel the weight in the room of responsibility and I'm just overcome with gratitude. So um let's pray. Heavenly Father, I I want to thank you for the the breath that's in our lungs and for the day that we have today. And God, I want to pray specifically for this gathering here. Lord, I want to ask that um you would make mind sharp in this room. God, that you would uh bring peacefulness to hearts that are weighing significant issues. God, I want to give you gratitude for people who have chosen to serve our good city. Uh God, I I want to place before you the agenda of some things I'm familiar with for tonight and some things that I have no idea that'll be discussed. But Lord, we trust you. We really do trust you. And I ask your strength, your discernment, your courage for everyone involved in this meeting, God, and your compassion for the city. God, thank you. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

The flag we're about to pledge to stands for a nation built by immigrants and governed by a constitution that protects freedom, due process, and equal protection under the law. Those rights are not optional. and they were never meant for only a few. At a time when many families are living with real fear and uncertainty in our communities, unity means holding fast to the Constitution and the freedoms and rights that it guarantees for all of us. With that in mind, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Mayor Prom. Next on our agenda are recognitions to be presented at a later date. Clerk, can you please announce them? Thank you, Mayor. We have two this evening. Recognizing the month of January 2026 as National Mentoring Month and recognizing January 11th, 2026 as human trafficking awareness day. Thank you. Are there any additions or deletions to tonight's agenda? Mayor, there are none. Can you please outline the public comment procedures and call forward the first three speakers to address the council?

Yes, mayor. Thank you. Speakers have one opportunity to address the city council except for the scheduled public hearing. The public comment period is limited to 90 minutes or until all agenda item speakers have been heard. Any time remaining of the 90 minutes will be provided to speakers who wish to speak on non and on any non-aggenda related items but within the council's jurisdiction. A second public comment period will be open by the mayor only if any non-aggenda item speakers were not heard during this first public comment period and it'll be open at the end of council business. The time limit for public comments is 3 minutes per speaker. Those wishing to address the city council must complete a speaker card, which are available at the back of the council chambers. The name and contact information requested on the speaker card is optional. Any unidentified speakers will be called by the speaker card number. At this time, I'd also like to announce that Spanish interpreting services are provided at every city council meeting. Simultaneous Spanish interpretation is provided through the use of headsets and consecutive interpretation is provided to anyone who would like to address the city council. For translation services in other languages, please contact the city clerk's office at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled meeting. At this time, I'd like to introduce our interpreter who will make the same announcement in Spanish. City clerk.

At this time, on behalf of the city council, we'll like to remind the public that Anaheim remains committed to freedom of speech. And we ask that speakers address the city council with civility and refrain from making personal, threatening, abusive, slanderous, or profane remarks towards any member of the council, staff, or general public. We appreciate this spirit when you speak. The time now is 5:12 with the 90minute public comment period set to conclude at 6:42 or until all agenda item speakers have been heard. We do ask that speakers line up at the podium once they see their name appear on the projection screen behind me. And mayor and city council, we just have one speaker on an agenda item and that's item number seven. That's R. Joshua Collins. if he can step up at this time.

Good afternoon, mayor and counselor. Um, my name is R. Joshua Collins, founder of Homeless Advocates for Christ on Facebook. And first, I just like to encourage everyone to give the life to Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save us from hell, to give us everlasting life. We've all sinned. We all deserve hell, but only Jesus can save us from that horrible place. He promises everlasting life to those who trust and believe in him. And I also want to talk about the homeless issue and those in need. Um, of course we still have quite a few homeless out there. Uh, many of them are seniors as well from what city has said still and of course I've ran into a lot of them as we do outreach. But I want to talk about one uh thing. This actually came out of uh the Chicago uh law school review. But regarding fines, you know, sometimes we're fining people, whether it be for for a parking ticket or whatever it is, but affects the poor much more than those that have money, obviously. So, income based fines could help reduce the burden of court debt on the poor. Across the country, courts commonly levy steep fines on those without the means to pay and then respond to non-payment with arrests, court proceedings, and periods of incarceration. One result is that a single minor violation like driving with an expired registration can destabilize the life of someone living on the economic margins. Another another is that formally incarcerated people often face outstanding criminal justice debts far in excess of their annual incomes complicating any hope of effective re-entry. Incomebased fines on the other hand could help ensure that monetary sanctions do not impose impossible to meet financial obligations on the poor. And many countries including Austria, France, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark uh actually have a a system called day fines where the penalty is based on a daily income and in just a flat same fine for everybody. And I think that would help a lot of people. We have seniors that, you know,

they're maybe getting $1,700 for social security and their rents sometimes 10 2,000 a month or or close to that. There's a lot of people that can't afford even to live basically with the housing or any kind of shelter and then for them to get maybe a ticket for suspended license or whatever it is, uh it could really damage them to the point where they can't even afford groceries or gas or medication. So I I hope the council would do something more progressive in that regard to to bring change in that area that there be true fairness and so that uh we'd impose the same level of hardship uh for for uh each situation like this instead of u you know obviously small fines don't deter the wealthy as much uh yet severely punish the poor. So that's the problem we see and that's why a lot of people they can't get out of debt. They can't get off the street because of these things kind of uh basically continue to to cause obvious uh major problems for them. So I hope the council will consider that and continue to work to bring more shelter and help to those in need. Thanks for letting me share.

Mayor and city council. That concludes our speakers on agenda items. We will now move forward to general comments and we have 12 speakers. Let me call the first three speakers. Mark Richard Daniels, Ruben Greg Sodto, and Mike Castner. Here I am.

Well, it's the start of a new year. Uh, a lot of uh things going on around us that are just [laughter] it's going to end very badly, I'm afraid. There's a lot of negative uh things coming from the administration. So other than that we also have in our own city we have various issues like you're planning planning your hearing tonight uh public hearing uh and uh then there's going to be the trivial and nonsensical and all the other things that go in between and I guess I'll try to add to that. Um, [clears throat] I've been uh almost a victim several times of ebikes. If you know the ebike uh is the phenomenon. [clears throat] Uh, people must have got a lot of them for Christmas cuz I'm walking down the sidewalk at night and I come one comes flying past me and then another one and they're yelling at me to get out of their way and I'm on the public sidewalk and it's just I don't know if there's been any physical injuries in the city, but and I've come close a couple of times and I've almost wanted to take one of them out, but I thought, well, I'll be on the other side of the equation if I do that. So, it's just uh I don't know what the penalty is for if you're caught riding on the sidewalk with an electronic powered vehicle, which is really what it is. It's not a scooter. It's not a bicycle. It's a electronic uh coming at you very fast and uh I yeah I pity like if there's elderly people and I'm damn near getting there and uh but I just I won't yield to them if they're

coming right at me. They're going to have to go around me and I hear them cussing at me and everything, but I'm not going to yield. And uh I only got 50 seconds, so I'll have to yield. Anyway, um so I don't know what the penalty is uh as far as the city goes because I know the city passed an ordinance about such a thing if there's but whatever it is, it's not enough. You should maybe add to that penalty because they're they're just becoming more and more prevalent. You know, if you go around the city, you just walk outside the door there and you'll see them zipping back at back and forth and somebody's going to get seriously injured or killed or maybe both. Our next speaker, Ruben Greg Sodto, followed by Mike Castner, [clears throat]

Mayor, City Council. Um, you know, my thing is about drugs and drinking. I got 11 years clean pretty soon. All the false arrest family law did me wrong. Let me read some about Proverbs 23-29:35. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complain? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine. Those who try to mix wine. Do not look at wine when it is red. When it sparkles in a cup and it goes down smoothly, in the end it bite you like a serpent, stings you like a outer at your [snorts] eyes will see strange things and your heart utter perverse things. Luke 21:34 Be on guard that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and worries of life and that day that that day will not come on your suddenly like a trap. Now my thing is I went to city council meeting in Riverside to Sim Jing but my thing is drinking. When I go to jail I don't do the crime but I cry with these young kids. They're gangsters. They're in this stuff. They can't get out. It can happen to anybody. But you all think you're with God and stuff. Your government sells liquor, makes money on it. Now marijuana, you're going to kill your kids and ruin their life. Then they're going to do drugs. They're going to do meth, cocaine, heroin, so on so forth, pills, party like a rockar. That's all on you. You do what you want. I'm clean. I don't need no more. Keep on taking your family around the dirt family and it will destroy your family. Oh, you religious people don't know nothing. But you try to act like you were the Lord your mother's cross and you think all that now marijuana and liquor. You arrest the you want to go out the cartel but you doing the same thing killing

people. That's double standard. That's a hypocrite. [snorts] I just think see things differently. And the police and the people call me a snitch and the sheriff because when I used to be in jail, I come and expose the way they do it, how they get it in, who's doing it, the drugs and making liquor out the fruit. And these cops want to call me a snitch. That's love. Excuse me. That's love. That's not being a snitch. I know what it does to you. I've been there, done it for many years. So you can call me a snitch, cops and I don't give a crap. I know what love is and what they do. They just want to make money and keep on coming back, coming back, coming back instead of happening these guys. Thank you.

Our next speaker, Mike Castner, followed by Vance Disney.

Hello. Good evening. You know, the first thing I want to say is nobody back here can hear anything up here that anyone talks about. So, I don't know if you guys can address that and put like some kind of TV or something that says closed captions of what they're speaking because nobody back here can hear anything. You know, that's the first thing I do stage hand and uh you know, set up for shows in Las Vegas. I've been in Anaheim for over 30 years. Um, I have a son I had to come back to because he was 14 and I had to leave a abusive relationship in Vegas and when I came out here I had nothing, okay? And I had to stay in a shelter at Bridges and you know I didn't even think that was going to lead to anything. I just went in there because I've been into shelters and all that kind of stuff, programs, all these kind of things, you know, and I just went in there just to see because you guys said you're going to lead to housing, you know, which it did. But the thing is is everybody has to fight for themselves, you know, and the way that you address the homeless problem is go outside of your house one day with whatever you have and don't come back for 30 days and let see how you survive. That's the that's the only way that you guys can understand how homeless how it feels to be homeless. You know, that's what I had to do. I had to start over. And, you know, they did give me a housing. I went to, you know, a house for two years. I kept up with that. I had to work out of state because these jobs out here in California don't pay enough, you know. Uh, you know, I was and then I hurt my shoulder. That was a whole big debacle with the housing department also. You know, I was unemployed for 6 months. The doctor didn't get to know. Then they got to know. Then I had to go down there physically to Santa Ana. That's the only

office that accepted the, you know, I had to physically do it myself right there in front of the guy and fax the doctor's payment. And then finally, they gave me the check, you know, and the only reason why I wasn't kicked out is because I was on housing at the time. And I told my manager, I said, "Well, when the disability people send a check, then I'll pay you the back rent." Other than that, you know, now I'm in a big situation because I started working again and making money and now the housing went up from 8 from 200 to 800 and there's no I was unemployed for uh 6 months and they can't change the rent back, you know, from when I wasn't working. So now I have a bill of like $5,000 and how am I supposed to come up with that, you know, and a manager is threatened to move me out, you know, I'm going end up h unhoused again and have to start this process all over again, you know. So that's what I wanted to, you know, my friend Joshua, I met him, you know, I go that in my process of being homeless, I support his ministry.

Sir, I'm sorry your time is up. Yeah, that's what I just wanted to bring tonight and thank you for your time.

Our next speaker, Vance Disney, followed by Karina Munoz. [applause] Happy New Year. Too sexy. Anyway, uh Van Disney here. Soalistic number num by I by num chin boon I numb phone number 909-538-4737 you know I graph the design of the adjustable center wall for our freeways let you know from God's point of view it's the most important thing for our planet um right now in Crania where where incestuous inbreeding laws um well in Crania the misconception of Ukraine mania uh and the UK attack with monarch ink incestual suicidal inbreeding laws financed by the illegal Elon Musk fake Tesla Ponzi scheme that don't work to the bare minimum standards but sit in parking lots blocking our ecosystem with more handicap parking in the back for dodos that fell for the joke for a better EV. They need a longer extension cord coiled up their ass which makes a more deadly poison than leaded gasoline. So it's a wreck all item. So with so many trillions of trillion dollar lawsuits against it, the illegal Elon Musk companies, the the clerks of South Africa rocket into the black hole with their Confederate credit. So when when you make your multi- trillion lawsuits, remember the bar minimum standard, the easy B ECs, electric cars with easy battery replacement for quick recharging. Though now I need to tell you why gas fumar cars are so important. We have perfected them over generations to the point it's part of our inherent reflex to care for these cars with manufacturing machines and recycled parts bringing our anti-mog devices to such an apex. Our eco environmental system actually depends on air from gas fume cars. Though we can't waste this on

freeway EV traffic jams plasmic meltdown. So the next step in this natural evolution of putting the pedal to the floral air freshener is to create four cylindrical spark plug factories on each side of the Chernobyl nuclear power source lining from northwest to southeast to keep solar radiation from agitating it with opposition parallel or perpendicular. Then we can use a safe amount of radiation to make more powerful spark plugs that are constantly pulsed by pistons in metallic cylinders, reducing their radioactive permanence with the exhaust sent through our most perfect clean air device, as otherwise known, AO, okay, the adjustable center wall for our freeway, creating more pungent environmental effective air as we all acclimate to nuclear energy with new reactors that contribute to their their own blends of re that contribute their own blends of recycled radiant. simultaneously. And these spark plug factories will be known as the Jets and spark plug city evolved from the justicular car company of the former Soviet Numian. And remember boys and girls, the people of Vietnam are not me. Anyway, the Jets and Spark plug company will be in Crania and prepare your lawsuits against these things. We need to defend ourselves against substandard American products. So you know you all need to and especially you Atkins as a former DA and and my

sir your time is up both lawsuits against the that. Okay. So thank you and remember happy new year. Our next speaker, Karina Munoz, too sexy, [laughter] followed by David Paleo.

Hello, my name is Karina. I'm here with CSOC, a resident of Orange County, standing with the family of Albert Arzola, and disappointed but not surprised by another in custody death by Anaheim PD. This county has known that Anaheim PD has been ranked ninth out of the 60th largest US cities on the rate of officer involved deaths during arrest. And yet, nothing has been done. Because of the lack of action, these Anaheim PD officers are allowed to make women widows. Parents lose their children before themselves, which is not the natural order of things. Siblings lose their lose each other way before their time, and best friends lose their only shoulder to lay on. I am ashamed of Anaheim for once [clears throat] again letting a young person die, and for you making it seem like Albert deserved it. I stand here with Albert's family demanding that you release the full unedited footage. We demand that you release the footage and audio of all officers involved on that tragic night. Justice for Albert. [applause] Our next speaker, David Pledo. All right. Uh, my name is David Pledo. I am a resident of Santa Ana and I'm a member of community service organization. Also, um, I'm here with the family of Albert Arzola. Um, we are demanding justice for the police killing of Albert. We demand the release of the full unedited body camera footage and audio of all officers involved in the incident. Albert was only 19 years old

when he was ambushed by two Anaheim PD officers who leapt out of an unmarked vehicle with guns drawn and chased him to his home. One officer dragged Albert backwards by his hoodie and shot him in the back, killing him in front of his family. The excuses Anaheim PD used to justify Albert's death are that he was in an area with a long history of documented gang related activity and that a gun was supposedly recovered at the scene. But those claims don't matter. Being in any area is not an excuse to have your rights violated and your life taken by police. Gang related. Gang related, that's right, is a racist excuse that has been used against Chucanos and Orange County for decades. and officers weren't chasing Albert because he supposedly had a gun. Later, they claimed it was because of a a call about graffiti, which Albert wasn't even doing, but that wouldn't even justify his death. Anaheim PD's own statements show that they discriminated against Albert because of where he lived and how he looked, not because of what he was doing. The truth is that they chased down a teenager who was posing no threat and killed him in front of his family. Then they detained his grieving parents and young children while they processed the scene. Albert [snorts] Arzola was a beloved son and family member. He was a valued friend and a dedicated hard worker. He had just graduated Catella High School and he had a bright future ahead of him. Albert should be alive today. The officers responsible for his death should not be on paid leave. That's an insult to the family and the public.

Yeah. Yet, you know, those officers, we should know their name and they should be fired. The community should have power over this process. We shouldn't just have to wait for these investigations that lead to the officers being found not guilty over and over again. We deserve to be safe in our cities. So, that is a minimum demand. You know, we need the footage. So, we need to know exactly what happened and we those officers should not be on paid leave because Albert doesn't get his life back. The family doesn't get Albert back. It's not right. Justice for Albert Gardola. Release the unedited body camera video and audio from all officers. Thank you.

Our next speaker, Cecil Jordan Corkin. That notebook I just laid down is what Disney is all about. And how he created the the satanics of Disney and the sexual porn king. How he created that in the animation of the cartoons to expose the mind of the children. It got so awful on television. I saw sub little messages, hidden pictures in pictures on television. It was on there one time and I had to cut my finances on cable so I don't get Disney. So it's what Disney is really all about. He created Disney from from his face facial fixtures of Walt Disney to make Mickey Mouse. What Disney had black hair with a black mustache and with bright quick eyes and he was 6 feet tall and he created Mickey with that facial fixture of uh when he did Mickey Mouse from New York city and came to California doing Steamboat Willie if y'all familiar with that much. And we got the uh Gan Arrey Wade coming up. They want to clean it up when they build Gan Arrey Way. I have

six notebooks, 2-in notebooks. It's got the reports on the animation cartoons. how uh satanic and sexual it is. City council has never got involved with me. Tom Tay did to a point while he was available in office. That's far as that went. He got a guy that came here from the city council on security of sex trafficking and uh pedophiles. He did about two hours of that talk of the law sitting right here behind me on the right side and I stayed in the meeting. You need to go look that video, that DVD up, Mayor uh Ashley Atkins. You need to look that up and you'll see that what Tom Tay did. Now, if you going to get involved with Disney, you need to know what you're doing. Go get that video. Go get that DVD and look it up on the legal business to straighten up Disney. Walt Disney dizzy still alive death.

So that's what I'm trying to tell you real fast. Now if there's anything else you want, you know how to get in touch with me in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. God bless you. Our next speaker is Wes Jones. You need anything, you know how to find it. But our Castillo,

it's up to you and Disney. Mayor, Council, my name is Wes Jones. I'm a resident of District Three. Um on the agenda tonight uh to approve for next week is you're uh going to give an award next week if it's approved to a guy named Dave that works over in Vans. And I'm not saying he shouldn't get the award. He's a nice guy and he was Santa Claus and he put on a lifetime of service over at Von's helping people. You know, there's other people in this city that deserve recognition, too. I belong to the People's Homeless Task Force, and uh last year, we served 11,000 meals to homeless people. That means my wife and I bought 11,000 waters. And I think uh the recognition needs to be spread a little more evenly around. And as far as the uh cops that uh locked up six year old kids in this Albert's case here, they ought to go to jail.

Thank you. [applause] [cheering]

Our next speaker, Ar Castillo, followed by Mike Robbins and Janine Robbins. Good evening. Uh I know we got a new chief. Uh hopefully we can do some talking from this community. I'm district three. I'm actually family in all districts, but uh the issue is on this Albert like myself. I at 13 I wanted to work for the city and I worked in parks and I had the cops following me to work and back and treating me real bad. nobody would work with me and I'm 13 by myself closing opening and closing at Ponderosa Park deemed to be a bad area back then. So I I I I sympathize and I used to go through these neighborhoods and watching kids getting beat up. So I'm actually an eyewitness and I've been in court cases with uh the lawyers and I got to hear pe the things people don't hear. there's a lot of u evidence tampering with this with with the department um trying to make a narrative actually changing the narrative. I just want you guys to understand that I I I feel really bad because Albert was actually working I heard for the ducks. So I don't know how much that important that will get into your heart that we we serve this community. We did good things. We have good families but we get attacked because of names and gossip. And sometimes that happens with the other people. They're misinformed. The other organ organizations and neighborhood councils, they get misinformed sometimes. I'm I and I used to attend most all of them back in the days and I try to do these ones that are happening that we have. We got to get involved. Even the police review board, hopefully you guys can understand. You got to wave the the the the scale. We have to be fair with each other. But um also um one more thing before everything's over would be Mike Lester. And I don't blame him for anything. I'm pretty sure he had to say what he did on Chris Einger and uh Vincent Valenuela Jr. that was

chokeolded. He said it was the drugs. It was found out to be the chokeold. And I tried coming here once and I talked to the last chief and I said, "If you want good relations with us, can you please uh you know make it a a a retraction?" I asked for that nicely to make a retraction and it's hard to admit the guilt. I understand that. We could see that when we were with Albert thing. It's hard to to say the truth. It would it would give us a better relation if we can be honest with each other and at least admit and Leon when you're saying our rights we are having troubles with that. We're having troubles with all the the things that we're trying to voice our opinion and we're not being represented. So I want to leave you with that that I hope that you guys can get more active involved with that other side of the community that doesn't get the the voice or the ears. Thank you. Our next speaker, Mike Robbins, followed by Janine Robbins.

Good evening, Mike Robbins. Long time no see. Uh, as as a member of People's Almost Task Force, we spent thousands of hours and thousands of dollars to stop the sale of Angel Stadium. Uh hopefully there's still investigations going on, but um the Angel Stadium was valued at $650 million in 2016 with a comparable adjacent land uh and that was covered by Paul Cot. The crooks intended in cooperation with the Angels to sell the property for $150 million. $500 million would have been the theft of public property. The city in the end had to pay the Angels $5 million to back out of the deal. Even though the angels were involved in the meetings as documented, the crooks cost the city $5 million and you still have some of the perpetrators on staff or on city councils, city commissions, I'm sorry. The secret meeting city spokesperson, uh Mike Lyster, one of two city employees listed in the debate prep document, had two roles assigned. In addition to being an observer, he was to share duties with uh a role-playing key Anaheim staff, including city manager Jim Vanderpool. Steven Fessel certainly was there, too, and he should go back. Um, well, I'm not going to say where. Uh, I I said something not so nice. Both people certainly should not be here. We spent a lot of time to clear at least that. And, uh, and we did clear out the the problem. Uh but they're still here. That seems almost amazing to me and I'm I'm incredulous. Uh I will touch on housing. So the the housing of course uh we need housing, but we also need emergency services to to protect everybody uh who lives in a house. And without emergency services, and we don't

have enough emergency services, as you know, as we've mentioned many times here for the last 5 years, uh building new housing is always sketchy. And if you come up with the money to build, for instance, in the hills, uh another egress over the over the freeway, and you had the money to build more fire stations across the city, not just for the hills, but for the city, too. for the city in the the people in the flatlands. We want to know that they're going to show up uh when there's an emergency. Takes three fire engines for one house fire. Uh and and I mean we we should have the money. You guys should be able to put it together. We know where the money is supposed to come from. That's uh that's Disneyland, of course, who pays zero taxes or fees on admissions or parking. Uh, and I hope that we don't see Mike Lyster or Steven Fessel, two people as as you read in the paper, right? All the articles regularly and the ones that just came out. Uh, they're still here and they shouldn't be at least a few should not be here. Robins, your time is up right now. Please help in that regard.

Our next speaker, Janine Robbins, followed by Christine. Considering the two recent LA Times articles about the unending cor uh corruption in Anaheim, I would think that it is time for you, all seven of you, to stop acting like ostriches and pull your damn heads out of the ground. It is it is time for you to stop with the photo ops and actually do your jobs. If you look around the corrupt, haunted halls of this building, you will find fraud and dishonesty behind each and every door. This culture of corruption began long before Sedu was in office. I'd say it began during Kurt Pringle's reign, continued during Sedu's term, and still continues to this very day. Ashley, you campaigned on a variety of issues, all of which you have failed to do anything about. very important issues like transparency and campaign finance reform. But the most significant issue you spoke about was corruption in the city. Therefore, one of the most interesting things is a social media post you made back on August 18th, 2023. You said, quote, "To have elected officials and city staff preparing a rehearsed council meeting makes a mockery of our democracy, and if true, those leaders should resign." So, now we have Lion Mike Lyster, who in documents provided by the Chamber of Commerce has been shown to have actively participated in the Mock City Council meeting regarding the sale of Angel Stadium. When is he resigning? Or will you be firing him? After all, that is what you said. We all know that nobody can lie like Lion Lyster. Well, I don't know. Maybe you can. [snorts] Now, on to Jim Vanderpool, who is the equivalent of a snake oil salesman. He talks a good game and then claims ignorance all on the city's dime or maybe on the city's penny since everyone knows the city is broke. He attended a retreat with some of the

most powerful lobbyists in the city soon after being hired and claims he was not required to report it because business was not discussed. Yeah, right. Who believes that line? If the city manager doesn't understand the concept behind reporting gifts, then how can he manage the council and the city? After all, that is his title. Corruption has been allowed to thrive during his tenure and it has started at the top with good old Jim. He needs to resign immediately or be fired. You were elected to represent the residents. In fact, your most important job is to listen to the residents. Whether at community meetings or at this microphone, let me tell you that the residents are tired of paying corrupt employees. We are tired of paying employees who lie, such as Debbie Moreno. We are tired of paying people who do not do their jobs such as the ethics officer. We are tired of our needs coming in last after Disney, the angels, the Honda Center. Mostly we are tired of having elected officials who lied to the residents and refused to do their jobs. You need to clean house and get rid of the line corrupt employees starting with Lyster, Vanderpool, and Moreno. While you're at it, you might as well get rid of Fabella, too, since I have the feeling the next article will be about him. You should have done this immediately upon taking office in 2022, Ashley. Cleaned house of those who work with was to do yet you didn't. And I wonder why. Mage, your time is up. We'll have our next speaker come up. Christine. [snorts] [clears throat] [snorts]

Good evening, council members, mayor, and staff. I'm here tonight as a mother of a teenager, an educator, a professor of counseling, a community member, and most importantly, a family member of Albert Arzola, who was unjustly murdered in his home on Saturday, December 6th. I am urging you to take action to ensure the unedited body cams of each officer involved are released. The portion that was released was of only one officer and appears edited. Why was the other officer's body cam video not released? This does not answer all the questions and just raises more doubt and distrust in the city's police department. You have an obligation to ensure that there is transparency and accountability to your constituents and community. Your city residents deserve to feel safe in their homes. Albert is my nephew and was loved by so many. He graduated from Catella High School and was working in the city he loved, Anaheim. He had a bright future ahead. He was taking the first steps in his life to be independent while becoming proactive in shaping his future. that was stolen from Albert, his family, and the Anaheim community. We will not remain silent about the senseless act by a gang unit officer. Based on the information and facts at disposal, the officer drew his gun once he stepped foot from the unmarked vehicle. Why? If this was just a concern about graffiti, why Albert was not violent or was not a

threat to anyone? Police officers role is to remain calm. They problem solve and demonstrate self-control when dealing with tense situations. They're professionals. They go through extensive training and are sworn to serve and protect. Drawing a gun with the intention to shoot one stepping foot off of an unmarked vehicle is very disturbing to the public and community. and the infraction supposedly graffiti. Given what has been released, this does not warrant the death of a 19-year-old teen. I asked the mayor, city council, and police chief Manny Sid that this information be released to the family and public for transparency. We the public and community have the right to know the facts. This is the first step in seeking justice for Albert, his family, and the larger concerned community. Thank you for your time.

Our next speaker, Stephanie M. Mark Herbert, and then followed by Vern. [clears throat] What I'm about to address goes to the heart of public trust in this city. And because many residents may not know the full context, it's important to be clear about what happened and why it matters. Good evening, council members. I'm here today because Anaheim deserves leadership grounded in integrity, transparency, and respect for public trust. Reporting revealed that Anaheim's chief communic communications officer Mike Lyster, Anaheim City Manager Jim Vanderpool, and former council member Steven Fessel, now representing Anaheim on multiple boards, participated in a mock city council meeting, a closed dooror rehearsal designed to practice pushing through the Angel Stadium deal. This was not a public meeting. It was not transparent. It was a staged exercise connected to a deal that later became the focus of corruption probe. That context matters for anyone who cares about ethical governance and public accountability. When this came to light, Mayor Ashley Aken said something that resonated deeply with many of us. She wrote, "To have elected officials and city staff preparing a rehearsal council meeting makes a mockery of our democracy, and if true, those leaders should resign." She was right. And she has often said that Anaheim is among the most transparent cities in Orange County, a standard that requires consistent honesty and follow through. Transparency only has meaning when it is paired with accountability. And while ethics always matter to me and to many Anaheim residents, they matter most in moments like this when doing the right thing is difficult, uncomfortable, or politically

costly. So today, I am calling clearly and directly for the resignations of Mike Lyster, Jim Vanderpool, and Steven Fessel. Participating in a rehearsal for a corrupt deal is incompatible with serving the public. Anaheim cannot move forward with those involved in this mock meeting remain in positions of power. Holding these individuals accountable is essential if Anaheim is going to rebuild public trust. This is not about hostility. It is about responsibility. It is about ensuring that the people who represent this city are worthy of the authority they hold. It is about demonstrating that Anaheim's commitment to transparency is more than a slogan. It is a practice. If Anaheim truly wants to be the most transparent city, then we must act like it. We must uphold the mayor's original words and we must demonstrate that accountability is not optional. It is foundational. Thank you.

Our next speaker, Mark Herbert.

Mark Herbert. Following Mark is burn marker anaheimgree.com where this meeting will be noted and the video shown. Um, Anaheim's a company town. In the two recent articles in the LA Times, they indicated what goes on behind the closed doors of Anaheim. In Anaheim, there's two doors, one for the public and one for the private interest. And I'm here at the public door. When the public tries to participate, they are directed to the public door. And I'll give you an example. The housing element. The housing element was a 4-year draft. When the final draft was sent to Sacramento for approval, a handful under 30 comments were included. What was not included? 325 pages of comments. They decided not to send them along. That leaves residents like me having to go to Sacramento to drop them off at the department. That isn't the way it should be. On November 18th there, I submitted a written uh letter to the council and the city attorney and it was listing six Brown Act violations where the public was excluded

from a meeting over their money, millions of dollars with ATID. No response from the mayor, the council, or the city attorney, and it's been two months moving forward. So, trying to get public engagement off the floor, I'm going to try to stimulate and simulate a conversation tonight by raising questions at this portion that hopefully you'll answer during council communications, maybe drop a few restaurant openings. So, here are some questions and uh the ones I don't get to apply to the housing development hearing. Number one, why wasn't the December 15th community meeting on the police shooting and death of Albert Arzola stream from the council chambers?

Why did only Mayor Aken and council members Leon and Campos Curts attend? Why didn't the other four council members show? Why didn't the mayor and two council members answer the community's questions when they were asked? Why wasn't the current or new police chief at the December 15th community meeting?

Why on September 14th did Anaheim feel the need to send one halfozen police officers and another halfozen of city staff to address the questions of La Palma village? The issues addressed were homeless people in their swimming pool, stolen parcels, and excessive noise from next door. The mayor and council relied on only one spokesperson for the community meeting on December 15th, and the community will Mr. Herbert, your time is up. I don't know. Our next speaker is Vern, followed by Sergio. [applause and cheering]

Hello. I didn't really get around to writing a speech tonight, so it's going to be pretty quick. I I was too busy to write a speech because I'm working on a piece on my Orange Juice blog, which everybody should read, the Orange Juice Blog. It'll be out tomorrow, the next day. Um, that puts into better context the the secret meetings of 2020 that were um that a lot of staff attended and it was meant to pretty much subvert democracy and push forward this really unfavorable uh this this deal to give away the stadium for a lot less than it's worth. Uh really unfavorable to the people of Anaheim. Um, I wasn't gonna speak, but I'm I'm just real glad to see Albert Arzola's family and friends here. Congratul I know it's it's difficult and um one thing they haven't mentioned here, I don't think anyone's mentioned it here, but I heard it in the press conference Mr. Simone Desimone gave is um and it was such a familiar thing to hear the gang unit officers after they kill someone for example Albert for for days or weeks or months they'll go around um harassing the family

they they shine lights

there you go that that's familiar to me because uh my wife Donna had a son who was killed um 2012 Joe Joel Eastoido in the same exact thing happened to her. And maybe not all not maybe the police chief and the rest of the department doesn't know it, but that's something the gang unit does. They harass the family. They shine lights in into their place every day. They to intimidate them so they don't speak out maybe. I don't know. And they and they and they pull them over for no reason. And uh and uh maybe the new chief can put a stop to that. It's really horrible. Um, I want to say also good luck to you guys who are fighting the deer canyon project. It's as bad as it was last year. Maybe a little bit less bad, but it still is is not a responsible project with given fire safety and so on. And finally, I heard my friend uh Josh Rousan Joshua Collins talking about housing and um rising rents. And so I have good news. Um, we are going to be we're going to be I'm I'm part of Tenants United as well. Tenants United Anaheim. We're going to be getting rent control in this city and it's something that people have to take on because you guys aren't interested, but maybe you can catch up with us. Uh, right now rents can be raised 8% to 10% under state law. It's I won't get into the details, but we want to bring it down to 3% annual that the highest that rents can be raised. and we're going to be needing a lot of signatures over the next few months. So, um I hope to get all your signatures and everybody voted. We're putting it on the November ballot, so we're going to need to pass it there, too. Thank you. [applause]

Our next speaker, following this speaker, we have Grace Arzola and Brian K.

Hi, city council. My name is Sergio Pallayo and I'm here to advocate for the unedited ver uh unedited version of what happened that day in December 6. Uh it's been over a month now. We only have a 30 secondond clip from what happened and also just release the autopsy um as and uh people in the family would like to know where how where and how Albert died because there's a lot of questions that really haven't been answered. And uh we would also like to know the name of the officer. I mean, no need to hide. You know, when when a police officer involved deaths happened, usually you would know the name, you know, I would say pretty soon and uh it's been a month now and there's been no new info and [clears throat] it's insane cuz

you guys are we deserve to know in the community, you know, born and raised in Anaheim and I very much love this city. That's all.

Our next speaker [applause] following the speaker is Brian K. Good evening. I'm here to advocate for justice for my nephew, Albert Arzola. We met with you, Norma, on the 16th, I believe. No answers were given to us. Um, I'm here to advocate for the two video cameras of the police that were there to be released unedited. The information officer edited to their convenient. The public deserves to know the truth what happened. In a statement written, official statement from the public information officer, he said that the police acted in the public's best interest in order that something that the public has to determine, not the public information officer. They could only do this when you guys release the full unedited video. Let them decide if the police acted in their best interest.

[snorts]

I believe this is an opportunity to gain the trust from the public that you guys continue to lose and you guys lose it from the black black and brown people, but I don't see you guys harassing Anaheim Hills. No, you guys don't. I'm also calling because like the gentleman said earlier, my mom is 77 years old. The police stopped my brother for a broken tail light. We asked a family to friend to come and fix the tail light. Five Anaheim PD Anaheim PD officers patrols pulled up on a family friend that was helping my elderly mom change the tail light accused him of stealing the car. Five officers. This is unacceptable and it needs to stop and that's in your district Natalie on Anaheim Boulevard. Additionally, another family member is unable to get wound care because of the misinformation Anaheim PD put his nurse said he feels for [snorts] fa he is scared for his safety and is no longer able to come to the house and change the wounds because of the misinformation the Anaheim police department put out there. This is someone that's diabetic whose leg has been amputated who has no transportation to go get wound care. But thank you to the Anaheim Police Department and their misinformation campaign, this person is no longer receiving services which are covered through medical because he's low income. No longer because Anaheim PD put out misleading information to save them. I'm asking for you guys to agree to an independent investigation. It is not okay to for you guys to investigate your guys's self. If you guys want to gain the trust back from the public and help my family wake up from this nightmare that your two officers created on the night of December 6, 2025 at 2:32 p.m. We will only get that when the full unedited videos are released, when the autopsy is

released, when the names are released, and when you guys assign someone independently. And you guys think we're going away. We are not going away. We will show up to every meeting until we get justice for him. We are not going away. Our [screaming] next speaker, Brian K, followed by Kenneth Batist. A happy day. [groaning] You know, I really do feel for the family. And as far as Anaheim police just targeting brown and black people, they target white people just the same. [sighs]

Why would you have the Anaheim police do what they're doing? You know, the Anaheim police officer got out of his car, ran up to me, had me on the ground, threatened to kill me the way they killed Kelly Thomas. 30 seconds. Anaheim police jumped out of their car, shot this gentleman. 30 seconds. What? Why? And I have a another Anaheim police officer I'm actually communicating with on a positive level about 100 text messages and he's actually trying to defend the use of the word to address your constituents, Polish and Jewish people. And you actually expect your police officers to defend that behavior. You actually expect your police officer to def defend the behavior of killing innocent people. Quite honestly, you look like Christy Gnome. You don't know what habius corpus is. You don't know what the basic laws are. You don't have any kind of sympathy or human compassion. Yet you stand there and pro and say, "Oh, the ICE, what they're doing is wrong. No, you're doing the same thing as ICE.

Yes, you are.

And you have the same level of arrogance, the same level of ignorance. And quite honestly, why would you put your new chief of police, Emanuel Sid, into that position? Why do I have a police officer with about a hundred text messages where he's trying to defend the use of the word by another police officer? The only reason why these things exist is because you allow them to. They happen. These things happen every godamn day. The difference is you find it acceptable. The rest of the world under never again finds what you're doing completely wrong. Yet you have the courage. It's not even courage. It's it's audacity. It's the gullibility. You believe the people who are telling you what to do. And the shame is the people who are giving you those orders. This is the black speech. It's going to take about 5 seconds. They want to see somebody come up here and express themsself all over you and leave you dead. The reason why I'm here, I'm trying to help you, trying to save your life. I'm probably the biggest snitch you'll ever see.

Our next speaker, a chance at redemption.

Mr. K, your time is up. Our next speaker, Kenneth Batist. first thing given honor to God the God [snorts] of the people and hopefully of the council. We're going to talk about the elephant in the in the room. [snorts] $6 billion in debt. We already know that we was uh redlined by the state along with Compton and the city of Bell. Corruption. Why is all of that? We got corruption going on and we wanted to go ahead and totally stop. It got so bad. Sadu was over here. He paid the police union president a three-year $1.2 million package. He was a non-emp employee of Anaheim, but he got a 1.2 $22 million package. That should have never happened. Then he turned back and put $450,000 into the politics of who are voting for our city council. That [snorts] should be unethical. Making sure I'm put this all out true to people who don't know this. Okay. So, $1.2 million for like this. When the taxpayer's money is for someone's position, that person's position should be totally honest with the taxpayers, especially when you are considered the public information worker. Your information should be towards the residents, not towards the special interest of Disneyland. I'm going talk about this parking lot. We went ahead. We got a $1 billion in 1996.

$1 billion. It's taken us 40 years to pay for this and it's going to cost $4 billion. And what do they go? And guess what the worst part about it is? Is that Disneyland operates and keeps all the revenue? We're paying for it. 1996 city council just showed what they was really made out of a plastic spine. Rent control. We are putting it on the ballot. Y'all won't do it. We will do it. The things that the city really needs, it seems like the city council just won't go ahead and do it. Some of you came in here talking about how you was going to redo the policy for the corruption. We haven't had a vote on any policy that has went ahead and mandated anybody with any money doing anything they want. It's still going on. We haven't changed nothing. We have to do what we have to do. A gate tax is needed. But guess what? We don't expect the city council to do it. That's the next thing. We will do it ourselves. And we will make it for 5,000. So it includes everybody and Disneyland won't have a chance to say that they was discriminated against. Everybody over 5,000. That's next on our thing. We need to go ahead and have us when we talk about this rent control.

Batist, I'm sorry, your time is up. I'm going leave it at that because guess what? Those of us that have a house are better off when the people and renters are safe. Thank you, Mayor and City Council. That concludes our in-person speakers, noting for the record, we did receive 61 general comments. Each of those were distributed to city council as well as posted on the city's website and can be found at anaheim.net/public comment. Thank you, madame clerks. We'll now close the public comment portion of the agenda and move to council communications. If any council members have an item to share, please ring in.

Okay. Um, seeing none, I just wanted to uh make some preliminary um comments about something I'm going to be putting Oh, sorry, Council Member Ma and then Council Member Rubikava. Thank you. I do have some slides to share. So while there is um a lot of great work being done in our city throughout our city um once again I want to give kudos to the staff at Muraloma Family Resource Center. Um they put together a lot of thoughtful programs and um they go above and beyond. They coordinate and ensure that this center has uh food distributions. um other city staff has accompanied residents um to find out information when family and friends have been detained. So I want to just acknowledge the uh city staff and their role important role in our community. Next slide please. On December 24th, Christmas Eve, um despite the rainy weather, a few of us were able to deliver toys to children staying at a motel in District 5. Um, this effort began with a resident, Linda Nubbie, who shared a tradition she used to do with the Anaheim Police Department. Um, recognizing that these families uh who stay in motel long term, we organized a small toy drive. Um, I mainly want to thank District 5 residents that generously allowed us to collect toys at their locations. Uh, specifically Iguana's Mexican Food, Hamburgas European, and Stadium Peps Pizza. Um, I also want to recognize the organization Bikers Against Child Abuse. This is an organization that supports children who have experienced abuse. Um, they do this by showing up consistently,

helping children feel safe through court cases and other situations. So, this um event was a result of a resident's idea and the support of a nonprofit as well as businesses. Uh, quickly want to share on Saturday I had the opportunity to join a district 5 neighborhood as we came together to celebrate three kings day. Um, just want to thank Yasa Rojos for organizing the celebration and securing toys. I'd like to thank the Orange County Labor Federation for their donation of toys as well as Congressman Lucare who donated books for the children there. And then lastly, I want to invite everybody um to a community resource fair that will be at Catella High School. I'm proud to work with my council colleague um Council Member Curts along with Catella and South Junior High. On Saturday, January 24th, we will be bringing a lot of community organizations together for a free event. Um, in addition to resource tables, there's going to be a car show, food sales, there will be a sensory station for our friends and family that are living with autism, and there will be um opportunity drawings. So, come out, get connected, and um hope to see you on the 24th. That's all I have.

Thank you, Council Member Rubakala. [snorts]

Aken, I believe I have a couple of slides. Madame Clerk. So, as we're queuing up the slides, I just want to mention, I know many of you know I represent District 3, which is the heart of the city of Anaheim. That's approximately 50,000 residents. I was born and raised in Anaheim as well. So, for me, it's an a special opportunity to be able to serve our community. Um, I I know this feels like it was a million years ago, but I want to highlight uh KN&A, who is a local small business who has hosted uh for the 17th year uh Christmas Eve community brunch where we invite everybody within the community despite the rain. We had about 1,500 people who received gifts and also a hot breakfast and just an opportunity to spend time in the community especially in a time where we are um a lot of us are experiencing some major issues uh whether it's on the immigration front or um whether it's economic but this is just an opportunity for us to really engage with the community and give back. Um, I do want to highlight the the many city employees who were there on Christmas Eve to dedicate their time to our community, including one of our lieutenants. Um, we also had our city clerk. Thank you, city clerk, for being in attendance, and she was there to share resources. If you're not aware, we do have passport services and a lot of other things that our city clerk's office offers. Our fire department also gave out free warm socks to the community. And then one of our local labor unions, ASME, was also there to engage with our community. And our housing and community development department, who is not featured here, was also there to share resources that we have. Whether it's a first-time home buyer program or if you are on the verge of homelessness, they were there to provide services and offer insight to residents who live in our city. I also just want to welcome the first baby born in District 3 of 2026 uh to a

mother who is also serving our community. She works for our congressman, Luca, who was also born and raised in the city of Anaheim, but also serves as the district 3 housing and community development commissioner. So, I'd like to welcome baby Sebastian Alexander Lopez Perez to District 3. Uh, he was actually born on January 1st, so he is officially the first baby. And then I just wanted to take a moment. I have a lot of residents who have asked what my priorities for district 3 are as I enter the last 360 days of my first term in office. And I just wanted to share some of the priorities for my district specifically. As I mentioned, I have the honor and opportunity to serve 50,000 residents in district 3. And I am pretty engaged in the community and listen to what the needs of our residents are. So on the public safety front, I wanted to share that I will continue to focus on safer neighborhoods. I'm glad that we are able to bring in a chief who has already demonstrated some clear leadership and um public safety priorities uh not only with his engagement with the community but also with our um public safety officers whether they're sworn or unsworn. Um we are focused on fast or at least in district 3 and I know some of my colleagues share the same but um we would love I would love to see improved response times. I would love Anaheim to be one of the safest cities in the state of California or the county of Orange. I'd also like to improve the dispatch and follow-up experience with our residents who are engaging with our public safety. So, when you're calling 911, you should be able to get the service that you need. And I know that there are many issues that we're dealing with there. Uh we are planning and developing a new fire station in district 3, which will serve not only district 2 and one, but district three. It'll also provide better public safety and first responder services to the residents of Anaheim. Um, we also would like to prioritize traffic safety. So, this is a major issue for many of my

residents who call because they feel that there is traffic that's just too fast in our city. Um, we also recently had um young people from Anaheim High School who were uh run over by a car. So, this is just a priority for my district in particular. Um, on the workforce housing side, I also would like to work on advancing workforce and attainable housing opportunities. We did as a council um, generate a housing trust. So, that's a priority for me to continue working on in our city. And then I also would love to see more skilled labor on housing development projects. So, I I I see a lot of my carpenters here today. So, thank you for joining us in our council chambers and and that is a priority for district 3 moving forward. Next slide, please. On the planning process front, one of the priorities for district 3, I do get a lot of complaints from residents regarding our planning process. So, we would like to work closely, and I know I've been working with Heather and others on this, but to create a clear, predictable, and timely planning process, reducing unnecessary red tape. So, if you are working to get an addition in your house or just to get your kitchen remodeled or something as simple as putting a fence up, we would like to see that process be a little more seamless. Uh and then on the quality of life front in investing in gang intervention and prevention priorities. Um reducing theft and property crime in our neighborhoods which is something that is a priority for district 3. Keeping our neighborhood parks and public spaces safe and clean. This is something we've made a lot of progress on here on this DAS and I'd like to see that continue on the investment front and then continue to fund services for homeless outreach and prevention. So those are just some of the the district 3 priorities and I want to thank my council colleagues for also um caring about a lot of these priorities but I do not speak on behalf of this das this is simply something I wanted to share for the residents of district 3 and that concludes my council comments.

Thank you council member Bis.

Thank you. I think I also have a couple slides here as well. I just want to say a big thank you to the uh public the public works department for the tour uh of the cityard and the update on what they've been working on so far this year in district 1. And I have a few examples I'd like to just share with the residents. Uh so far we've had uh one water main break at not they uh fixed six tree route repairs, 39 sidewalk ramps, 660 square ft of paving. We have uh 2,000 square feet of asphalt repair, 19 utility service repairs, two sink holes, and my favorite, they've patched 612 potholes. Uh so it was a pleasure to meet our staff out there, hear about the creative ways that they are making life better for Anaheim residents and to see the tools uh that they get to use for that purpose. And then on the uh again to the public works department, the slide that you see up there now, if you haven't seen it along Beach Boulevard out in front of the Walmart parking lot, this is the before and after. I just wanted to again give them a big thank you. I've heard from a lot of uh residents saying that they are uh they really appreciate the new sidewalk that is out there uh in front of Walmart. I encourage you if you haven't seen it, please go out and uh check it out. The next thing I'd like to send a special shout out to Barat and Regini Battel and to the YMCA over at Brookhurst Park. Actually, last week they turned the grass white with snow. They set up a play space for a snowball toss and another for sledding. I'd say we had uh over probably thousand kids stop by. Several of them said they had never seen snow before. I told him, I said, "I can't believe it." because when I was their age, I walked to school uphill both ways in the snow. So, anyways, I just want to say thank you to everybody involved for that. And then the last thing I want to remind uh West Anaheim residents really on January

29th, the US EPA is having an update on the North Basin Groundwater Cleanup at Brookhurst Community Center from 4:30 to 7:00 and I encourage you to stop by. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Bis. Um, I want to take a a brief moment to address some of the things that were said in public comment today. Um, you know, it is true that when I ran for mayor, it was on an issue of transparency. And while 2023 was a few years ago, we did spend several of us the first year of our tenure on this dis crafting, debating and eventually passing several transparency measures that I wish we had had in place in 2019 and 2020 and it would have prevented a lot of the issues that we still see raising their ugly head to this today. So, as we look at the article that was in the LA Times recently in regarding our city manager,

I do want the council and I have going to be putting into closed session to look at transparency. We would like to meet in close session and get infor more information and speak to both our ethics officer and our city attorney. So earning and keeping the public trust not open to the public. Ma'am, it's true.

Ma'am, we've politely listened to you. I would please afford please afford me the same opportunity. Earning and keeping the public trust is tantamount to both me and I know my colleagues on this dis. So I would like for us to have the opportunity to ask questions of our city manager and let this process play out. For those of you that are not aware about how we are able to conduct ourselves, due to the Brown Act and the timelines for agenda, we are not allowed to speak to each other outside of this uh room uh in more than groups of three and we are not allowed to put things on the agenda absent a emergency basis. So, I'm just asking to give us the time to address these issues that have been addressed. They will be addressed and discussed and we hope to have an answer for you moving forward as it will be on the next meeting's agenda. Thank you.

Anaheim deserves transparency. Amen. So, now we are going to move on to the city manager update. Mr. City Manager, do you have anything to report? I do. Thank you. Uh, Mayor Aken, Coun, Excuse me. Please do not disrupt the meeting, please. I appreciate your kindness.

Mayor Aken, Council, and the public, I'd like to provide our monthly update on Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Last month, I share that as part of the ongoing stadium assessment, lab testing was underway. As expected, the lab is processing the last of the testing samples and will be done with testing this week. As previously mentioned, we expect results to take four to six weeks. Once testing is finished, findings will be reviewed and analyzed. We would then hire an engineering firm for final assessment based on the testing and results. A finalized assessment is expected around mid 2026. There are no significant stadium developments and this is a general monthly update as requested by the council. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. We are now going to address the city council's consent calendar items 1 through 13 are before us. Are there any members of the council uh that would like to pull something for more in-depth discussion? Council member Rubikava, I'd like to pull item 12. Thank you very much. Item 12. Are there any other council members that would like to pull an item? If not, may I have a motion to pass the remainder? I'll move.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Please vote. The [clears throat] vote is seven eyes, no nays. Motion carries. Thank you. Uh, Council Member Rivikava, you pulled item number 12. Would you like a staff report?

Uh, yes, please. and mainly specifically on the two items that we're regulating the nitrous oxide and the cratom. Good evening uh mayor, members of council. Heather Allen and the director of the planning and building department. So this item would be the uh adoption of the item that was before the council at the uh December meeting. So we are proposing regulations for both um nitrous oxide andratom which are two uh products which we currently do not have regulations at a local level. Um there are some state regulations on both. Um but we do um look to add uh regulations for both with these two new provisions within the municipal code.

Well, first of all, I want to say thank you Heather to you and your team for working so diligently and making sure that we were able to get these approved um or on agenda the agenda tonight for final approval. My question is on implementation and enforcement. How will we be communicating the new ordinances to those who are selling? because I'm less interested in um in enforcement on the individuals who are purchasing but more on the storefronts and the people who are selling these products. So how will we communicate and then also enforce

certainly so on the communication side. So the ordinance would go into effect 30 days um from today. So that gives us time um both on the um code enforcement and police side to go out. We know these items are commonly sold at smoke shops and um some of the alcohol retailers. Um we are already also doing outreach at many of the smoke shops with our new tobacco regulations. So this will give us some time to go out um do some um a proactive communication of of what these new regulations are. Um we can also work with the PIO's team to to put this out um to let those operators um know that there are some new regulations forthcoming. And on the enforcement side, um they have both um criminal and civil um enforcement opportunities. And so both police and code enforcement can issue citations um as applicable.

And can you explain a little bit on the uh marketing side? So one of the issues for me on therdem front was they were advertising it in front of high schools and we're it's not supposed to be sold to our youth, but it was accessible, I'm sure. So, how are we going to make sure that that's not going to be the case moving forward?

Correct. So, I think that that goes uh first into the education piece of of getting the word out to the the folks who are selling. Um we are um as you mentioned um one of the the targeted restrictions relates to marketing um to to youth. So, we'll make sure that that um where products are observed that that are clearly um labeled and colorful and and bright and and fun um that the the um purveyors know that that they can't be be selling them and ultimately when the ordinance goes in effect and we can confiscate um product that that cannot be sold in the city.

Perfect. And then is it possible to get an update once you've uh done communication to all of the liquor stores and the storefronts who are potentially selling it because that would also include gas stations. um a report that when we've received if we can receive a report that just indicates that they've received that and how many of them did and I would love to know um if we've have had any citations and all of those fun facts. Absolutely. Okay, perfect. Yes. So perhaps we could add we will be coming back in June I think for a report on our tobacco um regulations. So so we can add a an update at that time on on umratom and nitrous enforcement as well.

Perfect. Well, I again I want to thank you and I know you worked with Anaheim PD and then I also want to thank our city manager for helping to make sure that we're able to um getratom uh regulations in our city. So with that, if there's no other questions from my council colleagues, I'd like to move the item. We have a motion and a second.

The motion was the adoption of three ordinances. Ordinance number 6618, adoption ordinance of the city of Anaheim adding chapter 6.103 103 nitrous oxide to the title six of the Anaheim Munipal code public health and safety to regulate the sale of nitrous oxide to prevent illegal and recreational use in order to protect public health and safety orders number 6619 or of the city council of city of Anaheim chapter 6.105ratom 105ratom to title six of Anaheim municipal code public health and safety to regulate the sale and distribution possession of cratom in order to protect public health and safety. This also includes or um adoption of ordinance number 6620 north of the city council of city of Anheim amending chapter 6.44 new of title 6 public health and safety chapter 14.32 parking and stopping of title 14 traffic chapters 18.04 single family residential zones 18.06 multiple family residential zones 18.0 08 commercial zones 18.10 industrial zone 18.12 mixed use zone 18.14 public and special purposes zones 18.16 regulatory permits 18.18 scenic corridor overlay zone 18.36 type of uses 18.38 supplemental use regulations 18.39 multiplely family and mixeduse objective design standards 18.40 general development standards 18.42 parking and loading 18.44 signs 18.46 Landscaping screening 18.62 62 administrative reviews 18.66 66 conditional use permits 18.92 definitions 18.114 Disneyland Resort specific plan number 92-1 zoning and development standards [snorts] 18.116 Anaheim Resort specific plan number 92-2 zoning development standards 18.120 Anaheim Canyon specific plan number 2015-1 zoning development standards 18.122 Beach Boulevard specific plan number 2011-1 zoning development standards of title 18 zoning the municipal code adjustment number 17 to the Disneyland reserve specific plan number 92-1, zoning development standards adjustment number 15 to the anime resource specific plan number 92-2 and zoning development

standards adjustment number 16 to the Anaheim Canyon specific plan number 2015-1 zoning development standards adjustment number 10 to the Bleach Boulevard specific plan number 201-1 zoning development standards and determine that the proposed amendments does not is not subject to SQA pursuant to guidelines under sections 1560 C2506C35378 8 and 1 1561 B3 of title 14 of the California code of regulations and the vote is seven and I's no nays. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 14 is a resolution for the appointment of a retired annuitant city manager. May we have a staff report?

That's for staff report from director Andall, please. Good evening, mayor and council. Linda Andall. Uh beside me is Gina Balio, our deputy finance director. And the council before item this evening is a resolution to wave the 180day waiting period and approve the appointment of Peggy Al who was the city controller as a retired annuitant. Um, this item is before council as required by the pension reform act of 2013, which provides that a person who retires from a public employer may serve without reinstatement for up to 960 hours in a fiscal year. The retired person shall not be eligible to be employed for a period of 180 days following the date of retirement unless an employer certifies the nature of employment, which is the purpose of the resolution again before you this evening. Um it must also deter the council must also determine that the appointment is necessary to fill a critically needed position. Compensation is within the approved salary range. No additional benefits are provided and the annuitant shall not acrewue service credit or any additional rights or benefits and none of that is occurring in this case. After over 35 years of experience in finance and auditing, Peggy Al, the retired annuitant uh retired on December 31st of 2025. She was responsible for citywide financial reporting and treasury activities including treasury compliance, single audit reporting and transmission, cash flow estimates and financial reporting set by the governmental accounting standards board uh Gatsby. Miss Al's skills and experience leading citywide accounting and financial reporting of varying of varying complexities will ensure key deliverables and required reporting

obligations are met during the current recruitment for this position. The city has an active recruitment for this position with an expected date of selection occurring in March of this year. Ms. I was expected to work in a limited capacity to meet recording reporting requirements, deadlines, and to provide training to successive staff. That completes my presentation. If you have any questions, both Gan and I are here to um answer any of them. Thank you, Miss Andal. Are there any questions or comments by council? If not, may I have a motion and a second? Move approval. I'll second. Please vote.

The motion is a resolution the city council of the city of Anaheim for exemption to the 180day wait period in compliance with section 7522.56 and 2122 of the California government code section for the appointment as controllers are retired and new inent. And the vote is seven eyes, no nays. Motion carries. Item 15 on our agenda is the District 1 appointment to the Older Adults Commission. Thank you. I'd like to appoint Bob Sanchez, please. Bob Sanchez. Thank you. Please vote.

The vote is seven eyes, no nays. Appointment was forward. Thank you. Item 16 is our public hearing. Clerk, can you please read?

Thank you, mayor. Item 16 is a public hearing on the development application number 2023-000043, the final environmental impact report number 358, the mitigation monitoring program number 397, a general plan amendment amendment to number six to the festival specific plan number 90-1 with a zoning code amendment to chapters 18.108. This also includes the zoning development standards of the municipal code final slight pan and the development agreement number 2025-00001. And this is for a locate project consisting of the entirety of the existing 85.7 acre Anaheim Hills Festival specific plan. Thank you. City manager, could we have a staff report?

I'd ask for a staff report from Director Allen, please.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Heather Allen, a planning and building director. Joining me this evening are Amanda Laugher, senior planner, assistant city attorney Mulvah Hill, and deputy director planning services Joanne Wang. Also in the audience behind me are our interdep departmental review colleagues who reviewed this this application. This is a request for a general plan amendment, specific plan amendment, including amendments to the zoning code, final site plan, and development agreement to establish a new development area within the existing boundaries of the Anaheim Hills Festival specific plan to accommodate residential uses in combination with the existing commercial development. The project includes demolition of the vacant movie theater building and the replacement construction of 447 multiple family units within the upper tier of the festival shopping center. The planning commission at its November 17th meeting recommended city council approval of the land use components of the project. This item was originally noticed for the December 16th council meeting and was continued till tonight's meeting. The presentation this evening will provide a brief overview of the existing conditions and specific plan background, general overview of the proposed project and requested entitlements, review of key components of the development agreement and environmental analysis, and conclude with staff's recommendation. The Anaheim Hills Festival specific plan is located along the south side of Santa Ana Canyon Road between Festival Drive and Roosevelt Road and encompasses appro approximately 85.7 acres. The specific plan was originally adopted in 1990 and has been amended five times. The specific plan is divided into different development areas as shown on the screen. Development areas one through three in red are the commercial areas of the specific plan known as the festival shopping center. And development area four shown in orange is the senior residential community. The existing specific plan area is designated for regional commercial and

lowmedium density residential land uses in the general plan. The surrounding land uses include a business park to the north across Santa Ana Canyon Road, a utility transmission corridor containing thece power lines, undeveloped private parcels, and the Deer Canyon Park Preserve to the west, office and institutional uses to the east across Roosevelt Road and single family residential to the south. The property is zoned SP90-1 for the Anaheim Hills Festival specific plan. Existing zoning in the vicinity includes general commercial, transitional, open space, lowintensity office, and single family residential. The proposed project would establish a new development area or DA5 within the existing boundaries of the Anaheim Hills Festival specific plan to accommodate residential uses in combination with the site's existing commercial development. DA5 shown in green hatching would be created by reallocated land from the existing DA2. All proposed development under this project would be confined to DA5 and the overall exterior boundary of the specific plan would remain unchanged. The project includes demolition of the vacant 1880 seat cinema building within the proposed DA5 for the development of a new 447 unit multifamily residential community. The proposed multif family building would be four stories in height and wrapped around a sixle parking structure for a total height of 57 feet. The apartments include one, two, and threebedroom options ranging inside from approximately 590 ft to,500 square ft. A total of 10% or 45 units would be designated for moderate income affordable units. Each floor plan includes a private patio or balcony space. Additional resident amenities include two indoor clubouses, two swimming pools, a courtyard, co-work area, fitness center, and rid share

lounge. The applicant is also proposing a fence dog park along the easterly portion of the site, and Blle Park along the north property line that would be privately owned, but uh privately owned and maintained uh but open to residents of the new community and the general public. Primary access into the development area would be provided from an existing driveway along Festival Drive, leading to a new entry court and roundabout near the multiple family leasing office entrance. A new residentonly driveway is also provided along Festival Drive for direct access into the gated parking structure. All other driveways for the commercial center would remain the same. The proposed multif family building includes a Mediterranean architectural style consistent with the design guidelines in the specific plan. The building features smooth white stucco with rot iron, decorative tile, stone accents, decorative metal siding, clay tail roof, varied roof planes, and recessed windows. Sections of the building closest to Festival Drive would be three stories in height, while the remainder of the building would be four stories. The multiple family building would wrap around the sixth level parking structure, screening it from public view. In response to public comments at the planning commission hearing, these cross-sections through Festival Drive west and south of the project site demonstrate that while the proposed multiple family building is slightly taller than the existing cinema building, the existing senior residential buildings would be higher than the proposed building due to differences in grade along Festival Drive. The sixth level parking structure would include parking for the residents, guests, and visitors of the commercial center. A total of 954 parking spaces would be available in the parking structure which includes the gated resident restricted parking on the subterranean and upper levels of the parking structure. The first floor of the structure would be available to guests and patrons of the commercial center. A total of 329 surface spaces would be available in DA5. A parking analysis prepared for the project

demonstrates that adequate parking is available in DA5 based on the mix of uses. The residential and commercial uses have different peak hours. Residential uses observe peaks in the evening hours between 7 pm and midnight while commercial uses have higher peak during midday. As part of the analysis, a survey was also conducted at six existing communities that are owned and managed by the project applicant with similar property characteristics. The survey found that the average occupied rate for the multifi multif family units was 1.87 spaces per unit. The proposed project would exceed that providing 2.0 0 spaces per unit. Reciprocal access and parking is also provided between development areas 1, 2, and five. A condition of approval has also been included requiring a parking management plan to ensure a balance uh between parking for the residents, guests, and commercial patrons. So, there are a number of actions that are before the council this evening that we'll discuss um on the following slides. The project requires an amendment to the general plan land use element to change the land use designation of DA5 from regional commercial to mixeduse medium depicted in green and red hatching. The medium mixeduse medium designation is intended to allow for flexibility for parcels that could transition from strip commercial uses to residential or mix of residential, commercial, and office development. The designation allows for residential development in a standalone or mixeduse configuration at a density of up to 36 dwelling units per acre while a non-residential component of the mixeduse development is permitted at a maximum fluoride ratio of 0.35. The proposed residential portion of the project would result in a density of 27.4 dwelling units per acre and the remaining commercial develop sorry remaining commercial buildings in DA5 would result in a floor area ratio of 0.09. Both are consistent with the proposed designation. The applicant is requesting a specific plan amendment to update the Anaheim

Hills Festival specific plan document and corresponding chapter of the zoning code in their entirety. This would be the sixth amendment to the specific plan and would establish a new development area DA5 within the existing boundaries to accommodate the proposed residential development in conjunction with the existing commercial development. The specific plan would include a new format that is consistent with newly adopted specific plans, would update various tables and exhibits, update the center monu uh the cent's monument sign guidelines, uh, and establish new design guidelines that provide guiding principles for commercial residential development, and introduce a Mediterranean design influence consistent with some of the, um, recent improvements that you've seen on the property. Chapter 18.108 108 of the zoning code would also be amended its entirety to be consistent with other code chapters and formatting. Create new development standards for DA5, update signage requirements for the commercial and residential uses and create permitted use tables for the specific plan development areas. Site development standards such as building setbacks, landscape setbacks, and maximum heights for the existing development areas would not change as part of the project. DA5 is generally consistent with regional, commercial, and mixeduse medium zones. However, the specific plan amendment does include certain standards that would be tailored for the project as shown on this slide. These include changes to the multifamily parking requirements for one-bedroom units, minimum floor area for one-bedroom units, maximum sign area for inline tenants, and minor changes to permitted uses throughout the development areas. A final site plan is required for the review of the multif family development and associated improvements. The final site plan includes the site plan, floor plans, elevations, and landscape plan to demonstrate compliance with the guiding principles and standards in the specific plan amendment and draft chapter a municipal code. The proposed project meets the development standards proposed under the amended specific plan. [clears throat] The applicant requests approval of a development agreement

between the city and the property owner otr. The initial term of the draft agreement is proposed for five years. If a building permit for the residential building is issued by October 1st uh 2029, which coincides with the arena reporting period for our current housing element, the city manager may extend the time by an additional 5 years. The agreement also includes a construction phasing exhibit that addresses the phasing for the proposed residential project and associated improvements along with important upgrades to the festival shopping center. These improvements to the center include new hardscape and landscape, updates to the building color scheme to be consistent with the new Mediterranean style, improvements to outdoor gathering spaces, and enhancements to pedestrian connectivity throughout the development areas. Additional public benefits include 10% moderate income affordable units, $100,000 contribution to Anaheim Fire and Rescue for fire protection equipment, and the funding and installation of CCTV and emergency vehicle preeemption devices at four intersections along Santa Ana Canyon to enhance emergency response in the vicinity. And in response to community concerns expressed during the planning commission public hearing relating to the need for effective wildfire evacuation, the applicant has also offered to provide a monetary contribution of $100,000 to the Anaheim Police Department to fund evacuation training and planning and other related preparedness activities that determined appropriate. The city as lead agency prepared an ER in accordance with SQA and SQA guidelines. The draft EIR was presented to the public and planning commission at the July 14th workshop. During the 45day public review period, the city received comments from four agencies and organizations, nine individuals and five commenters at the workshop. Comments and responses have been included in the final EIR and provided as part of the staff report. An ER can include up to 20 topics and the project EIR includes an analysis of all the possible topics. Consistent with SQA guidelines, the

draft EIR identified that the project would have no effect related to agriculture and forestry resources and mineral resources. That left 18 topics to be analyzed in the draft EIR. For each topic, the analysis evaluated the level of impact, if any. For the 11 topics shown here, impacts were uh determined to be less than significant. For the six topics shown on this slide, the application of mitigation measures and project design features reduced the impacts to a less than significant level. A mitigation monitoring program or MMP was prepared for the project to reduce project impacts. The MMP includes mitigation measures, project design features, and regulatory compliance measures that the project would be required to comply with in order to reduce impacts. Some of the measures have been summarized on the screen and include developer obligations for things like submitt of a construction fire prevention plan, wildfire evacuation and awareness plan and construction management plan. As shown on the previous slide, hazards and wildfire impacts for the project are less than significant with mitigation. Based on a 2025 update to the CalFire hazard maps, 8.26 26 acres of development area 5 is located within a very highf fired severity zone which I'll refer to as a very high fire zone. The designation does not mean that an area is not safe for development. Rather specific fire protection features that minimize structure vulnerability would be required and specifically that um those that are required are specified in the California building code and California fire code. The proposed project is located within a developed area, would add new maintained landscaping, and would be subject to additional building construction standards to harden the building pursuant to the California Building Code. An evacuation time analysis was prepared and determined that the worst case scenario would involve a fire breaking out in the Deer Canyon Preserve located directly to the west of the project

site. The evacuation analysis considered the existing condition in the surrounding area and the incremental increase in development with the proposed project. The analysis concluded that the increase in the project would have over the existing shopping center condition with an active cinema use would result in a potential extension of the time to evacuate by approximately seven minutes.

As previously described, the MMP includes requirements for construction. Sorry, Director Allen. Just one moment. Ex. Thank you. We are going to have time for public comment after the presentation and we will give forward you the opportunity to share your concerns. If you could please just refrain from interrupting during the presentation. Thank you very much. As previously described, the MMP includes requirements for construction fire prevention plan, w wild wildfire evacuation plan and awareness plan and construction management plan prior to the issue of construction permits and certificate of occupancy for the multif family building. These plans would identify fire safety measures and best practices during construction, ensure adequate circulation is provided during construction on site and in the project vicinity and overall evacuation awareness emergency community alerts for residents and tenants within the commercial shopping center. The draft ER found the project would result in a significant and unavoidable impact related to transportation, specifically the vehicle miles traveled or VMT attributed to the project. The proposed project is located in an area of the city that is high VMT generating. As you can see on this VMT generating area map from the city's traffic impact analysis guidelines for SQA, the majority of Anaheim Hills is shown as a higher generating BMT area than the Orange County average. This is due to the Anaheim Hills area consisting primarily of residential development with limited proximity to job centers and public transit. The project does include 10% affordable units and a reduction in the city's parking requirement for multif family developments. Both of which are is identified as VMT restriction reduction strategies. However, uh there are no additional VMT reduction measures that would be feasible for the proposed project that would result in the VMT threshold um being reduced to less than significant impact. The project would continue to provide adequate emergency access to the site through the implementation of the construction and um evacuation awareness plans. Even with the implementation of these measures,

however, and the project design features related to transportation, the impacts would remain as significant and unavoidable. Because of the significant and unavo unavoidable impacts related to transportation, a draft findings of fact and a statement of overriding considerations has been prepared for the project. The document summarizes the significant impact, describes how it is to be mitigated, and discusses alternatives to the project. The statement of overriding considerations presents the justification for the significant impact related to the project that cannot or have not been mitigated or resolved. It also states that the decision-making body has balanced the benefits of the project against its significant unavoidable environmental effect and has determined that the benefits of the project outweigh the adverse effects and therefore the adverse effects are considered to be acceptable. Stat proposes the benefits listed on the screen to override the significant and unavoidable impact. The public review period for the DI DEIR lasted 45 days and during that time the city received comments from 14 agencies and interested parties in addition to the oral testimony from five individuals during during the planning commission SQA workshop. Of the 14 written public comments, three from state and local agencies while 11 were from organizations and individuals. All of the comments were reviewed, evaluated and technical responses were prepared in the final EI. uh 14 comments and associated responses have been documented in the final e section two. Addition additionally, the final e includes in section three clarifications and revisions to the draft DI text, tables and figures generated from responses to comments. These edits are provided to clarify and amplify the draft DIR and none of the information contained in sections two or three of the final EIR constitute significant new information changes to the analysis or conclusions of the draft EIR or otherwise raise any issues that triggered a requirement for recirculation of the document under SQA.

In addition to the comments received during the public review of the ER, staff received letters in support and opposition of the project which have been included as an attachment to your staff report. Letters subsequently received have also been reviewed and like previous letters, these letters did not constitute significant new information pursuant to SQA. Further, the environment uh environmental um analysis associated with the project and the conclusions remain unchanged from those analyzed in the FIR and no revisions to or recirculation of the FIR acquire are required. Additionally, the FIR provides substantial evidence demonstrating compliance with applicable fire protection, emergency access, and safety requirements. There is no deficiency of the FER in response um related to the city's general plan. Following the planning commission public hearing, minor additions and amendments were included in the draft development agreement and FIR number 358. The applicant, as previously stated, has offered an additional monetary contribution to fund training and other wildfire preparedness. The agreement was subsequently amended to include provisions for the payment of these contributions and timing clarifying that the monetary amount would increase based on a standard annual inflationary increase if paid after one year of the effective date of the agreement. Additionally, condition of approval number 29 was added to the final site plan resolution stating that the payment and monetary contribution shall be done prior to the issue of building permits. The affordable housing impact fee was inadvertently included as an applicable impact fee for the project and was removed from exhibit D of the agreement because the the project includes a voluntary uh contribution and the project application was submitted prior to the effective date of October 24 um of the city's inl regulations and therefore not subject to that impact fee. Minor typographical edits were clarified in the project FIR number 358 to clarify the existing maximum density of the senior residential community and note that the project would not conflict

with existing habitat conservation plans. These changes are minor in nature and do not represent new project impacts or information that would cause a recirculation of the ER. In conclusion, staff believes that the proposed project is compatible with the surrounding area and would provide for redevelopment of an underutilized area of the festival shopping center. The project would allow for the introduction of residential unit uses in the festival center and would provide new design guidelines that will encourage highquality commercial improvements to the rest of the specific plan area. Project impacts with the exception of the VMT related impacts were determined to be less than significant with the incorporation of the measures included in the project MMP. The project includes a variety of public benefits and would assist the city in meeting the required Reena housing units. Staff recommends city council approval of the project and our team is happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any questions from council at this time? Before we move to public comment, uh C Mayor Prom. Thank you, Madame Mayor. I just wanted to clarify. Um you mentioned that the existing specific plan has been amended five times. Do you know when the latest update to that was? We'll confirm and get back to you, but it's been a been a minute. Okay. If you could look into that and while you're also looking at that, I'd be curious as to what those five amendments were if you could get us that information. Certainly. Thank you. Council member Rubikava,

just a quick question, maybe something for you to ponder, Heather. So since we have to look at a general plan amendments that gives this council discretion to provide additional I don't know direction for um the development agreement right so let's just say we wanted to require local hireer or that they hired skilled labor for a certain portion of this is that something that we would have discretion on since we are approving general plan amendments if we are if if this council decides to go that direction certainly Um I would say not because there is a a general plan amendment but the development agreement does uh give some discretion on negotiations to add anything.

Okay. And then I will have more follow-up questions I'm sure after public comment. Thank you. Thank you. Um Director Allen, I had a question um before we hear public comment on the development agreement extension. I believe you said it's 5 years unless they file a permit or receive a permit by 2029. Correct. So can you just kind of walk me through what is if this project's approved, what happens between now and then this cuto off date of 2029?

Certainly. So the um the five-year uh initial term was was specified as such. So it encourages and incentivizes development of the housing units um within the Reena cycle. So RENA um regional housing needs assessment looks at the timing of building permits pulled. So the idea is they have five years um if as long as they pull the permits within those five years uh then the agreement term uh extends an additional five years.

And if they do not pull permits by that date in 2029, what happens? So the the development approvals um would still be in place um but the benefits afforded um to them and the city of in the development agreement would would no longer be available. And can you just real quickly run through what those are? What benefits would they lose if they don't start development by pull permits by 2029?

Certainly. So the the benefits to the applicant essentially a development agreement locks in the zoning. So it locks in uh the specific plan that would be applicable to to DA5. So if the development agreement were to lapse without them pulling permits, we could amend um DA5 and although they would have a a project that was entitled um the regulations may change for it. So that's the the biggest benefit to an applicant of of having a development agreement, it locks in their regulations and development standards for the the time frame. And is there any in the development agreement that would allow for extension of that beyond 2029 even if permits have not been pulled?

So at this point um the the uh mechanism for the extension would be the the execution of the permits. Certainly um an applicant can come forward and request uh to the planning commission and council to consider an amendment should circumstances change. Okay. Thank you. Um are there any other preliminary questions before we move to public comment? Okay. I would also at this time ask if anybody had any exarty communications that you need to disclose. [clears throat] Start with Mayor Prom. I had a conversation with the lobbyist of the developer, the carpenters union, and received a number of emails uh in support and against.

Thank you, Council Member Curts. Same excuse me, same thing. Um Shay, the lobbyist, Carpenters, and received uh numerous emails for and against the project. Thank you, Council Member Meeks. I spoke with the uh developer, their lobbyist, the carpenters, and a number of residents communicating with them. Thank you, Council Member Ruboca. I spoke with the carpenters. I've received multiple emails uh from the developer as well as um from residents. Thank you, Council Member Ma.

Thank you. I've also spoken with the developer, the lobbyist, the carpenters union, and some residents. Thank you, Council Member Bis. Thank you. the uh developer and also the carpenters as well and some residents.

Thank you. Broken record, but I also uh met with the developer and their lobbyist as well as received and spoken received um email communications um from residents both for and against the project as well as met with residents in the community and have had conversations with the carpenters. And mayor, if I may, before we move on, I can answer Mayor Pam's uh question. So, the last amendment, and I'll go backwards, was February 2013. U it was amendment number five to permit the sale of beer and wine at service stations subject to the approval of a conditional use permit. Uh amendment number four was in February 2002 to allow secondary wall signage of inline tenants that rear onto Anaheim Canyon Road. Uh, amendment number three was August 1998 to permit the senior citizen uh, apartments in DA4 at a maximum density of 18 dwelling units per acre. Amendment number two uh was April of 1997 to allow expansion of the existing theater, a revision of the site plan to redesate 20,000 square ft of area for general retail, construction of a 25,000 square foot health club and 10,000 foot uh child care facility and an amendment to permit on street parking on Festival Drive within development area 2. Amendment number one was July 1992 to amend the conditions of approval.

Thank you, Director Allen. So, I will now open the public hearing. I'm going to start the hearing with the applicant. Uh following that, city clerk will announce any comments received electronically and invite in-person speakers to address the city council. After receiving all public comments, the applicant will be given an opportunity to provide closing remarks. I will now invite the applicant up to address the council. And your time is 20 minutes. Thank you.

Good evening, honorable council members and madame mayor. I'm Sean McCarron, vice president of mixeduse development at Shea Properties. I'm here tonight with a dedicated team of experts. We will present we will be presenting the Anaheim Hills Festival Project. I'll be moving quickly through the presentation, but the team is here to answer any questions. First off, I'd like to thank staff for their tireless tireless effort on this project. We've been working for nearly four years to get to this point. Thank you. Just a brief background on our company and our approach. Sha Properties is a third generation family-owned and familyrun company. We are a real estate development company headquartered right here in Orange County. We're leaders in the development of dynamic mixeduse properties and we develop, own, and manage our properties with a very long-term outlook. The Anaheim Hills Festival Shopping Center was developed in the early 90s. It was state of the industry at the time, a very convenient and vehicle focused spread out over a large site. There's been no comprehensive renovation to date on this project. The festival is critical to the region and it's a well-maintained center, but it's an aging center that needs a significant reinvestment to meet current tenant and consumer demands. It's also important to note that this center provides critical sales tax revenue. The center generates 3.75 million in sales tax revenue going to the city and the county. Protecting this source, reinvesting in this source, and growing this source is important to the city and to the community. Going back to 2021, responding to statewide demand, the city initiated their housing element update, prioritizing district equity, district equity in housing allocation. Sha Properties responded to the district 6 housing needs by submitting a conceptual application. Beginning with that concept plan, the project has always been focused on a comprehensive renovation to the shopping center with the addition of

residential. While navigating the application process, we initiated community engagement. That engagement kicked off in 2021 as well with targeted surveys and questionnaires to D6 residents, generating 20,000 views and impressions. A project website was developed. Social media accounts were created. We had over 12,000 unique visitors. We hosted over 20 intimate focus groups with residents. We presented at a D6 community meeting and we presented to the Ebel Club of Anaheim. Through this engagement process, we built a network of over 600 stakeholders over four years and we use that network to send out updates regarding the project. From the many touch points we had with the community, we heard consistent comments and concerns. Early on, we adjusted the project design to account for these. We heard that 600 units was too large for the area and that the community loved their 24-hour fitness. At the time, we were concerned about the 24-hour fitness. This was during COVID and 24-hour had declared bankruptcy. But as the market improved, we made the decision to keep the fitness use and we reduced the unit count to 447 units. We're happy to report that we've executed a long-term lease extension with 24-hour fitness. that includes a remodel of their space and the addition of residential as the catalyst for this and other tenant commitments. There have been community community concerns about the development of additional units at the upper level beyond the 447. And we want to clarify that anything outside the scope of the project that's being presented tonight would require its own individual application and a public process. We are committed to a fitness use to serve the community and maintain the vitality of the overall center which is demonstrated by that 10-year extension. We also heard concerns that the building sections along Festival Drive were too high and that and so we reduced the height along Festival Drive from four stories to

three. We heard concerns regarding traffic and evacuation and reducing unit count has the single biggest impact on traffic and evacuation times. Throughout the process, we continue to work closely with the city of Anaheim Fire and Rescue on evacuation planning for D6. As you know, the site has significant grade change between the upper level and the lower level. It currently contains a dated and narrow and steep connection. This stair connection will be widened and improved to benefit both levels. It's the area shown in red. The circulation at the top of those stairs will be improved for cars and pedestrians. That's the area shown in blue in the middle. The new garage will provide parking for retail and residential residential uses. And new green space will be added with a passive 1acre park and a large enclosed dog park. These will be public spaces privately maintained. This is redeveloping an already developed area using existing grades, utilities, and infrastructures. This project, if approved, has many benefits for the community. It revitalizes an agent shopping center. It attracts exciting new tenants. It expands housing options in D6, supports Anaheim city goals, entices regional spending, improves quality of life, and provides community open space while maintaining local values. If you're familiar with the center, this is the area adjacent to Wood Ranch looking towards the old theater. This rendering captures the development from the top of the stairs looking towards the new residential leasing office, our front door. This is that key connection area that pushes the parking and drive aisles back from where they currently are and opens up a generous green space for retail customers, commercial customers, and residents to linger while waiting for a table or having a coffee. The contemporary Mediterranean design

complements the Anaheim Hills character and blends nicely with the renovated center. This is a four-story wrap style project, so the parking structure is concealed from view. We also received many comments about outdoor noise and light and so we did not design any rooftop amenities whatsoever. This is a different angle. Um yeah, this is a different angle from the upper deck looking towards the retail and residential guest garage entry. Provides a nice example of the pedestrian connections throughout. Now we're on the next one. Yeah, thank you. This rendering is looking at the facade along Festival Drive. So you're able to see the sections of the building that were lowered to three stories and you can see the addition of new landscaping and generous setbacks to accommodate green space along festival. The project team took key design steps to address project height and massing by using the ex existing grade. The first level is kept lower than festival drive and generous setbacks along [clears throat] festival and the three-story sections reduce the impact of the structure for pedestrians and drivers alike. And again, based on feedback, there are no rooftop or elevated amenities of any kind. The project design uses natural topography and grades to keep the building low and minimize impacts on views. This image shows a section through the apartment building and the garage structure. The project design pushes down the parking structure one to two levels so that the height stays consistent with the four-story structure, the four-story apartment structure. The proposed project is adjacent to three-story residential and a four-story hotel across Festival Drive. So, the project is complimentary to the building height surrounding it. Parking [clears throat] the success of the residential and commercial uses is dependent on sufficient and well-managed parking. A parking demand study was completed to guide the upper level design approach.

Prior to construction, a parking management plan will be created with the details of the exact locations and the enforcement for the retail only parking, the residential guestonly parking, and the shared use locations. Additionally, we propose completing a parking analysis when the apartment building reaches 90% occupancy. We do this regularly on our mixeduse projects because as as much as you think you are ahead of the design, you learn things along the way. So, we propose at 90% occupancy, we get the same folks out there that did the study to go out and do a survey and we'll take those lessons learned and make adjustments identified for signage locations, enforcements, hours of restriction, gate locations, etc. So, that will be reported and then addressed by ownership. The parking ratio for the apartments is 2.0 per unit, which is slightly lower than the city code, which would be at 2.15 for this project. At 2.0 know per unit. We consider this conservative and it will be the highest ratio in our Orange County portfolio. The ULI industry standard recommendation uh in the parking study is 1.4 per unit. The parking ratio for the restaurant, retail, and commercial on the upper level is based on city code and a shared parking analysis that reduces that total count by 12 spaces. Shopping center customers adjacent to Wood Ranch will use the on-grade parking and the first level of the parking structure. And as you guys know, peak parking use times differ for residential gas versus commercial uses. The parking demand study looks at the various peak parking utilization times and ensures that sufficient parking will be available at all times. And finally, the lower level has 335 surplus parking spaces above code requirement. The topography and the location of this project ensure that no off-site street parking or neighborhood parking would occur.

Wildfire preparedness and evacuation is critical to this project. We completed a thorough evacuation analysis and fire protection plan with DUDE, the most experienced fire protection team in California. The proposed apartment project is taking the place of a vacant 1,880 seat movie theater. [clears throat]

We are replacing one intensive use with an alternative use. The new project has specific design features that will aid in the evacuation procedures. These include resident notification systems to communicate in real time. New CCTV cameras installed at four key intersections along San Hander Drive adjacent to the center. That's Festival Drive, Festival Center, Roosevelt Road, and Weir Canyon. and new emergency vehicle traffic light systems at those same intersections. These systems prioritize emergency vehicles by automatically changing traffic signals when needed. The project will also contribute $100,000 to Anaheim Fire and Rescue to help fund local wildfire mitigation efforts. And the project will contribute a 100,000 to Anaheim Police Department to fund local to fund local evacuation training. During the next roughly four years of project design, plan check, and construction, if approved, the project team will continue coordination with Anaheim Fire and Rescue and other agencies well ahead of any residents moving in. The building will be designed for wildfire resilience. And it's also worth mentioning that vacant buildings tend to attract problems. They tend to present higher emergency risks. Again, this project will take time and will continue coordination efforts for roughly four years ahead of the first resident move in. This area is impacted by the high volume of vehicles that bypass the 91 freeway during peak commute hours. This regional challenge was studied through an extensive traffic analysis and BMT analysis. The project exceeds city adopted VMT per service population threshold. Therefore, it does create a significant unavoidable impact. But it's important to note that any project exceeding 24 apartment homes or just 12 single family homes would also have that same significant impact. The project's cumulative effect on VMT

is less than significant, and the project contributes 36 fewer PM peak hour trips and nearly 600 fewer two-way trips than an active movie theater.

This project has always been focused on a comprehensive planning strategy that brings together a renovated shopping center and integrated residential If the residential moves forward, the entire center will be repaired, repainted, and reinvigorated. It starts with the enhanced connection between the upper and lower level with plazas on both levels that will create gathering spaces and seating areas for the public. There will be [clears throat] improved pedestrian connections throughout the center and enhanced landscaping and lighting. I'd like to give a quick introduction to Vestar. They are the current managers of the festival center. They are here tonight and available if you have any very specific retail questions. Besar is a best-in-class national owner and manager of retail properties. They bring broad experience in shopping center renovation and historical knowledge at the festival center. The new project development unlocks the funds for a vestarled shopping center renovation. The specific plan also lays out a long-term vision that includes creating additional modern outdoor dining and unique retail spaces. It also right sizes big box space with potential for more inline shop space. [laughter] I'm happy to report that the team has negotiated a lease modification with Hobby Lobby that gives back more than 10,000 square ft of space. That space provides the ability to add inline shops facing the main drive aisle. This area is currently a large blank facade. And finally, it provides the ability to add limited new retail and restaurant space if the market calls for it.

[clears throat]

We know what the future of the festival looks like if the project is approved. With the project approval comes a significant reinvestment in the shopping center and badly needed new housing for district 6. Multif family plays a key role in [clears throat] the overall community, providing an entry point for new residents to put down roots, start families, send kids to public schools, and eventually move into single family homes in the neighborhood. That housing will also attract and keep dynamic retail tenants. If the project is not approved, the future's less certain. The center will face continued turnover and will struggle struggle to keep the quality tenants that the community desires and all options will be back on the table for the theater site. Options that do not include many of the project benefits that we've carefully integrated into the project. Before wrapping up, there were a couple items that didn't fit well into other sections, so I'll touch on them now. First, I want to relay that we received letters of support from community members, some of which who weren't able to make it tonight. One is from the senior pastor at Influence Church. They are located immediately adjacent to Festival and they utilize the shopping center actively and often. We also receive support from Peralta Hills HOA, the Royal Ridges Estates HOA,

HOA,

Orange County Business Council, and People for Housing Orange County. Second, I wanted to touch on labor. We've been in discussions with carpenters since October of 25. We've provided our offer to them for specific trades in anou. Our offer stands tonight and it will stand as is after tonight and in the future. We are supportive of working with them toward a project that is economically feasible and delivers all the public benefits promised. We have a good relationship with the carpenters and have a history of working with them on various types of construction project and our goal for that is to remain. But this is not just a residential project. It's a comprehensive renovation and revitalization of an entire shopping center ecosystem. The cost and complexity of what we're trying to accomplish in our overall site improvements add significant costs and there are no returns on those costs. But they are critical.

[clears throat]

We are being reasonable and pres and pragmatic as we can given that this is simply not adding apartments to the upper level. An entitled project that is not feasible does not benefit anyone and currently the market is filled with entitled projects that are unable to move forward and this directly correlates to our housing crisis. We also understand the importance of the timing of the project to the city of Anaheim. The development agreement has a short term and a short fuse. It applies pressure to start by October of 2029. That's a very short duration to get the project designed, permitted, contracted, and aligned with the economic cycle. All variables and all risks that we are taking to be good partners. When we talk about feasibility and delivering the project benefits, those are all the things we must consider when working through this. I appreciate your time. We're here to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. So now I will open up the floor to public comments. Clerk, can you please call forward the first several speakers and announce any electronic public comments? Thank you, mayor and city council. Um we did receive electronic comments on the public hearing, 53 that were um distributed regarding today's meeting. Also the record would also include those that were submitted and distributed to city council at the December 16th meeting. So all those will be made part of the record. Um, we do have 38 public comment speaker cards. Um, nine that are within the noticed area that will each get 10 minutes to speak and then those with outside the noticed area would be for the three minutes for the remaining general speakers. And I'll go ahead and call the first speaker um, Shelley Robbins followed by I think it's Joanie Gayor.

Point of order on the time limits for the speakers. Excuse me, Mr. Herbert. It is not your time. We need to go in the order that people procedural question. It is not the proper time. You're in violation of the rules. This We have a city attorney that will notify is that Sir, you can't just hijack a meeting. Wait, be unfair for the speakers. Can you please come up? Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Give me a second. Wasn't expecting to go so fast.

Oh, hello council members. I want to thank you for taking the time tonight. Um, I'm here tonight to strongly oppose the proposed festival shopping center development and to call out the deeply flawed environmental impact report this proposal is built on. Let's begin with the EIR's traffic study, a cornerstone of their juris their justification. The study was conducted on a Tuesday between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. Yet, our community's actual peaked traffic often begins at 6:00 and goes through at least 700 p.m., especially with commuter traffic from work, after school programs, and sport practices. Ending data collection at 6 p.m. fails to reflect the real congestion we deal with daily. Worse, the study only included a narrow selection of streets overlooking critical commuter corridors that serve as passrough routes for non-local traffic heading to the i.e. Corona and Riverside regions that have seen explosive housing growth over the last 5 to 10 years. It failed to account for high impact traffic patterns like when you're looking at the impact from Canon to uh people going from commuters from Canon going into Imperial Highway then Santa Ana Canyon Road to the 91 we're Canyon to the 91 freeway. It didn't account for Yorbal for people coming from the Yorbalinda side who would go down um La Palma Avenue and then down to Gypsum Canyon's on-ramp or Weir Canyon to the 91 east from the LA the Yor Belalinda side. And when we're looking at the Anaheim Hills side, we're not looking at i.e. commuters that are passing through Sorrano to Weir Canyon to the 91 or bypassing freeway

congestion via Santa Ana Canyon through the Weir Canyon and to going to Gypsum Canyon. We're missing major intersections at San Ana Canyon and Imperial Highway, Saint Ana Canyon and Weir Canyon Road, Cannon and Serrano. None of this was captured yet. All of it burdens and congest our roads daily. This wasn't a problem 5 to 10 years ago, but as the growth has expanded, so has our problem and our concern, our genuine concern for traffic safety in the event of fire evacuation. The ERR's traffic modeling doesn't reflect the reality of regional cutthrough pressure or the spillover impact on local safety. This is not just an oversight, it's a misrepresentation of our lived experiences. And then there's the assumption that Edward's theater its traffic equaled this housing's project impact simply because both involve they were looking at I think a thousand parking spaces in the Edwards theater parking lot and they were mistakenly assuming that that accounted for an entirely busy a shopping center at all times. That theater had been dying for 5 to 10 years. We rarely ever had that amount of traffic. Those those spots were mainly vacant with the exception of people going to 24-hour fitness and maybe Wood Ranch Barbecue. That theater was not profitable. When we look at the logic there, it's flawed. You know, 100 or a thousand parking spaces, it does not equal the approximate a thousand people. You know, um sorry, I apologize. I got lost. [laughter] At most, there were there were a few dozen locals in attendance. not in attendance, not hundreds driving in during peak hours, not during evacuations, and certainly not during fire season. A thousand parking spaces does not equal

a thousand people at any given time in that shopping center. An evacuation here isn't a hypothetical. Many of us have lived that reality numerous times. I've lived in this area for over 30 years. I can't tell you the number of times we've had to worry about an ember striking and how when trying to get out when that happens. Um the amount of congestion, the fear whether or not you're going to get out. It is real. I know it's hard to see when you when you look at this map over here. When you see the west side, there's very little open green space, but if you look at the right, we are highly impacted by the large open green spaces. In the past, historically, a lot of our fires have not come from Deer Canyon where the EIR was basing its assumption on. It has come over from Corona, from the east in Corona, and coming in towards us. That know your way program that has been adjusted for us. Many of our evacuation routes would have us driving directly towards the fire. It's not sustainable, [snorts] you know. Um, so you know, we have, sorry, we don't have hours to evacuate and we don't we don't have minutes. You know, these seven minutes may seem negligible to the builders, but it's already over three hours for us to evacuate. People have huddled down in the Target Festival Shopping Center because they thought they were going to die because they couldn't get out during the Canyon Fire, too. [cheering] [applause] Last year when we brought up the Deer Canyon project, it was denied by you guys last year for this exact reason. That project sits right next to the uh Deer Canyon proposed development. Yet, no new infrastructure has been added to make evacuations any safer. [applause]

You know, I I appreciate the builder wanting to add a few cameras to help detect fires in the Deer Canyon and sur surrounding areas. And the $100,000 donation to fire and $100,000 to police donations are always great. I know there's problems. We've heard uh they definitely need some improvement. Agreed. Um, and then but I will say how far does $100,000 really get us when life is when life is on the line? What does that look like in the long term? Are we going to see valuable and meaningful change or is it a quick solution? And are we looking at the profit that the that the apartments could potentially build rather than looking at the lives of the people that live here already? We're also putting these people in the if we if we pass this, we're also putting their lives in danger. It's not just us, it's them, too. And we need to be responsible. I'm all for new builds, but let's please be responsible with it. Let's add the infrastructure. To my knowledge, we have there have been some talks of adding infrastructure, and they have been denied. When you look at the Fairmont overpass, which I don't think would actually really work, but it it's been halted. And there's something also that can't be ignored. You know, at the Deer Canyon hearings right before you guys made the vote, the our own fire and police chiefs were directly asked whether they supported the project, and they said no. It's almost the exact same project within less than a half a mile. I mean, honestly, it's a stones throw away from the original project that you guys denied. [applause] And at the festival hearing that we had a couple months ago, they weren't asked directly. They were soft launched questions and their silence didn't mean necessarily support. I knew that there were people in the audience, police members and other community members that wanted to speak up but had to be directly asked because they are not permitted to speak unless prompted. And the fact that no one asked them that

directly the last meeting is really concerning. You know, this is a life safety issue and political convenience cannot come before public safety. I'm asking you tonight, [applause] do not approve this project based on outdated assumptions, flawed data, and incomplete assessments. We deserve better, please. And some, since I have two additional minutes, I might add a few extra little things here. Uh [laughter] um got that. Ah, durian also the uh last during deer canyon. was also brought up. We had experts come in and they testified that they had had ex they had had um extensive experience fighting wildfires in hilly areas. And so with that there's a fire drop, right? Our area is specifically a lot different than the [clears throat] other than the west side of Anaheim that is mostly flatlands. We are surrounded by very hilly areas. And what we were informed of during that previous meeting at the Deer Canyon proposal was that their water drops and their fire drops are very inefficient in hilly terrain like ours. And it makes it next to impossible for the fire the crew on the ground to actively put out these fires. So we're not only dealing with inadequacies and the drops and being able to actually access the fires, but we're also dealing with Santa Ana wind gusts that are a lot different. They run through those channels and through those that the valleys of those hills so fast. I'm asking that you guys please take the time to look at this. Um I also heard that it was there was a worst case scenario in Deer Canyon. That was the worst case scenario. That's not we, as I mentioned earlier, the worst case scenario is what's already

happened numerous times coming in from the Corona side coming in. Uh let's see. I know there was one more thing. I'm so sorry. [laughter] Well, you know what? I guess that's my time, but I want to do I want to say thank you. You've been really patient and I really hope you take this into consideration. Thanks, guys. Have a good one. Our next speaker [applause] Our next speaker, Joanie Gayor. I actually just want to say ditto to everything she said because she nailed it. She talked about [applause and cheering] the issues that we faced. She talked about what the developer is offering, but none of that matters when our lives are at risk. I'm here to strongly oppose adding what they said was 400 and something but originally up to 600 housing units at Festival Shopping Center. This is not about being anti-housing. This is truly about safety, lack of infrastructure to handle it and whether this location can realistically protect the people that already live here. Right now, our streets are already bumperto-bumper. If you try leaving anywhere in that vicinity after 4:30 p.m., you will be sitting in bumperto-bumper trying to head to your Belinda [applause] to simply do a Costco run. Just two weeks ago, I sat there. Fire truck behind me could not get through for 35 minutes. The fire truck was dead still. Could not get through to just go to a traffic accident. A few lights up. That's not an emergency evacuation.

That's just daily living where we live now. If the shopping center, if each housing unit had two cars in what they're proposing, that would mean adding an estimated 800 cars to 1,000 cars, just the housing, not including anybody going to that shopping center. already on these heavily congested two-way street behind Festival Shopping Center. By the way, this isn't about being convenient. It is literally catastrophic during an emergency. Our infrastructure here is simply not equipped to handle the volume, especially in a wildfire evacuation or as I shared simply at a rush hour traffic when the fire department or paramedics or ambulance need to get to somebody. I've lived in the housing track directly behind festival right above where the senior um housing is for 31 years. During that time I have been evacuated three times due to fires. My track which again lies right above Festival Shopping Center consists of just over 500 homes. That's the same unit size as what is being proposed. And when I paint the picture of what happened to me during the CalFire 2, I hope you keep that in mind. For my track, there's only one way out. We don't have options. We have no alternate route to escape other than to head towards festival. During the Cal 2 fire in October 20 2017, there was over 16,570 people who were ordered to evacuate. Let me repeat that number. 16,570 that were ordered to evacuate. We're going to add approximately another thousand people to that if that build goes through. During that time, I left

my house with my two kids and my pets in my car. The drive from my house to Target normally takes me 3 minutes. I can walk there in about 7 to 10. During the evacuations, I sat sat on Monte Vista Roosevelt Street between my house and Festival Shopping Center for over two hours. two hours in my car [applause] with my children, petrified.

We were sitting ducks just like those who lost their lives in Lahina. The goal was to evacuate, to get to safety, to get to the freeway and head somewhere safe. Instead, we followed our neighbors and jumped the curb by the old nursery part of Target. And we sat in the Target parking lot for hours and hours, wondering if our homes were going to be okay, but more importantly, if we were going to burn to death. Our cars smelled so strongly of smoke afterwards, we had to have them professionally cleaned. The parking lot was filled with evacuees who could not evacuate safely. The gas station there ran out of food and water and people were uh filling up with gas, not knowing how long we would be sitting there. Um we left when we were told to evacuate as soon as we were instructed to. We could not evacuate. So the system that's being proposed to be this real time system, it doesn't matter. We saw the smoke. We smelled the smoke and we left before we were told and we were stuck. To add six thou 600 to a,000 more cars and people to this heavily congested area is a complete disregard for human lives that already live here and for those lives and tenants that you want to invite to live here. Do you really want this on your conscience? We saw what happens when evacuations fail. Both in Lahina and in Altadena. My family was in Lahina on vacation during the Maui fires. I sat and prayed with people who lost not just their homes, their neighborhoods, and livelihoods, but more importantly, their loved ones. They were covered in ash and soot and sobbing and in complete shock. I was trapped there for a few days. It was no longer a vacation. Most people fled on foot with nothing but their clothes on their backs and they had no idea what happened to their

loved ones. That they burned to death in their cars waiting to leave. I saw it with my own two eyes and I lived it. I don't want to live it in my own home. Please hear me. The difference between Anaheim Hills and Lahina is that they had an ocean and some survive that way. You know what we have? We have the freeway and a burning hill and a street in the middle. What protection are you going to offer us who live here currently? And can you promise that same protection to those who will be moving here? Is it come with a warning sign? You listed the benefits. What about the warnings? They need to be warned of the dangers that will be happening. There's been a lot of talk that the evacuation plan has been revised, and I hope it was, but it certainly has not been tested. On any given evening, as I said, the bumper-to-bumper traffic already makes it difficult to get through. The findings of fact for the evacuation plan rely heavily on the idea of shelter in place, or at least it did. This was a form of traffic control. There's no clear legal authority for the Anaheim Police Department to confine people to their homes. Nor would we want to stay in our homes when they are in danger. Let us remind you that 25 homes were destroyed in the last fire and over 50 were damaged. You cannot build an evacuation plan around a promise that residents will be told to stay put or a promise that it's only going to take seven more minutes after our 2-hour evacuation. If you want to test this, [applause] then you ask every resident on any given day to get in their cars and leave. You stand and you watch the chaos that happens. That is the only way that we

will test this without a real fire happening. A private developer should not be redefining or stating any emergency planning without real studies or proof that it works, especially if they don't live here. First responders consistently tell us to do ready, set, go. Know your way means know your way out. Well, after living here for 30 years, I knew my way out and I wasn't even able to get out. I could have walked there faster. I beg you to not make this situation worse. To be clear, our community is not against housing. We supported projects like Link OC because they were built responsibly with direct freeway access, multiple evacuation routes, and real transit options. That this proposal is different. It takes dense development in a location that cannot safely support it. Please don't gamble with the evacuation, emergency response, and the public safety. Our community should not be the test case for unproven theories when lives and homes are at stake. Our lives are worth the opposition of this proposal. A few things I'd like to bring to mind in closing are one, I'd like to get clarification on whether or not funding was decreased so we no longer have the helicopter that we had that brought us some hope and safety. Two, what about the decrease in fire trucks? Specifically, the fire station that's by Sycamore Park. That would be the one responding to a fire that would impact the houses right there. And three, I'd like to have some clarification also on the um builder or the developer's last comment, which seemed a bit as a threat about what would happen if we didn't approve this. I don't like threats and I don't think any of you do either. But he needs to make clear what would happen if we

don't. Because I'll tell you what would happen. You'd have some happy residents who are safe and who could live their lives instead of being worried and fearful that we will end up just the way the people in Altadena and Lahina were. Thank you. [applause]

[applause] [cheering]

Mayor and council members, glad I don't have your job, but thank you for what you do. I'm Phil Hodson Pellar, about a 20-year resident of Anaheim Hills. I live on the Muller Loop, one of the most unescapable areas during a fire. But I love where I live and I support this project. and uh maybe I support it for a different reason. I'm excited about it. Um I pastor actually adjacent to the festival center at Influence Church. We have about 3,500 members. Um we employ 51 people, most of whom live in Anaheim Hills. Um most of them that don't uh can't find housing. So housing is a real shortage in Anaheim Hills. Um, I think most people would agree at least the festival is tired and desperately needs some work. Uh, no. [clears throat]

Well, I I didn't really interrupt you when you were talking, so I did like a little kindness. That's all. Right. So, anyway, um, I'm here to support it. I love the idea. I love the renovation. I think fire issues are something that obviously you guys need to look at and consider. I'm not an expert. I think you have a lot of them in the room and uh maybe they can uh help you figure it out, but I'm here to say thank you and throw my support into the project. Thank you. Our next speaker, Betty Far Bar Farnsworth and then Keith Folsk.

Hi, good evening. Thank you for letting us all speak. Um, and thank you, Amanda. You're always so helpful and professional and prompt. I really appreciate your help. I disagree with the project, but I appreciate you. Um, first first off, let me just say a few things. I think one of the points of clarification, I believe that influence church is on Kaiser. It's not contained within the festival center. I believe that church took over the post office and which has since downsized and now closed. And then there's Bodai Coffee. So, it's not actually connected or anywhere in that festival circle. So, I just wanted to clarify that. Um, I live right by where Joanie lives in that beautiful nine little spot right by Sycamore Park where we can walk down to the festival center. But as I look at the center and I look at what all has been going on with evacuation and fire, it makes me take issue with the planning commission's vote to approve this project. And I don't believe that they acted responsibly in protecting the lives of residents. I've been an Anaheim resident since 1966. And I've lived in Anaheim Hills. Yes, I'm old. and I've lived in Anaheim Hills since 1998. So you guys do the math. I don't know how many years that is. I do believe the festival center does need some rejuvenation, but I don't believe the proposed changes to the general zoning and specific plans are appropriate or safe. The addition of 447 apartments will only

make emergency safety and evacuation a bigger disaster than it already is. You've heard people talk about three hours to evacuate. We didn't evacuate. We stayed. We made burritos for the two firet truck people that were parked in front of our house while they were in inspecting the high tension lines. And to talk to the other to Shell's comment about fire drops, my understanding is they don't do a lot of fire drops from helicopter over those very high tension wires. So that's kind of a double whammy for those of us who live in those eight blocks. Um I get I get distracted. So, let's let's take a look really quickly at the Canyon Fire 2, which was in October of 2017, over eight years ago. And I don't know about you, but I think we all know how much traffic has increased since 2017. I want to give you a few items that I got from Fire Station 10, the wonderful people there at the open house. They had they had this lovely poster board Canyon fire two numbers. 9,217 9,217 acres were burned. 1,660 firefighters were active. 3,500 structures were threatened. 80 structures were destroyed or damaged. That's from the Anaheim Fire Department. This is a picture of their poster. That was over eight years ago. The amount of traffic and ingress and egress with no

changes whatsoever to the infrastructure of Sana Canyon. We have one way in, one way out. I will personally invite each and every one of you to come stay with me, live with me. Next time we have Santa Anas, next time there's a threat of fire in Anaheim Hills and you can experience it for yourself. I know we have some members of this wonderful group that live in in Anaheim. I'm not going to call it Anaheim Hills because we are all residents of the city of Anaheim. To me, there's no Flatlanders. There's no Hills residents. We're Anaheim residents and we all need to be responsible and caring about the safety of our entire community. So, let's not get caught up in Flatland, Hills, and everything else. That's just my own pontification. Um [applause] if if a fire similar to Canyon Fire 2 occurs now, just imagine how devastating that would be. You all see the traffic on the 91 on Saint Ana Canyon. Traffic on the 91 eastbound starts at 11:30 every morning. 11:30 people heading home or wherever in past gypsum and to the Netherlands east north of us whatever direction. I can't imagine how much more devastating the numbers that I just read off to you. 3500 houses threatened some of Deer Canyon in that area hasn't burnt since the 60s. It's a tinder box. very very high fire zone. So we need to think about this before we go cramming 447

more units times x amount of vehicles into into a very small limited area. And I don't know if you've driven the backside of festival. It's one lane, a turn, a center turn lane, and another lane. I can't imagine how people will get in and out of festival. As city council members, I believe your foremost duty is to pro protect the public, protect your constituents, protect each other, protect all of us, all of us Anaheim residents. I don't believe any additional development along Santa Ana can c Santa Ana Canyon especially between Weir Canyon and Fam Fairmont be considered until that proposed Fairmont overcrossing goes in. I know it's not going to give the Anaheim Hillsside people a way over on a daily basis to use that overcrossing, but it could be opened up in an emergency situation. That's what we need. We need infrastructure. We don't need more more people in houses right now. I'm not opposed to housing. Oh my god, we need it. We needed something fierce, but before you put in housing, you got to have the infrastructure. It's I don't know. It would be like building a house without having water. That's the only analogy I can give. Um, [applause] even with this city's wonderful efforts in creating know your way, emergencies like a fire are very unpredictable. People are unpredictable. I don't know. Everybody's going to go to get their kids, take save their pets, evacuate their elderly relatives, and they'll do it by whatever means they have to. if that means jumping a curb, going off road or whatever. So, we need

the infrastructure first. Know your way has never been tested. Thank God, right? We haven't had, knock on wood, we haven't had a fire up here since 2017, but when fire does break out, it will take an unknown amount of time for um emergency personnel to coordinate and evacuate. God bless the cameras, but cameras don't tell people what to do. All camera does is report. Um, coupled with people being afraid for their lives, adding additional traffic to an or already gridlocked is definitely a recipe for disaster and death. It would be made even worse if that salt project I filed builder's remedy ever comes to fruition, which I hope not. In closing, I just want to say to you all, think of this. Paradise, Palisades, Aladina, Lahina, Anaheim. Are we going to be the next stat statistic? And if we if we are, I don't want to place blame, but blame will be placed. Thank you very much. [applause] our next speaker. [applause] Good evening and thank you for your time and your consideration for our local residents. Thank you. I've lived uh in the area here in Anaheim for approximately 30 years and uh there's been more changes with congestion and as they stated, the infrastructure is more of an issue than development. I know we need housing and we need employment and things like that, but already we are behind on the infrastructure with the traffic is

already gridlock and it's uh the fires are increasing and the d and the danger is real and it's prevalent. Anytime the wind blows, I fear the worst because it's possible and we see more of this. And a few of the I feel a little insulted when they uh I know they've done their research in that, but some of these numbers where they say, "Oh, it's a minimum manpack or 7 minutes." I don't know if you've been to a sporting event or a concert. I don't imagine a thousand vehicles coming out of a parking garage in seven minutes. I've been there sometimes an hour or half an hour just in in a garage, a smaller garage. But anyway, just uh t to make this more real for a second. I know that uh you know, they've had people with reports and all this that we've considered from the developers and some of these sound redundant, but these stories are are very real when it's personal and it becomes to your family. Uh like I said, some of those numbers they talked about if I could just share with uh like we said or they'll say like we're going to we're going to help the firefighting $100,000 that that doesn't even pay for one firefighter or minimal equipment compared to we are so upside down in infrastructure. if you want to build some things in the festival area, maybe some, you know, roads and and roads and firefighting and and things like that, something that would help our situation that's we're already behind and upside down. So, metaphorically, it's almost like putting gasoline on a fire. And this danger is very real. And it's very real that I can just remember I won't take up much more of your time, but I had a very personal experience with this was was one day in the morning, the wind was blowing. I worked went to work in Santa Monica. I was working on the site of there. I received a phone call from

my wife. My wife was crying hysterically and my daughter because they were stuck in the gridlock. And I it's just one we're just just above the festival there. Just one block there. They were stuck there for hours praying and crying hysterical hoping they would not die in their cars. This is very real. homes, material things can be replaced. That's no big deal. And you can start over, grab your, you know, boots by the straps and pick up where you left off. But we're talking there's already serious danger. And that was long ago when there was less population and less traffic. You know, I was like 10 years ago, whatever it was, a big fire and we were evacuated. And the danger is very real. I don't you're just inviting another uh you know thousand cars people to be trapped and lose their lives. It's this danger. I cannot underestimate if you got that phone call and you don't know if your wife or your daughter is going to be alive in the next hour when you get a phone call like that. It's very real. And anyways, pardon me. I didn't mean to embarrass myself, but thank you very much for your consideration and have a good evening. [applause] Our next speaker [applause] calling this speaker is Charles Hills. Uh good evening, Madame Mayor, council members. I just uh I want to reiterate uh what others have said. In 2017, we had the Canyon Two fire. That was a dress rehearsal and it took people three three hours just to go a couple miles. They couldn't even go anywhere and we're going to now put 900 more vehicles

into that situation. um you're working under a false assumption when the developer says that oh it's going to be exchange of 900 vehicles versus 900 vehicles and that's not going to happen because if it remains commercial when there's a red flag warning they're going to close down that shopping center. So vehicles aren't going to be allowed to go there. But if it's 900 people living or 900 vehicles or 900 residents in that uh building that being proposed and I've talked to the police chief uh sorry the fire chief about this, what's going to happen is people are going to pick up their kids. They're going to come home. They're going to leave work and they're all going to go back home to that apartment complex. And in talking to the to the fire chief, this is the undeniable truth that you you do have this know your way plan, which again, yes, it hasn't been tested, but what the fire chief has told me is that people tend to evacuate all at once. So, you're going to have an additional 900 vehicles just going into gridlock that's probably going to be there already. you you cannot approve this project unless you improve the the traffic mitigation and the infrastructure in the area. That's the uh Thank [applause] you. That's the And I know I know you're under state mandate to do more housing and and I know the other districts I I heard this last year when I was watching the Deer Canyon uh hearing that one of the one of the council people said, you know, Anaheim Hills has to do their part. And I'm not a nimi. I'm not against development. We want to do our part, but we need the infrastructure. We

need to be able to evacuate from our area. It is really a I don't enjoy living in a fire uh wildfire death trap area. And so, uh, you know, we need that Fairmont, you know, you have to ask the state, give us the money so that we can build infrastructure for the Fairmont flyover, connect Weir Canyon to Jamberee, look at other areas, but to approve this project, you're going to knowingly put 900 more people into an area that doesn't need to be there. And th this idea that the the theater can be something else. It's always just been a theater. It can be re can be subdivided. They subdivided the Steinmart into two areas that are thriving now. It's in Nordstrom rack and it's also in Ulta. They're subdividing the Hobby Lobby. Um 20 years ago in Anaheim Hills, Kmart, Super Kmart left and now it's a Home Depot. It's the second largest Home Depot in the United States. So, there is a lot of opportunity there commercially for that theater. And when there is a red flag uh fire event, it'll be closed. So, you won't have 900 vehicles coming in there. You will have 900 vehicles adding to the situation if you build the apartment complex. So, in closing, I'd like to say that if I came to you with a building for Anaheim, and I didn't have enough fire exits, fire escapes, the fire marshall would not approve my application. There is not enough fire escape, fire exits in Anaheim Hills for us right now. So, unfortunately, you cannot approve this application. So, please, please, because the state mandate is not valid. I if human lives

are put in jeopardy because of the nine or more vehicles that are going to be added to this. Thank you very much and please vote no on this proposal. Thank you. [applause] Our next speaker, Charles Hill. Good evening. I'm I'm glad to be here and I appreciate you taking the time to have this hearing. Um, my name is Chuck Hill. I go by Charles, but my name is Chuck Hill. And next in the next two weeks, I'll be celebrating 40 years in Anaheim Hills in what was originally called the Fieldstone Collection. And there was the bair above us. So, I've been there through every fire event that we've had, every wind event. that wind event that we had just the other day was I had a fence erected and it was less than two years old and and now I have to repair it and you know and god forbid there had been somebody had dropped a you know a cigarette somewhere and we would have had another fire event. Um I'm probably going to repeat what you've heard already from a lot of these people and I want to touch on a couple of other things. Um, when that canyon fire hit and they were the orders came out to evacuate, I told I told my daughter to load up our dogs. My wife was working. She's a nurse at Hogue. And uh I told her, "Load up the dogs and load whatever you want to take." So, she uh she loaded up about a 100 pairs of shoes and then put the dogs in there. Um, and then she in she got in her uh four-wheel drive vehicle. I

stayed behind because the fire I could see the fire up on the hillside up there and uh she drove off and um she made it as far as the target center and she told me just like someone said earlier that she had to drive on the sidewalk. She got out and was driving on the sidewalk on in her four-wheel vehicle. And she says she was sideways. And I said, "How'd you get through the traffic?" She says, "I just forced my way through." She said, "I didn't hit anybody, but I'm sitting at I'm sitting here in the target with everybody else. And in the meantime, you know, the fire is raging." I know that the the Anaheim fire mentioned something about around 10,000 acres, but if we if everybody remembers where that fire started, it was close to 37 square miles of damage that was done by that fire. I remember um I think that our our fire department uh station 10 was down fighting the fire in the south. If you recall what happened on the 241 or the 261 or what you take your choice, it was incinerated. It was it was like a tinder box caught. Um, but I remember the helicopter flying over us and saying, "You need to evacuate." Nobody was knocking on doors. We didn't have the sheriff's department out there to help us out. People were stuck on the roads. I decided to stick around because my daughter said, "Dad, it's deadlocked on Saint Ana Canyon Road." And if you know Santa Ana Canyon Road and and and talk about this environmental impact study or report, there's no way that that that particular road could ever be expanded without demolishing houses down that road. And that would take years to do. And for those of you that have been around for a long time, when I first moved into Anaheim Hills out there, there was this

proposal that they were going to take Fair View and build a bridge to, you know, some kind of a bridge to give us another out. That never happened. It's still there. They've talked about it from time to time again, but I don't think it'll ever get approved. But, you know, it's just been a year since uh since Palisades. I heard somebody mention Lahina. Fire is a scary thing. A little bit about my background. I'm I'm retired now. I worked for Wells Fargo as a compliance guy and I was a regulator before that for the state. Um I've had my insurance license since 1969 and they're still current. Um one of the things that I just got in the mail and I brought it here, my my renewal of my homeowners policy with Mercury, $1,700 increase. So, I increased my deductible to $10,000 and it reduced my premium by $300. Unreal. That and an environmental and what and and what did they do? What the the the insurance companies use um a uh a company called Fire Street and you can go out on firereet.org and you can look at the map of Anaheim Hills out there. It looks like uh it looks like a u a cell company's penetration map. It's got nothing but almost solid red. And here's what they have to say. I'm going to I want to share this with you because I think it's important that you understand these environmental uh inspection reports or analysis that are done are they're they're cookie cutter. That's been my experience when I've looked at loans and stuff like that in the past. But according to First Street Foundation and they provide property specific data

and tools to insurance companies, to banks, to state and local governments, to uh you know industries in general. Um and and it involves both climate and financial risk associated associated with fires with u with high winds extreme heat and in some cases you know they might be dealing with floods which we don't we don't have that problem where we live but currently according to this report if you if you go in and you just ask that particular website does 92808 have wildfire risk major wildfire risk major. I don't know where they got their numbers from, where that report came from, because they don't share that, but there's something not right. Um, currently there are 45,572 properties in 92808. Um, and the wildfire risk that that they associate with our area goes out for 30 years. So the infrastructure that we keep hearing about the improvements that we need to make before we have another nobody said it's it looks like it would be an eyesore to me some beautiful pictures but the concept of a um a four-story apartment building wrapped around a sixstory parking structure just like what um when they when they built the uh the the regal when they built that area up there I remember going to the theater when it first opened up and saw Mr. Edwards there and and that's as busy as I ever saw that parking lot. Uh they really struggled, you know, they dropped their prices down where they were charging five bucks to go to a movie, you know, but they couldn't bring the people in there to support it. So now we're looking at tearing it down and building this monstrosity when it and and again somebody mentioned behind that behind the festival center. It's a it's

a two-lane road with several bumps, you know, to keep the speeders because we've got u senior citizens who live up above who walk down and go across to go in. God forbid what it's going to be like when they start construction, if they ever get to start construction, because those people will suffer. But I just I don't understand, you know, I don't know what your level of education is. Um I I don't belong to the Church of Influence. I heard that mentioned a little while ago. I My dad was a fire, pardon the pun, fire and brimstone Baptist minister in Oklahoma. And um I was the only guy in my graduating class of 56 to get out of the state. I couldn't wait to get to California. So, um, I want to I I want to appeal to your common sense because everything about this is common sense. If if you allow this to go through, I mean, I can't imagine what's going to happen the next time that we have a fire come up over that hillside. Um, I'm going to stay around and try to protect my home, my property, uh, just like everybody else. But it makes me really emotional. I raised three kids there. It's just my wife and I and we're going to stick around for quite a while to come. So, thank you. I I stand in strong opposition to this and uh I hope you'll vote no with it. Thank you. [applause]

Our next speaker, Mark Forzo. Our next speaker, step forward.

Good evening. My name is Mark Cortezo. Myself, I live out there u and in the canyon. We've been up right above the Fiesta Mall 40 years this year, this month. We've seen all the fires. We've seen all the wind. We've seen all the traffic. And going back when we moved in coming off Weird Canyon, it was one lane coming up, one lane going down. Um Sana Canyon, you get hardly any traffic east to west. Uh, La Palama on the on the Yor Belinda side along the park was a very nice uh slow kind of traffic kind of area. But now our area has been impacted with the growth above Anine Hills and your Belinda. But really affects us is the growth out in the Empire. Weird Canyon is the last bottleneck off-ramp, on-ramp, east to west. Everybody coming into work in the morning, I usually get on the the freeway anywhere between 3:40, 5 in the morning till 4:15. It's it's very congested. Everybody from that side coming in. I get off work at 1:15, 1:30. I'm usually by trying to get to Weird Canyon that early in the afternoon. Sometimes I'm getting off of uh Lake View or Imperial going eastbound so I can get to Weird Canyon. If I get off the off-ramp, Sana Canyon eastbound is bumper to bumper. It's worse than the 91 freeway. This is between 1:30 p.m. in the afternoon. Monday through Friday now where used to be just Thursday and Fridays, but now it's with the congestion, it's getting worse and worse and it's impacting La Palama east and west. and it's impacting your Belinda Boulevard. People coming cutting down that way off Imperial.

So, um we've seen the the impact over the years and the building of Anaheim Hills and I just feel bad that uh if something is else bringing more traffic in that area, it's going to be even harder for all of us. Um, I was out there and experienced the fires in ' 08. It took over 314 homes between Yor Belinda and Anaheim. That fire started in the west side of Corona and came through the canyon. Our winds this just this last week for three weeks was unbelievable where shingles come off, trash everywhere. Um, you just don't go outside to take your dog for a walk. You'll get blown off the sidewalk out there. If you've ever experienced the the winds out in the canyon, um the last fire I decided, I believe it was 2017 off the 241 and the 261, I could not leave our house. I I told myself the last time I only got down to the target, which was less than a quarter of a mile, eighth of a mile away. So, I stayed at the house. My neighbor and I stayed in the backyard with fire hoses. I could see station number 10, the fire. Those guys could not get in or out. They were dropping them off all different way. They couldn't get out to what they needed to do for that situation. And I just sat there trying to keep the embers out from our house. The bottom line, love living out there, great neighbors, the churches, the schools, the shopping area. The whole area of raising a family, my wife and I, with our daughters and our granddaughter has been really great. And neighbors, I'm just asking this city council to look to for the

infrastructure like so many people have talked to look at helping us to make things better for us out there. get with CALR, get with the city of the state of California, um help us with the freeway east to west on that area and um it's just not something that is right to be building right there. Put the money, put the time, put the effort back into the the Fiesta Mall. Bring some more what you can do for businesses uh for the community there. um bring it bring churches, uh preschools, uh sporting things in there. There's a lot of things you could do with that building there and it's been proven already on certain buildings in your Belinda and Anaheim Hills that have gone vacant. Um um we have one that's just happening this next uh hopefully this year is uh Trader Joe's has taken over another company uh business that just went closed a couple years ago. So, it can be done, but um I'm going to cut this. I know a lot of it's been already said before and I thank for everybody. Um I just the other little fact was uh some of these uh statistics about um moving traffic time. I don't know where they get those. Um donating money to the police department, to the fire department, $100,000 to a fire department. I work on heavy equipment that might buy a set of tires. you know, $100,000 to the police department. I'm good. I'm sure they can use it, but it doesn't go that far because it's expensive job, the police department. So, put the time and the money effort to develop and help us on our infrastructure with traffic and our community fiesta mall. It would It's a good mall. It's clean. They keep up everything very nice there.

It doesn't need to be repainted. it doesn't need to be rellandscaped because they do a nice job keeping it up for the community. So, thank you very much for your time and uh God bless you. Thank you. [applause] Our next speaker, Anita Anita Hines. Anita,

good evening mayor and members of the city council. I saw the developer the way he present the plan and every the pictures are so beautiful but when you go to see it what they are doing it is not beautiful because each apartment that they bu they built is for family and those apartments doesn't have backyard doesn't have only very small balcony if it's second floor and in the first floor they have just a place to put just the broom and maybe a barbecue. That's it. So the kids, the families, they go to the big park that the to the apparently big park. So they invaded the park and that's the way they live. And it's it is very bad. They this developers already destroy California. We do not want they to continue destroying our country today. I'm coming because I'm can see that this this guy are showing the beautiful things that he's doing. But that's all money. They are taking our taxes away from us. But the thing is this, you know that those families are low income. We saw them the way they live. When they go to that park, they leave the diapers everywhere, you know, and the trash everywhere, you know. I my brother live in your Belinda and I saw it the way

they live. Hundreds of houses, you know, like that. But one small part for them. No backyard, nothing for the children. So how is the way they live now? They have no freedom. Our kids, the ones we own houses, there is no freedom for those people. They don't walk in the street as they used to. The children cannot leave their toys outside. They cannot They had to be supervised constantly. Never been in that way. your Belinda but now it is because they approve those apartments there. Not only that, but they cause also problems. Those people because they are low income. They don't have enough education. They don't have the culture that we have. You know they bring gravity, crime, robbery, cartel, assault, violence in general. And how can we live in that way? You got to think about it. And I against the developers remember they take our they are taking our freedom away not only from us the adults but from our children they cannot leave their toys in any place they have to be constantly supervised for someone that's the way that develops sir I'm against them thank you

we have our next speaker step forward. G Price time limit is 3 minutes and Miss Price does have um a PowerPoint presentation that was submitted within the guidelines of the rules and procedures and we'll go ahead and display that. Thank you for the slides. The lack of a safe and effective evacuation route is not a new problem. In fact, the city has acknowledged the issue for decades. I pulled the city's 2004 general plan. That would be four years before the freeway complex fire and 13 years before the Canyon 2 fire. The general plan included policy 7.1-6 that states, "Develop evacuation standards for constrained neighborhoods and alternative evacuation routes." Two fires and 20 years later, there has been no major infrastructure to help with evacuation. The Fairmont overpass isn't a city priority. It isn't included in the city's circulation element, and it lacks all funding. The city has wasted decades and has put evacuation infrastructure on the back burner. The three-hour estimated evacuation time is deeply concerning. It comes down to an algorithm for the developer. They control the numbers going in, so they control the results. Their analysis stated that the city of Anaheim currently does not have a criteria for determining whether or not evacuation travel time increases are significant. Why has the city not adopted a threshold for adding additional time to evacuate? Logic tells us that adding any amount of time puts people at risk. That is

significant. The bigger question is why is the city think why is it acceptable for 3 hours to the city? The CHP received a report of smoke at 8:30 a.m. on the morning of the Canyon 2 fire. By 9:30, the fire was raging through Anaheim Hills. That's 1 hour. Our fire department does an excellent job, but their job is to mitigate. It is up to the policy makers to determine what risks they are willing to take. So I ask you, what risks are you willing to take? Do you value human life? Do you truly believe 3 hours to evacuate is possible or even acceptable? Was the Palisades fire not a wakeup call? You can't ignore that the Palisades has more escape routes than Anaheim Hills, but it still failed. Anaheim Hills is hotter, drier, steeper, and more constrained. This project would make evacuation mathematically impossible. If a fire comes, and it will, and people die because they couldn't evacuate, the city can't hold up their hands and claim ignorance. The risks are documented, the consequences are predictable, protect the community, and deny the project. [applause] [cheering] Our next speaker, Linda Hurley.

[applause]

Linda Hurley. My gosh, everybody's already gone over the points that I was going to make. So, I feel like I've rewritten this whole thing in the last half hour or so. [clears throat] Um, a couple of the things I deja vu. I think I was just here about eight or nine months ago. Um, mayor and members of the city council, um, I live in Anaheim Hills. The area I live in is called a very high fire hazard severity zone with limited ingress and egress. Um, it is the highest fire hazard rating used for residential areas designated by Calire. Um, one of the things that I wanted to talk about was the fact that um, the helell tanker contract never renewed this year because somebody didn't show up to vote or something like that. This is not just some simple problem that, you know, oh gosh, I don't know, you know, we don't have a hela tank or okay, let's just send a couple of water buckets out there. Um, it's a serious serious problem because those those helicopters hold massive amounts of water. Um just little things like that in case we couldn't escape are again unmit unmitigatable in my opinion. Um all right so uh I'm here because public safety must come before density in wildfirerp prone areas. Just last year, this council denied the Hills Preserve project after an EIR showed evacuation times exceeding three hours, concluding that added density here would be lifethreatening. It is life-threatening. Um, the festival project before you tonight is less than one mile away and relies on the same evacuate evacuation routes, canyon, roads, and downstream

choke points. Yet, we are now told that adding hundreds of residents and vehicles will increase evacuation time by only seven minutes. And by the way, the numbers you're hearing about 900 extra cars are not true because if three or four people move into one of those apartments, you're talking about four, possibly four, three, four cars per unit and their visitors and their family and whoever else comes. So, it's it's a higher number. Um, all right. So, uh, Anaheim's public works, uh, director, uh, acknowledged that proposed evacuation and infrastructure improvements, including secondary routes, are independent of this project, not guaranteed and not yet completed. During the salt hearings, the city received formal attorney warnings that evacuation modeling in this area understates realworld risk. The the geography has not changed. The roads have not changed. The risk has not changed. The uh state law allows and this I think this is really important. State law allows denial of housing projects when there's a specific unmitigable threat to public safety. A very high fire hazard severity zone with effectively one way in and one way your time is up that standard.

Thank you very much. Our next speaker, [applause and cheering] Linda Moral. Linda, we'll have our next speaker, John A. Gillespie. Oh, I'm sorry. It looks like she is stepping forward.

Hi, Mayor Atkins and City Council. Appreciate you listening to our words and taking them to heart. All All of our insurance companies are pulling out. They are refusing to ensure our neighborhoods because we are officially classified as a high risk area. That alone should stop us in our tracks. The builder's remedy was never meant to be used when it endangers an entire community. And that danger has already been clearly established. Our fire chief has stated it. Independent studies have confirmed it. Every expert we've consulted has warned against pushing forward because it puts residents lives at risk. Let's be honest about the reality on the ground. In the event of a major fire, we already struggle with evacuation. The idea that we could safely evacuate multiple schools, families, seniors, and vulnerable residents from the area is simply not feasible. We are setting ourselves up for a scenario where lives could be lost, not because we didn't know better, but because we chose to ignore the warnings. So I have to ask what are we doing here? We are why are we advancing policies that even insure companies that even insurance companies whose business depends on managing risk won't touch? Why are we willing to gamble with public safety when every sign is telling us to stop and rethink? This is not about politics or housing quotas. This is about responsibility. This is about protecting our community before we make decisions we cannot undo. I've lived in Anaheim Hills, built my house 50 years ago up Mhler Drive. I've been through four or five fires. I can tell you with each fire we get 60 mph winds. With each fire, they told us, "Don't worry, you're fine." And the fire turned and just like that they're like, "Evacuate. You're

trying to get out. The traffic's bad. I've seen it jump from Corona through Anaheim Hills, burn homes, jump over to Yorb, Belinda, burn homes through Overland. I've seen it come back through the canyon, go back through Irvine. It's unpredictable. There's no such thing as know your way in our community. And there's no such thing as a being safe amount of homes that can be built. We don't care how beautiful the building is, how much time they've tried to put in convincing you guys that this is a feasible project for our area. Just like the deer canyon, it cannot happen because our lives are at risk and we have families. We have three or four schools that could not be evacuated. El Rancho, you couldn't even get the amount of kids out of there or the other schools that are up there. You the parents aren't going to leave. They're going to go to the school to try to retrieve their kids. This is an impossible scenario that cannot happen and does not need to happen. So, we appreciate you guys taking our concerns to heart and voting no on this. Thank you. [applause]

Good evening. It's been a long one for y'all. I know. Um, honorable mayor, um, I've lived in Anaheim Hills since 1993. I can't come close to some of the harrowing stories I heard my neighbors express this night. My main concern again is the escape gridlock. Adding over a thousand people where that movie theater is and then trying to get out. Um I really can't say anything more. I think it's all been said tonight. I share my time. Um, thank you. I I appreciate you listening to our next speaker, Irma Ramirez. [snorts] Good evening, mayor and city council. I have been an Anaheim resident for over 35 years and I am a retiree from Anaheim Union High School District after 25 years of employment. I have seen development on the flat lands of Anaheim nonstop. But there has been no meaningful development in district 6 for decades. Now is the time for district equity and for Anaheim residents to finally see future in Anaheim Hills. Please vote yes on Anaheim Hills Festival. Thank you. Our next speaker, Michelle Michael Bowen.

Good evening. Um, my name is Michelle and I've been a resident of East Anaheim Hills since 1985. I lived in the development that was new, newly built at the corner of San Canyon and Wear Canyon. So, I've watched a lot of change. Um, but one thing that's been consistent is a problem with traffic consistently. Everyone knows that anytime the 91 freeway has a problem, our streets are extremely impacted. It is obvious that our roads were not adequately designed for the number of residents and the 91 freeway commuter traffic. Then when a brush fire occurs, it is impossible to navigate with the number of cars on the road. For example, during the Canyon 2 fire in 2017, I knew better than to go down San Canyon. I went the back way. It took me a half hour to travel one mile from Canyon High School to Canyon Ren Road and Null Ranch Road. I knew better again to than to take Sanan Canyon. I got stuck again at Moon Ridge and Sunset Ridge. And I'm pretty sure I was in one of the photographs on that slide because that's where I was stuck with my daughter. It took us [clears throat] over a half hour to get to the Sycamore Canyon Apartments, which was a mile away. It's such a helpless feeling sitting there, and I can now understand how people perish in a brush fire. I forgot to add that I also needed to help my elderly mother mother evacuate and she no longer drives. So, she lives in the area where we were evacuating. Um, a lot of people have talked about the festival center. I'm just going to speak to a friend of mine. She lives behind there. She went to go get her son from Preset Elementary School. She tried to travel down Sana Canyon westbound. She couldn't get to him. So, she had to rely on friends to get him. and she said she turned back around and was going eastbound on San Andy to get back to her

neighborhood and festival uh center and she had cars coming headon towards her. Um so people talk about the know your way. I've asked firemen when I've gone to community events and asked them about the evacuation map because in reality like they've said you never know where that fire is going to travel when the wind is kicking in. Um, this is something that I hope you guys you've heard it over and over again. I hope you take that in consideration. The the roads need to be improved, right, for because we can't get out. You have one main road where canyon and all those residents coming down from there that were trying to evacuate. Recently, I was driving down Sana Canyon Road. I don't know. I knew like, okay, I got to miss the the rush hour traffic. I went I don't know it's like six o'clock. I actually got stuck where that Deer Canyon proposal was sitting there because it was bumperto bumper all the way to the festival center. It that's something that needs to improve.

Ma'am, I'm sorry your time is up. Thank you again and I hope you take everything into consideration.

Our next speaker, Jimmy Arod, followed by Christina Kelly. [clears throat] Good evening, madame mayor, council members. My name is Jimmy Elrod, and I have the honor of representing the union carpenters who live and work in Anaheim and throughout the rest of Orange County. Uh we collectively oppose this project as proposed because the developer has declined to commit to responsible labor standards on major portions of the construction. This project requires a general plan amendment, a specific plan amendment, and a developer agreement. Discretionary approvals that give the city real leverage. The applicant is asking to convert commercial land into 447 residential units and construct a large multi-level parking structure. when we collectively requested to I'm sorry when we collectively requested a commitment to use skilled and trained workforce on the parking structure and drywall portions of the project we were told the project would not pencil out. That kind of response in our opinion reflects a project that uh or whose financial assumptions depend on reduced labor standards. For the record, uh, earlier today, I submitted materials documenting prior construction defect settlements involving the applicant, which we believe are relevant to the council's consideration of the requested discretionary approvals and developer agreement. We respectfully urge the council to condition approval on responsible labor standards or outright decline the the project as proposed. Thank you for your time and consideration. Our [applause] next speaker, Christina Kelly, followed by Michelle Zeruggoza. [applause]

Good evening, mayor and council. My name is Christina and I live in Anaheim and I am a union carpenter. I support development, but I do not support projects that leave local workers out. This developer is asking the city to approve major changes to allow 447 apartments on land that was planned for commercial use. That approval creates real value. When the developer says that they cannot commit to use responsible contractors, parking structure and drywall, that means fewer good middle class jobs for people who live here. Those aren't those aren't side scopes. Those are central to the project. Anaheim residents will deal with the impact for this development for decades. We should also share the benefits. Please require responsible labor standards before approving this project. Thank you. [applause] Our next speaker, Michelle Zerugosa. Michelle Zerugosa. We'll go to the next speaker, Chase Bridio. Radio.

Good evening. My name is Chase Preciato. I am a parillegal from Lizo Jury LLP. I am speaking on behalf of Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility or SAFER. Safer requests that the city council deny approval of the FEIR for the Festival Anaheim Hills project and instead required the city to prepare a revised EIR. Under SQA, the city must prepare a revised EIR because the FEIR's mitigation measures are deficient and the FEIR failed to analyze the project's indoor air quality impacts. First, for the project's fire and evacuation safety impacts, the FEIR's mitigation measures include the formulation of plans for construction, fire prevention, wildfires, and construction management all before project construction. However, these measures constitute deferred mitigation since the plans will not be created until after project approval without giving the city and public a chance to review the plans. This is barred by SQA. The FEIR also failed to quantify the effectiveness of these mitigation measures. Likewise, for the project soil stability impacts, the FEIR deferred the city's review of the project plans for compliance with a geotechnical exploration and feasibility rep report until the issuance of construction permits. The city's review must be conducted before project approval. Furthermore, for the project's significant and unavoidable transportation impacts, the FEIR failed to include all feasible mitigation measures to reduce these impacts. Additionally, industrial hygienist Francis Offer concluded that the project

will significantly impact indoor air quality. The project's long-term indoor emissions of carcinogenic formaldahhide gas will expose its future residents to a cancer risk of 120 per million exceeding the SQA significance threshold of 10 per million. The FEIR did not address this impact. For the reasons I have discussed here and in Safer's written comments, we again ask that you deny approval of the FEIR and require preparation of a revised EIR. Thank you. [applause] Our next speaker, Kevin Gillette, followed by Karen Lynch. Kevin. Okay, we'll go to our next speaker, Karen Lynch.

Hi, [clears throat] my name is Karen Lynch. Um, my parents moved to Anaheim Hills in 1979. First owners of a beautiful home that they still live in. Uh, I experienced my first fire, the Gypson Canyon fire, 1982. Over 17,000 acres burned between Corona and Anaheim Hills. It was still open back then. Uh, had to leave Anaheim for a while. moved back in 1995. 2006 we had the Sierra Park fire. 10,000 acres burned. 75% of Anaheim Hills was ordered evacuated. In 20 in 2007, we had the Windy Ridge fire. 2000 acres burned. 2500 houses evacuated. 2017 you've already heard about the Ridge Fire. It was terrifying. I don't know. I think we all know Anaheim Fire Department messed up. Someone did a boo boo. Didn't go check that first fire and it was an hour later. But I got to tell you, I was checking because this is what you do when you live in Anaheim Hills. You can see that the sun is a different color coming in your windows and you know that there is smoke between you and the sun. So, you go outside and you sniff and you sniff to see if you smell a fire. Now, if I smell a fire, I go looking for it because I've had so many up here in my life. I go looking. And that's what I was doing for that hour that that you know, I I went up to top of the hill. I went up. I was looking here. I was looking there. I was trying to decide if I should get out of there. Um got the kids, got the cats, went to my parents house cuz I lived two miles from them. It took me 30 minutes to go two miles from my house to my parents house and they refused to leave.

Traffic was backed up. People couldn't get out of there. You know what the police officers were doing? They were going door todo to see if anybody was there. And to tell them to get out, you're being evacuated, which is a wonderful thing to do. I'm not against development. My kids don't live near me because they can't afford it. I would love to see some affordable housing in Anaheim Hills Mills. I would love to have my kids closer to me, but you can't make that decision to add to the risk that you know is there that CalFire tells us we are in the highest possible fire risk zone. And you, the city of Anaheim, you are Oh, shoot. It went away. You are our agency of protection. We have to look to you for protection. I would love to see development. Could you please try to get us some safe way to get out of our homes when there is a fire?

Ma'am, I'm sorry. Your time is up. Thank you. Our next speaker, Aaron Barahas, [applause] followed by Martin Alvarado.

Good evening, everyone. First, I want to say thank you to each and every one of you who came out uh to this meeting um exercise that freedom of speech um in a civil manner. So, thank you for coming out everyone. Um my name is Aaron Braz. I live in Anaheim. Um I'm for the project. Um I understand that we do need uh work upgrade on the infrastructure. Um I'm I'm for all the points that have been brought up as far as safe fire safety and evacuation. However, I do believe that sooner or later I mean the building the progress of Anaheim is going to come to Anaheim Hills and I think that it's best that it takes place where uh festival projects going to take place. Uh, I think that's that's the best place. Otherwise, it's in my understanding, it's going to take place somewhere else in that same uh vicinity. Um, I know changes are always hard, but I mean, they're going to happen and we just have to embrace them and and adjust to them. Um, I know we were talking some some uh some some of the members or some some of the people were talking about, you know, some of these businesses closing like like the theater. Uh there's been a lot of businesses in our area that close down because we the residents that live around there. We don't support them and we push these other places, you know, to come up with better ideas to generate money. And I mean I I we got to we got to see both sides, too. We can't just, you know, think about ourselves and, you know, common sense was was been thrown out there a lot. We talk about

common sense, common sense. Hey, this common sense that. We know that this particular place that we live in, it's a high fire risk area. But yet, we're still there. And here we are just crying and crying about it. It's like I I understand everything they're saying. I know a lot of them might get upset at me for that comment, but I mean, we're kind of part of it, too. I mean, there's no common sense in us if we're still living there and we know that it's a highf fire risk area. I mean, I love the place. That's why I'm still there. But, I mean, we are fully aware and there are a bunch of different options that we can take and different routes and I mean, to each his own. Thank you and God bless everyone. Our next speaker, Martin Alvarado, Martin Alvarado, Alex Meco. [clears throat] Hi. Um, good evening everyone. Um, I'm just here to, you know, just, you know, I don't want to repeat everything that was said because all my concerns were already addressed by previous speakers. Um, I just want to make one point that, um, bring it down to the traffic. Um, where I live, I can only exit into Srano. Now, that street, it gets it gets really backed up all the way up to, you know, to Canyon Rim. Um, I hate to leave the house after 4 after 4 pm. Now lately it's after 2 pm because uh all the traffic coming down on the 91 freeway people exit uh Lake View and all the side streets are you know are uh

really congested even on the Yalinda side la is also backed up to Imperial all the time now um but in case of an emergency adding a thousand well they say 900 cars I don't know But uh where I live, most people have most of us have three or four cars, not two. So that number is likely to be increased. And in an area where it bottlenecks the exits, adding another a thousand, let's call it a thousand per se, and there are a thousand cars trying to leave at the same time. I think it's just completely dangerous. I think is irresponsible. Uh I really urge all of you because you know you guys are have kids and all this and you know I live through the fires. I lived there for 30 years and it's impossible with all the schools nearby to get by to get through. It used to be east only. Now it's east and west that you can't go anymore and in case of an exit you have to go west and it's the same problem. um is I urge you to find a different uh allocation for the theater. Uh, I'm not I'm not against projects and I know we need housing, but at least consider postponing it until the infrastructure can be in place to accommodate the extra um vehicles, the extra traffic and everything that comes with it. Because see, not just that, it's businesses that going to be coming by. is going to be elab extra traffic also and that just adding to a very bad situation already.

So I just urge you to at least consider uh putting the horse before the you know uh work on the infrastructure first then you can build as much as you want in order to accommodate. Sir I'm sorry your time is up. Okay thank you very much.

Next speaker Stephanie M followed by Mark Herbert. Council members, this festival development project is not a routine zoning item. It is a decision that will determine whether the city protects its residents or knowingly exposes them to preventable danger. The environmental impact report makes one fact impossible to ignore. This project sits in an area with high fire sessility, limited access routes, and emergency response capacity that is already stretched thin. Adding new residential development here does not increase just increase risk. It permanently intensifies it. This project would increase ignition sources from people and more activity. Traffic congestion that will slow or block evacuation routes. Demand on fire and emergency services already overextended. The number of residents exposed to fastmoving wildfire conditions. And we know what that means. This community has lived through fires that move faster than anyone expects. We have seen how quickly sparks become a wall of fire. When an EI EIR states that a project increases exposure to wildfire hazards, that is not a footnote. It is a direct warning. This is not about being for for or against development. This is about public safety and legal responsibility. The festival development project increases fire danger, lacks adequate mitigation, exposes s the city to significant legal liability. The EIR does not support approval. The law does not support approval. Public safety does not support approval and the wildfire danger is only the beginning. This reszoning does far more than allow housing on the old cinema footprint. It

opens the door to residential development across the entire 16 acres. This is not a single project. It's a permanent land use change. Once approved, additional units could be built by right. If 24-hour fitness relocates or closes, the property owner could pursue another 300 or more units without returning to the public, without a hearing, and without any community input. Tonight is the last time residents will have a voice. And it gets worse. The reasonzoning includes a reduction in parking requirements, permanently lowering the number of spaces required for all future development on those 16 acres. The justification for this reduction is based on a Bureau of Transportation survey from 2001, a study that is 25 years old. A quarter century ago, ride share didn't exist. Remote work didn't exist. E-commerce didn't exist. Anaheim's population and traffic volumes were drastically lower. Yet, the city is using outdated pre-smartphone data to justify providing 70 fewer parking spaces that current code requires. This is not responsible planning. This is not

I'm sorry, your time is up. Thank you. [applause] For these reasons, the festival development project must be denied. It is unsafe.

Our next speaker, following the speaker, Andrew Winkner, Mark Herbert, Anaheim, Greece. I direct my comments to the LA Times, the Orange County Register, the voice of OC, and the truth of OC. I suggest this meeting's been in violation of the council's own rules and perhaps the state law and I recommend they look into the first page of the council agenda under public comments and I would be happy to help them in their research. The city attorney and the council didn't want to discuss it. Okay, some questions about this. In June, fire station number 12 is expected to be completed. That's the one by Angel Stadium. The truck and crew for station 12 will come out of fire station number 10 in Anaheim Hills. When will the residents be notified of this? 10. Is there going to be a new tr truck and crew assigned to Anaheim Hills to replace the transfer of this existing truck? How much is a new truck and crew going to cost? Has it been ordered yet? When will it be delivered? From my research and what Fullerton has run into, there's a two to fouryear backlog on fire engine orders nationwide, and prices have tripled since 2020, up to 2 million per engine. When are we going to hear this in Anaheim? If the delay is due to the growing city budget deficit, which was 64 million this year and is expected to be larger next year, then why is the council spending $394,000 on the ethics officer? That's annually. That's one the cost of

a $2 million firet truck. And if it's up to a four-year wait list for a new firet truck, it could be 80% paid for by the time it was delivered by the elimination of the ethics officer and his office. What does the ethics officer do? Okay. What happens in in the meantime to the fire protection and fire insurance rates of the residents of Anaheim Hills as they wait for the order to be placed for a replacement engine to Anaheim Hills? When is fire station 13 in West Anaheim going to break ground? It's starting the process. How much is it going to cost? The one by Angel Stadium's $15 million. When will it be completed? When will be when will the truck be ordered for fire station number 13? How much will the truck and crew cost? 25. Why hasn't Anaheim pushed for the Fairmont overpass evacuation route the past 50 years? 50 years they haven't tried yet. The OC Riverwalk which the OC Vibe would like and the Angel Stadium would like confronts their property is at the top of the OC delegation congressional delegation's wish list at $200 million. How did that get ahead of the Fremont overpass?

Sarah, your time is up. Our next speaker, Andrew Wner. [applause] Hello, mayor and city council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak again. Uh, honestly, it feels like this has become an annual event. I'm here today asking you to show compassion for the people you represent and deny this project. I live further up the hill, close to the immediate fire danger zone. During the last evacuation, my family was trapped in the 2 and a half hour gridlock on Null Ranch Road. Um and evacuation safety is something we live with and think about constantly. One of the biggest concerns with this festival project is the resoning from commercial to residential and the difference matters for safe evacuation safety. When there are winds, smoke or fire danger, people don't go shopping, they go home. In a fire, everyone goes home at the same time. Reszoning this site to residential increases the number of people who will be evacuating in the worst case scenario. And this is not happening in isolation. Right now, Anaheim has two major projects projects in play. This festival project and the Deer Canyon project, which is currently moving forward through the builder's remedy process. These projects are similar in size, and both could potentially go through. Together, we're talking about roughly 2,000 additional cars. The Deer Canyon analysis already added about 30 minutes to the evacuation times, which are 3 hours. Um, and traffic's not linear. It's exponential. Adding this festival project on top of the Deer Canyon 30 minutes isn't going to add just a small amount of delay. It's going to compound the problem even worse. I would say an conservative estimate of these two projects put together is going to move the evacuation times closer to four hours. From my home, evacuation traffic looks like a

line for a Disneyland ride, except this isn't the Haunted Mansion. This is a line to escape before families burn to death. Today, the wait time is already three hours, and these two projects add 2,000 more cars. Cars that essentially cut to the front of the line because of where they're located. That pushes the longest delays onto the people furthest up the hill, who are at the highest risk, who need to get out of there immediately. Over a year ago, residents came here and pleaded for fire safety. The s council listened and voted against Deer Canyon. But since then, what has actually changed as far as residents can see? Nothing. There's no meaningful infrastructure improvement underway and nothing on the long-term agenda that solves the evacuation bottlenecks. One hour evacuation times would be ideal, but it's unrealistic. But three hours is so far beyond reasonable that it borders on absurd. adding anything to this project, any anything like that is unacceptable. So, I'm asking you, pause the project until evacuation infrastructure is improved and Deer Canyon is resolved or keep this properly property zoned commercial. Please do the right thing for the people you represent. We are scared of the fire risk and need you to step up and pro protect us. Please vote no. Our [applause] next speaker,

I urge the city council not to approve the festival center project as it is currently described in the project application. The EIR describes a worst case scenario as a wildfire evacuation taking place due to a fire in the Deer Canyon Nature Preserve directly to the west and indicates an additional evacuation time of 7 minutes. Although it is true a worst case scenario will always be when the fire you are evacuating from is in close proximity to the building you are in. Worst case scenario is not the same as historically accurate scenario. Fires in District 6 are historically wind driven due to Santa Ana winds and come from the east and move west and south. It is more likely than not if a wildfire is in Deer Canyon, it would be the result of a fire that has already passed by the festival center and all the residents would have already needed to be evacuated. The cited additional 7minute evacuation time is misleading and that it fails to remind the council and the public that the time is being added to an already stated three-hour evacuation. Know your way would instruct the residents at the F festival center to evacuate towards Corona heading east on Santa Ana Canyon. And as we all know, that's not going to be a viable option. So that means that the 400 plus units of people are going to be evacuating to the the west on Santa Ana Canyon Road that's already jam-packed. Um while the developer has indicated they expect to continue their lease relationship with anchor stores, some of the other lease holders are already gone. My dentist was in the festival center until a month ago. She informed me that her lease was not renewed and she had to join another practice in your Belinda. I suppose it's for the best because if she stayed there, I probably would have been would not have been able to find a parking spot. [snorts] 37 dedicated parking spots from 9:00 a.m.

to 5:00 p.m. for potential renters is not an efficient use of such a substantial portion of the available parking. Potential renters should be provided with one-time pass to park in the tenant guest parking areas. The developer indicated 37 spots would be available after 5:00 pm of for patrons of the festival center and not tenants or guests. He also reported tenants and guests would not be allowed to use the 66 parking spots for Wood Ranch in the real estate office. This is virtually impossible to regulate. The developer de described a situation where patrons of the nearby stores and restaurants would walk approximately a quarter of a mile to get to the shopping and dining area if the nearby patron parking lot was filled. Vans is just adjacent to the proposed complex. No one is going to walk a quarter of a mile with their groceries. It is inevitable that tenants and tenant visitors will use a substantial portion of the parking meant for patrons of the shopping center. patrons will ultimately become frustrated with the lack of parking and they will do business elsewhere.

Thanks.

Our next speaker, Diego R. [applause] Good evening. Uh my name is Diego and I'm here to support the proposed mixeduse development in Anaheim Hills. As someone who's lives who's lived in Anaheim Hills, I see firsthand hire communities affected by the imbalance between local job growth and the limited number of homes available. This project helps address that gap by adding a well planned housing in an area that's already supported by existing infrastructure. It's a practical step toward keeping our community stable and ensuring that people who contribute to Anaheim Hills every day have a realistic opportunity to live here. As a younger resident myself, I also see how limited our housing options are. Most of what exists today is either single family homes or a larger multifamily property, both of which are often out of reach for people just starting out. This project helps diversify the types of homes available by creating options that fall between those extremes. It offers a more attainable entry point for residents like me who want to stay in Anaheim Hills but aren't yet in a position to purchase a traditional home. Adding this variety strengthens the long-term stability of our community and ensures that people at different stages of life can find a place here. Mixeduse development also delivers clear economic benefits. Projects that combine homes with retail and services typically generate higher sales tax revenue per acre than single-use commercial sites. Local businesses benefit from consistent foot traffic and residents gain access to daily needs within walking distance. This reduces vehicle miles traveled. a key metric used in regional transportation and air quality planning. The site itself is currently occupied by a theater that has struggled for years and no longer generates the activity or revenue it once did. Replacing an underperforming property with a modern

mixeduse development allows a city to make far better use of the land instead of a low profit low use. The new project brings steady economic activity, new customers for nearby businesses, and more vibrant and a more vibrant presence in the area. For these reasons, grounded in measurable outcomes, I urge the approval of this mixeduse development. Thank you.

Our next speaker, Anna Anna Gromis. Anna, we'll go to our next speaker, Dharma Throng. Hello, my name is Dharma and my family and I have been Anaheim residents for over 10 years. As I enter the next phase in my life, I'm looking to move out of my family home, but the city's limited multif family housing opportunities has left me looking for residency elsewhere. I support the Anam Hills Festival's project as I believe that building affordable housing further from the downtown area is essential for young adults like me who wish to continue living in the city we grew up in. Most of the housing in the surrounding areas are unaffordable single family housing. New housing would diversify housing opportunities, reduce overcrowding, support the city's goal of revitalizing the city, and reinforce the city's commitment towards its housing element. Furthermore, the city's investment would bring in new residents and life to the community that I've grown up in. As an infill project near commercial uses, this project would increase economic activity and reduce mobile emissions, which is essential in helping our air quality in California, and would give young people like me an opportunity to continue living in our community and continue making it a better place. Thank you. Our next speaker to step forward, Dave Hello. Good evening, um, honorable mayor, members of the council, um, and the city [clears throat] staff. Uh, my name is Dave Vadaria, and I have been an Anaheim resident for over 25 years. And also, I have had an opportunity to serve um, as a park and rec commissioner and

also as a planning commissioner. So I have been on that side and now I'm on this side. So I I feel um this project is a very very uh complicated project in a certain way. uh progress has to be made but how do you make that progress and one of the things is that NIM Hills uh I echo the voices of the residents that yes we do have a huge issue when there's fire or any emergency that occurs and in this instance populating that space with more cluster is not the answer. I would suggest that um this project be um voted no and what I would say is either structure it in a different way where the festival center becomes a historic place or something like that and you know we can go forward with space that other generations can use it for a long time and we don't have to struggle on you know getting permission to do space changes. So [snorts] I'll rest my case over here and good luck and please vote no. Thank you. Our [applause] next speaker, Doug Hill.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. Very high fire severity area. What does that mean to you? Think about that. What does that mean to you? Being an Anaheim Hills resident, I know what it means to me. It means concern. And when the winds start to blow, it means high awareness. And once you smell smoke, it becomes panic. Know your way. Yeah, we know the way. We know the way is to get down to the boulevard and head west away from the fire because all the fires come from the east. I've been a resident of Anaheim Hills for 30 years. In that time, I've had to evacuate twice. Once in 2008, once in 2017. My home is about 200 yards from Saint Ana Canyon Road and it is the only way out. Eucalyptus Drive. There's only one way out to Saint Ana Canyon Road. It took me 45 minutes just to get to that boulevard. At that point, it took me two hours to go two miles to the point where I felt like I was far enough away from the smoke and the fire to where I was safe. Nearly three hours to go two miles. If this was paradise, if it were Lahina, I would have died on my own street, not able to get out. Dense housing was never made to be in Anaheim Hills. There is not the infrastructure for it. It was never planned to be that way. Since 2017, traffic in that area has increased substantially. On a Friday night, it backs all the way up from Weir to my street, which is almost a mile and a half from Weir. It's ridiculous.

Developments like this in a high fire severity area are irresponsible. It is your job to protect its citizens and certainly not put even more in a higher risk area. I heard someone say earlier that there's 4,900 homes in zip code 928. If this apartment development goes through, that increases the number of homes in that area by 10%. 10%. 7 minutes? Really? Come on. Santa Ana Canyon Road is the only way for us to get out and we share that route with everyone else in the area. If you're going to build more homes in this area, you need to give us more infrastructure. The most logical thing would be to put an overpass at Fairmont, a regular overpass at Fairmont, eliminating traffic at Sana Canyon and Weir and Sa Canyon at Imperial. that needs to be done before any further development, especially dense housing. We need to learn from the lessons in Paradise, Lahina.

Mr. Hill, I'm sorry. Padina and Pasad and Palisades. Don't let Anaheim become part of that list. Thank you. Our next speaker, [applause] William Ward.

Good evening, Mayor, city council members. My name is William Ward. I'm a resident of Anaheim as well as a union carpenter in 16 years. I'm here because this project asks for a a city for major approvals, including lowering city housing standards, but does not offer enough in return for the community. The developer wants to change both the general plan and the specific site plan to allow 447 residential units on land that was originally intended for commercial use. That decision adds significant value to this project. Yet, when it comes to using responsible contractors instead of bad actors on the parking structure and the drywall, two core parts of this project, we are told that the project won't pencil out. That's not a community benefit. That is a cost shift onto working families. The city of Anaheim has an opportunity tonight. Once these approvals are granted, that opportunity will disappear. I urge you not to approve this project without stronger commitments to fair wages, skilled labor, and local workers. And on a personal note, I have observed that 45 moderately pricriced units is not enough to combat the affordability and housing crisis. Thank you. [applause]

Our next speaker, [cheering] Mike Robbins. Mike Robbins. Janine Robbins. Grace Arzola. Jamie Kim.

Good evening. My name is Jamie Kim. I'm a commercial real estate broker of 22 plus years. Last seven years I've been in the development field. I'm also an active member of the Urban Land Institute. I am here in favor of this project. Shea Properties cannot have a long history of operating for 144 years without being ethical. I would like to propose some of these arguments about safety, traffic, evacuation. The developer is not responsible for all of that. Okay? You're asking and beseeching a city council, a city uh that is in debt deficit. They cannot pay for the things that you're asking for. But this project would help alleviate some of that financial burden by an increase in property taxes. This would help pay for education, public safety, infrastructure, and public works. And I think somebody said the $100,000 contribution to the fire department was laughable. That's significant. That's something that the city budget does not have right now. So I think [clears throat] you have to think of the alternative. If Shea Properties is not allowed to go forward with this project, then you might end up seeing Sheay sell the property, another aggressive, unethical developer come through and build something with triple or quadruple the density. Now, for evacuation, safety, all of those concerns, part of that comes from fire mitigation and also an expanded budget for the fire department. Most of the problems that we have in California are due to the incompetence and um negligence of Gavin Newsome. And so to put that all on the city council is burdensome and unfair. Uh so I speak in favor of this project I think it would

be great because I actually shop at the Anaheim Festival Center and I've been spending my dollars in the city of Anaheim since I was seven years old. So, I think this project would invigorate. It would help keep and retain um the tenants that are already there instead of losing those tenants. And I just think it would be a nice development for kids to come and hang out, have a safe place to go, something beautiful where small families can actually build their families and ignite a dream to prosper. And I think this project would help invigorate the city of Anaheim in such a great way. So, I'm in favor. Please vote yes. Our next speaker, Jim,

I got to admit, lost all my notes when my battery died. So, um I don't think anybody was questioning the ethics of Sheay. I don't I never got that sense that there was any question. Uh I'm a skeptic. I got to say that when you asked if everybody had conversation, everybody had conversation with the developer and the carpenters. Only three of you had conversation with the people who live there, which struck me as kind of odd. So it kind of makes me skeptical whether the decisions already made. What I want to point out now, what everybody said, I've evacuated people. I've been there when the helicopter flew over. I've done all that. But the only street that's been built since I moved there in 1998 runs from Anaheim Hills Elementary down to Canon. That's it. There's no other street that's new there. So when they tell you that they've redone the escape routes, there's nothing to redo. There's not an extra lane that's ever been built in that city other than from Anaheim Hills Elementary down to Canon. And that street is regularly full with people coming up Jamberee and coming around because the 55 is so bad to the 91. So, we already have traffic. I live over by Larkwood. We just recently added speed bumps and a sign that said people can't turn right on Santa Ana Canyon because they fill up Sana Canyon. They fill up the intersection of Weir and Saint Ana Canyon. I mean, it's laughable. There streets there signs on the poles that say you'll be cited if you block the intersection. Yet, it's blocked every single day. If you're not in the third lane from the right, you can't go straight because everybody turns through the red light. So you have power to get us infrastructure and in whatever form that comes in whether you're leveraging businesses or whatever the case may be. You don't have to put something there now until like many of these people say you've got an infrastructure to support it. There's no other way. You've got two exits at either end of a three mile long city and two of them are two miles apart on the east end and two of them are a mile and a half apart on the west end and there's

nothing in between. So when we come down, we can't go over the 41. We have three ways to come down. We come down to Sana and everybody tries to go a different direction. The only other way out is down Toronto and out Canon. Uh just put thought into it when you make your your vote. Thank you. [applause]

Our next speaker is Roas. No chess. Good night everybody. Um, mayor, happy new year. Happy new year to all of you guys. I'm here for two reasons. One is um, thank you city manager for answering my phone call and responding to the request. I'm here because we've been having a lot of problems in the community. I'm so afraid. I'm so nervous. I'm so concerned about my community. I'm coming back from Mexico. I'm a resident of Anaheim for more than 30 years. I'm very concerned about what's happening with my community, my immigrant community. Definitely wanted to see mayor if we can get together and talk about it. I've been trying to get in touch with you and hopefully you can answer that email. Um it is really important to work together. I'm not only a parent. I'm not only a resident. I'm representing our people in Wanauato. And one of the big uh families that we have in Anaheim is from Wanowatau. I'm actually don't have no answers for the people that is calling me and they ask me how can they solve these kind of situations. Um we need to stay together. We need to work together. I'm very I'm hearing all these voices and I thought that only our neighbors were the alone community. We were the ones that only having problems but I see the promises all over Anaheim. I think you guys can do a better choice and make a good decision. Um, and also wanted to say thank you, council member Christine, for being there every time that we call you to be there in the community,

especially with these hard times that we're facing. And everything that I wanted to say, we need to work together. As a representative from Wanauato, I think it is really important to stay together with this and we need to get ice from our city. We need to protect our families, mayor. and just wanted to let you know nothing personal but it is really important that we stay together and make a better solutions for our community. Thank you everybody and have a wonderful year and hopefully you make a good decision for these hardworking families too. Thank you mayor and city council. That concludes all our inerson speakers. Mayor CD, that concludes our inerson speakers.

Um, so hearing no further comments, would the applicant like to return to provide any closing comments? You have 10 minutes if you so choose. Thank you, uh, council. Uh, I think overwhelmingly the comments were related to evacuation and fire. Uh, we'd like to have, uh, the appropriate folks, the professionals, um, rebut and provide a bit of background from the due deck team. They're the fire protection team that uh completed the reports that have been involved in this project and have a very deep background in the state of California. Um prior to that, you know, I would like to reiterate that before the first resident would move into a project like this if if it were approved, again, there's there's four years between now and then, there'd be continued coordination. There'd be continued evolution of the know your way plan. Um so this is not something that's immediate. This is something that will be worked on tirelessly up through that entire process. So like to introduce Dudek and then uh we have one other rebuttal related to the comment from uh Safer. Um there didn't seem to be a lot of other uh project specific questions. So I'm here to answer any of your questions or if there are any clarifications. Thank you. Good evening, Madame Mayor and council members. Thank you for your patience through this laborious process. My name is Doug Nichols. I'm a senior fire protection planner with DUTEK. I have a career in fire prevention and fire protection. I've been with Dudek for six years, but I have over 30 years experience in the fire prevention and fire protection fields. Uh mostly with

the Glendale Fire Department, Fire Prevention Bureau. Uh our team is probably the largest and maybe the most technically diverse in California preparing fire protection plans as well as evacuation analysis. Uh in this case, we teamed with intersecting metrics to assist with the modeling portion of this. We did prepare the fire protection plan as well as the uh evacuation travel time analysis. I know there's been comments on both of those topics. I'm just going to try and emphasize a couple of uh uh items with the fire protection plan. It does evaluate the project. It's a total fire environment and its code compliance and assesses area hazards as we go through that process. Uh we also identify the restrictive types of requirements that the project needs to include and the project does comply with all applicable fire and building codes. Uh the evacuation travel time analysis uh evaluated multiple scenarios. Uh one was with the what we call the the existing conditions with no project just as it stands. They also assist assessed the existing with the project and then also uh existing with the cinema with the cinema because currently the cinema is uh vacant but also evaluated with that as well. Now the uh analysis would was prepared with consistent requirements and guidance with the city's planning department and the traffic and transportation section staff and it's been reviewed both by the city's fire and police departments. Uh the analysis reported the change in evacuation times and provided recommendations to improve the safety which were incorporated into the SEC analysis and the EIR to understand the project's impacts on

evacuation. Uh the analysis cons considered both the most likely and the worst case fire scenario. Obviously Deer Canyon is right adjacent to it. There were fire there. You would have to evacuate Festival Hills rather quickly. Uh several times it has been mentioned that fires come from the northeast from the Corona area which is correct. That may be considered the worst case scenario because that's when the Santa Ana winds occur. Uh we also evaluated that as well. That would be probably considered the worst case but the Deer Canyon is the most likely to affect immediately the Festival Hills area. uh for this analysis you know there are some evacuation times calculated and again this is using the modeling system through uh the intersecting metrics the existing conditions without the project was calculated to be 2 hours and 51 minutes that would be the existing condition we've heard many testimonies tonight from personal lived experiences uh which are very valid and need to respect that appears to 3 hours seems to be a common thread from what we've heard. Uh with the if the cinema were to be included in that, it would add an additional seven minutes to 2 hours and 58 minutes and then with the existing project it would actually add 14 minutes to three hours and and five five minutes. So in all these uh just for clarification all these scenarios assumed an evening evacuation based on weekly PM week uh hour background traffic and to account for the different uses for evening evacuation it was assumed that the theater was at 70% capacity uh which is consistent with the parking generation manual from the institute of

transportation engineers whereas in the existing with a project conditions. 90% community was uh excuse me capacity was assumed which was consistent with the Hills preserve analysis as disclosed in the evacuation analysis evacuation times are estimated to be over three hours uh which we've heard many times again tonight as I mentioned however since the last largecale evacuation occurred during the the Canyon 2 fire we've heard many times the city has developed the know your way evacuation plan for the city as has has not been tested ed yet, but it has been put in place and coordinated with Calire and and Calrans to improve and streamline evacuations. Uh in addition, this for protecting this particular project, the city is requiring new developments in the very high hazard severity zone uh to be more proactive in their wildfire protection. We've included a number of those proposals within the project. And then uh lastly, I just want to mention that the evacuations are often fluid, frustrating, and stressful. I've been through evacuations myself, and I can attest to that. Uh our family had to evacuate three times for the same fire, going from one family member's house to another to another to another. So, I know what that's all about. Uh but the other thing we wanted to mention is that the the emergency managers manage this the entire scenario not just a particular neighborhood. And sometimes the furthest away neighborhood gets the call to evacuate first because they're most likely to be threatened. Need to get them moving. Others they choose to evacuate other neighborhoods first. And that's totally the call of the fire department working with the uh uh sheriff's department or the police department and they are evaluating the entire scenario looking at which areas

are most likely to be a threat or at risk. Uh sometimes the further out areas are not as much at risk and others are. Uh so I just want to kind of clarify some of those modeling uh statistics that we went through and also to clarify that we did model both the Deer Canyon fire and also Northeast Santa Ana windfire and included those into our modeling available for any questions. Otherwise that's all I have for for the presentation. Does anyone on council have questions for Mr. Dud Dudek? Oh,

sorry. Just the other uh point. Um Andrew Fog from Cox Castle Nicholson uh representing um the shape properties developer. Uh there were some comments from Safer uh which is the laborers union. Uh and uh wanted to just quickly respond. Those comments were all made to the planning commission. There was a letter and there was a response that was prepared. There's one point they made uh regarding a study by u Mr. Offererman. He he uh is a frequent uh repeated uh commenter that basically submits the same letter on every project in California regarding um formaldahhide. I'd just like to make a quick point that study assumes that uh residents will live in their house uh without doors or windows open 24 hours a day for 70 years to try to get to the levels of formaldahhide that they claim uh would cause the impacts. So in our view that study is um fundamentally flawed, has been discredited and is not substantial evidence upon which uh the city can rely on. And again there was a written uh response letter that was submitted. And again lastly we would remind the council this site was evaluated and identified in the city's certified housing element that was certified by the state. It estimated 600 units in this area. That's what the city said in its housing element is appropriate for the site to be developed. The site has been um modeled and prepared in response to that. And finally, I would note uh mandating a union requirement that's um contrary to federal law. I happy to submit documentation to support that. Uh but uh the city doesn't have that ability under federal law under its police powers to mandate union uh workers. Thank you. So, I'm going to open it up to um

questions. Um sorry, first I'm going to close the public hearing um and then are just going to move to our council comments and questions. If you have any questions or comments, please ring in. I'm going to start with council member Rubika. Thank you. So, I see our fire marshal back there. Um if we can get the fire marshal up here. I do have some questions related to the [clears throat] fire concerns and evacuation plan.

Good evening. Good evening. So, can you just share a little insight into the assessment that you made and the recommendation that you're making as to whether or not this project would be safe uh for residents to reside in the area?

Absolutely. My pleasure. Um, I would be remiss if I first did not acknowledge that Chief Russell did want to be here tonight. This was a priority project um that we recognize the city has spent a lot of time on. He is um flying to Washington to provide testimony for Congress um for uh HR 4038, the Wildfire and Preparedness Act. So, we're very proud to um represent Anaheim federally. Um so, that's a um a very cool thing that he's able to do, but unfortunately meant he was unable to join us this evening. So um to your uh question then um regarding the uh the inputs the process we have been involved in um evaluating the entirety of the process um over the the period that it's been going through the pre-development the EIR and all of that um we did take this very seriously obviously the safety of our residents is our primary concern um we did find that um while adding any vehicles to an emergency evacuation scenario. Um, obviously that's not not an ideal situation to have. We wanted as simple and straightforward as possible. Um, in this scenario, we did find um that we are uh in conformance with the rest of the city project um that we uh we we support um the findings and should this project be approved tonight or not, we do stand ready to uh provide for the safety of our citizens in either scenario. And then the $100,000 of the developer, that seems significantly low to me. What uh benefits would that help uh in terms of fire mitigation?

Yes, ma'am. We have several ideas of how we can spend that money. Um and we will be evaluating that as the years um progress. Um there are opportunities for uh technology for weed abatement, fuel modification. There are also opportunities for um seed money for grants where we can uh use that as an initial investment. So um several ideas whether that is providing for um new technology. Um there is a um uh a product that um we could potentially uh spray on our um evacuation roadways and make sure that um the additional we already require 10 ft of clearance on either side of our evacuation roadways, but we could expand upon that with a um eco-friendly um foam product. So there we have all sorts of ideas and things that we're we're kicking around um to utilize with the uh potential $100,000.

And then so the salt project was a project that the fire uh chief opposed for safety reasons. What's different for this project?

Yes, ma'am. I I think it's really it's very hard to speak and and I I get the the inclination to compare um those two projects and they were in very close proximity to one another. Um so I would say um very high level with this being uh more of an infill project that that does make a difference for us. Um, beyond that though, um, I hesitate to more closely compare that because frankly, we really do evaluate each individual project upon the merits, upon, um, everything in totality that is presented to us.

I don't have any more projects for our fire marshall. I will for traffic and I see Raphael back there somewhere, but I'll I'll defer to my colleagues at this point. Thank you. Um, I had a question. Um, how did the number of $100,000 for the fire department, where did that number come from?

So, I we we kicked around some ideas of what we could potentially use the money for. And um while I I I don't want to say that it was an arbitrary number, it seemed like a general number that would allow us the opportunity to provide for more than one of those potential projects. Um while still providing some flexibility, should our situation change, should an additional say product be developed in the next couple of years that before this we actually receive the money per the project. Um that would provides for some flexibility. And um I don't know if this is for you or um Director Allen, but is there a tie for this money that this money is going to be used to benefit the residents of district 6? Oh, uh that it will be within that area. It to it is a community benefit based on this project. So we are intending that the money would be used toward um wildfire mitigation efforts. So yes, that district 6 would be a direct beneficiary of that.

Thank you. Does anyone else have questions?

Okay. Yeah. Um so I just want you to go over a little bit of uh what's different since 2017. And I know we've made some improvements in our fire watch, with some cameras, with some of our response, and certainly with our evacuation plan. Um, and I mean, feel free to acknowledge the mistakes that were made in 2017. And and I think I even heard people talk about them here as in well first I went over there and got that person and then I went over there and got that and then I went and I believe that the know your way plan is all roads are leading out. We we can't allow people into the evacuation area and have to evacuate them multiple times. So, if you could kind of just expand on what's different in our evacuation plan and our fire safety um plan a little bit, that would be helpful.

Yes. And and um I to our residents, I I want to let you know that I I hear you. Um I I was there. I have been I'm a 20-year veteran of the fire service um for the Freeway Complex fire in particular. I was evacuated as I was working the fire. So, I'm familiar with that that sense of panic that overcomes when you hear that you are in a mandatory evacuation zone. Um, so I'm certainly sensitive to that. Um, in the fire department, something that we pride ourselves on is we continually learn and grow from every experience, from every training. Um, we we continue to improve and expand upon existing practices and making sure that we are better and better for our community. So we certainly had some lessons learned in Canyon 2. One of those was um the know your way uh program came out of that and that is um certainly not a perfect catchall and we acknowledge that uh emergency evacuation of such a large community. It is a dynamic and it is a fluid situation and frankly for our residents it is very scary and I completely acknowledge that. Um but having a the ability for us to pre-plan and to tr to train and to utilize the is the same sheet of music among multiple um interdisciplinary partners really is a gamecher for us. Um part of that utilizing know your way we were able to engage then the city of orange who for instance uh was pushing residents from orange to Anaheim while simultaneously we are pushing Anaheim to Orange. So, we've been able to engage the city of Orange in what that looks like and create a uh smoother pathway for evacuation. Um, we learned that the scale of the evacuation was quite frankly much bigger than it really should have been. Um, we we did so at the time out of an

abundance of caution and if if we need to, we will of course be exceptionally conservative where we need to for an evacuation um perimeter. Um but for Canyon 2, we we did we evacuated everything all the way up to Imperial Highway and it was just too many people that frankly did not need to um leave their homes and it exacerbated an already tenuous situation. Um we also allowed incoming cars that compounded the evacuation effort whereas we could have utilized some additional uh inbound lanes of traffic. So, um, council member, to your point, multiple areas, um, that we've, uh, increased coordination with, um, our partners and really made an effort to, um, make sure that we are working ahead of the problem because we we do know that it's an area, as several of our, um, our educated uh, residents have identified, it is a very high hazard severity zone identified by CalFire. So, um, we're working to mitigate um, all of those individual items. Thank you.

I'll ask this question first and it might not be necessarily related to this project today, but I'm just curious because I'm the new guy here. How come we haven't had a u a test evacuation to test out the plan? Uh it's been what almost 10 years?

Yes, sir. Um we um we have tried various iterations of that. Um quite frankly a a full largecale evacuation of that size. Um we have engaged uh CALR uh to potentially close the 91 freeway because that's what it would take and that's what to council member Meek's question um really that we we something we learned again from Canyon 2 is that coordination with CALR and then utilizing the 91 freeway really is a gamecher. Um you could imagine that closing the 91 freeway for any period of time is a huge challenge and uh that request was has subsequently been denied. Um that does not mean that we have not had multiple training, tabletop exercise, um additional efforts to make sure that we really vet some items uh in the know your way program and also explore the dynamic nature of it. Um and because um it it really is subject to the individual aspect of the emergency at hand.

Okay. Thank you. So the next question I have is I heard you say you evacuated everything up to Imperial. I'm sitting here now looking at the know your way map. I see you've got zones one, two, and three up on the ridge. I'm curious if we were to have that same fire today. Knowing what you know now, it looks like this project is in zone number eight, I believe, is what what I see here. Yes, sir. I believe so.

Would that be an immediate evacuation uh noticed area along with one, two, and three? So depending on the nature of the emergency again of course um you know everything is very uh dependent on on what's going on at the moment but for the typical fire that we've experienced say canyon 2 where it's coming from the east um going to the west um we we looked at and one of the scenarios that we required were included um in the behavior behavioral study the fire behave study um was evacuation of zones one two and three but not necessarily evacuation of zone 8 where this project is identified because that would frankly be an unnecessary um addition to the roadways.

So what I hear you say then is under the same conditions you wouldn't necessarily be evacuating uh this particular area that we're speaking about now. That's correct. Zone 8 would not be evacuated. So the next question I have is and then that means that that zone would not be impacted. So any um critically impacted zones would absolutely be evacuated, but in the typical condition um that we experienced for Canyon 2, zone 8 did was not necessary to evacuate.

Sure. And I understand people, you know, they may they may choose to go anyways, which which would certainly add to that. But I was just curious as to what the plan is and at what point that notice get issued. um not for the evacuation part, but I'm just curious if you could talk to uh if this project does get approved, um are there any enhancements uh that are made to the area that would reduce uh possible fire in and around the area?

Yes. One of the major enhancements um that was put in the uh development agreement was the inclusion of opticom. So there will be four additional intersections that will include um emergency vehicle preeemption. So what that means is when emergency vehicles approach a an intersection, there is a sensing device that changes the street lights to allow emergency vehicles to have a green. Um it's it it's twofold. The benefit of that one is not only do we arrive at the emergency faster, but that also allows for cross traffic to be stopped, which increases the safety of our first responders um for anybody that is in that cross traffic zone. If they have a green light and they aren't paying attention, it reduces that potential. So, that's that's a huge benefit for us.

Anything else?

Well, the $100,000, of course. Um, and I I think one of the main things that um I want to um emphasize because I hear my residents back here um having uh comments and concerns is um a huge piece of this is going to be education. There's going to be outreach. There's going to be education because we want to make sure that we um we discuss these items and we have the opportunity to pre-plan with our residents because knowing your way ahead of time, having a plan in place. One of the residents identified how stressful it was to have their child picked up by a neighbor and have them brought somewhere else. But that is oftentimes our reality and having those plans in place ahead of time will make all the difference. And however we can help support our neighborhoods and our community to have those plans in place, we stand ready to do so.

Thank you. Thank you. Um thank you so much, Fire Marshall. Um Oh, excuse me, Council Member Moss. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Most of my questions have been asked so far. Um but I did want to make a couple clarifications um from comments that we heard this evening. Um there was a comment about fire trucks being taken from the hills moved to station 12. Um is that the case and would those trucks be replaced in the four years that this project is expected to be started? Sure. I' I'd like to um ask uh uh uh Deputy Chief Riley to join and answer that question if I may.

Uh yes. So uh my name is Grant Riley. I'm the deputy chief of operations here. Uh the fire engine that is in the hills right now is engine 12 and it was put out there um when we we got the safer rampant for engine 12 and then it moved out there and you guys are aware um because we need a place to put it as station 12 is being built. Uh since then uh station 12 is being built and that engine is going to move to station 12 and a replacement engine 10 is going to be put in place to maintain the same level of service out in the canyon. Thank you. And um as far as the helicopter lease uh or contract lapsing, yes. Does that affect us or how does that

um there's so the QRF is a quick reaction force and it's a a group of five pieces of equipment. Uh three type one helicopters that have 3,000galon uh tanks on them. So it's really big helicopter, right? And one mobile retardant base that has some uh treatment in it and a leader in a it's called a Saraski helicopter. and it's a helicopter that he's the one that goes out and he he tells everyone kind of what's going on up in the air. Uh the contract with that is a public uh part private partnership with Orange County Fire and that's uh been eliminated as far as the contract. The equipment is still available. So the the mobile retardant base isn't but the three helicopters we can still request those and the the air support we just have to specify those in our request. So the ordering process is different and their location they're now there in Van Eyes and so uh but the access to those resources are still there.

Thank you. Um and then one other comment um in regards to know your way whether this project gets approved or not. Are there opportunities to increase communication and um just make people more aware of the plan? And I know a practice uh isn't practical but what more can we do?

Certainly and and and public education is important component just like fire marshall mentioned hey this is one of the areas where we can reach out and communicate with that know your way obviously is a combination between us and APD with APD really being the lead in our evacuation efforts. Um and we do typical training with them to uh meet that. uh Anaheim Alert is one of the components that really emphasizes uh using technology to alert our residents within the specific zones when it's time to evacuate. So that's a big component. So uh getting the messaging out and I was just in our EOC this morning actually and I found the little business cards that have the handout for alert and I'm alert. So we have with QR codes and different ways that we can message that and so that's what we're trying to do is get that word out so that people can be aware of the technology that we're using to message these things.

Thank you. That's all I have at this time. Thank you. Thank you. [clears throat] All right. No, I'm just kidding. Okay. [laughter]

I wanted to ask you or it may be a question for the fire marshall um in terms of the process. So, right now we're um you've done the analysis, right? And so you're able to um uh plan accordingly in terms of how this would uh affect the know your way plan and what would need to change. If we were to move forward with this, can you talk a little bit more about as you as this project goes to different phases, the approval process, the construction phase, and uh once we get there, what are the checks that um that we do on our side? And I don't know if this is a question.

I think you're right. This is a fire question. [laughter] I'm gonna get up here. Thank you.

So, we we are involved all along the way. Um our planning and development section within the community risk reduction division leads the charge on this. Um there will be uh plans um that are submitted for review and approval. They do have to abide by all of the uh most currently adopted California Fire Code uh NFPA standards and everything therein. And that does include um because of its location in the very high fire hazard severity zone adherence to the Cal WOOI code which not to code geek out but that is actually all of the requirements from um building 7A residential code was actually created in a its own separate standalone code um as of our adoption January one of this year. So um all of the latest and greatest will apply to this project and we will um ensure that everything all the um all the plans are um that are submitted are in uh prepared in accordance with um those requirements as well as um after it's built. We do inspect um for um concurrence with those plans. That includes fire protection systems um the all all the the goodies of fuel modification everything does have to be in accordance with that. And when you say the latest and greatest, what is what what is what is that? What does that entail? And what's the difference between those and let's say a regular a regular home? What's the difference?

Yes, sir. Most recently adopted and we did go through code adoption year. So January 1, 2026, we adopted the uh funny enough, the the 2025 California fire code that is up and down the state of California. um that everybody is required to do so with local amendments. In particular, for any project that is proposed in the very high fire hazard severity zone, um as deputy director uh Allen indicated earlier in her presentation, it doesn't mean that a project is not allowed to build in that very high fire hazard severity zone. But if they do so, they do need to meet additional thresholds. So that would include non-combustible sighting, boxed in eaves, dual pane windows, um fuel mod, defensible space, um a bunch of different milestones. Of course, fire sprinklers are an integral um part and piece of that too, as well as fire department access, multiple items.

Are there any uh requirements in terms of you mentioned fire sprinklers, which we know on the inside, are there any additional requirements on the outdoors of the building? The outdoors would be uh the the non-combustible sighting. The roof material has to be a very specific class A um roof material. Um again, the the glazing of the windows, the doors do have to meet a particular standard. Um it and it's essentially home hardening. Um in this instance, it's building hardening. Um and that does spill out into the vegetation. So something that we have become more and more ingrained uh in us is uh ecology and the trees that are planted. Um we after canyon 2 we actually um we adopted a um potential plant list and more importantly on that there is a list of plants that are not advised to be planted in these areas. So a fuel modification plan is required with identified zones of hydration. Um, and I could probably tell you more than you want to know about any of that. Um, h, but I'm happy to discuss any further, but yes, it does extend beyond the confines of the building itself.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Curts. Thank you. I have a question. Um, the um just little what you just described and all the modifications that's on new build. Um what about the existing homes that are there? The existing trees, the eucalyptus trees that are there. Um is there any mandate to upgrade that or is it just done as uh remodeling or um work being done in the home?

Yes, ma'am. That's that's a great question. Um so we um it would be um overly cumbersome. For instance, in the case of fire sprinklers to mandate that all homes now have fire sprinklers, even though as of today, a newly buil built home would require to be fully fire sprinklered. Um, but a home um a lot of our residents have been in these homes for several years and it would just be too cumbersome to require them to install that now. So, that is something that we do not uh require uh retroactively. Um, we allow uh all the codes and standards that were in place at the time that that building was built, we allow that to stand. Um, what we do require for those areas in the very high fire hazard severity zone is defensible space. And what that is is um a certain distance from the home to really make sure that there are no um adverse hazards that would so combustible brush reduction um overgrown weeds, things like that. Um, and we do have a full-time wildfire mitigation specialist within the department. This this council approved a couple of years ago. And we are one of the, um, few departments in the area that are able to have a dedicated wildland mitigation specialist to be able to visit our homeowners. And, um, I'm going to do a quick plug for anybody interested. Um, everybody with passion out there that wants to find out what how you can harden your home, please call us in fire administration because I would be happy to send Inspector Able to your home for free to identify ways that you can harden your home.

That's good to hear. So, as as a an older home maybe gets a new roof, as an example, they would have to then meet the new requirements for that material. Yes, ma'am. Yes. But we would not retroactively require it. But something like a spark arresttor on a chimney that that makes a huge difference. And and yes, we do um make sure that everybody in that area um has a spark arresttor in the chimney. Um

and and I know a lot of the streets in the hills are part of are managed by the homeowners association. Um so I'm going to just refer to city streets. Are city streets now? um do they have the correct vegetation that uh you briefly talked about or do we still have areas where we need to change that out?

That is a very nuanced answer that I'm going to give you because there are areas that uh for instance the eucalyptus trees are much loved in our Anaheim Hills area. Uh I would not recommend planting eucalyptus trees today, but they are protected uh in that corridor. Forgive me, Heather, I forget what the name of that corridor is. Um but those are protected trees. So um that we we do not recommend um removing those. Um but so for those areas that we are able to um affect and work with our parks team who is exceptional at what they do um we yes we are we are constantly it's like painting the Golden Gate Bridge once you get to the end congratulations you have to start back over here. So we are constantly working through combustible brush reduction um to make sure that our our city-owned open spaces and um along our evacuation routes are clear.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Um I'm going to um just go uh to general council questions, but I wanted to start with council member Meeks as the representative for district 6 and then council member Kurtz and then mayor prom. Uh thank you. Um I do have some additional questions for public works and traffic. Um, you know, when I was elected a few years ago, safety was absolutely a priority for me and particularly wildfire safety. And I have worked tirelessly with uh the staff to make sure that we are addressing it, making improvements, improving the evacuation disaster that was 2017. And I know it's hard to talk to look at any of you when I see the true fear in your eyes and get you to understand that it's not going to be like that next time. That Orange isn't going to send their traffic to us and we're not going to send our traffic to Orange and we're not going to allow bottlenecks. We are going to get people out and that is that is the primary purpose for know your way and the evacuation plan is to get people out and to save lives. So we we are going to we have made improvements and we heard from fire a lot of the work that they've done over the last few years but I also want to talk about public works because um in the evacuation plan one of the things was you know we can't test it so what do we do and I asked them to look at traffic modeling it uh which they were fortunate enough to get a grant to do and um if you u can talk a little bit about what you've done so far in the traffic m

modeling of the evacuation plan and what that looks like and and what results you're finding.

Absolutely. Council member Meeks, as you mentioned, we did go after a state CalFire grant to do some Anaheim Hills fire evacuation modeling, right? And so we were able to get that grant. We do did do some modeling. There's a lot of different scenarios as we've heard about tonight, right? There's a worst case scenario. There's scenarios that, you know, come out of the east, which is where it typically comes into Anaheim Hills from. There's a lot of different ways that we can run the scenario. Depends on the time of day, right? We look at Canyon Fire 2. That was probably one of the worst times it could have happened for us. It was a Monday morning 10:00. Everybody was at work. All the kids were at school. So, there's a lot of different variables that we can play with, right? To do these different scenario modeling. So, we do some worst case scenario modeling to say, okay, what if it starts at Deer Canyon? What does that look like? Where do we need to evacuate? And so, the scenario modeling gives us a good idea as to where do we want to start from? As our fire marshal Young mentioned, right, one of the things that we learned, and we learned a lot from Canyon Fire 2, I was at the emergency operations center in the middle of it, right? Trying to figure out how are we going to get everybody out, how are we going to evacuate everybody. And one of the things we learned is it sounds great on paper. Let's evacuate everybody and just get everybody out of there. But that was one of the big lessons learned from us is, you know what, we need to be a little bit more intentional. We need to be a little bit more tactful as to who we send out, which way do we send them, and how do we scale it. So that's one of the things that the scenario modeling also gives us as well. If a fire happens here, who should we evacuate first? Which is the way that we should get them out? And at what point do we need to evacuate these different zones? We didn't have zones back in the Canyon Fire 2 time frame. We just had Anaheim Hills. We had roads. Everybody east of Srano, right? Everybody east of Imperial. We just chose these big roads. We've now dissected it into very manageable zones that we can activate and we can very intentionally say this zone is under mandatory evacuation. this zone is under a just recommended evacuation. So, there's a lot of things that we've learned and all of these it's it's a dynamic situation when you're talking emergency management. It is a dynamic situation that changes minute to minute, right? We're constantly at the EOC getting information from the command

post out there. So, we're making live changes, right, that are dependent on traffic patterns, right? What's going on on the freeway? Uh what's the highway patrol doing? Did they shut down the freeway yet? What is Orange doing? Are they pumping people through uh up into Anaheim? So, it's a very dynamic situation. And what this scenario-based fire modeling did for us is give us a lot of different options, different tools to be able to implement when these different things come into play. And when they talk about a three-hour evacuation time, that is a staged evac like the first hour you're evacuating this group of people and the next hour you're evacuate. So, what is the

that's what happened in 2017. I'm I'm trying to address this with the traffic expert here. So, kind of explain what that three hours looks like and what air how much of Anaheim Hills gets evacuated in three hours. But I understand it's a staged approach.

It's a staged approach. And then also, we got to remember that what we what was disclosed in the environmental document from SQL SQL requires us to look at it from a most conservative perspective as well. So, we have to assume that quite a bit of Anaheim Hills is going to be evacuated. we have to assume all of these different things are stacked up on top of each other which realistically probably wouldn't happen. But again, from a SQA perspective, we need to make sure that that happens. So that's exactly what happens is it starts to stack on itself. We got zones 1, two, and three on the east that evacuate and then it starts going west a little bit farther south and that's where you get that travel time that just kind of adds up on top of itself. In reality, right, we're looking back our our fires in Anaheim, we're we're lucky in a sense that they're they we can predict them. We know where they come through, we know where they go to, and we know what zones we need to evacuate. So, um, what that helps us do is know what zones are going to have to come out first, and we can strategically plan for the the further zones. So, that three-hour time frame is just a very conservative analysis that was done that stacked those different zones being evacuated.

Okay. Exc Sorry, Mr. Cobian. Ma'am, we thoughtfully listened to to you when you did public comment. Can you please let us ask questions and have a back and forth? Thank you. All right. And in addition to working with the different agencies, CALR or city of Orange or your Belinda, all those agencies to make sure we're not we're not sending conflicting uh traffic to each other. Um you've also worked with the schools to make sure that our students will be safely evacuated and and things like that. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, if I may add. So again, we we in in in an emergency management perspective, we always do a debrief, right? We figured out what did we do well, what did we not do well, and what are we going to do to change it to make sure it does not happen again. So after Canyon Fire 2, we sat down and we had a hard look at ourselves, right? Hey, what did we do well? What did we not do well? And what are we going to do differently the next time, right? And some of the things and I'll just riddle I've got a laundry list of things we're going to do different this time because we learned is is working with our highway patrol, right? One of the things that was impacting us the most was people were still getting off the freeway. All of these people because the 91 freeway was closed. So all of these people getting off the freeway are clogging up our roads to be able to get our residents out. That's one of the big things that we learned. Two, we learned that Orange was sending everybody over the hill. So we reached out. We had a multi- agency meeting after that included the highway patrol. It included the city of Orange to the south. It included the Orange County Sheriff's Department to the north and your Belinda. It included the school districts, right? Every single agency and organization that's going to play a role in being able to make sure that this happens effectively was at that meeting and we talked about expectations. So, we told Orange, "Hey, if you've got a fire, there's a lot of other ways you can get people down. Shoot them down Chapman and go down towards the Flatlands in Orange." Um, we're going to do that differently. We're also going to be coordinating with the schools, right? On high wind days, we coordinate with the schools and a lot of times they'll stage uh buses that are available to go and pick up the the kids. We thought it was a good idea to set the collection point for the children over at the high school down at Imperial. We said, "Hey, that's far enough away. It's going to be okay." But it ended up being within the evacuation zone. So, that in and of itself, all the parents are trying to go in there and pick up their children. Now, we're going to make it completely outside of the area to do that. Um, another thing we as public works we did as well is we're also a big force multiplier. Our law enforcement partners are out there with the fire department trying to save lives. And so they're out there. That's the priority where public works can come in as well is we've set up plans where based on the know your way, we know generally which what roadway closures we're going to do. We as public works

going to be going out there as soon as we hear that there's some sort of fire preemptively closing down these roads to make sure that we reserve that capacity. I'm thinking Santa can road east of Imperial. We shut that down. Nobody's going eastbound in Imperial and clogging up our roads. Now we're able to get people out and I'm also able to use that other side of San Kane Road if I have to to be able to get people to flush out. The priority is going to be not letting people come back in and clog it up and getting people out. So there was a lot of lessons learned from our last Canyon Fire too that we've already implemented and set into motion to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

Thank you. Um does anybody have any evacuation questions for him because I have some traffic questions too. Okay. Um, can we talk about what traffic improvements are? Because as much as people talk about our local infrastructure not being adequate to handle our population, it really is. The problem with our local infrastructure, with the city's infrastructure, is that we have all these people cutting through our city that are getting off of our freeways. And that is an issue that OCTA, CALR and the transportation corridors, the the toll roads uh need to address and they are addressing that and and once again I've worked very hard the last few years to make sure that these projects are moving forward. Can you talk about the improvements that will be complete within the next um four years along the 91 and 241? So great great um great comments council meeks. There's a lot going on in the 91 corridor. Um and I'll tell you ways and Google maps are my demise in our in our district 6 demise because if they can save 2 minutes by going up larkwood in some of these tiny streets right through our residential community everybody's going to take it so they can get home 2 minutes early. So as much as we like technology it's also unintended consequences of of stuff like this. So lot of I agree with your first statement is our infrastructure in Anaheim Hills is built to sustain the the the traffic that we have out in Anaheim Hills. It's that additional cutthrough traffic that then is what causes the sanian road congestion that causes the congestion on Sorrano on we are everything that we see. Um lot of improvements that are in the pipeline that we've been very actively working with. One of them is the uh the toll road the 24191 direct connector. Anybody who's taken the toll road from South County headed

north, they know that that that backup extends all the way up the hill um to get to the 91 east. A lot of people that go onto our streets on Serrano and on Weir are trying to avoid that, right? They cut through Orange and we hear the same complaints. I talked to my counterparts in the city of Orange and they get the same complaints we do because it's the same car snaking through. So, that's one big project that we have been working with the uh with with OCTA, with Calrans, and the toll authority on that we're a big proponent of because we know it's going to benefit our our community. Starts construction next year. It starts construction. Be done by 2029.

Yep. And on top of that, as many anybody who has driven the 91 recently, you see there's construction on the 91. So, there's OCTA has a big project that's going to be widening the 91 freeway in various different segments all the way over pretty much to the uh to the county line. So that's going to increase capacity and hopefully that's going to be able to shift some of the people off of Santa Canyon Road that currently take it all the way to Gypson as we know be able to shift back onto the freeway. So there's large regional projects that aren't necessarily city of Anaheim projects but we are a vested stakeholder that we work closely with CALR OCTA and the toll authority to uh to make sure that they get implemented in a way that also help us. And then longer term, we are looking at studies on a Fairmont emergency connector and a connector to uh the north to alleviate traffic at both Imperial and Wear Canyon.

And I mean I I will say the good news is that these projects can be funded with uh toll revenue from the 91 express lanes. So um it's it's feasible that they will get built because there's a lot of money being collected along that uh toll road. So

a lot of money and then it's also on the the 91 corridor has what's called an implementation plan. It's got projects that are identified that are uh you know needed for the corridor that are benefit the corridor. So the uh Fairmont connector project is a project that is provides a full interchange at the Fairmont uh at essentially where Fairmont is today doesn't provide vehicular connection to the south. What it provides is full access to the north. So people because a lot of the people that are getting off at Imperial today is anybody who drives through Imperial and La Palma um a lot of those are are Yur Belinda residents that are trying to get back home and coming uh and leaving uh leaving home and going to work. The Fairmont connector will help alleviate that congestion that we see over at Imperial and that we see also Dan over at at Weir by providing that direct access connector for anybody that needs to go to and from the north. What it'll also provide though is we are contemplating building it with a uh multi-use bridge that connects Santa Canyon Road over to that Fairmont connector. So on your typical day, it just provides you pedestrian uh active. you can ride your bike over to uh to to the north side uh type of connection, but under an emergency situation, it would be built in a way that we could remove something like Ballards and use it as an alternative way to be able to get people out uh in the case of an evacuation. So, we're working with OCTA, we're working with the city of Yurbalinda currently to see if there's a way that we can expedite that project that's already in the uh implementation plan.

All right. Thank you. That was all I had. Thank you. Um, Council Member Curts and then Council Member Rubikava,

ju just one little comment. You mentioned, and this is kind of a side note, you you mentioned um Google Maps and and those are just abandoned your existence all over the city. I know we've got residents all over the city that are affected with those pulling people off of freeways or off of what we thought were the major streets onto the smaller ones. and we've got residents um suffering for that. But I my questions now are I'm going to take us into another area uh for the developer I think. So thank you. Um there was a comment made and I've heard it more than once now. I've heard it uh tonight and I've heard it before and it said using skilled and trained workforce does not pencil out. When I heard that, I thought, "So, the alternative is using an unskilled workforce for the project to pencil out." And I got quite confused. Does that mean that you're using an unskilled, lesser trained workforce for your construction? How are we assured that it's going to meet all those very special uh needs for building in that area? H how how are we going to have residents living in those 400ome apartments when we've had an lesserkilled, lesser

trained workforce building them?

Yeah. I mean I what I can say is that we've we've been in business for more than a hundred years. Uh, and when we go out to bid projects, we we do an an open bid and sometimes we'll get eight, nine, 10 bids for some of these large major trades. And we do not decide based off of low bid. We look at qualifications. We look at safety records. We look with at companies that we've worked with before that have executed projects on time and safely. Um, so we have an entire construction management department that analyzes that on every single project. You know, on this project in relation to the carpenters, you know, we we do intend to work with them on on certain trades.

Okay? And I'm not even going to associate this with the carpenters. I'm just a skilled and trained workforce, right? Why wouldn't you demand that of the people working for you?

Yeah, I I think that we do. You know, I think that uh when you look at the trades that build our projects and they accomplish these, you know, 300 unit projects and they build them in in 26 months and you've got 400 people on site. Um, these subcontractors have been in business for decades and they have training programs and they raise folks up to learn the trades and, you know, I certainly invite you guys to visit our projects that are under construction or that are built. Um, because they are definitely skilled workers and and safety is is our absolute number one priority when we build projects. Um, and we are not a a bottom dollar developer. So maybe you shouldn't say it wouldn't pencil out if you used a skilled and trained workforce.

Um the apartments that you're building, uh go ahead. The 400 some apartments, how many are there any studio apartments in there? No, there are smaller onebedrooms. So they start around 560 ft. Um but there are no studios. So do you have onebedroom, twobedroom? Correct. Do you have any three-bedroom apartments? You do. And how much parking is allotted for a three-bedroom? Threebedroom.

Threebedroom is 3.0. So that's consistent with the city code. Yeah.

Um I have another question for No, this one is actually for um Thank you for for our planning department. Um that area specifically was included in our housing element submission to the state. Um slight clarification. So there's there's uh candidate sites is is what is commonly referred to as being in the housing element. Many of those sites required reszones um to meet our obligation um to reduce what we needed through candidate sites. We are able to look at things in the pipeline. So we have a separate inventory of pipeline projects. So this was identified as and many other projects were as pipeline projects. um because we had an active application at that time but it is not a candidate site.

Okay. And so let me understand because we went through so much with with this housing element. If we identified it as a pipeline site but we deny it, do we have to report that to the state? So essentially we have um when you took the the existing inventory pipeline candidate sites we have a surplus of um units that we calculate based on the methodology that HCD gives us to calculate those things. So we keep as projects get built um we keep um looking at those numbers and when we um if we kind of use that surplus and we fall below um having enough available sites to meet our need then we have a a no net loss provision. So the city would need to come back and look at other properties that could make up our obligation. So we don't specifically have to report a denial. I will say there are in state law um other um provisions that we need to be mindful of if we were to deny a housing development project whether or not it's in the housing element.

So if we're denying a project in in district 6 or in Anaheim Hills, what I'm hearing you say is we'd have to make it up elsewhere. um we would not so long as we have enough capacity citywide to continue to meet our obligation. So to tonight we would not have to um add a substitute site. Okay. Thank you. For now that's that's what I have. I may have some questions later. [snorts] Thank you. Um Council Member Ruba Calva and then Council Member Meeks. Thank you. Uh my question is for the developer wherever you went. Sorry. Hi.

Hi. So, my question is related to the skilled and trained. So, you mentioned that you don't just look at low bid when you're looking at subcontractors. Can you give me some clarification on what your proposal for theou entailed to the carpenters? Sure. So, uh, the carpenters, we agreed to give them the, uh, the drywall scope so long as they were within $500,000 of the lowest bid of the lowest qualified bid. And the qualified portion isn't important. So, that contradicts what you just said to us because you basically said that you don't just go for the lowest bid.

Oh, no. That's just that means that they get the work so long as they're within 500,000 of that number. that number, that lowest bid isn't necessarily the sub that we would move forward with. We we might have 10 subs that bid the project and we would weigh it based off of a variety of factors.

I mean, in my opinion, if I I I'm a business person, so I would look at bids and and as an elected official, oftentimes there are RFPs that go out and and we are required to take a lowest bid, but you're a private developer, so that's not a requirement on your end. So if you were trying to develop a project in the city that I represent, I want it to be a quality project. And I the in my district I have two developments and I won't name the name of the large developer, but it's a peer of yours and they have a lot of issues with the development that was conducted because they did not use skilled and trained workforce. So, I I question whether you were negotiating with the carpenters in good faith when you provided anou. It's not a good deal in my opinion for you to say that you have to be within 500,000 of the lowest bidder because you could get anybody to bid a low bid.

There are clear uh delineations of of who qualifies as a bid. So, there's specific language. So there would be definitely some biders in there that would not be qualified under that uhou. So, why wouldn't you? I'm So, I guess there's clearly you don't know what direction this council is going to go in because I still don't know how I'm going to vote and potentially my vote could lead to whether or not you get this project approved because I do believe that there should be housing built in areas other than district 3, which is highly compacted at this point and also has fire danger issues um to the residents that are here. Public safety is a priority for me in general. So, I hear what you're saying. I voted no on the salt project and that was um also in line with what our fire marshall said, but I don't think you really know whether or not what direction this council's going to go. So, I think you should think really deeply as to whether or not you're going to have anou that includes our skilled and trade, especially because they're not being unreasonable with the expectations. It's for a parking structure and for the drywall. When you're building a parking structure in our city, it needs to be of sound. And I mean, you saw uh OC Vibe, right? Right.

They use skilled and trade or skilled and trained workforce and that was built with quality materials with people who understood what they were doing and on time and within budget. So, I would really, you know, think deeply as to whether or not you are negotiating in good faith and what that looks like. And today we do have the discretion with this development agreement to include some of those requirements without the language that you're proposing because it's not a good deal. So I I don't know who who who motivated you to kind of throw it their way and say, "Well, we are negotiating with you, but you're not." So I mean, I don't really need your feedback on that. I need you to go and talk to the carpenters and figure something out before we move forward. So you don't have to comment. It was more of a comment on my end. But thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Meeks. Um, Director Allen, so we are approving tonight uh 447 units in this development area, this mixeduse area, correct? That's the request this evening. Yes.

Okay. So, um, but our housing element identified a potential of 600 units and and I mean I appreciate and you know was was hopeful and and asked that the you know development not include the 24-hour fitness and the daycare and that whole area because I think those are very important resources and amenities for our community and that we need those things. Um, so I want to make sure that what we're approving tonight is 447 units as they have it proposed and not going to can't expand uh to 600 units and and you know next week without asking us

correct the the project before you is is as presented. Um any other developments would have their own um review process, right? and they would have to because right now we're talking about fairly equivalent traffic correct counts and things like that and another 150 units uh would be different. Um okay, that was my clarification. So I just want to make sure about that. Thank you.

Thank you. Um Council Member Bis think I'm about to ask the same question. Um, we had a couple people come up here tonight and I think my question is this. What we are uh looking at approving tonight, this zoning change here applies only to this specific area in the uh festival general plan, correct? Or does it apply in other locations?

So, the request uh before you relates to creating the new uh development area five. So, what would be in that um should council approve the project would be um the removal of the cinema, replacement with the 447 unit apartment complex. The fitness center would stay and um the daycare and the other uses that are in that top of the bluff would stay as commercial. Um, it does include a essentially zone change to allow for a mixeduse um on that entire top area and we can put the image back up if that would be helpful. Um, but the only change at this time is the replacement of the cinema with the apartments.

The whole area is Okay. Thank you. Uh, I had another question for you and maybe this is just my understanding, but um, if this project goes down tonight, there is no builder remedy for this project because we have an approved housing plan. Is that correct or not correct? That is correct. So, builder's builder's remedy um would apply were we not to have a certified housing element. All right. Thank you. Thank you. And then can I I don't know. Can I go back and ask a follow-up question to the developer as well,

please? I saw a couple of uh public comments that came in on on this. I think it was electronically. I don't know if uh you had an opportunity to see the public comments or not, but it was an addendum on some previous work that had been done where um I believe your organization was then sued by some of the residents for some work that didn't go as planned. So, I'm just curious. I wasn't able to see that. I'm not sure when it was submitted. I heard it referenced earlier in the evening. Um but I have not seen it. So, I saw two documents. I think one was and this is uh you know 2002 I get is old but I saw another one to 2020 I think was the date I saw but you haven't seen those.

Okay. No I haven't forunately. Okay. Thank you.

You um council member Kurtz. Um like council member Rubulava um I'm inclined to support Bill I actually there were only two of us on this day that voted for salt and I was I was one of them as you probably all remember [gasps] um like district three district 4 has uh building going on in every a little spare space that's in the district. Um, I am hoping having heard from uh the fire department today, the fire marshall today that I'm able to talk to them about some of the areas in district 4 and and how we create more safety zones there, fire safety zones in in areas where we only have one exit. One one exit. But um I'm going to go back to um safety. This this council has a record of protecting workers that work in our city, not only our own city employees. Uh but we passed a very unique ordinance here a couple of years ago uh that were that protected our hotel workers with a panic button. So, we do care about the people working in our city. And at that time, we weren't afraid to to pass an ordinance that uh that forced our our hotels to to uh supply their their uh hotel workers with a panic button. And the reason we did that is we want we

wanted to keep the workers safe. We wanted to keep our guests in our hotel safe and certainly a lot of those workers are residents of our city and certainly a lot of them residents of of our two districts. Um and I'm I'm thinking about this in the in the same way tonight. We want um construction in our city to be safe and sound and and built well. Uh so that people moving into those homes, into those apartments uh feel good uh about where they live and and are safe. and we want our workers to uh anybody working in in in our city uh to be held to to safety standards uh for their own protection and the protection of those around them. So, um, just want Sheay Holmes to understand that it is really important, as Council Member Ruba said, it's really important that what we're doing is quality work in in Anaheim. um our own housing department who uh works with builders on a affordable housing buildings uh holds those uh developers to a very high standard. Why don't we do that for just housing in general? Uh I still have those questions. So, um, still thinking about what I'm going to vote and what we need to include in that, uh, in that agreement and that plan.

Thank you.

Thank you. Um, I have a couple questions, um, for Director Allen. Can you um just touch on were there any other sites in district six that were submitted to the um HCD or was this the only site in that district? So again, this was in as a pipeline site um I believe in terms of pipeline and we can we can pull it up. Um this may have been the only one with a couple small subdivisions. We did have candidate sites. So where we had identified some were um in the canyon, some were in the canyon and we took out um and some and for just for clarity, the canyon area is the area on La Palma between Imperial and almost the 57. Correct. So the the bulk of the the sites in D6 that were actual candidate sites are north of the 91 in district 6. So on the La Palma side.

Okay. And and when you say candidate site, what is the probability or what are we doing to um present those sites to developers as alternative locations than in the fire zones?

So now that the housing element is certified um we are making available. So the the councils in addition to adopting the housing element did general plan amendments to essentially signal to developers that these sites are available sites for um residential or mixeduse development. Um we were waiting to kind of push a kind of a map layer out um to the public until it was approved. Um but we're working on getting that out. So developers I think have been watching the housing element process and are aware um and we have um programs in our housing element to kind of promote the sites um that have been identified as candidate sites um for both market rate and and affordable housing developers. Um that that's also ongoing. And do you know since 1980 spitball um how many homes, town homes, condominiums, and apartments have been built in district 6?

Not since 1980. Um and we can certainly get that um information. I can tell you since 2018 um we had 488 um permits issued in D6. Um many of those I think um the link project was mentioned. Um so those are are largely um there yeah link had 406. There was a single family attached product of 28 units. Uh the racket club was attached um that was a 54 unit project. Um so D6 had 488 in that time period. D5 in the same period had 1543. District 4 had 1,24. District three had 773. District 2 had 325 and district 1 had 412. So that's um a 5-year period between 2018 and 2023.

Okay. Um so can we get that data on how many units have been built? I'm a lifelong Anaheim Hills resident. So um I I remember when there was no Weir Canyon. Talk about being old. Um, and so I I just I know there was some public comments out there that East Anaheim has not built anything or is not open to development. Um, and so I would just like to see if there's data to back that up because just in my lifetime, I have seen everything kind of east of Imperial be built up and almost double the size of the population in in district 6. So, I would just like to if we could kind of examine that or try to get some numbers on that because I I just don't think that that's a fair narrative. Um, kind of related to that is, um, outside, you know, there's a master planned community when Anaheim Hills was first built. Correct.

Correct. Does that have any um authority on this process or is it something that is not binding and can be changed at any time? because I know there's zoning, but then there's also the master plan. I'm trying to see how do those how do those overlay are you talking about the the master plan from when we annexed it from the county?

Yes, it says I I just see that on signs that it's in a master plan community. I don't know what that means versus zoning and versus the festival specific plan. So probably think of it as layers. [clears throat] Originally this particular area was all county property actually all agricultural preserve property and [clears throat] the county did agree to remove that agricultural preservation and allow some development. uh early 70s, the county recognized that this area and several hundred if not thousand acres of this area um did not need to be preserved for agricultural and there was a plan to allow some development, allow housing as well as to also preserve some areas [clears throat] for open space, hiking, trails, recreational areas. That is still very much in play. That is how the county agreed to relieve this agricultural preserve. But it is uh once the city started annexing the areas and it did so over another several years through a series of annexations um still a requirement that the city impose that master plan and it has done so. It has opened up areas for development in annexing in the city then also became in charge of the zoning and the specific plan and it does implement that in charge of the master plan but I would say it's its layers and it is the city's zoning which prevails which is why uh for this particular proposed use you're being asked to both change a specific plan which is the zoning and allow the zoning to allow this residential uh component. And so is it what's the process to change the master plan? So let's say I'm a young professional that wants to move and I think I'm buying into a master planned community across the street from a

equestrian facility. What is the process to then just v you know go through the master plan and change all of the zoning in a certain area that's supposed to be preserved open space? I I I would I would say that, you know, it's a question that we continually look at and research and what our office has determined is uh there are deed restrictions in place that require certain areas to be uh available for certain recreational open space uses and those deed restrictions remain in play and remain um enforceable. It's sort of as conservation easements as you could say. Not this particular property though,

right? Um and I know Mayor Prom asked about the specific plan um amendments. Um but I wanted to touch also on the parking and square footage. It you it I believe in the presentation at the beginning both the parking allotment for this project and the square footage allotment are below what we normally require. Was that correct? So specific um there was there was one parking standard um that the specific plan um proposes to amend and it's only on um onebedroom units. So as was previously discussed they're meeting the three space per unit requirement on three bedrooms, the city's 2.25 25 space per unit on two bedrooms. And then they're proposing for the specific plan that the onebedroom standard be 1.75 um versus the two which is in the city's municipal code. Um but the the twobedroom and threebedroom spaces are the same. So it's just the 1.5 versus the 2.0 for the onebedrooms. And then on the sorry and so the square footage is normally we have a minimum of 700 square feet

but we're allowing them to do 580 square feet. Correct. And what are we getting in return for them to get all of these additions and benefits underneath what our code is that's required in every other district?

Certainly. So, this speaks in part to some of the community community benefits um that the development agreement is giving. Um so, they do have two um open space areas. Pull up that slide. two open space areas that they are um developing uh maintaining but they will be opened to the public. Um they are providing the um 10% or 45 units of the um moderate level mixed use sorry the community benefit they are um providing a phased schedule of improvements to the commercial center. Um, so as as was talked about in I think our presentation as well as the applicants, they're improving connectivity from um that upper tier with the residential to the commercial down below. They're also creating some additional um gathering areas um both in that area as well as the entrance um to the center. um they are providing the two contributions to police and fire in addition to um the CCTV and the emergency vehicle preeemption. And then again, as mentioned, the the development agreement um does um require them to complete construction or pool building permits so these units can go into this rea.

Okay. Okay. And I and I'm very thankful you pulled up this slide because I when I saw a variety of highquality jobs, what does that mean? Because it's not clearly not construction.

Certainly. So I think this in terms of this slide, it um was identifying based on the um investments that would be made in the retail center, the jobs that would happen there. um was was what was identified through these discussions. So this this is separate and apart from anything related to construction, but again the the applicant could could speak to that as well if they intended this point to be something different. So the highquality jobs are going to be restaurant service jobs, retail clerks, and grocery workers and a gas station

and property management jobs and hundreds of construction jobs in the city. Hundreds of construction jobs in on this project. Correct. No, but we don't know what. But are you paying the construction workers on this project prevailing wage? No. Are you guaranteeing that you and every single subcontractor that you work with are not are going to be paid at least above minimum wage? Yes. How are you guaranteeing that? Well, we have visibility into what the subcontractors are are paying their folks.

Okay. And so, are you guaranteeing the work of all of your subcontractors if there is a worker on your project that gets hurt or are you relying on your subcontractors to cover health insurance, workers comp, hospital bills, medical, all those kinds of things? Yeah, we are not the general. So, we hire a general contractor who hires subcontractors who have benefits.

We hire subcontractors who hire god knows who and pays them gosh knows what. I certainly wouldn't say it the same way. I mean, we we've been in the business a long time and and I think that the people that we employ are high quality. Uh the subs that we employ have been in the business for decades. Um many of the subs that we use are under the carpenters umbrella. Um so, you know, we just don't use all prevailing or all union labor because it often makes projects infeasible.

Well, okay. I was just challenging when you say high quality jobs. I I just challenge that because there's nothing that guarantees that. Um and as somebody that started as I was a waitress at Coco's, it is the best job I had. This is Sorry, this is the best job I've ever had, but Coco's was a pretty close second. Um you know, it's a wonderful job, so I'm not knocking that. But it's a wide variety of jobs provided. I just want that doesn't I don't know what that means or how we guarantee that you give that to us. How is it enforceable? I I I do not know how that would be enforceable.

Like what metrics are involved to measure I I mean I'm just concerned that we're giving you a specific plan change and zoning changes we're creating or a new specific plan area. the public benefits are not measurable in any data that we are going to be able to receive. That that's my question. So I guess my next question for director Allen, [applause] you know, it's it's like the third generation of substantial revenues. Maybe maybe people will shop there, maybe they won't. I I I don't know. Um but what I'm really concerned is I know that we are updating some of our impact fees. So what under our current impact fees is our park what would our park fee be under this project? What would their required contribution to Anaheim and fire under our current impact fees be right now?

Certainly. So essentially the way that the development agreement is written is the applicant is responsible to pay the then current rate of any current fee. So I'll put some names to that. So right now we have a citywide park dwelling fee. The project at such time if it were approved comes in for a permit would pay whatever the current council set park dwelling fee is um at that time. Um we have police and fire fees currently but they're um applicable only [clears throat] to the platinum triangle. So if the city were to expand those fees to a citywide fee, this project would not be eligible because those fees are not existent for that property today. So anything that's exists that's citywide today, they would be responsible for paying the then current rate.

So that's under the development agreement we're applying today. Whenever they pull the permit, they're not paying the current rates. they would ask which would probably be about a hundred more than what we're getting right now if we adjust our

so there is there is not a current police or fire impact fee relevant to this project. So we have the city has police and fire impact fees but only for platinum triangle. So, this project would not be um responsible for paying today police and fire fees because they're only a platinum triangle. And the development agreement sets that if citywide police and fire fees were approved by city council, they would not be eligible. They would not be required to pay new fees. They would be required to pay only the then current rate on existing fees. Okay. Um and I I I think I thank our fire marshall who's here for answering um my questions my colleagues asked. Very good questions. So um the um I think that's all the questions I have on um that for right now. Um so if uh anybody else have uh council member Rubikala. So since the council has the discretion to amend or make a recommendation to amend the development agreement, one of the recommendations I will make is that we add in skilled and uh or uh prevailing wage uh skilled workers for the um drywall as well as the um help me out here. It's 11 o'clock. The parking structure. Thank you. So that's one of the amendments I would like to make. No offense to Sha Holmes, but I don't really trust that you'll be able to manage the subcontractor. So, I would prefer to have that in the development agreement. So, regardless of whether you guys decide to sort of ditch the project within four years or so, it still applies to whoever picks it up because I know that's how it works in the development arena. Um, so that is one of the recommendations I would like to

make. I I agree with Mayor Akin as well as my council colleague Curts that it is important that we're going to make sure that th that variety of high-quality jobs. I do agree retail is a great uh way to generate revenue in some cases, but we all know that those are low paid paying jobs. Um and we want to make sure that we're generating jobs. Property management is awesome, but it's probably going to be two or three positions not at the scale that we need for the city of Anaheim. workforce initiatives are a high priority and to have the people who are building it make enough money to actually live in them is something that I care about. So, if I would like to make that recommendation and then to your point, mayor, about um the linkage fees, I know that this council did pass an initiative earlier last year um related to development fees and it was relevant to affordable units or apartment complexes actually that were not affordable. This has a component of affordability, but it would not qualify as an affordable unit for our reena initiative. So uh would that those uh development fees or linkage fees I can't remember what we called it would that apply in this case?

So based on when that ordinance um was adopted this was an active application. So the inloo fees that the council set last year would not apply. Um so they are making a um voluntary contribution related to the the 10% moderate but based on the date of their application and the effective date of the affordable housing inloo fee ordinance um that would not apply. So we are not getting the the um inloo fees based on the new ordinance. And if the inloo fees as a council though, we could include that in the development agreement or is that something we cannot because we have discretion since they're asking for amendments to the specific plan as well as the general uh plan?

Well, when when council adopted the housing incentive ordinance, it specifically said that it would not apply retroactively, that it would apply perspectively to applications um that were filed after I want to say October 2024. This application was filed in 23. So that ordinance does not apply by council action to this particular development. So that's fair. So if they if this um application fails tonight, they have to reapply and then it would apply to their application. If if you deny the project, there is no project. That is correct.

Okay. So then they would have to reapply. Um, so I I guess what I would like to do at this time is um ask to amend the development agreement to include the skilled and um trained uh workforce element as well as the local hire. Um, if traffic is is a major issue, I want to make sure that we're not exasperating that by bringing more people in from the Inland Empire on the 91 freeway when they can actually be living in Anaheim and our surrounding area. So, I I support uh the direction that Mayor Aken and Council Member uh Curts was going. And um I just to add on to council member Ruba Calva's um point and it's not lost on me that we went through this together um on the fair board which is why I'm asking some of these questions is that we had a contractor that was a reputable contractor that hired a lot of subcontractors on a $40 million renovation and they weren't paying their workers. They were paying them in cash. they were making them go to their own cashchecking places that they had like a cut in. Um, and it was always it's the subcontractor, it's not me. It's the subcontractor, it's not me. So, I'm looking for a way to have some type of responsibility and ownership of subcontractors in the case that somebody gets hurt, somebody is required to bring their tools and instead of getting a high quality, you can tell I don't build anything. I'm a saw cutter. Um, they go get something cheap and it breaks and it injures a coworker. I mean, what are our protections for this? I mean, that's what I'm also very concerned and agree 100% with the local hire. Um, because if we're doing all of this and all it's

benefiting is outofstate workers that are living in an Anaheim hotel for 6 months and then taking all that money back, that's not generating tax revenue, not this project, and not, you know, that's not good for our local workforce.

Uh, If I may, thank you. I I appreciate that. Again, Andrew Fog from Cox Castle Nicholson. So, I I I do want to call attention to skilled and trained workforce is a very specific definition under state law. It relates to how a percentage of workers who've graduated from certain apprenticeship programs. It also comes with certain administrative burdens that are just add a lot of costs to the project that go far beyond wages. You've mentioned local workforce, local hire, that is a different component. Um, and and then there's the notion of prevailing wage. Um, and that creates a whole another set of issues. And as I mentioned in my earlier comments, there there are federal preeemptions that limit the ability of of the city to impose these sort of union requirements, prevailing wage requirements on private on private uh developments.

I apologize for interrupting you, but can you specify what those are?

Yeah, I mean I have a letter here that uh we prepared in anticipation of these issues, which I'll submit. Um but um specifically uh issues related to project labor agreements and the requirement to impose union labor. Uh the the Supreme Court uh and this is the um building and construction trade council of metro district versus associated building contractor buildings and contractors of Massachusetts and Rhode Island also referred to commonly as the Boston Harbor case. The citation is 507 US 218. The Supreme Court distinguished um between where there is a uh a project labor agreement, a requirement to hire uh union labor is considered a prehire collective bargaining agreement that is specifically permitted in the construction industry under the National Labor Relations Act. And the state can require these provisions only where it's engaging in proprietary conduct such as acting as an owner where you're doing a public work. When the state agency is acting its role of a purchaser of construction contractor, it acts as a private contractor would act and uh conditions its purchasing labor.

So you'll be in litigation for a while. I I think you're kind of missing the point. No, I So I I I I think it's fair, but it's 11:00 at night right now, and I hear what you're saying about the Supreme Court's ruling and federal law. However, this is a municipality, and we have discretion with this. No, you don't. I apologize. But if the federal is preempt, but if we decide as a council that we're going to include that in the development agreement, then that just means you'll be stuck in litigation. Yes.

And it'll cost you more instead of just hiring skilled and trained. So a development agreement is a voluntary agreement between a uh private party and a city. You can't impose conditions and development agreement that are not agreed to. The development agreement is could be abandoned uh at this proceedings and we could proceed just with the specific plan amendment and and remove the development agreement as a request. So it's not a unilateral, it's a bilateral. And we uh the client, our client gets the benefits of the vested rights uh in exchange for the uh benefits that we've agreed to. It's not a unilateral that it can be imposed without the uh consent of the other party. It is a it is a voluntary contractual agreement under California law.

Leon, can you please uh advise?

Certainly. And um based on everything that I've heard um I I do agree in that respect is what's being suggested is a revised term to the development agreement and it is a bilateral agreement. They can uh don't have to agree to that term. Um and what I believe council for is alluding to is you still have a housing development project before you and you will have to take action on that project to approve or disapprove. And in light of the current housing laws, the ability to disapprove uh is somewhat restricted. And um at this time, um unless it's just a a waste of time, we should sit down and decide if if the development agreement can be amended in some way, both based on what uh council has discussed tonight as well as what the developer may or may not be willing to. But regardless, we will still have to come back for potentially some very specific findings uh for disapproval if that is uh council's intent on the project tonight. They are two separate uh courses of action and they they both are subject to different rules. May, if I may. Um, I I hate to make this recommendation because we've sat through so many hours of public comment, but may we I I make a motion to continue this until they have an opportunity to go back and take a look at the development agreement based on the feedback that we've provided. If I just have a clarification. If we continue this to see when a kind of what we can and cannot include in a development agreement, um would we have to have a whole new public hearing?

You you have already closed the public hearing so you do not have to reopen it. Okay. But what I would like to clarify is is one of the basis for coming back is to what is presented to you are recommendations for approval. That's in your staff report. that's in all of the findings and it would allow staff to present both alternate findings for disapproval based on the constraints of the current housing laws and and whatnot that could be recommended as an alternative course of action. So, it would be two things, but unless something comes up at the next hearing that warrants you to reopen the public hearing, you may do that in your discretion, but you not would not be required to. We did have a full and complete public hearing tonight. And then I would just say as city attorney in light of what I'm hearing uh rather than taking a vote today, I would actually recommend uh that a continuence be had to further discuss some alternatives uh rather than making any hasty decisions tonight. That's just my recommendation.

Thank you. Um I don't um I know that you made a motion, but just if you would uh entertain I know council member Meeks and Bis Rang in um so do you want to um just make some comments and then we can address the motion?

I just wanted to make sure that language was in here because I mean the the only way I can even wrap that I can wrap my head around this project is that it is a replacement of an existing use and that's what it is. The theater's been closed for many years. They have not found another commercial use for it. Um, but I want to make sure that we protect the remainder of the commercial uses. I think it the center is important to Anaheim Hills. Um, it's provides a lot of our amenities. It provides a lot of our resources and our grocery stores and our Target and gym and all the things that that we use. So I I don't want this approval to then make it easy to take down those other areas, those other commercial buildings in that zone. So I want to make sure that this is clear enough in the specific plan that this is what we're what is approved and nothing more than that or do we need to subdivide this area five into housing and commercial because that's really it's two different areas.

We can certainly if if the settlement is to continue we can certainly look at that um and and come back with that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Bis and then Council Member Herz.

Thank you. If this [clears throat] gets continued, I may ask this next time, but I'm I'm going to ask it today. We brought up impact fees. Um, by my calculations, and maybe I'm going to ask you what yours might be too, and they can be rough if you know them, but uh, for parks, this is, uh, just a little under 2.5 million, I believe, for this development that's here. And then they would also be required, correct me if I'm wrong, to pay, uh, sanitation fees as well. My question is, currently, I know in the Platinum Triangle fee there are police and fire. If you could overlay those fees to this project, can you tell me what they would be?

Not at the moment. Okay. I'll take it later then. Thank you. And I'd also be interested um to know what the comparable fee would be if our affordable housing ordinance was applicable to this property. Kind of under the same light as council member Bis's question. Uh, Coun Mayor Prom Leon.

Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. I'll second my colleagues motion. Um, I think for us, you know, skilled and trained workers have built Anaheim. Uh, they bring a level of skill, of safety, of accountability that protects our residents. Uh, and it's not just before construction or during construction or when the ribbon is cut. It gives us the reassurance that these buildings meet the highest standards possible. And if they have concerns about construction, about quality, about long-term performance or standards, uh they are not side issues. Uh for us, it is very important uh that um that the developer stays at the table in real good faith conversations about making sure that we're not just providing a a project that our residents can count on um also have the opportunity uh for our Anaheim residents to also be engaged um to make sure that folks are trained to how we can make this project uh the best it can and how it gets built. And so I know those conversations might be hard, but they matter. They lead to better buildings. They lead to safer jobs, to local jobs, and stronger outcomes to for our city as a whole. So, um, I will go ahead and second my colleagues motion.

And just to clarify, there's a meeting on January 27th and also on February 3rd. You do need to make this a date certain. So, uh, you'll have to make that part of the motion. And I might suggest for purposes of the staff report if it works February 3rd because I think I was going to make the recommendation for give you some time and you guys some time. I'll second work together. Yep. Council member Kurtz.

Thank you. Um just one thing when you come back. Can you also explain to us I this council voted on an ordinance some months ago on um contractors, subcontractors, what reports have to be filed and the city's opportunity to actually stop work if uh some of those items uh don't measure up. So an explanation of how that goes uh with the with a Actually, it applied to any construction project, but uh so we can take a look at that and it'll give us an option of what uh what we can do.

Thank you. Um and I just wanted to thank staff for being incredibly prepared as well as our amazing team from a may um Anaheim Fire and Rescue. Thank you. um public works. Thank you for being here and answering questions. Um you know, one of the things that is is as a you know, lifelong Anaheim resident, um I have seen Anaheim grow. I have seen Anaheim add I've seen Anaheim change in my 21 years in the city. Um and that's okay. We want to grow. We want to change. We want to adapt. But I think in the current situation that we are in, not knowing when OCTA might work with us on an overpass, not knowing how people are going to um not necessarily study the know your way plan, but actually follow it in moments of panic, which is just against human nature. I am extremely concerned about adding housing to this part of district 6 if we have other available options in the canyon or in areas that are not in that high fire zone. I remember October 9th and everybody that went through it remembers it like it was yesterday. So, um I do want to just if you could brief me, um Heather, uh sorry, Director Allen, um I would appreciate just being a little bit more um educated on what are our other options that District 6 can put forward that are not in our high density fire zones. [applause]

Um, so we have a motion to continue and a second. Please vote to February 3rd. Third or fourth?

The motion to continue to February 3rd. Seven eyes, no nazs. Motion carries. Okay, now I can't think. Thank you very much. Um, next is our report on closed session. City attorney, do you have anything to report? Uh, no, Madame Mayor. Uh, no reportable action.

Thank you. Uh, we also have time for we do not have any non-aggenda item public comments, so we'll move to future agenda item requests by council members. Um, I'm going to clear the speaker queue only because I'm not sure what the crossover is from that item to right now. So, I'll start with council member Kurts and then council member Rubikava.

Thank you. I'd like to uh uh recognize the Orange County Peloteros baseball team. It's a team of 12year-old boys, all Anaheim residents. And while they live in a couple of different districts, um, Councilman Ruba, they most of them go to the school, uh, in your, uh, Price Elementary School.

Um, they are a traveling baseball team, have won, uh, back-to-back championship tournaments in the last month. But more importantly, uh these kids, these boys, uh have learned that it's not solely about winning, but rather about giving back to the community. They actually raise money themselves by doing odd jobs to raise money to donate gifts to the or uh to their uh children and family center for Christmas. Uh so I would like to bring them into council to recognize their efforts not only for winning but for giving back. Thank you.

Thank you Council Member Rubikala and then Mayor Prom.

Thank you Mayor Aken. I would just like to uh request an agenda item to have our wonderful new uh Chief Sid come in and give us an overview of his first hundred days and what he plans to do. And um I just would like to get some insight into public safety uh over the next few months. And then I'd also like to request and I don't think this is an agenda item, but the ebike issue came up and it's something that I have talked to council member Meeks about my district in particular. I do see we we passed this ordinance last year and I do think that there's probably lack of enforcement but probably more education and if we can partner with the schools to do that if we can um get a plan on what that might look like with Mike Listister and also with APD. I'd hate to see kids getting tickets because they're riding on sidewalks when they're not aware of of what the laws are. So if we can possibly start some sort of a communication before we do enforcement locally that'd be good. Yeah, we had a lot of success with the middle school out in the east end in education when school started.

Yeah, they had two ebike accidents of stu of rancho students right before Christmas. It's just [laughter] junior high kids don't listen. Get out of here every month. Mayor prom.

Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh I'm still getting used to the mayor prom. keep on waiting for uh Council Member Meeks to chime in. Um but uh I just wanted to bring in our CHB team, California Highway Patrol from Santa Ana uh uh to recognize them for their work and their annual Chips for Kids uh toy distribution where they distribute to kids from across the region, not just one city. Uh so I'd like to bring them in for recognition. Thank you, Council Member Mos.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. At a future date, I would like to bring in a discussion about removing blight and a discussion about billboards in Anaheim. So, I don't know if that's a workshop or business calendar item. Thank you. Support that. Um, and I think so that'll just be Leave it to me. Um, as mentioned earlier, um, I'm going to be adding something to closed session uh for our next meeting on January 27th. I would also like to agendaize um the AFA ADR resolution agreement between AFA and ASME at the January 27th or February 3rd um council meeting. And um lastly, and this probably could be a memo from um or just a meeting with fire staff, but I would be really interested and I think um council member Curts kind of hit on this about shoring up and making homes in District 6 fire resistant. And maybe what can we look at and why don't I what can we look at citywide to make all of our new housing and new buildings and new structures more fire resistant? Um because if we've seen in just even locally in some of major cities around us, major structure fires um in crowded urban dense areas are just as scary and frightening as a wildfire. Um, and so if there are standards that we can require that bring heightened levels, I would like to just know what they are, what we are allowed to do as a city. Um, so maybe you and I can just work together and you can just educate me a little bit. That would be great. Um, does anyone else have anything? If not, uh, we will stand adjourned until January 27th.