City Council - Regular Meeting

Because people can't get around those folks.

Okay, so we'll, I'll fix that.

You see where Rick Hess is?

Yeah.

Nobody can walk behind him.

Okay. Yeah, we put this together. Again, so I'll fix it after.

Hi. Perfect. Thank you so much. Yeah. All right. Thank you.

How are you? Good, how are you? We're about to start. I need to...

Good evening, everyone. I'll call this evening's City Council meeting to order. It's a City Council meeting for September 1st, 2026. Let's all stand and recite proudly our Pledge of Allegiance. MADAM CLERK, CAN YOU KINDLY CALL ROLL CALL, PLEASE?

YES. EXCUSE ME. COUNCILMEMBER BRANDO CRUZ. HERE. COUNCILMEMBER MELISSA LAMATINA. HERE. COUNCILMEMBER DAVID ORO IS EXCUSED. VICE MAYOR MARK JOSEPH.

YES.

MAYOR PIERRE WASHINGTON.

I'M HERE. Report on closed session and confirmation reportable actions when you're ready. Mr. Summers.

Can you report out? Yes Thank you mayor the mayor and council met in closed session to consider two items the first regarding conference of the real property negotiators There that I will note there was a typo in the agenda. The address is listed is correct 4000 Paoli Loop Road however, the APN had a typo the correct APN is APN 057-120036. But as noted, the closed session was lawful because the 4000 Paoli Loop Road address was correct. I do have reportable action. There, the Council discussed the potential acquisition of public road right-of-way at 4000 Paoli Loop Road under the terms of an existing pre-annexation agreement as amended, which provided in summary for road right-of-way acquisition in return for a successful annexation of the Paoli Watson Lane affected territory. The Council directed the City Manager to continue pursuit of the annexation, achieving that part of the price for the road right-of-way land acquisition, including by negotiating pre-annexation agreements with other affected landowners which will return for City Council ratification at a future meeting. regarding the second item, Conference of the Legal Counsel, Existing Litigation, City of American Canyon v. Timothy Shea. There, the counsel provided direction to staff and counsel but took no reportable action. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Summers.

Any questions from counsel? Seeing none, uh, we'll be moving on to our proclamations and presentations tonight. We have three proclamations and one presentation. I'll start off with the Hispanic heritage month. Um, for those of you who are here to receive the proclamation, I would ask that you go up to the podium. Um, once I read the proclamation, we have a video that we're going to show, and then I'll allow whoever wants to speak on behalf of the Hispanic community, uh, to say a few words. So anyone that's going to be receiving the proclamation. And I'll start reading the proclamation. Oh, sorry. Hispanic heritage is much. month, whereas Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated throughout the nation from September 15th through October 15th each year. The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Month a week and expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover the month at which it was celebrated today, September 15th is significant, correction, to cover the month at which it was celebrated. Today, September 15th, is significant because it is the anniversary of the independence of Latin America countries like Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrated their Independence Day on September 16th and 18th, respectively. Whereas the city of American Canyon looks forward to celebrating the national Hispanic Heritage Month, highlighting the rich heritage, art, history, food, music, and traditions of Hispanic and Latino nations. This observance provides an opportunity to honor the distinguished identities, experiences and traditions represented within the Hispanic and Latino communities and to celebrate their many contributions to our city and our community. And whereas the city of American Canyon has long history with welcoming immigrants and is home to the growing. multi-ethnic and multicultural Hispanic and Latino population, all of whom are welcomed and very much appreciated. And whereas the diverse Hispanic Latino population of American Canyon makes significant economic contributions and has other profound positive influences on our city through a strong commitment to family, faith, education, hard work, culture, and service. And whereas this community thrives on the diversity and and integrity of all people and depends on the continued support of success of our diverse Hispanic Latino population. And we will continue to be enriched by the transcultural contributions of our Hispanic and Latino friends and neighbor for many decades to come. Now, therefore IPR Washington on behalf of the entire city council do hereby proclaim September 15th through October 15th, 2026 as Hispanic heritage month. in American Canyon, dated today, September 1st, 2026. And we're going to show a quick video and then we'll have some comments.

Every year from September 15 through October 15, we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to recognize the histories, cultures, achievements, and contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities in American Canyon. Hispanic heritage is an important part of the community we call home. Today, more than 32% of American Canyon residents identify as Hispanic or Latino. Their contributions can be seen throughout the community. and the people who serve our residents and help keep our city moving forward. From local non-profit organizations to small owned businesses that contribute to our city, and in the tradition, art, music, food, stories, and cultures shared across generations. This Hispanic Heritage Month We celebrate the people, cultures, and contributions that continue to enrich American Canyon. Feliz mes de la herencia hispana. Happy Hispanic Heritage Month.

Yes.

What an awesome video. Wow. Good job. ALI. GOOD EVENING, MAYOR, COUNCIL MEMBERS, CITY MANAGERS, STAFF AND MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY. MY NAME IS KARINA CERVENTI. I'M A LONGTIME MEMBER OF THIS COMMUNITY. AND IT IS TRULY AN HONOR TO BE HERE TO ACKNOWLEDGE HISPANIC HERITAGE PROCLAMATION IN OUR BEAUTIFUL COMMUNITY OF AMERICAN CANYON. Today is about more than food, music, and traditions. It is about celebrating who we are, where we come from, the people who came before us, and the contributions we make every day. Many of our families came to this country with dreams, a dream of opportunity, a better life, and a brighter future for their children. Because of their courage and sacrifices, we are here today. And we should be proud not only where our families come from, but also proud to call the United States of America our home. We don't have to choose between being proud of our Hispanic heritage and being proud Americans. We can be both. We can honor our traditions, speak our language, celebrate our culture, and proudly be part of the American story. This is the beauty of America. Tonight, I also want to recognize and thank those who have shown tremendous support, commitment, and love for our community. Thank you to the Napa County Supervisor, Belia Ramos, Napa County Sheriff, Oscar Ortiz, and Juan Gomez, Assistant City Manager, Napa Valley Unified School District Superintendent, Rosanna Mussetti, for your continued support. Thank you to our PTO, PTA, boosters and organization board members, our volunteers, and everyone who works behind the scenes to strengthen our schools and community. And to our local business owners and entrepreneurs, thank you for investing in American Canyon. A special thank you to Cecilia's Hair Salon, Raices, Taco Nombre, Custom T-shirts and Signs, Valentina's Kitchen, Taqueria Maria, AC, American Cunning Collision Center, Dos Botellas, Tacos Michoacan, La Taquiza, Nectalia Barbero, and Pretty Woman Center, just to name a few. So that's a lot. and to all the businesses that support our families. And I want to recognize the people whose hard work is sometimes overlooked. Our winery workers, landscapers, construction workers, nannies, housekeepers, agricultural workers, and everyone who works long hours to provide for their families. We see you, we appreciate you, and we thank you. You are an important part of the foundation of our community. And now, especially to our young people, I want you to remember something. You have superpowers. Being bilingual is a superpower. Being bicultural is a superpower. And being able to read and write in two languages is a superpower. You can connect generations. You can connect cultures. You can see the world from more than one perspective. Never be ashamed of that. Be proud of it. You don't have to choose one culture over another. You get to carry both. And if we describe the spirit of our community through the incredible animals of Latin America, we are strong as the jaguar. We're colorful as the quetzal. warm and resilient like the llama, magnificent as the condor, and wise like the owl. Those qualities in our families, our workers, our business, our volunteers, and especially our young people. So tonight, let us honor the generations who came before us, celebrate the generation growing up today, and look forward to the future we're building together. OUR HERITAGE LIVES IN OUR LANGUAGE, OUR STORIES, OUR TRADITIONS, OUR FAMILIES, AND THE VALUES WE PASS FROM ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT. SO BE PROUD OF YOUR ROOTS. BE PROUD OF YOUR CULTURE. BE PROUD OF YOUR LANGUAGE. BE PROUD OF YOUR SUPERPOWERS. BE PROUD TO BE AMERICAN. BECAUSE WHEN WE HONOR WHERE WE CAME FROM, WE GIVE STRENGTH TO WHERE WE ARE GOING. FROM MY FAMILY, JEFF CERVENTE AND LORENZO CERVENTE OVER THERE, . Viva nuestra cultura! Viva! Viva nuestra comunidad! Viva! Viva nuestro futuro! Viva! Viva los Estados Unidos de America! Viva! Mil gracias. Thank you so much.

Want to take the picture? Or anyone else? Okay. Beautifully said, Karina.

Everybody, come, come, come. I mean, sometimes. I'll get more, whatever. Neal, come in. Neal, come in. All right, I mean, look at me. One, two, three. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And Madam Clerk, I asked a couple of people to get their addresses and phone numbers so I could print out and sign some additional. Absolutely, we'll get them to you. So they'll get them to you. Okay, thank you.

Happy to do that.

OUR SECOND PROCLAMATION IS FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION MONTH. IS THERE A RECIPIENT HERE FOR THAT? GO TO THE PODIUM. I WILL READ THE PROCLAMATION, ALLOW YOU AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE SOME THOUGHTS AND THEN WE WILL TAKE A PICTURE WITH YOU AS WELL. YOU HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN KARINA DID WITH HER.

OKAY.

I WON'T PUT THAT PRESSURE ON YOU. suicide prevention month september twenty twenty six whereas mental health is essential to overall health and well-being of all people and suicide is a tragic and preventable public health issue that affects individuals families workplaces schools in our entire community whereas many who consider suicide experience condition that can be effectively treated and increasingly access to compassionate, timely, and culturally responsive support can save lives. And whereas stigma surrounding mental health conditions and seeking help can discourage people from getting the care they need. And whereas American Canyon is committed to fostering a community in which every person across all ages, backgrounds, and identities feel seen, valued, supported, and where it is safe to ask for help. And whereas evidence-informed suicide prevention includes promoting mental wellness, training community members to recognize warning signs and response, expanding access to crisis services, supporting survivors of suicide loss, reducing access to lethal means when someone is at risk, and strengthening protective factors such as connectiveness, belonging, and hope. Whereas help is available 24-7 through the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. and through local partners including MENTIS Napa, Napa County Center of Mental Health Services, which provides counseling, prevention, and wellness programs for youth, adults, and families. Whereas during Suicide Prevention Month and throughout the year, residents of American Canyon are encouraged to learn the warning signs of suicide, have open and caring conversations about mental health, SHARE RESOURCES AND LOOK OUT FOR ONE ANOTHER NOW THEREFORE I MAYOR PIERRE WASHINGTON ALONG WITH THE CITY COUNCIL OF AMERICAN CANYON DO HEREBY PROCLAIM SEPTEMBER 2026 AS SUICIDE PREVENTION MONTH IN THE CITY OF AMERICAN CANYON I CALL UPON ALL RESIDENTS SCHOOL FAITH COMMUNITY BUSINESSES AND ORGANIZATIONS TO JOIN IN THE ACTIVITIES AND PRACTICES THAT PROMOTE MENTAL HEALTH reduce the stigma support survivors and for those who live experienced and connect with people to help one to help one another data today september 1st 2026 on behalf of mentis we graciously accept your proposal thank you all very much and our last proclamation for this evening is for North Hills Baptist Church their 50th anniversary is Pastor William or Pastor Wayne here he just walked in oh okay okay I'll wait for him to walk up oh You want to know? Oh, there you go. How are you? Reading. North Hills Baptist Church 50th Anniversary. Whereas North Hills Baptist Church is celebrating 50 years of ministry, having begun in 1976 with a vision to serve children, youth, and families in the communities throughout the region. Whereas although North Hill Baptist Church is located in Vallejo, it has maintained a longstanding ministry presence in American Canyon. With residents and families from the community participating in the church ministries and sharing the gospel for many years. And whereas children and families from American Canyon have been part of the North Hills Preschool and K-12 community. grades in the schools, providing opportunities for children and youth in the community to receive a Christ-centered education and for families to become part of the broader North Hills family. And whereas, residents of American Canyon are also members of the North Hill congregation, where they worship, they serve, they build relations, and they participate in life and ministry for the church. And whereas through its preschool and K-12 school grades, children and youth ministries, marriage and family ministries, sports ministries, upward basketball and volleyball, outreach and community service, North Hills has had the privilege of investing in the lives of individuals and families from American Canyon across the multi-generation. And whereas North Hills Baptist Church celebrates 50 years under the theme, A Legacy of Love. celebrating 50 years of loving God, serving others, and changing the world, honoring five decades of ministry, service, and commitment to the individuals, families, and the community. It has had a privilege of serving. While looking forward to continue that legacy of love and investment in the community and generations to come, I, therefore, Pierre Washington, on behalf of the entire City Council, Congratulate North Hill Church on the 50th anniversary and recognize the longstanding service, ministry, and positive impact on individuals and families in American Canyon and throughout the region. Data today, September 1st, 2026, and will be read at the church as well.

Thank you. My name is James Watson. I have the privilege to be the pastor at North Hills. And on behalf of North Hills, we are grateful for this great honor from the City of American Canyon. For 50 years, North Hills has been dedicated to being in our community and championing our community. And it's always been about more than just where we're at, but Vallejo, American Canyon, and beyond. Our founders specifically had concern for helping the next generation of young people to love God, serve others, change the world. And the love of Christ has always been the center of who we are as we invite all people to come. As you've said, many people at our church, our school, our preschool, our recreational sports programs call American Canyon home, including Kasama Lee, who is with us here today. We encourage our people to be in their community, serve their community, champion the welfare of their community because we believe that is what Christ would do. Our church is a diverse community of people, including people from every tongue, tribe, and nation that is represented in our community, including our preschool, which is a Spanish immersion preschool as well. We believe that it takes a village to raise the next generation, and we look forward to continuing to partner with American Canyon to serve the young people and mature people alike as we help to create a better world for our children. So thank you, and God bless.

Thank you.

And for whatever it's worth, Kusama does an amazing job in our city.

So we'll go up here and take a picture. Sure.

Okay.

Three, one, one, two, three.

Thank you.

And then moving now to our presentation and another person that serves our community well. A presentation this evening on American Canyon Library by our own Beth Golf.

Hi, good evening.

Good evening, Beth.

All right.

And she's got it up. Okay. Do I just hit present? Is that what I do? I haven't used PowerPoint in so long. Sorry, I'm a Googler.

It should be slideshow right there.

Hopefully it won't move on its own. Okay, that's what I want. Okay, all right. Thank you. All right, as I was introduced, if you don't know, my name is Elizabeth Goff. I first want to thank this council for appointing me to the Napa County Library Commission. I really appreciate it. I've just started, and it was something I've been interested in for a long time, so it's a great opportunity for me. Once I was appointed to the commission, I went and met Derek, Guidry, who is our librarian, wonderful librarian. He was our assistant librarian since 2018. And when they created the library position down here, the librarian position down here, they rightfully promoted him. And now he runs the whole thing. He also introduced me to the new library or assistant librarian, Aya Burkett, and the rest of the library staff when I went to visit. And I was happy to see that our American Canyon Library is in the hands of such enthusiastic, warm, and committed people. So if you've ever been to our library, you probably know this already, but it was really great to see. I was also really happy to learn through this committee that your library is funded through property taxes. And that's really great, because it gives for a really stable budget. And having a strong, stable budget allows you for future planning, which is really exciting. I come from public education where you have to beg, borrow, and steal everything. Public libraries are funded. And we're funded well because our county supervisors, including our own Billy Ramos, are very supportive of our libraries. And it's just wonderful to see. There's a clear understanding that libraries not only provide literary resources, but also serve as a community hub for information, exploration, and community building. And I just want to throw it out there. If you've never read the book, The Library, it's a red cover, it tells you the history of the library. And the library just wasn't about lending books. It really was a source of community, of information, and of getting to know your neighbors and really meeting and growing together, which is really exciting. So this stable budget that I talked about, has allowed us to actually have a remodel that we just enjoyed. We just got it done in December. It was closed for the month of December. But it included all of these wonderful things. If you haven't been there, go and check it out. It's absolutely beautiful. It was the first remodel we've had since we moved into 300 Crawford in 2012. So this was a big deal. It included, let's see, I have a little note. things like landscaping, ADA compliance updates, furniture, and signage. So please go by the library and check it out. The other great thing was the staff of our library weren't laid off when this happened. They were put in other positions throughout the library system, but they were also here doing our programs that they could do outside the library. So we're really grateful for that. There's other things that are happening. There are system-wide changes going on, which some of you may not have noticed, but you actually benefit from. So I just wanted to name a couple. So the first is we have a new website and a modern catalog. And it was launched in April. And this allowed for us to have better search options and a more customizable experience when you go online to the library. So hopefully you're taking advantage of that. The other thing is that St. Helena is now a partner library. And if you've never heard of that, it means that you, sitting in American Canyon, can access those items that are in the St. Helena library from here. And they'll make sure that you get your hands on them, which is really exciting. The other thing that has happened system-wide is that we've had a change in book vendors. Our old book vendor closed, Baker & Taylor, and we switched to a new system. And you probably didn't even notice, thanks to our wonderful technical services staff. So I wanted to shout them out because they worked very hard, so you would not notice that things were changing. But this actually allowed us to provide access to new books and materials that weren't available before. Now, more exciting news is in the coming months, we have... things coming. So here it is. We're going to be adding some lockers outside of the library, and I don't know if they've determined the space where it's going to be yet. Right in front, right to the left of the doors. Yeah, kind of like Amazon lockers. So those of you who commute, those of you who can't get to the library when it's open, can go to those lockers and get your books and your materials. The library is also installing a sound masking system, which will help keep the noise down in the library and make it a little quieter and more enjoyable. We're also going to kind of tick up our library of things and add a tool library. I'm very excited about this. My daughter always brags about the library in Denver. They have a tool library, and she's always checking out saws and things. And luckily, she tells me after she's done whatever she's doing. But it works very well. The other thing is the horror fiction section. Now, to me, that's a little scary. I know there's fans. I won't be checking out anything in that section. But it's coming. It's coming. So I wanted to show this slide because, as I said, the library just isn't a resource for books. It's also a resource for programs and community building and opportunities to learn and grow and meet your neighbor. And this has a lot to do with the library staff. They have put on over 100 different programs in the last 12 months for just our American Canyon community. And they don't do this alone. They have a wonderful, wonderful take on what the community needs. But they need support, just like we need support. And that support is given by the Friends of the Library. And I'm so glad Shonda's here. Shonda's the president. Can we give her a round of applause? And their soul... focus is to support the library and support you. And so they have book drives where you can go and drop off the books that you're not reading anymore. And then they have book sales three times a year. And I asked Shonda, could you please send me a list of all the things that you've done? And she sent me this enormous list of things. And I'm not going to take your time, because I know you have a long meeting. But I just want to give you kind of an inkling of what these people do. So they sponsor many of the library programs, providing supplies, prizes, and presenters that would not be possible without their support. For example, they give away children's books at Meet Me in the Street. So if you have young children, go to their booth at Meet Me in the Street, pick up a book. They pay for all the supplies at the Crafter Noons. I love that. All year round. They paid for the large screen TV, the popcorn maker, popcorn and popcorn bags in the community room. During COVID, they bought small, little, tiny chairs for reading for kids, and the hundreds of take-home science kits. I don't know if you knew they were giving those away during COVID. Throughout the year, they pay for supplies related to Mardi Gras, Lunar New Year, Cinco de Mayo, Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's Day. They are also, since the inception of Geek Out Napa Valley, they have supported that program in Napa. At the library reopening, they paid for the Wild About Monkeys live animal program and special bakehouse cookies with a picture of the AC library on it. Recently, they paid for Lucha Libro, which I was there. That was wonderful. It was wonderful. So here's my pitch. This group is always looking for volunteers. please reach out to the library if you would like to help. This is a great group for high school students looking for those community service hours, so keep that in mind. And of course, I wanted to thank Shonda and all the volunteers for all their dedication and efforts to make our library a vibrant asset to our community. Now, this presentation was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to discussing the American Canyon Library. I would like to encourage all of you in the room and those listening at home to go to the library, check it out, participate in their programming. They're open to suggestions. They'd love to hear from you. This is a really wonderful community asset, and I'm so proud to represent it. If you want to get a hold of me, you can give me suggestions as well. I'll be happy to pass it on. And again, thank you so much for the opportunity. Derek being a librarian, you can't go empty-handed. He has bags for you with goodies because you don't go to the library without getting goodies. You want to hand those out for them because they're coming from you. So Derek has. And here's the information for the donation day. They just had it. And the next book sale is September 24th through the 27th. So if you're looking for really good deals on books, check it out. It's really a good deal.

All right.

And I'm going to get rid of this. I don't know how to get rid of it. Here we go. There we go. All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Beth, for the update.

Did you have any questions for me before I run away? Yes.

I was going to say, as a matter of fact, I have a question. I don't even know where my library card is anymore. Oh, dear. So how do I go about renewing my library card?

It's really easy. And I want you to know they're good for 100 years because I just renewed mine because, I hate to say it, I didn't use it regularly enough. So it kind of expires. Go to the front desk of the library. They'll be happy to give you a new card. And it's really cool because you get to choose the style of your card. Very cool, you guys. Very cool. So just go to the front desk. They're very kind. And they will encourage you to not only have this library card, but to use it.

All right.

Yes.

Thanks. I think the Vice Mayor was more worried about the status of, you know, limitation when you had a library card, all the books that you still probably have at home that you need to be returning back to the library.

All the fines. All the fines. No, I was a little worried that I was coming up to that 100-year mark.

Yeah, and yeah. I wanted to know if I could renew it. Exactly, exactly. Well, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Beth. And I appreciate what you just updated us on and the incredible asset that the library is to our residents of all ages. So thank you.

And I will be back with more information.

And we look forward to it.

When I learn a little more. Okay.

Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you, Beth.

Did you hear that?

Yep.

You can print things out at the library if your computer doesn't work. Oh. And they actually have people to help you, too, with your computer. They help you with anything. Yes.

Free dollar every day.

What? Free dollar every day. Free dollar every day. Yeah, free.

First dollar's free every day.

Thank you again. And moving on to public comment at this time, I would like to open public comment for items that are not on tonight's list for the agenda. Each speaker will have three minutes to address the council. And when you come forward, I just ask that you please identify your name for the record. And I will ask our madam clerk, do we have any comment cards?

Yes, we have Yvonne.

Good evening, Yvonne.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS. I JUST WANT TO ADDRESS SOMETHING VERY BRIEFLY. I WAS AT A RECENT CLIMATE ACTION COMMITTEE MEETING WHERE TWO COUNCIL MEMBERS WERE AT THAT MEETING AS WELL. AND WHAT THE DISCUSSION ITEM WAS WAS THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT THE REDWOOD CLIMATE ACTION PLAN WHICH IS GOING TO COME BEFORE ALL OF YOU IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. And one of the council members expressed a concern about the affordability of heat pump water heaters. And the discussion ensued and I own a heat pump water heater and I enjoy it immensely. But one of the things I was thinking about on my drive home after that was a heat pump water heater is such a small part of the action plan. And one of the things, the purpose of having that plan is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce it significantly. And I'd like to address that with this council because I've been coming here now for three years, and I've been standing before all of you, and I've usually been talking about development and the impact it's going to have on this community. And I kind of was fooling around on the site, and I came across the Giovannoni project again. And as you know, the Measure K significantly changed the way that project was brought before the public. You don't have to have a public hearing anymore. It's a ministerial decision. And I noticed that the Giovannoni project has now asked for an additional 93 parking places to bring up their total of parking places to almost 500, I think over 500, and another two buildings to go on that site that would bring up 35,000 more square feet. and I thought here it is expanding again and what is gonna be on that property that's gonna need 500, over 500 parking places. Now that's not gonna come before a public hearing. There's public comment that's allowed online but it's not gonna be coming before the public so that we could comment on it. But I wanna bring that to your attention Because that sounds to me like business as usual, and I think that we need to look at all of this through the lens of greenhouse gas emissions. And I think that's a decision that all of us have to do together because that plan will be coming before you, and it's really not about the heat pump water heaters as much as it is about the whole picture. And I'd like to see the council start looking at these and start thinking about doing things differently. Thank you.

Thank you, Yvonne.

Is there anyone else in the room that wants to make public comment on non-agendized items? Okay. We have Cindy Biederman.

Good evening, Cindy.

Good evening. I wrote this down so I could stay on topic. On September 24, 2025, the city of Chico opened a new pedestrian bicycle bridge after nearly a decade of planning. The bridge was dedicated to Christina Chesterman, a nursing student killed by a drunk driver while riding her bicycle in 2013. Chico's public works director said the purpose was simple, improve public safety by separating pedestrians and bicycles from vehicle traffic. THAT IS THE KIND OF COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC SAFETY WE SHOULD MAKE HERE IN AMERICAN CANYON. THE CHICO BRIDGE COST APPROXIMATELY 23.5 MILLION BUT THE CITY DID NOT PAY FOR IT FROM THE GENERAL FUND. CHICO COMBINED MULTIPLE FUNDING SOURCES. APPROXIMATELY 12.4 MILLION CAME FROM THE CALIFORNIA ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM WHICH SUPPORTS WALKING, BICYCLING AND SAFETY PROJECTS. Another 5.8 million came from federal congestion mitigation and air quality funding. The remaining 5.6 million came from restricted local transportation bikeway and development impact funding, not from general fund. So when we hear from the city and the NBTA that we simply can't afford a pedestrian and bicycle overpass across Highway 29, I believe we're asking the wrong question. The question should be, how can we afford not to? I TRAVEL FROM THE WEST SIDE OF AMERICAN CANYON TO THE EAST SIDE THREE TIMES A DAY THAT IS APPROXIMATELY 12 MILES OF DRIVING EVERY DAY SIMPLY BECAUSE HIGHWAY 29 DIVIDES OUR COMMUNITY. OVER A YEAR THAT ADDS UP TO APPROXIMATELY 4,380 MILES OF DRIVING AND ESTIMATED 1.75 METRIC TONS OF CARBON DIOXIDE AND I'M JUST ONE PERSON. multiply that by hundreds of parents students families and other residents making similar trips every day but more important than congestion or mission is public safety at what point does protecting pedestrians bicycles and our children become worth the investment do we really have to wait for our own young person simply trying to get where they are going to be killed before we decide that a safe cross crossing is worth funding we should ask one simple question is highway 29 dangerous enough that someone could die from crossing trying to cross it. If the answer is yes, then we can't afford. It is not good enough. The real question is not what the project cost. The real question is what will it cost our community if we wait until after someone is killed. We should pursue every state, federal, regional, and local funding opportunity available and make a safe Highway 29 pedestrian and bicycle crossing a priority. We should not wait for a tragedy to decide that safety was worth the investment. Thank you.

Thank you, Cindy.

Before I go to Zoom, is there anyone else in the room that wants to make public comment on non-agendized items? Okay, we have Justin Hamilton-Hole on Zoom. Justin, please unmute yourself.

Yeah, I'm here, Nicole. Good evening, C. Kelton and Melissa and Martosa, all the people in Sydney Crown. A couple of things. Um, a couple of things is, uh, um, I think I see some church people in there, uh, Northgate. I didn't get them. I need to call the pastor so I can get some more stuff to my house. Um, and the second, the number two, we're actually going, uh, in New York City, Northgate, we'll be having a, uh, job there. Um, uh, it will be on December 25th. And Napa College will be doing Clear Care Fair. All the students are going to be buying the shop out there. That is over 20. And I'm going to be meeting with Dr. Sherry on Zoomie next Wednesday. I'm on her team on there. And third one is I'm going to be, I'm going to go up to Sandy's neighbor's house and I'm going to Thank you Justin We have no more public comment, okay, and one more time for the room anybody else in the room for a public comment

Seeing none, I'll close public comment and move to agenda changes. I'll ask the council if there's any agenda changes that you'd like to be made. If not, I'll accept the motion to accept the consent calendar.

I'll make that motion.

I'll second.

We have a second. Madam Clerk, do you do a roll call, please?

One moment, please.

Council member Brando Cruz. Yes. Council member Melissa Lamatina. Yes. Vice mayor Mark Joseph. Yes. Mayor Pierre Washington.

Yes. Uh, okay. We'll now move to public hearing. We have three items on public hearing. Item number eight is a Hess Laird territory special study pre-zoning. Uh, it looks like it'll be you, Brett Cooper providing the presentation. Okay. Welcome.

All right.

Well, good evening City Council, members of the public. I'm Brent Cooper, Community Development Director, and pleased to present to you the Hess Laird Territory Special Study Pre-Zoning. So the property that we're referring to, the Hess Laird property, is located in the northeast of the city's current boundary, north of Watson Lane. The area we're talking about is about 281 acres. And the general plan, which was adopted about a year ago, contemplated this property becoming part of the city at some point in the future. Today it's outside of our urban limit line and other designations, but it is an area that the city council specifically called for to be considered and studied as a future area in the city. And this is part of that process. On the property, you might probably be familiar with it. It's surrounded by industrial, agricultural, and commercial and open space. And this pre-zoning that we're talking about tonight was reviewed by the Planning Commission at the end of July on the 30th. And the Planning Commission recommended approval. So you might ask, what is pre-zoning? Well, for those of you that have been to planning school, it's zoning. And what makes it pre-zoning is it's the zoning that the city designates before it becomes part of the city. So in the world we work in, it's not zoning until it's actually in the city limits. But we do have to have a plan for it in advance of annexing it into the city. And so it's called pre-zoning. It's kind of ahead of time. Just like the zoning inside the city, it has to be consistent with our general plan. And the general plan is our master plan for the development of the city over the next 25 years. And the general plan designates all the property in the city and outside it as well as to what the future land use will be. And so the general plan designated this area special study, an area to be looked at for future uses. And so the zoning for it is just like that. It too is showing special study, an area to be looked at in the future. So you might ask, well, what can you do in the meantime? And so should this area be annexed, the pre-zoning would take effect, and it basically allows agriculture, grazing, open space uses. The pre-zoning plan itself was proposed by the landowner, and so this is their plan for the future uses until the city does an extensive plan to come up with what might be appropriate for it in the future. Near American Canyon, as we all know and love, is the Napa Airport. And the Napa Airport has its own land use plan to make sure that the airport operations remain viable. And so there are these circular rings around it that extend into American Canyon. And as you get farther away from the airport, then the restrictions are more lax. And so if you look at the little red star there, that's the property we're talking about. And it's located in the area called zone D1 and D2, mostly D2. And so if you were to look at the airport land use plan, which is about this thick, you'll find that grazing, agriculture, open space uses are normally acceptable. Now, that kind of sounds a little tentative, but actually, if you were to read the book, you'll find that it doesn't get any better than normally acceptable. If you were to say to the airport land use plan, you won the lottery, it would say, hot dang, that's normally acceptable. Like it doesn't get better than that. So as a consequence, the applicant went and talked to the executive officer for the airport land use commission, and she deemed this zoning consistent with the airport plan. So we're all in the clear with that. We have a number of steps, and so that kind of spells it out. I mentioned the Planning Commission review this at the end of July. Obviously, today is the City Council meeting. This is an ordinance, and so an ordinance has a public hearing, which is tonight. Should this be approved, then it would go to the next Council meeting as a consent item for what's called the second reading. And then we're kind of, for the city, for the time being, we're done. The next step in the process would be the annexation, whatever process there is, and it's a very complicated process, there's a number of steps, but that is administered by the local area formation commission which is a separate agency entirely from the city and the county. And so it makes decisions on city annexation. So it has its own process that's ongoing, and so it would be in those hands. And then, should it become annexed in the city, then as the special study zoning suggests, the city itself would start planning for its future in a more precise manner. Zone changes are subject to the California Environmental Quality Act and there is an evaluation of this zoning compared to what was contemplated in the general plan environmental review called the Program Environmental Impact Report. And the analysis shows that the mitigation measures that's baked into the environmental impact report would apply to this project, and it's in the city, as it's proposed. And there are mitigation measures available today that address whatever environmental impacts that might be encountered. So with that, I have any questions you have, and glad to answer what your thoughts are.

Thank you, Brett. Any questions or clarifying questions from council for open up a public comment?

Okay. We have Yvonne begins skiing.

Hi again. I have one quick question for Mr. Cooper. That environmental impact report, is that the one from 2008? What year? What year is that environmental impact report from that you referred to?

I'd love to answer the mic.

Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

The environmental impact report for the general plan was adopted about a year ago.

I said each of the city council members a copy of this map today and this is produced by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and it tells you all of the special status species and all the endangered species in this land of American Canyon where your developers are in South County this is a very important map because this tells you what what species will be threatened by this development in an area that is one of the biological diversity hotspots in the state of California. There are 17 hotspots. American Canyon is one of them. What I'd like to address is It's not that we're against the development, and I'm representing, I'm sorry, I'm representing the Audubon Society and the Napa County Wildlife Habitat Conservation Coalition at this time. It's not that we're against the development, but we'd like to be part of the planning for this development, and we would like to ask that a portion of this property be set aside for conservation and mitigation. This is a major area for not only the red-legged frog, but also the tri-colored blackbirds, and also foraging area for the Swainson hawk. If you take a look at this, you can see that any kind of building is going to impact a larger area. And what we're asking is the Audubon Society, Sierra Club, the plant, California Native Plant People, be a part of the planning process so that we don't keep coming up here in an adversarial position, but we're included in the planning as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Yvonne.

Okay.

Next, we have Leon Garcia.

GOOD EVENING, LEON. THANK YOU, LEON GARCIA, RESIDENT OF AMERICAN CANYON.

I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS PROJECT IN TERMS OF IMPACT ON AMERICAN CANYON. I'M GOING TO DO A STUDY SESSION. WE MAKE A DECISION ABOUT THERE WILL BE A LOT OF INFORMATION COMING FORWARD ON IT. I did manage to read through that rather lengthy description of the activities going on. It took a while. It's not an easy read. It's a lot of legalese in it. But the gist of it is from getting a conversation going, knowing that we're going to be having to at some point collaborate with Napa County and the airport and the interests of our citizens as a whole. There's also the opportunity with the developers in terms of what their interest might be in moving forward on it. It doesn't mean at this point we're making that decision. I'm just pointing out from my perspective that there will be conversations down the road and we all, I think, understand that very well with what's going on. I think another point is, and going beyond this presentation this evening into what the impact can be in a community, what opportunity do we have for increasing employment? jobs. Mayor Washington certainly works for a good example of that. Genentech, pharmaceutical company, employs a lot of people. Warehouse is known. So I would think that somewhere there's gonna be a conversation about what technology out there exists that we could use. Certainly not a data center, that's my opinion. A lot of people feel strong about that now. But I'm looking for opportunity that is good for our local base here in American Canyon and something that could bring employment closer to home with ways that's sustainable living in our community. and I appreciate this going forward. I know there's a lot of work ahead. General plan update is due I think coming up in 2040. So from the material I read that was in the paper today. So I thank you for your effort and I look forward to further conversations regarding this with input from the community on what they feel the impacts are and what it means for them. Thank you.

Thank you Leon.

Next we have Jeanette Goitsch.

Good evening, Jeanette.

Good evening, Mayor Washington, City Council members, and members of the public. My name is Jeanette Goyach. I live here for a long time. I guess I'm going to talk about the Hess Laird property, my concerns. First of all, I want to thank Fred for explaining pre-zoning, because I wasn't sure. So that's good. As I understand it, the city has to complete appropriate planning studies to determine the types and intensities of land uses through an amendment of the general plan. And I do hope these studies will be done prior to the development because sometimes development is done and then they decide to do the planning. The plans are underway to industrialize this property rather than keep it open space or ag land. The plans seem vague to me when I was reading what I could get out of this. Is housing planned? Warehouses? There's a big question of water. Where will the water come from? As I've learned that on the Hess Laird property, there may be a number of different animal species, some of which may be on the endangered list, and I think Yvonne showed you the map there. I'm asking that you take into account the environmental impact of development regarding the animal species and also the environmental impact on humans with the increased traffic affecting air quality, for example. So I'm hoping these concerns will be considered before serious development of the Hessler property is done. Thank you.

Thank you, Jeanette. Before I go to Zoom, is there anyone else in the room that would like to comment on this item? Okay, please go to the podium and state your name for the record.

Good evening. My name is Travis McDowell. I just had a couple questions. Brent, the numbers within the side of the zones, are those subject to change? because I noticed that it says APN. Zone A even has this property as NPA E257.

Just for anybody who has a copy of the pre-zoning map, what we've done is we've identified the properties by their assessor's parcel number. APN is an abbreviation for assessor's parcel number. So these, if you were to look up the tax rolls, you'll be able to find these properties in the county tax assessor. So it's a different designation than what you have there on your phone.

Was I there, Travis? Travis? That was you? Okay. Thank you, Travis.

Is there anyone else in the room that would like to comment before I go to Zoom? Okay, seeing none, we have Justin Hamilton-Hall on Zoom. Justin, please unmute yourself. Justin?

I'm here.

There you go.

Um, my question is, um, I think a long time ago, um, when I, uh, was in under me, um, when I do want to get his Brett Cooper email list, so I can be on his email list and see what is going on. Not that, not that I see new letters, like Brett Cooper can send me update, um, when the warehouse is coming or like new housing. I want the, if he okay, I'd like to be on his email list and see, or like new Broadway 29 is coming, but that'd be okay for Cooper that he can, can have my email, so he can put my email on his email, upgrade what's going on, his draft. So I want to see what Rick is doing, what's going on next. Thank you.

Hey, Travis, I'll forward you Brent's e-mail address so you have it for your record. And I'll copy him. Justin, Justin, sorry.

Hi, Justin, this is Brent. We actually have added your e-mail address to our list, but it's possible that we might have the wrong e-mail address. What I can do is I think I have your phone number. One way or another I'll get in touch with you and we'll make sure that we have the right e-mail address.

Okay. I can't say it.

You don't need to give us a hero on here. We'll get in touch with you and make sure we have the right one.

Okay. Do you have my new cell phone number?

I'm not certain, but one way or another, we'll get in touch with you and make sure we got it right.

Okay. I think I talked to Nicole on my new phone, so maybe she can have you.

Yes, Nicole is enormously helpful, so.

Yeah, we know where you live too. Anyone else?

Is there anyone else on Zoom that would like to make comment? There's no additional public comment.

Okay, one more scan of the room for a public comment. Seeing none, I'll close public comment on item number eight and return back to council for further discussion. Uh, this is a waiver of the first reading by title only and adopting an ordinance to approve the special study.

And mayor one clarification that would be to introduce the ordinance. As opposed to adopt it tonight, it would take two votes at council. And if I could make one more comment, there was some additional commentary received by email to the council that took the position or raises concerns about SQL compliance. And I wanted to speak to that briefly. So the contention is made that the proposed pre-zoning is piecemealing and that's false. Piecemealing under CEQA is what happens if a known project is broken up into small pieces and approved in individual steps that are allegedly each exempt. But that only is true if you have a single known project. As was covered by Director Cooper and explained in the materials, there is no particular project known at this time. The developer has some ideas, I would assume, but there's been no specific proposal provided. We have no proposal for residential, nor warehouses, nor any other potential land use on that site. Hence, staff recommends subject to the Council's approval and the Planning Commission concurred that it should be zoned special study, meaning to be studied for potential future development, consistent with the general plan and consistent with the certified general plan EIR, which as detailed in the addendum, which is attachment three to the ordinance, Zoning the site for special study allows nothing more or different than what was analyzed in the general plan EIR. And the claims that are made by some about future development as needing precise analysis of a precise proposal is misplaced because we have no precise proposal. Thank you.

Thank you for that clarification. Vice Mayor.

I was going to bring up more or less the same issues, probably not said as well. that that by definition a specific or a special study zone almost implies that there'll be some kind of a specific plan that envisions you know that will be in more detail as far as land uses environmental impacts uh... they'll probably be an environmental impact report associated with that plan and all of that will happen over the course of however long it takes and they'll be public input and everybody can weigh in and suggest what the developer should or shouldn't do. So it's almost, by definition, pre-zoning at special study is the most appropriate thing to do because it is essentially saying we're not sure what we want to do with it. We want to study it. We want to do the environmental and the whole nine yards. So it seems like the right decision to do right now.

And Vice Mayor, you're correct. Any amendment to the general plan or zoning is subject to the California Environmental Quality Act.

So, okay. All right, and having said that, unless anyone else has any comments, I am happy, I think, to make a motion that we waive the first reading and read by title only and introduce an ordinance to approve a special study pre-zoning for the Hess Laird territory consistent with the general plan.

I second. We have a second. Madam Clerk, can you do a roll call, please? Yes.

Councilmember Brando-Cruz?

Yes.

Councilmember Melissa LaMatina?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Mark Joseph? Yes. Mayor Pierre Washington?

Yes, thank you. Our second public hearing item is number nine, accessory dwelling unit density bonus and inclusionary housing ordinance update. Once again, Mr. Brent Cooper.

Yes, well, thank you, Mayor and members of the public, Brent Cooper. We're bundling three ordinance updates in one event. So that's like having all your year's worth of doctor visits in one moment. So I'll try to be quick for you. So all of these ordinances that we're talking about relate to housing. And the state of California has their own ordinances called legislation that gets adopted. And there are numerous bills that get adopted. And we take all of them and distill them. and put them into our own ordinances so that we have something easily understandable to go forward and yet comply with what the state has adopted in all these various laws that get adopted in Sacramento. And so today we're talking about our density bonus, inclusionary housing, and there's accessory dwelling unit ordinance. And our housing plan for the city is in the general plan. It's in the section called the housing element. And so the housing element has about 70 implementation programs to fulfill over an eight year period. And so this is folded within our implementation programs to stay up to date with state law. So the context here is that state law preempts local authority on a variety of matters related to housing. And so it's important that our ordinances are consistent with the state so that we don't break state law and get ourselves into trouble. BUT WHAT IT DOES MEAN IS THAT THERE'S VERY NARROW CRITERIA TO DENY A HOUSING PROJECT. I'LL GET A LITTLE BIT OF THAT. AND SO ADOPTING THESE ORDINANCES ALSO ARE INTENDED TO FACILITATE HOUSING, WHICH IS A REQUIREMENT THAT THE CITY DO AS PART OF OUR HOUSING ELEMENT IMPLEMENTATION. SO IT ALL KIND OF COMES IN A So I'll take each one at a time. I'm trying not to be too lengthy with it. One of the density bonus. And so a density bonus is if you build housing and you build enough affordable housing, you get a bonus, which means you get to build more houses. You get to waive zoning laws with setbacks, how far it is from the street, how high it is, even what it looks like. You get reduced parking. There is a lot of... benefits i guess from the perspective of the property on the developer when you build affordable housing Some of the ones here, you get extra homes on the property. So the zoning will say you get 20 homes on an acre. Well, if you provide enough affordable housing, you get an extra 50%. Sometimes if it's 20, you get 30. So it's a bonus. So there are more generous bonuses granted by the state that we need to adopt into our ordinance. uh... there's other incentives uh... height flexibility i'd mentioned uh... if you're near transit which we really aren't but we have to have in our ordinance anyway uh... you get parking reductions uh... but even even so if there's a formal housing then are our parking code doesn't apply there is a state parking code applies so is this removes uh... local authority when when housing is built includes them uh... affordable If you have a mixed-use project, which we really hope we will, then you get increased floor height, development intensity, reduced parking. You can kind of hear a theme here. But that's all folded into the ordinance that we have now to make sure that it complies with state law. The other ordinance that we're amending is our inclusionary ordinance. And so the last time that was updated was in 2019. We don't have very many changes here. The ordinance really could use a bit of a refresh to clarify some of the terms. There hasn't been a lot of state law that is motivating a change, so we're trying to make it a little easier to understand. And so if you're wondering what inclusionary means, it means that if you're building housing, then the city requires that you provide affordable as a part of that. And that's our requirements from our housing element, which is a requirement from the state. It all kind of flows. So if you build an ownership project, 10% of it needs to be affordable to low and moderate income housings. If it's rental, it's 15%, very low, moderate, and low income. So there's a range there. the warehouses that we have in town, there is a fee put on warehouses and other non-residential hotels, retail, and the like that goes into a fund to help pay for affordable housing. And the idea there is that new jobs that these projects bring compete uh... the employees compete for housing in our town so the more people that bring in here we would like them to live here this goes into fund to help provide affordable housing one of the the the issues that is happens though and this is recognized by the state is that it's expensive to build affordable housing because they're essentially subsidized so if we're requiring ten percent say for the ownership That's a lot of houses that they need to sell at a lower cost than everybody else. And what can happen is sometimes these thresholds make the project financially infeasible. So we require so much housing to do a good thing, affordable housing, we end up making the project infeasible because the developer can't afford it. So the state also says, well, when that happens, then you have to have exemptions from it. So there's a whole menu list of other things that happen. So I hope that's all clear. In other words, there's a lot of things that can happen. Okay. So what does the City Council and Planning Commission still control? Well, really not much. And I think you need to know that. I mean, the state law is very prescriptive. There's a lot of options there. There's a lot of things to work through it. And so when it comes to housing, there's a lot that we have to be able to do to try to help make it feasible, yet still provide amenities and look nice. The last ordinance here is the Accessory Dwelling Unit Ordinance. This one was last updated in 2024. So this one is kind of more like your, well, it's not exactly like your phone, because it's more often than two years. But the state is really working on accessory dwelling units being an opportunity for affordable housing. And so they're constantly changing the rules to make them easier to build, which means less local authority to regulate them. I won't get into all the little details, but we really are fine-tuning what the rules are we have today, more so than wholesale changes. So that's what we have here. Recently there was a workshop hosted by Napa County that I attended as part of a panelist because Napa County has a grant program for homeowners to be able to get loans to build accessory dwelling units. And so there was a workshop there and people can come and ask their questions. And a member in the audience asked a question about a type of accessory dwelling unit that our code doesn't allow. It's called a stacked uh... accessory dwelling unit and this would be a two-story with an accessory on each floor our code doesn't allow it and the state doesn't require it and so it is an idea i think we thought had merit uh... we talked to the planning commission about this they thought it had merit as well but if you think about a two-story accessory dwelling unit in a backyard And if it were as close to the fence as you can build a single story, then that could be a problem. It's two stories too close. The beauty of this is that because the state doesn't require it, the city has latitude to come up with rules under which this would be okay. You following me? So we kind of rolled through some ideas. It's not really fully developed yet, but we did come up with kind of an illustration of what it might look like. You know, making sure that it had a pitched roof, it had trim, it was set back a sufficient distance, which we can talk about what that might be, from the property lines to give it a little more distance. maybe window placement, door placement not on the sides, just thinking about what might be a way to craft this type of housing where it might be feasible in houses. And we could even talk about lot sizes, you know, larger lots have more room and the like. But it's a concept, kind of interested in getting the Council's feedback. The Planning Commission thought this was worthwhile. If the Council does as well, we can talk more about how we could craft different ideas or have a workshop and maybe come up with something. But this is a resident in American Canyon, has a family that would like to be able to take advantage of this for their individual family members who are aging, and it seemed like a layout that would work well for them. And so it has some sympathy there. So this as well, back again to a zone change, it's also subject to the California Environmental Quality Act. And in this case, it's exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act because the city doesn't have any local discretion. We're fulfilling state law here. If we don't do it, we're in trouble, so we have to do it. So mercifully, the environmental law recognizes that, and so there's an exemption for this situation. ONCE AGAIN, JUST LIKE THE LAST ITEM TONIGHT, FIRST READING, SHOULD THIS PASS, IT WOULD MOVE ON TO THE SECOND READING. THE SACT IDEA IS SOMETHING IN THE FUTURE, NOT PART OF THIS. AND THEN ONCE THIS IS ADOPTED, WE SEND IT TO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT. don't get it right, we'll hear again from them. So they really are drilling into making sure that every city is following their rules. So with that, I'm glad to answer any questions you have.

Okay, before I open up the public comment, I'll ask council if they have any clarifying questions. Yes. Vice Mayor.

If you go to page 122, this is relating to the density bonus ordinance. I think it's section, well, page 122, section 19.27.030I. Okay. AND IT TALKS ABOUT A PROJECT AS FAR AS BEING ELIGIBLE. SOME OF THE CONDITIONS ARE IF THE PROJECT IS LOCATED WITHIN ONE HALF MILE OF A TRANSIT STOP OR IS LOCATED IN A VERY LOW VEHICLE TRAVEL AREA, THE CITY SHALL NOT IMPOSE ANY MAXIMUM CONTROLS ON DENSITY. THE QUESTION I HAVE IS THE REFERENCE TO A TRANSIT STOP. ELSEWHERE IT TALKS ABOUT A you know, level of service NVTA only fantasizes about. But here it doesn't have that major transit stop. So I'm asking whether that's just a typo we forgot to throw in major or if it means that if you've got a bus stop within a half mile and that is pretty normal. YOU KNOW, IT SOUNDS LIKE THE CITY WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO IMPOSE ANY CONTROLS AND I JUST DON'T THINK THAT WAS ITS INTENT. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE? IS THERE A MISSING WORD OR NOT?

I DON'T THINK SO. WOULD YOU JUST REMIND ME AGAIN OF THE SECTION?

IT'S SECTION 19-27-030 SECTION I. ON PAGE 122.

This is the density bonus, is that right?

Under density bonus ordinance.

1927-03-OI?

Aye. Oh, here we are. Okay. All right. So this is a sort of a narrow qualifying type of project. This one is referring to a project where 80 to 100% of the units are restricted to lower income households. So those are very rare. They happen. We have a few in town. Valley View would be one. So if the project is located with one half mile of a transit stop,

decision impose any maximum controls on density it just worries me it sounds like if you wanted to go for hundred percent eighty percent uh... affordability you could say because i'm gonna put five stories on there uh... it's this is not a mistake this is a state law i was just touching that right

IT LOOKS LIKE THIS IS COMING IN UNDER B1G, CORRECT? UNDER 65915, D SUB 2, IF THE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IS LOCATED ON HALF A MILE OF A MAJOR TRANSIT STOP, CITY COUNTY SHOULD I IMPOSE MAXIMUM CONTROL ON DENSITY.

WE CAN DOUBLE CHECK.

WHY DON'T WE DOUBLE CHECK DURING PUBLIC COMMENT AND WE'LL COME BACK.

THANK YOU. THE OTHER COMMENT WAS WHEN WE WERE DOING THE CRAWFORD APARTMENTS we had kind of a interesting challenge over 10% for ownership versus 15 for rental. And it sounded like they wanted it to make ownership, which was exciting to me, but it really was kind of like, they're probably going to be rentals, but they'd like to just be limited to 10%. So I'm a little concerned that, um, In our effort to create an incentive for ownership, we've simply created an ambiguity that allows somebody to say, oh yeah, it could be ownership so I can stick with 10 and later on I'm gonna make it a rental and stick with 10. We're not really addressing that, I guess, is the first question. And then the follow-up question is, should we address it?

Vice Mayor, we did address it, but there is limits. And I may have the city attorney help me with that. We clarified it to make it harder to... just say it's ownership when it's not. Okay. But we cannot make it 100% of a guarantee that someone will ultimately sell the units. Okay. And I think maybe that's the cliff notes.

Yeah. I'll jump in there. So what was brought to light is a potential challenge in the prior language through the project. We solved it in negotiations with that developer and they're proceeding with their project. But what it brought to light is the gap if you have a project that would move through the full condo process, which means that they would move through all of the state and local approvals to create individually saleable units, but then never sell them, you would end up with a rental product, but only a 10% affordability instead of a 15% affordability. Now, the price tag of doing that would be going through the condo process, which is somewhat complicated. But in order to close that potential workaround, when the intention of the lower 10% from the council's strategic goals is to promote ownership units, we closed it through the definitional changes in here, which simply state that rented means rented and owned means owned. So if you have rented units, regardless of whether they're condos or apartments, if they're rented, then it's 15% standard. So that shift to correct that concern is rooted in this ordinance as well.

Okay, but I'm glad we took advantage of this opportunity to at least narrow the ambiguity. Okay, other than being morally opposed to the state imposing things on a jurisdiction that actually exceeded its last RHNA numbers, I do acknowledge their jurisdictional authority over us. Thank you.

And for the record, Mr. Summers, do we need to read that into a record for those who can't see what you are referencing to?

Oh, yeah, I'm happy to do that. The definitions I was referencing are the ownership definition, the definition for residential rental unit means any residential unit that is rented to its residents. AND THAT'S IN THE INCLUSION ORDINANCE, I DON'T HAVE THE PACKET PAGE NUMBERS BUT IN THE RED LINE IT'S PAGES TWO AND THREE. AND SIMILARLY RESIDENTIAL OWNERSHIP PROJECT WOULD NOW BE DEFINED AS ANY RESIDENTIAL PROJECT THAT MAY LEGALLY ADVERTISE, SELL OR OTHERWISE TRANSFER DRILLING UNITS FOR SALE TO AN INDIVIDUAL HOMEOWNER. A RESIDENTIAL OWNERSHIP PROJECT ALSO INCLUDES THE CONVERSION OF RENTAL APARTMENTS TO CONDOMINIUMS. SO THOSE DEFINITIONAL CHANGES PICK UP WHAT WE JUST DISCUSSED.

Thank you.

And thank you for sharing that.

I just want to make sure that if there are any attorneys out there listening that have all the information that they need as well. If there's no other questions from counsel, I'd like to open up public comment for item number 10. Madam Clerk, do we have any comment cards for item number 10?

We don't have any comment cards, but is there anyone in the room that would like to make comment? Okay, please go to the podium and state your name for the record.

Hello again. Hey, Travis. My name is Travis McDowell. I am a resident of American Canyon. Um, question does this, uh, uh, effect mobile home, uh, dwellings. That's all I had. Thank you.

Okay. Travis.

That's a good question. That's a good question. Mobile homes have their own zoning designation. They need an overlay zone. And they're administered by the state of California. Within our zoning code, there can be amendments to mobile home parks. And there's a process for that. I guess we would have to take it as it comes. Hypothetically, if, say, a mobile home park decided to do enough changes to invoke some of these provisions, we would have to take it as it comes. But the mobile home parks that we have have been stable in terms of the number of units they are for quite a few years. Obviously, some of the ones that are older get replaced with newer ones, but I can't recall a time when there have been additional spaces. Not that there hasn't been, but it's been fairly small in number.

Thank you, sir.

That's a good question.

And thank you for that question, Travis. Any other questions of Cindy?

This is more of a clarifying one really. So these are talking not just your ADUs, these are talking like making condominiums and it looks like we can make a bunch of condominiums that could be pretty tall. So for an example, let's say we put a lot of the condominiums, this really tall one on Melvin Drive. And that one thing, I mean, are we taking in consideration of, we're taking, I mean, to me it's gonna be hodgepodge. We're gonna have some houses that look like this, then we're gonna drop this big building in there. Is it gonna block the view of the people that's lived there forever? I mean, is that something that's considered in this proposal since it's mandated and you don't have much say over it? It's just a question.

Thank you for the question, Cindy. Yes.

So there are definitely, if enough affordable housing of the right type is proposed, then the developer is entitled to exceptions from city standards. And that could be height, it could be setbacks. So there could definitely... be situations in town where there are single-family neighborhoods with development next door with a different zoning, or even the same zoning, but they're invoking their rights through density bonus to increase the density that's allowed even there. And these are state laws.

Thank you, Brent. Any other questions from inside? Do we have anybody online?

We have Justin Hamilton-Hole on Zoom.

Justin, just bear with me for one second.

I'm having technical issues. Okay.

Justin, I've asked you to unmute yourself.

Thank you, Nicole. My question is, I'm very patient. Hill did not turn no house on. I know we had some people that land is sell and there's nothing on there I know we're in get close to 2027 but I want to see new sidewalk and maybe we can get something in there but or whether that shirt on the hill I live at 902 on the way what he but my question is I'm going to be seeing like apartment. I'm going to be house. That's my question.

well thank you justin i know that the property you're referring to itself uh... carolyn what carolyn in rio del mar it's a great piece of property and subdivision that was approved there truly nice houses that we all like to see that happen but unfortunately for whatever reason the owner chose not to build uh... the properties been for sale and hasn't been purchased and prop you know the plans that were approved picked up in and developed I had thought that there were some road improvements planned for West Carolyn that the public works department does I don't know if that's still in the is that still a possibility of a road improvements in West Carolyn or on your CIP So I'm seeing a nod, because maybe there's some good news. I don't know if the Public Works Director wants to talk about what might be the way of improvements on West Carolyn when it's redone. I know, I'd like you to say that and get the credit. Take it away, Erica.

Good evening, Eric. I'm the Smithies Public Works Director. Good evening, Mayor, Council, and members of the public. We are looking at Rancho Phase 2 includes West Carolina and adding approximately 300 linear feet of sidewalk up that hillside. So it's currently a gap closure. But we aren't in design yet, but we're looking at getting design costs.

What are we doing about the open ditch there? Is that staying open, or are we able to...

Let's get back to you on that meeting. Yeah.

I thought I was going to say, I think part of the, the original subdivision agreement required it be open, which seems like an accident waiting to happen, but who am I to say, okay. Uh, and that is that zone single family residential. I mean, applying the state bonus. Yes. If I were a young entrepreneur and I wanted to acquire that parcel and I was willing to do a lot of affordable housing, how many units and floors could I?

You have a lot of power.

All right. When I'm off the council, I'm going to start my new career.

I kind of want to go back to Justin because Justin is still on the call. Justin, did we answer your question?

Yes, and thank you. Thank you so much, Erica. You're my number one. I think we're going to see something about the hills. I lived here for 35 years, so I was two, but there was nothing on the hills. I'm going to see that happen. Can't wait for the sidewalk.

Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Erica, and thank you, Brent, for that. Hearing no additional public comment, I'll close public comment on item number 10 and turn back to the council for further discussion. This is also a waiver to the first reading, title only, and adopting an ordinance to amend the American Canyon Municipal Code.

Mr. Mayor, did we want to give any feedback to staff on the stacked ADU concept? I'm open to that. recognizing the challenge of making that work to be respectful of neighbors, it's certainly worth exploring a little bit to have maybe you and the planning commission come up with some parameters like i said it may not fit in a lot of cases you know if if reasonable setbacks could be established in standards anyway to create a little bit of affordability is a generally a good thing in my book so that's my feedback yes and and uh... vice mayor are the comment on the transit stop i think in in looking at i think we've discovered

This is the first. I think there's a typo.

All right. I'll confirm that.

It's a major transit stop. It was a typo. It is a major transit stop. And the citation for those watching at home is Government Code Section 65915, Subdivision F, Subdivision 3D, Romanette 2.

I WANT THE PUBLIC TO ASSUME THAT I ACTUALLY READ EVERY PAGE AND EVERY WORD. I'M NOT SAYING I DO THAT, BUT I WANT THE PUBLIC TO ASSUME THAT I DO IT BECAUSE I CAUGHT A SIMPLE TYPO. THANK YOU.

WE KNOW YOU DO.

COUNCILMEMBER LAMATINA.

THANK YOU. QUICK QUESTION. IF WE DO A DOUBLE DECKER, DOES THAT ALIGN WITH THE COUNTY PROGRAM OR NOT? or we need to find out more.

We would need to find out more because I think American Cane would be the first place. Right. To have a double decker.

Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions or clarifying statements? I'll entertain a motion.

All right.

All right, no other questions. I move that City Council waive the first reading read by title only and adopt an ordinance to amend the American Canyon Municipal Code to update Chapter 19.27 density bonus. Chapter 19.28 exclusionary housing and Chapter 19.39 accessory dwelling units consistent with current state laws and housing element implementation measures. We have a motion.

I'll second.

And a second. Can we get a roll call, please, Madam Clerk?

Council Member Brando Cruz? Yes. Council Member Melissa LaMartina? Yes. Vice Mayor Mark Joseph? Yes. Mayor Pierre Washington?

Yes. And thank you, Brent. Moving on to item number 11, the Accessory Animal Husband Retreat and Livestock Keeping Regulation Zoning Code Amendment.

once again okay thank you Mary members of the public I promise this is a little more fun than the last one but it is an ordinance yes okay let's get started so this is a this is an an ordinance about animals. And so I guess the question would be for the group is, what is animal husbandry? Nobody really knows. The term dates back to the 16th century, but I think it has something to do with being married to your job. But our zoning code says that it's commercial animal raising or animals or products, so it's eggs or dairy products, grazing, ranching, farming, poultry, things like that, but not pigs. Then we also have what's livestock keeping, and that is keeping large animals for personal purposes like pets. So there are these two terms. It also includes horses, cows, sheep, goats, maybe llamas, but not pigs. So this ordinance would be amended to allow animal husbandry to include swine, which we would all refer to as pigs. Pork. Pork. It would also amend livestock keeping, which is like the pets, also to allow pigs as well. So it's fairly simple, pretty simple, straightforward. Right now, today, livestock keeping, which is, I remind you, is like the pets, form of animals. It's allowed in a lot of areas of town. State residential, rural, hillside residential, SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL. SO MOST OF AMERICAN CANYON. AND SO THIS ORDINANCE WOULD ONLY LIMIT IT NOW TO A STATE RESIDENTIAL. WE ONLY HAVE A COUPLE PLACES WHERE THE ZONING IS A STATE RESIDENTIAL. ONE OF THEM IS ON HOLCOMB LANE. uh... and the other one is on watson lane and so if you have a if you have animals today on any of those other uh... zoning districts that's called a non-conforming use so you get to keep the animals so uh... when we were talking about this with the planning commission uh... one of the commissioners had a good question And that question is, well, what happens if you have a pet animal in one of those other districts and you sell the house? What happens then? So Norm Woods, isn't that a great question?

That is a great question, Greg. Yeah.

And the reason it's a great question is that livestock keeping is a land use. And when you have a land use and you sell the property, the animals run with the land. They literally run with the land. You get to keep doing it. Don't make me say it again. OK. All right. Once run, you keep running. Keep running. Okay, so the reason this ordinance makes sense is we have, you know, pigs, other livestock and things. You know, there's nothing particularly unusual about that that makes them different than other kinds of livestock. We have current standards today in the zoning code where you have to have whatever animals you do have, chickens or whatever the case may be, they have to manage the noise, odors, sanitary conditions, so whether it's pigs or anything else, the standards are there that require things to be kept in order. And so the other change limits where you can have large animals as pets, limiting it to the zoning districts where you at least have one acre minimum lot sizes, kind of aligns there with the size of the lot and the animals. So that's kind of the end of it. We had a planning commission discussion on July 30. Of course, tonight it's an ordinance to this pass. It will go on to the city council as a consent item for second reading on September 15. And this, too, is subject to the California Environmental Quality Act. It's exempt under two categories, no foreseeable impacts And minor alterations in land use. So these are like zoning changes, but they're making little buff changes here and there. And with that, I'm glad to answer any questions you have.

Thank you, Mr. Cooper. Are there any clarifying questions from the council? Seeing none, I'll open up for public comment on item number 11. Do we have any speaker cards?

We have no speaker cards. Is there anyone in the room that would like to make comment on this item?

I WOULD NEED YOU TO COME TO THE PODIUM.

YES, SIR. AND PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME FOR THE RECORD.

I'M REALLY CONCERNED ABOUT THE CHICKENS THAT LIVE BY 7-ELEVEN AND RIO DEL MAR. ARE THEY GOING TO BE ALLOWED? FREE TO ROME BY 7-ELEVEN STILL?

Those chickens definitely run with the land.

Under that same theory, the turkeys are also... They run with the land. And you can't get rid of them anyway.

Yes.

Any other public comment?

Is there anyone else in the room? Please go to the podium and state your name, please.

You sure, Travis?

All right, we do have Justin Hamilton Hall online. Justin, can you please unmute yourself?

Okay, this will be my last time. Yeah, so sheep, the name, the animal. We had in Napa, we had our mother, her name is Martina. She always take care of all this. sheep and duck or chicken. But I think I see a lot out there on Highway 29. So maybe we need to get something to make a say for them. Thank you.

Thank you, Justin. Anyone else online?

Is there any additional public comment? We have no additional public comment.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I'll close public comment on item number 11 and return back to the council for further discussion. This is a waiver and first reading by only and adopting an ordinance to amend this American Canyon Municipal Code.

All right, no other comments? I move that the City Council waive first reading, read by title only, and adopt an ordinance to amend American Canyon Municipal Code Sections 1905.090, 1905.100, 19.10.040, and 19.31.020 to remove the prohibition of swine, limit livestock keeping on the residential estate, zone district, and remove obsolete general plan policy references.

Because I believe in justice for pigs, I'll second that motion.

We have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, can you do a roll call, please?

Council Member Brando-Cruz. Yes. Council Member Melissa LaMatina. Yes.

Yes. Vice Mayor Mark Joseph.

Yes. Mayor Pierre Washington.

Yes. Next is our business item. There's one business item tonight on the calendar, and that is business item number 12, Napa Olympia rent stabilization mediation budget amendment. And it appears that you're going to be our guy again, Brent.

Thank you, Mayor and members of the public. I'll give you a quick rundown of what this is all about. uh... the city has adopted uh... a mobile home rent stabilization ordinance and this is related to that so a real cliff notes about the ordinance is about uh... it was adopted in in twenty eleven it was done extensively with residents and and owners and uh... elected officials and staff very well thought through ordinance It limits annual rent increases to the consumer price index or a cap of 6% if we are in a really high inflationary period. In the event that the owner proposes rents above the current CPI, residents may petition for mediation to talk about the rent increases. And so if enough residents, at least 51%, submit a petition, which in this case happened, then the city is obligated to hire a mediator and convene a mediation panel. The mediation panel itself doesn't involve the city, but the city hires the mediator that kind of manages it. There is an owner representative and a resident representative. Those representatives per the ordinance don't actually either own the property or live in the property, so there's communication between them and the folks that do own and live there. If mediation is unsuccessful, then the final step in this process would be arbitration, and that would be a binding decision. So that's a quick overview of the process. So we're here to talk about funding the mediator. It wasn't contemplated in our budget, but we need to move forward. So in this particular case, earlier this spring in June, or it was May, there was a proposed rent increase between 20 and 40%. The consumer price index for June was 3.8%, so it's well above consumer price index. It was a 90-day notice, effective September 1st, but we're going through an appeal process in effect, so the rent increase should be stayed until the process is completed. We did receive a petition by more than 51% of the residents, and so we've opened the mediation case and we've been working on it actively since then. So in terms of back again a little more into the process itself, mediation is a voluntary process. Both parties have to agree to come and talk through their issues and hopefully come to an agreement on it. The objective here is to make sure that it doesn't move to arbitration where the arbitrator decides on behalf of the parties. So if they can work it out between them, that's obviously a much better option. As I mentioned, the city hires a qualified mediator and we've been talking to some and I think we've come down to a selection. There is also, as I mentioned, a volunteer resident and park owner that we get who volunteer and then there is a selection process to pick one of them. And so then they all kind of work in collaboration with our owner and resident stakeholders. So the specific request tonight is to increase our budget by $80,000 for the mediator. We don't know how long the mediation process would last. It's really up to the parties whether they're interested in continuing to talk or not. So what we're doing here is we think we're providing a healthy balance to sort of go through that process. And so with that, I guess one final slide here is we do have on our website, has a lot of information on the process itself. The ordinance is very well thought through but complicated because these are complicated issues. And so we have information about it here on our website. So with that, I'm glad to answer any questions that you have.

Thank you, Brent. And I know this was something that one of the residents kind of came out and spoke about several weeks ago, and I was hoping that she would be here this evening. I don't see her, though.

Oh, okay, okay.

Okay, that's good. So we're going to come to the board for any clarifying questions, or the council for any clarifying questions on the presentation before I open it up to public comment. Vice Mayor.

Just to the cost element, my recollection is THAT UNDER THE ORDINANCE EVERY YEAR EVERYBODY PAYS I THINK LIKE 12 BUCKS A SPACE. I'M ASSUMING IS KIND OF WHERE THE 286 CAME FROM. AND I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH IS CHARGED TO THAT, BUT OVER THE YEARS, I SUSPECT THERE'S A WHOLE LOT OF 286s THAT HAVEN'T BEEN USED. AND SO EVEN THOUGH IT LOOKS LIKE A BIG CHUNK OF MONEY TO HANDLE THIS MEDIATION, IN SOME RESPECTS, THAT'S BEEN ACCUMULATED OVER YEARS IN WHICH PEOPLE PAY THE RENT STABILIZATION ADMIN FEE AND And now they're getting real return on that.

To answer that question, Vice Mayor, the nominal fee that is charged per unit is intended to pay for staff time to administer the ordinance. And so there are tasks and things that happen in the course of the year. So it's intended to be a budget offset for staff time. Mm-hmm. So it's not like an impact fee where it goes into a dedicated account. It goes into the general fund, but then so does the staff time that pays for the services.

Good point. Is the $80,000 a fixed cost or is just...

best-guess estimate of how long it might take or or this is what it might cost if it goes on for six months or something it's an S swag a super swag super swag good well then we might have a little money left over right this is this is really intended to be a generous budget to ensure that the mediation process continues uninterrupted for a positive outcome for the rents for the tenants that live there okay good well and the owner we have a fair Yeah, I'm all for it and and apparently the owners are willing to mediate rather than Say we haven't heard that they're not so Okay, I always say that silence is a form of approval. I

Okay.

All right. We are really with a mediator, and we're calling, and we're getting a lot of these things. There's a lot of pre-work to be done, which we've been doing. But at some point, we'll have the pre-work ready to kind of get onto some later phases where we engage more directly.

WELL, GOOD. WELL, I'M GLAD THIS IS STILL MOVING FORWARD. IT'S UNFORTUNATE THAT THE NEW OWNERS HAVE A DIFFERENT VIEW OF WHAT'S REASONABLE, BUT THAT'S WHERE WE HAVE MEDIATION. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, VICE MAYOR. I'LL NOW OPEN IT UP FOR PUBLIC COMMENT ON ITEM NUMBER 12.

OKAY. WE DO HAVE TONY MURRAY.

GOOD EVENING.

Good evening. First I want to say I was very happy to learn about the mediation involved. Still a little confused on legalities. I have since signed a one year short term lease partly because I'll confess there's a pressure involving parties that have spent money just getting us to the point where we could sign to become residents so i want to raise concerns last time i mentioned i'm i'm really concerned for those who who are flooded as i mentioned i've been flooded for months since my mom passed away emotions and everything we have so many working families and we have people moving in I flagged a couple of concerns. Last time I mentioned that for those of you who can be here, you might more likely be in what I call the Starbucks budget. And we have people that live on rice budgets. We have people that work multiple jobs, small kids, elders. And I want to make sure that they're represented, their voice kind of speak for those that are confused. In the process of my signing, and I consider myself, I guess, to be a sophisticated person, which to put in process. Initially, they gave us a 20 year lease with language precluding that if we signed, we will be excluded from any decisions made in the future regarding what we could pay, including that we would have a $100 a year rent increase on disability. I get 2.6% increase in income. We did not sign that day. Last week when we signed, I will tell you, it was three hours of paperwork. It was everything that possibly could be harmed signing off on. The things that concerned me most around all this other paperwork we had to initial and initial and initial was the spot where they want to pass on to us the cost for improvements. If that's $250 a month, that's like $60,000. Is it 60 or $600,000 a year that they get, and they have to repay, that's like $2 million. But in 10 years, my rent will be $1,000 more, and they get the return on the investment for improvements. So I'm trying to spit a lot out here really fast. I use the term sophisticated because one of the last things I signed at the end of this almost three hours of paperwork said that we went into this party as a sophisticated person. I am a 780 SAT English person. Sophisticated means I know what's going on. I understand the language. She had at least two more people moving in for leases that week. And I want to know how many of them just initialed away with or without the language of, if you sign this, you're precluded from future city state court.

Real quick, you have time, but I'm going to allow you another minute to finish because this is an important thing.

So what I'm voicing here is we have some very wonderful, proactive people I've been able to meet. I feel good going forward. I know we have a community that I'm going to call us the weak link. In New Orleans, when the dams went, there are certain people that couldn't get out. In the leases here, they're talking about if there are catastrophic damages, they're off the hook. Just those kind of things. I want people to look out for the people that aren't here, able to speak for themselves. If you have, 80 years ago, the people coming in from Oklahoma Okies were not sophisticated people. They wound up in trailer parks. American Canyon has really come up, it's amazing, and I applaud what we have here. So as we go forward, I can't spit out in three minutes, even five minutes, all my concerns for the people that may not fully understand what's going on and coming in and signing leases with not knowing what's going on. And at the end of three hours of paperwork saying that, well, I acknowledge I went into this as a sophisticated person, which means that I understood all of this. And I guess it has a 780 SAT English score. My brain was numb. I just wanted to sign and get out of there. I have people I owe for getting us that far. So we signed a one-year lease. I'm not comfortable with everything in it. If somebody comes in and signs a 20-year lease on the cover page saying that you are excluded from future decisions, think of them as you go forward with this.

And thank you and just for the record, you're not the weakest link. You're one of the strongest links because you got it started and now we're here where we are.

I'm referring to the demographic of the people that are coming in, either they're coming down or going up. And they're so happy to afford to, we got a place, we're lucky we own it. And fortunately, it needs at least $30,000 to become a nice looking place on the neighborhood. When I see the weakest link in American Canyon, they're so hardworking lot of people are not. Comfortable English learners they were given paperwork in English, no other languages as we go through this. You're at your time just just think of those that that are Just think of them all.

That's why we're here right now, thank you.

And I appreciate it, thank you.

And we appreciate you as well. Next speaker.

Is there anyone else in the room? Okay, please go to the podium and state your name.

Hello, Travis.

Good evening again. My name is Travis McDowell. I'm a resident in the city. I had a couple questions as the mediation panel. One is a owner rep and the other is a resident rep. How does that get decided? And how would that resident app tell all the other residents? And is it possible to add a public comment onto that mediation website or the website that you showed with all the information for the website that you gave for the mediation stuff? And is there a ballpark of how long it will last? Because I know you said that was unknown and it could last for, as you said, six months or upwards. clarifying questions on it. Thank you.

So four questions. I hope you can remember them all, Brent.

Those are great questions. Norm, aren't those great questions? Norm, aren't those great questions? Yes, those are great questions, Brent. No, they really are. I applaud you. Just try to remember them all. Let's see. How long will it take It is unclear how long it will take. I have been working with our city attorney's office. It's our perspective certainly that the rent increase is held off pending these actions. Part of what does take time is the willingness of both parties to meet and talk through the issues. And as I like to say, you can't rush quality. So whatever time is needed is good time to mend the issues that are between them. I really like your suggestion, and I don't know why I didn't think of it, to have a link here on our website for questions. That's a very smart idea. It is something that we can do and we'll get that started. How are the representatives selected? So the code says that the city will identify three other mobile home owners or their representatives and three other residents who don't live in the park. And I'm definitely happy. I've been talking to some people in other parks, but I think it'd be awesome if the park itself could nominate three people who they trust who'd live outside the park to represent them on the panel. I think that would be the best thing of all. But once we do have names, the code says that the names are selected by the mediator. by a regional representative the golden state mobile home owners league and the mobile home park owner so those are that is the panel that's chooses who these representatives are did i miss any of your questions oh yes uh... you're right uh... the question is how how will their both the owner and the resident don't live in the parker on the park yet we have representatives of the owner of the park and residents of the park so we've been uh... talking both with our city attorney's office uh... as we've been interviewing mediators we've been asking that question The mediation process itself is confidential, so there is a desire to keep the communications private, but there has to be a method to enable there to be communications from the park residents through their representative to the representative on the panel. So there needs to be a process to do that. We've come up with some models, but I think when we hire a mediator who has experience in navigating kind of working in this kind of an environment, I think we'll have some really good leadership and guidance on that to be able to make sure. But it does say that before the actual mediation panels can convene, there has to be pre-work to enable that consultation so that the representative understands what the needs are with the people they're representing and then in turn when there have been mediation sessions and things have been offers and whatever come out of that to be able to communicate that back out to the folks that they're representing to see what do you think about that. So you're absolutely thinking the right things And we have also, and the way in which it's done will be very important to ensure that the process has integrity, yet there is still some communication flow in between.

And the one piece I would add, Mayor and Council and community, is the expectation is that the mediator, once selected and in place, will take the charge and the lead on structuring what that process looks like to ensure that the mediation process itself can move forward smoothly. And the mediator will guide the resident rep from Napa Mobile Lodge and, of course, the owner's rep in their communications process to ensure integrity of the mediation itself. We certainly have ideas on how to structure that, but we wouldn't speak for the mediator once they're in place.

Thank you, Mr. Summers. Thank you, Brent. Any other questions? Cindy?

I know you guys said that the rent would be stayed. So I'm assuming it's supposed to go up on September 1st. It's going to be stayed because they're in negotiation. So let's say six months goes by. They agree to a chart. Is it retro at that point? Or just the rent increase start?

That's a good question.

Cindy, that's a great question. And I'm sure Norm would agree. So I think part of, I think you're asking the great unknown, but it would occur to me, it would seem to me that there are a lot of issues to discuss between the owners and the residents. There's obviously the rent increase, but perhaps there are others as well. And all of that kind of gets... into a smoothie of sorts. And maybe there's a retro, maybe there isn't. But I think at this point, I don't think we could predict whether that is an issue that people would accept or not and kind of where to go from there. But it's a great question.

Thank you, Brent. Any other questions? Yes, ma'am. You would need to come up to the count.

CLAUDIA, MY NEW BEST FRIEND.

PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME FOR THE RECORD.

MY NAME IS CLAUDIA. HI, MY NAME IS CLAUDIA. I AM THE PARK REPRESENTATIVE FOR NAPA OLYMPIA MOBILE LODGE. ME AND MY BROTHER JUST MOVED IN IN APRIL, AND AS A SHOCK TO ME AND MY BROTHER, OUR RENT INCREASED. WE WERE TOLD WE WERE SIGNING A ONE-YEAR LEASE, WHICH IT WASN'T. IT WAS A MONTH-TO-MONTH, WHICH THAT WAS MY BAD. But once I came into this community, I've seen how diverse it is. We have people from different ethnicities and coming into a place where a lot of, over half of the people that live there are on a fixed income and have been there prior to this park to being an all age community, it used to be a senior community. So seeing people still being grandfathered in and all these changes and these rent increases is very, FRUSTRATING BECAUSE A LOT OF THEM ARE FIX IT COMES. ANYWAYS, I WANT TO THANK THE CITY ATTORNEY AND BRENT COOPER FOR FACILITATING THIS. I KNOW THERE'S NO BIAS BECAUSE WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE BIASED. I CAN. Y'ALL CAN'T. BUT I WANT TO THANK YOU GUYS FOR AIDING US IN RESOLVING THIS ISSUE. I KNOW AS A COMMUNITY WE WANT TO COME TO AN AGREEMENT. WE WANT TO LIVE PEACEFUL IN A PLACE WE WANT TO CALL HOME. YOU KNOW, AND FOR US JUST MOVING IN, I HOPE THIS IS OUR HOME FOR MANY MORE YEARS. And maybe my children or my brother's children get to grow up here in American Canyon. Thank you.

And Claudia, for the record, Claudia, your last name?

Sanchez.

Sanchez. Thank you, Claudia. And welcome to American Canyon.

Thank you.

Any other comments in the room? Seeing none, do we have any online?

Is there anyone online that would like to speak on this item? We have no additional public comment.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I'll close public comment on item number 11 and return back to the council for further discussion or to accept a motion to adopt the resolution to increase the community development housing division contract services budget. Vice Mayor.

Just just to put it in perspective. I don't think we've had a mediation ever since The this was resolved back in 2012 or whatever so All of this is new territory for everybody so but with that in mind I I would be happy to, and if there's no other comments, happy to make a motion to adopt a resolution increasing the community development housing division contract services budget by 80,000 from 28.6 to 186 to fund mediation services related to the Napa Olympia mobile lodge rent stabilization matter.

Thank you for that motion.

I'll second.

And the second. Madam Clerk, can you do a roll call please?

Council Member Brando Cruz.

Yes.

Council Member Melissa Lamatina.

Yes. Vice Mayor Mark Joseph.

Yes. Mayor Pierre Washington.

Yes. Now for our management and staff oral reports. Mr. Hawley.

Thank you, Mayor. Deputy City Manager Akita has some updates.

Welcome, Allie.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I have a couple updates for you this evening. First and foremost, Citizens Academy is right around the corner. If you have not signed up and you have not participated, we highly encourage you to do that. It starts on September 16th. This year, it's an eight-week program. We are canceling one evening, so that way our participants can attend the Chamber of Commerce's Council candidate forum on September 30th, but don't worry We're making up for that lost time with all the other classes and it ends with a capstone project on November 7th If you have not participated, please visit our website. You can still register It's free to anybody that wants to learn about how we serve you and all about American Canyon Additionally, we have a finance subcommittee on this coming Thursday, September 3rd at 1 p.m. This is another opportunity to learn about the city's financial forecast over the next five years. If you're not able to attend in person, it's available Zoom and through YouTube. And then if you're not still available to attend, we will be recording it and it will be posted on our website. So anybody can go and watch it at a later date. As you all are aware, Measure P is circulating information, facts about it. If you want to learn more about the city's sales tax measure, we encourage you to attend two opportunities, community meetings. The first one is going to be on September 21st. It is virtual from 12 to 1 p.m. Again, if you're unable to attend in person, again, it's on Zoom, but we will be recording it and sharing it on our website. And then if you want to attend on the next day, which is September 22nd, that's going to be held at the Adult Activity Center, same time, 12 to 1 p.m., We really would like you to come down, have lunch, learn about Measure P. And again, if you want to learn more about Measure P, please visit our website at www.americancanyon.gov forward slash Measure P. Thank you.

Thank you, Allie. Mr. Hawley, any other staff reports? That's all, Mayor. That's it? Moving forward to our Mayor and Council Committee and comments, reports. Vice Mayor, start with you. Thank you.

COUPLE OF MEETINGS THAT BOTH COUNCILMEMBER LAMATINA AND I ATTENDED, SO I MAY, SHE CAN BACKFILL WHATEVER I FORGET, BUT WE BOTH ATTENDED THE CLIMATE ACTION COMMITTEE MEETING IN WHICH WE'RE GIVEN TO BELIEVE THAT THE INITIAL STUDY MITIGATED NEGATIVE DECK IS GOING TO BE READY FOR CLIMATE ACTION COMMITTEE ACTION AT THEIR SEPTEMBER MEETING. AND SO THAT IS MOVING ALONG, WHICH IS THE CRITICAL STEP NECESSARY BEFORE WE CAN THEN ACTUALLY RECOMMEND APPROVAL OF THE RCAP. THIS IS THE REGIONAL CLIMATE ACTION AND ADAPTATION PLAN. SO THAT IS SOME GOOD NEWS. AND THEN WE BOTH ATTENDED THE PROM FOR SENIORS. I HAVE ALREADY TOLD HER BUT MELISSA DID AN OUTSTANDING JOB AS OUR MC. AND MAYBE NEXT YEAR I WILL ACTUALLY GET ON THE FLOOR AND DANCE. BUT I USUALLY NEED SOME ALCOHOL TO DANCE AND THEY DIDN'T PROVIDE ANY. SO THAT'S WHERE THINGS STAND. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, VICE MAYOR. COUNCIL MEMBER LEMATINA.

After that, nothing more to report. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam. Council Member Cruz. Nothing to report necessarily. We're looking forward to going to the annual conference this month with myself, the mayor, and council member Lamontina. I just want to put a plug in for the Citizens Academy. So 10 years ago exactly, I attended that Citizens Academy. And alongside me was our assistant city manager, Juan Gomez. So hey, we turned out pretty good. So definitely there's a lot to learn in the city. It's longer. There's a lot of things to glean from. But I encourage you out there to apply. Come join us. And that's all I have, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

So you're saying if you attend the academy, you're destined to be on council?

Or destined to be on the dais, and maybe you could cut a rug with Vice Mayor Joseph.

Fair enough. I have no additional comments from my report. And let's move on to future agenda items, Vice Mayor. Nothing at this time. Okay. Council Member Lamartina?

Nothing.

Councilmember Cruz. No, sir. I also have nothing to Report for future items. So we've concluded our regular business for today We are adjourned. Good night American Canyon