City Council - Regular Meeting

the transition from one location to another. We had a very successful partnership with the city of Corona themselves and and a lot of support when it came to, you know, moving to a whole new home. And so that was really exciting for us and we truly appreciated the support from a structural standpoint. We appreciate everything the city's done for us as well. And you guys have made yourself very available to us. Again, we actually engage the city on a few occasions to really help us navigate because there's always some new regulation that comes up and Definitely having someone that's uh wellversed in those rules and regulations has really helped us uh smooth the process out there for us. So by by taking the pledge uh we actually got a lot of other resources right that came in with that partnership. They help us with remarketing, right? They really feature us uh when it comes to, you know, their website because it really does open up ourselves to different talent, you know, people that maybe haven't heard of lot of 236 foods and they're able to uh show them what we do here locally. So, I would take the pledge and I would encourage every other company to do so because again, there's a lot of resources available with the city and the city is a great resource and has been a great resource for Latitude 36 Foods. So, take the pledge today or contact to learn more. Good morning everyone. We're here at City Park. We have our first street clean up of 2024. We had about 50 volunteers come clean up the city as well as paint the skate park. It came out really great. It's good to help our community. I encourage everyone to volunteer with us in the future. Our next cleanup event is going to for city hall on March 16th from 9 to 11 a.m. We'll see you there. Most people look at carbon health and

are like what is carbon health? Carbon health is the home of good health. Workers comp if the employer needs a drug screen ahead of time. We do that as well. Vision, hearing, weightlifting, whatever physical needs. And then Carbon Health gives us a lot of the good resources in order for us to do a good job. Um, I feel like having a lot of good tools here. Their goal is to try to make [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Well, good evening everybody. Welcome to our city council meeting. Would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance? Place your hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. At this time, I'd like to call the meeting to order. Will the city clerk please read the special instructions? Individuals wishing to address the city council are requested to complete a speaker card and deliver it to city clerk staff prior to the item being

heard by the city council. Please observe a three-minute limit for communications and once called upon to speak, please state your name and city of residents for the record. Mayor, I also want to note that there were two revisions to the agenda. For agenda item 8.1, the presentation was attached. And for item 9.1, the presentation was revised. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Edwards. Okay, we don't have any proclamations or recognitions tonight, so we're going on to our consent calendar. All items on the consent calendar are considered to be routine matters, status reports, or documents covering previous city council action. The items listed on the consent calendar may be enacted in one motion with the concurrence of the city council, a council member, or any person in attendance may request that an item be removed for further considerations. Do my colleagues have any items they want to pull? 6.4. I just want to make a comment, but okay, Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public on any items? Mayor, we do not have any cards for the consent calendar. Okay. Can I get a motion for all items except for 6.4? Wes and Jackie, please vote. Tony and Jackie, okay, consent calendar passes 5 nothing. Let's move on to 6.4. Wes. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to say thank you to uh to staff um and just really excited about the the fact that this A is getting awarded. I know there was a little bit of delay, but uh I was uh talking to Mr. Compu this week and he was telling me this is the most miles that we've ever done ever in the city. 167 lane miles. Is that correct? 167 lane miles. Large portions of of the city and in every district. And I know that the several uh sections of Eagle Glenn are going to be done. So I was

very excited to hear that and um just wanted to say thank you for all the hard work. I know it was a a little bit of a bumpy road to get here, but it ended up being a very positive one. So thank you. Good. And no members of the public wanted to comment on 6.4. Mayor, we do not have any speaker cards. Okay. Wes, you want to make that motion? Second. Wes and Tom, please vote. Try your mouse. Can we get your voice vote? Council member speak. Try your mouse. And that passes five to nothing. Communications from the public. This portion of the agenda is intended for general public comments on items within the council's jurisdiction that are not listed elsewhere on the agenda. Please note that state law prohibits the city council from discussing or taking action on these items. Please observe a threeminut limit for comments and once called upon to speak, please state your name and city of residence for the record. Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public? Mayor, we do not have any speaker cards. Okay, then let's move on to public hearings. We have a public hearing for 2025-2029 HUD consolidated plan and 2025-2026 annual action plan and increase fund allocation to program year 2021 home American rescue plan act allocation plan. Does any of my council members want a staff report on this item? Yes, I do. Okay. Um Karen Roer, our homeless and housing solutions manager will provide a report. Mr. forever. I thought I saw you. She stepped out for a second. All right. Yeah, Miss Edwards, can we table this for a few and go to the next item? Yes,

we can. Okay. Don't let me forget. Okay. All right. I know I'm going to forget. Oh, there she is. Hey, Karen, you're up. No, you really are up. Yeah, you're going to provide a report, aren't you? That was just perfect timing. You almost made me move on to the next item. Good evening. I have a a team member that is joining me and I want to make sure that he is on. You know, we have a a partner. We have our HUD consultant Clint. You've met him before. I just want to make sure Clint, you're on. I am on. Good evening, everyone. Perfect. Hi, Clint. Okay. Good evening, council members. You caught me off guard. I'm thinking I'm like way at the end of the agenda. Um, thank you for the opportunity to present before you this um, evening and also earlier. I really appreciate it. I have the honor to present to your council tonight the new five-year HUD consolidated plan that acts as a strategic document for all of our HUD home and CDBG funds. And I would like to say that there's a lot that went into developing this plan, which I'm going to talk about, but it's important for your council to know that when the last HUD consolidated plan was developed, which was 2020 through 2024, we had a a CDBG um consolidated plan council subcommittee that your council

appointed. Vice Mayor, I believe you participated in that subcommittee. and I think Jason Scott did with you. Is that correct? So, I want your council to know that uh we built upon that amazing foundation in terms of the the policies and strategies. So, we built on the success that was already developed by your council. Tonight we're going to talk about the consolidated plan overview, the plan process, all of the strategies within the plan. You have to have an annual plan. So we have a 2526 action plan with um specific projects. We also have a residential rehab program. And then we got a tiny little itty bitty surprise from HUD if you looked at the agenda item to increase our home money. And no matter how much the increase is, we always want to say yes to more money, right? So with that, let's talk about the overview of the plan. There are multiple documents that are connected to the consolidated plan. So I'd like to walk you through them. We receive entitlement grant allocations of CDBG and home funds each year. To continue receiving these funds, we must prepare a five-year consolidated plan. and it establishes a unified strategic vision for housing and community development actions. Connected to that, you'll see that there's a citizen participation plan which outlines how residents and stakeholders are able to participate in the planning process and it addresses things like documents on our website, public noticing, and of course tonight a public hearing. Um each year during the period of the consolidated plan, HUD requires the submission of an annual action plan that

details out projects um and how we're going to use the funds. So now we're going to talk about the process. And my oh I should mention too um that at the end of each year we do prepare a performance report. It's called a caper, also known as a consolidated annual performance report. And it's published goes out for public review. And this generally occurs around dece uh excuse me September. So together all of these combine all of the different documents. Now in terms of the process, we've spent a year-long process developing the plan. So I want to talk about that. Uh we started the consolidated plan process in August of 24 when staff along with its consultant developed the elements of the planning documents outlined the process to be followed including a massive amount of data mapping resources that are informed by some standard data sources that HUD requires such as the US Census American community survey five-year estimates that they call it the CHAZ the comprehensive housing affordability strategy and many other data sources during the months of August and September, we focus focused on data analysis and the preparation of resident stakeholder surveys and updates to the city's participation plan. Then during the months of September through November, we focused on community engagement. I'm super proud about this part. Uh we started uh with the launch of the resident survey which remained open for 44 days. During that time, we advertised the survey. We had community meetings. We advertised on social media. We delivered hard copies to stakeholders throughout the city. And we even asked other partners to distribute the information to get as many responses as possible. So, I need a drum roll. The the Thank you. The amount of surveys that we received in terms of the

citywide participation was overwhelming. We received like nearly 2600 surveys. That is unprecedented. Usually in prior uh outreach efforts for consolidated plan, it's anywhere from 5 to 700 responses. So we were so thrilled to have that level of uh participation from the community and that is something HUD really wants to see. And then uh in um Mr. Oper. Yes. If I could interrupt you really quick. Was the the title of this survey any different than in previous years to justify the increase? I'm just kind of curious if you guys did something different that caught more people's eye. Uh Clint, I don't think it was titled any different. I think it was just the the different methods of outreach that we conducted. Correct. Uh correct. Yeah, it's a resident survey for the consolidated plan. So I think yeah I I I would recognize the the PIO and the different um electronic means by which the city is connected with residents and you know Corona among all of the clients at LDM Associate Services has always been a leader in this area uh because you have u some really outstanding methods of engagement uh via your social media as well as other channels and uh Karen and I were frankly blown way uh that we you know more than quadrupled the response rate 5 years later. Um so I think it's just a reflection of how engaged uh Corona is with its residents. And also wanted to highlight that we did have community meetings in mornings uh with stakeholder agencies, two evening sessions for Corona residents. They were held at the historic civic center and the multi-purpose room and they were in English and in Spanish. All of the meetings were well attended and featured a robust discussion on the variety of housing community development needs. And

then during the months of November and December, we focused on analyzing community engagement results, developing draft priorities and strategies. So now we're going to talk about the next few months. Uh during the months of April, excuse me, February through April, we focused on completing the draft consolidated plan and action plan and our team and consultants worked together to develop activities to receive CDBG and home funds, including the release of a NOA, otherwise known as a notice of funding availability for public services. We did have an application process open from April through May. The applications were reviewed for program eligibility for public services to benefit low moderate income residents. And all of the activities selected for consistency with plan priorities and needs must also um they must um comply with HUD regulations and implementation feasibility. And I'll talk about that a little bit more. We also had a 30-day period where staff was accepting public comments and tonight um is requesting city council approval to submit the consolidated plan documents to HUD so that we can begin implementing the new CDBG and home activities. I'm usually not nervous before you guys. I don't know what my problem is tonight. I'm so sorry. Uh the city's community engagement efforts were intentionally robust with surveys with multiple methods and stakeholder um outreach. like I mentioned to you and then this is just a picture of the different ways that we were able to reach uh the community through our website, social media, physical postings of the plan which is was in our city clerk's office and the library and then our HUD consultant. All of the uh survey opportunities were able to be emailed into the HUD consultant.

So now we're going to talk about the strategies for the consolidated plan. So there's opportunities for strategies, but when we get to the point of funding the strategies, uh we we use the three-legged stool. And I want to mention what that is. First of all, if we're going to fund a strategy, we have to make sure that it addresses a need and we look at the feedback that we received from the community to inform what our needs are. The second leg of the stool is regulatory compliance. So, we also have to make sure that the strategy that we fund and the projects that we fund comply with HUD requirements. I think your council knows this funding is very strict in terms of what we can and cannot allocate funds because there is a mandate for low moderate income benefit. And then this is also important for your council to know and that is implementation um feasibility and that is uh our capacity to implement but also to make sure that the projects that we select meet timeliness standards. And I will tell you in uh prior uh consolidated plan periods we were on the list of slow spending and it uh is only because of the types of projects that were selected with um non-standard design um and multi-year phases sometimes took longer than what HUD would like to see. So we did factor that in um to the selection of the projects. And of course the strategies are affordable housing, community facilities, public services and infrastructure. So we'll talk about the different

elements of affordable housing. Uh we we knocked this one out of the park. uh tenant-based rental assistance, uh acquisition, rehab or construction of rental housing including permanent supportive housing and then also preservation of housing which includes an element of partnership with code enforcement and then residential rehab which I will talk to you about in more detail. Public services is another element of a strategy and I would like to talk about that. Uh you may recall from prior consolidated plan submitted to council. Uh there is a HUDmandated element for fair housing. So that's an automatic funding allocation. We get a huge bang for the buck out of the public services provided by the fair housing council. you will see other public service allocation elements for big brothers big sisters inspire life skills starting over and um voices for children and I'm going to talk a little bit about the the public service process because we did have a highly competitive NOA process. I want to tell you a little bit about that. Uh we did uh once the NOA was released we received a total of 16 proposals. two of those proposals did not pass threshold review uh for HUD compliance requirements or our local compliance requirements. So we had a application review committee that did u review and score 14 proposals and the proposals that received um the highest scores are recommended for funding to your council tonight. All of the agencies are well seasoned agencies that have a great track record for receiving um CDBG funds and provide a wide variety of great public services in our city.

Community facilities is another potential strategy that you can fund in a consolidated plan. You can fund um public facilities like emergency shelter, parks, senior centers, or other eligible community facilities. These are important to the residents, especially with some of our um facilities that are older that need renovation. You may recall just as an example, your council approved prior um CDBG funds to invest in our homeless shelter. So that's an example of of what you can fund under community facilities. We'll talk about infrastructure. So with infrastructure, you can fund alleys, streets, sidewalks, ADA accessibility improvements, and of course other infrastructure like affordable housing. Again, I will emphasize to your council that it's important that you pick not only projects that meet HUD requirements, but that are also you can you can implement them and spend them down in a timely manner. And I'm proud of the process that internally we conducted as a city with our consultants. we met with community services and with public works and evaluating um not just the needs of what the community resident said, but also the priority needs of the city. and um proud to mention to your council that we're proposing to support public works with um a CIP project for mandated um ADA um curb and sidewalk um improvements which is a it's a legal requirement for our city and it is because of the way that Savat and his team are able to um quickly implement projects like this um and this will be in residential areas um it it it'll meet a number of different objectives and of course support those that are disabled. I will just give you an example some of the other things that

we looked at that were a potential option. You look at something like city park where the city is investing a lot of money and needing to fill gaps to really meet the vision of those improvements. But when we drill down in the HUD requirements, it does not meet low mod benefit because it's going to be transformed into a regional benefit for residents all over the city. So, I just want you to know a lot of work went into evaluating what would be the best projects to recommend to your council to comply with the HUD requirements and also do great things in our city. So within the consolidated plan, you have an annual action plan that outlines the different activities that are going to be funded. So we'll talk about those. So this is a snapshot of the CDBG activities that we're recommending for your council. I already touched on the public services. I, you know, should u mention to you this is consistent with prior council action for the public services to be able to to make a an investment that's going to make a difference and to have continuity of services and care. The it's the first year of funding in the action plan for those public service agencies, nonprofits with the option to renew for four subsequent years under the five-year consolidated plan. That of course is contingent on a couple of things. One would be availability of HUD funds, but also the agencies do have rigorous performance metrics in terms of meeting their performance objectives as well as all of the backup documentation that they are required to submit. As I had mentioned to you, CDBG programs are very rigorous in terms of what HUD does expect for the backup documentation. The are reimbursement grants. And then also

uh you'll see housing code enforcement and to um Miss Joanne Ketta. Um just a shout out to the the ongoing partnership with with her department. Um in past consolidated plans, you guys have hit it out of the park in the partnership of referring through code enforcement to our residential rehab program when there are homes in the city that have code violations and the folks are lowincome and need support. uh we have a residential rehab program. And then of course if there are landlords where there are are dangerous situations, code enforcement is going to help with that as well to make sure that those landlords, those rental units are up to code. So we get a big bang for the buck um in terms of how we can preserve our housing infrastructure. And then as I mentioned to you, um the city's mandated ADA compliance project. And then uh we do a lot of work for this money and we get $217,000 of um admin funds that uh supports LDM, our consultant and staff time. And I do want to say to you and just give a shout out to Clint and the LDM team. I think they've been in on contract with our city since 2010. Is that right Clint? That sounds correct. And like yesterday, so they have had uh this this particular program has been in multiple departments since that time. They have really been um you know providing that continuity. Um they they are lauded by HUD. I work with HUD a lot in many different fronts and we always get huge compliments about the great work of LDM. they really know their stuff with regulatory compliance. So, we're very fortunate to have them as a partner. So, that's a

snapshot of the recommended funding allocation for all of the CDBG funds. And now, just a quick snapshot of the home dollars. So, we are recommending the continuation of the tenant-based rental assistance program that has been in place um since the last consolidated plan. Your council through the Mercy House contract has approved the allocation of those funds. Mercy House does a great job. We are able to prevent households that are um low income from being evicted because it does pay for eviction prevention and then also housing placements. we can provide for those that are graduating out of our shelters. And then there's more. This is something I want to talk about in terms of strategy where we try to integrate our resources to support council initiatives. We did some research and we found out that we can use the tenant-based rental assistance to pay for space rent for mobile home residents that are facing a life challenge and might otherwise lose their mobile home and be evicted because they can't pay their space rent. So, this is really great to be able to integrate to support different city initiatives. So this supports your homeless plan, your pending rent stabilization ordinance. We're doing what we can to integrate the resources. HUD also does require the allocation of a set aside of CHTO funds. Um the to meet CHTO requirements is very rigorous in terms of the composition of the board and um various projects. It's been a number of years since we've been able to partner with a CHOT. So, what happens is after a certain number of years, if you don't use the CHTO um funds, HUD allows you to reallocate them

to other entitlement activities in your consolidated plan, which is what we did not long ago. And then there's the administrative costs. So, there's the total for the home activities, Miss Roer. Yes. Is that once a year as well as like the CD CDBG fund? So, these can be reapplied next year. Let's say this year um a good Can you go back one slide? A a good portion of that may end up going to some of our mobile home residents and next year based on funding could potentially have a new round of that. We will come back to your council every year with a proposed annual action plan and uh we will uh present to that. Normally you continue to refund but the council has the opportunity to change strategies. we might see needs in our cities that shift and change and we, you know, would present those to you. So, yes, you have an opportunity to um direct us to do different things so long as they meet the requirements of the three-legged stool that I talked about. Okay. And and LA was it last um last plan that we the CHDO the Chto I think you called it um funds that and you had said that we had a hard time working with a partner on that but we were able to reallocate them. We haven't used them for a while. Clint do you want to talk about that? I know that we reallocated them to the TBR program I believe because we were not able to use them certainly. Um, so the reason that we have a community housing development organization set aside is the home program regulations and it's part of the home statute goes back to the early 90s. What HUD originally intended to do was set aside a portion of the home funding for organizations, nonprofit housing developers, small nonprofit housing developers, uh really as a capacity building mechanism to make sure that um

you know, HUD was developing local capacity in communities to develop new affordable housing units. Um and so within the regulations, HUD requires us to set aside 15% of our home grant. And you'll notice that our home grant is $49,000. And so 61,000 is is 15% of that. And we need to hold that money for a period of two years and make reasonable attempts to partner with the CHOT to develop a housing unit. Unfortunately, when we look at this and we're looking at something on the order of $122,000 to develop a housing unit, which is effectively what you can do with that, provided you have the correct partner that meets those requirements. it really doesn't provide enough of a resource to be able to pull the trigger and move forward on a housing development project because it's insufficient funds to develop the unit. So effectively for a grantee with a home allocation this small um or of this size I should say um one of the more effective strategies is to let that what will in in effect be $122,000 time out at uh 24 months and then we'll go to our HUD rep and say hey it was insufficient we didn't have a partner we didn't have a viable project that met all of the criteria can we now use this money for any other eligible home purpose um hypothec ically HUD will say yes. They have said yes um for for a number of years running and then we would then move that money over and slot it into another home program activity such as tenant based rental assistance where then it could be used for any of the purposes that Karen outlined. Um in communities that receive larger home grants where this 15% set aside might be a half million dollars threequarters of a million dollars. it starts to change the the the complexion of the decision-making process and what we would bring forward to recommend um in terms of the use of that set aside that's required by the regulations. So, we're trying to be strategic in in

realizing what's possible given the resources that have have been brought forward as well as the significant regulatory red tape that's associated with the home funded projects. um it's uh it can be complex and it it is um a relatively small dollar amount um to be able to move forward with a viable project. So that's kind of a a quick primer on on the history of the community housing development organization set aside and and why uh communities of our size tend to struggle with spending that right out of the gate. And council member Ddari, I just want to reemphasize the tenant based rental assistance is still going to cover um homeless prevention for residents throughout the whole city that are eligible based on their income. It's also still going to support shelter exits from both our Harrison Hope Center as well as the motel shelter program. So, as people are graduating out of shelter, they are recommended for tenant-based rental assistance, which can provide um up to 24 months worth of rent subsidy where they pay 30% of their income towards rent, which is a HUD standard, and then the TBR can subsidize the rest. And then we also can fund with these um monies, security deposits. So it helps to support that larger strategy that your council approved which is that a toz system of services in your homeless plan. So we just happened to research the regs to confirm that if by chance we had any mobile home residents that were lowincome that could not pay their space rent that they could potentially be eligible. But I just want to make sure you realize it's got multiple components, not being diverted just for space rent. No, that that part

I was I was pretty clear on and I appreciate that. I was just I was just interested in in these in the set aside because it seems like if it's problematic that that for cities like our size where this dollar amount really isn't going to sway anything that they would almost say that if there's nobody that you could work with instead of having to wait for two years apply it right now where it could do some good in the tenant based rental assistance. Yep. just curious. But I'm glad that, you know, there's a plan to attempt to find a partner and bearing that that we do have a the ability to move it into something that we do use quite a bit. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on. So, I'm excited to give you an update. We're proposing to update our residential rehab program guidelines. We do have um a surplus of HUD funds that we are able to use and invest to support this. So we we have those funds that have been approved in prior council actions that support the residential rehab program and but what we are proposing to you is to update the guidelines. They are attached as an exhibit to the consolidated plan so that if your council approves them, not only do you approve them, but you would delegate authority to your city manager to make um updates as may be required. That's also consistent with past um council action. You will see that due to the the nature of what we're seeing out there in terms of deferred maintenance and code violations, uh 25,000 is just not sufficient for single family homes for lowincome folks. So, we're proposing to go up to 50,000 and it's still a forgivable loan that is zero uh% over 20 years. We are though proposing to add mobile home grants. Um we know that we have um 10 parks that are we've been working with in our rent

stabilization ordinance as an example where we have deferred maintenance in those with folks that are low income. So because of the unique structure of mobile homes, it's it's industry standard to do a grant as opposed to a loan. Um, I did that, you know, when I worked for the county. It was very common. I know, um, county of Riverside does similar types of programs. So, we are proposing that we do have the opportunity to do mobile home grants. Again, that's a way to integrate resources with another um, pending city initiative. Also, HUD has new requirements for radon gas testing. And then also we do on top of that leadbased paint and asbestos v various uh rigorous tests that we have to do as part of this residential rehab program. And then um you know kudos to LDM they've launched this really streamlined online application process for our residential rehab program and their neighborly software. And then also we do have a $2,000 increase to our home ARP dollars. And so we need approval to receive the funds. So it was easy to just wrap this into the consolidated plan um that is before you tonight. But the one thing that I do want to mention, your council had previously approved our home AARP dollars, that 1.79 million to invest in affordable housing for Second and Buen a Vista. So you not only approved the allocation of those funds, but the um DDA agreements with CNC and I am excited to tell you those projects are moving along. the 115 multifamily affordable housing project got tax credit financing and so um um planning and development services city

attorney's office our team we've been meeting with them um the county is investing in that project and that 115 units will have 20 units for at risk and homeless families which is super exciting then next week uh CNC is applying for tax credits for the 25 PSH units and the county is interested in partnering with us on that. So, these funds are part of that larger strategy uh for affordable housing, Miss Roer. Yes. Will we be able to direct residents to those units? Yes, we will. Uh we work with CNC to um affordable housing law. You give you can you can say preference for Corona residents. You can't say only Corona residents because of affordable housing law, but we have such a demand in our own city that we usually never get through all of the Corona residents to have to open up, you know, beyond that. And we work with um the developer to get the word out um when the units are available. And then also keep in mind you have a whole functioning system in your homeless system that is a referring agency as well to the units. So we will have no problem getting the word out and getting those units filled. And they also uh in the negotiating process with the county, they're looking to support with projectbased vouchers which will further help to cash flow those projects. So super excited. There's a lot of amazing things that are happening right now and I'm just um privileged to be a part of this uh with a much larger team and presenting this before your council tonight and um myself and Clint are available if you have any questions. All right. Well, don't go far. The public hearing is now open. Miss Edwards, has the city clerk's office received correspondence or any speaker

cards from the public regarding this item? Mayor, yes, we have three speaker cards and we did not receive correspondence. Okay, then Karen, if you could just step aside and for a minute and the speakers come on down, welcome. Hello. Good afternoon. My name is Sharon Vidano. Um I am a Norco resident and I am here on behalf of um the CDBG activities. I would like to make a comment in regards to uh one of the grants. Um I represent Christian Arts and Theater. Um I am a uh alum parent there. My two boys graduated from their programs and I'm also on the board. Um it's my understanding that we had um I'm looking at my notes here because I want to make sure I get it correct. We had applied for the CDBG grant um for Christian Arts and Theater and we had requested $35,000 and um it was our understanding that it was not granted um we are very grateful for the opportunity to have applied for that and for the consideration. um when we were denied the application or the the granting of the award, we um reached out to get some feedback to see what needed to be done differently. And it was our understanding that the um the reason why we were denied the grant was the understanding that um the leverage was overstated and that the the ticket sales that was presented in the application um pretty much gave the impression that that we were not in need of the funds and that is that is actually not accurate. Um the ticket sales is what is what helps cat keep our doors open. So without the grant, we are now not going to be able to scholarship fully 20 students um who would otherwise

have not been able to use this. And this scholarship would have been able to um have them attend the classes and participate in a showcase as well as a mainstage uh production if they chose to do so. So it is um we are here just to again thank you for this opportunity for allowing us to apply for the grant. Um, and we're here to respectfully request a reconsideration with that additional information that you have um, uh, for this year or perhaps next year. Um, with that additional information, that's that's what we are respectfully requesting that you consider. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Sharon. Christie. Hello. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and City Council. I'm Christy Perez, founder and executive director for Inspire Life Skills Training, and I'm just here to thank you so much for the recommendation for CDBG funds for Inspire. Um, I think you probably all know that we just opened a larger home here in Corona for um, young women exiting foster care coming out of homelessness. And just to kind of let everybody know, remind you what we do. We provide them a safe and stable home. We get them enrolled at Norco College. Um, we help them get a job and we provide life skills classes for them every other week and we provide ongoing therapy with professional therapists. Uh, we also pair them all with a volunteer mentor that's from the community which makes a real big difference in their life. And so, um, the girls that are already living in the home are loving it. And the funds that we're going to be um, awarded hopefully through CDBG will be used for our new program director. Um, for years I've been running the admin of Inspire and case managing. So, I am so thankful to have a full-time social worker to really plug in with the students, help keep them accountable, help keep them encouraged, taking them to Norco College, doing all the things that um, you know, Inspire has just grown bigger and that's wonderful. And so, I needed the extra help and so these funds will

be helping to pay for that position. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Christie. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Jessica Munoz. I'm the president and CEO of Voices for Children. And I also want to say thank you so much for the recommendation to fund Voices for Children. We're the courtappointed special advocate or CASA program serving Riverside County. That means we have the special privilege and responsibility of training community volunteers who work individually with children or sibling groups who are experiencing foster care and help guide them and advocate for them during that time. From the child's point of view, the benefit is a caring, consistent adult. And then because that adult is appointed by the judge who's overseeing the case and the family, they're also able to write reports to the court to share observations that they make or any unmet needs that the child might have as well as to provide real-time updates to the social worker. The funds that we've received from the city in the past have enabled us to nearly double our service to the city of Corona in the last five years, as well as continue to grow our program countywide. We are the only nonprofit organization in Riverside County that's authorized by our juvenile court to provide this service. So quite literally, if a child in Corona has a CASA volunteer, it's because they're trained and supported by Voices for Children. We can't thank you enough for continuing to invest in some of Corona's most vulnerable residents and for trusting us to partner with you in that important work. In addition to thanking you all, I don't want to miss my chance um to thank the team here at the city, both the staff and the consultants who guide us not only through the application process, but also through all of the reporting. We really strive to be excellent stewards of these

precious public dollars, and so their support really makes it possible for us to do that. We hope that the council will follow the recommendation and we just want to say again how grateful we are to the city of Corona for really championing these very special kids. Thank you. Thanks, Miss Munoz. Was there any other speakers? All right, seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Do I have any questions or comments for my colleagues? Miss Yes. I just want to um give kudos to the team, to the staff, um Miss Roer. I know these are all just it's a it's a highly technical uh plan for 5 years and so it's not like you don't have anything else um that you're working on. So thanks for that and um and for calling out the the the new additions. Um, I think it's it everywhere we everywhere we can get a few more dollars to help us prevent homelessness and help keep people in their homes is a really big win for our community. So, just wanted to say thanks. Mr. Roer, how do we determine the dollar amounts that that we are awarding with these grants? And the reason I say is, you know, some of them are several hundred thousand and some of them are smaller. How do how do we determine those dollar amounts? HUD has um specific caps in terms of what you can allocate for eligible activities. So for example, for the public services grant, you cannot exceed 15% of your CDBG allocation. Um and then they have like a special carveout for like the home funds. It's very specific and there are only specific activities. And then um if you take your carve out for your 20% admin, your 15% public services and

CDBG, then you can look at the rest for allocation for the CIP projects. So you have to look at it in slices according to what HUD allows you to fund for eligible activities. So, some of the ones that you've recommended, are those maximums or are those just working the numbers to try and figure out the best way to to to allocate the money? Well, it's looking at what HUD allows us to do in the maximum amount that we can allocate. select I'm just going to use the public services dollars as an example and and trying to honor the process that council has used before um and trying to have continuity of care and trying to make an investment that's going to really show a measure measurable difference as opposed to funding many many smaller contract amounts you know 5 10,000 it's a lot of administrative requirements for grants you don't really get that much in terms of a bang for the buck. It's harder for the nonprofit. They come with a lot of work. So, we try to find the sweet spot in terms of if you have 15% that you can allocate for public services, the best way that you can allocate those dollars across agencies. And I should mention to you is those processes are always really difficult. They're all such wonderful, worthy programs and you just have to rely on the evaluation committee to recommend those that float to the top that are the most superior in terms of the quality of the application um the performance metrics also their experience. So it's that those are the determining factors for like the public services projects. then you know the remainder of the slice of the pie that we can look at for community facilities. That's why we came up with that allocation for public works, how much we would have available for that. And then

also looking at the the the magnitude of what the city has to do for those ADA improvements. And Savat I don't know if you have anything you want to mention about that, but I know it's going to be a big project that you have to undertake. No, no comments. Okay. So how many applicants did we have for this round? So for for the public services we had 16. Two did not pass threshold review. They didn't comply with the requirements. So we reviewed 14. And then you have the five proposals that are being recommended that had the highest average scores of the review committee which is very common for NOA processes. Can you remind me did we in the last five-year plan did we repeatedly award to the same Yes, we are following the good foundation that was set up by your council ad hoc committee for the last consolidated plan and it does show for continuity also for the agencies to be able to rely on those funds um to make a measurable difference. That's not to say that your council couldn't direct us in a subsequent year to to change it, but when you look at the small amount of administrative dollars that you get, um, comparatively speaking, this is a an administratively heavy program for these HUD funds. So, we're also trying to be strategic about um administrative impacts and not that that should be the only driving factor for how we allocate funds. But I do, you know, want to mention that to you. I have seen other counties and cities struggle with they wanted to take the funds and um I'm just going to use public services as an example and fund as many agencies as possible. and they had this massive

amount of contracts that you know are like5 and $10,000 and it was difficult to even get um good performance objectives out of implementation feasibility was very difficult. So this is the sweet spot I guess is what I could call it for that and the same thing when we looked at uh selecting um the projects for the CIP. So just going back to the public center public sector benefit. I'm just the reason that I asked if we're awarding to the same person multiple times is it's no secret that working dealing with government and filling out applications isn't the easiest thing and some organizations may not be as savvy as some others especially ones that were that we're awarding repeatedly. So my only concern is and you've said this a couple of times and it's stuck with me is that um you know we want to maybe select a smaller amount because we can give a little bit more money and it makes a bigger impact but some of these organizations that maybe aren't as savvy filling out the paperwork and understanding all of that that amount of money would would probably be lifechanging for some of them. And so I don't want I guess what I'm just concerned that we're not and I don't know so I'm asking but are we giving the same amount of assistance in filling out these applications and spending the time with some of these folks that that are u maybe not as savvy as as some of the other organizations that are asking for for this grant money just to make sure that they are they're given an equal chance as well because you know that dollar amount would be huge for them. Yes, we had a um a NOA workshop where staff and um our consultant partner went through in great detail explaining all of the elements of the application process, all of the attachments, all of the HUD regulations to do what we could to be able to give everybody the same

opportunity to apply for the funds. it. I will say though that that it's some agencies do other jurisdictions may maybe that didn't have the right vetting process to make sure that organizations are eligible for the funds struggle with compliance issues with HUD. So again, just trying to balance all of that. you know, putting on my other hat, um, as the chair of the continuum of care for Riverside County, some of the things that we discuss are the need to look at ways to do capacity building for nonprofits and trying to find grants that help them to build capacity so that they can get to that level where they do have the ability to comply with complex grants like this and to be able to um, get a first crack at it and then they can start to build their experience and apply for more funds and multiply their efforts. Okay. I think next year I'm going to pay a little bit closer attention to who we're awarding to and just want to make sure that everybody's given a fair opportunity. One of the challenges that I've seen working with cities is that it's easy to say no, but there's it's it's very hard to say no because and this is the reason why. I just want to make sure that some of these organizations that I feel like this money would be very impactful for are given the best opportunity to apply for and be successful with the application process. If I just may clarify to your council the what is being proposed is to follow the same model as before which is the first year approval with options to renew for the subsequent four years. So, if your council decided to direct us to do something different, you could do that um so that we would know um when we get ready to bring back year two of the annual action plan. I I want to step in here. I just want to strongly encourage us to stay the course. We had a big

change in the CDBG granting process and I'm really comfortable and with the level of transparency and assistance that we've incorporated in the process. Um and so and I think it's uh the model is working. So I would like for us to continue and I'm very comfortable with the recommendations. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Do I have a motion? Um move to approve. Jackie and that was let me go back to the agenda. Yeah. All right, please vote. Okay, that item passes. 50. All right, before we get into the next one, I'm going to move up Joel. This just going to take a second. I'm going to move up item 14. I should have done this to earlier in the meeting like I did last time. Uh, Council Member Richens, you you're going to announce your appointment to the Historic Preservation Board. Is your person here? Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Casey Rubocava. I I don't believe she is here. Doesn't look like it. You want to make your appointment, though? I do. Um, so this is for the Casey. I've talked to her on the phone. We had a great conversation. She This is for an appointment to the Historic Preservation Board. Casey is a Corona resident. Um, she has promised to never leave the city. She's a she's a mom. Her uh, PhD dissertation was about the preservation of Southern California historical citrus industry. So, she's she's freaking smart. Uh, she used to live at Aan Howard and so she's very well well aware of the downtown and all that goes on. If you talk to her for more than 10 minutes,

you will understand that she is more than right for this position. And with that, I would like to recommend Casey Rubilkava for the Historic Preservation Board. All right. Thank you, Council Member Rich. Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public on this appointment? Mayor, we do not have any speaker cards for this item. Tom, you want to make your motion? I will make the motion. Second. Tom and Wes, please vote. All right, that item passes. Now, administrative reports. Our North Mall redevelopment review. Joel Beldin, our economic development director, will present this item. Good evening, mayor and city council members. Good evening. So, I have a medium length presentation here to walk you through some development options for the North Mall that we've been working. A little closer to the mic, buddy. Thank you. Whenever we're ready with the presentation. Here we go. Okay. So, we're here to get feedback from you as to sort of the size and scale and really the next steps for the North Mall redevelopment project. So, the the uh presentation tonight really walks you through the history. We've talked about this at a couple council meetings earlier this year. Uh we're going to be presenting some redevelopment options. There's a specific request for direction to pick amongst those options and then a discussion of the next steps once you do make a selection if you're ready to do that tonight. So in terms of history, we go back about 20 years. The general plan in 2004 and prior city council and planning commission and community input led us to a point where uh the city reestablishes mixed use as an aable type development style within the downtown. That's uh the city moves forward with redevelopment agency activity in really focusing on that north mall. and they begin acquiring properties within that area to try to get that site back under city control so that it can be moved forward and uh not continue sort of a

downward decline that started very early in its uh inception there. In 2018, the city enters into a disposition and development agreement with lab partners to try to move forward that mixeduse project uh that included not the entire mall, but a good sort of twothirds of it, including the city parking lot as a major revitalization project for the downtown. Concurrent with that, the an update to the general plan in 2020 reiterates the interest in a mixeduse project uh not only on this site, but also as an allowable development style within downtown. The downtown revitalization plan layers on top of that with more specific steps forward as to how to revitalize the entire area, including the addition of mixeduse developments within the project site. The uh most recently uh adopted downtown specific plan in December of last year again reiterates the need, the interest, the allowable development style of mixed use for this area and also set some pretty devel specific development standards for that type of style. And then most recently earlier this year, the city council says continue to go move forward with this uh and begin that master planning process to identify a mixeduse project for the North Mall as sort of a a key catalyst project to kick off uh a new round of revitalization within the downtown area. So a couple vital statistics for the North Mall. The site's just uh under eight acres in terms of that retail, the two sort of strip buildings that are there. If you include the two-story office building, which we have uh sort of informally called the Horvath building after the family that owns that, that gets you just close to 10 acres, uh it's from Ramona to Maine and fourth down to sixth and about 150,000 ft of total development within that area, 115 of which is just the retail strip in the center. There are some important constraints to think about as we discuss options tonight. Number one, uh because

of prior city council decisions primarily in 2015, uh with the expenditure of affordable housing funds on the site, there's a need, a built-in requirement to provide affordable housing on the site. So, that's a mandatory component of any new development that we're pursuing on the site and that's included in the options that you'll be seeing tonight. And then also some of the planning work that you that you'll be seeing tonight includes properties that the city does not own. that's included for planning purposes and also really to make sure that we're not building ourselves or other private property owners out of options. So, that's just something to keep in mind and I'll highlight that in a little bit. Joel, I'm really sorry. Can you can you like clo speak either closer to the mic or just project? I can hear you. Okay. But I I I want to make sure anyone watching is is able to hear. Sure. What's going on? Thank you. Sort of swallowing this thing. Yeah. Okay. How about this? Let's move this one up to you. There we go. Say, do you speak right there? Ah, okay. All right. So, our project site here is in yellow. That includes uh just the retail portion and then the city-owned parking lot. To the west of that, we've got a grocery store that's working through the planning process that'll bring tens of thousands of new uh customers to the downtown area. Corona Regional Medical Center currently serves tens of thousands of patients. Uh and as it expands over time, that number will only increase. So, we have a high volume of people coming to this the really the epicenter for downtown uh already. And then our hub, the city owned and operated commercial center. We're just weeks away from new restaurants opening there. We're actively recruiting new tenants. Uh and so that'll breathe in a bit of new life into that fourth quadrant there for the center of downtown. So, in terms of positioned for uh supportive surrounding uses, the North Mall is is it's right in the correct location to be able to feed off of all that other

development activity. So, we do have some regulatory work that's been done. As I mentioned, the downtown specific plan has specific requirements for mixeduse projects and we'll touch upon those a little bit. So, building heights, the maximum development intensity, also known as floor area ratio is included then there. and then building setbacks uh and discussions of how do you sort of layer those uses? You have a strong ground floor presence of retail so that you have a walkable environment and then residential or other uses above that incorporated into the same buildings or in adjacent buildings. There's also requirements for taller buildings uh for setbacks at higher stories to make sure that as you're driving by or walking by, we still sort of maintain that small town feel while still allowing more urban development styles and increased density in that area. And then there's also uh some more fine detailed uh elements that are included in there in terms of how the buildings are finished on the exterior to make them inviting, warm, and pedestrian scaled. So, arcades, storefronts uh to support that walkable environment, lots of landscaping, and active street scene. And then we do also have some uh historic buildings that were lost over time as the downtown went through different redevelopment cycles. we can tap into those and really bring those forward again. We have the opportunity to not exactly copy but sort of recreate that look and feel of historic downtown Corona and sort of a Corona revival style. And so as we go through uh iterations and refine this design, these elements will be drawn into that uh smaller scale buildings even if it's a large actual structure. uh a lot of variation in the architecture and then also sort of honest building materials that can be used. Stucco, tile, brick, uh not styrofoam, not the sort of cheaper uh easy development styles that we have. And then also pulling in the citrus heritage in the area in terms of artistic murals, there's fabric awnings, there's metal signage. There's a lot of

uh Corona history really to draw from to make these buildings honest and really represent the Corona spirit. So, I'm going to walk you through some of those options. we've been working on and uh this is sort of I walked you through what we have to do in terms of development style, what we want to do in terms of architectural style and then this is really is this a good idea and how do we know that? So we've gone through uh the past community input from general plan updates from the downtown revitalization plan from the downtown specific plan to make sure that we're really tracking with what the community has said that they're interested in seeing. I've met plenty of people out in my time in the city that say they really don't come downtown because there's not a lot to draw them here. But the there's strong community sentiment to reestablish that downtown as sort of the community heart for the city. And so these the projects that you we're going to be presenting tonight are really targeted at kicking off that new type of activity in the area and being as supportive as possible. We've also looked at market trends. There's plenty of downtowns across Southern California and really across the nation that are have been going through the same process of identifying projects that are supportive that can kick off uh revitalization efforts that are catalyst projects. So we have plenty of good opportunities and projects to draw from to learn best practices. Uh we're also looking at we've consulted with a number of consultants to get sort of data to feed into this process to identify uh where we need to focus uh on in terms of design or uh direction when we are negotiating with developers and then we've met with actual builders that are familiar with the area to get sort of a a read on their sentiment and uh we've gotten very positive feedback from all of them as to these being generally good approaches. So the buildings we're presenting are sort of a layer cake of uses. That ground floor is a strong retail presence again to sort of bring back what was here that we lost and uh to create that strong walkable environment and to bring back retail

employment and dining opportunities in the heart of downtown. Above that second floor could be a mix of uses. third and fourth floor or higher levels, primarily residential, partly to support the economics for the project, and then partly to bring new people down here as customers, as employees, as uh people that can recreate and really uh provide 24-hour activity in the downtown. The look and feel for the for the perimeter of the project is active street life both on the uh public sidewalk edges and then also in public spaces within the project as sort of a key uh central feature. And then also ground floor presence of retail of storefront areas, active ground flooror presence and then also taking advantage of some of the higher levels. There's phenomenal views once you get just above that street level. And so really building that into the overall architectural feel is one of the goals. So these are some illustrations of the op of the options we're going to be talking about. Again, sort of showing that we're carrying those all the different collection of concepts forward for high variation in the building look and feel, active street level. Uh and then some artistic elements that can be built in there too. And again recognizing the downtown specific plan requirements for setbacks to keep those buildings where they're more urban in overall scale keeping them sort of small town feel along those edges. So one thing uh one exhibit I'm going to be presenting here this is called a massing diagram. It's sort of a planning exercise. This doesn't represent the finished product, but really looks at sort of the heights, the overall scales of buildings and then also through the color coding the collection of uses that are on that site. So each of the projects are going to have four different uses. They'll have parking and that's the parking is scaled uh by the downtown specific plan requirements. There's a hotel use proposed in each. Uh we have the Corona Regional Medical Center here which brings in a lot of people traveling medical professionals and then family members or friends that

are visiting people that may be spending nights in the hospital. There's typically hotels that are associated with hospitals. We don't currently have one but we think this might be a good fit especially sort of caddy corner to the overall use. We have residential in there to build out that mixeduse development component. And then I uh entertainment, retail and food and beverage really is that fourth uh primary component to again provide a destination in downtown that will draw the entire city and then also people from the entire region to that area. So this is just sort of a way to read these plans and then again that prior view was sort of a top- down view. Just looking at this more at street level, you see that sort of layer cake type approach of public facing uses on the ground floor and then above that more private in inwardly facing uses either office, hotel or residential that aren't publicly facing. And then again, those massing diagrams will then be built out and fleshed out into fully detailed plans that will then go through that public planning process when we go through the entitlement. So each of the blocks represent uh a future fully uh defined design. So there's four options uh that vary in intensity. So uh I will uh again massing diagrams presented for each and then sort of a rough architectural concept presented for each. We'll walk through the details and please stop me at any time if you have any questions. So option one represents it's slightly less retail square footage than what we have today, but maybe one of the issues that the North Mall experienced was a bit bit of an oversaturation based on the number of residents that we have in this area. And so this is a a refinement of the design uh and a minor addition of about 138 apartment units or condos. We kind of we do have enough room here to work with both for rent and for sale options. There's a modest hotel right there at the corner and that hotel again supports the hospital but then also supports the retail and dining in the area by providing new customers that will be cycling through that building over time.

Overall building heights two to five stories depending on the location there. And this also allows room to grow. This doesn't take advantage of the entire site. There's a surface parking lot that's right there at Sixth and Ramona where you could have future development that could happen. And then there's that Horvath building, the two-story office building at the northeast corner there. Uh, and the city-owned parking lot around that that could be a future redevelopment project also. And again, just sort of a rough architectural sketch to show that we're carrying forward those design principles that are uh that we discussed previously. real quick. Is that slow street does that actually cross over the plaza interior plaza area? So the we we have the opportunity so when the north mall was developed it sort of consolidated those four blocks into a single large project. We have the opportunity with this reset to bring back those historic blocks. And so that design approach here is to bring back that central the north south is really to recreate what Main Street was. They're not envisioned to be actual streets that people can drive down, maybe just for emergency access, but it's really sort of a key public space within the project that will allow each of the ground flooror retail within the project to have sort of street access and good public visibility, that's also a great place great place to do public programming. So, if we wanted to have concerts, if the the city could stage festivals there, the private owner for the buildings could also have festival space within that that area. No, I love that center portion. I was just the street going east west. Mhm. Does that Yeah. fifth. Does that cross over or does it stop? That's all at the ground floor. And again, it's it's really sort of a visual corridor through the project rather than a drivable area. Okay. Good. Thank you. Option two, a little bit higher. The retail square footage is just about where the mall is today. Uh slight increase in the housing, just under 200. And then the hotel gets a little bit

bigger too. Uh the hospital expansion will then we'll add more people to the area and uh we could have business travelers in the future that could take advantage of that. And then also people that are looking road trips, whatever uh that are looking for highquality short-term lodging in the area. And then again parking by code and again two to five stories. So still within that general range of uh sort of a typical historic type downtown feel. Option three pushes the retail a little bit. Takes advantage really of the entire perimeter of each of those blocks. Uh I will point out this does include the Horvath building at that northeast corner. The city does not own that. But again, we went through this exercise to make sure we weren't building that portion of the site out of development options. Uh we're not pro advocating for the acquisition of that building at this time, but it's really just to make sure that this planning study that we went through was comprehensive. We decided to look at that, too. But this really builds on all four of those blocks and maximizes the land uses there and then just increases the numbers for everything to bring as many people both short-term uh hotel guests and then also long-term residents to promote and support the downtown uh business uh climate that we're working to establish and grow. But again, if you didn't get the Horvath building, we didn't get it. It would not be 452 apartments. It would not. No. Okay. Right. Or there could be a way to shift if that's and so one of the things we're going to be talking about is sort of the overall intensity of residential. There would there could be the opportunity to shift things around a little bit. If the council wanted to direct somewhere close to that number of residential units, there'd be a way to refine this and there will be a refinement process that we go through to get to more exact numbers through the entitlement process and then when we identify a developer too. Thank you. So option four here uh this was looking at the so the downtown specific plan uh set some pretty ambitious zoning

standards. It has a floor area ratio. It's sort of a measure of intensity of 3.0. So looking at how you could take that square footage and what that floor area ratio equates to is for every one square foot of land that you have, how many square feet of building area do you get above that? So uh a 3.0 0 connected with how you would actually build these things in terms of efficient development style, you get pretty big buildings. So, we're not recommending this. This is sort of a this is a far future downtown corona that this would fit in with. I don't think we're at that point yet, so we're not recommending this. But just to sort of show what the new standards could allow in theory with some planning commission support, uh this is sort of that maximum development option uh presented for your consideration here. but a substantial amount of people, uh, a substantial amount of retail, office, entertainment, employment opportunities, and shopping and dining. One second. Can we get the next slide, please? And then again, just a some architectural concepts for that next slide. So, we're at the point where we're going to be looking for some specific direction for you in terms of the o the general intensity of development that you're looking for on the site. This is a key catalyst project. Uh all of these projects could work in the downtown. Each just brings a little bit more of a benefit in terms of overall activity and economic support for the types of businesses that we're looking to attract in the area. uh but then also balancing with the sort of community impact, community concerns and the the change in the overall intensity of that downtown core. So again, just to walk you through the numbers, uh 138 housing units up to 772, uh hotel of varying sizes, 108 to 224,

parking scaled to match those in structured parking or in surface parking in that option one, and then commercial space of 73 to 179,000 ft. And again, I want to point out these numbers are sort of general concepts. As we go through that refinement process, these numbers will change. As we engage with a developer, those numbers will again go through a refinement process to get to a final. But this is sort of setting that overall cap on what the maximum number of units would be within each of these development scenarios. But these will change over time. In from a staff perspective, looking at the overall goals that are discussed in the general plan, the downtown revitalization plan, and the downtown specific plan, we think option two or three or somewhere in between is probably the best catalyst project to bring. It sort of balances uh small town feel edges for the project with a substantial increase in the number of people that are here to promote uh and support the businesses that we're working to attract and that are here today. and then also that substantial hotel really to support the surrounding uses in that area. But we're looking to council to provide specific direction. And again, this is just an opinion for as the staff recommendation. So once the council makes a uh decision either today or um after additional discussion, we will uh go through some additional steps. So we've we have the downtown specific plan and the downtown revitalization plan that sort of set that regulatory framework for the work we're doing. We will continue to refine the economics for the project. We will bring on a consultant to design those final plans that will be presented to the public and to the planning commission for that entitlement process. We'll entitle the project. We'll complete SQL clearance. We'll do whatever technical studies, traffic studies, sewer capacity studies, whatever is needed to uh get to a buildable project that then a developer can take over. We'll identify that development partner, negotiate a

disposition and development agreement. There's surplus lands act uh and then there's final council action to really uh seal the deal, select a developer and then move forward with the development of the project site and that timing for all of that. Uh so we're continuing to work with the tenants that are there to move them out uh by fall of this year. We're commencing demolition next week. Can I ask you a question be what you just said on the next steps? Um, do can any of those next steps so council gives direction? We set a cap on the housing. Can any of those next steps override council direction? No, because the ultimate final project comes to you. So the planning commission will present a project to planning commission. They will take some action. The city council could certainly always call that up to veto, to modify, to do something. And certainly because this is a city-directed project, your communication to the city manager is that ongoing uh direction for the project to refine things. As we refine plans, there's certainly an opportunity to check back in with the city council as to before this won't get away from anyone here. It won't take on a life of its own. And then ultimately that the disposition and development agreement to be negotiated with the developer will discri we'll describe the exact project to be built and will be a contractual agreement between the two to make sure that the project that is built is the exact project that the city council wants. And one more question about what does this look like if you can just touch on it when it goes through like the surplus land act. Will our direction here um uh is will that have any can that possibly derail anything? Can that derail who we end up with? Can it derail the direction of the program? So the the surplus lands Act is really a process, but it doesn't dictate the outcome. And

so it it establishes a process for the that the city needs to work with potential biders on the project, but it doesn't bind the city to a decision that ultimately the city can't support. And so we negotiate in good faith. We work with partners, but ultimately at the end of the day, if the city doesn't feel like it's a good fit, if it's not something that executes the project that the city's interested in, then it we're not our hands are not tied to move forward with someone. Okay. Can I respond as well? Yes. So the surplus lands act is really like like Joel commented that it's a process where we notify the public of available properties. And in our recent interactions with HCD, they want some clear definition of the types of projects that are going to be built. And the more specific we can be about the type of project that wants to be built on that site, so the direction that you provide us informs all the biders about what the the vision of the city is. If those biders can't meet the vision of the city, we're not tied to sell this project to them. But the surplus lands act will require that 25% of any housing built is um affordable housing. That's just the state law. It's just a requirement. Thank you. But in the process of negotiation, as you are clear with us, the staff about what the desires of the council are, we can select a developer that can deliver on that project. Wonderful. Thank you. I um I know from the HD meeting that we had, it u there was two developers that were there that were talking about if cities can provide frameworks with with kind of kind of guard rails that it makes them be able to pencil a project out versus a you know a a mous blob of it could be this, it could be that. They don't want to take chances on it. Um and and so this would provide them a little bit more of a a path forward a path forward towards financing which is the

most important thing for them and and also the steps that we've taken to get it um the entitlement process that shaves off time makes it more palatable as well. Mr. Bing, I'm going to ask it I'm going to ask the question a little bit simpler because I'm a simple guy. Let's say that there's a developer that goes through the SLA process and says, "Yeah, everything that you guys want looks great." Buys the property and then says, "You know what? I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do something else instead." They now own the property. Are they they pulled the fast one on us, but are we is there repercussions that we could stop that project from happening type of thing? Yes, that that's the one of the purposes and protections of that disposition and development agreement. We have a contract for a specific project with a specific developer. And so if they deviate and we'd know because they have to submit plans for building permits. If they submit a plan for a project that isn't inconsistent with the disposition of development agreement, then we can terminate that agreement. And typically the property doesn't if the city council was supportive of selling the property to a developer, that doesn't transfer at the start of the process. It transfers typically when they have a building permit in hand for a project that everyone has agreed upon. Then that property would transfer at that point because then it's clear we know what we're getting. They've completed and there's a whole host of obligations that they would typically have to complete as a prior condition before the property transfers. So you would never structure it where they get the property and then it's they do their own thing. There's layers of protection that you build into a DDA to make sure that that doesn't happen. Perfect. Thank you. Go ahead. Um there was a bill that just got signed two days ago, um AB130, which basically streamlines infill housing projects by creating a new SQA exemption for environmentally friendly housing projects. uh exempts infill housing uh

developments that meet local zoning and density and objective uh planning standards as long as they're not and located in environmentally sensitive area hazardous sites uh streamlines approvals which means skip us. Um and for qualifying projects remove SQA based legal barriers and the bill aims to uh accelerate the production of housing blah blah blah. Um, so I know that that just got signed. The governor was pretty fast out the gate signed signed two two of those. Um, and to Tony's point, if somebody buys this and they come back and they say, "Well, that's great. We're going to proceed under under SP1 or AB130 and then we're going to we're going to do bonus density and we're going to do whatever else we can." So, are we again in a spot where when this does happen or if it does happen that someone can come back and say, "Yeah, you know what? You're you're two or 300 sounds great, but really we want 700 and we're going to we're going to do more more affordable." Can I answer that one? That's a great question because it's a law that was passed yesterday and we don't know understand we don't understand all those details. But what we can do as a staff is commit to try to deliver the project that was committed to in the downtown revitalization plan where we had thousands of people tell us that they want to have an active vibrant downtown. And the direction that you give us tonight will help us craft the constraints around that project that we'll want to put forward. with our experience in the past uh with clawing back the properties from the north mall. We have some experience trying to write those uh disposition and development agreements in such a way that we can protect the interest of the city and the city council. But to know today uh the future of a bill that was passed yesterday, I think is probably overly burdensome for us to sort of guess at. But what we can do is commit to try. Okay. I mean, I just would I mean, I know this is a long process that we're

gonna we're we're going to go through, but I would certainly like like to hear, you know, at some point later on that and I like the idea of a development agreement. Um, but with the SLA process, we're not fully in charge of of of every piece of that. So, I'm I'm interesting as and again, I know it was just signed two days ago, so we're still kind of learning about it, but um I mean, it basically exempts us uh for the most part. So, I I mean, I know that we've gotten, you know, we've gotten a little further down the road. Um, but I I do have that that fear because frankly, it's already happened twice to us and I'm not and I know it's going to happen again and I certainly don't want it to be here. This is some place that we've done a lot of work on and we've invested a lot and we we want it to be great and I don't want to be in the position where we're sitting up here lamenting um you know a a bad actor. Completely understood and at least from the staff perspective keeping you in the loop is extremely important. This is the city that you represent. We want to do what the council wants for you. Can I also Can I also, mayor, just jump in there and just assure you that what you're talking about in terms of the city losing control is when a developer owns their property and they're coming in to apply for what they want. As um Joel mentioned, we're in control of this because it would be our property and they could only do what's in the disposition and development agreement that you sign. So it's not as though this developer could then just decide they want to come back and get a density bonus or what have you. So you have we have control within that disposition and development agreement and also from the SLA process because remember the SLA process requires you to put an RFP out there and then housing developers can respond. You're not obligated to accept

any of them. You're obligated to negotiate and but you're not obligated to accept what they're demanding that they want to do if it doesn't fit within the confines of what you want to do. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that makes me feel a little better, but again, I don't don't trust all these suckers. So, I know. No, that that makes a big difference. Dean, thanks for sharing that. Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public? Mayor, yes, we have one speaker card for this item. Joel, don't go too far, buddy. Good evening. See if I can work the microphone correctly. Uh I'm not I'm I'm less worried about what happens uh after some deal is signed. You know that a 100% of this is really going to be negotiated in close session. You know, when you guys you guys could say whatever you want in this room and then you're going to get a proposal and then you're going to spend six months, 18 months just like I did. You we had plenty of talks about the original discussion uh about Chronom and Lab. How long that go on? What 18 months or something? You know, all these uh price and terms and the price and terms are how many apartments somebody going to want to build? You want to know what it's going to look like? It's going to look like the first metro because that's what pencils. Somebody's going to only build what pencils. You're not giving them the land for free. At least not that I've heard. You're going to give them the whole thing, you know. Yeah, you have you you own it, but nobody's going to come in and waste their money on something that's not going to pencil for them, you know. And so if you want to know what pencils, Metro pencils. That's why Metro got built. So that's basically what I've been saying all along is something akin to the ratio that M metro has. That's what it's going to be. I mean, we should all we should stop pretending that we're building a

downtown. We should stop pretending that, you know, we're going to build off a grocery store development, that we're going to stop pretending that we're going to build off essentially a large food court, that that's going to make a downtown. That's not a downtown. This is Metro. If Metro is downtown, then we're building a downtown. If Metro is not a downtown, that's not what we're building. It it it kills me that that you guys passed on a chance to make a real downtown, to have an actual anchor, to have an actual draw. You know, if you think South Corona is gonna come down to to six and Maine for a FA restaurant, you know, whatever is going to pop in there, you know, with no no actual structure, no actual, you know, draw for downtown besides a grocery store, you know, are are they coming down to Metro, South Carolina, come down to Metro? take Metro, double it, maybe maybe knock a third of the apartments out, but that's basically what this is going to be, you know, and when people ask how it happened, you know, here's how it happens, and then you guys will negotiate the final details in secret. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Uh, do my colleagues have any comments or questions? Um, I I don't have any um comments per se, but I have a I have an opinion on the option and I have a amended option that I'd like to present when we get there. Okay, sounds good. Um, no, I had a couple comments. Did you have comments, Tom? Yeah, I didn't have any questions. I just had comments. Yeah, go ahead. Um I I like uh first of all I I I like theund the option two. Um just because I I I don't want everything to be contained here. I want there to be options for I want it to create some buzz and I would like everything to be

to be leased out and then therefore it activates the areas around it. and we actually have a a downtown that extends beyond beyond this block and a half or two blocks. So, I I like that. I think um you know, going back to all of the I mean, going back to the, you know, years and years back of of what was going to happen down here, housing was always part of it. So, I don't have any issues with there being um you know, some housing there. I think the hotel room, the hotel idea is brilliant. I hadn't thought about it. In fact, it took me a minute to kind of go, "Yeah." And and I, you know, the idea that if you there are people there, there are people there. I I was talking to uh my friend over at the the uh Starbucks on 8th and Maine. It's the busiest Starbucks in town. I mean, and look at how small that place is. And it's because there's a, you know, a few hundred people across the street that are desperate for somewhere to go. And and so I think uh between that and the number of traveling nurses that we have there, I I I think this hotel idea is is going to is going to pay off really well. And you have a bunch of people that are just down there looking to spend money. Um and my my other comment about the housing is that I would really prefer there be for sale units. I don't want there to be rentals. Um, I think that lowers the the bar a little bit there for for folks to maybe their first condo would be, you know, down in this area. So, I think that's a that's a wonderful idea. Um, I don't have any issues with the the the height. I think it's one of the things that's um, you know, we're such a community that has have had height restrictions for so long that you kind of miss out on the view unless you're in South Corona and you can kind of see out. But if you go up to the third floor of this building and you go out on one of the balconies, it's absolutely beautiful in every direction. I mean, between the the view of the the uh the Sana Mountains and and then the view across the valley,

it's absolutely stunning. And the more that we can, you know, find ways to position um properties or buildings on this property that would highlight some of those, I I really like. Um my only comment and is that on each of the designs uh were on that yellow piece which I think is is um housing it's along main street. I just worry about it being kind of having that canyon feel being so close to the street if it could, you know, be pushed back a little bit to create some of that that uh I know you showed in a couple of the uh the slides that it would be teared back, but I I just I look at the way how thick that area is and I'm worried that if you push too far back, you're going to have a bunch of little skinny buildings. But that's my only other comment. Everything else I think I'm really happy about. I'm curious to see what what Tony's ideas are between um uh you know either a 1A or or a 2A, but I I'm I'm kind of in between um two. The only reason I'm or one and two, but I'm leaning more toward two just because that's actually less space than we have now. And we're going to activate it with more folks. It's going to put development pressure on other properties that are around this area. And I think we'll see the economic boom that we're that we really hope we'll see and not just everything. um contained on this because I think it's the idea is that sometimes when you when you design a project you're designing it with these imaginary walls that people are you know kind of just appear and disappear. Um I I you know want that to to just be a starting spot for us because really that's that's how the downtown plan is is formed and how it's supposed to develop over time is if you know we can and if we can build some excitement here with with those two locations um and have a you know 100,000 plus square feet of of of stuff for us to to go do um then I think it's going to it's going to help you know improve

those areas along along sixth and and frankly on Main Street. So, thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I'm a I'm a strong in favor of option three. So, that's where I'm at there. I'd like to talk about the Hotel Tomeesco for a minute. When When Corona was first founded, the Hotel Tamasco was the first big building to be built. It was three to four stories, depending on how you look at it, with a basement. And then as Main Street was developed, it was two to three stories with basements. So, uh, the the mixeduse model has been around since the 1800s here in Corona, and we're just basically reusing it is what we're doing. So, uh, I consider the new hotel, whatever it's built, as the anchor, certainly not a grocery store. I would like to talk about Metro Maine for a minute and how this project won't be Metroain 2.0. Metro at Maine never went through entitlement. We're going through entitlement. It never had historical standards put in place. Uh this project will have historical standards put in place uh through entitlement. We uh we're putting our standards first. We're not saying to a developer like they did back then, just do whatever the hell you want. So, Metro at Maine, they use mixeduse style, which is the same that we're using here. But Metro at Maine was built on the cheap. Anybody can look at it and and see that it was a bad design, it was bad space planning, the ratios are off, and the building materials they selected were bad. I don't see any of that in this project. So, they're an unfair comparison at best. I uh

I think Corona deserves a beautiful downtown. It's time. We've had councils in the past that have neglected it. We've had city managers afraid to tackle it. It's just been neglected. The citizens, if you should go and knock on doors, and if you campaign, you will. Every citizen will tell you their number one priority is they want a beautiful downtown. And that's what Corona deserves. The opportunity that we vote on tonight is a door that has opened and a door that the city that the city, the council, and the citizens need to go through. We have a chance here to really make and build a kick-ass downtown. So, I'm option three. I'm all in. And that's where I'm at. Thank you, Mayor Tom. Jackie, you can blow your nose for a small talk if you Well, not. Um, thank you. This is really exciting. Um, I I wanted to pull up um the look and feel of it, the the sketches from the side because I can really envision it. I think um I I really like the fact that we're trying something new that um there have been a lot of conversations through the years about redeveloping the downtown, but there has never been direction in this way before. We've got skin in the game. We're going through the process further than we have before. We've got a full um and actionable and funded nine project downtown plan. Um so um while it I understand the public's um when I when I speak about this to the public, what I hear is all right, sure. Like I'll believe it when I see it. And I understand that because you know having lived here being born and raised here

and lived here my whole life I you know I too am eager to see it done and have seen um how it hasn't been successful. So, um, with that though, I am so excited because something like this, us going through the process of entitlement, having a really binding agreement, being able to sign off on um, you know, what we're going to see at the end, um, that's never been done before. So, anyway, my hope my hope is up. Um, I uh I'm also allin but in a different way. Tom, I I want to reserve the right to keep our smaller town feel. Um, so for that reasons, you know, in between two and three, I lean towards two. But here's the modifications that I'd like to see. I would like to see uh a larger hotel and I'd like to see more parking stalls. So, I think if we had an option two with a larger hotel and and greater parking stalls, that would that would support the economic driver of a future downtown. We'd have people spending money. We'd have people coming to town, uh, having an easy place to park, coming to the downtown, having an easy place to park, and and spending time in our downtown. Um, so for those reasons, I would like for us to um find an option 2.5 right in between two and three. Um, I am strongly in favor of these housing units being condos. I believe home ownership is is um is really important and uh condos are um a a um a form of housing that's that is just more affordable and approachable to some

folks. Now, um I like that both that all of these options have the taller buildings, the residential and the home buildings um facing Main Street. That's exactly where they should be. Um, I really want to see setbacks. I think that that will create that look and feel of a downtown, an approachable downtown. So, setbacks at like the second story um with a taller first floor. Um, and I really, really like the design of wrapping the parking with buildings. I think that's very smart. I think that's also going to give more of a downtown feel. Um, so yeah, I'm option 2.5 with a larger hotel and more parking. Thank you. You uh Joel, thank you um for the presentation and I I wanted to acknowledge um just my appreciation for you conducting the tours. I think most of us went on individual tours. Tom and I went together uh down at the Riverside Plaza, it's called, right? Plaza. downtown Riverside. Yeah, that primary area that we walked. Um, I learned a lot. I'll get I'll get back to that in a minute, but I was trying to get kind of a context of, you know, how how many units, what does it all mean in in relation to the the footprint, the acreage that we have. Um, so I had asked staff a couple days ago to just give me a couple comparisons. So, the North Mall is 7.8 acres. With the Horvath building that we do not have, it's 9.6. Um the main street metro it's 293 units plus the 171 on just the north side of Rinkcon right so there's like 465 units on that um 8.6 6 acres. So, roughly the same size as the Crona Mall without the

Horvath building, the two-story office building. And then when we went and toured um downtown Riverside, there were 239 units on 2.15 acres. And that seems like a ton compared to the the uh references I just addressed. But then one of the things that I learned when we did our tour is the covered walkways make such a difference with taking away the feel of a large building right next to it. You don't even really know because you're under a covered area where you're having outdoor dining. Um so it was a nice really nice addition to taking away the the largestgess of the of the property behind it. Um, and then as Jackie mentioned, the the recessed or layered um, construction and the architecture, you gave us a great example. I think we were looking at one building and it was 100 ft high, 80 ft high or whatever. And it's like, yeah, that's pretty tall. And then we were standing in front of the Mission Inn and it was the same height, but it looked so much smaller because of the the setbacks. And so that's that's a great idea to consider as we move forward. And then with the apartment units, when you're looking when you're in the plaza area walking where everybody's gathering and you're looking at this apartment, the front of it is not that wide. So, it's not taking up a large area of your um gathering place. It's it's a it's a narrow front edge, but it goes deeper. So, I thought that was great, too, because you're not having a bunch of housing units taking up your the place where we're supposed to be gathering. So, that was that really um hit home for me. So, thank you for for

doing that tour for us. Um I was actually leaning towards option three, but that that would have to include the Horvath building, which it doesn't yet anyway, and I don't know if it ever will. So 452 units does seem like a lot on just the 7.8 acres even though if you compare it to some of the others it's not that crazy but um so I I'm kind of you know between the two and the three leaning towards three but that's only if we have the Horvath. So the because we're bringing back the historic blocks we're not necessarily talking about one project. There's essentially four sub projects within there. So there could be a way to take if option three is where you want to lean toward in terms of the overall intensity of all four blocks. There's certainly a way to segment out the Horvath building and that surrounding parking but still achieve the overall goals and that that level of intensity for option three if that's so don't feel compelled. Option three doesn't mandate Horvath building participation. It just makes sure we're not building them out of future options or if they sell the property, we're just making sure that there's a viable project on that portion of the project at some point in the future. Okay. So, we don't have a specific amount of units that would be there right now. That's correct. There's an assumed within this diagram, but this diagram is just on paper. As we go through that refinement process, we can shift things around. Okay. So it sounds like Okay, then Tony, you had some other mayor. Can I just clarify really quick? I because you said it. I was uh my strong opinion for option three was because the Horvath building would be part of that. If it's not part of that, then I'm on board with uh Jackie's 2.5. Okay, let's hear what Tony has to say. Contrarian. Yeah. No, I I I don't

disagree. I It's just, you know, I was You want pickle ball courts on every corner? wants pickle ball courts and hiking trails. Um so um a lot of this is contingent on what the actual number of housing that's going to be required. Right? So 2012 when the then council just you know directed to use housing funds to purchase this obligates us obligates us to use housing on this site. The exact number of housing to meet that minimum requirement we don't know yet. That's still to be determined. And then you have to balance that with what you know a developer feels is going to make a a a project pencil out for them. So housing is you know was predated us from from a previous council and so that was the direction that they had and we have to be held to it. So it's our challenge to kind of come up with the best project. So in that discussion uh that I was having with staff earlier about that um my alternate option 3.1 or 2.5 or whatever you want to say is is uh up to 452 units and up to 224 units on a hotel. That way, wherever we land based on some future information that we're going to get, it's somewhere going to be is going to be somewhere between two and three, but it may not be 452 units. It may be 410 or it may be 220 units of the hotel or something along those lines. So that's why I say if we if we do a 2.5 or 3.1 it's using the verbiage of up to 452 units of housing up to 250 units of a hotel. That way it gives us flexibility and it doesn't mean that we have to go directly to 452 units because you know

once we find out what that number is that number of of units that we have to provide could be 110 or something along those lines. It just gives us the flexibility down the line. Um, including potentially, you know, acquiring the Horvath building at some point. I mean, my my only not even rebuttal to that is is that if if you're a developer and you make more money for each one of those housing units and you say 452 is going to say, "Okay, I'll take that's what I need to pencil out." So, I'd rather start with a lower number and and then and then, you know, figure out how far we can go versus saying, you know, 452 is the number because then they're going to say 452. And frankly, I think 452 is too many. That's why I said it's an up to. We still have the final say, but there's a number that is going to be revealed at some point based on, you know, SAS research of housing units that we have to have because we use housing funds for it. We don't know what that number is. So once we figure out that number, the up to portion is just allowing us the flexibility to say to a developer, hey, you don't just because it says that you can go up to 452, we strongly recommend that you don't. And that's that's one piece. And I and I I know that's what's going to get most of the attention, but I I want to go back to what I said in the beginning, which was I I don't want to oversaturate the the commercial space because a we're going to have commercial place across the street, not just the grocery store, but they have two other buildings. And then I want to see commercial spread out. So, I would rather create a little bit of a of a rush here and have that spread out into other areas than to have us be a sink here where we're always kind of chasing trying to fill it up. Jacob or Joel or Justin. Um can you comment on the up to part? Yeah. So that that's how we'd structure that initial request for proposals from developers is we'd give them and really

part of this exercise is setting that cap on what's the maximum type of and allowable intensity you want at this site. So you'll set the ceiling and then we will work within that box that you're going to establish to then refine the entitlement package and then to find that developer. But at some point later in that process when the disposition and development agreement is being negotiated, we take this the concepts and solidify them into a specific project. So we would in that DDA it's going to describe exactly how many of what types of things we're getting and that gets baked into that contract and then that's the project that the city council approves and then the developers required to deliver and so the these numbers would be temporary until we get later into the process when they solidify. So if we tell you right now that we want something between option two and three that's sufficient. Yeah, and I wanted to point out something as well is that if you look at all the different options as you scale up in terms of commercial space that the housing units scale up as well. And as we've been talking to developers, um just in terms of the development world, housing units fund commercial retail experiences and the types of amenities you provide the community. And from our research in the downtown revitalization plan and all that work we've done the community, they want high and and you all high quality materials, great experiences. And so in order to do that, giving us some flexibility to to push those housing counts up a little bit will allow us to provide the community amenities that you'd like to to see inside the the commercial retail space. Have you seen any data that correlates the two like that says like this number of housing units can sustain this amount of economic? The short answer is no. Oh, okay. And I wish it were that easy. Okay. All right. So, Mr. Ellis, do you have what you

need? So, I think what we have is we've got up to option three, two, uh, a strong three, but could somewhere somewhere between two and three. Yeah. Um, okay. That for now. I just think the 45 I just I I just think 452 is too much. Like I think that's too big. And especially that corner that Ramona and and fourth um corner with the Horvath, that's too much. Even if we had the whole Horvath property, if we had the whole Horvath property, that's not what I would want to see on that corner. So, as far as the massing in terms of units and square footages, I think we have the direction we need. Obviously, more conversations down the road as we refine the project further, but I I think we have what we need for tonight. So, thank you very much. All right. Thank you. All right. Moving on to 9.2. designation of an entertainment zone for the hub. Mr. Beldian, our economic development director, will also present this item. Thank you. Good evening again. So, as we're building, we're getting very close to opening the South Mall, the hub. Uh, and we're running into, we're just working through some administrative issues. And one uh issue that we've encountered that we have a solution for, it's a little elegant, uh, is this designation item that's before you tonight. So, as we're recruiting tenants, we may have up to 18 separate tenants. uh a good percentage of which will be focused on food and beverage service and a lot of those will probably pursue alcohol licenses. So there within the law and the application of those laws from alcoholic beverage control there's uh there's different parameters that kick in where you do have these overlapping licenses within shared spaces. Uh so we have a backyard space that's behind a portion of the building on that touches on Ramona where we'll have overlapping licenses from the food hall and then from the inline buildings where Circle City Tavern is and then a couple of their future neighbors. Uh and so this solution prevents to retains

really that area as an a wide open space where under typical rules if you had a brewery next to a restaurant and both serve alcohol outside the brewery would have to segment off their outdoor area with a fence. And so you end up losing the overall character and sort of the the flexible space within that area by these overlapping alcohol license rules. So there's a new law, relatively new law. This has been in place in San Francisco for a while, but now just recently last year. The state extended this statewide. Uh what this allows for is flexible rules for alcohol consumption in designated public spaces. And so the city council takes an action, draws a line on a map, and says within this area, there's flexible alcohol consumption rules. Uh, and it's specifically designed to assist with what we're doing in terms of revitalizing downtown areas by creating more entertainment, more uh sort of enjoyable walking opportunities. So, we're not proposing a free-for-all here. We're looking at a very strict uh a strict program for the hub, but that gets us out of that the complexities of layering alcohol licenses within common spaces. So, as I mentioned, the backyard space is the primary open space within the South Mall, the hub. Uh, so that stretches across multiple properties and then will be accessible by the food hall. We're going to have outdoor Jenga and cornhole and lots of TV screens that we're going to have a lot of it's sort of an active recreational space that everyone can grab food, go enjoy that area. It'll be lit at night. It'll be uh sort of a gathering space for the community and for everybody that's visiting the hub. There's also a smaller common patio area for the building on Sixth Street. The windown will touch this area and future tenants will also have access to this area. And again, this this solves that problem of overap alcohol licenses within the area. Since we're here, we're also proposing to extend these rules to the parking

lot, not on a daily basis, but only under certain circumstances. If there was a beer tasting festival, if there was some type of special event activity, a concert in the parking lot where they wanted a beer garden, this would then allow for sort of an expedited process where the restaurants in there could serve alcohol into the front area. Also, there's additional requirements that would come with that with we'd have to install temporary fencing. There'd be security at the perimeters. There'd be additional safeguards that would come into place uh beyond just the typical uh parking lot layout that we would have. So again those safeguards only the license operators within the hub could serve within these areas. Uh and so all of them have to go through the city process. They have to go through al alcoholic beverage control to get those licenses and we would have enforceable conditions to make sure that they continue to operate uh in a safe and sane manner. The hours that we're proposing to allow would be 7 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. That's what the law allows. But again, the planning process that each operator would go through allows us to restrict those hours and to tailor them to what's most appropriate for this site and especially respecting the neighborhood that's just east of the of the center. Uh and then again, as I mentioned, the special events that would happen in the parking lot come with added security measures and perimeter measures uh that would make sure that that area functions in a tighten controlled manner and we don't have people walking on the sidewalks or crossing streets with open containers. So there's really two approaches we can take here. The law uh could be structured where we're writing in a new provision to allow this citywide when the city council designate this. So we could establish permanent rules in the municipal code to create this opportunity where do logos could request this or other shopping centers could request this or we can take a very targeted approach and that's the staff's recommendation is just for the city council to designate the hub those two areas the parking lot under certain circumstances and then those two fenced common areas for daily operations as the

entertainment district within the downtown. So based on the direction you provide today, we will come back with the subsequent council action to uh enact whatever the direction is and then uh create this entertainment zone either general provision or specific provision just for the hub. That concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. All right, why don't we go to the public first? Mr. Edwards, any speaker cards? Mayor, we do not have any speaker cards for this item. All right, comments from my colleagues. I I I'm really excited about this. I think uh I I'd like it to be designate the portions. Um number one actually makes more sense to me. Uh just because I'm worried if it gets too far outside that we could have a bunch of people requesting things and then we're having to fight people off and make excuses why we can't they can't serve alcohol in the middle of, you know, who knows where. Um this is very purposeful and and I want to keep it that way. I I did uh the gate was open and I drove through the other day and harassed the SE guys and told them to hurry up. Um and they they kind of did I think about a hundred other people in the city. So yeah, I made sure when they were walking in between um uh but yeah, I I went by and looked. It looks really great and can't wait to see people out there. So thank you. The stand alone though is that's staff's recommendation just so it's for the hub just to keep it very targeted. Yeah. Yeah, I'm for that one. Yeah. Everybody good with stand alone? You're good to go. No, I'm good. Thanks, brother. All right. Um, that's it. Thank you, sir. All right. Request by council member to speak to explore options to reduce the number of feather flags allowed on a property and limit feather flags to special events. Miss Joanne Klet, our planning development director, will present this item. Joanna, thank you and good evening. Next slide.

We don't have anything working on these tonight. Uh, so the ask of the city council is to provide direction to them in the zoning code to place restrictions on the use of feather flags in the city. So just a quick recap. Um this conversation was initiated by council member speak and that was at the March 19th meeting of this year and he was asking for his colleagues to have further discussion on possibly limiting the number duration and the use of feather flags in the city. So that's why we are back here tonight. Just so the council has a little bit of context. Um the city does allow for temporary devices to attract attention. That is allowed by our sign ordinance. real quickly. We do allow for banners and those can only be attached to the building and we do have a banner permit process for that. You do get one per business and you're allowed 180 days within 12 months. We also have a provision under our temporary use permit that would allow for any kind of roof mounted balloon as well as pennants and other similar devices. And this is where we fall into the category of feather flags. They actually get placed under the temporary use permit. uh the TUP process does not have specific regulations with respect to the number and quantity. So there was a policy that was established back in 2010 and we limit it to 10 feather flags per property and it's allowed 120 days within 12 months. You can also use the same uh devices under a temporary use permit with a special use permit, but it does need to be engaged with a special event that has an SU. you just cannot apply for that permit alone just to use the temporary device and that's a longer period of time of 180 days within 12 months. So because we didn't have specific regulations um we did come up with a policy in 2010 and that policy stated that feather flags uh needed to be maintained in an orderly fashion not torn or faded. They also needed to be spaced 15 feet apart when on the

property and you can have no more than 10 flags. So really that spacing criteria would determine the number of flags you can get on the property if you can even reach 10. And just for reference purposes, I just wanted to let you know since 2022 how many tups we've issued for feather flags. And you could see year-over-year it's slightly increased. So the initial recommendation by council member speak at the time was possibly reducing the number of feather flags to five per property, reducing the number of days to 60 days and maybe limit the use to special events or special use. So if the council is interested in looking at making uh some objective standards for feather flags, we can go ahead and amend the zoning code. And some things that the council can look at, you can come up with an annual permit, which would be similar to that banner permit. At the same time, you can also limit the number of flags as well as the number of days allowed. Uh something else the council can also consider is the flag height. Um these are pre-manufactured. So they the typical standard is 8t, 10 feet, 12 feet or 16 feet. So if the council would like to limit the height, you can do that as well within this uh ordinance. And then we can also work with the city attorney with respect to uh the advertisement used on these flags. If we want them to be for a special use such as a special sale or promotion or grand opening, we can work with the city attorney just to make sure we're still not violating any uh first amendment rights and we can have that conversation as well. So, as again, we're just asking you for some direction tonight and I will turn the floor over to the council. Thank you, Joanne. Wes, this was your item. You want to give some context? Sure. Um, and where this came is I mean I it's funny I could feel there was more. Um, now I I saw there was more and what I'm seeing is is the the folks that have a lot of flags and they're and they're using them for extended period of time, they end up looking like crud and they're they're

ripped and so code enforcement's having to spend extra time either get a report and have to go check up on it and and I I just think that you know these I talked to a couple different folks that put these together. They say 60 90 days is about what they last depending what time of the year and especially in the summertime it's even shorter more like 60 days they start to look faded and not look good and um some folks use this as a form basically they don't want to pay for a sign so they they put these up they pull them on and you know off and on and I I just don't think it it uh it's conducive to the way that I think that that we'd like the city to look. So, you know, I think five flags, even though the average has been three, I think five is plenty. Um, and then 60 days and only for uh special special events, you know, grand openings, um, promotions or special sales, that that sort of thing, but not it's just regular advertising because to me, that's that's a sign. They should go through our sign ordinance the way that we have it. Do you give any consideration to a new business opening up, maybe allowing them to keep it for a little bit longer? Um, just so the residents know that they're there and in business. Yeah, I'm I mean a part of that that's that's I'm thinking six 60 days. Uh I thought 180 days was way too many. I mean I'd be flexible to go to 90, but six months seems like it's pretty No, I don't disagree with you. I just didn't know if we could do something just for new businesses just so they can get their name out there. I don't know. It's just a thought. If I can't that when you do that, it does cause confusion for staff because you're always gonna have somebody say they're new, they just started. So from an enforcement standpoint, if you're going to be like a banner, we just need to know that this is the objective standard and this is what we're going to follow. Thank you. Comments? Oh, yeah. Let's go to the public first. Any comments from the public? Mayor, we do have two speaker cards for this item. All right.

Yes, sir. Mr. Fuller, back four months from now. Hi guys. Uh I know there's a matter here of uh property rights and uh private enterprise and so forth. Uh but even within that these things they just look like hell. We went through this several years ago. I remember uh Mr. Montinez and Miss Spiegel sitting up there snipping back and forth at each other and Mr. Montinez was trying to get rid of him and Miss Spiegel was rolling her eyes at him. So they met back and forth a while. It was probably back in 2010 when they had those little spats over that. Uh so, um I'd plow them all under and I realize there's probably somebody that's going to whine about property rights or whatever, but uh they look they make everything look like a low rent used car lot or a massage parlor. Not that I know anything about massage parlors. So, um I'm against Yeah. Whatever you can do to keep that stuff out. If you want me to go around my truck and pick them up and trash them, I'll do that. Uh, that's all. Byebye. Thanks, Don. We'll have Joe do that on Monday mornings. Not on Not on private property. That's right. So, um I I' mean I I'd be probably even more strict than Well, yeah. I'd say like two per business and if it's a multi-tenant place maybe five or six per property total for all of them. But you know cuz you've got centers where there's one tenant and they throw five or six of them out and nobody else has an opportunity even have one up there because they've taken all of them for the property. um you know they and they ought to be spaced out and they ought to be maintained because I mean there's one sitting that I I didn't know there was a maintenance requirement because there's uh Rimpa and Magnolia the one for the restaurant it was out on the street

is laying right there next to the next to the Starbucks need to send that email send it on the way home um you know and I would limit it special occasions 30 to 60 days tax. I mean, the thing about it's a big city. There's a lot of stuff out there and you don't really know exactly what's where. And if there's a permit and there's a fixed amount, you know, it's easier to kind of keep track of them. Here's the days. Here's a day when it goes up. Here's a day when it comes down. And you could just you could they could look up the permit. His permit there, isn't it? It's easy to kind of easier to kind of track it. Right now, it's just kind of a free-for-all. Somebody could have a permit, maybe they don't. If somebody complains about it, then you find out they don't have a permit. But it's only if somebody really goes after it, you know, if somebody knows or somebody thinks about it. Um I would also keep them kind of small, you know. I mean, the 10-footer, something like that. I mean, it it is just just nasty. But anyway, um not a big fan, but 30 to 60 days max. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. No other comments. So, Wes, you're uh Oh, Tom, you got something? I I agree with Joe. I uh keep it to special events and two or three and small smaller is better than bigger and then be done with it. Mr. Mayor, I have some comments. Yes. Um I I'm not as bothered clearly as my colleagues about signs in general. Um, but if we are going to change this, I implore us to be um to to to restrain ourselves to something that's enforcable. Um, staff, I think, you know, I would rather see staff on code enforcement of like bigger issues in the city than going out there to be citing for this is 6 feet and it's supposed to be 5 feet and how many days are are you

actually having a special event? Are you not having a special event? So if we want to change it to less time, cool with that. Special events, that's going to be hard. Sizing, that's going to be difficult as well. I mean, if the policy were followed now where it's, you know, when something's starting to look poor and they're closer than 15 ft, if that were managed, then we probably wouldn't even be talking about this right now, right? Because if they looked good, if we were being a if we were able to enforce the policy we currently have, we probably wouldn't be having a lot of these issues. So whatever changes we make, which I'm comfortable with limiting the time frame, I just I want us to be mindful not to create such a cumbersome thing over such a small thing that's going to take a lot of staff time and it's going to be difficult to enforce. Makes sense. Tony, you have a comment? Don't you have a feather flag to Dario? So we're going to go with 60 days. Yeah, in 60 days. 60 days per calendar year. I I think uh uh the vice mayor's got a good point. I I mean to me this is where I think we'd like to see things, but I'd also like to hear from from staff and what would be the easier to enforce. Sticking heightwise, I don't want the staff to have to go out with a tape measure and try and measure how big things are. If we can limit the number and the time frame, then then I think that that at least in my eyes, it sounds like it would be easier to administer. But you'd have to let me you'd have to let me know. Yes, if if they have a permit, we can definitely we will have recordation of their time and when they started, what they what it says on there. So definitely it's the same as the banner permit. Um it's based on timing and how long they've had it up. So we could treat it similar to the banner permit process. Okay. I I I would like that and I think just because um the time is so long and it hasn't been

consecutive that it probably is almost impossible for staff to go okay those did they come up did they go down did they take three down and I because I've driven down Sixth Street and seen them up and look like crud and then they're down and then the same ones come back up again and so it's got to be a little bit of whack-a-ole. So if there's a way to to to limit that that would be great. Um I I yeah that's that's uh Miss Klet are you comfortable with the direction that you've heard so far? Yeah, we can draft something on that. And then with respect to the time um we do make them identify on their permit the days that they will be using and it is in the system because our staff has access to all of the electronics in our software system from their vehicle. So if the dates are posted on that permit then they have access to know that those are the time they need to be at. Okay. Does anybody is any everybody have any problem with 60 days versus 30 days? Miss Kleta, really quickly. Um, you said that you require them to put the date that it's going to be up on their permit. Is that can can our staff look at that uh electronically or do they have to go in and ask somebody to see their permit? No, we h we have it all in the system. We have it all in Track It. Okay. So if currently if if if somebody sees a flag and they check the permit and it's not permitted, do they just take the flag? No, we notify the person who owns the flag that they need to take it down or come in and amend their permit. The flags are on private property. We cannot remove um their materials. Gotcha. All right. Thank you, Joanne. All right. Legislative matters, there are none. Reports from boards and commission, there are none. Mr. Der, do you have any comments? Mr. City Manager. Uh, yes, Mayor. Just one quick comment. As I hope folks know, fireworks are illegal in the city of Corona, can result in fines of up to $5,000. God, our numerous social media platforms

provide information on how to report fireworks violations. And I just wanted to put that out there in the light of our upcoming holiday. If you see or hear fireworks, those can be rem reported anonymously using the city's online portal. If you can identify the people or a specific address, we would encourage residents to call our non-emergency dispatch number at 951-7362330, option two. And if you see a fire, just call 911 immediately. And with that, wishing everyone a fun and safe Independence Day. Thank you, Jacob. Do any of my colleagues have any comments? I have just just two things. One, thank you for for mentioning that, Mr. Ellis. It's something that has come up repeatedly, even though it's funny since I moved, I don't hear as many fireworks, but but I can certainly see them. Um, and I was going to ask uh uh chief chiefs if we're going to be using our our drone during um the 4th of July. Are they to try and catch some of these idiots that are setting off these warders? Yes. Uh our drone team will be up and available um doing enforcement um in a safe manner. Obviously, we don't want them to be intercepted by firework itself. Uh but they will be available and try to identify and communi identify the locations on the ground and communicate that to the ground units and and those will be and and I know we're recording when we use those. Can that be used that's an officer that's that's watching that. Can that those be used as as evidence to to sight someone? Yes, we would record that and we could actually send that video recording to the officers on the field immediately so they can see what that the drone operators are are looking at to help identify the people. And and I'll I'll say though that you know if in your neighborhood I this happened to me a few years ago. Um, I had somebody that was lighting mortars off in their backyard,

lobbing them over a a 100 plus year old pepper tree and terrorizing two older folks. And u and I walked over and I saw them, I took pictures. And later on when I I talked to um our fire marshal, I testified against them and they got $5,000 fine. And I know that's a hard thing um sometimes, but there needs to be we have to be able to hold the line for people that are basically they're risking not only their own safety, but the safety of those around you and your your homes. And and I don't know how someone can look at themselves in the mirror if they burn someone's home down. And so, and frankly, I I you know, my wife asked me and she said, "Well, you do you sure you want to do that?" And I said, 'Absolutely, because I'm sitting up here preaching that that people don't do this and and they, you know, they're taking their lives in their hands and uh threatening other people, their livelihoods. Um I should be certainly willing to do that. And I know that's a tough ask sometimes for folks and and I'm appreciative of the fact that now we have a a a drone system that that we can use, but at the same time, you know, Mr. Alice hit it on the head. you know, call uh you know, or don't call because everybody in their brother's going to be calling. Use the uh use that form, take a picture, um uh take video in and we'll hopefully find a way to catch some of these folks. And I know that the uh the fire prevention folks have been really good about knocking on people's doors, especially in the days leading up. And I had a couple people that said that, you know, the fire marshall came and knocked on their door and they were said that, "Hey, we saw fireworks shooting out of your backyard or in your front yard and they go talk to their children and found out that, you know, they were doing it." So, it's a it's a good thing and and you know, continue to report it. So, it's great. And then my last thing I wanted

to say was, and I've been just forgot the last two meetings, but um uh if you've been on Vicentia right across the street here, used to see the uh the settlement house. The settlement house was basically was built as a kindergarten back in in 1910. It sat at the old Washington school which was basically where the post office is and uh it's been moved around a little bit in Corona. It moved into the city uh the the uh the city actually bought the original settlement house was which was over on on Second Street and uh and they built a pump station. So, if you go down the third third and I think I forget the name of the street over there, but you'll see a pump station on Third Street, and that was where the original settlement h house was. The city built a um a well there. They bought the the old kindergarten from the uh from the school district and moved it to its current location. Um the uh the Corner Chamber of Commerce, their their uh executive leadership roundt group uh took on the the building as a project. And if you haven't driven by, the paint looks great. did a wonderful job re uh um you know, putting new signage on it and it's given it a whole new life. So, I just wanted to say publicly say thank you to the to the folks in the ELR uh group that took that on as a project and uh and thank you for the city uh continuing to support that that organization, you know, for for so many years and for so many great people. In fact, you know, going back and reading some of the newspaper articles from the 1920s, um that was the only bathtub, only place that someone could take a shower or a bath in the circle. So, folks that, you know, poor folks that didn't have running water, they could go and take a bath and take a shower there. Um and uh and that they've been in that in that space and providing uh services for folks who need it for for over 120 years. So, thank you. Thank you. Nothing. Jackie, did you have anything? I just wanted to let you guys know that

I was elected to the public sector seat for the Riverside County Continuum of Care Board of Governance. So, I'll be going to Banning every quarter with probably with Mrs. Roer. I'm so excited. I know. I'm so excited. Okay, last item of business. We have a future agenda item. Reminder, the majority of the council has to agree to send this to a future uh council meeting. Mr. Council members Richens, will you please introduce your request for our consideration? Sure. In an effort to piss off Council Member Tedario, I'd like to uh introduce a future agenda item of new pickle ball courts at Elserto Park and put it up for a vote. Thank you. I concur. I do too. Okay, there's three votes. Uh let's see. Are there any speaker cards from the public on this? Mayor, we do not have any speaker cards. All right, meeting adjourned till July I'm sorry, the July 16th meeting is canled. The next day of the city council is August 6. This meeting is a journ.