City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call this meeting to order at 6.02 PM. Welcome, everyone, Fount Valley City Council general meeting. We'll start with our invocation from Pastor Chuck McElhenney. Pastor, please rise, everyone.

This is an old prayer, 1783. It was the prayer of George Washington when he retired from the presidency, and it's relevant for us today. Let us pray. Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that thou will keep the United States in thy holy protection. that thou will incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to the government and to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large. And finally, that thou most graciously be pleased to dispose us to all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity and humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the divine author of our blessed religion, without a humble imitation, whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Thank you, Pastor McCartney.

Thank you.

Next we'll have the salute to the flag. Council Member Glenn Grandis.

Thank you, Mayor. So today is a very special day, and it's an honor to lead the Pledge of Allegiance today. Because today is Election Day, and in the United States, you have the right to vote for whomever you choose to. You also have the right to not vote, which I think is a bad idea. But it's something that... You know, we're very lucky to be Americans. And with that, I ask everybody, let's salute the flag with a little extra gusto tonight. Let's hear it.

So with that, I pledge allegiance 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.

Thank you, Councilmember Grandis. Next is City Council Successor Agency Housing Authority roll call.

Council Member Bowie?

Here.

Council Member Constantine?

Here.

Council Member Grandes? Here. Vice Mayor Vice Chair Harper? Here. Mayor Chair Kenean? Here. All members are present. Thank you.

Next, City Attorney Burns, are there any items to report out of closed session? There's no reportable action, Mr. Mayor. Great, thank you.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to interject there. Legally, we have no responsibility to disclose what happens in closed session, and I have prepped my colleagues that I would be informing the public about one of the items. One of them is a settlement that we had with Omni Metals in Fountain Valley. They had a hazard material spill in our city and it cost about a million dollars to clean it up. The city settled with them for $500,000. So we're paying for half and they're paying for half. I did not agree with that. This is before what happened in Garden Grove. So I don't want everybody to think this is something from there. But I think the public has a right to know that we had a hazardous material issue in our city. Our staff and the fire department and everybody, this was, what was that Maggie, two years ago? A little bit over two years ago. We handled it like champions with our fire department, so I think it's important to know that as well. But this type of settlement, one of the issues was a going concern, can they stay in business? My opinion with the amount of hazardous materials that were there, I would prefer they weren't in our city. And that's why I voted the way I did. And with that, I know we normally do future consideration later, but I'll just do it now and we'll get it over with. I'm looking for a second that we do a study in our city, determine the hazardous materials that exist and the extent of the potential that we bring back a study session to learn what issues we may or may not have in our city. We don't know exactly. I know our fire department has a good handle, but I think the public needs to know, and I think we need to look at potentially new regulations in terms of hazard materials in our city. So with that, I'm looking for a second.

I'm going to second it, but I want to say at this point, too, I mean, because I didn't know the way you were going to say it went the way you were going to say it. I don't think we were really thrilled about what happened and the settlement and I'll leave it at that thank you but I do second okay

Mayor, if I can add, in addition to fire department, our public works department also play a critical role in the cleanup of the hazmat. So we want to thank our public works in addition to our public safety who responded to the situation.

And the executive staff, everybody at the city. I want to reiterate, they did a great job to keep us safe and keep it out of the storm drains.

Great, thank you.

City Clerk Miller, are there any supplemental communications?

Yes, we have one item in regards to item number nine on the agenda. There were two letters that were received after the publication of the agenda. Those letters have been given to city council, and there's a copy of those two letters with the agenda packet. Great. Thank you.

Hey, next is city manager update.

Yes, thank you, Mayor and City Council. I just have one item to share with the community. Fountain Valley Summerfest is right around the corner, Thursday, June 18th through Sunday, June 21st. Come out and enjoy live music all weekend long, carnival rides and games, a beer and wine garden, food and retail vendor, and much more. Admission is $5. There are some special perks throughout the weekend. Thursday, June 18th is $3. Ride Night and $22 on-site unlimited ride with spend. Friday, June 19th is $5 beer and wine night along with the country kickback. Saturday, June 20th comes with the Hyundai Fireworks Show, so you don't want to miss that. And Sunday, June 21st is to celebrate Father's Day. Thank you, Mayor.

Great. Thank you so much. Next is the Mayor's Update. Tomorrow morning, 8 AM at the Ayers Hotel, Fat Valley Chamber of Commerce is hosting the FV Connect Breakfast. This will have Fire Chief Chris Nigg and Police Chief Craig Heredia as the featured guest speakers on the safety panel. And you can visit the chamber website to register, so I hope you can join us there tomorrow morning. City Hall will be closed on Thursday, June 4th from 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. for the Youth in Government Day. By the way, this meeting tonight is pretty heavily focused on our school districts and our students, which we love. We will be welcoming third grade students from Cox and Newland Elementary Schools. On Saturday, June 13th at 9 a.m., Maybe you can join me for the second mile with the mayor. We're going to meet in front of City Hall here. Residents are invited to lace up their walking shoes or slip in the modern shoes a little bit easier to get in and join the mayor for a mile with me. And we'll have a fun and active community gathering. It's designed to bring neighbors together while enjoying the outdoors. The community walk is part of my Fitness Valley initiative, encouraging residents to stay active while connecting with local leadership and fellow neighbors. Walk alongside our Police Chief Craig Heredia, Fire Chief Chris Nigg, City Manager Maggie Lee, members from city staff for a casual community stroll. It's a great opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and you have our ear also. No reservations are needed, just show up and we look forward to walking with you. And then on Wednesday, June 17th, it's the Senior Expo at the Center at Founders Village. It's over on Bouchard. That'll be from 9.30 a.m. to 12 p.m. So check out the resources offered for today's seniors. Discover a variety of vendor booths, health screenings, and vital information. There will be door prizes, opportunity drawings, giveaways, music, and free food. Don't miss out on the information that can help you be healthy, enjoy life, and plan for the future. So that's my mayor's update. Okay, next we're going to have two presentations. This is going to be a lot of fun. First, we're going to have Advisory Committee for Persons with Disability, Fountain Valley School District Special Recognition Awards, and Kayla Galino to present the awards. Welcome.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and City Council. My name is Kayla Galino, and I am proud to serve as a committee member of the Fountain Valley Advisory Committee for Persons with Disabilities. To showcase the excellent services the Fountain Valley School District provides for students with special needs, the City of Fountain Valley's Advisory Committee for Persons with Disabilities would like to honor those teachers and paraprofessionals who have made a special impact and students who have made significant progress during the 2025-2026 school year. from both elementary and middle schools in the district. Now, I would like to introduce Fountain Valley School Board Superintendent, Dr. Stopp. Fountain Valley's- Assistant Superintendent, Jerry Gargis. Director of Special Education, Kara Robinson. And school board members, Sandra Crandall and Phu Nguyen. Our first awards tonight honor two students of the year with special needs. These students have overcome unique challenges and made significant progress throughout this school year. These students were chosen by their teachers. When your name is called, please join us here at the front. Our first student honoree is Gatsby Sessions from Oka Elementary School. Gatsby has made incredible progress since joining the Oka Elementary School Wolf Pack as a kindergartener. He has faced significant challenges, as many of the skills that come more easily to other students required extraordinary effort, patience, and resilience on his part. Yet, what has always set him apart is his unwavering determination. He quickly came to understand that he might need to work harder than his peers, and he embraced that challenge with courage and grit. Today, he stands as a true model student. He gives 100% effort in every task he undertakes, never backing down from difficulty and never giving up, even when learning is challenging. He has built meaningful friendships and is an active, joyful participant on the playground, engaging with all students. His kindness and compassion are evident in the way he treats his peers, teachers, and even his siblings. He consistently demonstrates empathy, patience, and a genuine desire to connect with others. He has overcome obstacles that might have discouraged many, yet he continues to shine brighter each day. His journey is a powerful example of what is possible through perseverance, support, and self belief. Congratulations Gatsby. If I could have council please come over and take a picture with our first honoree.

Hi Gatsby. Good job buddy.

Our next honoree is Manuel Reyes from Talbert Middle School. Manuel began at Talbert and was in a small group setting for all of his academic classes. He is an incredibly hard worker and is now in only two small group setting classes. He always listens to and takes his teacher advice to improve. He takes excellent notes while listening to a story to answer questions accurately when the story is done. He makes good choices when those around him are not making the right choices. He is kind to his peers all the time and has never been seen acting rude or unkind. He sticks up for others. He loves his parents so much and brags about them quite often. Manuel is truly the best. He is sweet, gentle, and honest. He is hardworking and a great advocate for himself. He is a very talented drummer who takes initiative and works on his percussion parts with his dad at home. I remember choosing him as my drummer when we played Any Way You Want It with cheer. He worked incredibly hard to learn his part and the performance was awesome. He is always respectful, always asking questions, and always a positive influence in class. Manny is a blessing to those around him, and he deserves this award. Congratulations, Manuel. Next, we would like to honor two special education teachers of the year. These teachers have gone above and beyond in their duties working with young people with special needs and were chosen by the principals. Our first honoree is Kara Thomas-Shepard from Newland Elementary School. Kara Thomas Shepherd is an exceptional special educator whose leadership, expertise, and unwavering commitment to students have had a profound impact on both her colleagues and the students she serves. Through her work leading collaboration within our extensive support needs ABA program, Kara helped build stronger instructional alignment, increased implementation of the unique learning system across classrooms, and fostered a culture of teamwork and shared learning among staff. Her ability to support both students and fellow educators with compassion, organization, and deep professional knowledge makes her an invaluable member of our school community. Kara is a special human and that is seen every day in her classroom. She creates strong relationships and goes above and beyond to create memorable experiences for them, including dance parties and indoor snow days. She strives to make her classroom an ideal learning place for everyone. Kara has endless patience, even for the most challenging behaviors. She is a superhero at Newland Elementary, and she is so deserving of this award. Congratulations, Miss Thomas Shepherd. Our next honoree is Tarana Dagigian from Masuda Middle School.

Do I see on there? Yes.

As an education specialist at Masuda Middle School, consistently demonstrates an exceptional commitment to both student achievement and the broader special education community. Tarana holds high expectations for every student and pairs those expectations with thoughtful, rigorous instruction. She creates a classroom environment where students are challenged, supported, and empowered to grow academically and socially. Through differentiated strategies and intentional planning, she ensures that all learners have access to meaningful standards-based instruction. Beyond the classroom, she is known for an outstanding work ethic and dedication to continuous improvement. She actively seeks out ways to refine instructional practices and is always looking for solutions that better serve students with diverse needs and their education professionals who work with them. This drive extends beyond her own classroom. She works to improve systems and supports for fellow educators, contributing ideas, sharing resources, and advocating for effective planning in special education. Most importantly, she is deeply committed to the success of every student. She believes in each child's potential and works tirelessly to help them achieve it, fostering confidence, independence, and a love of learning. Congratulations, Tarina.

Squeeze in, squeeze in.

I'm going to look right here. One, two, three.

Next, we would like to honor two paraprofessional educators of the year. These individuals have made a difference while performing their duties, working with young people with special needs, and were chosen by their teachers. Our first honoree is Lori Plamonds from Newland Elementary School. The Fountain Valley School District is proud to recognize Lori Plemons for her dedication and dependability. Lori prioritizes student needs and offers unwavering support to her colleagues. She arrives at work every day with a smile on her face, ready to engage with her students and make a positive impact. Lori is always the first to volunteer whenever a colleague needs help, advice, training, or when a classroom requires extra support. Her collaborative spirit and commitment to the team are truly admirable. One of Lori's many strengths is her ability to break down complex skills and pinpoint where students may be struggling. She has a remarkable talent for connecting with students, creating a warm and welcoming environment where they feel loved and supported. Her students' progress is a testament to her dedication, and she consistently fosters an atmosphere of growth and success. Congratulations, Ms. Plemons.

And last, we would like to honor Shane Kazor from Fulton Middle School.

We are proud to recognize Shane Kazor for his outstanding dedication, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to the students and staff of Fulton Middle School. Shane is a truly student first educator whose positive impact can be felt throughout the entire school community. Known for his kindness, flexibility, and thoughtful approach, Shane consistently goes above and beyond to support students in meaningful and effective ways. He has extraordinary ability to adapt to the needs of any situation, always providing the right level of support, encouragement, and care to help his students succeed. Beyond his work with students, Shane is an exceptional team player and a valued member of the Fulton staff. His collaborative spirit, positive attitude, and willingness to step in wherever needed make him a trusted colleague and an absolute pleasure to work alongside. Students appreciate the genuine care and respect he shows them each day, while staff deeply value his reliability, professionalism, and calm presence. Shane takes great pride in his work and exemplifies the qualities that make Fulton Middle School such a supportive and student-centered environment. We are grateful for the tremendous difference he makes in the lives of our students and school community each and every day. Congratulations, Mr. Cazor.

all right ready everyone look right here one two three okay now me one two three thank you one two

Congratulations to all our awardees tonight. It has been our pleasure to honor these Fountain Valley School District students for their achievements and the special education teachers and paraprofessionals for their exemplary dedication to assisting young people with special needs. We appreciate your efforts. I would also like to invite everyone in the council as well as everyone here at the meeting tonight to our Fountain Valley Advisory Committee prom dance this Friday, June 5th at 7 PM at the Center at Founders Village. Thank you all for your time this evening and thank you to the city of Fountain Valley for your support of persons with disabilities.

All right.

Mr. Mayor? Yes, Councilor McGrady. If I could just make a quick comment. I want to thank especially the teachers and anybody who works with students with special needs. Most of you know I have a son, non-verbal autistic, who went both through Newland and Plavin. And I truly, as a teacher and an aide, etc., you can work anywhere. And when you choose to work with kids with special needs, those angels' wings are starting to grow.

Thank you.

One thing I would like to add to that, his son is named Alex. I don't know about non-verbal, but every time I ask him, you want chocolate ice cream? He goes, yes.

Great.

Okay, next we will have Masuda Middle School student presentation. I'd like to call on Principal Patrick Ham. Welcome.

Hey. Good evening Mayor Kanin and members of city council. My name is Patrick Ham, the proud principal of Masuda Middle School. And on behalf of our students and staff, I want to thank all of you for this great opportunity for our students to present and take part in local government process. It is a memory and a lesson that they will take with them for a lifetime. Masuda is a very special school. It's a very special year for us as well. We are celebrating our 50th year anniversary this year. And we were recognized as our 2026 California Distinguished School for the fourth time. And that speaks to our academic excellence, but tonight our students will share about the great culture that our student leaders get to help create here at Missoula Middle School. And to share a little bit more about our four student leadership groups, I want to welcome our assistant principal, Amy Harat.

At Masuda we have four student leadership groups that play a very important role on our campus. While they are small separate groups, their impact is huge as they make Masuda the amazing place it is. ASB serves as the official student government. These student leaders are responsible for managing funds, organizing campus wide activities, planning pep rallies, and representing the student voice to school admin. Our web group, Where Everyone Belongs, is a mentorship program where eighth grade leaders guide incoming sixth graders through their transition in middle school. From orientation to academic and social support, they ensure that all incoming sixth graders feel connected to school. Our PAL students are committed to promoting mental health awareness and safe school climate. In addition, they expose our school community to inclusive school-wide events that promote community service. And last but certainly not least, our digital media leadership team acts as the historians and storytellers of it all. They capture the day-to-day heart of the school community through photography, video, and digital design. And I would first like to introduce Grace Cooper and Katie from ASB.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Grace Ma, and I am the Masuda ASB Vice President. Our ASB shapes the campus culture by managing student activities budget for over 150 annual events. We do this by having weekly money meetings. Also, Masuda ASB acts as the primary liaison between students and administration, always willing to encourage school spirit. Lastly, we foster school spirit through rallies, spirit weeks, and inclusive events.

Hi, my name is Katie Nguyen, and I'm an ASB representative. In ASB, we can improve many beneficial life skills such as time management, responsibility, teamwork, and public speaking. We lead our school by an example of monarch pride. Responsibility is one of the most important skills that we build, show, and represent. Teamwork is something that we do every day in class. We work together on planning our events and improving our school spirit. Public speaking is a very important skill that we build on. We spoke at our Veterans Day ceremony, assemblies, pep rallies, and morning announcements. We've had many fun events planned throughout the school year, such as dances, spirit weeks, and pep rallies. In fact, our school attendance rate is higher when we host our events.

Hello, my name is Cooper Hara and I'm a representative from ASB. Every year, all of the middle schools in the Fountain Valley School District compete in four school-wide tournaments. The day before each tournament, ASB organizes pep rallies to cheer on our amazing sports teams. that will be representing our school. At these pep rallies, ASB works hard to create fun games and activities to engage all students. Masuda is also able to host the basketball tournament. ASB helps set up early in the morning to make sure the tournament runs as smoothly as possible. Next, we will be hearing from our web leaders.

Hello, my name is Kevin Masiha. I am a web leader at Masuda Middle School. Now, what is web? Web stands for where everybody belongs. It is a program that makes sure everybody feels welcome at middle school. Sixth graders especially will need support with their transition from elementary to middle school. We do this primarily through orientation, making sure incoming students adapt to the new environment filled with different people. We also include students in activities and events throughout the year and support academically and socially.

Hello, my name is Nora Ravenscroft and I'm a web leader here at Masuda. A major factor for web is making sure that all students around campus feel included. We web leaders do this by creating events that give students the opportunity to socialize with their peers and branch out and meet new people. Some events that Webb hosts include skate night and lunchtime activities. Lunchtime activities create an environment for students to bond together by playing games and crafts and giving them the opportunity to win prizes. Not only does Webb focus on creating a healthy environment for sixth graders, it also focuses on maintaining the health of the community by hosting food drives throughout the year and toy drives during the holidays. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Landreine Banta, and I'm in WEB. This year, WEB has created departments. Departments are every Thursday where WEB splits into different groups to help sixth graders across the campus. One department is academic advisory. Academic advisory gives eighth grade WEB students the opportunity to help sixth graders with their schoolwork. Another department is circles, where twice a month we meet to give a slideshow to the sixth graders. And here is another leadership class pal.

Hello everyone, my name is Atharva Kanuja and I'm a PAL representative. So PAL stands for Peer Assistant Leadership. We connect, support, and lead our school in creating a positive school culture. Our ongoing program helps develop the leadership skills and capabilities of every PAL member alongside creating a more active campus community. We connect our campus through a number of ways, such as Kindness Week, where students are encouraged to show gratitude, expand friendships, and stay positive. Multicultural Fair, where students can learn about different cultures and nations around the world by visiting booths and stands. Lunchtime Activities, which are inclusive games that incorporate teamwork, communication, and strategy to create a semi-competitive, fun-filled environment. And finally, Spirit Weeks, which are week-long opportunities for students to show school spirit through dress days.

Hi, my name is Kaylani Bo, and I'm a power representative. There are many ways we support our staff and students. For example, we help students every Tuesday to ease their workload, allowing them to put their students first. These can be little things like filing papers or grading student work. Overall, this relieves and supports a lot of teachers just by helping them in small ways. PAL welcomes new students, supporting them as they navigate the school, making the campus community feel inviting. We have a small group of PAL students that are in charge of guiding the new students around and showing them how the school works. We also volunteer for district-wide events such as the district art show, back to school night, elementary carnivals, and the basketball tournament at Masuda.

Hi, my name is Ava and I am a PAL representative. As PAL leaders, we lead during school-wide activities such as Red Ribbon Week, where we enlighten students on the dangers of harmful substances, College and Career Fair, where we create posters and boards as a hands-on educational activity that provides potential options for college and careers, Middle School Transition Presentations, where we travel to the elementary schools and introduce oncoming sixth graders in a more in-depth way using myths and realities videos. Mental health awareness week, where we create posters and videos that highlight mental health and what steps to take to get help. Now I'm going to introduce the next leadership body, digital media.

Hi, my name is Gianna Munsell and I'm a representative for digital media at Masuda. Our goal for digital media is to ensure that our school stays updated with monthly broadcasts in our annual yearbook that students produce and create themselves. And we are responsible to attend all school events and capture moments to use in our recap videos. Fun fact, this year at Masuda is the first time that we are actually doing our own news broadcast for the school. and it has gone amazing so far. Our digital media at Masuda requires editing skills and the resources to promote student confidence and creativity. Here's a sample segment from our latest video on recapping the previous trimesters. Hopefully it'll work.

Sorry.

Hi, I'm Nhi Quang, representative for Digital Media and Yearbook. Our members work with an amazing team to design and publish our school yearbook. This year, we started to design the yearbook in November. Later in April, we submit our finished yearbook to our printing company. One specific activity in Digital Media Yearbook is that our logo and flyers is made by members and voted on by our entire team. In addition, our team also creates interactions between teachers, staff, and students through interview trivia questions on our broadcast. This also includes bringing fun facts to our school to new students.

And that concludes our middle school presentation. Each of these programs plays a unique role in our daily school life. Together, ASB, PAL, web, and digital media teach us leadership, creativity, and connection, skills we will carry with us long after middle school. Thank you, our city council members, for inviting us and letting us present this to you.

So I have a couple questions for you. First, how many of you have been nervous all day at school because you knew you had to come and speak tonight? Oh, there you go. So the next question is, it wasn't so bad, was it? Not so bad, huh? We really appreciate you coming and speaking. You actually are live. It's also recorded. You could see yourself and brag about what you did tonight. On behalf of myself and the council, we really appreciate when our schools come and present to us. It's just so nice to experience that. And would you all like a picture with the whole group? Should we come down? Okay.

Okay, let's line up here. They're going to come behind you guys.

You're going to have to squeeze in, squeeze in. Get in there.

should we get trustees and staff

THANK YOU SO MUCH. THANK YOU, STUDENTS. THAT'S RIGHT. THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO SEE.

THAT FRONT ROW KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING. VERY GOOD.

OKAY. OKAY. TEAMERS READY? ONE, TWO, THREE. OKAY, THIS OTHER FLOOR.

ONE, TWO, THREE.

We say go Monarchs!

Just give about a minute as they leave the chambers.

Thank you Thank you.

If there's anybody in the lobby that wants to come up, there's plenty of seats, especially towards the front. Come on in. Okay, next is First City Council, successor agency, housing authority, public comments on unscheduled matters only. Do we have any requests to speak?

We have three requests to speak. First is Vicky Johnson.

Welcome. Good evening. I'm Vicki Johnson. A Fountain Valley needs to withdraw from the OCPA immediately to prevent potential financial harm to all of your residents and businesses and to avoid large financial liabilities. In November 2024, you, the Fountain Valley City Council, voted to have the Orange County Power Authority replace SCE for electricity generation, starting in 2026, now delayed to 2027. You voted to transfer some $35 million a year from all the businesses and residents of Fountain Valley out of SCE generation, forcing all of these Fountain Valley into OCPA. In the past 18 months, OCPA has lost 45 million, half its reserves. In January, OCPA raised their rates 12 to 16% over SCE, but OCPA is still projecting a $4 million deficit. Month after month of operational losses means even higher prices in the future. OCPA can't compete with SCE. For Fountain Valley businesses and residents, at OCPA's current rates, residents would be paying $300 per year more for OCPA than SCE. Businesses even more. In aggregate, a rough estimate for all the Fountain Valley rate payers would be paying $4 to $6 million more per year at the current rates. Your own municipal electricity of around $2 million a year would cost $240,000 more per year. OCPA will be buying $20 to $30 million worth of power for Fountain Valley per year. Fountain Valley needs to exit OCPA now, because if you wait to exit, OCPA could hit Fountain Valley with millions of dollars in liabilities for that purchased power. When Huntington Beach exited OCPA, OCPA billed them $7 million. When the county of Orange exited OCPA, they got a $1 million bill, no service was ever provided, and OCPA is now suing the county. Withdrawing from OCPA now will protect Fountain Valley from OCPA buying unneeded power in the future. In the JPA, the terms for withdrawing are punitive and they're complicated and there are certain dates you need to be aware of. So please, withdraw immediately to save your rate payers from huge electricity price increases and these liabilities. Thank you.

Mike Ruff.

Welcome. Thank you. My name is Mike Roth. I'm from Laguna Woods. Withdraw from OCPA as quickly as you can. Your fiduciary duty is to the citizens and businesses of Fountain Valley, not to OCPA, a risky self-serving energy trader. Why would you want your rate payers to pay more for their electricity than they would to SCE? OCPA charges 12% to 16% more, as much as $25 more per month for a home. Why would you do that? I have distributed to you copies of the chart comparison of OCPA to Southern California Edison, which you will already have received in a letter from Michelle Johnson of Irvine. In case you haven't received or seen that yet, you can scan this easily and quickly. Please do that. I believe due diligence requires you to understand the comparison. SCE already meets the needs of your city. provides generous benefits more than OCPA can compete with. SCE is stable, highly regulated, and has proved itself reliable over many years. OCPA is financially weak and is attempting to survive by overcharging rate payers. OCPA doesn't care how much they overcharge, they just want Fountain Valley's money. OCPA portrays SCE as a villain to deflect attention from OCPA's own considerable shortcomings. Your fiduciary duty is to the well-being of the residents and businesses of your community, not to OCPA. Withdraw from OCPA, please. Thank you.

Bob Kiesel.

Welcome. Thank you.

Mayor Kenean, Vice Mayor Harper, Council Members, good evening. I'm Bob Kiesel. Please indulge me while I read this, as I don't want to omit anything, and please excuse my lack of eye contact while reading. You may recall that I stood before you a couple weeks ago commenting on Fountain Valley's fantastic volunteers. After reviewing the tapes, I must confess I was less than proud of my presentation. To say the least, I was appalled by my own behavior. I asked myself, would my parents have been proud of me that night, which is a standard by which I live my life? The answer was a resounding no. My mother would have taken my baseball glove from me for a month based on the level of disrespect I exhibited that night. I'm relieved they were not here to witness their son's behavior that night. The message I attempted to convey was not the message I sent. My goal was to gain recognition for the scores of volunteers who donate hundreds of hours to assure the success of city events such as Summerfest, and to solicit Patrick Harper and Mayor Kineen, excuse me, sir, Vice Mayor Harper and Mayor Kineen, to solicit your participation in the volunteer process. I singled you two out. My comments were harsh.

They were inappropriate.

Volunteering is a personal choice one makes. No one should be pressured, badgered, goaded, or bullied into volunteering. My behavior that night was inexcusable. With this public apology, I ask for your forgiveness. I also apologize to my family and friends who may have been embarrassed by my actions, including the organizations I am affiliated with, especially the Fountain Valley Community Foundation. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. On Zoom, we have David Martinez. Welcome.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is David Martinez. I am the State Policy Manager with Streets for All, a transportation advocacy group. I'm here tonight to inform you about something going on at OCTA. Specifically, the OCTA is proposing on cutting funding to Metrolink service. That is the regional rail network that serves most of Southern California. This is a critical resource for thousands of riders in the area. And I would hate to see cuts happen that would reduce service, that could possibly eliminate weekend service, or that could cut routes before they're terminus. Now, I'm telling you about this because you all, as council members, have a chance to talk to your fellow council members in other cities and even one of your own. Director Harper sits on the OCTA board. So now I'd like to just quickly address you, sir. The OCTA is in a budget surplus. These cuts are not coming from a budget deficit. And there is, in fact, a way to pay for a full Metrolink service without cutting into various other programs. That way is by removing the funding for some hydrogen buses. As you may know, there is a $26.5 million project in the city of Garden Grove for a new hydrogen bus base. and a $19 million project in the city of Santa Ana just across the river on MacArthur for a refurbishment of that hydrogen bus space. Now, that $19 million project is not grant funded. It's coming out of OCTA's own money. and it would double the capacity of hydrogen buses than what OCTA will have. The Garden Grove base would have capacity for 50. Santa Ana would have capacity for 50. OCTA only has 50 hydrogen buses. There is no need for that base in Santa Ana. We should cut that project and instead provide the funding to Metrolink, which is a critical, critical resource for thousands of riders in Orange County and in Southern California. If you would like to talk more specifically about this, I emailed you previously. And for other council members, I encourage you to talk to Vice Mayor Harper and also your OCT representatives, Supervisor Nguyen and Mayor Klopfenstein of Garden Grove. Thank you.

I have one more speaker, Katie Wright.

Welcome.

Greetings, Mayor, Council Members. I'm here offering a PSA. There's an open house tomorrow at noon, noon to 1 p.m. It's in Costa Mesa. Our club, it's Toastmasters. It's normally meeting on Zoom, so it's relevant to anybody anywhere. But we're having an open house with chocolate cake. And we have a keynote speaker from Costa Mesa. Their police department's own Jeanette Martinez will be giving a speech on crime prevention. She is our keynote speaker. If you have never been to a Toastmasters meeting, there are a lot of silly and fun things. And in person, whenever someone says our word of the day, which tomorrow is democracy, we usually do a drum roll on the table, which recognizes that someone used the word of the day. The idea is they tell you what the word of the day is, and you try and use it in your speaking. So I've given Rick my card, and it's got our email address in case you'd like to RSVP. There will be cake and a wonderful speech by... Jeanette Martinez of the Costa Mesa Police Department on Crime Prevention. I invite you all to come. It's at the Mesa Verde United Methodist Church at the corner of Baker and Mesa Verde. And hope to see you all there. Thank you. And it's the whole idea of Toastmasters is to make people comfortable with public speaking and leadership. If you join or even if you just attend, you can attend for free. You can be a guest at any meeting anywhere. We have them all times of day. Online, in-person, hybrid, all over the world. You can visit a meeting in Ireland. You can visit a meeting in Brazil. I mean, the whole world is open to you. So please enjoy and know that it will help you feel very much at home at any microphone. Thank you so much. So, Mr. Mayor, yeah.

I have no further requests. Councilwoman Cosby.

May I ask for somewhat of a point of clarification and information? Having been the only one up here against OCPA that we joined, are we not having a study session at our next city council meeting on June 16th? Because we do have a substantial audience here.

We are scheduled for a study session on Tuesday, June 16th. Perfect. Thank you.

That'll be a good thing to hear what the real facts of what's going on with OCPA. So I encourage everybody to attend.

Can we get a clarification from the city manager on that day on the presentations? Who will be making the presentations?

It is my understanding OCPA staff member, potentially Joe, and his outreach team, Jackie.

Okay. On the different clarifications, is it possible to have SCE here so we could ask SCE some questions for clarification as well?

It is my understanding that SCE will be in the audience.

Okay. Okay, great. So we can ask them questions. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, next will be public comments on scheduled matters only.

Do we have any requests to speak? We have a request to speak on item number five and item number seven on the consent calendar, as well as item number eight. Gotcha.

Okay, so we'll move the consent calendar.

We have a consent calendar, and we do have two requests to speak, one on item number five and one on item number seven. I don't know if any items are going to be pulled. You don't necessarily have to pull an item for the public comment.

I will be pulling item number seven, so maybe we can have the speaker at that time. How about for, you said item five? Correct, item five. Okay.

And I will be pulling item number four.

So maybe we could have the speaker on item five come up.

Dan Stewart. This is item number five is the annual military equipment report for California Assembly Bill 481. Welcome.

Mayor, council members. Dan Stewart, 25-year resident. And I wanted to express some concerns about the annual use report that's in the agenda tonight. That report is in compliance with California AB 481, as I'm sure you all know, which is the use of military equipment. And in the report, FVPD is breaking down how they use various items, right? And I had some concerns about their reporting on drone use. And specifically, I'll tell you what my concerns are here. One of the requirements is that FEPD summarize the use of equipment and why they were used and for the purpose. What was the purpose of that use? And in the report that you have, it does not include the how for the different uses that are listed. You have an attachment with 354 events, but there's no description of how the drone was used in those events. And additionally, They don't even list the purpose for two-thirds of those 300 events, even though the report clearly says that they should. So that was my first concern with that report. The second concern was with the report needs to specify the annual cost of personnel training and other ongoing costs, as well as procurement of the actual drones, right? And the expenses were summarized as They are covered by the current FVPD budget. Well, that doesn't really meet the requirement from the state that says we should list what those ongoing costs are because when you're talking about the labor of training, I'm sure there's quite a bit of training that goes with the drones, and then additionally the use of those drones over time. I'm sure the labor adds up quicker than the actual expenditure for the drone. And it should be a key consideration for whether we could use that labor more effectively in some other policing activity besides drones. And so without those numbers, we really can't make that determination. So I wanted to just comment to you to consider sending the report back to FVPD to add that additional information required by the statement. That was it.

Thank you.

OK, so consent calendar items one through four.

And one through item number four has been pulled by Councilmember Grandes. Four, OK. Gotcha.

So are there any other requests to pull items? No? OK. Vice Mayor Harper.

Yeah, I think in light of the comments that were just made, I'll pull item five for additional information. Thanks.

Any other council members wish to pull out an item? Okay, so I'll entertain a motion for consent calendar items one through three and five and six.

Just six.

Yeah, 1, 2, 3, and 6. Oh, you're pulling 5.

Sorry. Yeah. It's items 1, 2, 3, and 6.

1, 2, 3, 6.

I'll make a motion to approve items 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6.

Not 5.

I'm sorry. 1, 2, 3. I'm so sorry. 1, 2, 3, and 6, please.

Let's just clarify that.

So consent calendar items 1, 2, 3, and 6.

Yes.

I'll second. Got a first and a second.

Items one, two, three, and six pass 5-0.

Okay, so Councilman Grandes, you pulled item four. You have the floor.

Yeah, thank you. So I just thought this was an important topic beyond just the consent, especially at the price tag of 90,000. So I was hoping we could get just a brief report from buyer.

Welcome. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Thank you for the opportunity to highlight what this is, and why we're doing it, and why it's important for the community. So as you know, I'm your fire chief, Chris Nigg. I've been here since January. Obviously, in the beginning of my tenure here, it's important for me to understand what's going on with our fire department, how we're performing. how we're serving the community, what that looks like from a sustainability standpoint. And ultimately ensure that the Fountain Valley Fire Department is not only meeting the risk profile of the city, but also the demands of our community. Not only now, but into the future. So in addition to that, you're also aware of the fact that the city procured land not too long ago to move one of the fire stations and effectively remodel for a number of reasons. Our ambulance program, gender compliance, etc. So with that, when I came to the department, some things that really caught my attention right out of the gate, well, two of which were, number one, what study, what kind of homework did we do on this new station location? And why is it going there? Is it in fact the best place for this fire station, not only from a fire response standpoint, EMS response standpoint, disaster preparedness standpoint, on and on and on, in addition to our broader Orange County OP area, auto aid agreements, etc. Second to that is our extraordinarily high call volume. So Fountain Valley has three readily available resources at any given moment deployed out of two fire stations, heavy apparatus, that is, paramedic units, and we're running upwards of 8,000 plus calls a year. That's extraordinarily high for the amount of resources that we have on the road. So for me, it helps me to get into the analytics and understand truly what those resources are doing at any hour of the day, how many calls are running, why we're running that many calls, what kind of the trends have been over the years, etc. And so that information can then allow me to not only set the vision moving forward for the Fountain Valley Fire Department, ensure that the community is being served effectively, but then also that we are putting this new fire station at the price tag of several millions of dollars and beyond. provide you with the information to make that appropriate decision, but then also that we are setting ourselves up for long-term sustainability. Fire stations are built for 30, 40, 50, 60 years at an extraordinary price tag. It's my job to make sure that you have all the analytics and all the information to make that particular decision. So what we're getting ready to embark on is called, in our industry, a CRA slash SOC, and then ultimately a strategic plan. So a CRA stands for a Community Risk Assessment, and the SOC is a Standards of Cover. And so what is a CRA? What is a Community Risk Assessment? So it's a data-driven profile of everything that puts the community at risk. It looks at who lives here, where they live, and what hazards exist. Analyzes our demographics, our land use, our building types, and our vulnerable populations. reviews historical incident data in our EMS demand trends, and identifies where risk is concentrated geographically. It matters for us because we're adding significant high-density residential and mixed-use development. More people in denser housing changes the type and location of calls. Our aging population typically means a higher EMS demand over time. Our city's risk profile today may look very different in just five years, let alone 60 years. And finally, without this data, staffing and station decisions, and I use this word lightly, are essentially guesswork. I wouldn't say that quite to be so because there is a lot of educated components that go into that. Standards that covers a technical analysis of whether the fire department can deliver the adequate service given our current deployment based off of the risk profile that comes out of the community risk assessment. Measures our response times against our national benchmarks, what we would known as the NFPA standards. It analyzes how often both stations are busy simultaneously, concurrency, evaluates whether station locations are optimally placed geographically, and determines if our staffing levels match the actual workload. This particular study matters now because two stations handling our 8,8500 calls annually is a significant strain. And I have great concerns about what that looks like going into the future with an increase in population and ultimately all the demands that are put on the California Fire Service. When both units, all three units are already on calls, the next calls wait and what does that look like? That's a potential reliability problem. It's inherently bad business to be reliant on our surrounding cities to come in and help us out too much. We have to make sure that there's equity there. Our pending station relocation decision can't be made responsibly without this analysis, I believe. It will objectively answer do we relocate an existing station or do we need a third station, which I very much may believe one of the recommendations to be. And finally, it will help keep our ISO class one rating defensible with documented evidence. It will provide this department for the first time in its history the objective defensible analysis that we need to continue to move our department forward. Ultimately, our bottom line is that these two studies together will answer what are the risks and can we actually handle them. For Fountain Valley Fire right now, this time is critical. We have a lot of major development coming in. We have a station decision that's pending, and we do have a rising call volume that continues to go up each and every year. In addition to that, we'll have soon to come an impact fee that will support that as well, and we'll also be reliant on this information. Finally, doing this now means the city's infrastructure decisions are based on evidence and not assumptions. Ultimately, after a competitive bidding process or an RFP process, the vendor that was provided is AP Triton, as you see before you in your staff report. They are a well-known name in the industry. They recently did an comprehensive EMS study for us that played into our ambulance program back in 2019. And I believe them to be the best qualified and even at their price tag, which will include a strategic plan to help see those recommendations through. I believe that to be our best path forward at this time. So with that, I'm available for any questions.

Well, thank you, Chief. I appreciate that. I think everyone can see now why I wanted that poll. This is such great information. When I read this, through this, I was excited about it. And just to have it as a consent item where we wouldn't explain what we're doing, I thought was a, didn't do it justice. So all the work that you're doing on this. So again, great job and really appreciate that. And with that, I'll go ahead and move the item.

A second.

Since we pulled this, are there any other discussion from council? Right now let's vote.

Thanks, Chief.

Thank you. And just for information, the plan is to kick off July 1 with the study anticipated to take about six months and hopefully by first calendar year have ready to present to you. Great. Thanks so much.

Mayor, do you want to add the recent moment with the mayor, with the fire chief as well?

Okay.

Yeah, it was fun recording in our podcast studios here. I appreciate that, Chief. We put you on the hot seat with a lot of great questions, and I think we touched on some of these issues. Hot seat, I like that. Yeah, see what he did there? I appreciate it. Yeah, that was the first one with me, so appreciate that, yeah.

Wait, wait, how do people see it?

Yeah, well, that's in the hands of our wonderful social media folks, and...

It is on our city website under the mayor's corner. In addition, it's on our social media. And the podcast pretty much touched what Fire Chief Nick had touched on in regards to the planning and also the discussion of a future fire station one.

Okay, let's move on to item five. Sorry, Mr. Mayor, item number four passes 5-0. Gotcha.

Okay, so Item 5, Vice Mayor Harper, you pulled that? You have the floor.

Yes, so I appreciate the comments by the public commenter. And I just wanted to ask, I'm not sure who would be the chief or the city attorney. If I look at the page 123, which says the items that are supposed to be included, The total annual cost of the military equipment, including acquisition, personnel, training, transportation, maintenance, storage, upgrade, blah, blah, blah. In the report, it looks like we have the purchase price, but I'm not sure we have included the other items or if they are required. And then the summary of how the equipment was used and its purpose included. I guess I'm not sure if that requires additional explanation other than, you know, it's sort of implicit in how it was used, but I wonder if you had a chance to review the report and kind of determine if it's met the requirements of the AB481.

So it does say how it was used. It talks very specifically about the flight times and the flight paths and how far the – and the report only talks about the UAVs or UAS, whatever the – acronym is but it does talk about how they were used and I did see some costs my assumption is that there may not be other costs associated but I would have to ask the lieutenant comment on that okay ask the lieutenant to come up welcome lieutenant Parsons

Hello, Mayor and City Council, City Manager.

So you had a chance to review the report, or I imagine you prepared most of it.

Yes, sir. The government code 7070, 7071, and 7072 govern Assembly Bill 481. And we've been doing this military, it's essentially an audit every year. Usually we do it in June and we try to stay consistent year to year with the acquisition of new items deemed as military. We have a regional SWAT team. We have a traffic bureau. We have regional SWAT traffic callout teams. So in the report, the drones are used for traffic. They're used for patrol purposes. They can be used for SWAT. We send them into houses when we think bad guys are in there rather than sending people in there. The cost, to answer your direct question, I did not include the cost of overtime for officers that might have gone to a training on overtime basis. Those staffing considerations can be fairly robust. I'm happy to do so or try to do so. I don't know how easy it will be to go back posthumously and do that, but I can give it a shot. And then if it's desired by the council to do that. The trainings are easily obtained. The cost of the trainings that we send our drone operators to can be ascertained. And then forgive me if there's another specific question.

Well, no, I just want to make sure that we have substantially complied with the reporting rules. And so that's my main concern. It mentions transportation maintenance, storage upgrade, and other ongoing costs. I don't know if there's other cities that are doing similar reports. Maybe they have a certain format that we could copy for us.

Certainly, we can look into that. Most drone programs have a software that they utilize. There's competing softwares out there that track all the details that were in the report. I don't know how cumbersome it would be to add another line of the spreadsheet to say the reason, whether it was for traffic, SWAT, patrol. We can certainly look into that. and see if that's the software we want to go with. I think that would be reasonable.

I guess just from a compliance standpoint, I want to make sure we're okay submitting the report as is, or should we go back and kind of revise it for some reason?

I'm not sure we need to get down granular to the point of whether it was SWAT or regular patrol. It was all for surveillance. If we can do that, that's great. I'm all for more notice and more disclosure than less. It seemed like the lieutenant said he could easily get a couple of – numbers so perhaps that Perhaps we allow a couple of additional numbers to be added to the agenda report, and then we know that we've done our additional due diligence. As I look at this, it seems like a pretty thorough, comprehensive, and very specific report that details very clearly how drones were used.

So it's following the, as they say, the spirit of the law has been followed?

I'd say it's followed the spirit of the law.

Okay. All right. I'd say I guess it's, you know, going forward, maybe we can look at including some of the other categories. If we file the report as is, is there an opportunity to amend it if necessary? Where does it go? It's just publicly published?

It's going to be published on our website with additional policy updates. Yep. And, yeah, we can be as robust as desired. It's a fairly robust report as it is. How much we want to particularize each item, there's some, I think, nuance to that.

If counsel is asking for amendments to the report, why don't we just bring it back? If that's okay with the lieutenant.

Of course. I'm not sure we're asking for that at this point.

Yeah, no, no, I'm just, I'm okay if you think we've complied with the spirit of the law, I think that's okay. But going forward, if there's an opportunity to add additional transparency in some of the other categories that are, I guess, mentioned in the bill, then that's, I think, the next report. We might try to include it to the extent it's-

doable absolutely and I think another thought you know if we are trying to be in compliance with assembly bill 481 we may get some comments back from the governing agency there may be some guidance if there is some deficiency so maybe that could be another part of this process but yeah I agree I'm glad we talked about it it's always good to hear from the public when there's concerns and I think we've

All right. With that, I'll move the item for approval.

I will second it. Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'm sorry, I just want to clarify that the Lieutenant Parsons, you'll, when you post onto the website, if there's additional information, you could, in addition to the report, you could include that, correct?

Correct.

I believe so, yes.

Okay. If you're willing to do that, then I'll vote yes. Okay. Thank you.

Item number five passes 5-0.

Okay, so I pulled item seven. I just want to read this. Approve a resolution to accept a donation from the Fountain Valley Women's Club. Yay! Give it up for the Fountain Valley Women's Club. $8,884.89 for the purchase of one public safety unmanned aircraft system, or UAS, from Advecture, and two, amend the capital replacement schedule to include the UAS. And so I would like to bring up, I believe, Sergeant Mosher? Yes, come on up. Welcome.

Yes, good evening. Mayor, members of City Council, City Manager Lee, Chief Heredia, and distinguished members of the Fountain Valley Women's Club, good evening. Tonight is my privilege to recognize and thank the Fountain Valley Women's Club for their generous donation of $8,884.89. which will fund the purchase of our DGA Matrix 4 thermal unmanned aircraft system for the City of Fountain Valley Police Department. I would like to take a moment to share how we arrived at this point. Approximately one year ago, Officer Ben Osorio and Officer Andrew Quang attended a meeting of the Fountain Valley Women's Club and provided a demonstration of our unmanned aircraft system program. During this presentation, members of the club learned how drones are being used by the police department to locate missing persons, document crime scenes, investigate traffic collisions, and enhance officer safety and community safety. The members were genuinely excited about the capabilities of the program and immediately expressed interest in helping us expand our fleet. Following several conversations with the club, and particularly with Treasurer Connie Wadsley of the Fountain Valley Women's Club, they made an incredible decision to fully fund the purchase of a new DJI Matrix thermal drone for our department. The Fountain Valley Women's Club has been a valued part of our community since 1964. For more than six decades, the organization has invested in Fountain Valley through scholarships for students, support for community programs, assistance with the Police Academy tuition programs, and countless other charitable contributions that have improved the lives of our residents. Their long-standing partnership with the City of Fountain Valley and the Police Department reflects the shared commitment to keeping Fountain Valley a nice place to live for current and future generations. This nation is more than just equipment. It's an investment in public safety. The new thermal drone will help officers locate missing persons more quickly, provide critical information during emergencies, and allow us to safely assess dangerous situations while reducing risk to both officers and community members. On behalf of the men and women of the Fountain Valley Police Department, I'd like to extend our sincere gratitude for the Fountain Valley Women's Club and its members for their generosity, partnership, and continued support for public safety. Thank you for believing in our mission. Thank you for investing in the community. And thank you for helping us better serve the residents of Fountain Valley. Please join me in recognizing and thanking Fountain Valley Women's Club for their generosity and continued support for public safety in the community. At this time, I would like to invite Treasurer Connie Walsley forward to share a few remarks. Following her remarks, I would like to invite the members of the Fountain Valley Women's Club forward for a photo opportunity with council and members of the Fountain Valley Police Department. Thank you. Thank you, Sergeant. Thank you. Thank you, Sergeant Marshall. You're welcome.

Mayor Canine, Vice Mayor Harper, Council Member Constantine, Bowie, and Grandis, thank you for allowing us to be here. Fountain Valley Women's Club is proud to donate this check to the city of Fountain Valley for the purchase of a drone for Fountain Valley's finest, our police department. Fountain Valley Women's Club has a very long track record of supporting Fountain Valley and our surrounding community, state, and national causes. Formed as a service group by 84 women in June of 1964, we are your oldest nonprofit in the city. Tamura Moms raised and donated $300 to begin Tamura's first PTA. Charter President Harriet Sullivan, who still lives in and loves Fountain Valley, led the group and then affiliated us with International State and County Federation of Women's Clubs in 1968. Over the years, we have supported many philanthropic causes, like making stuffed toys. We donated to hospital pediatric wards, presented safety themed puppet shows at local schools. had blood drives, donated cake that served 1,000 for the Fountain Valley 10th anniversary. The club chaired the March of Dimes Committee, organizing collections for the entire city. Many events were held in support of POW, MIA movement during the 70s. And we work closely with fire and police to support their new paramedics program. As well as spearheaded the city council beautification project and did several years of fundraising for your Fountain Valley fountain out in front. on your 30th birthday in June of 1987. Members made hug-a-bears for the police and fire to give to small children as needed. Volunteered at the library bookstore, which we still do to this day. We donated to grad nights at our local high schools and supported personal needs of our veterans through Long Beach VA. We donated a flag to be flown at the city's firing range. The Blue Dot program was initiated by Fountain Valley Woman's Club, identified fire hydrants in the city with blue reflectors in the street easily visible in the dark. Our leadership enlisted support at the state level to install call boxes on Orange County freeways, which was a lifesaver for many years. The club gradually began and then expanded our scholarship program. In 1981, we gave our first scholarship of $300. Next Tuesday, our club will award $18,000 to local high school seniors, bringing our total scholarship donations to $167,400 over the past 80 years. In addition, we have donated over $9,000 to worthy causes this year, such as Waymakers of Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley Kiwanis, Fountain Valley Community Foundations Drive for the building of the Boys and Girls Club Performing Arts Academy. Sheepfold, Long Beach Women Vets, UCI Mobile Eye Clinic, Reading is Fundamental, OC Care Animal Shelter, Fountain Valley Historical Society, Mercy House, Interval House, Thomas House, Bolsa Chica Wetlands Conservancy, Heifer International, Ronald McDonald House, and many more. We may be small, there are only 95 of us, but we are mighty. We are very active in investing in Fountain Valley as we live our pledge, which is to enrich lives, build friendships, and promote loyalty. Working together towards making this community a better place, or in your words, making Fountain Valley a nice place to live. Thank you so much.

Thank you Connie. So before we do that, we just want to make this official. If we could vote and get this item. So I would like to- We do have a request to speak on this item.

We have a request to speak. Dan Stewart? Yes.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Hello again. So I wanted to start off by saying that I respect the police. It's a hard job. I appreciate what they do and I'm not trying to condemn anyone here, but I do trust them, but I need to verify them as well. And that's what our state laws and their own policy is in place for. And in comparing FVPD policy 605 to California AB 481, I see some shortfalls. And so I want to talk about what some of those shortfalls are now and urge the council to vote no until those shortfalls are resolved for this new drone. The first is that AB 481 requires that military equipment like drones has to have a determination that there is no reasonable alternative that can achieve the same objective that the drone is being purchased for. I can't find any such analysis or determination that has been done for this new drone. So I don't think the council should approve it. Secondly, Cal AB 41 requires the use policy to include a description on how the drone operations will protect us from invasion of our civil liberties, specifically warrantless search while operating the drone as guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment Bill of Rights, right? So these drones are operated up to 400 feet. They have powerful optical and thermal cameras, or at least this new one does. which can look into private areas, what are deemed private areas, such as your backyard, even windows of your house. And policy 605 has nothing in it for how to prevent this warrantless viewing from occurring on innocent residences while they are operating them. And so that's another key reason why I feel like council should vote no. Earlier we talked about the report and it was mentioned that the report does say why they were used. And I will say again, I see a report entry for August 3rd of last year where the drone was very near my house. And although it does record where it was, how far it flew, it doesn't say what direction it flew, doesn't say what it was looking at, it doesn't say what its purpose was at all in that report. So I don't feel like the report that I saw that you guys approved details why it was used at all.

Dan, your time's up.

That's a shame, because I've got more. So I would love to talk some more with any of you about this. There are other concerns. Please consider voting no.

I make a motion to move the item.

I'm going to second, then I'll open it for discussion. Thank you. Council Member Billy.

Well, there's one thing that the Valley Women's Club failed to mention. They are the one that has the longest longevity as a non-profit organization in the city, and we're proud of that. I was really careful. I didn't want to say the oldest. That has the longest longevity in their organizations. And second, they have a great event every year. They have a gala. I believe my colleague here, on the last gala day he was playing, he was the FBI agent. But interesting, the prior year, he was the killer.

I reformed.

So for those who have not attended one of the gala, it's fun. I attended a couple of times, except the last one virtually, but it was a lot of fun. So for those who never attend to the event, it's one of the biggest fundraising, so do come out and support them. That's all I have to say.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Please vote.

Item number seven passes 5-0.

Okay, now we can come.

Can I have all police members up as well?

Thank you. Thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you. Oh, no, you hold that. Let me just get behind.

Better get on the steps. Okay.

You might need to scoot in, huh?

Are you ready? Get in there. Okay, I can see everybody.

One, two, three, one more. One, two, three.

Thank you so much, Fat Valley Women's Club.

So they gave me a check. It's a magazine.

It's a magazine.

Good to see you all the time. Thanks for having me.

Thank you.

Thank you. Oh, I can't believe .

Vegas has beaten Carolina four to three in the hockey game.

Let's give about a minute while we pause for the next item.

Okay, next will be public hearings. We're moving to item number eight. Appeal of the planning commission's denial of precise plan number 577 and the conditional use permit number 1929. And the planning commission's recommendation that the city council deny general plan amendment number 23-01 and zoning map amendment number 436. Presentation by our principal planner, Steven Ayers. There he is.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, City Council. Tonight we're going to be looking at Parkside Fountain Valley Project, which is an appeal of the Planning Commission's determination on the project. The project is located on the west side of the city near Warner Avenue and Newland Street on the star on your screen. This is a site plan of the existing site, the existing commercial site. Red outline is the property boundary. The proposed entitlements for this project include a general plan amendment to change the general plan designation from general commercial to high density residential. A zoning map amendment to change the zoning map from commercial, I'm sorry, C1 local business to R4 high density multiple dwelling. a precise plan for the site plan review, and a conditional ease permit to allow multifamily in the R4 zone, in the proposed R4 zone. There was also CEQA done on this project through a mitigated negative declaration. It includes a mitigation monitoring and reporting program. The existing site is a 2.119 acre property that includes an existing 18,000 square foot commercial shopping center constructed in the 1970s. The proposed project includes a three-story, 34 feet tall apartment building with 72 units at just over 76,000 square feet. It includes an 800 square foot one-story clubhouse building, an open space amenity area, 10 deed restricted very low income units, 13.2% density bonus, which would bring the density of the project to 34 dwelling units per acre. And it's comprised of nine studio units, 37 one bedroom units, and 26 two bedroom units. The project includes a U-shaped building fronting on a Warner Avenue. The elevations will incorporate a contemporary design with a mix of texture finishes and colors that will include standing seam roofs and metal canopies. The project will include 107 on-site parking spaces. State density bonus law requires 85, so this is 22 spaces over state density bonus law. Carports will be located along the south property line and will be equipped with rooftop solar panels. Shared access will be provided with the adjacent animal hospital from Warner Avenue. Gated entry to the apartments will be provided at the southwest corner of the project. And emergency access will be provided through an 18 foot tall opening at the northeast corner of the project. The project will provide about just over, well, just under 19,000 square feet of landscaping. It'll provide a 10-foot landscape barrier along the south side of the project. That will include seven 24-inch box trees at the southwest and southeast corners of the project. And the remainder of the south property line will be planted with purple hop seed bush. The project is proposed to be built with 10 deed-restricted, very low-income units. The applicant has requested a density bonus pursuant to the state density bonus law. With that, requested three concessions to our code. The first being a reduction in the minimum required 100-foot rear setback to single-family residential to 37 feet 9 inches at the southeast corner and 73 feet 2 inches to the southwest corner of the project. A reduction in the minimum private open space requirement of 100 square feet with a minimum dimensions of 10 feet to a minimum 65 square feet with a minimum dimension of 7 feet. And to increase the maximum dwelling units per parcel to 1.13 units per 1,452 square feet. Under the California Environmental Quality Act, a mitigated negative declaration was prepared for this project. The MND was published for public review from January 14th to February 13th of this year. Nine comment letters were received that include comments on nearby contaminated sites, traffic, parking, and noise. Responses to those comments are found in Appendix J of the MND and the response to comments document. and it was determined that no comments were deemed significant enough to warrant revisions to the MND. The mitigated negative declaration includes mitigation measures that include mitigation to air quality to address construction emissions reductions, biological resources to address nesting bird avoidance, cultural resources to address unanticipated discovery of cultural resources and artifacts, and geology and soils to address unanticipated fossil discovery. For the city transportation impact assessment guidelines, a traffic impact analysis or a TIA with the level of service analysis is required if the AM or PM peak hour trips exceed 100 vehicle trips. And with this project, it was projected to generate 31 AM and 37 PM peak vehicle trips. A TIA is required for a project that generates 1,600 or more average daily trips. The project is projected to generate 471 daily trips. A TIA is required for projects that generate 51 or more vehicle trips in the AM or PM peak hour to any intersection. This project is projected to provide fewer than 50 peak hour trips to any intersection of two streets designated as collector or higher in the general plan. Because this project doesn't exceed these requirements, a traffic impact study was not warranted. A vehicle miles traveled analysis was also addressed. The project can be screened from a VMT analysis if the project is located within a transit priority area, the project is located within a low VMT area, or if the project qualifies under a project screening type. The project is located within an area below the city average VMT, Therefore, the project satisfies the city established criteria, screening criteria for projects located in a low VMT area and the project's VMT impact will be less than significant. So the Planning Commission held a public hearing and considered the project on March 25th of this year and the Planning Commission voted four to one to return with confirming resolutions memorializing their decision. At the Planning Commission meeting of April 8th, the Planning Commission voted two to one, approving resolutions to recommend denial of the general plan amendment and zoning map amendment, and denying the proposed precise plan and conditional use permit. And then on April 20th of this year, the applicant filed an appeal of the Planning Commission's actions, and that brings us to tonight. Per the Fountain Valley Municipal Code, the council's review of an appeal is de novo, which means a new or a fresh or from the beginning. So the council must independently consider the full record of the project. As I stated before, the project requires a general plan amendment and a zoning map amendment because multifamily is not permitted in a commercial area, and a precise plan and conditional use permit for the site plan layout and use of the multifamily in the proposed R4 zone. The site is designated General Commercial Zone C1 Local Business and is located within an established corridor of commercial uses along Warner Avenue. The general plan land use framework preserves commercial areas to support local serving businesses, employment opportunities, economic development, and long-term fiscal sustainability. The city may consider the limited inventory of commercially designated land in the city and the importance of maintaining commercial corridors when deciding whether to approve an applicant-initiated general plan amendment and zoning map amendment. The city may consider that retaining the site's commercial designation better implements the general plan and the city's long-term land use and fiscal sustainability objectives. So the project, there's three findings that the project fails to meet. The project fails to meet general plan policy land use 1-1, or 1.1. 1.2 and 3.2. Policy 1.1 requires that new development is located, scaled, buffered, and designated to minimize negative impacts on existing conforming uses and adjacent neighborhoods. It requires that new residential developments are located, scaled, buffered, and designed so as to not hinder the economic viability and continuity of areas planned for non-residential uses. Policy LU 1.2 states to consider proposed development that is consistent with the land use plan, i.e. does not require a change in land use designation, to be generally compatible and consistent with surrounding land uses and a community's identity. And policy LU 3.2 states to ensure that all new development is compatible with the scale and character of the surrounding neighborhoods in Fountain Valley. So with that, the project fails to meet general plan policies LU 1.1, 1.2, and 3.2. The proposed land use is incompatible with surrounding development pattern which consists of an established commercial corridor extending from Newland Street past the 405 freeway to Bouchard Street as well as adjacent low density single family residential neighborhoods. The requested general plan amendment and zoning map amendment would represent a significant departure from the city's established corridor of commercial uses along Warner Avenue undermining its intended commercial function. Retention of the existing commercial zoning designation and general commercial land use designation preserves the city's limited commercially designated land inventory and maintains opportunities for local serving commercial uses, employment, economic development, and long-term fiscal sustainability with the city's planning objectives. The current vacancy, current ownership decisions, and the applicant's preferred economic use do not require the city to amend its general plan or zoning map or to permanently convert commercially designated land to residential use. The project scale and architectural character are not compatible with the surrounding neighborhoods, which are predominantly comprised of one-story single-family homes. with limited two story elements to the south and similarly low density residential neighborhoods to the north in the city of Huntington Beach where only a small minority of homes include second story features. So with that, staff's recommendation to city council is to conduct a public hearing. and approve the following two resolutions. A resolution denying general plan amendment number 2301 and denying zoning map amendment number 436. And then a resolution denying the appeal and upholding the denial of precise plan number 577 and conditional use permit number 1929.

And I conclude staff's report. Thank you, Principal Planner Ayers. So the next stage is to ask council members if they have any questions. So we'll open it up for questions.

Actually, I'm just going to ask Katie, if you wouldn't mind turning the flash off on your phone. It's very distracting. I don't think you need that for a video. You didn't mean to have fun. I understand. I understand.

No reasonable request denied.

Thank you. I actually have questions, I think, more for the developer. So I'll wait. Thank you.

Any other questions at this stage from council? No? Yes, Councilman Bowie.

Steve, thank you for the presentation. It was very well thought. I want to ask you, when was the applicant's first application submitted?

I don't have that with me. I believe it was in 2023.

So, 23, so they've been working with the C about three years? Yeah. That's the first application they submit? Okay. And how many of you, because you have said that there was a lot of things that the applicant fell on the, in term of policies, not proper zoning and all that. Was that identified and And as you work with the applicant, were many of those revisions with the applicant made to his comment? So, hey, this project's not going to work. You're in the wrong zoning to begin with. Was that discussion ever brought up?

Yes, we did have those discussions. And they've applied for a general plan amendment and a zoning map amendment, so they know that they need that to get their project approved.

Okay.

All right.

I'm going to leave that for now.

Okay. Any other questions at this stage?

Nope.

Okay.

So next we're going to move into the public hearing. I'm going to go ahead and open the hearing. I just wanted to do a little bit of housekeeping. I'd like to read just for the benefit of The applicant and for all of us here and those watching. So in our current city council policy binder, this is on page 54. I just want to read the three minute time limit generally applying to public speakers. Does not apply to the applicant or other person entity that is the direct subject of an agendized item. Instead, the applicant or other person entity that is the direct subject of an agendized item will have 15 minutes to speak. Said 15 minutes shall include all consultants, agents, and employees of the applicant or other person entity that is the direct subject of an agendized item. Persons wishing for additional time may request the same before the meeting by emailing the city clerk, and the city clerk will forward the request to the parliamentarian. That would be me. I understand the applicant did request additional time to speak. They asked for five minutes. I think in light of the complexity of the project, I'm going to give them at least another five minutes. And so that would be 15 plus 5 plus 5, so 25 minutes for the applicant. And the city clerk will notify the requesting party, which I'm actually doing right now, of any other applicant or personality that is the direct subject of an agenda item of the parliamentary determination. Okay? So at that point, we understand the time limits. I'm now going to invite up the applicant, correct? Applicant, please approach.

Mr. Mayor, if I could, I just want to remind the residents that are here tonight that this is Fountain Valley, and we do things differently in Fountain Valley than other cities do. And that means we show respect to all speakers, including when you guys get up and give your three minutes. So I just ask everybody, please be respectful. There were a couple of comments I could hear from up here earlier during the report, and that's just not appropriate. So thank you.

And I support my colleague, that's part of our house rules in our ordinance as well. So perhaps the next time when we have a heavy subject, we should bring those house rules up. So the public might not be aware of it and just kind of like give them some of our house rules so they understand.

Welcome. You have the floor.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Robert Franklin, and I represent the owner of the commercial center located at 8550 Warner Avenue. And by the way, thank you for the extra time. You're welcome. I'll try to make this brief. Before you is a request to change the land use for the property located at 8550 Warner Avenue from commercial to a residential. and a request to change the zoning designation from local business to R4 high density residential, 30 units to the acre, to allow construction of a 72-unit apartment complex with 10 affordable units. The existing general plan and zoning designations were placed on the property in the late 1960s, and the 18,500 square foot commercial center was constructed in the 1970s. For years, the center was commercially viable with a healthy mix of retail service, office and restaurant uses. In the early 2000s, things began to change. Competition from surrounding big box retailers, the emergence of Internet sales and shifting buying patterns have made it very difficult for small retail businesses to survive. Over the past 20 years, the tenant mix has shifted away from retail sales to service uses such as chiropractors, dentists, martial arts, and such. Currently, the center is 80% vacant with no significant retail uses. After the March Planning Commission meeting on May 24th, We met with the, excuse me, subsequent to the March Planning Commission meeting on May 21st, 2026, we met with the attorney representing the city and the planning director. This was after the planning commission decision. We asked both of them what use would be preferred for the site. We were not given any direction. No direction was provided. Both indicated that it's up to the city council. That's why we're here tonight. The second paragraph of the staff report for the city council states the project site is not identified as a housing element opportunity site or included in the city's housing element sites inventory for meeting the city's 2021-2029 regional housing needs allocation. This is true. My question is, why isn't it? Why wasn't it included? Early on, over 50 properties were considered as potential opportunity sites. Why not this site? The property owner was never notified of the process. In our opinion, the center should have been a prime candidate for an opportunity site based on its low performance. The March 25, 2026 Planning Commission Report asserts the same thing. Since August of 2021, we have been asking this question, and we have yet to receive a definitive answer. Earlier this year, the planning director provided a flash drive with various documents from the GPAC meetings, which do not answer the question. We are still waiting for an answer as to why this site was not considered. With regard to the staff's concern regarding sales tax revenue, that is a concern. We have repeatedly requested the sales tax information for the center, but staff has refused to share the information. Since the planning director expressed a desire to retain commercial sites to maintain sales tax, we decided to review the sales tax revenue from the existing center to the city. In order to explore this question, sales tax revenue to the city, we reviewed the tenant list for the past five years and estimated the sales tax based on retail uses. It is very low. We reached the conclusion that the center has never generated significant sales tax revenue to the city. It has been primarily a service center, not a retail center. Our estimate for annual sales tax revenue to the city for 2025 is less than $1,000. We recognize the need for the city to maintain a robust commercial base as a revenue stream to provide essential services. We also request the city council review proposed changes to commercially zoned properties on a case by case basis. Based on current and future economic trends, as our highest and best use study reinforces, the site doesn't work for retail, office, or restaurant uses anymore. It's a mid-block location with a very inefficient layout. The building is a poor design, low ceilings, precision block walls, a flat wood roof, which is not conducive to a facade renovation. The existing commercial center is basically a worn-out relic from the 1970s. It's a teardown. The owner has maintained the center, but it's time to think about a change. In the staff report and findings, staff has linked the proposed project to the RENA process, which is the Regional Housing Needs Assessment allocation exercise, and opportunity sites. We're not linked to that. That RENA process, the determination of opportunity sites, that concluded in 2023. In 2021, we presented a mixed-use project for small parcels to staff, and it was generally supported by staff. In 2022, we submitted a preliminary development review application. We received a letter of comments from development review staff via staff, dated September 15, 2022. We were also notified in that letter, dated September 15, 2022, staff did not support the mixed-use concept, but indicated we should come and meet and discuss an R4 high-density project. We have it in writing. Okay, so the proposed mixed-use had a higher density, but we determined a mixed-use project with a huge parking garage, basically a wrap, would not be a good fit for the site and surroundings. Plus, construction expense would be too great considering the high water table. It would have required a number of geopiles. It just wouldn't work. We redesigned the project without the commercial component and met with the current plan director and staff. He indicated he did not support the change in land use because it would result in the loss of a commercial site, thus the loss of sales tax. We went back and discussed. We commissioned the highest and best use study in 2023, which is included in the staff report. It concludes the location of the site, the shift in economic patterns, the competition from surrounding commercial uses have and will have a detrimental impact to the viability of the center. With regard to compatibility, it is a basic planning practice to locate higher density residential uses along the arterial streets with lower density residential uses located further away from the arterial streets. We feel the proposed residential project incorporates site planning and design features that minimize impacts to existing surrounding land uses. The renovation for the veterinarian use adjacent to the community center which is currently under construction is 30 feet high with a rear setback of 39 feet away from existing single family residential. This is similar to the rear setback for the proposed project at the closest point. There are numerous examples of multi-family residential uses adjacent to single family residential in the city. In closing, it is our estimate the city currently receives approximately 9,000 a year from property taxes. If the proposed project is approved, the estimated assessed value would be in the neighborhood of 35 million, which would result in an increase of approximately 44,000 in property taxes for the life of the project, and this would be escalating over time. This represents a significant long-term increase in revenue to the city. This is an alternative to the sales tax. In conclusion, to keep things simple, we are proposing to change an obsolete out of date general plan zoning designation from the 1960s. And we are proposing to replace a worn out, poorly designed, low performing commercial center with a 72 unit residential apartment complex. We have thoroughly reviewed the staff report for you tonight, and we stand by our appeal letter dated April 15, 2026. We ask you for your support and recommend approving alternative two in the staff report, which is supporting the project and the general plan amendment and so on change. We're available to answer any questions you may have. Our economic consultant is here to give a brief summary of the highest and best use study. Our project architect is here to provide a brief overview of the proposed apartment complex, and our attorney is here to speak also. And I would like to point out, I'm pretty sure you probably received these, but we received a letter of support from the Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce, signed by the president. We have received a letter from the building industry of Southern California, Orange County chapter, in support of our project. And we've also received a letter in support from People for Housing, which are housing advocates. They're active throughout Orange County. They support this project, too. So with that, that concludes my staff report. I mean, excuse me, my... My report, sorry. I used to be a planner. Welcome.

Welcome. Let me ask the clerk real quickly, before I start my time, how do I make the slideshow go forward?

You can just use the up and down arrow keys on the... Okay, got it. Perfect.

My name is Linda Congleton. For the last 40 years, I've had my own company. I do highest and best use studies. What we focus on are retail and commercial mixed use studies, including residential. I will start out by saying that your situation is not unusual. I cannot tell you how many cities we've worked on that have sites with poor or struggling retail that have to face the fact that it needs to be rezoned to some other use to survive. The first thing I'm going to discuss here is the current land use is outdated and unrealistic given current and future market conditions. The first reason is competition. Since 2008, This portal location, which I will remind you is only 18,000 square feet, it's only two acres, has been hit with ten new anchor stores. And each one of these centers is at least twice the size, if not three and four times the size of our portal center that's only 18,000 square feet. So what has happened since 2008 is increasingly major anchor stores like the Spouts, the Coscos, the Whole Foods, the Trader Joe's, the Aldi's, the Grocery Outlet, the Spouts, have all come into this market and frankly has killed off the potential for this center. And you say, well, wait a minute, what do anchor stores have to do with small shops? Put it this way, if an anchor store relocates to any of these locations that I have up on the screen, it is a much stronger location for small retailers to locate that are selling goods and services that generate retail sales. So it is nobody's fault, it's not the developer, it's not the owner's fault, it's not the city's fault. It doesn't matter what you zone it, the competition has killed off the opportunity for this little site to successfully compete. The second reason that this site needs to be rezoned is it was structurally weak to begin with. When you didn't have as much competition, it could survive. And you say, what do you mean it's structurally weak? Well, it's not large enough to have an anchor store like a Sprouts or an Aldi or Whole Foods or any of those. So you can't put one on there. The other reason is it doesn't have any major arterials. It's a tweener location, so it has bad access. Even major restaurants today want to be able to have a left hand turn into locations. The site is just severely structurally weak. And so, in the old days, when you didn't have as much competition, it could sort of compete. But today, with the competition being so severe, it cannot. And by the way, these conclusions correlate to your own city's study that was done by Placeworks in 2019 that said there was, on page one, this was an update study to your general plan on page one. That there was little new retail demand in the city and that the city should be looking at new alternative uses for old centers that can no longer thrive. The third reason for rezoning. the land use has to do with the fact that there's been a statement that you need this location for current commercial. I would pose to you that that is not true at all. On Brookhurst, there are a lot of inferior locations on Brookhurst within shopping centers that are not generating much in retail sales that have recently been regenerated. I could list two examples in just the last year alone. The K Concepts has put a new restaurant into what was a bouncy club on Brookhurst, it's called Quah. And the other one is the K Coffee Concepts. Both of those were in old retail uses. that weren't bringing a lot of retail sales into the city. You have quite a bit of that retail already in the city. We call that revitalization. Taking old service use locations, and by the way, Brookers is a far, far stronger location for new restaurants as been proven by the number of K-Concepts restaurants that are already located there. So for these three major reasons alone, it doesn't matter what you zone it, it is not going to survive under anybody. If you had sold it to somebody else, it will not survive. The only way of giving this site a viable use is to rezone it for something that your own place work study highly recommended, and that was housing. This is only a 72 unit project that could add to your affordable housing component. That is badly needed in the city. It is very compatible to have apartments adjacent to single family residential. You see it all over Orange County. The quality of the housing is very high. It is actually quite a low density project. It's only three levels. It's not a massive five level kind of project. So we highly recommend that you consider this. If you do not, the site is going to, it doesn't matter, just by zoning something does not make it happen. I cannot tell you how many times I've been involved with clients that zoned it for a major shopping center and 20 years later, the shopping center still has never been built. Unless you have economic demand, you can't make things happen just by zoning it. So I would highly urge you to consider the use. It's a highly attractive residential use. If you'd like, I can also answer the questions. We also looked at office space, medical uses, every single commercial use that could possibly go on this site. As we all know, the office market, due to remote working and other reasons, just has no potential on this site as well. So any questions for now for us?

I just wanted to clarify, you had multiple slides. Did you want to present? Do you want to go through them? You still have about eight minutes.

Thank you very much.

Just to let you know you've got that ability.

Well, we have two more speakers.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

All right, thank you.

Hard to follow that speech, hold on a second.

Do you want the other PowerPoint? Yeah, I think so.

Okay. That one, thank you. My name is Seraphin Moran and partner at AO Architects. Good evening. I'm here to talk about the project from an architectural point of view. The site is highly desirable location within a quarter mile and half a mile radius. By the two arcs, the two circles that you see, it provides convenient access to nearly 70 acres of existing commercial development. It is also within close proximity to the 405 freeway and located along Warner Avenue, a major arterial road. Additionally, the site is adjacent to Westmont Park, which offers approximately ten acres of contiguous park space to the east. A closer look at the site highlights its strong accessibility. It is well connected to the city's pedestrian network, as you can see, with a bus stop directly in front of it and also to the kitty corner to it. The project is designed to be highly accessible with multiple entry points and direct connections to the amenity areas. It also benefits from its adjacency to the West One Park again, which includes approximately 1.73 acres within its immediate adjacency. The project exceeds most zoning and development standards, including front and side yard setbacks, building separation, landscaping, minimum floor area, and parking requirements. Notably, the site coverage is below the maximum allowed, with 33% proposed compared to the 40% allowed or permitted. From a density perspective, the state density bonus allows up to 94 units, a 50% increase. The project only proposes 72 units consisting of 63 base units and nine density bonus units. The unit mix includes nine studios, 37 one bedrooms and 26 two bedroom units. Additionally, the project does provide 10 very low income units in compliance with the City of Fountain Valley's housing ordinance. I'm not going to bore you with all of the details here. I just want to show you some of the market rate units that we're proposing, state-of-the-art, well-lit open space planning. The amenities as well are also well appointed in its interior detailing. The project incorporates a range of sustainable features, including solar panels on the carports, bicycle storage and repair areas, EV charging stations, high efficiency heat pumps, tankless electric water heaters, and 100% electric alliances, resulting in a no on-site CO2 emission. Landscape is quite colorful and also drought tolerant. This is the comparison between what's existing now and what we are proposing. The project responds to current market demands and demographics. Existing 1970s era development is underperforming and does not represent the highest and best use of the site. This proposal introduces high quality market rate housing that will significantly enhance the neighborhood. The architecture design is contemporary, featuring a combination of flat and sloped roofs, varied wall planes, and a palette of earth tone materials. These elements create a dynamic and visually engaging appearance with consistent design carried throughout the project. I'm just going to flip through this. In summary, the project does offer a well-designed, thoughtfully planned residential community that enhances the site's value, integrates with its surroundings, and provides meaningful benefits through quality housing, sustainability, and strong connectivity. Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome. Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is Jason Moberly Caruso, attorney with Neumeier Dillion, attorney for the ownership. We submit that our client's appeal should be granted and the project approved for all of the arguments that are set forth in our appeal, which we won't repeat here. We just wanted to note from a legal perspective, while the city has the discretion to a certain extent to deny our client's request for a zone change and general plan amendment, that discretion is not unlimited. In litigation, which is what I would be tasked with if this project is not approved, the question will be whether the record supports the decision to deny the request before the council tonight, and we would submit that here it does not. Our client has not just been denied a development opportunity, an opportunity to profit. Rather, our client has been denied any productive economic use of the site as established here by our client's highest and best use consultant whose analysis is unrebutted in the record. In light of the foregoing, if this project is not approved, our client's only option is to consider litigation to overturn that decision and to compel approval of the project. In reviewing staff's report, the suggestion that the state's Housing Accountability Act does not necessarily compel approval of the project is simply incorrect. As staff and the city attorney have likely explained to the council in other contexts, the project's inconsistency with zoning and the general plan is irrelevant if the city's housing element itself is not in compliance with state law. We've reviewed the city's housing element, and in our review of it, it relies heavily on occupied sites that are occupied with existing non-residential uses. Again, as the city attorney has probably explained to the council in other contexts, it is only proper to rely on such sites in that inventory if there is a reasonable likelihood that those uses will be discontinued during the current planning period. which is from 2021 to 2029. And we've identified various sites that have been included in the inventory that clearly fail that test, as they are fully occupied with commercial properties, which unlike our clients' use, are fully occupied and have no indication of any cessation in the use at any time in the future. And if these properties were inappropriately included in the housing element, as we submit that they were, then arguably the city's housing element is not in compliance with state law. And approval of our client's project would in fact be mandatory under the Housing Accountability Act under the so-called builder's remedy. So should our client prevail on that argument, we would submit that would be immensely problematic for the city as it would pave the way for others to assert the same arguments and could in fact result in the city's housing element being formally decertified by the state. So in sum, our client has worked with the city for years. Councilman Bowie asked, I think, a great question. Our client has been working with planning since 2023 to present a use for this site that makes sense, that works for the city, that works for our client, and that works for future residents of the property. And we've proposed a common sense redevelopment proposal for the site. And we have come back to the city with a high-density residential project along these lines, only to have encountered resistance with staff and then a denial before the Planning Commission. And we come before the City Council to respectfully ask for reconsideration of that decision. And so, in summary, this project makes sense for the city. makes sense for the community and again we submit it's the right decision and would appreciate the City Council's support of the project this evening unless there are any questions that'll conclude the presentation and thanks so much for the time okay thank you to the applicant we're now get open for general public comments are there any requests to speak yeah we have a few requests to speak first up is Carl

My voice is a little scratchy because I went through radiation. I'm wondering why you put us on this agenda tonight. I mean, you're hoping everybody to leave? I'm just wondering. I mean, he took all those pictures. I mean, it's past 8 o'clock, you know. And then this guy, he's not on the list for mandatory low income. So if you let him have low income, we're going to pay for it. If you look at all the incentives, and I know you know all the incentives. He can get millions of dollars in grants if you allow that. So why would you give this guy that? And then, you know, low income. You know, when I was young, I lived in Hawaiian Gardens, Long Beach, Anaheim, all low income. Had a lot of nice people, low income, but it also had gang bangers, drug dealers, drug addicts, thieves breaking into apartments. The apartment I was in, 25 break-ins in 21 days. I mean, you're going to bring that to our neighborhood? I've lived there 38 years, never had a problem. And you want to put this right up against some of these people's walls? A three-story building looking into their backyards? Why would you do that? I mean, I know this is an appeal. You guys haven't approved it, so I'm not blaming you. But I just don't understand why it got this far. And I know the only option is, if you vote for it, is an appeal. That or if we find corruption. Because I know you can stop it if you find corruption. But, I mean, it's unbelievable that we have to go through this. And that over at Boomers, I mean, you realize how much traffic there's going to be? They got 980 people. parking spots I Just don't understand what's happening. And why why did you guys not wait until you got till? 2029 to make that decision for the for both those decisions you made and And and you made it now why The new governor is coming in a whole new administration and That mandatory is Gavin Newsom's thing. You're going to ruin the city. Your job was supposed to help us. You know, we asked, you know, the only reason there's this many people is because we sent out the message. Oh, your time is up. Oh, I knew you were going to cut me off right at three minutes. And you already heard all these same people.

Carl, your time's up. Arrest me. Richard Steumann.

And if we could ask the public commenters to say their first, last name and their address, please.

No.

No. No. I can't hear the name, that's all. I'm just trying to write that. Richard Steumann. Okay. Sorry.

I'm Richard Steumann, long-time resident. I live five doors away from this atrocity that you're about to put on us. This is going to be a nightmare. I am already living next to an Airbnb. Five doors down is another vacationrental.com. Ten cars apiece. Two ADU units on my 13th Street cul-de-sac, now 15. Ten cars apiece. We have no parking left. Guess what's going to happen? Guess what's going to happen to all of us? 1972, my mom was president of the Woman's Club. I've been here since I was seven months old. I'm now 60. I was flying kites in the strawberry field of this building. When this building got built, it was a dairy instead of a coffee shop, and the animal hospital was there. As soon as 1973 this got built, it got busy. 1974, they put up a chain link fence. Cement post. They have no permission to go through to Newland for the ingress and egress through that coffee shop. And they're going to cut it off again because the owner doesn't want this. These guys are giving you snake oil and a song and dance show and it's going to be a nightmare for all of us. 107 parking spots, 26 garages. Guess what's going to happen to those garages? Drug bins, storage units, couches, people living inside them. Now we're down to 81 parking spots. Minus six for handicapped and guests. Now we're down to 75 parking spots for 72 units. How many of you share a car with somebody? Your husband and wife have a car, boyfriend, girlfriend, friends and neighbors, where are they all going to park? Neighborhood across the street, behind 7-Eleven, that poor retail business is this way, and my entire neighborhood. We're going to be bombarded with 210 cars on a daily basis. You guys have 140 parking spots just for the library. I just got done counting them, not including all this. These guys need to put a parking structure under this. I'm getting to a point, there's four things we could do to this right now. Talbert and Newland, you turned around and put 30 small houses there for first time home buyers, three driveways. By the way, this does have a left turn access, it has three driveways to it. Next, you could put a parking structure under this thing with a traffic light right there. They don't want to spend the damn money. Excuse my language. Fourth, you could do smart and final. Put a nursing home right there, a nice garden to the south, and parking in the front wouldn't even impact us. Or why don't you do what you did to my 85-year-old mother when she was dying? Send her letters to paint her house while she's in cancer and dementia. This guy hasn't painted, done anything for 35 years, Mr. Moore.

Meenu Salimi. Welcome.

Good evening all. For almost 20 years, I am a citizen of the Phantom Valley, a nice city. not becoming commercial hub for the money mongers, for builders. Our skinny, we have some problems already. Your fire chief stated they have lots of calls they cannot cover. They have to use other cities' EMS. And you want to add these people that working as a ship, but they are wolves. They are worried about our money, about the income of the city, really? No, they are not. They are looking for big money. They are corporate. This gentleman is a lawyer for corporate and comes in here in front of everybody throughout the city for lawsuit. It's a shame to bend for this kind of people. You bring in gangs because you're Police is going to stretch. They cannot commute. They cannot talk because they are busy. The crime rate for last 20 years is increased for city of Fountain Valley. And the amount of the police officer is not increased accordingly. There's statistics. The people can read like me. And we are taking you guys as a servant of the city, responsible and accountable for any decision you make. Why do I have to know after two years you had a settlement with the public money for the fraction? Who gave you this right? Was? No. I check your site. There's no settlement things on that for two years. Hazardous material, all life. Close to that vicinity, there is one big high-voltage towers. You're going to put that people over there to expose to the brain cancer? Really, you guys? And this lady coming and telling you this one, that one, and Trader Joe's. Our job is taking care of moms and pops also, not the big money retailers. You want to use that city as a commercial? Use for city. Use for the senior centers. Use for something. But these people are worried about your income as a tax sales, really? Wolf's crying for the ships? What's going on? That's a joke. In other words, my time is coming up. I'm saying that you're going to stretch the power of the fire, police department, increasing this traffic. And we confirm the commissioner denial, your people. And then you're going to put the three stories on the- Minu, your time is up. So sorry, too bad that you have to listen to this.

Timo Boyle.

Welcome. Good evening. And by the way, this is my wife, Nancy O'Boyle. We live at 17061 Ross Street, Fountain Valley. We've lived there for over 32 years. And we chose this city because of its layout and the density of the housing that we had and what we wanted to live. Since we moved here the last couple years, the Boomers Project has been put in there for 657 units, a seven-story structure that's going to now obscure our views of the city, around the city. Across the street from here, you've got 400 units going in, and this park side is another 72 units. We're adding over 1,000 units within one and a half miles of my home. And I think that's a lot, and I don't see the push or the shove on this, why we have to jump through the hoops to get this all done and in. It's affected everything. This is going to affect everybody's quality of life. The parking on this is going to be obscene. There's no, for the 73 units, 72 units, you could probably need 140 parking spaces because nobody has one car. as the gentleman pointed out before. You need at least two cars per unit, and that's even a little bit on the low side, but wouldn't create too much of an overflow. But the structure's never put in any money into it, into this site. Since I've lived there, they haven't done it. One dime of improving what the facade looks like, as many other places have done, and you can see the increase in activity that's done there. The customers, their own They bought a site or built a site there, which this gentleman claims has stone block walls and a flat roof. Well, they built it. Now they're complaining about their build. And if they didn't build it and they bought it, they bought it. And that's their problem, not ours. I have a minute.

Okay. This is my first time here, so am I allowed to ask questions? No. Okay. That's too bad.

You can ask a question. Why don't you ask the question?

So there's other, the VMT that was discussed, there's other ways, better, newer ways to do that particular type of measurement. It's VMT per capita, and there's a VMT efficiency that I think would be a better data to understand what it would cause to the, sorry, the traffic there. The other is the TPA. What is the TPA? You know, I lived there for a long time. I don't know what that priority, transportation priority area is. I thought it was behind, like, Bella Terra, where all those buses go. I have a, you know, the 72 runs on Warner. Is that a TPA? I don't know. So those, I'm a data person from my background. So those are just some of the questions I'd like to have answers to. Thank you.

Anna Katsuki.

Welcome.

Okay, I'm Anna Katsuki, 9886 Petunia Avenue in Fountain Valley. I'm here tonight to speak in opposition to agenda item number eight, and specifically the requested zoning and land use change associated with this project. My concern is not simply about one building or one developer. My concern is about the larger issue of changing established zoning and what that means for the future of Fountain Valley. Zoning exists for a reason, it creates a long term plan for how a city grows and develops. Residents, homeowners, and businesses rely on that planning when making decisions about where to live, invest, and raise their families. There is an expectation that development in an area will generally be consistent with the intended use of that land. When zoning changes are approved for individual projects, it can create a precedent that extends beyond a single property. Residents begin to question whether the long term planning process is still guiding developmental decisions or whether project by project exceptions become the new standard. I understand that cities face pressures related to housing needs and state requirements, and I understand growth will happen. However, growth should be carefully planned and balanced with infrastructure, traffic conditions, community character, and the quality of life of existing residents. The Warner New Lynch area already experiences significant traffic activity and daily congestion. Residents are concerned about the ability of roads and surrounding infrastructure to accommodate additional density. Parking, circulation, and impacts on nearby neighborhoods should not be treated as secondary concerns. My concern is that once a zoning change is approved, the consequences become long term and difficult to reverse. Decisions made tonight may affect future development patterns across the city. I ask the council to consider not only whether this project can be built, but whether changing the zoning designation for this property is in the best long term interest of Fountain Valley and its residents. For this reasons, I respectfully ask for you to deny agenda item number eight and deny the requested zoning change. Another issue is the 405 freeway, have you been on that at any time? Where are all these cars going to go? Where's about the water usage, the fire department, the police department? And to say that one or two people are going to live in each one of these residences is not going to happen. They will have three or four people because some people want to save money. I'm just sad what's happening to Fountain Valley. If I knew then when I bought my house in 93 today, I no doubt would not have moved to Fountain Valley, I'm sad to say. And I'm very involved, but I hope you will reconsider.

Anna, your time's up.

Thank you.

Mark Mitchell?

Welcome. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I've lived in Fountain Valley for 57 years, on or off. My whole family moved here in 69. And I asked my father back in the 70s if I could move upstairs, the bonus room. We live at El Rancho and Santa Rita, right behind where this monstrosity wants to get put in. And so he let me go up there. Every night, Disneyland fireworks would go off. I could hear them. I could see them. And since the years the trees have grown up and what I don't want to look out this window and see is a three story apartment complex behind my neighbor's house, which doesn't belong there. The planning commission denied it. I would hope that you city council folks would see the same. I know we're getting pressure from the attorney and That's just the way these snakes are. So one more thing, I had two young ladies come by the house Sunday night, and they were church going ladies. And they asked me if I went to church, and I said occasionally I do. And I said, well, before they left, they gave me a picture of the Lord Savior Jesus Christ. And I said, would you say a prayer for me and for the city council to make the right decision on this rezoning? And they said they would, and I appreciate that. Thank you and God bless.

Dan Stewart.

Welcome. It's me again. Dan Stewart. I live on Santa Isabel Street, just down from this project. And I find it interesting to hear one of the developers talk about how The access isn't sufficient for business. And then another one stands up and says there's great access for housing. It seems like it's a conflict of interest to me. And I really don't appreciate the not-so-veiled threat from the attorney on legal action either. And I think that kind of speaks to maybe looking closer at some of the other numbers that they have submitted to you to make sure that they really are up to snuff. Specifically, I heard that traffic impact screening was done and it found that there wasn't a traffic problem. As someone who makes a right turn out of Ross Street onto Warner just down from where this will be, I will tell you that there is a traffic problem today. It got worse when the 405 construction completed. It's going to get worse when half a mile away the Boomer project is completed. It's going to back up into this area. And then if you have this development as well, I don't think that that traffic impact screening considered what was coming. I could be wrong there, but I would appreciate if someone would get second eyes on that because I am already seeing the impacts from the 405 construction, and it's just going to get worse from here. And that's all I had to say. Thank you.

On Zoom, Cass Glythero. We hear you.

Okay. Sorry, I'm trying to get my comments. Okay. Hello, my name is Cass Clitheroe. I am a former resident of Fountain Valley and the son of Kerry Clitheroe, a respected former principal of Valley Vista High School. While my mom passed in 2022 to pancreatic cancer, I know she was deeply invested in seeing successful futures for her students. This included her commitment to keeping teen mothers in schools and connecting students to potential resources for finding employment that would be fulfilling, sustainable, and lead to financial independence. Though I and my father, her husband of 35 years until her death, and caretaker during her final days, have felt the need to move in part due to financial concerns, I still feel connected to the community in which I grew up, which is Fountain Valley. I know that my mother would advocate for the need for affordable housing, not only to ensure that I could live securely in a community that our family called home for my entire childhood, but also to ensure that her students who sought financial, emotional, and physical independence after graduating could continue to live securely in the community their families call home to. In her absence, I feel the need to advocate for affordable housing because I know how much the opportunity to gain independence meant to my mother, how much it means to me, and how much affordable housing can make that possible and sustainable. I also know how much her students' futures meant to her and how much affordable housing could mean to them. And I urge you to consider that as you reach your decision and approve the project. We need this affordable housing for their futures and for Fountain Valleys. Thank you.

Larry Hadley.

Welcome. Hi, good evening, Mayor, members of the council. My name is Larry Hadley, and I live at 8591 El Rancho Avenue. My home directly backs to the shopping center property where the Parkside project is proposed. I understand that growth and development are an essential part of every city's future. But I'm here tonight because I believe this project can have significant impacts on the safety, traffic, and quality of life of the residents who already live in this area. My biggest concern is public safety. Our neighborhood is home to many seniors who walk early in the morning and to many children who walk or ride their bikes to Demura Elementary. The proposed apartments can bring dozens of additional vehicle trips into an area that's already heavily traveled. Increased traffic means increased risk, especially to children, seniors, and the main residents who use the greenbelt for exercise and recreation. The crossings along El Rancho Avenue are already busy, and pedestrians frequently move between sections of the Greenville. Adding more traffic to these streets can make those crossings more dangerous. I'm also concerned about parking and traffic congestion. We already experienced overflow parking from nearby office buildings with vehicles frequently parking on Ross Street and surrounding residential streets. Not for me. The proposed project offers a total of only 107 parking spaces for 72 living units. Adding a large apartment complex will only increase that pressure and create additional congestion in our neighborhood. My second major concern is access to the project. The proposed Newland entrance relies on vehicles traveling through adjacent commercial properties. In the past, one of these properties was blocked with chains and barriers preventing through access. If that were to happen again, residents of this project could lose a major access point and be forced to rely primarily on Warner Avenue. Even today, the access near the veterinary building narrows to a point where only one vehicle can comfortably pass through at a time. Cars entering and exiting simultaneously would struggle to navigate the area, and delivery vehicles could block the route altogether. I do not believe the entrance is adequate for a development of this size. Finally, I ask the Council consider the cumulative impact of both the Parkside project and the proposed Boomers redevelopment. Together, these projects will place significant additional traffic on Warner Avenue, which the gentleman from AO Architects identified as a major arterial road, Magnolia Avenue, Newland Street, and the already congested 405 freeway entrances. With an awareness of both of these proposed projects and the proximity to one another, it's curious why a traffic impact study was not warranted. I respectfully ask you to put the safety of our residents, especially our children and seniors, first. Please carefully consider whether this project is truly compatible with the surrounding neighborhood and whether the traffic and access concerns have been adequately addressed. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Cheryl Brothers.

Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor and council members. I feel like I'm walking into the lion's den after all that. I've been on the general plan committee. I was on the first one and the second one. And during all that time, the question was, where are we going to put all these housing numbers that we're required to make space for? The current properties that were included in the housing element have already had their zone changed by the city council. And the, I'm trying to keep track of my notes here. During the time that this project has presented itself to the city, they've struggled with three executive management changes during that time. Each change came with a different point of view, which required substantial changes to the project, which was complied with. The Planning Commission had questions regarding traffic and there were no answers. And the traffic study was a little lackluster. The findings that were presented from the Planning Commission did not come from the Planning Commission. They were generated primarily by staff and I would like the surrounding residents to understand that if this stays commercial and managed by a new owner, by right they can build four stories. So need to think about that. This project will benefit the city. by providing needed housing and needed low income housing. And it will benefit existing and new residents who are looking for exactly what's being proposed. I hope you consider that as you consider this appeal. Thank you.

On Zoom we have Jackson Wrigley. Welcome. Can you hear me? All right. Yes. Excellent.

Good evening. Mayor and members of the city council. My name is Jackson Wrigley and I've been a long time resident of this community. I went to elementary school and middle school in the area, similar to a lot of the young leaders that we saw come through tonight. And I'd like you to think about those young individuals as you deliberate on what to do with this housing project. This city helped shape me. I grew up here and most recently lived at 1041 Slater. I eventually had to leave, and I'm asking you to not make that the only option for the next generation. I'm here tonight to ask for you to approve the Parkside development and respectfully push back on the recommendation to deny it. We're in a housing crisis. That's not an opinion. It's a documented reality. Orange County is one of the lowest vacancy rates in the state, and cities like Fountain Valley are under increasing pressure, legally and morally, to contribute solutions. Denying 72 units of housing on an underutilized commercial site doesn't protect this community. It delays the inevitable while real people pay the price. And I want to talk about those people and who they are today. They're the kids I grew up with here. We went to the same schools, played the same sports, sat at the same parks. And now they can't find anywhere to live that's within reach. They're the teachers, the nurses, the service workers who keep this city running but can't afford to live in it. Every time a project like this gets denied, we're sending a message to those people and myself. You're welcome here to work, but not to stay. 72 units is not a dramatic transformation of this neighborhood. It's a three story building on 2.1 acres. It fits within the scale of what's already here. The site is on Warner Avenue, a commercial quarter. It's not tucked into some residential street. This is exactly the kind of location where infill housing is designed for. I'd ask the council to consider, what is the cost of doing nothing? What does it say to the next generation of residents, those young people you saw walk through the doors today? People who have ties to this city, when we consistently choose the status quo over the ability to stay. Again, I grew up here, I believe in this community, and I believe this community is big enough and strong enough to absorb 72 apartments and be better for it. Please approve this project, support the appeal, give the people who love this city a place to live in it. Thank you.

Perry Clithero.

Welcome.

Good evening, City Council. Thank you for having me here tonight. I'm here tonight to ask you to allow 72 apartment homes to be built on Warner Avenue. I began advocating for housing while studying economics at Concordia University. And as I was doing so, I began to realize and notice how much my friends, family, and coworkers struggled to afford good housing here in California. I wondered why, and my research showed one conclusion, one cause was more significant than any other. City councils across California made too many reasonable housing projects illegal. This was done a long, long time ago. This wasn't anyone's fault. They couldn't have possibly had the foresight to see how economic trends would develop over the course of several generations. The market for housing that local governments have designed has resulted today in something resembling a sick game of musical chairs, where households outbid one another for a limited pool of homes. I have met and talked to seniors who spend two thirds of their social security income paying rent. When I worked at our Albertsons on Brookhurst for a couple of years, I had several co-workers who were homeless here in Fountain Valley working at our Albertsons, preparing our food, putting it on our shelves. Good homes have become an unaffordable luxury in Orange County. People have to choose between paying very high rents, living in run down or crowded places, commuting from Riverside, or giving up on California altogether. Kids who grow up in Fountain Valley who don't inherit a home are going to have to make those choices too. As you consider this project, I urge you to consider more than just the fear of a handful of neighbors, counted about 35 to 40 of them. These homes will have a minor impact on the quality of their life. Hell, once you spend the impact fees on the property taxes, I like to think their lives will improve. Meanwhile, these homes will make a huge difference in the lives of 72 people. 72 people who will be residents, seniors, grocery store clerks, nurses, teachers, police officers, firefighters, and every other job you can imagine. The only thing these home builders are asking from you is permission. They aren't asking for anything else. They're asking for permission. They're offering to create jobs, to build homes, and to pay a heck of a lot more in taxes than the current use will. That's a great deal for the people of Fountain Valley. Let them build these homes. Thank you for your time and for your public service.

Katie Wright.

Welcome.

Thank you mayors all, especially the current one. The gentleman that just spoke, he's commenting that he does live in Huntington Beach. We're getting calls and people speaking from wherever they are speaking from. Not everyone is a Fountain Valley resident. I will remind you all, you don't have the right to ask for addresses. People choose to give it, that's great. People want to give it, that's great. First Amendment, they don't have to. Just saying. I spoke a lot during one of the planning commission meetings. I was actually quite rude to the lady. I can't think of her name because I didn't write it down quick enough. I apologize for calling you by the wrong name. I refer to her as the name of a restaurant chain that she was discussing. Speaking of which, I still don't like the way she comes up here and presents her argument. Her argument is that there's no use trying. It's never going to work. Nobody's going to want to do it. Left turn lane, yeah, you can do a left turn lane. The idea that there's no restaurant that would fit there, the idea that this is the only thing that'll work here, I did not agree with the traffic study. One thing it doesn't take into account in my opinion, I haven't done my research admittedly, but I live on a cul-de-sac and we get easily six to 10 Amazon or similar deliveries. Every day, UPS, FedEx, they're not even counting. 72 units getting multiple times a day deliveries. of people driving in and out, driving in and out, driving in and out, and they are under the time crunch. They even had a problem years ago. One of their drivers in Sacramento did something obscene in the street because they couldn't get to a bathroom, just saying. They are under a time crunch. They will be in a hurry. It's not suitable, that driving in and out. It's narrow. I don't like it. I have always taken my vets to that vet. I don't think I can deal with that kind of traffic. What I would suggest, rather than being angry and saying, I don't like this person said this, I don't like that person said that. Something to keep in mind, we're talking about commercial, we're talking about restaurants, I'm not kidding. It occurred to me, I would be remiss if I didn't mention, please get a hold of a Mr. Oded Mazor. He owns a business, their lease has just been revoked from them. They've been in business 50 years in Irvine, across from John Wayne Airport, Gullivers. You want to talk foodie town? You want to talk a renowned, beloved restaurant? And he was just quoted as saying in the paper, I can barely reach it. He says he's going to have to take some time off, but he's very much interested in looking for a new place to open up Gulliver's again. Say that you can't get all these anchor places to come in. This is a one of a kind specialty place. And you say, it's no good, you can't get there. But then when you're talking about- Katie, your time is up. How great it is. It's right off the 405 for these apartments. Katie. It's right off the 405 for that. Thank you.

Thank you. Pilar. Pilar Meisel. That is correct. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. My name is Pilar Meisel and I am a resident in the area. I live in Huntington Beach. I live on Glasgow Circle. I thank you for letting me speak today. I'm speaking tonight to strongly urge you to deny the appeal. We are a group of homes on a cul-de-sac. The traffic, I think, is the biggest impact for us over across the way. We are the first street east of Newland. Getting in and out of there right now has been incredibly difficult since the 405 has been changed. When they redid the on ramps for the 405, they took away, we stopped two lanes to get on the 405, now we have one. Traffic has been impacted greatly since that change has happened. I have been a customer of the center for 24 years. I've lived across the street from the center. I go to the nail salon, I used to go to the hair salon. I will say that that center, they have not been making improvements to it. The most recent restaurant that went in there, I doubt they give them any money for TI in order to build that place out and make an investment into their tenants. My hairdresser that was in the shopping center that was a hairdresser for a long time, he left. And he said because the center's just old and dirty. There's homeless people there now. Currently, the nail salon has had their windows knocked out. They've never fixed it. The landlord hasn't done anything to make them fix it. It's becoming a blight. And I think that how can you ever attract a business that wants to attract customers to go into a center that they don't take care of? I strongly, it's an outsized project for this community. I think it will impact all residents that are in the immediate area very badly. It'll have a horrible negative impact upon them. And I urge you to take that into consideration on this appeal. I think that as well, that rather than having the developers and the owner of the center kind of listen to what everybody's saying that people live right around there and taking their taking their thoughts and feelings and their quality of life into consideration and looking into something that would be fit to the fit into the community and be a better neighbor within the community they're threatening lawsuits you know Tactics like that, that's not a good neighbor in our opinion. They haven't been a good neighbor right now by the way they're taking care of the center. And I would like to have a good neighbor come into the center, whether that's a residential project that actually fits into the existing feel of the community in the area, or something commercial that I can go back and be proud to frequent on a regular basis. And that's all I have to say, thank you.

Yeah.

Rick Caruso?

Boy.

Welcome. Hi, so I'm Rick Caruso. I live on Redwood by the old Moyola School that had turned into a bunch of housing development, high density condo houses is what I call it. I'm a real estate broker for over 50 years and have outsold everybody that I know of in real estate, commercial, land, hundreds of parcels of land, even with a gold mine on it, one piece of land. I've sold a lot of homes in this area. I live in Fountain Valley. And I love Fountain Valley. When you enter the Fountain Valley, it says a nice place to live. So my high concern is with you council members as well as the planning commission that you appoint on that commission. Have come up with projects that are like the Highland Euclid project, a seven story building. that is multi-use, high density, when there's no street parking on Euclid on Saturdays and Sundays. It's the wrong parcel, the wrong development for that parcel. And I'll just give you one clue. You do a seven story building when it's homes, SFRs, all the way around it, and you do a seven story building, those people that are on the north side of that will never see the sun again, and that will diminish the value of their home. When I go to sell it, you're going to look in the backyard and you're going to go, I'm not going to buy this thing. I don't want to be next to that thing. So there's a lot of room for lawsuits in that area of over developing and changing the dynamics of somebody's current life the way it is. And it is a nice place to live, and I've been here since Fountain Valley Drive-In was there. I used to try to take every girl I could get into the, I had a van and I tried to get every girl I could into my van to go see a movie. And I think some of these ladies here probably, I tried anyway, but nothing ever happened. So these guys are here for the highest and best use. That does not mean that the highest use is high density. They're after the money. Show me the money, that is what they're after. And this guy who made his veiled threat of suing Fountain Valley because of the state mandates and all that, this is a property that's been a slum. commercial property for as long as I've ever been in Fountain Valley. They do not, I'm sure they're nice people, I'm sure they have good intentions. Their whole thing is stuff as much project into it and make as much money as they possibly can. I feel for the people. I'm a real estate guy. I feel for the kids. I feel for my own kids on how do they buy. Guess what? I'm going to die and leave them a bunch of money and they're going to get my house. That's how they're going to get it. So I understand that part, and I really have sympathy, because there's no real correct answer for this.

Rick, your time's up.

Sorry. Rick, time's up. Okay, the other one is, I'm sorry, just one thing is Magnolia and Warner is another seven-story density building, and then you've got the one across the street where it looks like, I can't even tell you what it looks like. Rick, your time's up. Thank you. Thank you.

I have no further requests to speak. I'm just getting. It's on a different issue. Not on item eight.

Okay. So I'll go ahead and close the public hearing. And now we'll open it up for council questions of the applicant. Questions from council?

Okay.

Councilman Bleat.

I have a question for the applicants.

Is the applicant here? Still here? Okay. Well, whoever can answer their question, I guess. How much money has the applicant spent on this project in terms of architecture, design, all that? How much money have you spent?

Architectural fees are over $200,000.

Is that all the fees you spent so far? No. What's the total you spent so far?

We're going to do over $130,000 for the mitigated neck deck, probably $50,000 in just city fees for the general plan, zoning, precise plan. We have attorney fees. There's some consultant fees, Linda Cogleton, myself. It's getting close to 500 grand.

So half a million dollars for the entire project so far. As the staff were saying earlier that I guess one of your biggest hurdles is you've been informed that your biggest issue is land zoning. That's what I'm hearing today.

Oh, yeah, that's the big question.

And that's what is your hurdle? And it brings before our council here to decide whether we want to change this zoning so that way you can be moving forward. That's my understanding. It's true. I'm a little bit confused as to one of our former mayors stated that council, if we can have some clarification from staff. She mentioned that zone change already approved by city council or I missed something. What does she mean by that?

He said the other properties, not this one.

The other property, okay. And then she also mentioned that no planning comment was made or was generated by staff. What does she mean by that?

I don't know. Can you answer?

Yeah, you can answer if you would like to. She's saying that staff is making a comment. You're talking about the finding?

Were you referring to the findings being generated by staff? Was the comment Councilman Boone?

Yeah.

Can you repeat the question?

For my mayor, I could clarify that. I'm not sure what she meant by that. Can you repeat the question? Yeah, she meant something to the nature that it was not the playing comment, but it was more generated by staff.

So I believe that wasn't, Planning Commissioner Brothers can correct me, but I believe that was in reference to the resolutions that were prepared per the direction of the Planning Commission. They directed staff to come back with resolutions of denials. Staff, as is general practice, we generate those findings. We present them to council. Council adopts them if they like, if that's their preference. They can also... They review, obviously, staff's findings, and they can comment on those, make modifications to those, or they can approve as recommended. So in this case, staff generated the findings and resolutions per the Planning Commission's direction, and the Planning Commission voted to adopt with no changes. Okay.

And if you could also explain, there was one of the gentlemen who talked about the low income. And if there's a percentage requirement of any project that comes into the city as part of the low income housing component under the state. Can you explain to the public of that so that way they can understand?

Yes, in part for our housing element actually to get certified, the city committed and later adopted an inclusionary housing ordinance, which requires any project of over 10 units to provide 15% of the base zoning units to be low income.

Okay. And then I want to ask this question because I've been hearing this in the past several times too. So what criteria or metric did the city use to determine which parcel were identified as a potential RENA potential site? What criteria or metric that was, you know, during the general plan selections?

It was a five-year general plan advisory committee. I understand.

Obviously, some people still don't understand. So it's good to give a synopsis of that so people can understand how it was selected. So there's not-

I wasn't here for the process. I believe many of the council members and planning commissioners in the audience today were part of the GPAC and community members as well. But generally what occurs is there are a number of properties that are looked at. And in this case, they were presented to the GPAC. combed through those properties. They did bus tours. There was a lot of public input, as Councilman Grandis was alluding to in that process, including site visits. And then they recommended the sites that eventually made it into the housing element.

Thank you for sharing. Of course, that was before your time. But do you know why has this site not has been identified?

So in our discussions with the applicant, they, I believe, mentioned that they had a discussion with the director at the time. I have found no notes or evidence of any documentation to that, speaking to that. So I can't speak directly to it.

Okay, so the way I look at this project, they've been working with the city for three years. They spent about half a million dollars. Has staff ever reached out to them to discuss an alternative project with the applicant?

No. Why not? This is the project that they proposed. So they came in eventually with a mixed-use project, a small mixed-use project. We talked about that, mentioned concerns about the change in general plan and land use. We don't get involved with private property. So this is private property. They came in with a proposed project. We discussed that project, but we don't. uh unless they ask uh talk about and in this case they asked last week you know for um staff comments but at this time the planning commission meeting already occurred it's already been scheduled for public hearing before the city council it's within your purview now and so we're looking uh we we recommend that we wait till city council provides guidance to have that discussion

Okay, great, thank you so much, Omar. I have one question for the applicant. I want to wrap this up. And my question for the applicant is, how many public hearing have you have held regarding the project? Obviously, you see there's a lot of people that oppose this project, so I want to know how many public hearing have you held?

We had one before the planning commission. One. Plus tonight. But we did have two community meetings. We notified adjacent property owners. We had a small turnout. And then a year later, approximately, we decided to go with the new expanded radius of 1,000 feet. We included pages and pages and pages of addresses. And we met both times. Well, the first time was at the site. The second time was at the Hedridge Park. And we had a... Decent turnout. Not huge, but decent.

Okay. And what was the feedback that you received from the neighboring property?

Oh, most everybody was concerned about traffic. It's the number one concern of everybody.

Okay.

Have you addressed that? Well, staff prepared a mitigated neg deck with a very thorough traffic study in it. And the findings are that this project would generate a negative 547 trips per to the local arterial streets as opposed to a fully functional commercial use. So this is actually a less intense use compared to commercial. Okay. I mean, you can read the neg deck. Staff did a great job, and they hired a very expensive, qualified consultant to put it together, and they will stand by their work.

They're the experts. Aside from traffic, what is the second biggest concern?

It was on-site parking.

The parking?

There was concern that there would be overflow into their neighborhoods.

And that's a valid concern, too. That one, I agree. I mean, if it's 74 units, there's only that many parking. I would be concerned, too.

But again, with the density bonus state law, we're in excess parking. Okay, you're going to the standard. I may want to address one thing. There was a comment about the garages. This will be managed by the owner. He's going to keep it. There will be regulations about where people have to park in their garage. There will be no Inoperable vehicles. It'll be strictly managed. She owns a number of residential projects that are highly maintained.

And the resident here, is there a particular group or is there anybody? Pardon me? The future resident, are there seniors or what are they?

Well, it's market. There's 62 market, a range from studio, one bedrooms and two bedrooms. And then within the deed-restricted affordable units, there will be a mix of studios, ones, and twos. And that's for very low-income households. And it sounds, I don't know, it sounds, I don't know, like undesirable. But actually, very low-income households are me when I was starting out in planning. It was my son starting out as an attorney.

If I can speak. Having worked on numerous mixed use projects with residential in everything from cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma, downtown Tulsa, to small cities in Texas, to here, I can tell you what the mix will be. It will be a mix of young people like the young people you spoke. that I spoke to that spoke about needing housing. And typically it's also move down buyers. And who are those? Those are people who have homes maybe in Fountain Valley or nearby and they want to pull out their equity in their home. And they sell their home, move into an apartment so frankly, have a nice retirement in travel. So usually it ends up with a blend of young people and what I call move down buyers. Those are the ones you find in the market rate units. And even in the affordable components, they're working people, as was described. He's quite correct. You're talking about people who work in the police, the nurses, the staff, the medical field. These are kinds of people that have very, very difficult time finding affordable rental apartments.

All right, thank you. That's all I have for now. Okay. Thank you.

I'd actually like to ask a few questions. Kind of a similar theme on the community outreach, just in comparison to some of the other projects that are in construction or have been approved. There was extensive effort to have those workshops. A lot of time and effort was put into not only making that space available, but also to take that feedback and actually adjust the projects accordingly. I'll point to the parking structure at Memorial Care at Orange Coast. They've done extensive outreach and extensive modification to the design. Now one thing I heard tonight was a concern, this is a three story structure that is adjacent to primarily one and two story structures on El Rancho particularly, right? So what have you done to at least consider altering the project? Maybe you can respond to that first, then I'll follow up with another question.

Sure, I'd be happy to. Yeah, I'm a former city planner and I used to arm wrestle with builders to be more sensitive to adjacent properties I mean we really used to have to arm wrestle so when we were looking at that I mixed use project for small parcels. I think it's less than three acres or whatever the criteria is. There's large projects, small projects. We were encouraged to do so because at the time the planning director, not the current planning director, but a former planning director, he felt that the city needed to provide as much housing as possible, whether it's market or affordable. So We looked at that, and then after I sat in the public hearings on Slater Investments, afterwards I went back and said, you know, I listened to the comments. And it was approved, but I don't think it was unanimous. And there were some very spirited comments. And I remember someone spoke at the hearing and said, good project, wrong location. And everyone went, wow, okay. So I went back and talked to my boss, and I said, look, this wrap thing, it's going to be four stories. It's going to be a huge wall facing a single family to the south. It's going to be very intense. It's going to be very dense. We were going to do density bonus, like our architect said. We could take it up to 94 units, but... No, we decided not to. So we just backed that off and went with a three-story walk-up, which we thought would kind of fit. Like, for example, right next door to City Hall, there's a three-story walk-up structures. Now, they're not apartments, but the massing's similar. So what we've done is we downsized it from a wrap on our own because we figured we didn't want to do it. And then number two, we looked at the edges. And we said, what's the best way to orient this project so it has the least impact on the adjacent neighbors to the south? Believe me, we recognize it's the critical edge. It is. It's the critical edge. So what we did is we designed it in a U shape. And in order to hit the number of units, it has a couple of wings that extend out to the south. Well, the current development standards require a 100-foot setback to the third story. We comply to the second story. But the third story, it requires 100 feet, but it doesn't make it feasible to get the unit number. So what we've done is in the areas where the building extends into that 100 foot, there are no windows looking directly down on the single family. They're all going to be celestial windows or no windows at all. We don't have any balconies or patios facing directly into the single family, and we're using distance as a buffer. Most of the units are adjacent to Warner. Now, the folks to the north in Huntington, they have the width of Warner as a buffer. You know, I mean, there are going to be some windows there on the third story, but we tried to be very sensitive to that critical edge on the south. Number two, staff was very rigorous on this review. I mean, Steve didn't, I mean, he's tough. He's doing his job. He's tough. Based on a former project at Edinger and Brookhurst, there was a lighting issue with the Walgreens. I was involved in that. And the developer went ahead on their own and put in all these major lights. And it created all this light pollution, light impacts. It was crazy. I personally worked with an architect in Chicago to get those lights brought down to five feet. So they became pedestal lights rather than lights that were going around. I mean, it looked like close encounters of the third continent. I mean, it was ridiculous. So we've been sensitive to light impact. The lighting plan shows that there are no lighting impacts to the south. Most of the units are... a great distance away from the single family. The units that are close to the single family, no windows, no patios facing them. We're trying to minimize impacts. The height is very similar to what the vet renovation is going through. It's roughly a 35, 40 foot setback, 30 foot high. I mean, it'll all kind of fit. We even designed the project to kind of match, in a sense, kind of blend, harmonize with the vet so that it would look like a unified whole. I mean, we've done everything we can to... Minimize everybody's concerns, but it doesn't seem to be enough.

Okay. Thank you. I'm gonna open up to other council members for questions Councilwoman Constantine Okay, I do have some comments

Didn't come with anything prepared. So as I usually do when we have certain matters in front of us, I do like to correct some of the interesting public comments we hear. So who knows who said it? But anyway, this matter was agendized under a public hearing at this portion of the meeting. Prior to this part of the meeting, we did have presentations and our consent calendar. So sometimes after certain portions of the meeting, people leave, and that's what they choose to do. It's just the way it is. Airbnbs are not permitted in Fountain Valley. They've been banned. Contact code enforcement. Let's not fool around. 714-593-4444. Rentals need to be for over a 30 day period. Over a month. So across the street from here, from City Hall, the Jefferson, it's not 400 and some odd units. It's going to be 276, 277, something like that. Another thing is stay tuned about the potential of no parking on Euclid and Heil near that new development that's getting built across the street. There's lots of red curb there already, so there could be more. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Chamber of Commerce sent in a letter of support. There's still representation by Chamber of Commerce at this moment. Not sure why the letter of support references president when the title, I understand it to be, is chairman. So you may want to check your website. Back to the project at Euclid and Heil, it's five stories with various housing styles, some housing for sale, such as townhomes and triplexes. The five-story will be apartment rentals, so you've got that. So regarding this specific project here, It's a parcel with a shopping center, and it's zoned commercial. It's not zoned for residential or multifamily. Per the slide that we saw, it states that it's underutilized and outdated 1970s era retail center that no longer serves community needs, says whoever wrote the slide. So that's just a thought there. We have a demand in this city for retail space, for restaurant space. And so it's very unfortunate that this parcel is, I want to say, 80% vacant. So unfortunate. It doesn't have to be that way. Recently, so the last city council meeting, I wasn't here, I was on Zoom for our May 19th meeting. And that was because it was myself and Vice Mayor Harper and then city manager Maggie and some economic development staff, Omar and some others. They're at the ICSC conference, which is innovating commerce, serving communities. It's the largest real estate convention in the world. And possibly there should be some other attendance there, as from what I'm hearing tonight. Because we have such a demand in our city. Over and over again, we heard, you know, so-and-so has a restaurant in this city. They want one in Fountain Valley, too. The restaurant in this city, they want one there, too. A store here, they want one in Fountain Valley. The problem we have right now is we have such limited space in the city. Now, even more challenged because some of the businesses have left the center or may continue to leave the center. So... It's a challenge here, quite frankly. It's very unfortunate. And in that big convention in Vegas was commercial brokers, investors, property managers, and developers. And again, a huge interest in the city, as there should be. Honestly, I'd like to have city staff ensure that this center is up to code. If it's not, please connect with The owner makes sure it is. If there's limited access to the veterinary clinic, that's not right. That needs to change. If there's homeless there, that's not right. This center's just got to stay as it is with definitely a lot of improvement here. I don't support this at all. Thank you.

Councilman Grenis. Thank you. So is anybody here from the animal hospital? So Mr. Attorney, do you have a contractual easement with them to use the thoroughfare there?

I'm not aware of that. And candidly, I'm not sure that it's necessary, just looking at a site plan for the project, but I may be mistaken.

So if they put up the chain link fence again, that's not going to be used because you don't have contractual easement.

I mean, I believe the architect could correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not sure that that access is being- Well, you guys said that that's access that you're going to use.

I think we should see the staff or more probably have data on that.

No, they should know. I don't need staff for this one. Okay, you don't know. So I have a question for- You have a contractual easement? Yes, there is a contractual legal easement.

May I speak? Of course. I'm just waiting to be called on. Please approach. Okay, thank you. Yeah, that was one of the first things we checked. It was ongoing in the original development. There's a recorded easement between the vet parcel and my boss's parcel that provides drainage, sewer, and access, and believe it or not, parking. And there is a reciprocal access agreement that, I don't know what the proper term would be, but because the vet has it with that little former drive-thru dairy, he has access, because he owned both at one time, so he granted it to himself and then sold the little dairy. So there's reciprocal access that goes all the way through for all three parcels. And you have it in your paperwork somewhere that we can see?

Oh, absolutely. It's part of the report? It was the first thing that Steve required. Steve, can you just shake your head? Any easements there? Okay, thank you. Question for, I'm sorry, I don't know your name. Linda? What do you think the vacancy rate is in Fountain Valley? Commercial vacancy rate.

Well, the last time I, commercial vacancy factor? Yes.

It's a dead shopping center. You're saying commercial's dead in Fountain Valley. What is the, obviously you did a study, what's the vacancy rate?

As I say, we did our study three years ago. At that time, the commercial vacancy was fairly low, but What I want to emphasize is, I respectfully disagree with Kim, is that there are a number of locations that are under-leased, if you will. In other words, a shopping center developer, if he has uses in there that are not returning sales, high sales in his shopping center, just like the restaurant went into on Brookhurst. It was a bouncing house that wasn't making much money. You have lots of locations on Brookhurst that are not doing very high sales. So it's simply not true that you don't have locations that are available in your city.

So Omar, is it 1.8%? 1.2%. I'm sorry? 1.2. So we're at 1.2% vacancy rate. So for him to be at 80%, that's not a Fountain Valley problem. That's a owner problem. No, yes. Yeah, because he didn't upkeep his, he doesn't upkeep. He has been, my understanding, terminating leases and telling tenants they're not going to renew. Go ahead.

Well, if I can respectfully disagree, because even if you spent the most outrageous money to paint, make improvements, you're not going to get higher rents on that center. It is structurally inferior. And when I say that the center doesn't have proper access, it's not access that's the issue. I think they're all misunderstanding. It's the fact that the whole site doesn't border a major street. It borders one. Okay. Let me finish. It doesn't border two streets. In other words, if you look at a major shopping center, it'll have two streets, like it'll have Warner and some other street. That's what major retailers require, including restaurants.

Okay.

And in today's market has not gotten better for retail. It has gotten worse with cost getting higher. Okay, I got your answer. Inflation getting higher. Okay.

So one of your own consultants there said it's a major arterial road. I wrote down when he said that. And Warner is. It's one of the busiest thoroughfares. I understand that. A half mile from the freeway. You're quite correct. There's no better. It's one of the best streets in all of Fountain Valley.

You're absolutely correct, but it also makes that a great road for residential as well, for an apartment.

Okay, you can't have both ways.

You're right.

Okay, my favorite restaurant in Fountain Valley is Combalace. Are you familiar with Combalace? Hey, everyone, please.

Just down the road.

Are you familiar with Combalace? You'll have to tell me the location. It's the next shopping center right next to yours.

I know that location, sure. And by the way, the square footage on that center is twice the size.

Well, it's also completely sold out. It's done great. And I remember when that shopping center had Shakey's in it. Yeah. And when I was in high school in Fountain Valley after the games, we always went to Shakey's. So that is a viable shopping center. And to have 80% vacancy.

No, that center is actually quite healthy and the major reason is twice the size in square footage. It also has a bike store in there that has been there forever and forever and forever. That's a major mini anchor. Because of its sheer size and because it has had a mini anchor, it has been able to survive far, far longer. It's also near a corner that has, again, some major anchors on that corner. So I'm very familiar with the site you're talking about.

That does not have an anchor.

Okay. No, I understand that, but it's twice the square footage. Ours is just a little 18,000. It's a little strip center. It's a nothing. Okay.

Okay, I have a question for the gentleman. I'm sorry. Terrible names. Yes, sir. Sure. So in the past, you've met with council members, correct? Yes, we have, four of the five. Four of the five. Yeah. And I was one of them. We met, I think, gosh, two years ago, I want to say, maybe longer.

It was a very pleasant meeting also. We appreciated the time.

Of course. That's my job. But one of the things that I did tell you at that time is that this was not part of the general plan, it wasn't part of zoning. And at that point, you hadn't spent $500,000 on this project when we had met. So my question to you is, when you received feedback from the council, was the feedback not similar? I mean, I don't know what the other said, but I know I told you that This person who owns the property needs to fix up his property, and the chances of it being us rezoning after we had just done a major rezoning for the entire city, probably not appropriate to keep going with what you're doing.

We didn't agree with that. We didn't agree with your position. Okay. Yeah. But you heard it. Oh, yeah, but that's just one voice of five. Okay.

Fair enough. One of the things that we talked about was why didn't you guys want to be part of the general plan? And what you told me was I didn't know. Nobody told me. Nobody called me. You said that back then as well. We were never notified. Really? How long has he owned that shopping center? I believe he purchased it in the mid-'80s. In the mid-'80s. So he's owned it 46 years or so?

Quite a while, yeah.

When's the last time he did a major refurbishment there?

I can't answer that. No. Has he ever? General maintenance, not a facade renovation, all that. They're just general. Yeah, that's what brought this. The owner of the center contacted me because he was kind of at a decision point, like a decision tree. He said, look, I can put in some money and renovate, paint, fix it up, re-asphalt the parking lot and let it roll. What good does that do anybody?

Well, when we talked, one of the things that you told me, I remember clearly, was that this gentleman was a member of the community, lived locally. I think he lives in HB or- Yeah, he lives in HB, yeah. Lives in HB, member of the community, gives back and all that. Yeah. And we had a general plan that took five years to do. Right. We had- I don't know how many town halls. We had a joint meeting of the Planning Commission and the City Council. Okay. Listen, we've thought about this.

Excuse me, the council member has the floor. Okay, you're right. Please don't interrupt. Pardon me.

That's fine. That's fine. I mean, he knows what I'm saying here, that there is no reason he, as a member of our community, should not have known the most major thing we have done in decades in our city.

We were perplexed with your position because are you aware of what's going on in Cyprus? I don't own a building in Cyprus.

If I did, I tell you what, I own a cabin in Big Bear and I own a condo in Palm Desert, two businesses, and I can tell you I know what's going on. All the politics, you stay involved in it? Yes, absolutely, especially when there's something that affects my property. Absolutely, I do.

Well, if you're unaware of it, you're unaware of it.

Well, I think that's malfeasance on his part that he was not involved.

I understand your position.

We don't agree. We don't. No, we do not. So the next thing, big issue that I have is we came up with our general plan. We spent five years on it and we took considerable heat from the residents. Because we implemented a, what I would say is a very unpopular Housing element. We had to add 4,832 units of zoning or thereabouts. That's a lot. And one of the things that I believe all of us said to the residents was, it's a mandate from the state. Our hands are tied. As much as we would potentially like to do things differently, I'm a big proponent of housing, by the way. I'm not against housing. And I'm not against affordable housing. But what I'm against is that we made a commitment and a promise and worked for five years to put together that housing element. And for you to come in after the fact and say, whoa, wait, wait, I didn't know, I didn't know. Well, you know what, we're going to have another housing element coming up in just a few years. The state may tell us to add more. They will. Well, I tell you what, why don't you come back then and we'll talk about it.

That's in the planning commission staff report. We're aware of staff's position. There's another cycle coming. Have you looked at your production numbers? There's another cycle coming, and if we do this now, we're going to have to add even more. It's okay. It's fine. I understand your position.

We just don't agree. Let's see if I have any other questions at this point. The one thing I will say that anybody who complains about parking, he's right, there's nothing we can do. That's mandated by the state. He's actually doing more parking than he has to do. So I will give you that. Thank you. The other question I have for Omar. Sorry, I know I'm taking a lot of time here, but- No, that's fine. This is important. Yes, sir. So the low income housing, it's 10% on this project, right?

It's 15% of the base zoning, so we don't look at the total number of units.

I was wondering why it wasn't 15%. I keep hearing 10%. It should be 15% if we were to do it. Okay. I guess my opinion is the landlord spent $500,000 trying to do this. If he would have spent $500,000 on his existing property, I think it would be a viable option. shopping center and something that's beneficial to our community. The last thing I'm going to say is bringing this attorney here, I think was one of your biggest mistakes. When you come in here after we spent five years a housing element, putting together the general plan. And you come in here and tell me that what we've done is deficient. When we were early, we were one of the first ones to do it. We followed the state mandate to avoid builder's remedy. When you come in here and do a veiled threat like you did, that does not go over well. That actually hurts your case. So that being said, again, I think we do need housing. I've supported the three projects that were there. The biggest reason is a big part of it is the mandate, and we had to, or we would get builder's remedy. But this is not a mandate, and this is not something we have to do. In the future, we might have to, but at this point, we don't. And I think I've said enough.

Thank you, Councilman Granis. A note was passed. We just want to let the council know the leasing agent of the shopping center is here in the chambers, can also answer questions. His name is William Hugron, so just as an awareness.

My name is William Huger and I've been leasing the property for 20 years. I've gone to ICSC for about 35 years. I hold four of their professional designations. I've been doing this for a long time.

The problem with the property is- Mr. Mayor, my understanding was that you were introducing the gentleman, but were you calling him up to make comment or was?

No, and if there's no objection, maybe just keep your introduction to about a minute.

I just want to make comments on the property as it relates to leasing. The problem with the property, first of all, typical retailers, mom and pops, don't exist anymore. The category killers, Costco's and Home Depot's, they've killed all the small little guys. So a shopping center like that is really going to cater to service users, hair designers, nail salons, things like that. The property is a mid block, it's not big enough to have an anchor tenant, so you're not going to have satellite tenants that are going to be able to capitalize on it. I'm sorry, are you saying anything different than what she said already? I'm specifically addressing this shopping center. Ideally, it's not big enough to have an anchor tenant. It's a small center. It doesn't have the traffic counts that Brookhurst has. It's not as desirable. I have a hard time getting tenants to even look at it or want to be there. Granted, it could be more cosmetically appealing, but we don't have the traffic counts. We don't have the activity to generate other tenants.

Thank you.

I just wanted to make sure that- I have trouble getting reservations into Combalace, which is 200 yards from there. The shopping center is bigger, but it's not that much bigger. It's mid-block, it's the same.

I've had a hard time getting restaurants in there, and I've put a few of them in the past.

Maybe we could work with him and help him with that. Yeah, absolutely. I think we would be willing to help you.

Mr. Mayor, I just want to make a comment. Yes, Council. There are several successful restaurants on Warner very close to this location. I had it in my notes and I forgot to say. I was the one that didn't meet with the developers. I don't recall getting any invite, but just for clarification. Thank you.

Yeah, I just want to disclose I did meet with Mr. Franklin and Mr. Stelricht. And if you recall, I did give you my advice, which is please consider for sale product, not for rent. And I think I was pretty clear on that. And that's not what you brought. So that's an issue with me. Vice Mayor Harper?

Thank you. Thank you for everybody that came out today to speak in favor or not in support of the project. Appreciate that. Appreciate planning commission time and also staff time for all the time they've spent on this project. For me, one of the commenters, Anna Katsuki, made, I think, a comment that sort of resonated with me is that the general plan, as we've discussed, sort of designed it considers the long-term of the city and to start zoning things on a project rezoning on a project by project basis it goes sort of against the the long-term vision of the of the general plan and so I think although it might be appropriate in certain circumstances I think we need to be very careful if if we decide to to do that because it does as she says can set a precedent and the people that are surrounding the property who invested thinking it's a certain zoning now all of a sudden have a different zoning. Another thing that Mr. Ayers said, Warner is an established commercial quarter. There's basically commercial from Newland all the way to Bouchard. And I think the other comments I've heard is that there's a perception that the owner has really made little investments in the center with regards to improvements or making it a more desirable center. And then the last point is that, you know, there is a – as our Director Databoy said, there is a low vacancy rate for retail, less than 2% in Fountain Valley. And so, yeah, I really think this has the opportunity to be a viable commercial center with some refurbishment, investment by the owner, but – So that's my comment. I would not support a rezoning at this time. Thank you.

Any other comments from council?

Maybe one more.

Councilman Bowie.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, obviously this is not an easy topic, and it never is when there's new construction in the city.

For me, it is very disheartening to hear that the applicant has spent over $500,000 for this project. And I don't want to send a message that we're not a business friendly city. But at the same time, we need to address a resident concern. I feel that the applicant did not do a good job doing outreach to hear out the concern of the resident. And how can you mitigate that concern to work cohesively as a community Just as my mayors, I've said from the Memorial Care Hospital, they have done a tremendous outreach, address every level, not only from a resident, but from council, from staff. They address every level, from the Chamber of Commerce as well. every stakeholder in the community, even the fire department and other departments, to really, really grab, you know, have a global picture. What do I need to do to make this project forward? So to me, you know, I'm not denying the project, but at the same time, you know, I'm going to abstain because I want to give them an opportunity to work with the city, work with the resident.

No.

No. No. Please let the council members speak. Give them the opportunity and listen to the resident. If there's a path, great. If there's not a path, then I'm sorry, perhaps it's not the right place or the right time. That's what I like to see. But I want to ask Omar these questions because based to our former mayor's share brother comments, and it gets me a little bit thinking is, Is it common practice for staff not to make any recommendations, whereas you have worked with this applicant for over three years? Typically, when you work with an applicant for a long time, there's either some kind of comment, we're not supportive of this project, or we are supportive, but not silent. To me, it's very concerning when you work with an applicant for over three years and they spend over half a million dollars.

Sorry if I misunderstood your original question. I thought you were talking about recommendations to change the project in some way. We made comments to them initially when they first met with us about concerns regarding the change in land use that is commercially zoned. And we had low vacancy rates then and we have lower vacancy rates now. As I mentioned, we have 1.2% vacancy now projected to go down to 0.8% next year. And so we have businesses that we meet with at ICSC that are looking for locations that we just can't find spaces for. So that was our original comment, was that we believe commercial is a viable use there. They came in with a mixed use project, 2,000, say, square foot retail business there, but mostly residential. We didn't think, so we gave comments regarding that, that maybe a 2,000 square foot, if you can't lease out 18,000 square feet, you really can't lease out 2,000 square feet. That's not viable. So just to go for the residential if they want to do it. If they're going to come in with a residential project, mixed use is probably not the best way to go there because it wouldn't be a successful retail for that small of a site. So we did make comments and suggestions, but we don't go in and tell them to do X, Y, or Z. We respond to the project before us and provide recommendation.

All right, thank you.

Mr. Mayor.

Yes, Councilwoman Constantine.

We understand council member Bowie intends to potentially abstain yet again. We need to pick a lane here. This is not appropriate. To the attorney for the city, what are the grounds for abstaining? Isn't it like you don't have enough information or you're not present or whatever? This is not okay.

Grounds our council members have discretion to abstain.

Yeah.

I can't even say what I'm thinking.

I guess you must have read the rule then.

And I do want to point out, I think, in the second planning commission deliberation, it was 2-1-1. So there may have been an abstention at that stage too, but it's at the discretion of the council.

One last comment. I know I was kind of harsh on you, too. Sorry, I was a little. I will say, though, when somebody comes into my town and threatens my city with a lawsuit, it gets my blood pressure going. My wife had to send me a text and say start breathing because my heart rate was 131. So I know I took it out on you a little bit, but don't come into my city. I understand. After we spent five years and took a, I can't say, an S load of stuff from our residents over approving stuff they didn't necessarily want because we had to. And then come in and tell us you're going to threaten us with builder's remedy, huge mistake.

Okay, I'm going to make some final comments. Appreciate all of the discussion and for all of the members of the public that have been here for hours, we hear you. I do want to just make a few observations. So we had 15 public comments. I show 11 support the denial, basically don't build this. And four want this to move forward, essentially for us to overturn this appeal, or overturn and approve. So that says something. So just as the public is speaking to us, it's overwhelming disapproval. I want to make a couple comments about the GPAC because that was a volunteer position and I spent a lot of time on that. I was very proud to be part of that group from 2018 until we finished and got the job done. And like Councilmember Grandis mentioned, there was a lot of robust discussion. We had a lot of meetings in this chamber and other places to make it easy for folks to join us after work and make it convenient. We took all things into consideration when it came to zoning. This city never had mixed use, one or two, that just didn't exist. And it was a real stretch for us to dig deep and to think about, well, what's best for our future? How are we not only going to meet the mandates, but What's the next generation, what are my kids, what are our grandkids going to do? They may not want a 7,200 square foot single family residential property, right? Maybe they can't afford it or they just don't want it. And so we made every effort to invite every landowner because I was there. And we hopped on a bus, and we went around, and we looked at all the properties. We said, hey, raise your hand if you want us to take a look at your property. Brian James, who was the former planning director, I know, made efforts. I know staff did everything they could to get attention. And so... you know it it it doesn't sit well with me when when the excuse is there that i didn't know i had no clue right and that was probably the biggest effort to update our general plan but i remember living here 33 years and um so that's a that's just my feedback on the gpac I'm still not happy with the community outreach. I think other developments have been successful or have had better chances of success because they took the community outreach as serious as they did the design, as serious as they did for all of the studies, if not more. And what I would encourage the applicant and the owner is to learn from that because There is a hope that there is going to be a successful land use on this property. And we're not shutting down that future opportunity for something that's more in line with what the applicant is thinking. But you have to take all of these factors into consideration. And I'll go back to what I originally recommended. What I hear is folks in Fountain Valley want to buy properties. They want to invest. They like the tax write off. They like all of the benefits of having ownership. Isn't that the American dream is to be able to buy property? And so I hope that that is taken into serious consideration when you think about the use of that property. A couple other, just more concerns, but they worry me, is there are extensive utility lines running both east-west and the large SE corridor that's got major electrical lines running north-south. Um, it just, you know, it just worries me that somebody could have a unit three stories up and be basically under, you know, our near utility line. So it's, you know, there's some of those kinds of things that this just don't sit well with me. And I'll say the very last thing is It wasn't wise for the applicant to have a study that was done three years ago. If you're going to come back to us, please have a current study. Please have something that's in the year of the application, because it matters. The world changed a lot since three years ago, and the markets change, and there's new administration in Washington. There's new economics, right? So we need to have current studies. So please come back with that current information. So for these and all of the other reasons, I think I support staff's position on maintaining the denials. And I'll say one last thing, I want to commend staff because both of the resolutions were very well done. One of them's 11 pages, one of them's 16 pages. And so if you really want to see how each and every issue was addressed, read the resolution. That actually has it all in one place.

I'll open it for questions. One last comment. So I also talked to them about doing homes for sale, townhomes, condos, whatever. And the response I got was the owner wanted to leave a legacy for his children. It wasn't something that they were looking to sell. So unless that changes in the future, I don't think that's going to happen. I see. Okay.

Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to say, too, I was not on the GPAC initially for the first several years, but I did follow very closely, and I was on for the last period, maybe a year. So I followed very closely, too. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, you mentioned that you were part of that drive-around, the GPAC. Yes. Well, thank you for your time. That was voluntary time, right? That was a long time commitment for five years. Just my curious, I wasn't there at that time. Was this site, was one of the sites that you guys drove? I'm just curious. No. Okay. It was not. All right, so that answered the question that they never received anything because they were not part of the site.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, Councilman Bowie, you were part of the GPAC because we approved- Not the driving around.

He was talking about the driving around.

Okay. Yeah, that was actually done early in the process of just evaluating sites that owners wanted us to look at. Okay. Okay, I think we've- Finish with questions. I'll entertain a motion.

I'll make the motion. Item one, the denial, the continued denial. I'll second that.

So Rick, a yes vote means Denial. Thank you. Thank you.

You are approving staff's recommendation.

Perfect, thank you. I didn't want to get confused.

Motion passes 4-0 with one abstention by Council Member Bowie.

If it's the pleasure of the council, may we take a five minute? Please.

Thank God.

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Okay, we're going to return back.

We're on item nine. We'll now consider, hold on, hold on. Am I right? Yes, item nine, correct?

Okay, okay. I heard a little chatter. I know it's late.

So this purpose is to connect the public protest hearing regarding a proposed residential trash disposal rate adjustment and five year rate adjustment schedule based on increased county landfill disposal fees under the waste infrastructure system enterprise agreement, also known as the wise agreement pursuant to the requirements of Proposition 28. Presentation by Director of Public Works, Scott Smith. Welcome. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Honorable Mayor, council members. This item, oops, I'm sorry. Commencing July 1st, 2026, the County of Orange is increasing landfill fees for municipal solid waste disposal and services. This item is a Proposition 218 public protest hearing regarding the proposed residential trash disposal rate adjustment and five year rate adjustment schedule. Based upon a county initiated increase to landfill disposal fees under the wise agreement. On April 7th, 2026, the city council approved the wise agreement for a five year period. The terms of the wise agreement were reached after negotiations and reflect a reduction from the county's initial rate proposal. Access to the county landfill system under the wise agreement provides the most cost effective option for the city's continued waste disposal. Under the wise agreement beginning July 1st, 2026, the county of Orange is increasing landfill disposal fees for municipal solid waste. The proposed city rate adjustment is intended to recover only the increased county disposal costs attributable to residential solid waste service. Tonight's hearing is required under Proposition 218 before those adjustments may be adopted. The proposed adjustment applies only to the disposal cost portion of the residential trash rate. It does not increase the collection portion of the rate, and it does not increase the city administrative fee. Effective July 1st, 2026, the proposed standard residential rate would increase from $32.27 to $34.83 per month, an increase of $2.56. The proposed senior residential rate would increase from $28.28 to $30.51 per month, an increase of $2.23. The proposed five year schedule includes disposal related increases for July 1st, 2026, July 1st, 2027, and July 1st, 2028. For July 1st, 2029 and July 1st, 2030, the adjustment would be based on the prior year plus the CPI formula identified in the notice and staff report. The city mailed the Proposition 218 notice to affected residential trash rate payers at least 45 days before tonight's hearing. Written protests are accepted until the close of the public hearing. If written protests are submitted by a majority of affected residential customers, the city council may not impose the proposed rate adjustments. Based upon the city's current count affected, of affected residential customers, a majority protest would require written protest from 7,317 affected residential customers. If there's no majority protest, staff recommends that the city council adopt the resolution establishing the adjusted rate residential trash rates and five year rate adjustment schedule. This concludes my presentation. I'm available for questions. In addition, our public services representatives are in attendance and available for questions too. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any questions by council members? Okay, seeing none, let's have our attorney give an overview of the procedure.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Actually, the Director of Public Works covered the overview of the vote and the Prop 218. I will just note that fees for trash collection performed by the city are subject to notice, hearing, and majority protest procedures. Trash collection in Fountain Valley is not conducted by the city. It is conducted by a third party independent trash contract hauler, that is Republic. Nonetheless, out of an abundance of caution, belt and suspenders approach. We follow the same Prop 218 notice, hearing, and protest procedures as if the city collected the trash itself just to make sure that we over notice the residents as is the Fountain Valley tradition.

I do have a question for you. How many people protested in the time period?

We will get to that, but right now we have received, and the clerk will just state this too, seven letters.

Seven. OK. I saw two, so I don't know where the other five are.

The initial five were in the city council packet.

Oh, I see. This is supplemental.

The two that you received, they were received after the agenda was printed.

Gotcha. Yeah, and I think the letters that I received did not understand the fact that this was not the trash hauler or the city, that it's the county that's imposing the fees.

That's right. And Mr. Mayor, if I may, Maggie, if you could share, as I sit on the OC Waste, just the public to understand that this increase, it's not reflective to Fountain Valley only, but it's through the entire county. So let's make sure that when the resident go put in a lot of protest, they need to understand the entire pictures, not just us. And not only the city of Fountain Valley is affected by this, but many other cities. And we do have a, I think they changed the city, that we do have it among all the city manager got together and worked really hard to this wise agreement to negotiate what is the most reasonable rate for our city. And I think that our staff have done a phenomenal job negotiating our rate because I can tell you, sit on there, our rate is much lower than other cities. So if you can share that.

So as Public Works Director had shared, this is a trash rate. through the county, and it's impacted by 34 cities and special districts as well, those that utilize the county landfill. The Orange County City Management Group has a working group including myself to negotiate with the county team and originally the proposed was I believe $87 per ton and through the negotiation the county did agree to the city manager group to lower that and phasing it in instead of immediately charge our resident $87 per ton. So there was a tremendous negotiation and also the county took the feedback from the city manager of its impact to our residents and in addition to the rates for the next five year gradually getting into the proposed recommendation from the county, we also add additional language to safeguard the community as well and that is being presented before you on the slide.

I have a question just out of curiosity. Maybe Debbie Kelly can answer this. How much trash does a residence use per year in terms of tons? Is it like one ton or two tons? How much do we generate?

I don't know that answer in tons. I know that... The number that we use in our industry is five pounds per person per day. So, I mean, you could just do, I just haven't done the math, but that's the calculation. Close to 2,000 pounds, yeah. Yeah, it's quite a bit. All right, just curious. Annually.

Okay, City Clerk Miller, has the city provided all required notices for this hearing? Yes, we have. Great, would you give us a status report on the protests you've received to date?

Kind of repeat it. To date we have received seven protest letters.

Sorry, Chief Mayer.

No problem. We will now hear from any person who would like to speak regarding this matter. Please remember that for purposes of Proposition 218, only written protests count toward the majority protest calculation. Written protests must be submitted to the city clerk before the close of this public hearing and should identify the affected Fountain Valley property. A blue speaker card may be counted as a written protest if it clearly indicates a protest and includes sufficient information to identify the affected Fountain Valley property. I will now open the public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak?

I have one request. Katie Wright.

Welcome.

I think I need to amend my blue card to put my address and the fact that it's a complaint. People contact me from time to time if they're not happy about things and they ask me for my take. I'm not the most educated, but I remember things. I remember being here. I remember protests I've made here at this microphone in the past. Not that long ago, I'm an old woman, not that long ago, could be a couple, three years. There was a move by the trash company to haul trash to Kern County because our landfills here were not suitable. I don't remember the exact reasoning for that. I remember standing here and saying the term horse manure numerous times. I think Debbie remembers. Okay. But one of the people in the neighborhood of Fountain Valley, I like to think of it as a neighborhood, told me that they were very unhappy about it. She's a senior, so she gets a senior break on it, which is not very much. But she's very unhappy about the fact that with all the proliferation of ADUs in Fountain Valley, each ADU is supposed to have its own address. I have a neighbor with an ADU. They're exemplary neighbors. They have their address listed on their fence. I never thought about this, but she said, those people are each and all supposed to have their own trash cans. They're supposed to pay their own trash bills. And she sees evidence that that's not going on in town. She feels like she's being unfairly charged when other people are getting a free ride. She's unhappy about the fact that code enforcement is so far behind that There's various issues with ADUs like the addresses on the fence. A lot of people aren't complying and there's nothing being done about it. So she was very upset about that. I protest any increase on general principle. But I'm just remembering something about a lot of our trash had to go to Kern County. Maybe Debbie Kelly would be kind enough to explain that. I could be totally misunderstanding it. But there was a... The second week in April, there was an article in the LA Times. You can see little trash cans on here. You know, the camera won't pick it up. But it was an article by Andrew Turner, and the headline says, Fountain Valley looks to lock in trash rates as county prepares for rate hikes. Maybe you've all handled that before and I wasn't paying attention because a little bit more on my trash bill isn't going to kill me. But when someone brings my attention to it and asks me to speak on it, here I am. Thank you. Appreciate your time. And I'm sorry about the light from the back of the room. I saw a couple of council members conferring with each other when our Stephen Ayers was talking and they were chuckling or appeared to be chuckling. They were smiling, grinning, and it was upsetting to me. So I thought I'd see if I need to film that for posterity. Thank you.

I have no further request to speak. Okay, I'll now close the public hearing.

I saw Debbie raise her hand. Did you want to say something? Yeah, I mean, go ahead.

Let me just finish this. I'm sorry. City Clerk, do you have a total on how many protests were received? Seven.

Okay.

Go ahead and answer the question. Come on up.

The Kern County question. So all of our trash, our MSW, and Maggie knows this well now. She's probably an expert in trash from the city manager's meeting she's had over the last year, and Council Member Bowie. It's the trash that's required to stay in the county. So that's why we have to use the Orange County landfills. The stuff that was going to Kern County, and it still is, that is our organics. So that's a whole different animal. I mean, it's a different material stream, and it's handled differently. It's permitted differently. It's not allowed in the facilities that we have in Orange County, and we send it to Kern County. Does that answer that? Okay.

Any other questions from council? No? Okay. So thank you, no majority protest exists. The council will now consider the resolution establishing the adjusted residential trash rates and five year rate adjustment schedule. Do I have a motion?

I'll move approval.

Second?

I think you guys could do increases in rates. This is a county .

Item number nine passes 5-0. Great, thank you.

Okay, we'll move into administrative items. Item 10, amendment and repeal of municipal code provisions to ensure compliance with the California Fair Chance Act. Presentation by senior human resources analyst Maria Salas, welcome.

Hi, good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. As mentioned, my name is Maria. I'm the Senior HR Analyst. And tonight I will be presenting, proposing the update to several municipal code sections to ensure consistency with the California Fair Chance Act. The proposed amendments remove outdated code language related to criminal history considerations and clarify procedures that are already required under state law. These changes will align the municipal code with current legal requirements while maintaining the city's commitment to fair and equitable hiring practices. The California Fair Chance Act was enacted in 2017 and became effective January 1st of 2018. The law limits when employers may consider criminal history during the hiring process and requires an individual assessment before making employment decisions based on conviction history. Since the law became effective, the city has incorporated these requirements into its hiring practices. The proposed amendments before council tonight are intended to update the municipal code so that it accurately reflects both current state law and the practices already being followed by staff. While the city's hiring practices comply with the Fair Chance Act, portions of the municipal code still contain language that predates the law. Specifically, section 2.52.075 and 2.52.076 reference automatic disqualification based on felony convictions and an appeal process that is no longer consistent with current legal requirements. Because state law requires individualized assessments rather than blanket disqualifications, staff recommends repealing these provisions. This is the city's current... practice, which aligns with this California Fair Chance Act. In this process, HR only reviews criminal history information after a conditional job offer of employment has been made. If criminal conviction information appears on the Department of Justice or FBI life scan results, Human Resources moves forward with an individual assessment. The image shown is the city's individual assessment form, used to document and review process when the criminal history information is considered. When an assessment is required, human resources evaluate several factors. Those include the nature and gravity of the offense, the amount of time that has passed since the conduct occurred, evidence or rehabilitation or mitigating circumstances. All of this in relationship between the conduct and the duties of the position. This process helps ensure employment decisions are job related, consistently applied, and supported by the factors required under state law. Staffs. Staff's first recommendation is to repeal Chapter 2.52, Section .075 and .076. These sections establish automatic felony disqualification provisions and related appeal procedures that are inconsistent with current state law requirements. Removing these sections eliminates outdated language and brings the municipal code into alignment with the Fair Chance Act. Staff's second recommendation is to amend Chapter 2.52, Sections .060, .070, and .077. These amendments ensure compliance with state law regarding the timing and use of the criminal background checks during the hiring process. Section .077 governs qualifications of peace officer applicants and will also be updated to remove the now outdated references to appeal rights. There is no anticipated fiscal associated, sorry. There is no anticipated fiscal impact with these amendments. These proposed changes primary update the municipal code language. to align the code with current legal requirements and reduce the risk of inconsistencies between the municipal code and California state law. Staff recommends approval of alternative number one. Specifically, staff recommends repelling and amending the specified municipal code sections. Approval of these updates will ensure that the city's municipal code remains consistent with the California Fair Chance Act and the current hiring practices. This concludes my presentation. Thank you for your time. I'm available to answer any questions.

Thank you so much for that presentation. I'll open it for questions to council. Vice Mayor Harper.

You have a question. So I guess my I have a couple of questions one is there seems to be two sets of rules here one is hiring practices and the other is the municipal code so I guess my question is why do we have two sets of standards for for this particular issue

So due to the Fair Trends Act, that's current state law, which is what aligns with our hiring practices. The reason why we're asking to update the municipal code is to align it with the Fair Trends Act.

I understand that. But why do we need the municipal code if we already have hiring practices that cover our hiring practices?

State law, too.

Colin, could you help us with that question here?

I can. We just need the municipal code to do things like request background checks and those things. So some things had to be baked into municipal code. Those might be falling off now. We might be close to a time where we can just get rid of the municipal code provisions. I haven't taken a look at that to see if we can just completely scrap the municipal hiring practices. I do like to have only one set of rules because otherwise you have either redundancy or conflict. So maybe that's something to take a look at.

Okay and in the meantime if we should we put something in the admissible code that says to the extent there's a conflict between this and the hiring practices look to you know look to the hiring practices or not necessary?

No, it would be necessary because the municipal code trumps the hiring practices.

Oh, interesting. Okay. All right. So maybe if the hiring practices are what we use and what's most current, then... If we can't delete the municipal code sections that apply to hiring practices, we should just put an extra sentence in there that says, this is great, but the hiring practices are going to be the final, the most current rule.

I'm going to see if we can just get rid of the municipal code provisions, and hopefully that's the easiest way to go through it. And if not, we'll figure something out along those lines.

Okay.

Any other questions from council? All right. Thanks so much. I'll call for a motion on the item.

I make a motion to approve.

I'll second.

I need the mayor's vote. Thank you. Item number 10 passes 5-0.

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Okay, move on to item 11, accept the bids and award a construction contract to Onyx Paving Company Inc. for the residential roadway rehabilitation project, City Quadrant B4, project number 26002, in the amount not to exceed $2,317,000. Presentation by assistant engineer, Yesenia Penaloza. Welcome.

Good evening, mayor, city council members, and city manager. So I am presenting to you the residential roadway rehabilitation project in city quadrant B4, project number 26002. So project location. Quadrant B4 is located within the bounds of Warner, Magnolia, Slater, and Newland, as shown, obviously, on the project location map. Project Scope, so kind of similar to what we had last year with Quadrant E7. We are going to be working on the residential streets in that quadrant, and it will be mill and overlay of asphalt concrete, installation of 31 ADA compliant curb ramps, Adjustment of utility covers, including water valves and sewer manholes. Removal and reconstruction of in-need of repair areas, such as driveway approaches, curb and gutters, cross gutters, and sidewalks. Removal and replanting of trees, striping work, and de-weeding and epoxy treatment of concrete areas as needed. Project timeline. So the project advertisement was in April, and in May we received 11 bids. And Onyx Paving Company was the lowest responsible and responsive bidder. Construction start date is anticipated July 1st of this year, and construction end date is anticipated end of summer, beginning of fall of this year. Project budget, as you can see here on the slide, the funding sources are listed and the total project budget is $3,600,000. Construction project expenses, which includes the construction costs, contingency, CM and CM inspection, materials testing services, printing costs, which total the project costs to $2,657,367, which obviously, good news, we've saved approximately at the moment $1 million in this. So it's very good news for engineering and just city staff in general.

Can you explain that? How did we save a million?

So just going back to the project budget, we estimated.

We budgeted 3.6, we spent 2.6.

Exactly, yeah.

So what you're saying is we budgeted too much.

We budgeted, yeah, we budgeted too much, but it's okay. Because obviously we were taking into account of inflation and other criteria. So we're very happy to say that. And at the moment, again, at the moment we're saving $1 million. Awesome, great. So to conclude, staff recommends that the city council accept the bids and award a construction contract to Onyx Paving Company for the residential roadway rehabilitation project, City Quadrant B4, project number 26002, in the amount not to exceed $2,317,000. And that concludes my presentation on this project. I'm available for questions. Thank you.

Thanks so much for that presentation. Any questions from council? I have a question. Go ahead.

Yeah, I have a question. Can you go back to the project budget? Yeah, for sure. This one, how do we determine the allocation, like which funds to take the money out of?

I'll have my senior civil engineer, Kyle Kanoki, respond to that one.

Welcome, Kyle.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, Council Member Harper. So water and sewer fund, we decide those based on the actual work that we're doing related to water and sewer utilities. So that would be the raising of the manholes and replacement of the valves. SB1, we designate that what we did in the last meeting. So we designate that annually on our SB1 resolution. So when we receive SB1 funding, we have to identify a project in which we are going to use the SB1 funding for. So before fiscal year 25-26, we designated this project as SB1 funding. HH and general fund generally make up the difference there.