Town Council - Special Meeting

Okay, let's do a roll call, please.

Council member Blash. Here. Council member Kohler.

Here.

Vice Mayor Ager.

Here.

Mayor Hellman. And let the record note that. I'm here. Council member, oh, thank you. Council member Karen Kelly is absent.

Noted. The Fairfax Town Council acknowledges that we are located on the unceded ancestral lands of the Coast Miwok people. of present day Marin County. We honor with gratitude the land itself and all of its ancestors, past, present, and emerging. The mayor will preside and maintain order at this meeting, and we all share the responsibility for modeling respectful and professional conduct. And we hope there will be no disruptive behavior. I'm asking all participants to silent their electronic devices right now. And with that, let's move on to the irregular agenda. We have an urgency ordinance establishing a temporary moratorium on formula businesses. This is a public hearing, and we are considering to approve an interim ordinance extending the moratorium on the issuance of entitlements for new formula businesses pursuant to to government code 65858. Excuse me, Mayor. Before you start the item, did you approve the agenda?

I don't know that we did. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda.

I'll second. Council Member Blash. Yes. Council Member Kohler. Yes. Vice Mayor Ager.

Aye.

Mayor Hellman.

Yes. Thank you, Heather, for keeping us on track. Motion approved. Okay, so with that, who's doing the presentation? Is that?

I'll be doing the presentation.

Go ahead, Jeff.

Thank you, Mayor. So this is a fairly straightforward item. We are just talking about an extension. And as you mentioned, it was established on March 4th. So that started a 45-day clock, which expires on April 18th. And so now since it's April 17th, we can extend it comfortably under the wire for another 10 months and 15 days, which would bring us to basically midnight on March 3rd, 2027. And so that should give us a comfortable amount of time to come up with regulations related to formula businesses. And so just a couple of things to point out. We did include a definition within the ordinance, both the 45 day ordinance and the ordinance today, because the definition of formula businesses in our current zoning code is pretty vague. So it was important to include a very detailed and specific ordinance so that we knew what we were actually prohibiting. So that was included in this ordinance. The other thing to point out is As part of the urgency ordinance, there's a requirement to do a 10-day report before it expires. So that was released on April 8th, and that's also included as an attachment and just goes over just what we've done so far to kind of solve the problems or come up with regulations related to the moratorium. And so we've already started doing a lot of research and we are planning on going to the planning commission right away with a study session, most likely next month. And with that, that's my report.

And that would be, because there's already been study sessions, right? Yeah, we did have a study session.

We had an early version of an ordinance that we floated out to the planning commission. And so we did have a study session on that. Okay.

Okay. Barbara, did you have a question?

Sorry. Maybe it's more of a comment. I notice, I think this is all good, but I think given it would be good to mark maybe after the severability that this ordinance expires March 3rd, 2027 before passed and adopted. after severability on the ordinance itself, look, look, keep going. Severability after section seven, probably add a section eight that says this ordinance expires March 3rd, 2027.

And could I just simply add it to term under section five?

Where is that section five term?

I could add another, a sense at the end of that, it would say it,

would expire on march 3rd 2027 yes correct that would be good thank you any other questions or comments before we open the public hearing well just one mayor if i made a quick comment uh the reason we're here uh is to extend the temporary moratorium and it's a result of a hearing that was held by the planning commission on a previous ordinance that allowed up to 13 uh formula businesses or could you call them chain stores and and there was a lot of opposition for that from folks in town here so that's why we're here today okay let's open the public hearing

Good afternoon, town council. Mimi Newton, downtown Fairfax here as a resident, not in my role as a planning commissioner. I totally support the moratorium. I also totally support us strengthening our existing formula business ordinance. I've been looking at a number of other municipalities and most specifically, Sebastopol's, And, you know, to the extent you guys haven't looked at that, I really recommend it. It allows for some types of formula businesses in specific areas. They have shopping centers that they're allowing them in, for example, and excludes a few types of businesses in the downtown area. So they've got this, you know, kind of zone for the formula businesses. And I would agree that keeping formula businesses out of our downtown is probably a really good approach. They require a formula business use permit review process for most types of formula businesses. They define a formula business as somebody with 25 or more establishments in the U.S. and it includes substantially similar products, signs, decor, uniforms, and other characteristics. You know, and we do something similar in our existing ordinance, but I would look at that 25 number. I think that might be high for Fairfax. I don't know. They have... specific types that are prohibited downtown, formula motels and hotels, formula restaurants, and formula offices just on the first floor. They allow them on the upper floors. And these businesses may be allowed in other parts of Sebastopol. And they have a map on their website. And I made a couple copies for you guys. Thanks. Thank you.

Todd Greenberg, downtown Fairfax. Wouldn't it be better if the public were allowed to speak after you deliberate or have you already deliberated completely? Pardon?

Janet, you need to be on the mic. That is not the format of the meeting. Public comment is now.

That being confirmed by the town attorney. Before I make my remarks, I'd like to echo what Councilman Ager just stated, that at prior meetings, many of the public attended. And I'd like to question why meetings of import that could be had as agenda items at a regular town council meeting, such as we had two nights ago, such as this are not scheduled when the public can easily attend. There's no reason that this which is a paramount concern to the town of Fairfax is being held today when other people can't easily speak. There's many other things that are regularly done in my opinion and others by this town to prohibit and squelch public comments at these town council meetings. This process needs to be examined and corrected. That being said, what I don't see in this report is an examination, a further examination of the prior analysis and reasons for doing this and the evidence that's been presented that it is a narrow case in Malibu that doesn't necessarily really apply here. So I believe that while I'm in favor of squelching, unnecessary. I'll stop there and abide by the time, even though I was interrupted.

Are there any hands raised on the Zoom?

There's one hand on Zoom. Lingxin Bell, you are unmuted. You may now unmute yourself.

Amazingly enough, it's Mark Bell. Can you hear me?

Yes.

I agree with the moratorium and I'm sure that you've all perused the letter that I forwarded and had included in the package from an attorney who actually loves Fairfax and would be working for Fairfax that they could do a new ordinance or actually even more than just one ordinance so that Fairfax would have a choice that would be within the legal boundaries that, um, the ruling of Malibu, uh, the ruling of Malibu has, uh, brought forth and they could do that within six hours of time at $400 an hour, which would be $2,400. And he said, because he loves Fairfax so much, he would even be willing to, uh, work with the town to, um, maybe lower his fee if that was needed so what you're looking at or what we're looking at paying for is yet another example of why our legal bills are close to a million dollars this year we're looking at your process going into the tens of thousands of dollars of legal expense staff expense people's expense etc and we've seen what the immediate result of, which probably cost more than $2,400, which was to prevent chain stores from being in Fairfax by allowing 13 of them, which is totally illogical. I recommend strongly that you contact Jeff Crosswhite and his firm to do the ordinances, $2,400, even less, and it could be a done deal and it could be done within a short period of time.

Thank you. Any more hands? Are you here for public comment? Or are you just here to listen? Sure. I mean, we have, go ahead. Go up to the mic. No, you have to be.

This is being recorded, Mo.

Is that it? Obviously, I think you guys all know me. I work at Fairfax Market. I do know that the grocery stores are exempt from this, but I'm hoping that we do support. It's not, it isn't. I saw you shake your head. Anyways, if it is or it isn't, I hope that you guys, hopefully we can support Fairfax Market and all of the little stores. So I'm hoping that we can extend the moratorium. That's it. Thanks. It's Mo McManus, renter in Fairfax, and I work at Fairfax Market.

Thank you, Mo. Any more hands on the Zoom? No more hands on the Zoom. Okay, we'll close the public hearing. Thank you all for your comments.

Mayor? Yes. I just want to say I like the change that Jeff made, and also I have looked at the Sebastopol ordinance and talked to staff some about the same sort of approach for us, although probably with some differences, but I think it's a good idea. And Fairfax is similar in many ways to Sebastopol, although it's bigger. So I'm supportive of moving forward, but it looks like Council Member Blash wants to talk.

Okay, so I'm assuming we're having a meeting today because the current moratorium expires tomorrow. We want to give ourselves as much time as possible, which is why we are holding this meeting at the time we're having it, so that we can get an amount of time to further discuss and deliberate on the form of this ordinance. And so I'm just going to clarify for people who are confused that there's not a decision being made on the form of the ordinance today right we're just deciding to extend it so we can continue those discussions so we can do the best job that we can taking into account other towns ordinances and the comments of the public so they'll be i think there's going to be a lot more time for public comments so this is not you know the end of it um also wanted to note that did receive the letter from mr bell um and definitely again we're going to be looking at um all kinds of um issues around this ordinance. I did want to note that when that letter was initially submitted, the person who wrote the letter said that I can do all of this for $400 an hour. That's going to be a real deal. $400 an hour is considerably more than our attorney charges and, in fact, any other of the city or town attorneys in Marin charge. So I just want to keep an eye on what we're talking about when we talk about legal costs. Yeah. So anyway, I'm willing to move forward with this. I don't know if I need to really discuss much more, but I'm thankful for the public for showing up at an odd hour of the day to make comments at this time. I'll make a motion to...

I'd like to speak before I make a motion. All right. Sure. I do not support the Sebastopol ordinance. It's not strict enough at all. I think three is a good number for what's considered a chain store or formula business. The Malibu decision does not really impact Fairfax's formula chain store ordinance at all. It's As Mark Bell mentioned, it is very narrow, and to lump ours in with Malibu is incorrect. We need to keep a strict anti-chain, anti-formula business ordinance that we can, and I'd say the magic number is three. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Vice Mayor Eggers. So with that, I'd like to introduce wave reading in full and adopt an interim ordinance extending the town's moratorium on the granting of any entitlements for formula business in the town of Fairfax for an additional 10 months, 15-day period, pending study and adoption of regulatory and zoning standards pursuant to Government Code Section 658A 5-8 with the change in the term as noted by the planning director.

Second.

Council Member Blash. Yes. Council Member Kohler.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Ager. Aye. Mayor Hellman. Aye.

Yeah, I just want to, before I vote, I just want to say that this is not uncommon to have an issue like this that we all care about and have different points of view. But I think that for the most part, we're on the same page of the need to strengthen this ordinance. So I hope that the planning commission can move swiftly so this can come back to council. And with that, I will vote yes. Thank you.

Could I do the adjournment? Sure. I'd like to adjourn in memory of my mother, Pauline Kohler, who would have been 105 today. But she passed in 2014. So it's her birthday.

Oh, happy heavenly birthday, Pauline. Pauline. Pauline.

Yeah. Thank you. We need to have their wine glasses.

We do.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Thank you.

Meeting adjourned.