City Council - Regular Meeting

Captain. Oh, somebody we're on. We're live. Okay.

Welcome everyone. Sorry about that delay, but we can't start meetings anymore unless we have audio and visual so we can stream live. So, good evening. I would like to call the March 10th, 2026 regular city council meeting to order. City clerk, may we have a roll call, please? Thank you, mayor. I would like to point out that this meeting is being hosted live on the city's website and via Zoom teleconference. I would like to remind council to have their microphones turned on and positioned so the audience can hear. With that, we will proceed with a roll call. Council member Clark present.

Council member Lodge is absent. Council member Peterson here. Mayor Promales here. Males, Mayor Kupa here. All me. All members are present with the exception of one. Is council member Lodge going to join us from his hotel or from his hospital room or is he just not on at all tonight? I don't see him online.

Okay. Well, he tries. Council member Lodge is in the hospital. So, we will continue and see if he gets on. The invocation tonight will be by Pastor Jesse Coron from Living Way Christian Fellowship after which council member Clark will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Would you please stand? Where's He's coming. Good evening. Is the little green light on? It's on, but it is on. Talk real loud. Can you hear me? There we go. There we go.

All right. It's a miracle. Let's pray. So, heavenly father, we thank you. Thank you for yet another day and more breath that we have today. Lord, we thank you for your son Jesus that died on the cross for us. And Father, we pray for tonight that you would, Father God, just give wisdom and Father, understanding and that, Father, there would be peace that, Father God, everything would be worked out accordingly, Father God, in in a peaceful manner. We do dedicate this night to you and thank you for your presence. And we pray this in the name above every name, the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

Remove your hats. Place your hand over your heart. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, thank you very much. We will now move on to the presentations. And can we have a presentation on item 6A, the city of Hemtt citywide branding presentation?

Thank you, mayor.

I'm gonna try that again. Okay. Well, tonight uh we're bringing you uh final product on our branding presentation which actually started in this room just under two years ago during your strategic planning session. So this was an idea that was um incorporated into the fiscal year 2425 work plan. It was identified as a highest priority and that was to update the HEMT brand and identity. So, we awarded a contract in early 2025, uh, just under a year ago, and we're here to present the results of that work. And with that, I'm going to introduce our communications and event coordinator, Jenny Cortez.

Good evening, mayor, council members, and city staff. As our city manager Mark Pres has mentioned, this has been over a year in the making. But again, it was an opportunity for the city to retell its story, right? Take control of the narrative and take the identity that we have today and transform it so that it reflects our community's values. Um, by taking in and listening to our residents and taking their experiences to transform our current identity. So, as I've mentioned, this was an opportunity to shape that. It was also an opportunity for us to support our future growth, really attracting new businesses and giving us opportunities for economic development

and above all else um really creating a share of sense of pride with our community so that they can be a part of telling our story as well. Um so we are excited to share that we have Sam Preston nor from Northstar um place branding and marketing here to share a little bit of the overview of that project really talk through the phases of the initiative and give us an overview of everything that the work was laid out and um where we are today. So if you can all help me joining Sam president

welcome. Hey, thank you. Good evening, council. It's great to see you. It's great to be here in Hemet. Uh yeah, there is uh just wanted to give everybody here an opportunity. Can you hear me? Okay, a little closer. Gotcha. Um council, y'all have seen this presentation. You've been along for the ride. Uh but now it's an opportunity to give our residents a little bit of some insight as to where we've been for the last year, what we've been working on, and now kind of the uh the output of this branding project and speakers.

All right. So why are we doing this project? Uh a few different reasons. We're trying to define our place in California. There is a lot of growth that's happening uh and we're just trying to own our narrative and really stand proud. There have been some reputational issues or some perception issues uh surrounding Hemtt. We want to really give Hammet an opportunity to shine and really uh let others know all the good that there is here. Uh one of the other things is economic development. We're trying to retain and also attract the right kind of jobs and investment. also trying to attract the uh those individuals who can come in and and contribute to what he has to offer. Uh and then also trying to professionalize the municipal services always trying to raise our standards and project project value to our residents. So how did we actually uncover the brand for HMT? uh this isn't something that we came in with a wrecking balls saying, you know, we're we're just going to put something together and this is the new brand for Hemtt, but rather we did a lot of research. Uh for the first four months of the project, we did surveys inside the community. We did surveys outside of Hemtt. Uh we had focus groups and one-on-one interviews uh here inside Hemmet. We also spoke with a lot of people outside of Hammet to figure out uh what are the challenges, the opportunities, the assets, what things is HMT doing well, what can we improve on. Uh so we did a lot of research and then we moved into strategy figuring out how we want to position HMT and then we moved into creativity working on a logo and a tagline, fonts, colors, the whole brand and then finally into action uh how to put this in place and and roll the brand out. So our process looks a little bit like an hourglass. Uh I mentioned all that research that's at the top half. Uh at the neck of that hourglass or at that center of the X uh is where the DNA and strategy is formed and that's where we boil all the different uh elements of the research down to give us that

strategy how to move forward and then we move that into the creative uh looking at the logo and tagline and more and then the brand action ideas. Uh when we delivered the final report, there was about 20 pages worth of ideas of how to implement the brand from grassroots efforts to initiatives to uh different events that you guys can do to really bring this brand to life more so than just putting a logo on uh on different merchandise. So just to recap a little bit of the research and I won't bore you with all of it. Um there has been uh we gave some of the council members a 90minute version of all the research. I will spare you all of those details. Uh but one other thing I do want to touch on is the community survey. Uh this was open for a little over two months. Uh this goes back to maybe July of last year. Uh it was open for two months and we heard from over a thousand uh residents which is just phenomenal. We've worked with cities two or three times the size of HMT and we get about a third of the response rate. So really want to commend you guys for the informed uh protective and and very um invested residents that you guys have as is evident here. Uh but some of the things that were uncovered, we asked people what are Hemtt's greatest assets and uh the top vote getters here were the scenic views and access to nature, the convenient central location in Southern California, and then the valleywide wreck and park district and also Diamond Valley Lake and Lake Hemmet. We also asked people what are the greatest challenges currently facing HEMT. Uh the top response is here making the community feel safe addressing hardship and unhoused building a positive reputation. And then the fourth one here uh you know big reason why people are here tonight attracting investment and jobs or attracting the right investment in jobs. Uh some quotes here but we asked people what distinguishes he from other nearby communities in Riverside County. Uh the

top four themes that came up were the natural beauty and access, the connected community and more laid-back. Uh the affordability and value was really great here. And then also the challenges with homelessness, safety, and that public image. And on a scale of 1 to five, let's rate some of these attributes and characteristics. Uh the highest rated attributes are are affordability, the schools, parks, trails, and recreation. And then the lowest here is entrepreneurship, business opportunities, jobs, and then the downtown needs a little bit of help. Uh we surveyed people outside of HMT. Uh so we surveyed 100 people from uh Orange County, 100 from San Bernardino County, and then 100 from San Diego County. Uh so that we could get an outsers's look as to what he is doing well or what some of the issues and challenges are. And uh we asked those people what phrase best describes he relatively affordable. It's calm and secluded and then it's got that really h historic and rich heritage and it's a good retirement community. Uh on your perception based on your perception of Hammet, let's rate those same attributes that our residents uh rated. And you can see that across the board affordability all the way down to entrepreneurship and jobs. Uh an outsider rated these attributes higher than our residents do. So, uh, we are a little bit more harsh on ourselves than outsiders are. Outsiders see us even more favorably than, uh, than some of our residents do. And from those people, uh, from those 300 responses, 249 have actually visited HMT within the last two years. Uh, and we asked what was the primary reason or purpose. And the number one response was visiting family members and friends. So, our residents are the greatest advocates for the brand, uh, for the city. Uh, and as people come in to visit family, we want them to stay a little bit longer. But the number one reason why people are coming is, uh, family members and

friends. And what's most important to the future success of Hemtt from an outsers's point of view, it is making the community feel safe, increasing tourism opportunities, beautifying the community, and again, attracting better businesses and jobs. So with that, we took all the information, all the research and the data and boiled it down into a strategy. And this isn't uh what we've got here is really just a DNA statement. This says who and what Hammet is. This isn't any outward facing or forward- facing uh um messaging here, but rather this is what we used along with different members of the creative committee. There were several members uh from the HMT, a couple of council members, city manager, uh local business owners, uh artists. We really tried to involve uh several people uh to figure out um or so that as we moved through the creative process, we had to answer every question to this DNA statement. But it says for those looking to build their California dream, Hemmet historic Ramona Bowl with sweeping views of the San Hasinto Mountains is an accessible natural haven from the coastal crowds and pretense where your energy and opportunity can be amplified by a community with rising momentum. And then we do have Oops. Let's see.

Sometimes if you point it backwards,

where where is the Oh, sorry. I've been pointing at the wrong direction. Uh we did put it together a couple pages of narrative. Uh this is some marketing language. This is what you can use uh in brochures, flyers, newsletters. uh but just a more flowery way of uh how we wanted to position Hemtt and I won't read the whole thing but do have a couple paragraphs here but we have Hemtt your horizon is here in our hurried times the constant question of how to plan for tomorrow when the whirlwind of today is difficult to figure out with more false distractions than true solutions between responsibilities and obligations who has time to reflect anyway well here's your moment to think what do you see when you look out on your future maybe it's somewhere you can breathe easy and settle in for a while with family and friends. Maybe it's the spot where you can become more yourself and chase a dream or two. Maybe it's simply beautiful, a landscape with scenic views in every direction. If any of those ring true, it's time that you get to know a community that has real answers for you. Nestled in one of Southern California's majestic mountain valleys, the city of Hemet stands as a testament to history and reinvention. Maybe it's the perfect place for discoveries and rediscoveries of your own. Away from the crowded freeways and thinly veiled pretenses, you'll find clear opportunity for yourself and your loved ones as far as the I can see. Your horizon is here in Hemtt, California. And so with that, want to share the new logo and tagline that we created along with the creative committee uh for Hemet California. You can see the full logo up top with that tagline, your horizon is here and then different versions or paired down uh icons of the logo. But uh want to speak first to that tagline of your horizon is here. It's an open invitation. This is a this is a place of opportunity here. This is where you can come in and make HMT what you

want. You can make your life what you want here in Hammet. uh with the different uh events, with uh businesses, with just families starting out, this truly is where your horizon is. Uh and then throughout the research, we heard uh just how much of a a state of prominence that Hemet has had in the past, especially along Florida Avenue, you know, those palm trees just lining the streets, the banks all throughout uh and just how how prestigious Hemtt was. And so we wanted to incorporate that into the logo. And so you can see those palm trees lining that logo again as if we are on Florida Avenue. And then throughout that actual hemmetark, you can see the San Hinto mountain range. And that is the actual range going up and down uh throughout the logo. Uh and with those beautiful colors that you see at sunrises, sunsets, I just really feel like we we captured uh what it feels like and what it can be to an individual to live here in Hemtt, California. And so part of the process uh we put together a whole color palette, lots of really strong colors that you guys can use in different elements, uh presentations, newsletters, what have you, but then also a brand standards guide so that going back to the very beginning of this, we were talking about professionalizing the municipalities and and the different services. This is how you can make sure that everybody stays uh um I know plays in the same sandbox if you will and and uh utilizes the same messaging as well as visuals uh to just create that strong brand. And I will share uh several brand executions just how this brand can look on different uh materials throughout the city. This isn't to say for all residents here, this isn't to say this is what will be done or what has to be done, but just our creative team got uh got a lot of great ideas uh of just how how this can be integrated. So, here's a full page print ad that really talks about uh there's room to live and space to grow. Uh this is right out there at

Diamond Valley Lake showing that there's great uh opportunities for recreation and family activities. Uh we put together some downtown signage uh some welcoming signage using just that smaller H and actually using a palm tree right there uh on the side of it. You can see what it looks like during the day and then also what we've got at night. Uh as uh as the research showed, you know, most people are coming into Hemet to visit family member and friends. Uh so we wanted to put together some uh monument or some entryway and wayfinding signage so that people know where to find all of the best attractions. Gibble Park, uh the the skate park, even heading up to Simpson. Uh there's a lot of great opportunities here um to just showcase where the where those things are throughout our city. Also, some shaded umbrellas. We're just a couple months away from some serious heat. And so nice way to to literally show that our city has us covered. We are looking out for the best of uh best interests of our residents. And then what some downtown uh redevelopment could look like. Um you can see that that is right there on Harvard Street. Uh the lower right image uh behind me shows uh what it currently looks like and then how it could be redeveloped. Wanted to show how the police department can even uh climb on board with this brand. We're not going to change their badge or their patch, uh, but rather, you know, give them something that, uh, that still shines true. And those those colors are very true, very real to what you guys see on those mountains daily. Uh, as we've got the flags here with the country, the state, and then our city flag right there at the train station, the depot, and then some, uh, some street pole banners. I know you guys have a lot of great signage throughout the city already, but wanted to re uh recreate those. And you can put different events or messaging on those uh interchangeable

at all times. And as we talked to a lot of different business owners throughout this process, uh they were all so proud and prideful that they were homegrown right here in Hemtt. Uh and there's a lot of those. Uh and so we wanted to do something for them uh with a a a window chain that just shows that yes, this is a local business. Not just because I do business here, but I'm from here. I live here. I am EMTT. Wanted to reinvent the movie theater as you guys can uh you know continue to make strides to bring that to that area of prominence that it once was uh with the uh city icons there on the sides and then also trying to integrate with the Ramona pageant. Here we are at the 104th anniversary of it. Uh and I think this is one of the uh the beer garden events uh going on right now or in this picture. but wanted to show how the two the city and the the Ramona pageant can uh can collaborate here. Also looking at this beautiful building that we're in right now with some simple signage out front. And then throughout the research we did hear from both inside and outside the community, one of the uh one of the other major attractions or major reasons why people visit is the auto mall. uh and it's so desirable that other cities wish they had it and would try to take it if they could. Uh and so we wanted to, you know, flag people down coming in from the freeway or from uh from roads leading into Hemtt that this is the auto mall is here uh and showing all the different makes, models uh of what you can get here in Hemet. And here we are again in this room taking a look at replacing the backdrop here and some signs on the podium and uh in the placards here. uh but just showing all the ways that it can be brought into the community. Uh even looking at city vehicles and we would never suggest that we replace every single vehicle right now that is not budget friendly. Uh but just as an old

vehicle is retired and a new one is brought into the fleet. That's when you can do a wrap uh to uh to um make the vehicles more uniform and have that tagline there on the back. Your horizon is here again reminding residents that this is where they where they should be. Uh and when we were here for our site visit trip, it was during uh the Junth celebration last year. Uh phenomenal event, had so many people showing out. It was great to see all of that. Uh and so this is a photo uh we put this backdrop there um with this family, but you could put this uh up at all the different events you guys do and you have so many of them, but then allowing our residents to take pictures and do the promotion and the marketing for us on their social media, letting their friends know that I am from HMT. I live in Hemmet and I'm proud to to say so. Same thing with his mural downtown. I'm having the best time in Hemtt, California. And then as uh economic development or trade shows or other speaking opportunities uh occur throughout the state uh you can take some different trade show banners uh retractable banners uh with the Western Science Museum in one Diamond Valley Lake on the right and then just those beautiful sweeping views that you guys are spoiled for uh here in Hemet uh redesigned the newsletter really talking about driving momentum and what's new, what's on the horizon. Uh but just how again showing that everything uh is very standard and uniform and is uh uh works well together. The skate park also a great asset. So we've got some more shade uh banners or shade umbrellas there. Uh and then as you host different skate competitions, the winner would get this Hemet skateboard, the winner of the Hemtt Bowl. And merchandise for residents for uh for city employees. We've got hats, uh, tumblers, and even pins.

And then trying to, uh, really spread, uh, that he seed throughout, uh, you know, zero escaping or back up on the mountains. But, uh, we've got these wildflower mixes of the poppy and leine seeds, which you guys will be seeing a whole lot of over the next several weeks. And then again, like those other shaded umbrellas, uh different car shades or sun shades, trying to keep our residents cool throughout the summer. And uh something that can be done with Max Max the Mastadon at Western Science Center.

And then lastly, just want to share this here. This is a uh this is a palm u I guess a a palm sapling. Thank you. Uh, but the future of Hemtt is in your palm. And the messaging on this card says, "Planting this palm is more than adding a tree to the landscape. It's investing in Hemet's future. Each each palm enhances the beauty of our streets today while creating lasting shade, character, and pride for generations to come. As these trees take root, so does our shared commitment to a city that grows stronger, more vibrant, and more welcoming every year. together, palm by palm, we're shaping a helmet that future residents will be proud to call home. Uh, and really just want to thank uh thank council uh for allowing us to work on this project with you guys, but especially thanking the residents for being so involved uh throughout the research portions uh and every other step along the way has just been phenomenal. Uh, and we've done this in 46 different states and over 250 cities. But honestly, this mark, this uh this new logo that you guys have is just one of the most striking, honestly, one of the most striking that we have ever done. And we're very excited to use it for future case studies, but especially to follow along and just watch and see Hemtt continue to rise, continue to have so much success uh and momentum and see everything that you guys can continue to do. So, thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you very much. You got yours open? Yes, please. Comment from council.

Um I I just want to say that I was on this ad hoc committee with Mayor Krupa and we had so much fun and um so much um input from our own committee that we had, like Sam said, we had some business people in town. We had some uh younger entrepreneurs and um it was just a wonderful committee and all along the process they said you guys have such great participation. They said that from the beginning and again like Sam said that was from you the people that came to the different events. They came out to um the Junth they came out u to another one earlier in the year and they had surveys and um you know people participated and it was just so fun to see the result of this and we are so excited about this and of course we need to find some good grants to put all of this to use. So, we are going to be looking to um you know, have things pop up gradually. Of course, you know, you can't do it overnight, but it'll be a process. And um I think it's great and and thank you, Sam, and your your whole staff was just wonderful to work with. So, thank you. All right. Thank you very much. If you will notice, we got our new name badges tonight with the new logo on it. Very good. So, thank you. Um, they're still putting chairs out. I would ask that everyone sit find a seat because I think we're going to be here for a while

and we can accommodate everybody until we get to that magic number that we have to shut the door because of over capacity because we do have the fire chief here. So, moving on. Uh just word, uh the public hearing is going to be moved to the end of the agenda because we do have two council members that will be recusing themselves and I did not want them sitting in a room downstairs by themselves for three or four hours while we listen to testimony and comment on the public hearing. So, therefore, that's moving down to the bottom. Right now, um, we have we are going to take public comment on items not on the agenda. And I believe we have three. Yes.

And four. I have an announcement to make, Mayor. Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Council member Lodge is now with us. Yes. We have a request for council member Lodge to participate remotely under the just cause provisions under AB2449. Council member Lodge is appearing remotely due to illness which requires him to participate remotely. Okay. And that's the only statement we need. Yes.

Okay. Thank you very much and welcome council member Lodge. Uh, with that we will go into public hearing or I'm sorry, public comment on non-aggenda items. Could you please call the names of those people? Thank you, mayor. We have uh James Gregory. Is he available? Please. Gregory. Jeanie Gregory, I'm sorry. followed by Angela Hasslip Ferris. I'm calling three at a time. Go ahead and you'll have three minutes for a non-aggenda item.

Yes. And then followed by Charles Vanard. Go ahead.

Okay. My name is Jeannie Gregory. I'm the newly elected president of District 7 shuffleboard association. I am here this evening to make a plea to save hum municipal shuffleboard building at Weston Park. He MUN as we call it represents a vital part of our shuffleboard association being the only public shuffleboard facility in the area which fills the need for those who do not live in a private community. Shuffleboard is a game for all. We have players that use canes, walkers, wheelchairs, and oxygen. He MUN is a busy place with games going on weekly during league. There are four teams with 10 plus players on each team that currently play there. Our league runs from October to March. The remainder of the year we have three and four-day tournaments with him MUN as one of our host clubs. They also have fun Fridays. There are 10 venues in our league. him at MUN having the most teams of any of the venues and again the only public venue. We rotate playing at home and away weekly which means everyone in shuffleboard plays at MUN. Losing him at MUN would affect our entire league. So I ask you to please save the shuffle board building if you're interested. Our annual Saboba Classic will be March 24th through the 27th. Games will be played all day between the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at MUN and other venues, but feel free to stop by and see for yourself what shuffleboard is all about.

Thank you very much. respectively. Okay, thank you. And your your we have heard your voices. Please, no more no clapping. No clapping. We have heard your voices, ma'am. The shuffle board mun shuffle board will stay. Oh, wow. Powerful. Powerful. Okay. Next speaker,

Angela Hasslip Ferris, followed by Charles Vineyard. Good evening everyone to our honorable mayor and members of council. Um, I'm standing here, Angela Hasser, as the historian for the American Legion Post 53. To my left is my commander, and I say that proudly. My commander, Ari Williams Jr. First of all, um, I had something I wanted to say, but when Brandon got up there, that made a lot of sense to what I'm going to be talking about. In 1880, a building was erected at March Air Force Base. That building then was relocated to the city of Hett. The city of Hemtt gave us land and in 1947 the doors were open at American Legion Post 53. I don't know if everyone understands this or not, but one of the largest population of World War I and World War II veterans lived in HIT. That means some of your parents, your grandparents, and possibly your greatgrandparents walked in the doors of the American Legion Post 53. We know the economic situation that we're all in. Our po post is in dire straits. Again, that post was created in 1880. We're talking about we have the original building that was broken down into puzzle pieces and moved to him in 1947. It would be a shame if that building was now let go, not able to be housed by veterans who need the services that we attempt to support. So, I want you to understand the building is built from

the old wood that now we have um what do you call it? Um what do you say? Termites. Termites. That's what I'm trying to say. Termites eating at windows. And we're talking about this is a historical building. What a shame it would be that you would come down Florida, okay, and then go to Ramona Street and see that building gone. So, we're asking for your help. We're asking for your help to help us rebrand the American Legion Post 53 because that's a place that I chose over 5 years ago. My commander chose over four years ago because we are veterans. I served in the military for 32 years.

Wow. My commander served over 10 years and is a disabled veteran. We wanted a place to go to where we can find like-minded people that can talk our talk, walk our walk, communicate, and not be shunned or disrespected because they didn't know who we were. So, this is how we um ask for your help. We have so many activities that we're doing there, but that can only give us so much, right? We have breakfast on Tuesdays. We have karaoke. Your time is up, miss. Oh, I'm sorry. We're We'll extend We'll extend your three minutes.

Okay. I appreciate that. I'm just so passionate. I apologize. Wrap it up. Yeah.

Um, so we have an event um that's coming up this Friday. Randy and the associates, including the renowned Melvin Lee Davis, who is a bass player and a musical director for Shaka Khan. Some of you probably don't even know what I'm talking about, but if you know, you know that Shaka Khan and her band won Grammy awards. And so, we're going to have those individuals at our post this coming Friday from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. where you can come and get your groove on and you can eat a good meal. Now, with the meal, I have to let you know it's going to be corn beef and cabbage because we're celebrating St. Patrick's Day. But if you want to get that, you need to get your tickets tomorrow. So, I'll be at the post tomorrow if you want to pick up some tickets. Okay. Um, we have a Facebook page. Please follow our Facebook Facebook page and also if you like to donate um to the American Legion, we do have an opportunity for you to do that as well. So, our agitant Larry Blair is our agitant and he can give you more information if you come by our post. So, thank you for your time and thank you for allowing us um to serve you um and serve the country for God and country. Thank you. The next two speakers are Charles Vineyard and Ishmamal Gonzalez.

Hello, Charles. Hello, Charles Vineyard. Actually, I'm gonna refrain from saying anything else. I've talked to Sergeant Moat and he's handling everything. Okay. God bless everybody and uh have a good day. Thank you, Charles. Thank you.

The next two speakers are Ishmael Gonzalez followed by Sandy Casper. Hello everyone. Um, uh, council, staff, and residents of HMT. My name is Asuan Gonzalez. I'm, uh, the vice chair of the Box Springs Group of Sierra Club here in the Sanang Goro chapter. I'm also a member of the Inland Valley Alliance for Environmental Justice. I want to use this time uh as an opening statement to advocate for uh compliance with the new state laws AB98 and uh Senate Bill 415. uh they went into effect January 1st of this year and there are uh new new legislature uh legislation, excuse me, that uh aims to protect residents all across California from uh overburden of pollution uh by trucks and uh warehousing. Um I come from Rena Valley and uh we've had a workshop already where uh the public uh our constituents were able to uh provide feedback to our council and to the people uh in the traffic department in our city. Um we hope to see other uh neighbors, our surrounding neighbors um all across the Inland Empire do the same. Um we share a huge uh artery uh road artery which is Gilman Springs Road. Um that is controlled by the county from from my understanding but uh I think HMT has some you know um weight in the matter with that road. I would be um you know I would implore this council to uh see if there's any way you guys can close that corridor off to major

trucks because as it stands now it's only two lanes um there's no uh you know uh useful lighting there um and it's dangerous. I just driven it here uh today and there was a lot of traffic. It took me an extra 30 minutes just to get here. So, I think relieving uh that road of trucks might uh be beneficial for all communities uh surrounding it, including yourselves. Um I just want to uh say that there is a $50,000 penalty that the California Attorney General might uh bestow on counties or uh cities that don't comply. It's completely, you know, avoidable. I highly suggest you uh speak to your residents and see what areas of your city they don't want trucks in. Thank you so much.

Thank you. The final speaker the final speaker is Sandy Casper. Okay, I'm back. My name is Sandy Casper. I uh have been a resident of

Oh, sorry. I will make sure that you can all hear me. I've been a resident of this area since 1955. I have a lot to say and I'm not going to get to say it because I can't stay awake that late. I believe that it is very very disrespectful of the city council to I'm sorry that two of you have to be recused tonight but there's a lot of people here to talk and I think they should have gotten to go first before you got recused. Thank you very much and good night. Good night Sandy.

That concludes public comments on non-aggenda items. Okay, moving on. We will go to the receive and file. Are there any questions or comments from council on the warrant registers or payroll period payments this period? Mayor, I would like to point out Tiffany is pretty responsive when I ask about this and

you need to move your mic. Um, I love the fact we've used BMW Pipe, Annie, Kosard and Fox, Curry Copy, FM Lock, Hemtt Blueprint, Hemtt Fence, even though they're in Winchester. He True Value, Hemmet Jesse Auto upholstery, they're in Sano. Um, Napa, O'Reilly, Pacman, and Tumi. It's out of the city, but it is in the county. Pins and Needles, Embroidery, Roalos, Sherwin Williams, Shine City, and our sto uh staple store, Tim Moran for the uh auto. So, give them some love. I think that's awesome.

Thank you. Okay, any other further questions or comments? Seeing none, we will receive and file these and move on to the consent calendar. All consent calendar items will be acted upon simultane simultaneously unless a council member you have to bring it closer. Well, I can hear you. Unless a council member requests separate consideration. Council, are there any items you would like to pull for separate consideration? No. Nope. I want to get to the real

Okay. All right. I will entertain a motion to approve all of the items on the consent calendar. Oh, wait a minute. I did have one. I'm sorry. Okay. Um I I couldn't find this two weeks ago, but then I read through it again. And on 9C, I'd like to pull that one. Okay, we will pull 9 C. And can I have a motion for to approve all of the other items? I'll make the motion to approve all other items from uh everything but 9C. Do I have a second? I'll second.

Could we have a roll call vote? Council member Clark, yes. Council member Lodge, yes. Council member Peterson, yes. Mayor Pro Tim Malice, yes. And Mayor Krupa, yes. Okay. Item 9 C.

Okay. In 9C, the art in public places, um, it's talking about removal or alterations of, uh, some kind of a piece of artwork that is put in by a, um, property owner. And it says it has to be replaced for vandalism or removal by that person. And I don't think that is 100% fair because if you have a development and they put in a a beautiful sculpture of some type, for example, and somebody steals it or mutilates it, I don't think that they should be responsible for covering the full cost of that again. So, I would like um us to look at that a little further and um not put all of that expense back on them. So, I would like to continue that item then. Can we?

Uh so if if the council wanted to direct staff to prepare an amendment and reset this for second reading uh with language uh that would clarify that the original purchaser is not responsible for the replacement cost. If the replacement is due to the actions of a third party or act of God, we can make that change and it would be on second reading for the next meeting. Council member I would move to do that. Okay. Then we just pull it. Do we vote on that one? Okay. That's a motion and I will second that. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Let's do a roll call vote. Council member Clark. Yes. Council member Lodge.

Yes. Council member Peterson. Yes. Mayor Pro Timalis. I have a question first before I make my vote. If I voted no on this um on the initial vote, do I have to even vote? You have to vote no. You still have to vote. How come you said no? But you you could vote no if you wanted to. You don't have to vote yes. Okay. But you could you could continue to vote no on this if you want or abstain. You could also abstain. I'll vote no. Yes. No. And Mayor Koopa. Yes. Trying to make it fun. Yes. Okay.

Um, may I ask who was the maker and the seconder? It was council member Peterson and council member Lodge. Me. Yes. I second. Okay. Vote passes.

Moving on to discussion items. Staff, may we have a staff report on item 10A, consideration for allocations program year 2026, community development block grant funding. Who is giving that? Here is a presentation. There it is. Put the mic closer to you.

Good evening, council. Tonight we have a presentation regarding the consideration of allocations for the 26 program year for the community development block grant. Next slide. Do I control that? The community development block grant or as we will refer to it tonight as CDBG is a program administered by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development otherwise known as HUD. HUD provides annual grants on a formula basis to states, cities, and counties to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing in a suitable living environment and by expanding economic opportunities principally for low and moderate income persons. The purpose of CDBG is to carry out a wide range of community development activities directed towards revitalizing neighborhoods, economic development, and providing improved community facilities and services with maximum feasible priority given to activities that benefit low and moderate income persons. The city is responsible for developing its own programs and funding priorities within CDBG and HUD requirements as well as monitoring monitoring subreipients of the funds awarded under this grant. The program supports the council's adopted objectives of enhancing quality of life. CDBG funding is specifically aimed at improving living conditions for low to moderate income individuals through partnerships and collaborations. CDBG's focus on considerate consolidated planning strengthens relationships among all levels of governments and the private sector, enhancing community development efforts. Additionally, the flexibility of CDBG encourages meaningful community engagement by empowering residents and neighborhoods to design and implement strategies that

address their unique needs and priorities. For program year 2026, which started July 1, 2026, we received 17 applications. Four of the applications were city for city operations and 13 applications were from nonprofit agencies. There is a planning administration component of the CDB program and there is no requirement for an application for that aspect. HUD has not released the final allocation numbers for program year 26. So we're going off an estimate based on the funding allocation for program year 2526 that we are currently in. For program year 25, we received $894,66. So we are using that number as an estimate for program year 2627 allocation. When the final numbers are released from HUD later this year, usually around May or June, we will need to reallocate some of the money depending on if the actual allocation decreases or increases. In the staff report, we have proposals on how to increase or decrease depending on what final allocations will be. So the allocation method here's a breakdown of the allocation method is between three different categories of project. HUD allows 20% of your current year's allocation which is that 80 thou $89,694,66. You can use 20% maximum to fund your administration. So typically city of he administration which funds parts of the salaries of a finance position and it also goes towards consultants, office supplies, notices and advertising and any kind of administration expense we

have with the program. The remaining part of administration goes towards fair housing council which is a requirement of the program. The next category is public services. CDBG allows 15% of the $894,66 to go towards public services. This is the portion where a lot of the nonprofit agencies apply for funding. They all have to share in the small 15%. Naturally, we receive a lot of requests for funding in this category. But this category also has the most limited funds that we can allocate. The third category, economic development or housing and public facilities, has no cap. You could spend your whole allocation on this category. This is the main priority for HUD. So, as you can see, out of the $894,66, we can spend up to $178,786 for administration, up to 134,000 for public services, and we can use any amount for the third category. for the administration allocation. With the $178,66 we will have available in this category, we are able to fully fund fair housing at their requested amount of $49,000 and cover a portion of our administration in the finance department. Public service allocation for public services. We received 13 applications totaling a request of $375,250 of funding. We can only fund 134,000 of that based on the 15% cap for this category. The ad hoc committee reviewed all applications and prioritized funding recommendations based on community needs, alignment with CDBG objectives, project readiness, and the applicant's ability to successfully implement the

program. The ad hoc recommended funding eight of the 13 applicants for economic development housing public services category. We received four applications. Three from the city of HMT and one from a nonprofit, the Rose of Sharon. Unfortunately, the Rose of Sharons did not submit a completed application and was therefore disqualified. Two of the city of HMET applications were for public works sidewalk product projects, but after a conversation with the public works department, they felt it was better to have one fully funded project as opposed to two partially funded products and requested that we withdraw the request for the sidewalk project at Charlton and fully fund the acacia sidewalk project. The final application from the community development, The final application was from community development to fund the senior home repair projects. That is all I have.

Okay. Do we have questions or comments uh for staff on this item? I do have a comment. We can start. Uh Joe and I were working with Carara. And I got to tell you, I enjoyed my time with Carara and all of the information she gave us, plus the consultant that that wonderful lady Joe was interesting. I think he stepped in dog. Oh, that wasn't a sight survey. We had a little bit of fun. But anyways, big beautiful backyard and only one little spot and I stepped on it.

You found it. Um, high expectant development h the housing services. We did a site survey and she was phenomenal. Yes. at this time, you know, we've got that Mr. Shirley running around in California and we were all sitting there going, "Gee, we don't really know a lot of these services. Should we be funding them? Are they legit?" And so, we just chose one out of the group. And I think we should do that every year because I think we came away and I really encouraged her

uh to come in and and do a presentation to the council because there are a lot of needs and services that she has and I came away other than making sure your shoe was clean to get in my car. Um we had a grand time. We learned a lot and it that was one of my favorite ad hocs and thank you Cara. I like working with you. And not only that, she had a beautiful story on how she started and it was an awesome story. Heartfelt. So it was it was good. Yeah, we could tell that it was from the heart. So um good job. Okay.

Can you go back to the blue slide, the one with all the the big category? Can I Okay. So on on the staff report it says 22,500 for high expectation and here it only says 15,000 15. So on the staff report that's the Ramsey recommendation column. It was 15

and then on the ad hoc column it's 15. So the Ramsey group is our consultant and when uh the consultant and I reviewed the application prior to meeting with the ad hoc committee, the consultant and I came up with recommendations to present to ad hoc and then once ad hoc. Okay. After after the city manager's remark, I apologize because my slide was not overall. So thank you. Any other questions or comments? Council member Lodge, do you have any questions or comments? I'm good. I'm good. Thank you. Okay. Entertain a motion to approve.

I move we approve the C, D, and BG funding recommendation. And I'll second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Can we have a roll call vote? you. Council member Clark, yes. Council member Lodge, yes. Council member Peterson, yes. Mayor Pro Tim Males, yes. And Mayor Krupa, yes. That motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much.

Thank you, council. And at this time we are going to do a five minute recess so two of our council members can recuse themselves. And yes you can. So we are recessed for five minutes. Oh, I thought it was uh

I'm not even You're not even on. Yeah, you're on. Okay, now we're on. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we are back in session. Can I yell? No. City clerk, would you read please read the instructions for public hearing procedure?

Yes, mayor. The city council's procedures for public hearing will be as follows. Staff will provide a report and clarification of items presented. The public hearing will be open for comments for those in favor and or in opposition of the item followed by rebuttal to any comments made. The public hearing will be closed and then the city manager res may respond to any questions raised by the public. The public will not have the opportunity to respond. Discussion will be brought back to city council for direction or action. Thank you, mayor. Thank you very much. And before we get started on this, I'm going to remind you all that resolution 4545 is in effect for all meetings and remind you that clapping, whistling, stamping of feet or other acts that are going to disrupt or delay the procedure are asked do not do that. We're going to try and streamline this so everybody who has signed for signed up to speak gets a chance to speak. And if not, the city manager is going to be buying breakfast burritos at 8:00 in the morning. You're all invited. You're all here going to still be here.

So, uh, with that, I'm going to first turn this over to the city attorney for statements.

Uh, thank you, mayor. So, uh, I'm going to take this opportunity. I'm going to reread the uh report I made out of close session uh a month ago uh because I think we have a few more people uh in the audience today and I think that uh you know it might answer a question that I'm sure we'll hear which is why are we here today on this project. Um the the city reported out a month ago uh settlement of potential litigation involving the Newand Simpson warehouse project. Uh, the city had good faith negotiations with HSL Hemtt Land LLC and Hemtt 223 LLC to revolve claims from those entities of procedural bias and constitutional due process violations that would have exposed the city to potential liability. The settlement was designed to resolve the allegations that the city council's previous denial in July 2025 was tainted by the participation of biased decision makers. Rather than engaging in a prolonged and costly legal battle that would have exposed the city to potential significant monetary damages, the city agreed to a procedural reset. Uh the primary thing that we agreed to was a denovo public hearing, which is what we have today on March 10th, 2026. Uh this the settlement also involved the voluntary recusal of council members Lodge and council member Clark uh both of whom are recused from this hearing today and have left the dis. Uh it also involved the full indemnification of those entities in favor of the city against any third-party challenges to the settlement or the subsequent hearing process and a release of all the claims that had been asserted. Uh the city recognizes the significant public discourse surrounding the project just looking out into the crowd today. Uh which is why I had been directed on February 10th and why I've been asked again to read the statement here. Uh to be clear, the settlement was not an approval of the project. Uh it was a decision to protect the taxpayers of the city of Hemtt and avoid a highstakes

civil rights lawsuit that could have potentially drained the city's general fund as well as to ensure that all applicants, all property owners and our residents get a fair hearing before the city council. Lastly, it ensures legal finality rather than potentially having a lawsuit subject to appeals. We can have the hearing today and get a decision yes or no on the project. Uh the city remains committed to the transparent process. So, we're going to be getting a uh staff report uh from staff. We'll be hearing from the applicant uh and their team. Then, we will have public comment uh for all those who are interested in speaking followed by a rebuttal from the applicant team to address any concerns that were raised. Uh something that occurred at the the last hearing and I just want to address from the get-go. Uh I've already heard a lot of clapping, a lot of cheering. I I understand that folks want to express their support for what's being said. Um, however, everyone's entitled to have their voice heard. They're entitled to their opinion. Uh, booing people who are speaking, clapping so that people can't hear their names called is going to make this process take longer and could result in an inv uh the an invalidation of the decisions that's made today. So, if we all want to go home knowing what the decision is, let's follow the procedural rules that the mayor is going to be enforcing. And I'll turn it back over to you, mayor.

Thank you very much. And I would say I know some of you have signs. Signs are fine. You can have them on the floor. You can have them in your seat. Please do not raise them above your head to block anybody else's view or the view of the cameras. We want to work through this in the best way we possibly can and get be very civil in this matter and I know it's an extremely serious and it's an emotional matter and it's it's very important. So therefore, Mon'nique, can we have the presentation from staff?

Thank you, mayor, members of the city council and the community. Monnique Alanise Flair, community development director. Uh just to introduce this this a public hearing to consider a revised Simpson warehouse project. The general plan amendment GPA 20203, conditional use permit 20226 and tenative parcel map 38800 map 2308 to allow construction of one industrial building total totaling 884,760 ft. Tenative parcel map and associated improvements. This is a renoticed hearing from the city council meeting of July 14th, 2025 in which the city council considered the amended project. The applicant and their team is here uh EPD Jeremy Kraut will be presenting um this this evening uh followed by the applicant uh Greg Lansing. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And before we get started uh on the applicant's uh presentation uh public disclosures by council, I would like to disclose that I had a meeting with Mr. Lancing and Mr. Kov co Kak uh with Mon'nique in attendance on February 10th in my office at city hall. I too had a meeting with Mr. Lancing and his associate and I believe it was um darn my mind went blank. Mon'nique in the office with us when we had the meeting. Thank you.

I also did meet with the two gentlemen on a uh a small meeting and Mon'nique was present.

Thank you very much. Okay, we'll go on to the applicant can make his presentation. Thank you. Uh Jeremy Kraut, EPD. Again, not the applicant, but the preparer of the EIR document. Um I'm here to do a overview of the project. I know this is a repeat. Um, so at risk of sounding like a windup toy that repeats the same thing, I'll try to go through and briefly just the overview of the the project um that you all know about and some of the findings from the environmental document as a reminder. Happy to go into more detail if there's questions, but uh we'll go through this uh quickly in the meantime. Uh so again, Simpson Road project uh this presentation is very similar to what I I gave uh back in July and so I'll again I'll zoom through it. Uh so the existing site as we see here uh is as a reminder the revised version of the project that was presented in July. Uh there was uh the the prior project that was presented uh prior to July had uh another building on the site and then truck parking. Those have been removed. So the um site here is is in in highlight there is the uh the outline of the project itself and uh we have here it's 44 acres uh general plan of mixed use. Uh that general plan of mixed use does have a fairly large size of of industrial planned within that land use category. Uh in fact it's uh the project itself is a a small factor now with the reduced size compared to what was planned for that mixeduse category. However, in working with staff the uh with staff direction the general plan amendment was added to go from mixed use to business

park. Um and that's consistent also with the zoning um that is uh presented as well. That's the zoning is remaining and uh the the zoning itself of business park does allow for warehouses uh manufacturing um of various sorts and utility facilities. So there's a a range of uses within that. Um and then as far as the project overview again the the project itself has been reduced to one building. Uh so it went removed the 307,000 square feet that was previously planned. It is now the 884,760t building uh single building and uh so this is the extent of that in that in that slide there and then as far as the tenant is concerned uh previously in that hearing uh we did speak to a tenant or I should say the applicant spoke to the tenant uh the environmental document itself analyzed uh an agnostic uh tenant meaning anybody that has a similar type of uh of facility or function that is warehouse or logistics related and that was because we wanted to analyze the worst case uh condition and that's typical of an environmental document under the California Environmental Quality Act. So that was analyzed allowing for really any tenant within that category of logistics, warehouse and other industrial uses and some manufacturing was considered as well. So all those were considered in the environmental impact report. uh the tenant itself that was previously planned is not planned at this time. Uh but you'll hear more from uh the applicant on the tenant. I believe that there is been there has been discussions with the tenant of a similar nature and character uh with um previously again what we considered in the prior environmental document was uh hundreds of jobs. So this in this case over 500 jobs uh permanent jobs would be planned on the site with this type of of use and tenant that is being considered.

I'll skip through to landscaping. As a quick reminder uh from the last presentation, there was a overall landscape condition that would remain uh and again even with the shrinking of the project footprint. Uh the plan was to still do uh landscaping along Simpson and Warren, the full landscaping. Uh so that is still planned. So really and I guess that this is a a view or a simulated view of the intersection there to show the the extent of landscaping to with the intention of hiding uh the building and the massing of the project. Uh the project also had considered so in addition to environmental impacts we look at the benefits that are being proposed as part of the project. So the benefits that are listed there are ones that were presented at the last hearing. Again those have not changed. Uh and again you'll hear more about that as uh Mr. Mr. Lansing comes up from his perspective. But what we considered in the prior analysis was the Hemet modelers air park uh access road dedication. That's again on the west side of the project uh on that left side on that screen that you had before. So that is still considered as part of this project as well. uh the Salt Creek uh regional running trail uh funding and constru funding or construction again depending on the timing uh should this move forward when that uh the city desires to move that forward or just funding to allow for that construction at a later date. Uh that's on the south side facing Dominic and then the welcome to Hemet welcome to the city Hemmet uh monument sign and of course if there was a consideration for the desire for the the branding that was presented today that could be in integrated into that design of the sign uh $75,000 city of EMTT uh traffic signal synchronization project contribution. So, as part of the project, want to make sure that existing signals that are not impacted or changed as a result of this project would also sync well with uh the new signals or other improvements. And that's important because there's obviously a lot of

construction going on and uh ongoing construction in various areas and we want to make sure that the signalization is considered and and linked together. and then um over $300,000 contribution to the art and public places fund and again that's in consideration for the art ordinance that that was discussed earlier and then further uh as far as other community benefits from a physical other physical components to the project. So repairing uh uh we have a number of numbers here but like thousand foot linear feet of asphalt infrastructure. Number one is that Simpson West uh identification there uh repairing thousand linear feet of asphalt infrastructure uh as it loops up to Warren. And then so these are just again numbered there with the the corresponding color just to identify some of the improvements that would be planned recognizing that truck impacts do do occur on roads and ensuring that the roads would be properly uh built to support that uh the infrastru uh funding additional and I mentioned the running trail that was already mentioned the the sign I already mentioned one additional thing that I don't know if we touched on the last meeting that applicant will touch on as well as a 10-year uh maintenance agreement for over two miles of road, which is something that we don't see very often, but it is something that is recognized as important for applicant to contribute and ensure that the roads in this area are maintained at a a quality level to accommodate the trucks and then community additional community benefits. Just to make sure that we touch on the ones that were mentioned before, from the standpoint of the jobs themselves, they're similar in terms of the what is assumed or expected to occur in this uh type of project. Those identified again over 500 with a income of over average of about 63,000 uh for warehouse jobs and 55,000 for administrative jobs. Uh we have uh again

similar because this similar building and and uh development scale the 600 union jobs as well. were for construction is also assumed or is identified. Uh quickly go over this just the additional funding that would occur from the project itself. These are the estimated uh funding impact fees that would be occurring with uh public works, building safety, utility, water, sewer, flood control in the school district of over a million in total about 2.2 million. Um and those would be going to the city school district and and agencies. Um just quickly touching on the SQA side of things uh air quality impacts as a reminder did not have a significant and unavoidable impact in the EIR. Um there were uh we identified locations of uh housing through through the project existing housing that is um over a thou 1,700 feet away to the west. That's the closest residence but u significantly more to the northeast. noise level uh construction and on-site operational noise was not significant. It did meet the city's uh noise ordinance. Uh however, on Warren because of the level of traffic there and noise levels that are currently existing, there is a the threshold is reduced and so a three decibel increase uh would result in a significant impact that would occur in virtually any project of any scale at this site. So this impact that was identified would happen with retail with a large-scale residential typically of that size. Uh so this is a typical noise impact that we would see in in situations like this. So that was one of the uh significant unavoidable impacts. Uh truck traffic just to make sure we touch on that is to we did highlight where the trucks would be going. Um and we we split the the from the modeling in the work in the extensive work with your engineering team identified that the uh the uh distribution of those trucks

Warren Simpson domini were occurring in about three trucks max in the the peak hours is really the high highest level in a in a peak hour that would occur and so that's what would be really just experienced on the on uh Simpson and Warren roads three trucks max uh for that hour in that peak period. And then SQA findings um I mentioned the significant unavoidable impacts. U I mentioned the noise level uh is one. Um the transportation being the VMT impacts. That's another one which is typical of the project again this size and in a community of like Hemet where it's more uh it doesn't have as much urban activity. That is a a vehicle miles traveled impact is very typical and that is one additional impact. greenhouse gas again of any project size uh whether it's retail, industrial or others that you would expect the greenhouse gas impact in those cases. So that's a expected uh impact significant unavoidable impact and then agricultural resources again with this being an agricultural site uh that the a impact was identified as well and that would occur with any development of this site. the other impacts were either mitigated to less than significant level or were found less than significant mitigation measures were also still uh included in the significant but unavoidable impacts as well. And then as far as the I mentioned a lot of these improvements and and uh elements of the project that were considered as part of the project in addition to the impacts uh with the financial uh contributions and impacts that would through the fiscal impact analysis that was completed uh the long-term business uh uh that would come into the city with the jobs um and then looking at uh the hiring of local I think there was identification of that in the prior project as well and then of course the contribution to the uh city and and other areas for in the school district as well uh would contribute to

the project. And I think that's it for me. Um so I'll turn it over to uh Mr. Lancing to address his comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Honorable mayor, honorable council members, thank you. My name is Greg Lancing, Lancing Companies. Uh, grateful for being here tonight. So, thank you. Um, I think that it's important to point out that I I've been doing land development 44 years, mostly in the Inland Empire. Um, we'll get into some of the projects in just a second, but what's happening tonight is very important. It's very important. Uh, I have a big stake here. Large land owner, contributed a lot of capital to this area and to the city. Uh, but last time when there was a denial in July last year, the next day or two days later, I received no short of four or five phone calls uh from capital groups and they were shocked. Um, how do I They were shocked to see that Hammet, which is an inland city, ostensibly could use some jobs and growth, um, has a fairly significant homeless problem, has a pretty high unemployment rate. And they were rather shocked and they said, "What's going on? Do we need to not consider Hammond in the future?" And I said, "Well, hold on a minute. Hold on. We're working on this. So why is that important? Because everything is driven by capital. Most of your significant projects, the capital comes from out of the region. In other words, if someone's going to build a hospital, as people have requested, and trust me, I'd love to have a hospital. If anyone's going to champion to try and get a hospital, it's going to be me probably more than anybody. And I'll explain that in a few minutes. Um, trade school, same thing. large park, whatever it is, most of the

capital comes from LA, New York, Phoenix, etc. And that's just the reality of the world. And so, capital's watching. And so, we've got to really send the right message. It ties in with your branding tonight. Are we open for business or not? Um, I just want to talk a little bit about who I am, who my company is, because I don't think anyone in the room knows that. Very few people. Uh, so my dad passed away when I was 21. I had to take over a lot of responsibility for my mom and my family and I started a land development business. He was a real estate broker. It's kind of cool. We have a sign from 1967 in Ontario. Was kind of neat. My dad was selling land. Um, and at that time I made a decision to put my name on the door. My name is on everything. Lancing is my name. Always has been, always will be till I'm gone. be my kids' names. That means a lot to me. Means my word is important. It means what I set out to do is important. Means the legacy I leave for a community of Hemet for other communities is super important to me. And even though I was 21, 22 years old, my advisor, my attorney said, "No, no, call it global development. Call it global development. That way if something goes wrong, you just file bankruptcy." I said, "No, that ain't me. That's just not me." So I just thought it was important to point that out. This is a one of our signature projects. This is the entrance to a project called Skyborn. Skyborn is a 2,000 unit master plan in the city of Desert Hot Springs. That's significant because years ago, Desert Hot Springs had a horrible reputation. It was just crimeridden, drug ridden, homeless, bad. My friend Jim Kos and a guy went in, we bought this project, we turned it around. It was a legacy project. It was so bad that Dear Horton left. They walked didn't walk away. We bought it, but they couldn't make it work. We

fought through it. We worked with the city of Desa Hot Springs. We helped them come up with, in this case, it was creative. They wanted to tax the land at an exorbitant rate. We fought that. We won. But we convinced them and worked with them. They were one of the first cities that passed a cannabis tax and indoor cultivation, and they've continued to make millions a year off of that. that has allowed them to do art festivals, clean up the streets, hire more police officers, and we actually helped them draft of all things our art and public places ordinance and we helped them because of our entrance is gorgeous. Um, we were kind of the catalyst for doing that. Likewise, I own a project in Lake Senor. It's called Alber Hill. It's a 2,000 acre master plan. It's arguably the nicest community in all of Lake Elsenor. And I don't think anyone would probably oppose that that statement. And we're developing that out. We get really creative, my team and I. We have solved problems that David Murdoch, my predecessor, couldn't solve. We've solved infrastructure problems. We've solved problems where they needed to build a bridge. We've I don't want to get too deep into it because we don't have so much time. Uh we just got through building a $10 million water booster station that's going to serve the entire northern part of Lake Elsenor. So to say we're a fabric of every committee we're in is an understatement. I think our friends here, a lot of them live in Solara. You may recall I was the original developer of Rancho Diamonte along with Jim, a couple other guys. And when that project was approved, it was called Paige Ranch. And it was not a good plan. It had, I believe, no disrespect to mobile homes, but it had approval for like 1,500 to 2,000 mobile homes. no parks, no grid streets. It was just a lousy plan. I came in with my team and we fixed it. We made it what I would

consider the nicest development in the city of Hemet. And I think a lot of people would agree with that. And in fact, I think most of the people behind me would agree with that. Even the ones that are here to oppose us. So, um, we also are doing a lot of infrastructure. This happens to be nearby. It's not in the city of Hammet, but we just got through build. It's not quite done. Excuse me. We are building a sewer line down 79 from Stson down to Olive. It's about a two and a half mile stretch. It's a $2 and half million dollar investment. We also are widening with LAR. We've sold the project to LAR, but we paid for it and we are widening Highway 79 from Stson North for half a mile. So, you'll see a full half width of that road. So, we're making our contribution is an understatement. Just to show how long I've been doing this. This is Meny North. This is an assemblage of 1300 acres, 13 property owners. Sits off of uh Meny Road and Highway 74. It's in the county. I got together 36 37 years ago with a gentleman named Marian Ashley. You probably know him. He was a county supervisor, wellrespected businessman in the community. And I said, "Mary, we need" and I was 27 or 26 at the time. I said, 'We need to coales together and get the owners, the Motts, some of the other families together and plan this because it's hodge podge. Nobody wants hodge podge. I don't want a 40 acre and a 10 acre and a this. So, we put together 1300 acres and we developed a beautiful master plan that's still being developed today under the guidelines. Similarly, Winchester Hills, I used to own 250 acres there. Again, this goes back 35 years or so. We assembled 26 owners. I did my team and we put the owners together. Same thing with the idea that to solve infrastructure, to

solve a cohesive planning, to make it a really neat community, you have to do that. It's a lot of work. And I think most people who drive from the freeway here going down doone Parkway, I think most people would agree it's pretty nice. You know, the roads are wide, they're landscaped, and so on and so forth. I'm saying that because 44 years in this business, a lot of bruises, but we do things right. My name's on the door, my name's behind everything. Who does the city of Hammet want to coales with? Who does the city want to go to when they want to plan out their future? A retired nurse, no disrespect, a an accountant or someone who's been doing this for 40 years, you know? It's like that's what we do. So again, I'm Jim and I, a couple other partners are ostensibly the largest land owners in the city are certainly one of them. We own 540 acres in and around this area. Um the original acquisition of Ranchid Monte plus we've acquired several hundred acres since then. Um the part that you see in yellow, light yellow, we have a proposal in for 873 single family homes there. It'll be similar to the Solar development, not identical, but similar. And we'll have monument entries and we will enjoy your art and public places that will improve over half a mile. So, so Warren Road from that pink property which is owned by a Dr. hoe from that property to the railroad tracks is about 3/4 of a mile almost. That's going to be a full buildout within probably a year and a half. It depends on how quickly we get through the city. We did have Jim

and I most of you had a meeting with the city staff and a DRC or P development review meeting and it went really well. So kudos to your staff. I want to you know thank you for that good staff you have. Um, also on this map I want to point out on the right side, the kind of beige orange color, that's 94 acres. On that partial, we're planning also detached houses, but very small lot. They're called motor court or courtyard. You see some of them in Winchester. And what that does, it's still a single family detached house, very small yard, but that allows people who can't quite afford the other house. It's about usually about 80,000 maybe $100,000 less expensive. So, it's just another option that's also done high quality. We're calling that one Stallion Ridge. So, I envision a horse out in the front, a stallion at the entrance, you know, and that would we would with that one, we would improve um the east side of Warren going down. But there's a caveat. The problem is Dr. Ho owns 150 acres in pink. I've tried to buy it. He's been very difficult in the past. In the last year or so, he's gotten a lot easier. He's getting up there, right? Like a lot of us. And so, I think there's something to be done with him in the near future. At the very least, I think I can finally get him to cooperate. Why is that important? Well, look at Warren Road. You see how Warren Road comes off to opening Parkway and you go and you stop at Simpson. Should I use my pointer? Is are you guys are you following? No. Okay, hold on. I think I have a pointer.

Okay,

I'll try not to get anyone. Oh, it doesn't work. It's too light. Anyhow, I'm sorry. Uh, but the pink partial, you see that blue dash line? That needs to be No one told me this. The city hasn't said we need to do this, Greg. This is what we do. We need to solve these things. That needs to be a four-way intersection because look at that. You turn right when you go across the bridge. You turn right onto Simpson. You make that that loop. That's just not safe. It's not a logical road. It's not logic. So, our plan would be to work with Dr. Hoe and straighten that out as kind of roughly how you see that dash line. Create an intersection that also benefits what we envision as our future little retail site that you've seen some um renderings of at the southeast and southwest corner of Simpson and Warren where we are planning retail. We've already we just got through building a Dutch Brothers on our project in Reno. We've been talking about Dutch brothers about this site and they like it, but they don't like it until that road gets cut through. That's Yeah. So, we have obviously fair amount of opposition like we did last time. I just want to point out a couple things. I think most of people are good-hearted people. I think most of them are pragmatic. We've dealt with a lot of we've gone door to door. you'll hear from one of our folks went door to door and but I'm concerned that a lot of the folks have been gaslighted. I saw a post just yesterday by Roy here, Roy Mills, and it was a YouTube video about the Kirby building. I know that's going to come up, so I'm going to talk about it. And he says, "Oh, the Kirby building has sold and it's going to be a migrant shelter." 100% not true. So, I I like to keep things as factual as we can. Keep it logic logical. Um, Kirby has not been sold for for that use. They are gonna Rialto is still involved. Nuland is still an owner and they brought in a third owner. That's why it might have seen a transfer and they are still going to put in a similar use that they had

proposed to you folks originally. That should be open in about six weeks to eight weeks. They said they had to reshuffle their logistics and all you know their supply chain if you will. So, wanted to clear that one up. also another one of our kind of leaders if you will Jean Fien's our here so she had posted a thing on social media I was told I don't do much social media but it had trucks belching out smoke and all kinds of stuff I was like that might have been true 30 years ago but trucks are mostly clean energy I mean the last time you got behind a bus or a truck and smoke was blowing in your face it they're just they can't get into the port of Long Beach to pick up goods if they're not a clean energy truck. Doesn't mean zero emission, but it does mean clean burning. So, moving forward, you know, what I do means a lot to me and how people feel about means a lot to me. And so, I don't like that people are not happy. That's not doesn't make me feel good at all. But I feel like I've done everything humanly possible to to to make people feel better. You know, our project that we're talking about tonight is going to be threequarters of a mile from Salara. That's four times almost five times the state AB98, which is the most strict in the in the country, by the way. And I think we've addressed all their issues. They talked a lot about air quality. A lot of them got up last time and really tried to strike a chord with the council by saying they're going to die of cancer because of this building. I found that kind of offensive because I've had cancer. In fact, I just am celebrating five years in remission. So, I think technically I see my doctor next week. I think I'm cancer free. I think that's how they they do it. But thank you.

Come on. You got to clap for cancerree. Anyhow, so I think I I I I found a little offensive, but moving forward, I think it's important as a developer, as a human being, is important to me that we're doing everything we can. And we have done studies and we have in all of our reports, this building being here will be more healthy than not. And let me explain that because right now imagine 500 people leaving HMT driving to Fontana, driving to Rialto, driving the average is I think 45 minutes what I heard they're using cars that don't have as clean energy as the trucks. So goods coming in from the port in these clean trucks are and you can look it up, you can Google it, you can do, you know, we have reports, you can read them all day long, but just let's put our common sense on, right? It's common sense. You're going to have cars, 500 people leaving the town, not spending their money here, by the way, and having a less lesser quality of life, but you're also going to have a healthier air quality. And in fact, you can look air quality in the Inland Empire has improved significantly in the LA, again, all kinds of studies. We have lots of people here on the computer. You can research it. I you know, I'm not going to teach you this. You already know this. One of the other things that folks talked about last time was I don't want to look at a building. Well, I mean, you know, people don't want to look at your house. I mean, that's just that doesn't seem like a real solid argument to me. But the city even went further and said, you know what, let's pass art in public places. I like that because that's what we did in Desert Hot Springs. So, this project is going to pay about 300,000 towards that or beautify the building. We from my understanding the building will be barely visible because of the landscape

burm and the trees and if it's if it's visible then we can put a lot of art. We actually have a kind of a concept of a mural. It's really beautiful. It could tie in with this branding you're talking about. That'd be kind of cool. Um but there's a lot of things we could do and I believe it's up to the playing director. So we'll be sitting down with the playing director, right? That's kind of come up with some really cool stuff. Not afraid to do that. So, we talked a little bit about this, the traffic. I'm not going to belabor it. Jeremy already covered it. I think when you boil it down to folks, three trucks an hour at peak time on Warren Road. And to me, I don't even think it'll be that many because we all know again using logic, when Highway 79 gets built, which they're already talking to us about coming through, trucks are going to go 79 to 74 to the 215. They're not going to want to go up Warren at all. So, but even now with before 79's built, we're showing one truck every 20 minutes on average at peak. So, I'd like to point out here again, we've tried to take in everyone's concerns, residents, community, council. Uh, on this map, you see roads outlined in yellow. Okay? Over the next few years, I'll probably be building most of those roads. But regardless, I've committed, and you can condition us tonight, I will repair those roads for 10 years. And that is a two-mile unheard of two-mile stretch. If you look from the county line on Simpson, you come around, you go to the curve, which again hopefully in the near future we can get that segment all the way up to the railroad tracks and then that segment down to Dominiconi. So that's a 10-year commitment.

We talked a little bit about fiscal last time. I'm not going to spend too much time on it. This facility will generate a net positive in the 250,000 just the building itself. Once we develop the retail next to it, which you've seen the concepts for, it starts generating like $2 million plus a year in revenue to the city. These things are all kind of one thing after another, right? Domino effects happen in a good way and they happen in a bad way. I want them to happen in a good way. And right now, this project helps pay for infrastructure. It helps bring jobs, revenue, and it's a catalyst for what I'm trying to do is bring like a Hilton Garden in right there on the corner. I'm trying to bring a Dutch Brothers that requires some people to to be working nearby. I know a lot of people here are probably going to want to stop at Dutch Brothers. I don't blame them. But, um, the other thing is when we do have this tenant, we have a proposal. We We're signing a lease. We expect to sign a lease. Um, honestly, I don't know the company. The broker tells me it's a Fortune 500 company, and I told them I'd like to have a retail component to it. So, we're hoping. They're telling me it's similar to the Sketchers building or similar. It has some uh in uh what do you call assembly, some uh distribution, obviously, some fulfillment, and and some retail, we think, but I can't guarantee that right now. But I'm going to push hard for a retail component because that'll complement the retail next door that we're doing. Um, I think it's really important to point this out. A lot of the residents are from Solar. When they bought their home, every one of them had to sign a disclosure and waiver. And in that disclosure, it says that they are aware, you have to read it, I can't read it. They're aware that there's industrial commercial land within one mile of their house. And it

goes on to say this one happens to be Jean Fenza, I think, signed that one. Excuse me, lost my place here. Oh. Um, anyhow, so they all the Salar residents signed a disclosure. They were aware of the fact that there's industrial land nearby and I would just ask that they reflect on that because if you sign something, you should kind of stick with it. as this one was signed by Jean. There's I have one from everybody in the community there.

So, I just think people should honor their word and honor their their signature. Uh again, when you saw it last year, the Kirby Street building Rialto had 1,200 or,00 applicants in one day. I've been doing this a long time. I've never seen that. That was impressive. Out of those roughly 800 800 I believe were residents. We have a list of the the ones that we've been contacting. There's about 450 500 that we've been trying to contact. A lot of them I believe may have sent in letters of support. They want to work. These people want to work you know and I hear people talk about jobs and well we want highpaying jobs. You need all jobs. All jobs are good jobs for people who need it. And you know, some people aren't qualified to work as a doctor or a engineer or technician. They still want to support their family though. So here's the list. And Gus, just scroll down. Thank you. So you could see there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. And these are your local residents. These are your neighbors. These are folks who live in the community. And you know, imagine John Smith. I'm picking a name. He's not on there. I'm just using John Smith because I don't want to pick someone's name. You know, he doesn't have to drive to Fontana 45 minutes every day. He gets to come home. He gets to come home at a decent hour. Hey, maybe he takes his kid to soccer instead of leaving it for his wife or his daughter or whatnot. Maybe he picks up flowers for his wife because he doesn't have to spend as much dang money on gas.

Mr. Lancing. Yes. Can you talk about your development? Indeed. Thank you.

Indeed. Okay, we're getting there. I'm almost done. Okay. So, what we're doing, our project, again, Jeremy covered the technical parts of it. Um, what I'd like to see happen is we are working with the VFW, the veterans. We're going to try to help them find a new home. They're getting kicked out of their home down the street, which is unfortunate. Um, we we anticipate this being more of an experience thing for the community. You know, create something where you have the veterans. We also have contributed uh two acres two and a half acres on Dominagoni and Warren Road the southeast corner. We're I'm giving up two and a half acres to the Calire. They're going to build a CalFire museum there. Penny Newman, we've been working with her. Why is that important? Because I see you have the science museum, you have the trails, you have you'll have the fire museum. folks can go to the VFW. Um, I think it just becomes more of an experience that we're trying to create here in Hammet. So, again, we envision these things, folks coming to the retail center, outdoor area that we'll have down the road here, acoustic guitars, people doing live entertainment, having hopefully a wine bar, those kind of things. So, those are all part of what we've got, but it's a domino effect. We got to start somewhere, and that's where we're starting. And by the way, the the project in question is going to pay about a million dollars to the schools. I think that's significant. I got to believe the schools can use that. So anyhow, uh with that in mind, I want to thank you for your time. I will be available at the end. I'd like to add some things and have a short rebuttal. Very brief. Thank you.

Thank you. Staff, do you have any questions for Mr. Lansing? Not at this time. Not at this time. I do. I have a couple questions. So, basically, this project is the same as what we heard in July. Uh, no, I wouldn't say that at all. What did you change?

Uh, well, we're adding a lot of benefits. We're adding art. We are adding um the two-year the 10-year commitment to enhance the roads, to take care of the roads, and we're committing to uh help the veterans. We're committing to um help the the fire Cal Fire. Uh we have um Yeah. And then we're paying a lot of fees. We're paying a lot of fees. Do you currently have a tenant for that warehouse? We do. We're getting ready to sign a letter of intent. Who's the tenant? Well, the fi the locator calls them project Saturn. It's a Fortune 500 company. They don't want to be known at least yet who it is. They just tell me it's a company that will have some retail, but it's similar to a typical 3PL logistics company.

Thank you. Okay.

Okay. We will now open public comments. So, we would ask that our our city clerk is going to call three names at a time, and I ask that you line up down the center aisle. If you hear that whatever you're going to say has been said by somebody else, feel free to say I agree with them or I disagree with the project, whatever. But you are all entitled to your three minutes. So here we go. First three people, first three speakers are David Moore, followed by Mike Becker, followed by Juan Serado. Good evening, uh, mayor, city council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak at this item. I'm a 15year member of Luna here in support of this project and hope you are as well. This project is in my backyard. I'm a resident of Riverside County. This is a good project that will bring jobs and revenue to the city. Please move forward on this project and thank you for letting me speak at this time.

Thank you. Hello, I'm Mike Becker. I live here in Hemtt in STV. Um, why are we here tonight? The attorney started off his uh talk with the same question. Mine's a little different. We're going to hear many speakers tonight for many reasons. For me, it comes down to a single reason. Bullies. I get that many here tonight don't want the Newand Simpson warehouse. I don't either. But we've already had two votes on this issue issue. And yet here we are again. Bullies. Everyone has seen one. Some of you have been bullied yourself. Bullies come in many in many forms. Big and strong. Arrogant and forceful. Rich and powerful. I believe that we here are here tonight for a third vote because our city council has been subjected to the rich and powerful version. Threatened with a lawsuit, the city council felt compelled to have another vote by someone rich and powerful. This time the vote cannot be cannot include all members. I wish every time I failed the test in school that I could force a new test. And that would be really great if the teacher would remove the questions that I didn't get right. I brought I was brought up to stand up to bullies, not to give in, to voice my objections, and not be silenced. I remember seeing no bully billboards a while back. Perhaps we need to have a few of those here in Hemet. Members of the city council, I ask that you stand up for your constituents tonight, listen to their voices, and vote their wishes and not what the bully is telling you to do. Thank you.

Thank you. Good job.

Hello. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh my name is Juan Sorado and I'm with the uh Labors International in North America. Uh I'm here tonight in support of the revised Simpson warehouse uh project. Projects like this represent future jobs. Um, and when I say future jobs, I mean real opportunities for the men and women who will be on our work list. Um, you know, down the road. Construction is a uh cyclical uh industry. There are times when uh work is strong and there are times when uh you know you know when it's slow. Uh the project um the projects you approved today are what help keep workers employed tomorrow. I might not personally work on this project, but someone who we represent will. It could be a young apprentice just getting started in the trades or a skilled labor who finds themselves between jobs when work slows down. These projects create next opportunity for someone who might need it. Uh this project uh this project means hundreds of thousands of square feet of construction and that means good construction jobs during the building phase. These are the kinds of jobs or opportunities that support working families and keep people moving forward in the trades. Uh these are the kinds of projects we fight for not just for work happening.

Times up, sir. Next speaker. I got to stand up. I would prefer that you stay seated and you keep your signs down. Thank you very much. Next three speakers. It does

are Larry Bustos followed by Jean Fonza and she's got several individuals that donated time. Will you please read your uh raise your hand when I call your name? I just want to make sure that you're present. Um Alda Pit, Roy Fels, and Donna Swank. and Teresa Akuna. So, Jean, you have 15 minutes to speak. Ready?

You're done. She's the second speaker. And then the third speaker is Jenny Mess and she's got Yes. Jenny Hess. She's got people that donated their time. Please raise your hand. Clinton Hess. Okay. Marie Best. All right. There. Okay. And she's got one, two, three, nine minutes. So, go ahead, sir.

Okay. Thank you. Uh my name is Larry Butos and uh I am a member of the labors union and I am here tonight to strongly support this project and its developer. Projects like this keep our local union members working close to home, earning fair wages and strong benefits so they can support their families with dignity. This developer believes in investing in workers and in the community. These are tough economic times as we all know and this project is is exactly what the city needs. It brings real investment and creates hundreds of highquality union construction jobs. Our skilled and trained workforce like those we represent who couldn't be here tonight because they're driving three plus hours home. I was one of them. So, I know that that's a fact. and they are they stand ready to build this project to the highest standards including safety for both the public and the workers, craftsmanship, quality and built right the first time from beginning to end. This is a chance to put the community to work. So, let's not miss it. Thank you.

Thank you.

You hear me? Hi everybody. Mayor, City Council, two of two. Um, I'd first like to say thank you for hearing me out again. This is a fourth public hearing. The first was the planning commission and now this is the third for our city council. This has been a lot of effort for everybody, everybody in the room, the developer, the landowner, the citizens, the council, the staff. What I was told for today was it was a rehairing of the exact same project. And what I've heard today is the developer is no longer Newand. It is now the two LLC's that are owned by the land owner H something two two different LLC's. And we do no longer have a tenant which was originally Rialto. And I couldn't be happier to hear that because the Kirby project has failed us. We are promised all those jobs. We are told Rialto would be working. They are now by the securities statement from the securities uh through Edgar on the security.gov. They're winding down their business. We also know that five kids have assumed the lease and they're not to assume that for 6 to 12 months if they assume occupancy at all, says the security statement. So to hear that they're going to be in there to two to three weeks. I would believe what they filed with the federal government to be in a securitized pool of loan sales more than I would believe what's on the street. In regard to the speculation, I I just can't see it. I don't know why we would do a speculative project. We don't have a signed agreement. We don't have a signed tenant. We are here tonight because we are concerned residents. We have a right, a civic duty, I would say, to speak our mind and to publicly object to a project. Unlike what Mr. Lancing said

to me on on February 11th, you should not be opposing this project. You have no right. Take down your social posts. If you don't, I'm going to sue you personally. I have two witnesses in the room that witnessed that conversation. You all received that information from me on, I believe, February 24th as well. I gave you all copies of all of the contemporaneous notes, his email, and his text to support it. We pay taxes here. We live here. Our children go to school here. We don't we go to the churches here in the valley. We are not anti- business. It's anything but that. We are pro smart development, pro environment, pro health and safety. More importantly, we are pro Hemet. We want smart development for Hemmet. We don't see a warehouse being built by Diamond Valley as meeting our new brand. Your horizon is here with a beautiful 850,000 square foot building blocking the horizon view. I don't see it. It doesn't fit with land land compatibility. As far as SQA goes, it has failed SQL on multiple points. If this project is so different and the traffic is so different, why has this not been recirculated to the legislative body such as SQA? It should have gone before SQA with all the changes I've heard tonight from from the developer and the landowner. Why has it not? Why is this project considered a reharing the exact same project? It is not the same. Anybody who has heard what the land developers has said, it's not the same project at all. It erodess the vision for hemet. Our vision here is to have life that is compatible life, safety, cleanliness, all the things that we live for. It does not do that. It does not strengthen our economic future. The three communities that the landowner

mentioned, that's Saddle Point, Solar Diamond Valley, and Morgan Crossing. Together we have $620 million of equity of home values. Do the math on that. That's 1% in taxes to the Riverside. As the city attorney kindly educated us, that's 14 to 17% to Hemmet. That's anywhere between a million to $1.2 million. We also pay mellow roose, highly mellow roose, $1.8 million between three communities per year. So we are we are doing our share as well. What we do object to are the roads when we hear hear and Ben does a fantastic job, right? He's so full of energy. Jobs, jobs, jobs. You know what we hear? Terrible roads, roads, roads. They're horrid everywhere in Hemet trucks coming through here with the truck routes that we have are just going to further erode those those roads that we currently experience. I mentioned SQA failure on several points. It does not check all the boxes. this project, the prior project, because I don't know what this one really is anymore. It's failed SQA. It does not meet our general plan. It's on mixeduse property. So, when I bought my house, I did my homework. I was told it was mixed use. We were going to have more homes there. We weren't going to have a warehouse there. We weren't going to have a general plan amendment. Now, I hear my illustrious leaders are free to change the general plan and the zoning to accommodate the developer. Well, what about the rest of us that bought our homes? We have 1,200 homes between the three communities. Do that math. As far as traffic goes, the cars that drive through there right now for those homes are 3.2 cars per home per day. If we're impacted by this project in a negative way, those cars are going to be we're going to experience all types of problems with queuing.

Not just that, the Warren Bridge. I didn't hear a thing about amending the Warren Bridge. I heard the road. What about the Warren Bridge, it's under We've got T money, $19 million. When will that ever get off the road? Or will, shall we say, when will the road be fixed? We don't know when that's going to be. We've got some rightofway concerns. We also have some environmental concerns with the Warren Road project. This has been on the project. It's been around for years. The 79 that the developer speaking to has been around for what? 20 years,

30. Thank you. Still not done. And it it's a big job. We understand that. You have a big job. You have to decide tonight. What do you want Hemet to be? What do you want it to be? Do you want it to be a a logistics quarter? Do you want it to be something that people really are proud of as our new brand, which I think is phenomenal. I was really happy to hear it. You I was part of some of the surveys. Um the character of Hemtt with this project will change forever. the Dominogoni corridor, which is originally for commercial tourism, not for commercialism. Commercial tourism, things that you'd be proud to take your family to, things that you'd be proud to go, just like the Diamond, the Diamond Valley Lake and the Western Science Center. We're proud to take our families there. I would not be taking my family on a tour of a warehouse. It's just not what I would want to do today. And I don't think I could get any of them to do that. They'd be looking at me like I'm crazy. So we speak about views. One of the things that was in the branding was how beautiful it is here. The views this will eliminate many of those scenic views right across from the lake right there at the gateway to Hemmet. The vibration the congestion we heard tonight from EPD that the noise will be less than ex that is acceptable SQA. I didn't hear that. I heard that as one of the main failures of SQA. Again the project's changed. Nothing's been recirculated. So, we don't really know what the the real sequel is, do we? And how it's met by these new changes in the project. So, what I'd like to say is, hey, preserve what's special about HMT. What is special about HMT? We had the branding tonight. It is not a warehouse that makes us special. No matter what is built there, the construction workers will have jobs.

If he puts in a 479 home like Saddle Point, those jobs would be there for three to five years versus perhaps an 18-month construction for the warehouse. And again, the roads are just horrific. We cannot handle the roads, the change in the infrastructure from the trucks and and the heavy traffic. So with that, I thank you. I urge you to again deny the project. I won't speak to any personal aspersions that u Mr. Lansing has cast upon me because I will not lower myself to his level. So, thank you for your time. Thank you, Jean. No clapping. Go like this. That's good.

We're all deaf. We're deaf now. That's the way the death do it.

Good evening, city council mayor. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Jenny Hus sphere of influence east hemit. Um first I just want to say naming members of the audience is a bullying tactic and I'm a little perplexed as to why that was allowed three times. Um and for the record I'm team nurse. They tend to have tact and emotional intelligence which seemed to be absent up here a while ago. It was gross and wildly inappropriate. With that said, regarding the warehouse project and underlying concerns, I'll read a portion of the email I sent to all of you that was copied with links to local county and state representatives. Just in case you haven't had time to read, uh, as a side note, I did submit that for public comment record and it is missing from the back table. And I know that emails are allowed because one time there was public record email back there about me. So I know it's allowed and it's missing. Um although I'm not a resident of Hmed, I reside within the sphere of influence and I am directly impacted by your governance. So I consider myself an invested and affected stakeholder in your decisions. I am here to request a serious and transparent review and public response regarding how the Nuland Simpson or whatever it's called warehouse project has progressed to this current state. a root cause analysis to include corrective actions. That's what we do in business. On April 8th, again on July 14th, you denied the project for valid important reasons related to SQA and the EIR, etc., yet here we are for a third time tonight. And even though the planning commission voted 50 against this project from the get-go, you've reportedly entered into a settlement agreement, details of which have been hidden behind closed doors, including what exactly the quote disputed claims were, agreed to reset the hearing for tonight, and required the recusal of two

council members after their prior participation, and for which no details of said recusal have been made fully public. What are the reasons? So we as constituents and stakeholders can vet for ourselves. I can only guess, but I believe similar case law shows these recusals to be potentially unfounded. Your handling of this project has generated significant public volatility, including threats of violence, threats of lawsuits, heightened law enforcement presence, and now even metal detectors. And shout out to HPD for protecting us. I do feel much safer here tonight with them. So, thank you. These are not minor consequences and likely all avoidable. My concern is not limited to this warehouse proposal, but rather centered on governance, competency, risk management, and institutional accountability. You're going to hear all about the warehouse deals. That's not exactly what I want to talk about. This is a this is that is a symptom of a bigger ill. It is publicly documented that the lawsuit filed by Gregory Lansing against San Diego County and local community groups for a similar type situation was dismissed by San Diego Superior Court with attorney's fees awarded to defendants. Given that history, I think it's reasonable for me to ask you, was sufficient due diligence conducted regarding prior litigation patterns before you engaged with them? Were potential litigation strategies and risk exposure analyzed at the outset? If litigation was foreseeable, and if not, why why wasn't it? Was outside council with specialized land use defense experience consulted? Were county or state level agencies with deeper land use litigation experience invited to provide input or guidance? Was the decision to enter into a settlement based procedural reset the strongest defensive posture you could come up with to protect your constituents? When a city resets a hearing after two votes, alters the voting body through postvote recusals, and proceeds in an environment of escalating public hostility, it signals a weakness in

governance. The consequences are tangible. Escalated community division and hostility, allegation of threats, waste of taxpayer money due to the increased security cost, and diversion of our public safety resources, damage to public trust in the city's ability to execute their duties competently and consistently. When decisions appear reversible under pressure or reactiveness to litigation threats, long-term risk increases. In other words, there will be more of this coming. You're demonstrating gaps and how to work the system at the city. This must be fixed immediately. Without a measurable corrective action, confidence will continue to erode and the city's exposure to legal, financial, and reputational risk will continue to grow. Accordingly, I respectfully request that the city provide a public response acknowledging any procedural gaps. identified with this project and in general like annexation and outline a formal corrective action plan designed to strengthen governance performance by the city. Such a plan could include but not be limited to strengthening transparency protocols, not filling the transparency again tonight, just like with annexation, enhancing legal risk assessment and documentation standards, implementing structured training for council and executive leadership for these types of situations. formalizing an escalation pathway for these types of complex matters to appropriate county or state level entities when it's warranted. Establish accountability benchmarks tied to your governance. Consideration should be given to establishing an independent oversight review committee to assist the city to improve decision-making practices, riskmanagement protocols, and transparency standards going forward. While the whatever warehouse project matter could certainly be used as a retrospective, in other words, lessons learned, this is not about this single project. It's about establishing the city's demonstrated ability to execate execute duties competently, compliantly,

and consistently over time across all types of projects and decisions. I hope this can be accommodated because there seems to be ample resources available to oblige the um non- city residents pet projects like private citizen annexations and I see commemorating the Dansza trail which the county is covering just fine and um it's it's very suspicious to have qualified for any time devoted by the council with all this other stuff going on. Honestly, my eyebrows cannot raise any higher about that. I remain concerned about the use of taxpayer money potentially intertwining with personal relationships between council members, city government, and certain applicants, some of which aren't even residents, as well as the structure of some local nonprofits, including the historic Kemet Theater. Please do the right things and vote down the warehouse for an unprecedented third time, and take the other requests I've mentioned seriously. And since I have time, we're not anti-job. That's just silly. and disconnected and I'm not I'm not going to accept that. I'm not here for that. Obviously, all of the opposition wants better jobs for this community and there's paths to that and this is not it. We want everyone to have a living wage full-time equivalent FTEES with full benefits. Maybe host them in the vast array of empty buildings across the city limits. We are not anti-UN. My family and I have been honored to be members of United Auto Workers, UFCW, and the IBW. As a very young single mom, I scratched by part-time as a UFCW member. So, I get it. I do get it. And those are temporary jobs, by the way. No union for the warehouse workers. Let's be real. While the construction proction project is union, the warehouse jobs, to be clear, are not. I think that's all I have. Have a good

evening. Thank you. Thank you. The next three speakers are Jose Radio, Connie Cornado Cornado, and Karen Steppp.

Yeah, I'm gonna as they come up, I should probably do it the right way. Good evening, mayor, councils. My name is Jose Rodeo and I'm here today as a proud Luna Union member who understands what these project means to working families. Union jobs allow me and many others to build a career, provide for our families, and earn stability with dignity. And that happens because of training, fair wages, and strong safety standards. And this project creates those same opportunities for the next generation. It gives back to the community. It strengthens the workforce and ensures quality construction built to last. That is why I fully strongly support this project and I respectfully urge your support. Thank you.

The next speaker is Connie Granado. Please raise your hand if you've donated time minutes to Connie Kimmy Cornado. Lesie Butler and Randy Butler. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Connie Coronado, East Timid SOI. First of all, let me tr say the new logos look amazing. Just amazing. I know. I love the jazz hands. I'm like, I like this better than clapping. Okay. And um let me just say I will buy a palm tree seedling to fund the rebranding. Anybody else? Anybody else? Jazz hands. Okay. Or or maybe more than one. Okay. Into the meat. The nitty-gritty. It's a little surprising. I'm actually going to ask the question that the attorney said we're probably going to ask, but it's a little surprising to be standing here tonight speaking about this warehouse warehouse project again. Not because the community suddenly changed its mind, but because this project has because this project has already been debated and rejected multiple times. Why are we here again discussing this warehouse project after the multiple votes with the same outcome of no to the project? Starting with the planning commission, voting 50-0 against it. The same planning commission that each of you appointed to carefully review projects like this and make recommendations based on the impacts to our community. This council also voted no. Yet, despite that clear decision and despite this council's previously voting no as well, somehow we find ourselves here again. It is strange because the process already worked. The project was reviewed. The concerns were raised and the decision was made. Yet, in my opinion, the process began to unravel when the scope of the project changed and it was not sent back to the planning commission for further review. That would have been the transparent and appropriate thing to do. Instead, the project continued to move forward without giving the very body appointed to review it the opportunity to weigh in again. And even after those

bure bure I can't talk bureaucratic shenanigans the project still came before the council and again was voted no. And yes again here we are. We are here because a developer decided that bullying and intimidation tactics might succeed where the normal process did not. Did you see the bribery pizza out front? Yeah, I declined it. And unfortunately, it appears that those tactics were effective enough to bring this project back before you again tonight. We were told that the solution was to appease the threat of litigation by backing two council members into a corner and encouraging them to recuse themselves for supposed bias. In my opinion, those council members allowed themselves to be backed into that corner rather than standing up against a developer's nonsense. But if we are going to talk about bias, then let's be honest. There have been examples of so supposed bias out in the open for quite some time. Not just with this project, but with others that have come before this council. Supposed standing publicly with unions, supposed dinners and meetings with developers and their associates, supposed numerous phone calls behind the scenes. Quite frankly, some of those conversations probably should not have been happening at all, especially once the threat of litigation was being raised. And while we are discussing intimidation, let's talk about what is happening to a resident of HIMT who has dared to speak out against this project. That resident was threatened directly with litigation if she did not remove her social media posts and stopped speaking publicly about the project.

Since her name was mentioned, it is our very kind and dear, courageous Jean. There is clear evidence of who made those threats, and in my opinion, that behavior is shameful and disgusting. I'm glad that she did not allow herself to be bullied into silence. In fact, I admire the courage it took to stand up to those threats instead of being backed down into a corner. While we're on the topic of threats, I do want to thank the city for taking the threats online seriously and providing additional security for tonight's meeting. I sincerely hope whoever made those threats is identified and prosecuted. Now that I've addressed the shenanigans surrounding this project, I'd like to return to something I spoke back in July about my perspective from working around this industry. I'd like to ask how many of you have actually visited and walked through a facility of this scale. Not a brand new unused warehouse, but one that has been operational for say at least a year. I have. In fact, I've been to many. My husband and I run a small construction business and have been working in this industry for over 10 years with jobs spanning across Southern California from Klexico to LA to Bakersfield and everywhere in between. We specialize in dock pits, also called dock doors, in construction and repairs. concrete work, bumper installations, leveler installations, and more. I personally been on countless job sites with my husband, whether that's helping him during estimates or even spending the day as the water sprayer. Our employees do get sick and I have to fill in sometimes. The point is this. I have been and seen how these facilities actually operate once the ribbon cutting is over. And based on that firsthand experience, one of my big biggest concerns with this

project is infrastru infrastructure, especially the roads and traffic flow around a facility of this size. Excuse me. warehouses with dozens, sometimes hundreds of dock doors. In this case, 146 dock doors on that building generate a constant stream of truck traffic and staging becomes a real issue. I worry the site could easily become another hightraic choke point with trucks lining up on our local roads while they wait to be assigned dock access. The new himmit in and out of warehouses. We all know the choke point on Florida Avenue in front of In-N-Out. On larger projects, we've learned to anticipate this by requiring in our contracts and our business that our vehicles and subcontractors receive priority access. Otherwise, we risk delays of 30 minutes or more just to enter the site. And traffic is not the only reality people should understand. There is also the day-to-day maintenance of warehouse operations. No amount of trees or landscaping will hide the debris and grime and wear that accumulates around dock areas and truck drive lanes. The exterior dock areas are rarely cleaned. In fact, we have to write that into our own contracts that job sites must be cleaned before we begin work and maintain during our work. Otherwise, we can't work. So when I raised these concerns back in July of 2025, they're based on real world experiences, not speculation. And looking at the amended project now with 938 automobile parking stalls, 202 truck parking, I don't know if you know what a truck trailer is, but they bring it in and they dump it there to move it to some of those docks. 146 dock doors. Those concerns still apply and even more

so now that I've seen this because when we talk about 146 dock doors and 202 trailer parking stalls, we are not talking about a quiet building sitting in the background. We are talking about a facility designed for constant truck movement day after day. And by the way, I do not live in Solero. The people proposing the project and the people living next to the project experience it very differently. For a developer, it's a project on paper. And this for the community, it becomes daily traffic, truck staging, noise, and long-term wear on our roads for decades. Once a project like this is approved, there's no undo button for our community. The impact becomes permanent. Projects like this tend to come and go over the years, but the decisions made about them may stay with a community for a very long time. Long after the consultants move on and the developers finish their work, the unions finish their work, the residents who live here are the ones who continue dealing with the impacts. And when those residents look back at decisions like this, they remember who stood up for the community and who chose to move a project forward despite the concerns that were raised. What troubles me the most about this entire situation is that the process already worked. The planning commission evaluated the project and voted 5-0 against it. The council also voted no more than once. Those decisions reflected the concerns of the community and the professionals you appointed to review these projects. Yet here we are again. Not because the project suddenly became better for him, but because pressure and an intimidation were applied until the answer was reconsidered. At the end of the day, this project will not be experienced by developers, attorneys, or consultants. It will be experienced by the people who live here, the residents who deal with the long-term impact on our community. At the end of the day, the role of this council is not to yield to pressure, but to represent the people who live here.

And a side note that I wrote down, we are told that for 10 years those roads will be maintained. If you say the horrible word yes to this warehouse, I would hope that a verbal commitment is not what you require, but an escrow account for 10 years worth of road maintenance, not a verbal, "Oh, I'll make a commitment to you. No thank you to this warehouse project. The next speaker is Karen Steppp and she has been yielded three men three more minutes. Vicki by Vicky Moran. Is Vicki here? Okay.

Good evening. Um I'm Karen Steppp and I do live in Salara. The first thing I want to say is thank you, Mayor Krupa, for stopping and refocusing Mr. Lancing before he yet again insulted this audience. I can tell you I have worked with this group of people for the last two years. They are intelligent. They know how to research. They know what they want. and they are courageous enough to stand here before you time and time again and ask for your consideration. The fact that Mr. Lanson could stand here and insult teachers, nurses, tradesmen, bluecollar workers, union members, everyone who is sitting in this audience tonight because we don't have his resources. because we are not property developers. Because we are not laughing all the way to the bank. I am entirely completely insulted by that comment. The other thing I want to mention is Mr. Lancing uses Silera Diamond Valley as an example of one of his premier developments. He brings it up every chance he can get. Let me tell you what he doesn't talk about. He hasn't been a part of Salera Diamond Valley for what maybe 20 years now. But when he purchased that land probably relatively cheaply. I'm just guessing. He partnered with PY to build the houses and the community center. He does not talk about the lawsuits that our HOA

dues had to pay for to get the repairs on the shoddy construction of that community center. He does not talk about the multiple classaction lawsuits that people in Salara Valley are or Salera Diamond Valley are still involved in because we have falling foundations. We have leaking roofs, leaking windows. This is what he left us with. And yes, it's a beautiful community. It is a gem here in Hemet, but not because of what Mr. Lancing did. might have had the original idea, but it is the hardearned pension dollars of the people living in Salera Diamond Valley who put tens of thousands of dollars into those homes. It is their community pride that makes Silera Diamond Valley the beautiful community it is. Now, Mr. Lancing is actually going to hurt the members that he speaks so highly of because we are within one mile of a major warehouse. And the research and the data tell us residences within a radius of one mile or so of a major industrial center will lose 15 to 20% of their home equity. For those of us in Salera, for those in uh Morgan Crossing, for those in Bright Bright, that is the equivalent of 60 to $70,000 on each resident.

Does nobody care? Nobody care what we're going to lose here besides clean air, besides, you know, less traffic, besides a a more quality lifestyle. Let me tell you um what's already happening with trucks. We are already seeing what truck traffic looks like. Just this past month, I had several close encounters. One 18-wheeler made an illegal turn from my right when he should have gone through on his green light, decided to turn left. When he didn't go through on his green light, I realized what he was going to do. Thank goodness. Or I would have been under that tractor. I would have been under that trailer because he made his left off of Acacia onto Sanderson from the right turn lane. Couple of days later, this all happened in February, by the way. Couple of days later, I'm coming down Thornton to uh Fiser, where I want to make a left to get into my own neighborhood. At the very same time, one of those great big 18 white 18-wheelers that had been sitting at Stson for 4 days comes down Fiser and wants to make a left on Thornton. I'm thinking, well, surely this guy's going to let me go. He needs room to make his turn. But he doesn't. He doesn't. He slowly proceeded to make his left turn in front of me and then sat there looking at me until I backed up. What would he have done if there was a line of traffic behind me? finally sitting at the light one morning a few weeks ago my husband and I at about 10:00 in the morning are sitting at the light at cost and I'm counting

all the semis parked there on Stson and I go to my husband God those nine trucks have been here for a while my husband who observes a few more things sometimes than I do says yeah and look at that there's a woman walking to a late model black Toyota that's parked amongst the trucks the trucks. My husband's comment, I'll bet you she ain't delivering pizzas. This is the culture we're looking at. Time's up.

I just want to say he should be a gem. Please do not take away our horizon. Thank you. The next three speakers are Al Sanchez, Harriet Brunner, and Fatima Ramen.

Hello, council members. My name's Al. Thank you, sir.

You're such a good guy. My name is Al Sanchez. I'm a member of Lyuna. Um I'm here to speak for our members that can't be here today that live here locally. Um the main thing I want to tell you is there's no such thing as a small job for union members. Every job puts time towards our pension, towards our health and welfare, towards our accounts that we put aside for our kids. Um that's the bottom line. uh takes money to make money. We work we team up with these developers because they pay they pay the right wages and we're hoping that you let us build this. So I look around I see a lot of places closed down. I'm hoping we can get money back over here and get things going, get the roads going. So thank you for your time.

Next speaker, Harriet Brunner. And I'm going to call out the names and please raise your hand. Sharon Larson, Pam Mo, and Jean Simmons. Simons. Okay, you have 12 minutes.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Harriet Bruner. I'm speaking here tonight in opposition to more warehouses in Hammet and particularly the mega warehouse proposed for Newland Simpsons project is anticipated that this project will have the capacity to introduce far too many semitrs daily into our city bringing noise pollution traffic snarls and checkbook decimating damage to our already compromised infrastructure. I apologize right now because all of the city council members are going to already be familiar with what I'm referencing, but I think it's important that you realize that we know it, too. My focus has been the traffic study from the HMT draft general plan. The city of HMT has designated a minimal acceptable roadway and intersection level of service of D. A D is the same D we feared in high school. A B C are better and only E and F could be worse. Table 14.3-1 in the draft general plan defines the D as having significant congestions of critical approaches but intersection is functional if a signal exists and long traffic delays at unsalized intersections. With that in mind, I researched the current truck routes in Hammet. They are in part Florida Avenue, Warren Road, Sanderson Avenue, and Stson Avenue East between Sanderson Avenue and State Street. The last two are particularly notable because Council Member Lodge is recused from tonight's vote. Therefore, any of his constituents affected by this project are in effect without representation. Intersection levels of service

definitions are fairly boring. So I'm going to do the cliffnotes version. And the level of service for ABC are typically uncongested flow of traffic with a signal, little or no delays without a signal, occasional short delays. Hemmet's minimal acceptable level of service D with a signal significant congestion of critical approaches but the intersections functional cars are required to wait through more than one cycle doing sh during short traffic peaks with no signal there can be long traffic delays level of service E with a signal you have severe congestion with some long-standing cues on the critical approaches blockage of intersection may occur if the signal does not provide protected turning. If there's no signal, very long traffic delays, failure, extreme congestion with the level of service F, you have a signal total breakdown, stopand go operations. Referencing from the draft general plan, the intersection analysis summary for buildout, we'll look at Sanderson Avenue and Florida Avenue. The existing level of service is a C in the AM, a D in the PM. This drops to level of service F in the AM and F in the PM after planned buildout of the city. Sanderson Avenue at Stson Avenue. Existing level of service C in the AM, C in the PM. This drops to D in the A.M. D in the PM after buildout of the city. Warren Road at Florida Avenue currently operating at D in the AM D in the PM and after improved after planned improvements for Warren

Road it stays at D in the EM but yay C in the PM. Warren Road at Simpson. The existing level of service is B in the AM, C in the PM, and these levels drop to C in the AM and D in the PM. I graduated from high school in 1965. If I had shown up with that many D's and Fs, I would still be sitting in my bedroom in Maryland on restriction. regarding sending fleets of semi-truckss through the Hemet streets. The impact analysis portion of the draft general plan section 4.13.1 states that two intersections will operate at unacceptable level of service of E or F. Those intersections are Sanderson Avenue at Devonshshire, level of service of E at the morning peak traffic hours and level service F at the afternoon peak traffic hour to operate at Hammet's agreed upon D level. All four intersection approaches require would require an additional lane. Right-of-way constraints and existing buildings make this infeasible. The level of service rating is due to volumes above capacity at the second offender, Sanderson Avenue and Florida Avenue that operates at level of service F during both AM and PM peak traffic hours. Again, only additional lanes could alleviate issues, but right ofway constraints and existing buildings make widening the streets infeasible. Their primary reasons for exceeding the minimal level of service D remain the same as they were in 1992. The traffic lights on Florida Avenue are very closely spaced. Left turn lanes

into commercial driveways fronting Florida Avenue impedes through traffic. Florida Avenue serves as both the primary route through the city as well as its main commercial street. In some areas, right-of-way traffic is not available to widen streets. The conclusion of the traffic study in the draft general plan portion states, quote, "No additional feasible mitigation measures are available to reduce the intersection level of service impact at Sanderson Avenue at Devonshshire and Sanderson Avenue at Florida Avenues. These impacts would remain significant and unavoidable." end quote. The thresholds of significance from the draft general plan addresses one of my primary concerns, the possibility of inadequate emergency access. Putting all these trucks on our currently challenged roadways and streets could have a negative impact on fire, police, paramedic, and ambulance response times. Since warehouse trucks will be clogging Sanderson and Florida avenues, residents will be forced to travel on secondary and tertiary roads, thereby increasing response time for any emergency emergency vehicles on those roadways as well. The destruction of our streets is unavoidable. Semi-truckss, loaded or empty, are not appropriate vehicles to travel on roads built for passenger and light work vehicles. The cost for maintenance of our roadways will skyrocket. This is not speculation. It is fact. We already experience bone rattling and axle punishing drives traveling through Hammet. The addition of truck weight and resulting major pothole damage can't help but add to this sad condition. The passage of AB98

should be evidence enough to feel secure in offering a no vote today. The Inland Empire is overbuilt with warehouses. In Paris alone, there are close to 30 warehouses empty and for sale. The warehouse boom is over. Does Hemtt want to be the city who couldn't read the room? The city who forgot its first responsibility was the residents. Residents who will be the one to feel the pinch of reduced property values. The ones dealing with the pollution, the congestion, the noise, the frustration of local trips that used to take 15 minutes now take 30 because we must detour so far out of the way to avoid truck traffic. The residents who used to have a view of hills and clear skies and now see pollutants in the air and a behemoth slab of concrete. As of January 29th this year, Rialto Distribution step back from the Kirby Warehouse project and its new tenant is FiveStar Kids LLC. The plan is to see occupancy within 6 to 12 months by five kids, but there's no assurance that they will take occupancy as expected or at all. I recall all those Rialto employees speaking here on behalf of their employer and shedding crocodile tears about how proud and thankful they were to be longtime employees with additional teary pleading for Hammet workers to join their vaulted ranks. Well, the word rank still applies. Typical behavior of the logistics warehouse crowd. These projects are money grabs, plain and simple. No guarantees of anything. What if that warehouse had been fully staffed with Hemet folks? They could be out of work now until or if FiveStar Kids ever assumes residency. The job fair was pure

theater, nothing more. This just blows the hope that warehouses will provide jobs for HMT residents right out of the water. Contrary to belief, we hold no animus for Mr. Lancing. We'd love to see development on his property, just not a mega warehouse. Similarly, we respect our friends here in the orange vest. We want to see these folks working all the time. We are retired. We want them to keep paying into Social Security so we can suck it out the other end. Please vote no. Thank you.

Love it. The next three speakers are Fatima Ramen, Carol Valade, followed by Kevin Bus. Okay. Can I start? Okay. Um, good evening, madame mayor and council members, and thank you for giving us this time. I truly appreciate the weight of the decisions you make for our city. My name is Fatima Ramen. I've been a business owner in the valley for more than 20 years. He is where I raised my kids, where I built my life, and where I've watched families struggle, hope, and fight for a better future. Tonight, I'm speaking for the people who couldn't be here. For the parents working two jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. For the workers on the night shift right now doing everything they can to provide. and the loved ones we lost on Ramona Expressway, Gilman Springs, and Domingani going to jobs to Ontario, Paris, Marino Valley. Warehouse jobs, mind you. Um because we don't have enough opportunities here at home. Their absence is painful and it should not be forgotten. We need local jobs, jobs for our kids, jobs that let families stay together instead of spending hours on the road every day. And when fewer people have to leave the valley, we don't just help families, we help our environment. We reduce traffic. We reduce smog. We protect the air our children breathe. I also want to say thank you to Mr. Lancing. Thank you for believing in Hemmet trying to beautify our city and for investing in us. $12 million on public rightway improvements in utilities are not a small gesture.

Um, excuse me. It's a sign of commitment. And the truth is, developers don't invest multi-millions in cities they don't believe in. That kind of investment is rare and deserves to be acknowledged. I hope that tonight, Madame Mayor and council members, that you remember that you're representing 95,000 people, not just the people in this room. And many of their voices that matter the most are the ones that physically can't be here because they're working, struggling, or grieving. Thank you for listening and thank you for carrying the responsibility of our community on your shoulders. And I hope tonight we pass this warehouse because my kids need jobs and all 95,000 residents here need jobs. And thank you guys for your time.

Hello council, members, mayor. My name is Carol Valade. I live in district 4. I believe your decision regarding the Newman Simpson project may be one of the most significant decisions you make for for the residents of this city. At the last at the last city council me meeting, Ben Sandival presented information about the tax sharing program for the auto mall. During that presentation, he stated that the types of businesses we hope to attract typically look for communities with a median income of approximately $86,000 when deciding where to locate. Hemtt's current median income is about $59,000. If our goal is to increase the city's median income to attract businesses such as Costco and other large retailers, this project moves us in the opposite direction. Warehouse jobs paying approximately $1975 an hour equate to about $41,880 a year for full-time work. Wages at that level will lower, not raise, the community's median income. Residents that live within a mile of the proposed warehouse will face significant financial consequences. Property values for homes located close to logistics warehouses can decline as much as 15%. There are approximately 122 homes within a mile of the project site. With losses across all, 122 homes, the total reduction in property value could approach $89 million. That represents a substantial loss of wealth for Hemet residents. It will also tr translate to reduced property tax revenue for the city. Additionally, this council must consider the long-term infrastructure costs that will occur with the heavy diesel truck

traffic. The damaged road and cost of repairs will far exceed any impact fees or annual stipens the city receives from this project. The warehouse does not align with the vision the re that the residents have for HMT's future. It's the wrong location for a logistics warehouse. Experts have presented data regarding the impacts on air quality, traffic, and noise pollution. It's a prime location, the gateway to our city. It could support businesses that would better serve our residents while generating sustainable revenue for the city. the right business in that location could be piv pivotal in achieving our goals. It's been a year since the city used its resources to promote the Kirby job fair. The jobs promised never materialized. It was a complete waste of everyone's time, including 800 of Hemet's residents. This council made decisions based on those promised jobs. Can we trust anything the developer says now? When considering the overall balance of cost and benefit, this project offer this project offers very little to the community. Jobs numbers can't be trusted. I I'm sorry, I had 15 or six minutes.

Uh, no. Yes, I did.

What was your name? I'm sorry. My name is Carol Valade. Who are your uh speakers? My husband, Jim Val. Okay. It was separated. Okay. Yeah. Indication. Who else? That's it. That's it. Just one. Just the one. Okay. So, it's uh three more minutes. Thank you. No problem.

When considering the overall balance of costs and benefits, this project offers very little to to the community. Job numbers can't be trusted. Revenue falls short for the city. Significant loss of property value for over 1,200 homes. No sales tax revenue. Increased infrastructure and road repair cost. This project will not create tourism, recreational opportunities, or improve the quality of life for the residents. it will destroy it. The applicant has manipulated this council, forcing you to bend to their will or else. They found our Achilles heel and used our financial weaknesses as leverage against us. They've told us we are not ready for the kind of vision we have for our future, insinuating because we are hemmetic things. They've sold us short. Who will decide the future of our city? The applicants who have no vested interest in us, who will take millions upon millions they'll make off this property and go back to the affluent cities they live in, leaving us to deal with commun cumulative fallout? Or will this council council stand with your community, your neighbors, your friends, your family, the people who call this place home? We have enormous potential. Please don't throw it away and make us just another dirty warehouse town in the IE. We can do so much better. Please deny this project. Thank you. The next speaker is Kevin Bus.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, Council, residents on both sides of the argument. I'm here to ask you to support this program. My area of expertise is jobs. As a career recruiter, I can tell you I cannot find enough quality jobs for the applicants that I had at that time in my career. This project will bring 500 jobs to our city. Just because a different project failed doesn't mean this one's going to happen as well. If that was true, we'd never play sports again. One team wins, one team loses. The results aren't guaranteed, but when we look at the ability for our young people to come for an entry- levelvel job with upward mobility, we have to let them have that opportunity. Will all of them stay there? No. Some of them might realize the job's too hard for them. Maybe then they'll go back to college. Maybe they'll go in the military. They'll look at other avenues. But that's part of growing up is you look at the opportunities you have and you create your own career path. I'd also like to say this is an opportunity for the veterans of Hemtt. I spent 22 years in the Marine Corps. Every day 22 veterans take their own lives. And one of the reasons for that is we do not have a place for brotherhood. We currently have a VFW. We've been looking for a new home for over five years without success. We have the ability to find a new home where we can take fellow veterans. They can be with their own. We understand each other. We speak the same language. We can help make a difference in the lives of our youth, our young adults, and our veterans. I plead with you as a long-term Hemmet resident, please pass this. Thank you.

The next three speakers are Ezekiel Rodriguez, Ray Johnson, and Kim Kak. Got two.

Am I allowed to start now? Yes. Yes. Good evening. Um, I've been a resident of Hammet for 25 years.

I've been a resident of Hammet for 25 years. My kids grew up here. One of them has to travel to Orange County for a job. One has to travel to Redlands for a job. The other one has to travel over to Riverside for a job because there's no jobs here. My daughter, she left. I asked her why. She said, "Because he is a ghetto. You got a lot of empty stores and no jobs. A lot of homeless. I just came from Boundsville, Texas. SpaceX is doing what he offered to do for Hammet. Beautify it. Brownsville, Texas looks like somewhere that you want to go visit. Doesn't look like a ghetto anymore. I applaud I applaud Mr. Lancing for wanting to do something like that. I know the city of Hammet is requiring other people to do the same thing because my city youth has these modulars that still haven't got approved, but they need to do something with the modulars to beautify the city. What Mr. Bus said, I agree. I'm a veteran. I serve I served 20 years, two combat tours, one in Desert Storm, one in Iraq. I know three of the people that I served with, one of them just last month committed a suicide. We can't do this to our veterans. They need jobs, too. They need a place to go where other veterans know how to talk to them. We just had a homeless veteran over at our post sleeping in the back in a trailer,

a pop-up trailer. That's not how veterans should be living. And why? Because he got fired from his job and couldn't find another job. Our veterans deserve better. Please pass this project. The next three speakers are Ray Johnson, Kim Kak, and Gazella Hariho. Uh Ry, you have uh people that have donated time if they would please raise their hands. Cindy Anderson, Edmmes Roger, Robert Amore, Beverly Johnson.

Oh, okay.

So, you have 15 minutes. Sorry to hear we're here here again, but uh I guess it's necessary. Two weeks ago, I sent each council member an email expressing my concern that two members were recusing themselves, which I believe is contrary to the political reform act and the fair political practices commission regulations. I have asked the city clerk to enter that into the record. Along that same line, the recusal matter is very specific in the government code. It was violated twice tonight because it says that a person recusing himself must first stand up and announce the reason for recusal. They did not do that. They just walked out. There are two procedural issues I'd like to start on uh before I talk about the EIR. On page two of the staff or excuse me, page 10 of the staff report, you are asked to issue a conditional use permit for two industrial warehouses, each exceeding 400,000 square ft. This EIR is for one building, clearly out of conformity with the EIR. On page 11, you are asked to issue a tentative parcel map to subdivide 748.88 88 acres site into three parcels. Two parcels, one each for a proposed warehouse and one for a trailer parking lot. The second parking lot or the second

warehouse and the parking lot were specifically excluded from this EIR at the last meeting. Therefore, I recommend that you remove the conditional use permit and tenative parcel map from consideration on this calendared item as they clearly violate the the EIR. The main point here tonight is not the project, it's the EIR. Until you approve the EIR, there is no project and you've rejected the project twice already. The EIR statement has not significantly changed since it was originally prepared. And as leadia agency, you are asked to adopt this EIR as your official final EIR. The project will be will have unmitigated significant environmental impacts on agriculture, noise, transportation, and greenhouse gases. I'm going to focus on greenhouse gases, primarily generated by diesel trucks. According to the California Air Resources Board, the greenhouse gases assoc associated with logistics mega warehouses are carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, diesel particulate matter, including PM2.5 and ozone. Primarily caused by heavy duty diesel truck combustion and compounded by traffic congestion.

The risks associated with these GHGs near mega warehouses are cardiovascular disease and premature death, exposure to DPM and PM2.5 increases risk of heart attack, strokes and premature mortality, respiratory illnesses and asthma. Nitrous oxides, ozone and PM2.5 exacerbate asthma, reduce lung function in children and increase respiratory hospitalizations. Peronatal and developmental effects. PM2.5 exposure is associated with low birth weight, pre-term birth and effects on early lung development. Cancer risks. Diesel exhaust contains multiple carcinogens and in fact is classified as carc carcinogenic. DPM contributes substantially to air toxic cancer risks. The California Air Resources Board states that 70% of all cancers caused by air pollution come from DPM. We know you did not do a full ERI on the Kirby project, but this project is almost a twin to Kirby, meaning that the residents around Kirby are probably already being exposed to these toxins. Some council members expressed that this project is extremely important to the city. There's a lot of benefits described on page nine, but at the same time, there is no description of the cost to the city. How many people do you think will encounter peranatal

development, afflictions, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, asthma, cancer, or premature death in the next 10 or 20 years? and how many of them will file claims against the city because they believe they were exposed to GHG by this project. 20 a a nationwide study in 2024 by the Milin Institute shows that communities in proximity to mega warehouses experience 20% higher nitrous oxide exposures eight times higher pediatric asthma rates 30% higher exposure to diesel particulate matter and PM22 PM2.5 it's important to note that EIR RA focuses on sensitive receptors, people within a,000 ft of the proposed site. But it doesn't even mention the exposure of GHGs to the hundreds of employees who'll be on the dead site. It's also doesn't mention that the trucks operate outside the thousand foot perimeter. The only truck route to this facility is Warren Road and thousands of sensitive receptors live within a th00and ft of Warren Road. And we know that the prevailing southwest wind carries GHGs further than a thousand feet because we experience the wind carrying the aroma of fertilizer from the farming surrounding area. The South Coast Air Quality Management District expressed deep concern over the potential public health impacts of placing additional sensitive populations in proximity to air polluters.

Mr. length and described to you the the added developments that are being worked on by the city and well over a thousand more homes that will be within many of them will be within a thousand feet of Warren Road. Approval of this EIR means you certified that the city of Hammet knew in advance that this project will produce environmental impacts that cannot be mitigated. Specifically, you knew that greenhouse gases from this project are detrimental to the health of the community and cannot be mitigated under this plan. With the approved EIR, you will be giving every resident who becomes ill from causes linked to GHG the first piece of evidence they need to file a claim against the city. When you debate this EIR and when you vote, I want you to keep in mind all the members of your constituents that will become victims of GHGs. And in the back of your mind, remember the names environmental justice and Morgan and Morgan.

The next three speakers are Jim Kak, Gella Armho, and Wendy Bol Baldick. Good evening, Mayor, council members. I'm Jim Kak. I own land in the city of EMTT and I'd like to am involved in this project with Mr. Lancing. Um, however, I am speaking as a land owner owning property in Hemtt and I just I just can't sit still this all the stuff about GHG and uh the doom and gloom that was just presented quoted uh nationwide studies. This site was specifically studied by licensed uh technical consultants that have stated that that it is within the state guidelines for safety. So all this all this fear and uh items are are really unfounded. Same with housing values. We introduced into the record, I believe Nuland did uh in one of the two hearings, that house prices uh for homes near distribution centers in the Riverside County area did not go down. They actually went up and that was because of improved infrastructure and other amenities. So, you know, I think you have to be very careful with people just tossing up stuff against the wall, seeing what sticks when we already have an licensed uh consultants that your staff has reviewed their reports and uh they pass muster. So, please take that into consideration. um you know the opposition

I appreciate their passion and I also think that it's important that we are a community here in Hemet of over 95,000 people and part of part of the responsibility is how do I serve all those residents in a in a way that uh generates some of he's long-term plans of providing jobs and uh public safety and uh other amenities and better roads in the community. So, uh, the opposition here tonight has not offered any suggestions of how they're going to increase jobs or given you any recommendations. They do allude to the fact that there's empty buildings um that uh both on the commercial and industrial uh manufacturing areas that are empty and not uh you know are not fulfilling their promise from the standpoint of being able to generate any jobs. So this this program of this project is to generate job creation, build significant in infrastructure that's going to enhance future development for the city. Um, in terms of the greenhouse gases, if you put 400 homes on 74 acres, it's going to generate more greenhouse gas from the residential car transmissions in the studies than the clean energy trucks will that would be serving this project. So, you all have to look at the relative aspect of things. But I think an very important part here is the commitment that Mr. Lancing made of willing to have a condition of approval and that's something new in the project 10-year maintenance agreement for the roads.

The next three speakers are Jacella Army Aramo, Wendy B, and Tina Howard. It's hea Hario. Um, good evening mayor and council members. Talk closer into the microphone. Thank you.

My name is Hea Harammo. I have been a proud resident of HMT since I was 9 years old. I'm now 41 and a mother of four. And my family and I have built our lives here in this valley. He isn't just where I live. It's the community that raised me and the place where I'm raising my children. Professionally, I'm a licensed life insurance agent and independent financial contractor. My work focuses on helping families understand how to protect their loved ones financially and plan for the future. Every day I meet with families in our community who want stability, opportunity, and a better life for their children. One of the biggest challenges many of them face is the lack of strong local job opportunities. That is why I'm speaking tonight in support of the Simpson Road project and the opportunity it represents for our community's economic future. Many residents in the Sino Valley still commute long distance dist distances to find stable work often spending hours away from their families each day. When jobs are created locally, it does more than provide employment. It strengthens families, supports local businesses, and helps our entire community grow in a healthy and sustainable way. Our valley is clearly growing. We see new homes being built and new families moving into the area. As our population expands, it is important that job opportunities grow with with it so that residents can build s stable futures without having to leave the community they call home. I also want to recognize organizations like the Llama's Housing Project for encouraging community engagement and helping residents like myself stay informed about local development and economic opportunities. Open conversations about our city's future are important and I appreciate the chance to be part of that dialogue. As someone who grew up in Hemet is raising a family here and work closely with local families every day, I want to see our city continue moving forward in

a way that creates opportunity for the next generation. For those reasons, I respectfully encourage the city council to support the Simpson Road project and continue working towards a stronger economic future for the city of Hemmet. Thank you for your time and for your service to our community.

Thank you. The next three speakers are Wendy Mo, Tina Howard, and Annette Hills. Good evening, Mayor Krupa and council members. My name is Wendy Bulduk. I'm a homeowner and a resident of District 4. This has been quite a show tonight. It's been fascinating. I'd love the whole new branding thing, the mountains, the your horizons. It's beautiful. It's exciting. The plan for the development of the historic old town and the tourism and the retail, it's vitality. It creates vitality in this city, which seems a little depressing. Not the vitality, the city seems a little depressing. People do leave Hammet for jobs. People do leave HMT to shop. People leave Hammet to go to restaurants. People leave Hammet. We do need jobs. I agree. Absolutely. We need jobs. But to have our gateway to our beautiful vistas of Mount Sosinto blocked by a 60foot wall of concrete is absurd. He's not offering a low profile. Oh, by the way, I have cancer. Anybody wants to know? I have cancer. Mr. Lancing had it and he's cancer free. I'm not. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that in. Um, the warehouse 60 ft of concrete is not appropriate. It's the wrong project in the wrong location. Put it somewhere else. Put those jobs somewhere else. The gateway to Hemmet

needs to be welcoming, inviting Dominagani, wild flowers, retail centers, things that people want to come home to. Eventually with a new plan, there will be rebuilding in Oldtown. There will be viable entertainment, tourism, shopping. People will stay here. People will get jobs here with all of those things. A medical center, an outpatient surgical center. We have lots of opportunities for that land besides 60 foot wall of concrete. That is horrendous. That's two times the size of a two-story home. Take your two-story home, put another home on top, and that's how tall it is. And when I come across um 79 down from the 215, used to be a gorgeous view of our valley. Beautiful view of our valley. Now you see the big white block of Kirby Warehouse. Not so inviting. Not so inviting. Anyway, your horizon is here. With two council members recused, I hope you appreciate the extraordinary weight upon the three of you. You have to represent the unrepresented as well as your own constituents. And that is a tall order. I appreciate that. And regards to the previous uh man's speech about this plan passing muster. It didn't pass muster with the planning commission. They didn't think it was a good idea. Why isn't anybody listening to them? So tonight, I respectfully urge you to deny this project. Thank you.

Thank you. Next three speakers are Tina Howard, Annette Hillis, and Dean Anderson.

Hi, my name is Tina Howard and I am a resident and licensed acupuncturist here in HMT and I am against building the latest warehouse. Yesterday, I sent a detailed explanation with healthc care case studies to Jane and the city clerk's office um and ask that document to be a part of public record if you would like further information about the specifics. Um but today I'm just going to talk in uh summary and the proponents are talking a lot about jobs. I think they said 500 jobs for these warehouse positions. Well, let me tell you about these jobs. Okay, many of my patients work for warehouses in various positions. Floor stalkers, truck drivers, construction workers that built the warehouses, and the supervisors and managers. All of these workers have overuse injuries causing signs of early aging, even patients in their 20s, stress, anxiety, and depression. All of these workers complain of management not caring about their symptoms or pain and only wanting to fill the shifts with bodies. Even those that have workers comps claims are still forced to work under conditions that are not healthy or safe. Please do not let the proponents of the warehouse fool you into thinking that this will bring good and long lasting jobs into him. If you vote no on this warehouse, you give him a golden opportunity to revitalize. Open your hearts and your minds and imagine

what about a multi-use retail and commercial outdoor shopping center instead. This still gives way gives rise to construction, plumbing and electrician jobs. During the building of the center, the owners can partner with high schools and community colleges and give the students internships in a variety of industries. Construction, engineering, architecture, technology, marketing, social media, public relations, finance, hospitality, management, and administration. These are your jobs that you said, "How are we going to give these people of him at jobs?" These are your jobs. And here's a few other ideas. A permanent farmers market stand with booths for local farmers, artists, bakers, and other small business owners. These are your jobs. A dog park, dog friendly prominade with mom and pop retail shops. These are your jobs.

Your time's up, miss. Thank you. Please vote no on the warehouse and give the divine land that used to grow our food a better purpose than a warehouse bought with blood money. Next two speakers are Annette Hillis, followed by Neil Anderson. And Annette, you have uh some people that donated their time. Just one person, Teresa Malone. Is she available? Okay, you have six minutes.

Thank you. Good evening, council members. My name is Annette Hillis, and I've lived in Hemmet for over 40 years. I taught here, and I built my life here. I'm asking you to do one simple thing tonight. Use common sense. Common sense is simply sound judgment. You don't need a PhD to recognize it. You just need the courage to use it. So, let's apply it. Council members recusing themselves on a major issue, leaving constituents without representation. A developer is granted three presentations instead of the usual one. Common sense or something else? We're told this warehouse will bring jobs, but what kind of jobs? temporary, lower wage, high turnover, forklift drivers, sorders, and pallet movers. The core production roles in logistics warehouses, about 60 to 80% of all the jobs, will all soon be replaced by automation. We are being asked to approve a future where even the promised jobs may not exist. Common sense or illogical thinking? The Inland Empire already has some of the worst air quality in America. According to the American Lung Association, our region consistently ranks near the bottom for ozone and particle pollution. And yet, we're being asked to add countless more diesel truck trips. Common sense says enough. Once this structure rises, it will not disappear. It will stand for decades. Towering walls of concrete and steel will define our skyline. It will stand as a monument to bad decisionmaking. You cannot unbuild a warehouse. This decision is not temporary. It is

generational. Building a warehouse, common sense or recklessness. The jobs warehouses create are not the professional health care, education, financial, or technology positions that build long-term economic mobility. They do not lift families into the middle class. They are not career ladders. They are revolving doors. Building a warehouse, common sense, or shortsightedness. When residents volunteer their time to speak for their city, they should never walk away feeling pressured, shaken, or uneasy. Disagreement is healthy. Intimidation is not. It is happening and it must stop. Interestingly, a few years ago, one of our current city council members was quoted in a local newspaper vehemently saying, "I do not like special interest groups." The council member explained that they didn't like them because one group was actively saying things against this person's decisions for the city. What is vital to understand is that a key benefit of special interest groups is that they strengthen democracy by giving people a voice. Whether a council member likes it or not, that is what they signed up for. Showing their extreme displeasure for opposing opinion says a lot about that council member's fairness and fortitude. The downside of some special interest groups is that they can actually weaken a democracy when money speaks louder than words or when the wealthy concentrate their power and take it away from the citizens who do not have the monetary wherewithal. As the saying goes, power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The idea behind the quote is that those in power are often led to unethical

behavior. The more power and many times the more money one has, the greater the risk of moral corruption. Residents understand that developers have projects and investments. That's their role. But the role of this council is different. Your job is not to represent developers. It is to represent the people of Hammet. This decision should not be about a developer's resume, future promises, or accusations that residents are misinformed. Respectfully, the residents of Hammet are not confused, misled, or gaslighted. We are informed, engaged, and capable of making our own judgment about what belongs in our community. Mr. Lancing, you do not live here. What Who is this decision really for? Hemet has always been a community where people come to raise families, retire, and breathe a little easier. Please don't turn our home into a truck stop. Council members, choose wisdom over haste. Choose long-term stability over short-term promises. Choose for the future of Hemet. Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Neil Anderson. Good evening, city council and staff. My name is Neil Anderson and I live in the SM Diamond 55 plus community. Someone once said that nothing that the seniors have nothing better to do than fight against warehouses. Yeah, that's not true. But it's fortunate that we do have the time to research the pros and cons of warehousing. All of you, these people here that are seniors have done a lot of research and looking into this. The younger Hammet residents are busy raising families and traveling to their jobs. In my research, I have found haven't found any good reasons to build a warehouse in HitT other than making a lot of money for the land owners. In my opinion, they don't care about degrading HMT just lining their pockets. How I came to the conclusion is by watching interviews with Lancing Capital on YouTube. It is very concerning to me why we're revisiting this project. The new census project was voted down by the entire city council on the first vote then because of a procedural miscue that had to be go to a second vote. I would have thought our city attorney would have known the process had not allowed this to happen. No procedural miscues. No. Now, now we come to a second vote. three again 32 against building the project. No procedural miscues. So how so now the land owner is basically forcing the city council into a third vote on threats of lawsuits based on bias. What is strange that two city council members that had to be recluse themselves were against the Newand Simpson warehouse. There was a third city council person that stood up in solidarity with a union saying, "Oh,

we got to have warehouses." But that person is still up there. Ah, he was for warehouses. You have heard for so many all the reasons this project is not fit for him. Why would the council vote in favor of a group that is just looking to make money and against the people who live here? In conclusion, this project is just a terrible step in the future of Hemmet. Thank you.

Thank you. We are going to take a 10-minute recess and then we will come back and finish the public hearing. They used Hey, thank you.

I wonder.

How are you? Good. How are you?

Yeah, it does. I don't know how times we need to repeat the same thing. No,

it's like I don't know. I just feel so

Oh, yeah. You want three more?

David, are you talking? You want three more minutes? Yeah, it's pretty good. Did a good job. And I hope I hope she's okay. I hope you guys are okay. Everything that's going on creates a lot of stress and strain on the couple. And I mean, it's horrible. No, it's just it creates stress,

you know, and it's negative energy and we don't need this at our age. Yeah, exactly. I mean your whole life. Hey Kathy, how are you? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I have to pass on sugar and chocolate.

I know it's my gastroenterologist. rather be involved.

And you know, I was thinking all all the construction that has happened, all the development that has happened on dean, right? You saw that. Why can't we do something? They have all these these nice restaurants and these places where we could go and there's enough population to go. Yeah. But where do we go? We go to Mini. We go to Muretta. We go to

you know. They could do the same thing here and that would bring jobs. It would keep the people here. It could keep the money here. Sales tax. I don't know. It's like I don't know. Yeah. No words.

Oh, thank you. That picking it up. Yeah.

I don't have an empty yet. Hello. Hello. Hello. We are going to start. Mayor Proam. Mr. Males, would you please come to the DAS? Thank you. If there was babies out there, you'd be kissing them. I know. All right, come on back. Oh my sorry about that. Okay, you should probably do the 10 o'clock vote. Yeah, right now since you're

Okay. Yes. Okay. At at this time, we are going to uh entertain a motion whether we are going to continue past 10:00. Are you two listening to me? Oh, I'm sorry. She interrupted me. Okay, we have consider a motion to go past 10 o'clock. No, no, no. Just kidding. No, don't do me. I will make a motion to go past 10:00. I'll second it. Who said that? Okay. Please take a roll call on motion to extend past 10 o'clock. Jackie, what's her last name? Okay. Roll call. Roll call, please. Okay. Council member Clark. She's not here. She's not here. She's recused. Council member Lodge.

No, he's not here. He's Council Member Peterson. Yes. Mayor Proim Pal Mel. Yes. Males. Yes. That's me. That's She's got to get it right. And Mayor Kupa. Yes. That uh passes. So, we are going to continue with public comment. And I believe we have 30 left. three of them with extended time. So, be be prepared. We're going to be here till midnight. So, next speakers. The next three speakers are Daniel Deetti. Speak fast.

Charlene Anderson and Cesar Yamus. Okay. Line up, please. Come on. Yes. if you don't have anything new to say and just want to say I oppose this project. I'm in favor of this project. Boy, we would love to hear that. And again, you guys have been real good tonight and I really appreciate it. Go ahead, sir. Got your three minutes.

Good evening. Uh I I'm here to support this project for a few reasons. One is the the amount of jobs it will bring here. And I'm hearing people say, uh, 500 jobs and we had 800 people for a job fair. I've been a manager for a warehouse for 20 years. I wish I could have got 800 people to come to one of my job fairs. I wish I have a job fair. I get 25 people. So 800 people coming to a job fair is incredible. Uh, the transportation the the the pay is roughly the same. So 20 bucks an hour here for starting versus going to Redlands for 20 bucks, Marino Valley for 20 bucks. Do you think they're going to work here? They're going to drive. They're going to stay here. They're going to live here. Uh I also hear there's no opportunity for advancement in a warehouse. Uh it's a dead-end job. No future. I started in 1994 picking orders for lucky stores making eight dollars an hour. I now manage million square foot warehouses with five 800 people and I make well over six figures a year. So the the myth that there is a no room for advancement in warehousing is it that's all it is is a myth. It's it's a kind of um insulting actually and the driving. So if you live in Hemet Sento Winchester, you're going to drive over here. You have a 30-minut drive to your work, 30 minutes home, more time with your family. You live in Hemet Winchester Seno. You drive to Marino Valley, Redlands,

Ontario. You're looking at almost four hours a day to and from work, less time with your family, less money you spend in your hometown. So that is why I support this project and I would urge the city council to approve this project. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Charlene Anderson, followed by Cesar Llamus, followed by James Austin. Charlene, you I'd like to confirm that I have six minutes. Yes, you have six minutes. Is uh Joanne

or Joan Flickinger available? She's right there. Okay, go ahead.

Good evening. My name is Charlene Anderson and my family has been living in the valley since 1960. Um, we've seen a lot of changes in HIMT, some good, some not so good, but I'd like to say I was a member of the first graduating class from what we called the new HIMT High School on Stson Avenue. Um, that will date me and you all could figure out how old I am from that. So, um, I'd like to reiterate one thing that was, uh, brought up by several speakers earlier, and that is Mr. Lancing's choice to bully individuals in the audience personally because they disagree with his project. I think that's uncalled for and it was a man showing his true colors. When someone shows you who they are, believe them. And I believe Mr. Lancing showed us who he is. Um the the branding study that was discussed tonight is an interesting proposition because it talks about elevating HIMT's tourism goals uh pride in the community etc etc. But I want to reiterate if the city council thinks that approving the warehouse will result in a showpiece of architecture that will draw people to him. I have a bridge for sale back on the east coast and spending $50,000 on a welcome him sign is not going to elevate our stature within the tourism community. Um the road issues have been discussed ad nauseium. I I know we all know how bad the roads are and yes

Whoops. Is the light on there? Okay, now it's back on. There was a promise made tonight that the developer will fund 10 years of road maintenance for the city. That's a new one. The only thing is there is no promise or no guarantee that Mr. Lancing's company will be here in two years or three years or five years or eight years. And if his company is gone, so does that promise go away and we're stuck with deteriorating roads and no money to fix them. Um, so I would like to reiterate that that these major issues have been discussed by everybody and I'm not going to go over them again. Um, but um, I do I want to also bring up that I work in logistics. Um, I understand warehousing fulfillment and all of that. And while some people are lucky enough to have upward mobility starting in a warehouse job, that is not the normal route for someone who works in a fulfillment center or a warehouse or a logistics operation. There are some that do, but it's estimated that 70 to 80% of the workers have no opportunity beyond what they are doing at the time. Um, we've discussed the environmental impact study. That doesn't go away just because this project has been changed yet again. We're losing farmland. So, every time you go to the grocery store and complain about the cost of food, remember when farmland is taken away, prices go up on your agricultural products. And I grew up on a farm in HIMT, so I can tell you that um greenhouse gas emissions will still be exceeded. the noise impacts will still be there whether there are 100,000 square feet or the 830 or 800,000 that are being promised now. Um these are not insignificant and it is

not something that HIMT wants to be proud of. Um we've discussed the decrease in our residential property values. My mother lives in Silera Diamond Valley. She's lived in the valley since 1960. And I sure she doesn't want the values of her property decrease because the town the city decided to allow a mega warehouse less than a mile from her home. And finally, I'd like to say for all of you who have learned a little bit about history and studied things, I don't think anybody here wants their legacy to be that you destroyed the future of him by approving this warehouse. You are in total control of the legacy you leave for this city and I hope it's one that you and the rest of the city can be proud of. Thank you. The next speaker is Cesar Llamas, followed by James Austin, followed by Pam Yang Yang. Uh, good evening, city council mayor. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm I'm a little nervous being up here. You know, a lot of back and forth going on. I'm not going to deny it. Um, I'm a proud laborer at the end of the day, a union member. I've been a union member for about eight years now. I'm 28. I'm a second generation laborer as well with the labors international union in North America. It's jobs like these that provide opportunities to workers like myself for future, right? Developing the pension, moving towards to providing health care and benefits, putting food on the table for workers like myself. I got to support not only myself, my family, my parents, the laborers gave me that opportunity. Projects like this gave me the opportunity. Developers like this gave me the opportunity to help my mom stop working. She no longer works. I'm the one that's taking care of the

bills. All of a sudden, I decided to become the big man, right? So, developments like these definitely continued that process. It made me grow. It provided me the opportunity to learn more when it comes to providing um the skilled and uh skilled and trained workforce. It's definitely a big part to it too. The concept of putting apprentices to work, showing the future what it is to learn and provide more for their families as well too. Not just like myself, but for the rest of the labors that couldn't be here. That's what I'm coming for on behalf of all the men and women as well too. Uh the concept of the EI um that's put together, city staff goes through it, the developer goes through it, everything that kind of mediates through that, it all it all gets talked about. It's big to it too. You know, it's something that doesn't get hidden. You guys know about it. The concept of the development providing paying jobs, the econ the economic growth to the city, right? Provides property tax provides a little bit of everything to help the community grow. This one warehouse doesn't define it. It defines growth at the end of the day. Thank you. The next speaker is James Austin followed by Pang Pam Young Yang followed by Kenneth Prao. Good evening. My name is James Austin. Uh I'm a resident at Soler Diamond Valley for the last five years. Uh this evening we were talking about rebranding this town. This uh project does not fit with the rebranding idea of a homegrown uh town by eliminating farmland and workers,

those workers that work out in the farm that grow our vegetables. as someone else brought up the idea of a uh permanent or semi-permanent uh farm uh stand uh location farm market. That would be a great idea for our farm produce that we grow here. Lansen is just pushing Hemtt his way with money in many ways as you saw tonight. He's offering different opportunities of money to buy his project. The fact that he owns a large amount of land in this area. As I heard, there was a change in the ownership at Kirby. Was this something that the council was previously aware of to happen? Will this happen again at the Simpson Nuland project where actual Hemtt revenue and employment would change? Change for Hemmet. It's not a positive change. Again, as I said before, these jobs will be replaced by automation which are valless to the community and that has been brought up by quite a few people already. Again, the noise and traffic congestion will impact greater than a mile away by the air. Retail versus individual impacts are not the same. Retail has less pollution, noise, damage than an industrial facility does. As it was said, air pollution will dramatically increase.

We need better jobs, trade schools, and other retail businesses to give opportunities to HEMT citizens for homegrown businesses. Starting here, rebrand Hemmet by what the citizens want, not by what Lancing wants. Thank you. Next speaker is Pam Yang, followed by Kenneth Praau. followed by Diana Boss and Pam, you have one speaker. I have two. There's total of three of us meeting. Yeah, you have two speakers. Okay,

I won't take all that time, but I wanted to make sure I had enough. Diana Careno.

Okay, Barbara Garcia. Okay, so you have nine minutes. Okay. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Pam Yang. My husband and I have lived in Hemmet since 2014. I want to start by saying this recusal thing is outrageous. That means 40% of Hemet citizens won't have a say. And I can go on further to say that 60% don't because the councilman of our district previously said he doesn't care what what we his district wants. Okay. A few weeks ago, I got up early in the morning and began writing because I couldn't sleep the night before thinking of all the negatives that go along with this negative this mega warehouse. This warehouse requires zoning change, which I shall refer to as the bait and switch. We did our due diligence before purchasing our home in the area being considered for the warehouse. Oh, the area being considered for the warehouse was zoned mixed use housing small businesses like restaurants, grocery stores, and so forth. A warehouse is found in an industrial zoning. D Web most likely would not have purchased the land from Mr. Lancing and built so near an industrial area like which is being proposed. And why exactly for the reasons that AB98 was signed into law. Anyone with any heart whatsoever would not put this warehouse in now when the state of California so clearly states the dangers of living close to a warehouse and their truck routes. That's where we live, the truck route. Okay, let me see where am I. Um, I don't know when this particular project Oh, excuse me.

So serious that they will fine cities $50,000 every six months until the truck route is changed that's running near homes, schools, and so forth. I don't know when this particular project was brought up again, but if you truly are representing your districts, you will listen to the state environmentalists and protect your people. No matter what money you think may come in from the project, I have heard maybe around $200,000 per year. I did some calculations and I did it on the slow on the low side and came up with an approximate amount that the city of Hammet will lose if our home values drop the typical 15% valuation using an average of the valuation of of 500,000 per home which is probably low for the three housing developments that is currently along Mustang Road. Your loss in taxes would be approximately $99 per household or a loss of at least $118,800. Think about that. Your now your $200,000 is suddenly $81,200. That paves about $450 ft of road. Driving home along Dominagoni this past Saturday, we were commenting how beautiful the valley is and Mount Saninto and then exactly where are these warehouses? And I thought, oh, and Diamond Valley Lakes right here and they won't even let us dip our toes into it. What about the emissions from the trucks? When I got home, I asked G chat GPT about reservoirs for drinking water with warehouses nearby. He seemed concerned. That was when and then I told him it was Diamond Valley Lake where the proposed

warehouse was about a mile as the crow flies. That brought greater concern because the reservoir sits in a bowl surrounded by hills. The air shed behavior matters almost as much as water runoff. His his um arguments were pollution can deposit into the reservoirs through a process called atmospheric deposition. Chat on the list chat onto the list of two types of diesel particulate matters which somebody went through earlier break dust entire dust and metal which are metals and black carbon. These can contribute to the nutrient loading and metal contamination with algae growth. Because Diamond Valley Lake is lower than surrounding ridges, it can exper experience temperature inversions and poor air mixing. What that means is truck exhaust rises during the day and in the evening the cooling air causes the air to sink into the basin. Pollutants can settle over the reservoir ser surface. This is well documented in southern California basins. The prevailing winds in the Saninto Hemtt Valley have a common pattern which afternoon evening winds often move from the southwest to the northeast which is where our homes are. And at night and early morning cooler air could drain downhill towards the lake basin. Siqua's negative report probably is came from some of these considerations. in housing tracks I have heard about in the planning stages across Mustang and on Simpson near California. If the builders even still consider building with a mega warehouse so close, those homes will not fetch the prices they

almost probably would have before. More potential loss for the city. They may not even be allowed to put some homes there because of SP98. Thank the Lord there are people who think like they do and create legis legislation to protect the citizens of California which made me think of my granddaughter who is currently a sophomore at UCLA studying to be an environmental lawyer. And then my brain flipped to a time at Halloween when she was in kindergarten and my husband and I were chaperoning as she went trick-or-treating with the older kids on the block. After receiving their candy at one house, they all took off to the next. Her granddaughter being left in the dust. We watched her running as fast as she could, but suddenly stop, turn, and put her nose into a rose, taking a deep breath, then turning and running away. And suddenly it became to me that's what Hammet needs. Take time to smell the roses. Hemet needs to be a haven for people when they are leaving towns where warehouses are polluting, making traffic difficult and roads crumbling. We lost a nursery recently in Hammet. Let's find another one to establish their business near the bridge at Dominagoni. No need to change the zoning. A quilt shop. Restaurants with outdoor seating. Make it a beautiful entrance into Hammet. Start promoting beautiful beautifification weeks in Hammet. Weeks. months throughout the town raising the value of our houses all over town. Make it somewhere families want to come and live. A trade school to train kids that jobs AI and robots won't take away. I heard that this corridor along Dominagoni originally was supposed to be for family fun and recreation.

Let's do it anyway, even if we can't dip our toes into the water. running and biking trails through coffee shops and restaurants, clothing shops, and maybe even stalls for full-time farmers markets. I thought I was the one to come up with that. My head started spinning. So, I'm asking you, stop. Let's smell the roses. Vote no on the warehouse. And by the way, I'm for the rebranding. And there's some roses for you all to smell. Thank you. The next speakers are Kenneth Prado, Diana Boss, and followed by Joe Word.

Great. Go ahead.

Frederick Douglas stated, "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." What I want to do tonight is bring another perspective into this conversation and one that often gets overlooked. My name is Kenneth Praau. He is home. He is my community. But tonight, I'm not here speaking as a governing board trustee, even though that role naturally involves the well-being of our youth. I am here more importantly as a husband and a father. Someone who cares deeply about the success, safety, and stability of not just my own children, but the young people growing up in this community. For generations, teenagers in California had a clear path into the workforce. At 15 or 16, you could get a job at a grocery store, a restaurant, or at a fast food counter. But those jobs were never meant to be careers. They were starting points where young people learned responsibility, discipline, and what it meant to earn their own money. But that pathway is disappearing in California. And here in Hemtt, California reports show that today only about a quarter of teenagers between 16 and 19 are even participating in the workforce. And among those who want a job, many simply cannot find one. Entry-level positions that once helped teenagers get their start are increasingly being filled by adults competing in the same labor pool. I see it personally. When your own children struggle to find work and teenagers walk into businesses only to see adults filling what used to be firsttime jobs, you realize something important. We are closing doors that once helped young people step into adulthood. And when teenagers are locked out of the workforce, the consequences go beyond money. Idle time. Yes, idle time among our youth, and we know it firsthand, can lead to serious risk factors such as delinquency, drug and alcohol use, declining self-esteem, isolation, and

growing mental health struggles. Work gives young people discipline. Work gives them confidence. Work gives them dignity. I understand the concerns about warehouse and logistics development, protecting our envir environment matters, and California already has some of the strictest regulations in the country. But economic development also creates opportunity. It creates jobs for adults supporting families. And when adults move into stable careers that opens entry-level positions, the very jobs teenagers need to for the first opportunity. So as we make decisions about the future of this community, yes, we should think about workforce stability for adults. But we must not but not forget the impact when young people are left without work that has been filled by adults without opportunity and without that first step into responsibility. And if we truly care about the future of this community, we must make sure that future still has a place for our youth to work, for our youth to grow, and for our youth to succeed. Thank you. Next three speakers, Diana Boss, Joe Wood, and Karen Johnson. Good evening, council, mayor, prom, mayor, city attorney, and city manager and staff. My name is Diane Boss and I live in Hemet close to the 800,000 square foot plus Newland Kirby warehouse which is close to neighborhoods and to Mary Henley Park. I'm here tonight to ask you to uphold your previous 2025 rejections of the Newand Simpson project. This giant 885,000q ft, 65 foot high warehouse at the intersection of Simpson and Warren is at

the gateway to our beautiful Sano Valley and right next to family homes and seniors homes with the many diesel trucks creating a diesel death zone effect coming in and out of the warehouse 247 on two-lane roads not built for constant traffic. Residents nearby will breathe in toxic fumes, especially since the prevailing southwest wind blows directly into these neighborhoods. Two-lane Warren and Simpson roads weren't designed for the thousands of daily trips this project generates. While the developer promises 1,200 plus jobs, those are often low wage and temporary. While the property values of surrounding homes will permanently drop, causing residents to seek homes elsewhere. I had the privilege of growing up in Hemtt, graduating from Hemtt High School from the old Hemtt High School, if you remember that. Through the years, I really have really grown to love this town, and I actively participate in several wonderful nonprofit organizations that help build our beautiful community in positive ways, like the bumper sticker sold at the Hemtt Museum. He is heaven to me, and I am truly a HMT gal.

Yes, you are. Back in 1975 through 1980, I commuted to Riverside to work. The smog was so bad in the summer, you couldn't see the nearby hills and the mountain ranges. I lived in East Hemet and at times you couldn't see the Senate Mountains when the smog blew into our culde-sac valley where it hung until winds blew it away. I fear this will help happen again on what the approval with the approval of the Newand Simpson project. Council members, I do believe each one of you want the best for our beautiful city of Hmon and I thank you for your dedication and service to our community. I've part participated in several of the positive decisions that you've made in recent years such as the annual him beautiful day of service. Time is up miss.

So please vote no again. Thank you. Next three speakers, Joe Wood, followed by Karen Johnson and Lydia Rasher. Good or good evening, Madame Mayor and council members. I know several of you had put a lot of weight on the possibility of job creation uh as a result of the warehouse, but there's other opportunities if you look forward beyond a warehouse for job creation in the same area that's contemplated for this construction. I know that there's a lot of support from the union members here. I myself was a union contractor for 22 years and driving from job to job is a struggle and I I sympathize with him. But that's what you bought into. That's the nature of the business. The jobs that would be created by this warehouse are temporary for the gentleman behind me. They understand that and they're going to be moving on to something else, another job, another location. They're going to be driving those freeways again. That's part of the deal. you want to stay close to home, work at Staples or something. But um I don't think that the warehouse is a fit for for him. If you're hanging your hat on job creation, there's truly a lot of other opportunity to develop that land as the future moves forward into something that would be more rewarding to the entire community. I thank you for your consideration. and I hope that you will vote no on the warehouse. Thank you very much.

Next three speakers are Karen Johnson, Li Lyia Rashir and Tony Toes. Is Karen Johnson here? No. Okay. Right. Absent. Liia Rasher followed by Tony Toes Torres. Torres.

My name is Leia Roer. I used to live in um LA. I moved to Hammed uh 15 years ago. Uh my husband was raised all his family was raised here in Hammet and that's the reason we moved back here. And I plead tonight with all respect with the different views. Please talk about the new jobs um that is a potential creation. But we are a farmland. We moved to Hammet because it has its own beauty and this project does not fit what a Hammet is all about. I moved from LA to here because of the beauty of Hammet. Because the opportunity that you can grow your own products, you can raise your chickens, you can raise your goats. This is Hammet. It's not at another LA city coming moving to Hammet. So I am against to that. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, council members. I'll keep it brief. It's been a long night. Uh, and uh, I think they seated me another three minutes. I don't think I'll need it. So, I'm Tony Torres. I work for Greg Lancync. I'm proud to do that. Uh, my professional job is to do public outreach, community outreach. I was brought into this project not that long ago, but we have been visiting and talking to residents in Hemmet to educate them about the uh benefits of the project and also what what the project really entails. We found that there are opponents clearly there are opponents here, but there are also folks that were clearly in um supportive of having local jobs. As you heard from the unions and you've heard from other folks, commuting to distant job centers is really taking a toll on them. Uh we also found that um it's been kind of mentioned quite a lot tonight that people don't want these jobs. We we found that there is a demographic group that wants this jobs. Relatively young, I would say 18 to 40. Um a lot of Latino folks find this as a good employment opportunity. They told us this at the door and uh not sure they're going to stay there forever. I mean, we didn't ask them that, but they did say that they would be more interested in working in a job locally here than rather than going to Ontario or even other places in San Bernardino County or Riverside. So, please keep that in mind. We found no shame from them in expressing their views to us that this was a good job. Um, I've heard over and over over the last couple hours that nobody wants these jobs that potentially they're jobs that are low paying and uh the tone is that maybe they're not good jobs. So, what we found from the people that said, "I'd be interested in that." You should also know that the $1 million in school fees has gone over really well with this demographic group because guess what? They have kids in schools. There's a demographic group that we've heard here

that are retired, don't need a job. Uh we've heard that they need people to keep working for the social security money and I agree because I'm going to get there pretty soon. But these younger folks do want to have uh you know that money invested into their schools and that's a significant amount of money in $1 million for school fees. So I just wanted to raise that we the that Greg Lang is doing a good job of providing public outreach that we are hearing voices out there. There are a lot of people in he there are you know two or 30 hundred people here today. Uh, so keep that in mind that there are people that want these jobs, want them local. Um, and I think that if you were to venture out into these neighborhoods and do that yourself and walk door to door, you'd find that the same thing that I'm finding. There is a demographic group that thinks not for me, there's a demographic group that thinks this is wonderful and would give them an opportunity to be here local. So, thank you for your time. Thank you for uh staying late and I hope you do the right thing and support this project. Thank you. Thank you. The next three speakers are Joseph Siblon followed by Sha Sha Roen Roger and then Omar Kobin.

Who is this first speaker? Joseph Sibilon. Is Joseph is Joseph here? No. No. Okay. He's not here. Sean, you're up. Shawn Rosen. Roger. Yes. Okay.

Uh, mayor, council members, I'll be short slate. Uh, I want to start by stating that when this is all over, we the people that actually live in this community will have to still be here together in this town. And uh when these folks go back to their communities, we will go back to the daily work of making Hammet a great place for everyone, including future generations. So no matter what your vote will be, I assume that you have the interest of the residents topmost on your mind. The meeting tonight is not about a warehouse. The warehouse decision was already decided not once but three times. The meeting tonight is about the rule of law. It is about the ability of an elected local government to conduct its business without interference. The meeting tonight is about a powerful, very wealthy, well-connected developer who used his influence and wealth to subvert the democratic process. a developer who in ways not visible to the public managed to intimidate you into rehearing a project which was rejected three times. And tonight he indirectly threatened you with withholding capital from future projects. You you were given a warning. Play along to his rules or else. And I do not blame council members Clark and Lodge for recusing themselves. I'm guessing that they use their best judgment. And knowing how much they care about this community, I trust their judgment. So, it remains to the three of you to stand firm and do what is right. The frame of mind that is behind tonight's

hearing is just getting started. Um, the word bully was in there, but I I took it out. You were impressed with his dazzling development projects, but what he didn't show you tonight is that after choking Hammet from the south, he's planning an additional 9 million square feet of logistics warehouses in Sanosinto, the Sanosinto commerce commerce center on Sanderson. This will completely suffocate us from the north. Mr. Lansing said, "I don't like people to not be happy with me." And in my mind, I'm continuing the sentence. The unspoken part was let's sue them into happiness. So stand strong and do what is right. This is your legacy. Make Hammet proud. Thank you. The next three speakers are Omar Cobain, Ishmamal Gonzalez, and Tel Thelma. Good evening, mayor, council members. My name is Omar Cobian, uh representative for the Carpenters Union, uh representing 5,500 members that live in Riverside County and 400 that live here in Hammet. Unfortunately, um it's a little past their bedtime. They got to get up at 3 in the morning to go to work, most of them. I I want to share something that you guys not might be aware of. One of our um we have a program called Career Connections that's in hundreds of high schools throughout not only Southern California, but throughout the West Coast. Um one of our pride and joy high schools is right here in Hammet, Tacwitz High School. It does help that the CTE instructor is a retired carpenter and they've actually

won several awards. Uh there's a yearly competition uh and I would actually invite you guys to come out. It's in April. It's in Huntington Beach. It's 42 high schools that compete and it's a variety of things from tool sheds to uh it's a project and it's a lot of different judges, but they've been one of the award-winning candidates on a regular basis. Um we've uh that's one of the high schools that funnels probably the most young men into our unions than many other high schools. So, I want to share that. But we also got to remember that we have to create those job opportunities even here in town. Um luckily we do have some projects coming up with some school bonds that have passed in the alien empire. But you know as of recently um in the last year over $20 billion in renewable energy and uh infrastructure projects have been uh put on hold by this administration. So constantly, not only are we being attacked by people that don't want to see any projects in their backyard, but we're being attacked by we're being attacked by the federal government that doesn't really support a lot of union wages, unfortunately. So I ask you guys, if if not now, then when? When are we going to support our unions? A lot of people I heard come up here and say, "Yeah, I I I was a a develop I was a contractor. I support unions, but and I keep hearing the but. So, Hammet is growing in the right direction. We want more development. Don't send that signal out to other developers that you guys are not a businessfriendly city. I'm sure the city staff, city attorney and mayor, I mean, uh, and the city manager working hard to try to bring those kind of developments to this town. We do not want to be a city that says no to development, especially developers like Glancing that have been working extremely hard to try to create the best project possible for the city of HT. So for that, I hope you support this project.

Thank you. The next three speakers are Ishmael Gonzalez, Thelma Moore, and Tidiana Flores. I don't think the first two are there. Is this Gonzalez available? No. No. Okay. Thelma. Thelma's left. Thank you.

Tabiana. Hello, honorable mayor, council, staff, and residents. My name is Tatiana Flores, and I'm an organizer with the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice and a Moreno Valley resident. I'm here to oppose New Land Simpson Road Warehouse Project. This project raises concerns regarding environmental impacts, transparency issues, and concerns about truck traffic. As someone who lives in Marino Valley, as I mentioned, I have seen firsthand how the rapid growth of warehouse development has changed my community and surrounding communities near the I215 freeway. Our region of western Riverside County and the Paris Valley specifically in general continues to carry the burden of the goods movement and projects like these only continue to add to the cumulative impacts that residents are already experiencing. This was something that was noted today actually by district supervisor Chuck Washington as he claimed that western Riverside is becoming inundated by warehouses. Increased diesel truck traffic contributes to worsening air quality, noise and safety concerns for nearby residents and surrounding neighborhoods which is noted in the staff report itself. In addition to the loss of prime farmland, these impacts in truck traffic would not be felt only in Hemtt. It would spread throughout surrounding cities and local highways, especially Moreno Valley, which is connected to San Hesinto Valley through its canyon road. Um, additional warehouse projects like this one will inevitably be inevitably lead to more trucks traveling through the streets of residents like myself. It is unacceptable to approve a project that will exacerbate these issues without addressing the concerns being brought up here today by all the residents and at previous meetings as

many have mentioned having gone to or by or providing adequate mitigation measures to address them. Residents deserve protection and meaningful planning. And you know, all these promises that were brought up today, it's unclear if it was even in writing. So that's something that I want to stress. And additionally, we've been hearing about new jobs, but new California employment data through December 2025 shows that logistic employment has largely flatlined despite continued warehouse construction due to automation and increased warehouse vacancy rates. So, you know, elected officials continue to approve warehouses under the guise that they bring in new jobs, but yet we haven't really seen that growth materialize. And, you know, someone who's Latina as well, I do want more jobs in the area. Um, including Mareno Valley, but I don't want to work in a warehouse personally, and I know a lot of people don't want to as well, and they don't want to have to leave their regions and their homes to find them. Thank you. Next speaker is Elizabeth Madson, followed by Merrced Mendes, followed by Sandy Casper.

Good evening and thank you for taking the time to listen to us. My name is Elizabeth Madson and I live in Hemmet. I urge the council to deny the Simpson warehouse project. The project will bring huge amounts of traffic and pollution to our community that the existing infrastructure is illequipped to handle. This effect will expand far beyond the two miles of road and will last far beyond the construction period. Please act to preserve our horizon and ensure he remains a place people want to visit instead of becoming just another warehouse district. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Merced Menddees, followed by Sandy Casper, followed by Michael Kennedy.

Good evening everyone. The first time I heard about HMET was about 18 years ago when I live in San Diego. Back then, people will say he was nothing but dirt. The second time I heard about Hemet was about 10 years ago when I was still living in Orange City. People said it was one of the worst cities to live because of the crime. So, believe me when I say I never imagined I will end up living here. But after searching for months, I stumbled upon the city while driving through different areas. What caught my attention were were the hills, the farmland, the open views, and the peace and quiet I experienced. I saw a future here, raising my family away from the chaos of the city. And just like me, many others are making the same move. Hammet was has something special. Land, views, history, and even a lake. Right across from where this house warehouse will be built, we have Diamond Valley Lake. It already attracts visitors for hiking and fishing. With the right leadership and investment, we could bring even more people to support our city and local businesses. And what are we doing to unlock that potential? Instead of revisiting projects that resident have already rejected, let's bring our attention on what's d driving people away, clean up the streets, address the homelessness, and improve improve public spaces. These things matter. When a viara first opened, we were excited. But as soon enough, the smell of urine and the homelessness made the shopping experience uncomfortable. When residents don't feel safe doing something as basic as grocery shopping, businesses hesitate to come and say, "My businesses included." This warehouse might promise jobs, but they're not guaranteed for the residents

unless formally secure through a legal binding agreement. I agree with speakers before me. We need other kind of jobs, some that reflect the future that we all want and enhance the true beauty of Hemet. Let's give residents something to be proud of and offer neighborh neighboring the cities what they lack of a common a common real estate sales pitch is buy in Hammet you'll be just 15 minutes away from the fastest growing city in California by why can Hammet be the city to brag about when we have so much more to offer what can we say to developers come and build in Hammet a city with hills nature, farmland, history, and opportunity. Because the future of this city shouldn't be warehouses. The future should be the people. So, I'll leave you with this question. Years from now, how do you want this council to be remembered? as the city council that allow Helmet to sink lower than the reputation already had or the city council that recognizes the potential of this city and transform this place into something that everybody wanted to be part of because Hammet doesn't like potential. It simply needs leadership bold enough to unlock it.

Your time is up, Miss Sandy Ca. The next speakers, Sandy Casper, Michael Kennedy, and Dennis Young. Sy's not here. Michael Kennedy.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I'm hungry and it's past my bedtime. End of story. Okay. Um, anyways, uh, I'm just like Switzerland. I'm the first person up here that is on the fence uh and I'm not for or against the warehouse. But however, I do want to clarify a couple of things. One that is dear to my heart that I've been in the business for 50 years is exposed pollution by medium and heavy duty vehicles. Effective January 1, 2023, all diesel vehicles over 14,000 gross vehicle weight, which is like a Ford F450 Superduty, must have be compliant with 2010 emissions, which includes mandatory emission controls with diesel particulate filters and selective catalytic reduction, which reduces particulate and no nitrogen oxides. 2010 and newer vehicles are considered by Calarb as clean vehicles. They also required to have twice a year emissions check. Older vehicles cannot be registered in California and new ve and vehicles that are older than 2010 are not allowed to be on the road. In addition to that, tractors have to have a fiveminute time limit for idling, which if they do not do that with an automatic uh shutdown, they can be fined $1,000. HIMIT must be friendly, businessfriendly. It is possible that rejecting new businesses could restrict consumerfriendly businesses from coming to HIMT since they may deem he is not a businessfriendly place. You may have noticed all the businesses that have moved out of California. We need to make sure that he is businessfriendly. With Winchester growing and everybody sees us going down to Minne must be on the cutting edge of attracting new businesses like Costco, Albertson's, Vans, Ralphs, Trader Joe's, Aldi, uh Kohl's, TJ Maxx, Homegoods, Best Buy to just uh mention a few. If not, these

businesses will end up in Winchester. There's already signs up there right now showing that new marketplaces and so forth like that. Also, HIMT is without national hotel chains. There's no Marriott in town. There's no Hilton except for the Hampton Inn, which is a Hilton related. I relate to this since I recently had people in town doing vehicle testing. They stayed in Miny or Morirano Valley. So, we lost the food and beverage receipts from that and the taxes for HIMT. As far as the auto mall goes, him is without a VW, Kia, Mitsubishi, Mazda, GMC, Buick on the more economical side, while the luxury brands of Lexus, Infiniti, Audi, BMCW, Mercedes-Benz along with Tesla. This requires those people to go to Tmacula, Morirano Valley or Lakeor. If this happens and they build a auto mall up in the Winchester area, it is very possible because the units in operation, the manufacturers will move the point that is right now at the auto mall to that area. We need to be cognizant of that. As far as income, Costco starts at about $55,000 a year with a differential with a with a entry level journeyman mechanic at an auto dealer $75,000 and up. Car salesperson 75 to 100,000. All of these jobs with benefits. All of these positions include training and advancement opportunities. Plus, all the above lead to increased income for restaurants, service industry, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, which increases the tax basis from the businesses. It multiplies by two to three times that. As we complain about the roads in HIMT, did you know it cost about $2 million per mile for a four-lane road? We need the tax from businesses and not from the residents. We need less taxes for us. Thank you very much. I'm going to go home and eat.

Next three speakers, Dennis Young, Sheay Milan, and Larry Montano. David. Pardon? No.

Dennis Young. Dennis Young. My name is Dennis Young. Um, thank you, mayor and uh, city council. Um, I just want to say I appreciate uh, all the people that have shown up. Uh, I've got 22 years in the union. Um, ACL, CIO, and Teamsters. Um, I have great respect for union. I know how how important it is for communities, for for our country to have union work and and fair pay. Um, I'm all about that. I'm all about giving them work, but in the right way. We can do that, but let's build something responsible. Let's do something that's going to uh benefit our community. Warehouses is not it. Let's get some Costco in here, Sam's Club. Let's get more commercial. Let's work on, you know, nicer restaurants. Um, previous speaker, we're talking about um, you know, more automotive and and dealerships, whatever it is. But it it's not through warehouses. these companies uh commercial business is going to give us taxes. It's going to help our community and we're about the community. This is this is for us. Uh not the warehouses are not going to benefit us. They're going to benefit the school district. A one-time payment and and and a little bit of road work um in front of the warehouse, but what did the community get out of that? We don't get anything out of it. Um so I I just plead please vote no on this. Thank you.

The next three speakers are Shay Milan, Larry Montano, and Judy Rice.

Hi there. My name is Larry Montano. I'm a resident of Saddle Point. So, this uh building would be basically in our backyard. Um, I'm also uh a proud volunteer for your HMT Police Department. Uh, my biggest concern is the congestion that this is going to bring to that area and the problems with the roads. You put 18-wheelers on these roads, it's going to kill them. Um, speaking of problems with roads, one of the advantages as HEMT residents we have is that when we travel on our roads and the big earthquake hits, we'll never know it.

I appreciate you saying no to this measure. Thank you. The next three speakers are Judy Rice, Casey Copelan, and Daisy Carter. Okay. Um, bring the microphone down.

Oh, yeah. It usually doesn't matter, but I realize ADA compliant. Um, I was going to talk about other kinds of jobs. We're only talking about warehouse. We have a valley full of potential. And I'm so glad with that rebranding. It it ties into my vision. We have trails. We have the the the lake. Everything else. We could have tour to California. You could have Vikings going up here through Idle Wild. You could take Idle Wild, have summer music stuff, have have restaurants here. You could have movie sets. There are other ways to enable jobs. I frankly have a problem understanding the need for warehouses so far away from a freeway. It makes no sense to me. But what be it what but I also have to say one of again Ramona bowl it's an unused asset. You could have Coachella mini Coachella here. Granted you'd still have traffic problems but you'd have fun. Um, we're we're talking around each other. We all want things better. And I live I worked for 32 years at a trauma center, a community hospital. It became a a regional medical center became a magnet hospital. We do not have a trauma center. We are in a bowl. Anything bad happens here, we're stuck. We are vulnerable. If these 18-wheelers hits a car in the middle of of Florida and Sanderson, we got problems. If a fire comes here and

those guys are blocking the roads, how do we get out? And I really respect the Saninto fault. It goes right up State Street. Come on, guys. There's a reason there are only twostory houses here. I mean, come on, guys. But I appreciate you're letting me speak and I vote. Next three speakers are Casey Copelan, Daisy Carter, and Franka Parker Packer.

Hello y'all. Good evening. I'd like to assume I might be one of the youngest Oops, sorry.

I'd like to assume I'm one of the youngest people here and so I just want to say I'm part of the demographic that Lancing was talking about and he's not really paying attention right now, but I want to point out that somebody that is able to demean other people and not realize where the poverty actually stands. So, I just want to let you know my mom died when I was 17. I hope that makes me likable like it did for him. But it was due to f fentanyl which is super unfortunate and I know we're really needing to focus on jobs and things like that. But there are big bigger and better things we could putting jobs into like you know focusing on the opioids and stuff like that all the homelessness we have going on. But beside that for the warehouse I used to work in an AR facility for Amazon and that's easily getting taken over by AI. I worked there for over two years and it's called ISS, which essentially is the person that goes, "Oh no, your thing is the wrong color. Let me fix that for you." That's going to be taken over by AI. That job did not pay my rent. I had to have a second job. I now work out in Oceanside. I drive over an hour and a half to be able to pay rent. I pay rent. And it's not even rent. I actually pay mortgage for my family of five. It used to be six, but my veteran grandfather just died. And when it comes down to it, he was part of the union. He went through, he drove semi-truckss. He took care of so many things in this world, had businesses, and California was supposed to be where we prospered. And then Hemet was supposed to be where we relaxed. In Ontario, that's where my grandfather owned his mechanic shop. And now in Hemet, he wanted to die here, which he was allowed to. That's what we did as a family is pay for that. But I wouldn't be able to afford the extra gas when STSON is my route to work and it adds another 30 minutes of getting stuck behind trucks. I don't know if you guys have ever driven on Dominiconi, but when you're stuck behind a truck in one lane and then another really slow person in the other side, it sucks. I also want to assume that when we add more traffic to the roadways, we're looking at higher accident cases and just like, "Oh no, I'm so sorry. You just said your name, Judy. Uh, she brought up a trauma

center." We don't have one of those. My brother's ex-girlfriend was hit by a truck and ended up having to get taken all the way to Wdemar, which we stayed nights in the hospital to visit her because she was literally dying. And they don't have that in him. They all say that if you want to go to KBC, it's to die, not to get taken care of. And it's nothing against on you, but it's just the truth of the unfortunate of where we are. And I mean, I'm only 23 and I have to stand here and beg to be spo like to be looked at and taken notice of. And this is this is the demographic you're looking for. This is the audience that is being missed. These are the people that are going to be building the foundation. And it's nothing against my father is he had me in his 40s. He's now 65, 66. And when it comes down to it, this isn't what they fought for. This isn't what they wanted. This isn't the jobs they led for us to have. They wanted it to be easy. Not me taking care of a family of five at 23. But I leave it, I guess, in your power to understand where it's all going. and you see the gas rising. Are you really going to make my route to work an extra 30 minutes taking all that? It's a lot. I already live penny to penny and I know most people here do and I know everybody's tired. So, I appreciate all of you and I hope you vote no. Thank you. And Lancing, it's pretty rude of you to put everybody's birthdays and phone numbers and names up because as a daughter, I could not

Your time is up. Thank you. The next three speakers are Daisy Carter, Franka, Franca Parker, and Mitsy Carver.

Frank, state your name, please. Franka Parker. Okay. Yeah. Good evening, mayor and city councilors.

First of all, uh I'm here to represent my family, two daughters. My husband, he's already sleeping because he has to get up so early. And I want to say everyone here that my family is very pro jobs. We love jobs. I mean, we like working. And also, um uh we are not an envi environmentalist, whatever you call it. And also we do like investors. You know these people has to work hard right to um to get where they are at. We love investors. But the reason why I am here I I have two reasons. One is safety. I have we have two daughters. H the one of them is still in college but the other one commutes to Tmacula. and safety is so and safety because uh those 18 wheelers and that Dominic going to be coming to Newport that's going to be very hectic traffic you know and also the second one it does not align with the quality of life you know with the new rebranding that we got on helmet is a quality of life quality of life is not just about money but it's about having the peace of mind, you know, that your kids get on the road with not so much hazards or those big 18-wheelers. I do not drive, you know, but even when I go beside to a steam wheeler, we try to stay away, you know, when my husband drives. So um I do think if we want to offer Hammet the quality of life, we need to start and maybe our investor can change instead of that big um warehouse something different that can be invested on the people, you know, on on human better for the quality of life of

people. maybe a university campus, medical centers, you know, those those um where people can have especially young people good quality of jobs, especially our graduating colleges from from Hemet, you know. So that's um that's why this is my second time in this um I've been living here for 24 years and never come to a meeting except for this because it is important to me and to my family. your decision, you know, and I'm so sorry that you're in a very very difficult spot because this decision is important, but I just hope that uh that we say no to the warehouse for this time and we say yes to a different kind of investment into the city. Thank you so very much.

Is Daisy Carter here? No. Okay. The next speaker is Mitsy Carver and DD Henley, followed by David Yang. Good evening um madame mayor and members of the council and my neighbors. My name is Mity Carver and I have lived in Hemet for over 30 years. I have spoken in opposition to warehouses in our valley before and it is disappointing to be here again for the same reason. When is no really no? I have also participated in the city's branding logo program and I'm so thrilled to see it. It's beautiful and I but I find that it seems contradictory to plan a Hemmet logo while allowing warehouses and the truck pollution, fumes, noise, road damage, congestion to our valley. The two plans for the city cannot coexist. Either we are a warehouse polluting town or we are an oasis that will be an environment featuring the hemis the valley's natural beauty which I think our logo supports. Recently, I became aware of a new scientific studies from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which partners with the CDC and from the University of the Pennsylvania School of Medicine. In the Emory University study, quote, researchers looked at health records for more than 27.8 million US citizens aged 65 and older across the course of 18 years, comparing medical conditions and diagnosis against estimated levels of air pollution based on their local zip codes. Our findings suggest that the PM2.5, those that find particulate matter from

smoke and fossil fuel fumes in traffic ex um exposure were associated with increased Alzheimer's disease risk. The summary of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study states, quote, scientists have discovered that even short-term exposure to polluted air can speed up Alzheimer's, worsening toxic protein buildup in the brain and accelerating memory loss. The research connects fine particulate matter, the PM2.5, from sources like smoke and traffic directly to faster cognitive decline. He still has a major retirement community and risking the seniors and the rest of our neighbors to increased risk of Alzheimer's disease should be a major concern before moving becoming more warehouses to our valley. So again, what do you want the future of Hammet to be? um clean air with businesses supporting our natural beauty, stores, tourist destinations for enjoying our lakes, golf courses, horse ranches, nature trails, historical sites, agriculture, plus expanding our cultural and entertainment events with the Ramona Bowl historic theater valley concert series and MSJC programs. Can't this developer maybe develop build something that he could really use like one of these projects instead of a warehouse? And the warehouse project creates an congested and polluted environment with trucks and diesel fumes filling our basin and providing jobs that will one day be automated. Your vote tonight will be your legacy for our valley. Your vote will be important for all of us. Vote wisely. Thank you.

Next three speakers, DD Henley, David Yang, and Bella Soul. Hi, my name is Dee Henley and I live in Morgan Crossing. We bought our house about a year and a half ago and Morgan Crossing is probably the kind of demographic that you are hoping to attract to this city to spend money here. increase your tax base and provide businesses, entrepreneurship, jobs for people that will be good jobs. As far as uh the million dollars that Mr. Lansing has said that he's going to invest in the public schools here, I looked at my property tax bill today. We have a special assessment for Hemet Unified School District that is over $3,200 on our property tax bill. There's 150 homes in our community. So that's almost half a million dollars that you're getting from us and it's only 150 homes. Saddle Point is, I think, 349. The new developments that he talked about along Warren Road were in the hundreds. So when you consider how you want to grow your tax base for HMIT, you should be considering that new housing is going to increase your tax base a lot. And if we had known that there was going to be a warehouse built within a mile and a half of our home, we would not have purchased this home. And I'm sure that's true of a lot of the other homeowners in our community. There are a lot of um younger people that have children and

probably this is their first home. So they've come here because it's in that sweet spot where it's affordable and they they evidently have jobs that they can afford their mortgages. But I'm I mean I've talked to lots of them and again they would not be purchasing here putting their children children's you know future health at risk by living next to a warehouse. So that's pretty much all I'd like to say from a different point of view for you. Thank you.

Thank you. The next three speakers, David Yang, Bella Soul, and Chris Hoffets. Uh, Mr. Yang, you have TW 12 minutes to speak. Um, if these individuals are still here, Char Caps, Bill Caps, and Joyce Joyce Bryce. Are you saying my name? Yeah.

What' she say? It's not Joyce, it's Janet. Oh, Janet Boyce. I'm sorry it's late. And John Mayor, is he here? I John Mayor. I don't think he's here. I should have taken his name out. I'll take his 12 minutes. So you have nine minutes now. No, I have 12. You have I have three, six, nine, 12. Three, four. Do the math. You have 12. Okay, you have 12. I I should say that I'm a graduate engineer, so I can do these things.

Okay, I'm going to stay off a script. Can you hear me now?

Okay. Good evening, everyone. My name is David Yang. My wife Pam and I have lived here in Hemet since 2014. God, I'm so old. I can't figure out this is the 21st century or 22nd. Anyway, we're here to redisuss the Newland Simpson warehouse. And if I'm correct, when I was reading one of those uh displays, it's referred to as the Simpson Road Project. Is that the official name? Doesn't even mention warehouses. Anyway, I'd like to examine the employment opportunities here because a lot of people have talked about that. To begin with, I would like to establish that this will be a large automated warehouse. Otherwise, I don't think anybody would ask for a 61 foot warehouse where you can have high shelves and staging areas way up high that would be dangerous to humans but would be great for robots. So, is this going to be an automated warehouse? Can we get agreement that it will be? Well, I'm going to keep going. I have a pro provided to members of the city council and the mayor some figures that my friend chat chat GBT provided and it's for a 900 square thousand square foot warehouse and you can see that in a traditional warehouse the so-called entrylevel unskilled jobs pickers packers forklift drivers represent 500 12 people. That's a lot of That's a lot of jobs.

But in a highly automated warehouse, that number goes down to 210 people. So, a lot of people 800 people applying for a job. I don't know. But if you dig a little bit deeper, that number shrinks even more. What happens when a company that's in the warehouse business, not in the land development business, but in the warehouse business, decides to take its big warehouse and convert it to an automated warehouse. You go from 850 workers total in a traditional warehouse to 500 in an automated mega warehouse. What happens to those people that between the 500 and the 80050? They're out of a job. Unless, and if you own maybe a number of warehouses, you're going to close down or change one house, one warehouse, and you you're going to have a lot of unemployed people, even the so-called entry level people with some experience, you're going to transfer them to your new warehouse that's totally automated. So, you haven't created any new jobs. All you've really done is move jobs from one facility to another. So, are you really creating 210 jobs? I doubt it. And one of the gentlemen here that works for Mr. Lancing said they have talked to a lot of different people about their

opinions on this. Well, I did some market research when I was working, and there's a lot of things you can do to decide how you want that research paper to come out. My wife and I and another couple walked along Warren Road in the what is it? Saddle Point area with flyers trying to tell people about this new warehouse. And none of them had been talked to by anybody from Lancing Group. As a matter of fact, most of them didn't even know the warehouse would have going to be there. So, who did you talk to? People that live off of what? Newport Road. Anyway, that's just a question. It's a rhetorical question. It's not speculation, but it's question. Other people have talked about what it's going to cost the city versus how much they're going to get. So, I really agree with them and I won't say much about it. I will say because it has a good effect. The value of your property is dependent on one thing. And if you ask a realtor, he'll tell you three words. Location, location, location. If you are located close to a warehouse, your property value drops. I don't care what the studies tell you because it's the real estate people that tell you location, location, location.

And where you want to put your warehouse is not the right location either. So, okay, let's play follow the money. Who's going to make the money? Well, we all know who's going to make the money here. Typically, a land owner converting farmland to a warehouse can bring 10 to 20 times his money back in the investment. So, if Mr. Lancing had invested maybe 10 million in this property, which I think he probably paid more than that for it, he's going to yield a hundred to $200 million profit. He's going to give you $300,000 for your artwork. Wow. So, you know, this is happening everywhere in the in the valley and and we've seen it. We see it in Paris where we have a quick look, just a quick look at the website of a major commercial real estate agency. There are eight empty warehouses in Paris. Each of them over 300,000 square feet. Of those are eight, three of them are over 600,000 square feet. And the largest one is almost 700,000 square feet. That one was built in 2023. It's still empty. So it's really easy how these warehouse developers have come upon this rather

good business model shall we call it. You buy this land as farmland cheap. You develop it into residential or a warehouse. And by the way, when you get these coding ch code changes or whatever they're designing for, you know what that term what term is used to refer to that to get a change in zoning? It's called politicking. We all know about politicians. Once one warehouse gets approved, others will follow. These areas in the Inland Empire are called warehouse corridors. What does that mean? We're not going to have just one problem. We're going to have a dozen or more. And right now, Hemet and Sosinto are looked upon by developers as easy pickings, lowhanging fruit. They're not interested in the communities. They're following the money. And if they don't get their way, they start I've heard this word earlier today, bullying large multi-million dollar lawsuits against financially strapped communities, shall we call it that? And it's a common topic or tactic. It's not just been used here. It's documented all over Southern California. On the subject of lawsuits, I would like

to address one particular type to Mr. Lancing. I asked him earlier and I got a dirty look. Is this a slap? How many of you in here know what slap stands for? Well, I'll tell you. It's S L A PP and it's called the strategic lawsuit against public participation. It's defined in the law books as that and I will read to you a definition. It is a merilous meritless intimidating lawsuit filed by corporations or individuals to silence critics, journalists or activists speaking on public interest issues. It threatens free speech and undermines the First Amendment right to petition the government and speak freely on public issues such as environmental concerns, protests, and consumer reviews. And I'll guarantee that Mr. Lancing knows that definition. And it's illegal to to threaten a slap lawsuit in the state of California. It's illegal in 39 states in the District of Colombia and California has the most restrictive laws enough. There must be better alternatives for this property.

Maybe not for the petitioners, but better for Hammet. You've heard a lot of them. Some of them not so good as others in my opinion, but they're better for the current and future citizens of Hammet. They're better financially for the city and better for the quality of life and the health of heaven's citizens. So I hope that after listening to all these time is up sir. Vote no. Your time is up.

Thank you. Next three speakers are Bella Soul, Chris Hoffett, and Iris Kilthor. Kilam, your Belliso, correct? Okay. You had a couple of speakers, Kathleen Caraher and Peter Best donated time to you, so you have nine minutes. All right. Good evening, Mayor.

Council member, city staff. Um, oh, that's a little bit loud. So, first I want to say, um, seeing the branding today, that is very exciting. I think that was very well done. I think the branding, the colors, everything captures the personality and of city like really well. And I'm excited to see what comes from that. And I love the phrase of your horizon's here. And as we know, we're talking about a warehouse that's going to take up a large chunk of that horizon driving into the valley. So, if it is to pass um and which I hope it does not because I would hope that the city right now, um cast their net wider, a wider net than what's happening. I hope we're okay up there. Um what I want to do is first start with um that I understand that this is a decision that will change the trajectory of the city and I appreciate all that have shown up but want to remind that at the end of the day many of those in this room will call this a place that they worked for a project while others of us call this home. And I speak tonight from a place of HMT being my home. I've been in this valley for over 30 years gone to school out here and all of that. I actually graduated from oh a continuation school and in in tonight there was a business woman who um in in just the lobby area had mentioned seeing like high school students smoking like meth and um thinking that a warehouse would be a good opportunity because they wouldn't smoke meth. Um, and you know, I just think about myself some years ago as being a high school student um, at a continuation school and if that was the only opportunity that the older people in the valley had for me at that time, I just wonder where

would I be? But thankfully I've utilized HEMT to the best of my ability and the resources that have been in this valley such as the community college. Um having to commute out of area. Yes. Raising kids while having to commute. Yes, we all have to do some sacrifices here and there. But this valley has a great vast amount of opportunities. the school system that is in the city. Um the school programs they have engineering, aviation, um military, STEM, we have what is it the western center and I would hope that and I understand that change is inevitable and in this zoning wherever it Yeah. off um Simpson where the zoning is. Why not put something that really elevates and encourages and gives opportunity for our youth, our college students to want to come back to HMIT, not just go to way to school, but come back to Hemet, grow here, contribute and just contribute, make the city, you know, greater as it is. um and just setting up opportunities for that and really you know I know a lot of people have already spoken on it tonight but creating jobs that and it's nothing against the warehouse jobs but really giving you know giving the the interest and pursuit on what's already in this valley and strengthening that um and talking about jobs I think um Lancing mentioned that it was going to be a salary of like 66,000 starting off um and UCR had already done their research and shown that the entrylevel jobs I believe are um yeah the average is 44,000 um for the warehouse workers and the

warehouse workers make up this is from um August 25 warehouse workers make up a large segment of the workforce in the IE but many are low paid face dangerous working conditions and are not yet unionized And with that many were most warehouse workers in the IE struggle to make ends meet. So this was research studies and this came and this how they came to their um to their data and most IE warehouse workers are workers of color. Latino and black workers are disproportionately employed within the five most common non-supervisory warehouse occupations combined. Notably, Latinos represent 42% of the IE's workforce, but 61% of the warehouse workers. So, it's dis disproportionate. And again, just speaking thinking about the comment that the businesswoman had made, I would hope that we are setting and really really putting out a wide cast net and setting the hopes up really really high for people um to work to work for and giving them those opportunities. Um, let me see. I have a bunch of little random things here, but um, looking at revenue because and I might be wrong on my numbers, but um, I looked at a property a warehouse in in Paris that equivalent square footage. Um, their property taxes for the year were about $1 million. And if the city receives like 17% of that, um it calculated to about um 175,000 in revenue. If that's the case, and we're going to be looking at building an 800,000 square foot huge thing entry into the city and only receiving revenue of about 175,000. I

just wonder if there's other ways to do that, such as maybe a local vacancy tax on the vacant commercial buildings that flood the city of Hammet. Um, which may give an additional revenue for the city given that there are so many that are within the city that are not um being used. And then it also sounds like a lot of the people who have spoken in support are also in line to receive some type of contribution. If it's the school district, um if it's the VFW and so my question is if Lancing is putting this as a condition of the warehouse, why not just contribute that in goodwill? If you've invested in the community, why not just continue to invest in those ways out of goodwill? Why does it have to be contingent on the warehouse development if you're invested into the community? Um, let me see. Oh, one of the things too that I wanted to mention is that um I am a former union member. Um, grew up in a union home. no better than to ever cross a picket line. We're not a picket line. This isn't a picket line. And there's two council members that recuse themselves and there's one that did not. And we knew where your solid your solidarity stood before. And I really really hope that there is an understanding that it's not just about solitary with just union members but for the residents because at the end of the day again this is a project but we live here. We're going to have to deal with the long-term effects of the roads, of the environment, of the air quality, um the traffic and so forth. And so I would just hope that um and

again I know that this is not a light decision that any of you have to make. Um and I I hope that the decision is made from a place of and everybody has said legacy. Um, I would I really hope that is it that it aligns the decision aligns with the work that's been put into the branding and understanding where the heart is in this community and that although there was a comment about retired nurses, the reality is a lot of us here do have life experience, we have our career experience, we have that experience to where we can now look back and say what makes sense, what doesn't make sense, right? We we understand and we're going to encourage those around us. Strive for more. Look for more. You don't have to just stop or settle here. So, I don't think that that's a bad thing that there's a room full of people who may be retired speaking. They're they're speaking from wisdom. They're speaking from experience. They're speaking, I would imagine, and anybody can correct me if I'm wrong, but I would imagine they're also speaking from the voices and the wants that they want for their grandkids here and wherever they may live. And again, this isn't about warehouses being bad. It's just being responsible in the development and the branding initiative that you all have put forth. That's exciting. Lead with that. There's opportunity. Thank you. The next three speakers are Chris Hadids,

Iris Kilam, and Jim Riser.

All right. Hi, good evening. My name is Chris. Uh, I have to commend our speakers this evening. They have been um informative. They have been informative and uh uh to the point. They've shared a lot of information. I've lived in uh Hammet for coming up on 20 years and I was uh very happy uh once I moved to Hammet. Uh these days I'm not so happy since they've plunked down a concrete monstrosity about a quarter mile from my house. And um I don't look forward to this summer when that warehouse has been sitting in the sun all day and then radiating its heat away at night, warming up the local area. So that's another problem with uh warehouses. Um, I don't think there's much I can add in the way of uh information about why I am against the warehouse. I would just ask that uh the city council members provide their rationale for voting the way that they will uh in some means either posting it to the uh city uh Hammet city newsletter um uh or sharing it the next time we are uh together with a city council meeting. So uh please consider doing that so that uh you can be held accountable and we can be informed as your position on very important city matters. Thank you.

Next speaker is Iris Kilam, Jim Riser, and Harlo Lenning.

Okay. Hi, I'm Iris Kildau. Um I'm an actual local HMT resident. I live in Seven Hills, right down the street from the Kirby warehouse and all those lovely potholes on Kirby. Um I'm not just representing myself here tonight, but all of the other Hemtt residents that I've spoken to over the last year and the last few days, um who are all opposed to the warehouse and shocked that there is consideration of yet another warehouse here in Hammet. They thought it was a done deal in uh 2025 and were shocked to find out that it's up for reconsideration again. So um uh especially after uh their concern is that a lot of people commented that the warehouse on Kirby was snuck in uh under their noses that nobody got proper warning about that and they were uh all opposed to that. So, um, all the people I've spoken to have mentioned concerns like excessive traffic on our small narrow roads, especially, uh, Sanderson, for example, that's two roads in each direction, and that's where they were just building that, um, little road to go to the Kirby warehouse. Um, so, one of the other things that they talk about is all of the potholes that already exist on Kirby and what's going to happen and Sanderson and all the other roads and what's going to happen to our roads. uh that that would that they would only get worse and most importantly air pollution, air pollution, air pollution and the health issues, health issues, health issues that will be suffered by local Hemmet residents as a result of that uh people that actually live here. So um next, hold on a second. Uh, one thing I wanted to make a mention of is at one time uh,

last year I was driving back through Lamb Canyon from Bowmont and about 6:00 a.m. and I was shocked to see a horrible brown haze just hovering over our valley. I just I had no idea that we were that polluted already, but we are. And quite frankly, that was scary. Uh it's dangerous healthwise and it's sad considering that this was uh farmland and agricultural territory and all of that uh when it rains all of that air pollution is going into our agricultural products, our vegetables and fruit. So on that note, I am going to say that that's why tonight I think that the concerns, the needs and desires of local Hemmet residents are what really matter here and he residents desires should be taken most seriously here and given the most weight in this decision. Please vote no. Thank you. Next speakers, Jim Riser, followed by Harlo Lenning and Eric Robinson. Hi guys. I didn't prepare a speech tonight. Um, but I wanted to share with you, I've been in Hemmet as long as the worst threat on the road was those little ladies driving the giant Buicks over those dips, but I'll take those old ladies any day over a tractor trailer driving over Warren Bridge and then having to wait for them to get through the two stop lightss at the bottom and the top of the overpass in Metife. Holy smokes, folks. You do know the different there's a difference between investing and exploiting, right? You invest in communities that you care about, that have dignity.

You exploit communities that are cheap and easy. I've been wondering for a long time how long this community is going to disrespect itself. We have a history of being exploited all the way back to Ramona. You guys want to have jobs? You want to build something? Build something that your community is proud of. Please don't mislead. Folks, I I I run a little operation and we have a rule of thumb in that operation for making a decision and it is we don't make a big decision without a sunset one and we have this rule of thumb called good enough for now, safe enough for try to try. Good enough for now, safe enough to try. You do all know the definition of insanity too, right? Trying the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. We got a warehouse on Kirby, folks. That's like I'm just wondering how long it's going to take for this community to wake up. They're not building them in Meny because uh Meny respects itself. Is that why nobody wants to invest in the nice restaurants and the good jobs that we're talking about over there? Hm. You know, there's 5,000 years of experience in this room.

Talk to us, Mr.

I am so proud of these old folks over here, though. That's why I'm up here to speak tonight. I am so proud of these old folks, cuz I used to go, "Oh, they can't even look over their driving over their dashboards." But they're up here much later than their bedtime. And this is a glimmer of hope for me for this community that these people are here tonight. What a great sign of community. And you ought to be proud to represent them. Do it well. It's a beautiful moment for him. It best I've seen in years. Sir, if you want to uh have us honor your name, as you said, we build trust. We grow trust.

Your time is up, sir. Grow trust. And let's build something great.

Next speaker is Harlo Lenning, followed by Eric Robinson, and the final speaker is Fernando Lo Leon. Almost almost. Uh, hi members of the council. Um, I also don't really have prepared comments. Um, I my name is Harlo Lenning. I live in Hammet and um, I'm going to try and make this short and sweet because I know it's late. Um, I am opposed to the warehouse for basically all of the voluminous comments that have been um, made earlier. I'm also kind of upset that the fact that I have to this is the third time that I've spoken or I mean or I guess fourth time I've spoken um against the warehouse. It's like you it's like uh you've made the decision before. Please just have the guts to to um to stand by it. Um, let's see. What I want what what I would really want to say is that I'm not opposed to jobs. I'm not opposed to development. I'm just opposed to this development. We can do so much better. Ple and uh what I would like to say is please make uh create a development that will attract people to Hammet as opposed to push them away. I grew up in the city of Orange and they converted their downtown for example to antique shops. Um you know there's there's you know you know Menfy and Winchester have have attracted all these nice businesses and stuff like this. There's no reason that Hammet should not be able to do the same. Anyway, uh thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next, next two speakers are Eric Robinson and Fernando Leon. It's Erica Robinson.

Sorry. All right. So, council member, mayor, uh my name is Erica Robinson and I'm a resident of HMT. My home is about a mile from the proposed uh warehouse. Like many families here in Hammet, my husband and I commute to our jobs 50 to 80 miles one way. So we understand the desire to bring jobs to the community. But the real question is not just any jobs. What kind of jobs are we bringing to him? The reality is is warehouse wages today do not allow someone to afford a home in this market. I know it wouldn't. Upward mobility in these jobs are the exception, not the norm. If I left my current job to work in a warehouse, I would lose my home. So like that, I will keep on commuting. That leads me to ask ask a question. Are Hammond residents only expected to settle for warehouse jobs that don't provide livable wages and work 60 or more hours a week to make ends meet? Trust me, I know that feeling too cuz I also started from the bottom up. Not in a warehouse, in another industry. The majority of the union workers here that are in favor of the warehouse, we must note that this warehouse is only a temporary 18 months, two years to build. After that, they will move on to another project, maybe in Hemet, maybe in Paris, maybe somewhere else, and they will be commuting to. And what about our youth is the message that we're sending to the youth is that the best opportunity they have is a low-wage job in a warehouse. Is that the best that they can do? Safety is also a concern. Many young families live in this area and childrens walk, bike, and transport themselves to the schools, my children included. Adding hundreds of trucks to our roads every day raises real concerns about traffic safety, noise, and long-term health impacts for our neighbors. Business parks are typically meant to attract offices, medical services, technology, uh, companies, and diverse businesses that have bring higher paying

careers. An approximate 885,000 square foot logistic warehouse with 146 loading docks at approximately three trucks per dock per day is a very different vision of that. We are also located near communities like Tmacula and Menipi that do not do have warehouses but none of that size and that scale as the proposed project. These communities have grown by focusing on balanced develop balanced developments such as healthcare, retail, small business and services that strengthen their economies and quality of life. Hammet deserves development that builds opportunity and strengthens our reputation, improves our schools and protect the quality of life for the residents that live here and for the future residents are that are looking for a quiet place to live like I did when I decided to move to Hemet. So with that, I tell you guys to please do not approve this warehouse. There will be better opportunities down the road and I see you guys are doing it. Heid has good bones. When I moved to Hammet, people were saying don't move to Hemet. And if you have to move to Hammet, move on the west side, but go to Meny. Go somewhere else. Don't move to Hemet. But coming in here, I see I see the work that you guys are doing. It's slow. It's changing. and that rebranding that you guys saw this in this morning. Absolutely beautiful. So, please keep on doing that. Thank you.

The final speaker is Fernando Leon.

It's Fernando. Fernando is not here. He's not here. Wow. Okay.

All right. With that, I'm going to close the public hearing. And now we will come back and allow the applicant 15 minutes in rebuttal. Jeremy Crowd again, EPD, and I'm only up to address a couple of the sequel comments. There were a number made throughout the the evening, so I'll be brief and quick on that. Uh there was uh comments about safety and traffic safety uh concerns. Those were analyzed in the EIR. Um and I want to make sure I I reiterate the point that I made in my original presentation. Uh some of the comments were related to the sequ. Um we did the full EIR on the larger project and then when the project was reduced uh because the project was reduced all the impacts are also reduced. So we made uh findings and analysis that address that reduction in the plan. Uh so that was meeting the the SQA standard as far as requirements to analyze the project. Um project alternatives are created over time. There were alternatives and then the uh determination uh of the applicant previously to reduce it. Uh it was how we addressed it in the um the documents filed under the the prior council meeting. But as part of that we looked at safety u from traffic standpoint. We did look at the HR the health risk assessment and those standards which of course there were a lot of concerns we heard tonight about that did find even the larger project met those standards and were significantly reduced as a result of the uh reduction of the the building uh one building and uh overall project size. Um an important point also just want to make sure that's clear is that uh AB98 was brought up a lot. AB98 was met through the project design and so that was actually compliance. of the threats of litigation from a state was not really applicable to this project.

That's related to uh road designations for traffic or for truck truck routes. Uh that's been changed in the recent law, but I just uh want to make sure that that was clear. But we did look at all those areas um related to safety, health risk, air quality, and noise and the things that were addressed earlier and were part of the EI and then further analyzed when it was the project when the project was reduced in size as well. Um, I know with reduced time here, we want to make sure Mr. Anson gets up, too. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you all for your time this evening. Appreciate it. Uh, we heard a lot from the opposition. Very vocal obviously. Um, not really a lot of substance. I mean, they all have an opinion. They all want this, they all want that. But no one has come to me in the last two years and said, "Hey, I can help you. I can help you bring a hospital." Like, we'd all love a biotech or a high-tech or a hospital. But he's not there yet. And this building would be a stairst step, right? It'll bring some jobs. I know there's a lot of fear that this will be like Paris where there's a sea of these buildings, but he's not going to let that happen. You already have a moratorum, I believe. And there's not enough sites even if you wanted to. There's only two other sites in the whole city that we could identify that could ever even accommodate a big warehouse. So, I think the fear of it being a sea of warehouses is a big concern and that's not going to happen. Um, you know, the other thing is we still own, as I said before, 500 acres next to this. If I thought for one minute there'd be a 1% chance that it would detriment the remainder of this project or the neighborhood, I wouldn't do it. So, as an experienced developer, this is the progression of how the community can be developed. This is on the very far west end. Um, we've got it, you know, the city has art and public places. We also, you remember, we had a design showing a lot of trees and the elevation, base elevation is 15 feet below Domagoni Parkway. So, you're already 15 feet even though it is, yes, 60 foot building, you're 15t below. you have a 15 foot burm and then trees 25 foot trees. Um, so you know, again, it's going to be very well screened and if for some reason not, we'll do a mural or something to make it an identity for the city, actually a benefit. But also, when it's built, when the rest of the project's built, you saw the commercial center we'd like to do and the all that, the retail. When those are all built,

this building will be just blend into it'll be in the background. You know, you drive through even Paris, you see the buildings, so much landscaping and things, they become just a side peripheral view. So, we're pretty confident that the retail will really be beautiful, but you know, we can only do so much retail. We need the catalyst. This is a catalyst. So, um you know, Madame Mayor, you asked about what's the difference from a sequest standpoint, nothing's changed on this project, but from a from a bettering the project, we're offering 10-year full maintenance of a twomile stretch, which has never been done that I know. and we point it on the map. So, you have that the yellow and we'll commit to that. Um, we're gonna we'd like to put condition that in the building, whoever we bring in would have a retail component of at least 5,000 square feet. We'd like to have that put in because then that ties into our retail next door and hopefully a hotel. We've talked to Hilton Garden in and some others, so we're trying to do that. Um, in addition, you know, I was moved by the folks that spoke from the VFW and and the American Legion. You know, we'd like to help them. And I know one girl says, "Well, just help them anyway." Well, yeah, okay. I can help them this much, but if the project comes in, we have the ability to help further. And so, we'd like to make a $100,000 commitment to each of them at the CFO at this building, as well as helping your branding. We'd like to contribute 100,000 towards that out of this. So, we're trying to We're trying to help be solutionoriented. I didn't hear a lot of the opposition being solutionoriented. So, with that, I won't take too much more time. You have all the cards. You know, we have a lot of our projects coming forward. If you don't like something we're doing, you can hold us up, you know, um with our map, with our engineering, what have you. Um and you know, you can see our project has done everything we can to address every concern. We're going to create jobs. We're going to create revenue. We're

going to create a catalyst. This will be a catalyst and let's please approve this project. I tell you this is going to be a big benefit to the city. You're going to read about it in the paper and the capital groups are going to say, "Wow, sounds good. Let's start talking about other things. Let's talk about this hospital. Let's talk about these offices. Let's talk about a trade school. Let's talk about other things that that we could be doing in Hemtt and not skip over Hemmet." So, with that, all due respect, please approve the project. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Okay, I will bring it back to council. Any questions, comments? What is your pleasure? Oh,

where do I begin? Okay, so we all know there's pros and cons to this. From the beginning, one of my major concerns was the traffic and the roads are a definite concern. Now, they've said they do two miles, but we know that these trucks go more than two miles in and out of our city. And I was told at another meeting that these are only short hall trucks, that they wouldn't be parking in our city. We know in the last year we've seen an increase of trucks all over our town parked and it was mentioned earlier on Stson um February 23rd just a day before our last council meeting there were seven on Stson and before the Kirby building was built I may see two. Okay. So the next day, the day of our council meeting, there were nine there. And I I use that road quite a bit. And I do see them. I do see them. And I don't want trucks parking all around our town. When they were building Kirby, one of my complaints, I I live in Four Seasons, so I live off of Devonshshire. That's a little farm road. Unfortunately, the GPS will take commuters down Warren Road to Devonshshire to California. There's no trucks that are supposed to be on Devonshshire and I see them almost every day. So, when they were building Kirby, I had mentioned this and um

the chief of police, city manager said, "Well, take down license plates." Okay. When they were building Kirby, I was downtown on Harvard Street and big old truck comes right down little Harvard Street. I was like, "You got to be kidding me." In the middle of the city in this little little street and I was going to take a picture of it, but I couldn't even tell the license plate because the back of it was caked on with cement. The whole back of it was just horrible. So I am very very concerned about the traffic. I know a lot of you have seen um trouble with people turning and and you know changing lanes and all this kind of stuff. So from the very beginning I was concerned about traffic and I was concerned about roads and I don't know if I want to categorize it as third but third would be the air quality and and such. And I've seen it too when I've come down Lamb's Canyon I see stuff in the air that's just hanging there because we're a bull and it's there's nowhere to go. So, and I know San Hasinto is going to plan more warehouses, too.

So, I I just um I really would like to see something good there. Um, as it was said, you know, I I love the union workers. You know, it's like everybody has a place, everybody has a job in this world, and I respect everybody. And I'll just tell you, my husband used to say, well, he wasn't a good handyman. And he would say, well, they need a job, too. So, if we needed a plumber, if we needed an electrician, he's like, yeah, we need to call them. They know what they're doing, you know, and I respect that. But, as they said, this is a temporary job, and it's only going to last 18 months. And then what are you going to do? So for that that reason too, you know, I would love for you to build something as they say, something that would add value, something that would be um attract people here. You know, we we we need something that is lasting. I don't trust the uh warehouse business right now. Um, I can tell you that a few stats from the Kirby one. We were we were promised 550 permanent jobs. And in mid January, there were fewer than 200 nonseasonal associates a year after they they built it. And of that, 40% were from HMT. So that means 80 people got a job out of 550 that were promised. And then we don't even know what that equivalent was because they call it full um the FTE. So

two employees working 20 hours a week equals a full-time employment. So that means like two people are getting part-time jobs probably to make one employee. And this, you know, it's not it's not fair for people, I think, to have to work two jobs just to support their family. And um I I just don't think it's the right building in that place.

Want to say anything? Hello. My question is that you said for 10 years you'll maintain the two-mile road. Why can't we just make it concrete instead of asphalt which tears up easy with big rigs?

Do you want him at the microphone? I mean, is that is that feasible? If we're going to have a conversation, you need to be at the microphone. Yes, I'm sorry. Uh, yeah, I'm certain that we could do that if that would We'd have to find out from the city. Are we able to put concrete where asphalt is and convert it?

That would be an excellent question for the city engineer to answer. And I'm looking right at her so she can't run away. I'm just trying to because if you maintain um two two miles for 10 years, you know, who's going to cover it? Say there's potholes, we go out and fix it, then we have to bill you or you know, but with concrete, I mean, concrete is durable, it lasts a lot longer, and you wouldn't have to deal with that 10 year maintenance. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and we were assuming we'd have to bond for the improvements to repair, but certainly the concrete is is a good idea. We we'd be we'd be good without Yeah. You want go ahead let her Oh, I'm sorry.

Don't go anywhere though. Hi, good evening. Um I mean that is definitely an option. Um we are working on the design for the realignment of Warren Road um based upon the general plan. So we would probably want to make sure that we aren't spending all the money to concrete the existing alignment right now. But that would So it can be done. It can. Yeah, theoretically it can be done. Yeah. I I I would propose something like that with concrete, make it a lot easier, a lot durable.

Yeah, absolutely. And and uh to uh respond to Councilwoman Peterson's uh concern, we have plenty of truck parking within our site, and for some reason you ever were to see a truck parked along Simpson. We have plenty of land, we'll pave and make more room for for trucks to park off site. There's no intent to ever be parked on the street, and that's not acceptable. You can have a uh like one of those truck gas stations where people can park and you bill them, make extra money. I don't know something. But I'm done. Um you're done. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I just want to make a couple comments. Um, first off, I want to thank everybody who came out tonight. There's definitely a lot of concern from the residents who live here in all age groups, and I appreciate that. Do we need jobs? Absolutely. Do we need this kind of job? Questionable. Do I feel sorry for young people who have to drive out of town for a job that probably pays the same amount of money? Yes, I do because I was in that position many, many years ago. However, I also remember when TmAcula was faced with a similar decision like this, very tough one. Uh they had received a a proposal to put a type of development where the mall is. And it was, you know, it it was really it was hard on them that it was a good thing. They had this vacant land, let's let's put something on there because it's been vacant for a long time. Their city manager at that point had said, "If that's what you want, if you want to

settle, do that, but something better will come along." So, I have to remember that. So with that, we have to make a decision tonight. So we need a motion to either approve, deny, or provide alternative direction. And I would hope we don't do that.

Well, I'd like to try one, see if it'll work. I move that the city council certify the final environmental impact report for the Newand Simpson project and approve GPA 22-003 and the CUP22-006 tenative parcel map 38800 and associated project approvals.

Okay. Is there a second to that? And I'm going to interject something here. We are going to vote differently tonight. We are not going to put the bear the onus on the last person who votes or the second to the last person or any of us. We're going to vote colorcoded tonight. We each have a file holder with a red card and a green card. The red will say no to the motion. The green will say yes to the motion. And we will all put them up at the same time. So, do we have a second to this motion? Not hearing a second. Let's have another motion. I make a motion to deny the project. Do we need anything more than that?

That's fine. That's fine. Okay. I will second that motion. Grab your little cards. Everybody ready? All right. This is the vote to deny the project.

What else do we need? Um so resolutions are required to be adopted by a majority of the entire body. So we would need three votes uh for that motion to deny it. Now if you can't get a motion, no actions taken. It's the same as project denial, but your city attorney would strongly recommend that you get three votes to adopt the resolution denying the project that we prepared. mayor. So, I'd recommend taking that motion again and seeing if we can get three votes in support of that motion.

All right. We are going to vote again so that the resolution is a three to deny the project or yes to deny the project. Can we get three votes? Let's vote. I'm going to vote. Oh, I didn't even ask for a second, did I? Okay, we still have We still have a red.

Okay, so the the motion fails. Um, so at this point, uh, we have no action, mayor. And so under uh the rules of procedure for the council, that's the same as denying the project, but we won't have a resolution denying the project on record. But we'll communicate that to the applicant. That's it. That's it. All right. The project has been denied. Okay. So, I'll I'll explain a little more. Okay. And louder.

We We've been here all night. We might as well get this done. Um, so a resolution of the city council has to be approved by a majority of the entire council. That means three votes in favor of adopting a resolution. So we've prepared a resolution to approve the project. We've prepared a resolution to deny the project. Uh, so we understood that the motion to deny the project was to adopt the resolution denying the project. Um, it doesn't seem like we're going to get three votes in favor of adopting that resolution. So, what we have is a motion that passed two to one to deny the project, but we did not have the resolution adopted. Is that clear?

Okay. Yes. The project is denied. This long piece of paper I spent hours drafting didn't get approved. That's okay. But the project is denied. Thank you. The project is denied. Should we say to deny the We're good. Okay, we are good. And since it's now Wednesday morning, we are going to

No, that's not till 8:00. I'm sorry. Um, with that, I am going to adjourn this meeting to our next regular meeting on March 24th. Thank you all. We are ajourned. Good night. You need to go out and have a great