City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'm calling the February 23rd council meeting to order. It is 5.03 p.m. So I'm sorry. I'm seeing here that we don't need to do a roll call. We'll do all that later. Is that true? Okay. Well, in that case, I will let Assistant City Manager, Yulia Carter, introduce our study session item. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

So, the study session before you today is Economic Development Work Plan. And I want to highlight, before we dive into the presentation, I want to highlight that we are presenting Economic Development Work Plan as one of the core building blocks of Pacifica's long-term financial sustainability. And we have a full house tonight. So, right next to me is Gretchen Heckman, our new economic and housing development manager. So, we have Alisa Corsetti, our management analyst, and Alex Greenwood is economic development consultant. Again, I believe you've met all of us, but happy to, again, have the full house here with the entire economic development team.

And Ms. Carter, before you continue on, I wanted to just jump in and offer a quick comment.

I apologize.

No, no, that's all right. I wanted to actually appreciate the staff that was here now in our economic development program. And as council can imagine, I've been doing some reflection in recent weeks and months over the past eight years. And relevant to this topic, what really occurred to me is in 2017, when I arrived here, the city did not have an economic development manager. That was a function that the assistant city manager, Lorenzo Hines, carried with all of his other responsibilities and a new city manager at that time. Over the years, this program has made great strides. We were able to hire a new economic development manager. who then during COVID left the city. We were able to fill in that gap. Ms. Carter came serving a dual capacity and we were able to supplement the program with Ms. Corsetti bringing great skills to the program and all with the council's support throughout those years and really focused efforts on economic development. We had the Vision 2025 project which won the California Economic Development Award and a host of other things to grow this program and the council has additionally every year supported more additions to it bringing on Ms. Heckman's position to the program and in addition to the support of Mr. Greenwood because as you'll see in this presentation that Ms. Carter is going to dive into All of this is really part of the basic building blocks for the city and a longterm vision for its financial sustainability into the future. And that's really been the focus all along. And it bleeds into all of our other departments, community development, public works and infrastructure and everything. So it's all really integrated. And I think you'll see that theme running through tonight's presentation. So with that reflection, I want to turn it back over to Ms. Carter.

Thank you so much for your remarks. And again, just to add to what City Manager just said, I want to highlight that before we talk about projects, work plans, or grabbing your projections in this presentation, I want to start by just highlighting why we're here tonight. And I also want to frame this discussion in a way to say that we are not discussing economic development simply because we want more growth. We are here because we want Pacifica to be financially resilient. And so we can protect all the things that make this place special, which means our coastline, our small businesses, our neighborhood, and overall quality of life. So yes, economic development involves some growth, but the important point is how. And as we go through this economic development work plan tonight, we want to emphasize that any economic growth implied in this plan intends to be intentional, in alignment with our character, and in a way that strengthens our foundation without compromising what Pacifica has to offer. Yes, I have a clicker. So, with that, here's our agenda for tonight. So, we'll talk about background and context in addition to what city manager already offered. We'll introduce the economic development framework and highlight some recent and current economic development activities. And we'll go over the work plan for the remainder of this current fiscal year and the upcoming fiscal year, 26-27. And we'll cover some of the next steps as well. So why this matters or layers of fiscal challenges that we are facing? So you may remember the slide from the fiscal sustainability study session in November. I am not going to spend a lot of time on the slide, but I want to highlight the specific fiscal challenges are complex. They are layered and unfortunately structural in nature. Our revenues just simply do not keep pace with our cost of maintaining services, our staffing level, and compensation way below market, which also limits service capacity. And on top of it, we face over $370 million in unfunded capital projects. And again, with the coastal conditions, that actually accelerates the deterioration of the infrastructure, which means adding additional 8-10% to the future cost of those projects. And again, since we are talking about complex problem, it does require a complex, comprehensive, and strategic solution. And this solution is a multi-level and multi-layers solution. So again, we introduced this to you during the fiscal sustainability study session. So when we think about building a financially stable and resilient future, it cannot be solved by one action. We should be thinking about a framework. And this framework, again, we discussed the details in the November study sessions. I'm not going to cover each one of the segments, but as you can see, economic development is one element of this solution. What I want to reinforce tonight, bringing the slide back, that there is no Again, none of the single solutions can solve the challenges. And all these pieces need to fit together to address the long-term fiscal health and future. And you can see how they fit together in this framework. And again, this slide, again, you've seen this before back in November. Once again, I'm not going to cover what we introduced back then when we talked about economic vitality strategy. and how it ties to the measurable revenue potential. But tonight, we are bringing it back for you just as a reminder that economic development is a phased and long-term investment strategy. So the results for the strategy builds over time, and they require consistency and patience. With that in mind, I want to turn it to Alex to walk us through the respective roles of the city and community in economic development, and how those investments work together to produce results.

Thank you, Yulia. So I'm Alex Greenwood. I was in local government for about 25 years, and the last five years I've been a consultant helping communities to reach their economic development goals. And I just want to say from that perspective, I feel really passionate about Pacifica, and I know what you have here. There's a lot of challenges, but it's a very special community. And I also want to give just a nod to the amazing staff who are so dedicated, and it's been my pleasure working with them. So this is a diagram provided by the California Association of Local Economic Development. attempts to show the relationship between economic development and a healthy community. And so if I can direct your attention to the red part of the diagram, those are all of the things that cities generally want to have to provide a good quality of life for their residents, public safety, infrastructure, parks, and such. All of those things tend to cost a lot of money, and in most cities, a significant percentage of city revenue comes from your business community having a healthy industrial commercial sector. So, having successful businesses, which is the yellow middle portion of the diagram, are essential, and not just for financial reasons. In addition to the tax revenue, they provide local jobs. And sometimes they provide first jobs to the next generation to kind of teach them customer service and other important lessons. They provide intangible things like the amenities that a neighborhood relies upon or sometimes even the identity of a neighborhood, placemaking. So having a successful business sector is obviously a really important thing to have. How do we get there? Economic development. Now, I will pause because you would be surprised how Many people out in the public think of economic development as kind of this magic, that you can wave a magic wand and here's my Trader Joe's magically appears, for example. It's not like that. In reality, economic development for a city government, they work with extremely constrained resources, extremely constrained staff, And even if they had unlimited resources, they operate in a private sector economy, and they do not directly control the decisions that a business or a property owner might make. So how does economic development impact and create the conditions for a healthy business sector? Well, there are several things that cities typically do. They include going out for grants, strategic planning, infrastructure planning, pairing local businesses with financial resources or other programs to help them weather changing conditions, partnerships. Sometimes there are policy initiatives that economic development people, you know, having the lens of the private sector can say, oh, we really need to look at updating our zoning, for example. So there are many ways that economic development attempts to influence indirectly what the private sector does and point them in the direction of prosperity. Now, in the specific case of Pacifica, when I was brought on board, one thing that really struck me immediately is how much good work has been done in the city for strategic planning. And you see on this slide some of the many important policy documents and initiatives that you've undertaken in the last couple of years, from Vision 2025 to the general plan. to the economic opportunities study. So Pacifica today has a really solid policy foundation, and you've expressed what kind of community you want to be and what your economic vision and goals are. That's really important. Not many cities have that to the extent that Pacifica has. But now the challenge really is you have to go from that vision, which is by design, it's not specific, it's a vision, You have to go from that to a work plan with specific staff initiatives, projects, and programs, so that we can actually move the dial and make progress on the vision that the Council has set. And so, that's what we'll be talking about tonight. I would say, in general, we did some analysis, and we really felt that, given the limited resources Pacifica has, we wanted to really focus staff efforts on a few initiatives that really give the best and highest return on the investment of time and city resources. So, with that, I will pass it back to Yuliya. Yuliya Zinchenko- Great.

Thank you. And as we move from planning into implementation world, it's important to ground this conversation on what it truly represents. So both fiscal sustainability and economic development is really truly about quality of life. It's about supporting our community where people can live comfortably, operate business successfully, enjoy our coastline, recreation activities, and feel proud about the neighborhoods. So this work is not about transforming Pacifica into something different as we go through the goals of the economic development plan. It's about strengthening our economy, our foundation, and about allowing us to preserve the unique Pacifica's character while evolving thoughtfully through this process. So with that, I think we need to dive into the strategic plan itself, and I'll turn it to Gretchen to do this.

Thank you, Yulia, and good evening, Council. I am Gretchen Heckman, the Economic and Housing Development Manager on staff here at the city. I joined this great team in early January of this year and have had a productive almost two months here working to get up to speed on Pacifica. So this slide picks up on Alex's overview of economic development as a community investment strategy and shows how Pacifica's economic development work plan ties into our general fund revenues. But before we cover the connection between work plan and revenues, we want to note that the economic development work plan was created by translating Pacifica's planning and visionary work into implementation activities that over the long term will produce general fund revenues. You can see Pacifica's four economic development plan work plan goals on the left-hand side, catalyst projects and opportunity sites, business attraction and retention, planning, analysis, and policy development. On the right-hand side, you can see all of the general fund revenue sources that are affected by economic development activities. Collectively, these categories represent 58% of our total general fund revenues, showing the impact that economic development can have on a city's financial picture. As you may know, we have just begun implementing this work plan and are able to share some recent accomplishments. and I'll pass it on to Alyssa Corsetti to talk about activities across all of our four economic development categories.

Thank you. Good evening, City Council. My name is Alyssa Corsetti. I am the Economic Development Management Analyst.

So this slide highlights the current... Alyssa, could you talk a little bit closer into the microphone? Sorry about that.

This slide highlights the current and in-progress economic development activities designed to produce visible near-term improvements. In Sharp Park and along Highway 1, we've focused on practical, visible district improvements. Through close collaboration with the Economic Development Committee, Seaside Merchants, and Public Works, we've installed four new wayfinding signs in Sharp Park aimed at improving visibility and navigation to local businesses. In addition, we've leveraged the Caltrans Highway 1 corridor sign replacement project to secure updated business district signage. This improved gateway visibility and encouraged those passing through Highway 1 to exit and explore Pacifica's commercial areas. In response to merchant concerns about litter, we utilized a CalRecycle grant and installed three new trash cans in Sharp Park. And we're currently coordinating with the county and Public Works on bike rack locations near Eureka Square and the Palmetto Corridor to improve accessibility and foot traffic. For marketing and attraction, we've prioritized strengthening Pacifica's foundation for marketing. In partnership with the San Francisco Peninsula and Noble Studios, we've initiated search engine optimization improvements to the Visit Pacifica website to improve search rankings and maximize the effectiveness of future tourism campaigns. We're also in the process of building a new high-resolution commercial photo library to support our brochures, investor outreach, and digital marketing materials. We're also exploring a social media intern partnership with local colleges to expand our digital engagement needs to better promote local businesses and events. And finally, we focus on supporting existing businesses and improving the customer experience. We're strengthening our partnership with the SBDC to connect Pacifica businesses with no-cost advising, workshops, and technical assistance in exploring future on-site office hours. At City Hall, staff has coordinated the installation of a public computer at the permit counter to improve access to permitting resources and the overall customer experience. We're also in the early stages of drafting public-facing one-pagers on how to navigate permitting and how to start a business in hopes of reducing barriers and improving transparency. Collectively, these efforts reflect a shift toward coordinated, solution-oriented economic development that is focused on district vitality, business support, and long-term fiscal sustainability. These targeted efforts are high-impact actions that align with Council's adopted strategic plan and fiscal sustainability framework.

And before we move on, I just want to highlight again the efforts of Economic Development Committee. So the wayfinding signage that you can see pictures here, it was a program, pilot program that was initiated by Economic Development Committee and it took us a long time to get there, but we are here and the signs have been installed and the trash cans also results of the partnerships with the seaside merchants and what On-site, some of the small improvements that Alyssa highlighted is actually a result of the partnership, so it's really important to highlight that.

Next, I will be talking about our priorities for the next few months as well as next year across our economic development goals. The first goal is Catalyst Projects and Opportunity Sites. This goal is about facilitating the development of underutilized sites in Pacifica, targeting sites that are well suited for development because of their size, location, and other attributes. Key sites were identified in our 2023 Economic Opportunity Study. including Beach Boulevard, which, as you know, has been recently released via RFQ. Other activities within this work plan category include engaging commercial leasing brokers to help fill vacant retail spaces and working with existing property owners to understand their goals for their properties and how we can work together to support them. Next slide, please. Sarah, we're on business attraction, goal two. I can't remember the slide number. Slide 12. All right. Okay, great. Thank you. Our second goal is about business attraction, so that coordinates with some of the work establishing relationships with brokers mentioned in the prior slide, and also includes a focus on the marketing of Pacifica through digital platforms and community events. Specifically on events, we wanted to determine how the city can best support existing annual events and make them even better attended and impactful to the surrounding business communities. Next slide, please. The third goal is about business retention, so preserving and hopefully strengthening the existing set of businesses that call Pacifica home. This goal focuses on communicating with businesses and understanding how we can better work together to foster an environment of success here in Pacifica. We also will continue and improve upon information sharing from small business resources from the county and other organizations. The fourth goal focuses on planning for the long-term sustainability of our businesses by continuing to look at city policies and zoning code and exploring district financing opportunities. It looks at how the city can be expedient and provide better customer service in its entitlement and permitting processes and continue staff's research efforts on infrastructure financing districts, which would help support businesses by pooling funds for reinvestment. And before I hand it back to Yulia to finish our presentation, I want to note that this particular team has really high hopes for a vibrant and fiscally stable Pacifica, and I'm personally very excited to work with them and counsel to make that hope a reality.

Yulia Pakhtanova- And before we open it to discussion, I want to, again, kind of recap what we've discussed before. So fiscal discipline comes first. That's really important for this plan to remain prioritized and aligned with revenue impact, and that's how we structured it, and that's how we presented it to you. So every goal, one of those four focus areas are prioritized and are in the work plan because those goals are achievable and based on capacity and impact that they can produce. The city, so the third point is that the city facilitates and the market invests, so that's kind of the role we need to keep in mind as we invest in economic development. The city's role is to reduce risk and improve clarity of our processes. to create those predictable conditions for investment capital to come to the city. And finally, as we mentioned before, results really take long time, unfortunately. So this is a structural work. It requires patience, consistency, and long-term commitment. So in terms of next steps, there is no action for you tonight. This is just an update and informational item, but if the Council would like to provide feedback or add or change any of the priority areas, we will definitely take notes of it and bring it back during the strategic planning discussion and the subsequent budget development process. And we also want to recommend implementing an update to Council, periodic update. We were thinking about twice a year. as a progress report to Council on this work plan. Let me try to use the clicker again. Yay, it worked. And I would like to close where we started this presentation. So economic development is not just about growth. It's about protecting what we love about this community. It's about ensuring that our coastline remains mundane and accessible and enjoyed by many, that our businesses can succeed and stay, that our neighborhoods remain strong, and we can continue to provide the level of services that this community deserves. So, yes, that would require some changes, and it is our shared responsibility to shape those changes intentionally and building on Pacifica's existing character, culture, and assets. That's how we will protect the Pacifica's future and the quality of life. With that, we're happy to answer any questions and hear the counsel deliberate.

Counsel, do you have any questions at this time? Sure.

Okay.

If I can just ask one question. And I appreciate, like, the signage was something that was worked on with the Economic Development Committee. Can you talk a little bit about where your work overlaps and where it doesn't, or, you know, where we might be able to direct, you know, some particular task to the committee?

So the wayfinding signage program came up, originated in the Economic Development Committee discussions. So, that wasn't originally a budgeted project, but we took it over because there was some confusion on how to execute. And so, the city actually took over this project and funded this project as a pilot in the shark park only. So, if there is a further consideration of expanding the signage program, it will be probably coming back to council as part of budget allocation and discussion and maybe a capital improvement project. But as far as work plan for economic development committee, we usually have this discussion with the committee at the beginning of the fiscal year. And I think we've had some discussions of maybe starting this conversation sooner so it's better aligned with the citywide strategic work plan. And that's one of the considerations that we're exploring. Female Speaker 1 Okay, so that's to come is what I hear you say.

I'm sorry, Vice Mayor.

Just on the onset, I'd just like to make reference to there was some assistance requested by one of our businesses in Rockaway Beach that I had firsthand experience watching Alyssa deal with not just in the moment at a meeting that we both attended, but the follow-up that happened afterwards. And so far exceeded my expectations. about what it was that we as a city and municipality could do, that I just wanted to give her a shout-out for an incredibly well-done job and leave it at that.

Thank you, Greg. Okay, so we will take public comment now. I have one card from Pete Shoemaker. And otherwise, if anyone else has questions or comments, there are yellow cards in the back if you don't mind filling one out.

Pete Shoemaker-Valamar, I think this is an excellent plan, but it's got one conspicuous absence, and that is the Chamber of Commerce. Most cities have a vibrant Chamber of Commerce. We have had one. People who have lived here sort of have had the history. People ask me what happened to the Chamber, and quite frankly, I needed to know, so I'm joining the Board of the Chamber of Commerce now. I'm finding out the history, and it's interesting what's happened. There's been stumps in the past, and I think it's not a question of looking back and blaming anything, but right now as a community, we have a Chamber of Commerce that's basically on life support. It's just two board members, almost no budget. Half Moon Bay, an entity just to the south of us with less than half of our population, has a fully functioning Chamber of Commerce with a site, a full executive director, all kinds of services. If you're a business that wants to come to the coast side, and you're needing help, and you need help on payroll and permitting and all that, and you have well-intended people who's an economic director who's obviously overworked, as all city staff are, an economic development committee that meets once a month of well-intentioned citizens, but they all have their own business, then you go to Half Moon Bend, you have an office, you walk in with a full-time executive director and all that stuff, where are you going to go? So there's no question if we had a fully functioning Chamber of Commerce, we'd be much, much better off. Now, I don't know if that's possible. There's been a whole history of this stuff, but I'm here, I'm committed to this community, so I'm going to just give it a try. I don't know. But let's envision that somehow we get a budget, if Half Moon Bay can do it, we can do it. Of course we can. Now, will we? I don't know. But you go in there, you step in there, you don't know, you say, okay, I'm not a small business owner, I'm just a reasonably intelligent person with a lot of, you know, Good ideas, probably. So I'm going to give it a try, and I want to work with everybody here, but we're all in the same boat. So let's envision the fact that we have a functioning Chamber of Commerce with a site, full-time executive director, business people come in, they do all the things that the Chamber does, we work with all the institutions, everybody's working together, and we're really starting to accelerate this business development. That's possible. I don't know if we can do it, but I'm willing to give it a try. So let's think about that.

Thank you, Pete. So I don't have any other cards. Oh, wait, I see one coming from Cindy Abbott. Go ahead and make your comment. You can hand that in afterwards.

Hi there, Cindy Abbott. First of all, I'd like to give a shout out to Ann Stedler, who was the economic development manager from 2013 to 2015, or from 2015 to 2017, who did a great job before current city manager, and also Thomas Myers, who was here before Yulia was economic development manager. So we are in our fifth, and I hope good things coming for us right now. I sent in a public comment. It may seem like a small thing, but it can add to vibrancy and engagement because building doesn't make a community, but art can. So many communities have 1% for the arts programs. Right now, the city is working on their development impact fees. That's usually where these are put in. So I will be pitching this once again. We tried to do this back in 2019 when we first developed the city's Keep Pacifica Beautiful program. And at that time, the city council did not want to do that, citing there wasn't really any development going on. But that is certainly not the case anymore. And so I would love to see that be revisited. Signage. Thank goodness for the EDC pushing through and persevering on that small step of those new signs. We've been talking about wayfinding signs and signs on the highway. I think I met with Alex four years ago or three years ago, if not longer, about the lack of signage for so many things on Highway 1. We made lots of suggestions and time about how to improve that, how to make sure business districts were clear. I understand that it's Caltrans, but I certainly think we could have done something by now, and I hope that can happen. Thanks. Thank you, Cindy. See Chris Redfield?

Yeah, go ahead and submit your card afterwards.

Thank you. Good evening, staff and council. To kind of follow up on that, with the signs, Highway 1 is uninviting and unkept by Caltrans. The signage is great, but you have to know it's there from the highway. There are so many obscured, not only traffic signs, but... wafering signs, all that type of thing. It has not been done that I can recall in decades. The medians are overgrown, there's so much overhang and it falls into a public safety issue too when we have summertime coming and we have encroachment of heavy growth, tree limbs, they take care, Caltrans takes care of that on an as-needed basis, where you have a limb down, a tree down, and Public Works doesn't get to it, hopefully Caltrans does, but that's all that gets done. And it is uninviting, there are trash magnets, and it looks unkept. This is, obviously we take pressure from the city to go to District 4 and get action done, because the entire corridor, there are very few places in Pacifica along Highway 1, our main thoroughfare, our only access to business and Palmetto, any of the districts, and it looks horrible. That's the goal, I think, to get the aesthetics, not only the aesthetics, but the public safety aspect, and to have the wafering signs visible before you get on top of them or past them. And again, from a public safety standpoint, speed signs, crosswalk signs, any of those things. And it's, you know, if you drive, and we all kind of get tunnel vision when we drive that corridor, but take a look sometime. It's hideous. Both the center medians and the shoulders are in dire need of Caltrans. to cut that back and make it not only look appealing, but also from a safety standpoint, it is not. If you need to pull off on a shoulder, good luck. Hopefully you pick your spot because they're encroached so badly. So that's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. One more, Kimberly Finale.

Hey, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Clerk and staff. Kimberly Finale, I just want to thank you for your continued commitment to our democratic process. It's truly appreciated. Thank you for the informative presentation. and noticeable efforts, that is also appreciated. The bear saver trash cans were immediately noticed by those of us who walk the streets here in Pacifica every day of the week. I wanted to just kind of, you know, I'm reminded recently, a couple of years ago, a woman, a member of our community came to a city council meeting right here in this room and turned in a yellow card for public comment. I'd never seen her before and I've never seen her since. You probably will remember her too by the comment that she bravely made. It can be hard to approach this podium and microphone to make a comment that you feel strongly about, especially if you don't come to meetings regularly or if it's hard to speak in public. I find that challenging myself. But, you know, when the item isn't on the agenda and you want to make your observation known due to the weight of its importance and the serious nature, which in someone's opinion must be extended to the decision makers of our local government, which of course is you. This woman's observation and deep concern, understood through her shaky voice and broken English, was in regards to the cleanliness of the city, and from her perspective, a lack of cleanliness. In her view, and those of her neighbors and friends or visitors, she described what they saw as garbage-littered streets at the beauty's edge. I cannot forget, it's hard to forget her gratitude for the privilege that we all share for living in this natural wonderland, but to build on what Chris was just saying, it is not always welcoming when outsiders come. to visit and some are just eating and then leaving their garbage like right outside their cars and you see it in the gutters, it's all along the streets, plastic bottles, urine filled bottles for some random reason, that's a really common So in order to get folks to want to come here, we've got to have a more inviting and clean, I'd love to see signs, you know, keep Pacifica clean. Pack it in, pack it out. If you're coming here to go to the beach, take your garbage with you. You know, we've got garbage cans. Maybe some signage that says garbage cans are over here. Please use them. And just, you know, on another note, completely separate, I just wanted to throw out there that in case you all didn't see the February 9th, 2026 Coastside News regarding Half Moon Bay hiring a consultant for staff restructuring, just to kind of get an analysis of their city government.

Thank you. Yes? Oh, Brian. And you can fill out a card afterwards.

Yeah, I certainly will. This is just a request from some folks who are joining us via Zoom. They texted me and let me know that Zoom is cutting out on audio, and I can only hear about a third of what people are saying. But it's a continuing problem just for folks that may be able to address that. Thank you, Council.

Thank you. Can we check with PCT about that, or...

Please remember that PCT is working with different equipment because things were stolen from this room, so we have to give them a break as well.

Of course. No, I just want to make sure they're aware. I'm hoping that you're aware. Okay. Is there anyone on?

There's one raised hand for Sam Casillas.

Okay.

Go ahead, Sam.

Can I please be granted co-host?

I don't think so, Sam. You can't share a screen.

Sarah has to grant me co-host, sorry. Oh, grant you co-host. I'm sorry.

I made it available for Sam Casillas to speak.

Are you guys able to hear me?

Yes.

You guys are cutting out. I've never had this issue with Zoom, so I don't know what's going on, but after I make my comments, please let me know if I have been cut off or not. Some of you may be happy that I've been cut off, but anyway, I'll continue to talk. Okay. Just want to say this. Sam Casillas, Citizen Pacifica. Tonight's staff is saying the right things, but what has been the focus is of the city lately, and I'm quite leery of it because the only focus has been on residential development as the answer to our structural deficit without a true cost of service studies. Even when we look at what our economic development director now is, it's like housing development is in there. So where are we actually focusing? These are all nice slides, but let's again see where have we focused our resources. And as the speaker earlier saying, Our resources are limited. So Pacifica has always been a bedroom community with an imbalance and neglect of our visitor commercial businesses. All credible economic studies show that an over-reliance on residential development will bankrupt the city. This strategy, favored by our current outgoing city manager, has proven to be a disaster and Woodhouse is leaving us in worse financial shape than when he arrived. So is this just another effort with a predetermined outcome to continue how the city, with the city over to favor developers and Sam car with only a predetermined outcome, they will bankrupt the city. We need to keep businesses like the Siebel. What are we doing there? We haven't done anything. Locals and visitors are meant to spend their wants to spend their money here. But if there isn't something to spend the money on, then why, How can we actually develop it? Signage is not going to do anything if all we have is a McDonald's and a Panda Express with no effort from our economic development folks to do anything about it. It isn't complicated. We just need to do the right thing here, folks. especially when we have an extremely restricted staff that should be focusing on commercial development and not residential development, which has been the focus of our current staff. Also, what has been done with our economic development committee? The shop local, really? Please give us some metrics as how successful it has been. An over-reliance on property tax that is nowhere near covers their cost of services. It was even there that one of the slides had our housing element in it. So what's that doing in there? And our economic development committee with its current council leadership has been an unmitigated disaster. Nothing has come out of there for years. I was on it 20 years ago. I put a plan together similar to this, and, of course, it was shelved, like a lot of other things. The Chamber of Commerce, which was brought up to my longtime warnings, was compromised by Sam Carr and became so dysfunctional that it has dissolved. Is this what we're doing? Are we planning to bring it back?

Thank you, Sam. Your time is up, and we heard you loud and clear. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else? There are no other raised hands.

Okay.

I'll bring it back to council for comments, questions.

Mayor Bowles, if I may just very quickly. A couple of the commenters commented about Highway 1 and Caltrans and signage. And I just did want to note that the city has and I think some of the city and council members were involved in the meetings over years. We have worked with Caltrans and improved signage on Highway 1, but it is, as noted by the commenters, a very difficult and bureaucratic organization. There has been some improvement there. I think there's room for a lot more improvement in the future with Caltrans, and it has been on the radar in the past and will be in the future.

And that includes their maintenance of the medians and... landscaping?

Yeah, other than signage, where public works and the city in general is constantly working with them and in communication with them on all of those issues as well.

I want to ask a couple of other follow-up questions, but can I just, so it's ten minutes until six, can I just ask what our, and I'm sure we have a lot of comments and suggestions too, if we don't finish by six, are we continuing, are we stopping for the regular meetings?

So it's up to the council's discretion. If the council feels there's more discussion that the council would like to take on this item, you could continue it to the end of the meeting or you could continue it to a future date, certain or uncertain, or you could just give whatever direction you would like to staff or feedback you want to give to staff and it can be agendized for some future meeting.

I see Mary's light.

Thank you. Yeah, and just for everyone out there, folks, give us a little grace. If there's, you know, things happening on Zoom or any of the other connections, we have had some issues here in our council chambers, and someone came in and stole some things from Pacific Coast Television. So let's all give grace today if there's, like, glitches. So thank you, PCT, for being able to be here at all. Appreciate you. And I want to also like just give a little shout out to EDC, Economic Development Committee, because they have had their ups and downs over the years. But I think things have smoothed out beautifully and they really did work hard on the signage. So thank you so much for hanging in there. I see you out there. I really, really appreciate that. There's a couple of things that I just wanted to comment on a little bit. And one, was talking about exploring internships and technology solutions to enhance social media presence and expand digital engagement capacity. And I just kind of wanted to add in a little bit that it might be a good idea to personalize the information that's going out, maybe by using some community champions to be the messengers, because we have a ton of them. And a lot of them are very good at creating content, and I think it's really well received when we hear it from our community champions. So thank you for that. And I also think it's great we are paying attention to Sharp Park, but there's so many other areas in Pacifica that really need some attention as well. And so while we're dubbing this downtown, maybe we can have some cute names for the other places too. I mean, just a little attention would be really nice to the other sections of town. I think that's it for right now. Thank you, Mary.

There was a lot of public comment from people that spoke rather authoritatively about things that they apparently understand much less than they seem to think they do. And I personally have to sit up here, take offense to some of the things that are said about some of the people that I work with who I know that do less with more. And it gets old and it gets tired and it dissuades people from wanting to do public service. It's easy to cast stones. It's hard to actually do stuff and get stuff done. And if anybody from staff would like to perhaps correct any of the record on any of the misstatements that I heard tonight, I would appreciate it. I can also understand if they don't want to do so. But I find it unfair and unjust and don't appreciate it.

Hi, economic development team. Hello again. Thank you so much for your work. I've had opportunity to work with some of you and then in and out depending on liaison and mayorship or whatever over seven-ish years. And I agree with the statement that was made by Assistant City Manager Carter. This takes a long time. And I think some of the, I concur with Councilmember Wright, the negativity that we hear on some level I think comes from frustration and exhaustion and desire. There's been a desire for things for a very long time. And I appreciated the hopeful comments in the presentation about We're positioned for action. And I remember discussing this actually pre-pandemic and then having to pick up the pieces afterward. We have to have some basic plans in place to be able to launch from those. So it takes a long time. It's annoying. It's long meetings. We know. We've been here for them. But I think the investment of that time and listening to each other is valuable. And that is my, you know, pitch, if you will. I'm super excited to hear that Pete Shoemaker has joined the Chamber Board. I think it's exciting to have an infusion of new talent and energy. So I think there's, you know, some hopeful signs. One thing I would ask as a decision maker is to have access to this presentation because those slides just flew by me. And they were really interesting and intriguing. And I really want to delve deeper into them, especially as we approach goal setting on March 7th. Little plug for goal setting on March 7th. Thank you.

Female Speaker 2 Thank you. Economic Development. I know I'm in that committee and seeing the signs up was very gave me some hope. And I'm very happy to see them. I would like to see more signage, especially on Manor, that intersection and maybe upper before people get to the intersection. so they are aware of. And also, I would like to see Highway 1 be cleaned up because it speaks for us that it's not clean. And also, I would like to see a bathroom on Beach Boulevard that is clean to the point that when someone comes to Pacifica, which is the area where everybody will show up, if they don't know the city, when they go to and use that bathroom, I would like them to say, wow, not to be disappointed. And there's so many things we need to look at. And one other thing is cleaning the city first before we do anything. And that's what I had to say. And hopefully we can all work together toward that goal. And all of us can do a little something to make it happen. Thank you.

Thank you. It's 5.55. I have some things I want to say. Are we okay going a little bit past 6? And just some suggestions and ideas I want to throw out, too. And some piggybacking on to some comments from the public, too. So, I know our previous economic development manager was working with Half Moon Bay, with Chryslin Geist and the Coastside Chamber, and I'd really encourage you all to reach out to them as well. I think I've been talking to Mayor Reddick, too. I think there's a lot that we could do together in marketing, and I know there were plans that they were working on something for FIFA, for example, because there are days in between the games that we could offer, like, here's three days you could spend along the coast between our cities, right? And so we have all these tourists coming in regionally that we could hopefully capture here. And there was also an email from Chris Lynn that I know I sent to the city manager about what it takes to have a chamber, and it's not very much of an investment, you know, to have space and staff to get things started, and then it can be self-supporting if it's run properly. And so hopefully with Pete and other people, because I think that would be a really big help to our limited staff, you know, to have that business support. I just attended an opening for Montessori School with Lynn and Archie last week, which was wonderful, right? So they're out there doing what they can, but they have limited engagement with our businesses now. Yeah, Cindy mentioned arts grants and, you know, like certainly look, I mean, I don't know if we're looking at that now with our fee study, but I would love to see us do that too. I mean, thinking about the hotel project here, I know like the CPUC is doing a project in Millbury and there's one and a half million dollars for arts and some of our art residents are applying for those grants. We have a great art community here, and so that's a great tie-in supporting our businesses and our arts. The economic opportunity study had a list of opportunities and timing, and I just want to highlight a few things. Sam had mentioned experiential centers, and I'm curious about that. Yes, we've lost our bowling alley and the community is really struggling, but You know, what else could we do to, you know, I know, well, I think there's one arcade that's just opened in town, for example, and, you know, maybe there are some other things like that that we can try to bring in to fill some of our large, empty retail. The Sam Trans Park and Ride lot wasn't on your priority list, but that's also a housing element site. for affordable housing. And I'll disagree with Sam. I think the affordable housing piece is important to the economic development too, because we need places for people who don't earn high salaries to live and work in town also. So that site I know is in our, the housing element is prioritized because it's a public site, but that would also be a great site for a restaurant and bar on the roof, right, with views of the ocean. And we need more of that for residents and for... for our visitors. Let's see. What else do I got? I've been talking to a lot of people about the concept of blue zones. And I don't know where this fits in in terms of thinking about what our marketing strategy and who we are is. I saw what you were showing about a cool place to be you know, which is fun, right, with our fog. But what really sets us apart from other foggy areas, too, is our coast and our natural resources. And there's an opportunity for partnership with the age-friendly people for drawing, for longevity, for, like, restaurants with smaller portions, for example, right, that is something special that we could be, you know, not necessarily an official blue zone that you have to pay for, but as, as a way of identifying who we are, um, thinking about, um, the Native American tribes and, you know, this, uh, the quarry area, Timic Tac was, um, um, means place of the whales, right? And we're getting, we have 30,000 people on our, on our social media site for the Pacifica whale spotting that are coming when they're whales. And, So how do we capitalize and use what we have as the marketing terminology and words in there? I hear a lot of complaints from residents that they find out about events afterwards, after they've happened, even the monthly Saturdays in Sharp Park. I know the Economic Development Committee has been talking about a calendar for a while. But I think that would be a really great resource. It's maybe something else that an intern could work on, right? And publishing a calendar that's on a city web website, whether it's official or not. And I know you have to be careful about what you're validating, right? If it's an official city thing. But I think Half Moon Bay is doing that. So maybe that's another question for the Coastside Chamber and how they've managed to do that. We talked for a long time about council members walking in their districts with economic development staff and meeting the businesses. I mean, I know that's something I wanted to do for three years and hoping we can start that again now that we've got, you know, staff. Yeah, I know we assigned the EDC, you know, studying food trucks a little bit, but whatever we can do for temporary uses music food trucks that that you know can draw people in a region like um i mean even using some of our city land right here you know after we go through the rfp but we've got a nice resource in here in the park too right that that could be a draw um I'M JUST, AND THEN I WANTED TO ASK IF THERE'S AN UPDATE ON THE SHARP PARK SPECIFIC PLAN BECAUSE THAT WILL OBVIOUSLY CATALYZE A LOT OF NEW DEVELOPMENT IN SHARP PARK WITH THE COASTAL COMMISSION. I DON'T KNOW IF WE HAVE ANY UPDATES ON THAT.

MADAM MAYOR, DO YOU WANT THAT NOW?

IF YOU KNOW OTHERWISE YOU CAN TELL US LATER.

I KNOW THE SPECIFIC PLAN HAS BEEN SUBMITTED, BUT IF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR UP DEGRAVE IS HERE AND HAS ANY MORE DETAILED UPDATES, SHE'S WELCOME TO COME UP AND DISCUSS THAT, BUT I DON'T KNOW IF WE'VE HEARD BACK FROM COASTAL STAFF OR NOT.

OKAY. AND THEN THE STRONG TOWNS EVENT TALKED A LOT ABOUT TREES, AND I KNOW THAT'S that's part of what defines the real cuteness of Half Moon Bay's downtown, and I know trees were planned for Sharp Park, but I'd love to see that looked at again, and I know the Beautification Advisory Committee is maybe looking at, you know, an adopt-a-tree program, and so this is maybe places where we can work across committees. Okay, I think that's enough for now. Does anybody else have anything else they want to add?

I do, but out of respect for time.

I think we could take a few more minutes just to finish so that they don't all have to stay here late.

Okay. I love the idea of adding to social media stuff. I think some whale TV cameras would be a great idea, considering how often when our whales are going. I spend time down there watching them, and that's what I love about Pacifica, I was wondering if EDC had a goal for how much increase they were thinking about in terms of sales tax revenue. And I was wondering what else additional steps perhaps council could take to help kick off the Sharp Park specific program, what we could do to help further the goals of all that work that was done to develop that mixed use space. I really see that as being the future of what's going to make Pacifica State sustainable. Let's see. I was wondering at the beginning of the presentation there was a number touted of 15.4 million. I was wondering if that number included the no VLF fees that we're probably not going to get next year or if that number is actually now bigger than perhaps when you made the presentation. That's probably enough off of this list until the next time we get to talk about this, and thank you for your work on making Pacifica more sustainable.

Yeah. Thank you. And I love the idea of doing this regularly a couple times a year, too, because, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Okay, sure. We're going to take a five-minute break until... And thank you for your patience, everyone. We'll get started very soon with our regular meeting.

Thank you.

No, I'm going to pass the question. And then I think we'll vote. Yeah, okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay.

Maybe it was, I'm not sure.

It was through a couple of people. I honestly, through your patients. You're next. It was through a couple of people. Okay, okay. that there are rules for commenting at these meetings. Comments on non-agendized items must address matters within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city, and comments on agendized items must relate to that specific item. If comments do not fall into one of these categories, the city will provide you with an initial warning to stay within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city or on topic. If the warning was not followed, I will direct the city clerk to cut off the microphone. And throughout this warning system, I'll seek the assistance of the city attorney in identifying comments not related to the agenda item or not in the subject matter jurisdiction of the city.

Thank you.

So I will read the land acknowledgement. The city of Pacifica acknowledges that we occupy the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples, who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula. We honor the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples for their enduring commitment to Mother Earth. As the indigenous protectors of this land, and in accordance with their traditions, the Ramaytush Ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all the peoples who reside in their traditional territory. We affirm their sovereign rights as First Peoples and wish to pay our respects to the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples. Thank you. So Councilmember Beer, can you lead us in the salute to the flag?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

So before we start with our special presentation, It's been requested that we change the order of agenda, moving up item eight, the resolution for the master agreement for the wastewater facilities master plan. The consultant was with us till really late at our last meeting, and then it's coming again. So are there any objections to moving that first on the agenda?

And so, Madam Mayor, just to clarify, it would be moving Item 8 to before Item 7 on the public hearing calendar? Correct. So it would be a new Item 7, well, an Item 7, and then the public hearing would be 7A. So moved. We should take public comment before on the issue of whether or not to move the agenda item. But you can get a second. Okay. I'll second. Okay.

Is there any council discussion question first?

No? Okay. Are there any public comments on that? We're just shifting a couple of items so we can get the consultants in and out. Seeing none in the room, are there any online? Okay. All right. So we just need to take a vote. I'll close public comment.

Okay, thank you. And with the motion to move item number eight prior to item number seven on the agenda, the motion was made by Vice Mayor Wright and seconded by Council Member Beckmeyer. The motion passes unanimously.

Okay, great.

So before we get to all of that, we want to start with our special presentation, proclamation for the Pacifica Sports Hall of Name Week this week. So Horace Henshaw, I saw you earlier. Would you like to come up to the podium? So I'll read this and then allow you to make some comments. Okay, proclamation of the City of Pacifica and recognition of Sports Hall of Fame 2026 inductees. Whereas for over 75 years, Pacifica has produced many talented athletes in both amateur and professional sports. And whereas the Pacifica Sports Club has formulated a Sports Hall of Fame to honor local sports celebrities. And whereas the City of Pacifica recognizes the Sports Hall of Fame as a lasting tribute to the rich sports history of Pacifica. And whereas the City of Pacifica has dedicated a Wall of Fame to the enshrines at the Pacifica Community Center, and whereas this year marks the 35th anniversary of the Pacifica Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which will be held on February 28, 2026, and whereas the 2026 Pacifica Sports Hall of Fame inductees are Terranova High School football coach Tim Adams, three-time NCAA All-American wrestler Richard Goodwin, and University of California at Santa Barbara soccer athlete Jessica Park. Now, therefore, I, Christine Bowles, on behalf of the City Council of the City of Pacifica and all its citizens, do hereby recognize the outstanding contributions of these three Sports Hall of Fame inductees have made to sports and recreation in the community and join with the Pacifica Sports Club in honoring you on this special occasion. And thereby I proclaim the week of February 23rd through February 28th, 2026 as Pacifica Sports Hall of Fame Week. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council and members. I've walked up to this podium 35 years now. And this is fantastic as we go into the 35th year of honoring over 175 athletes over the past 35 years. It's been the support of the city of Pacifica that's carried this forward. We're very fortunate to have support. Can you imagine if I had started this Hall of Fame in 1969 when I started writing for the Tribune, how filled that wall, that whole community center would have been over the years? It's amazing. But I don't want to take any more of your time. I just want to say thank you, but also let you know that without the support of Pacifica, we probably couldn't go on like this. And we're the only city, really, in San Mateo County that has city support and has its own Pacifica Sports Hall of Fame. In fact, I would dare to say that we're probably the only city that recognizes athletes throughout the whole state of California. So you guys should be very proud of that, and I really appreciate your help. Christine, should I come up and get the plaques now? I'll come up. Thanks.

Yes. No photo. But I think the council might also want to make some comments. You might want to receive those too. Would anyone like to say anything?

I would like to say thank you, Horace Hinshaw. You are an inspiration. I can't wait for this event every year. I'm so looking forward to it. The stories that come, it's really, really special. Thank you.

It's also like a high school reunion, right? You've got the hecklers out there. It's really fun, really fun. We love you, Horace. Thank you.

Yeah, and I had the good grace to be able to attend last year, and it is so meaningful to people. I know for me, that sports is so much more than just playing games, and it's such a big part of the learning experience for people as they grow up through the youth, and that you give them the recognition of the culmination of all those years of learning. You're a real tribute to this community, and I want to thank you for being such an important part of it.

Thank you so much. I didn't know that this was the only city that did that. That's pretty cool. And I think a lot of that is because of you and your advocacy, your reporting for the Tribune and telling these stories, right, so all the community can read them. And I'm looking forward to my first event on Saturday. So we'll see you there.

Thank you, folks, very much. And I'll see you on Saturday night.

That takes us to our consent calendar. Are there any I don't are there any madam mayor? I just want to confirm there wasn't any public comment. Oh, I'm sorry. You're right Is there any public comment on the proclamation? Feel free to come up and you can do a card later if you'd like to speak. I Don't see anyone no one online. Thank you Denise closing public comment Okay, so our consent calendar is are there any council members who want to pull any items? I

Mayor Bowles, before any action is taken on the consent calendar, I'd like to call out a correction to item number six. On packet page 315, there was a few words missing in the resolution in the last paragraph or last clause of the resolution. Be it further resolved that the city manager or their designee is authorized to approve annual program authorization letters and funding contributions pursuant to the MOU subject to the availability, and it gets cut off there, should add the words of funds to that sentence. And this is for item number six, which is the Memorandum of Understanding of the County of San Mateo for the Participation in the Compost for Climate Solutions Program on the resolution.

Thank you, Sarah. All right, so you can know Questions for council right now? I don't have any cards. Are there any public comments on any items on consent? Anyone online? No, okay. I'll close public comment. I move we accept the consent calendar as amended. Yeah, before we, I have a couple of corrections to the minutes, if that's okay, before we move on. So just really quick, page 32. THIS IS ABOUT THE BEACH BOULEVARD INFRASTRUCTURE RESILIENCY PROJECT UPDATE. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE, THE PARAGRAPH THAT STARTS DIRECTOR YIP STATED, ABOUT TWO-THIRDS OF THE WAY DOWN, IT SAYS WE LOST SOME MOMENTUM BY LOSING THE BRIC GRANT. THAT IS 15 MILLION AND THAT SHOULD BE 50 MILLION. tell me when you when you have that made that note okay and then on page 35 the second paragraph says Maribel stated besides the flooding it is also a hazard there's a word missing in there that overtopping is also a hazard

It is a, how does it read?

Can you read the statement that it should be Mayor Bowles?

Sure. Mayor Bowles stated, besides the flooding, overtopping is also a hazard. Got it. Okay. And then at some point, and I don't have the exact wording, but our consultant, Aaron Holloway, we were asking him when the last time the Coastal Commission staff had BEEN CONSULTED ABOUT THE SEA WALL AND HE MADE THE POINT THAT IT WAS BEFORE OUR NEW LCLUP WAS APPROVED. I THINK THAT'S IMPORTANT. SO MAYBE JUST ADD A STATEMENT WHEN HE'S TALKING.

Mayor Bowles, can you direct me to where in the minutes that statement needs to be added?

I didn't go back and listen to the recording. Yeah, I don't know, so I guess we can skip that. Oh, no, here it is, sorry. The bottom of page 36 is when I asked the question. And then it says, Consultant Holloway stated that is something we will work through as part of the CDP and what it will look like in the future. So, maybe before that, so, Consultant Holloway stated that they had not spoken to the Coastal Commission since the LSC LUP was approved. That is something we will work through. Yeah, I think that's the appropriate answer.

MR. Yeah, Mayor Bowles, I'm not recalling that. And I think that to add a significant statement like that, because I'm not, I don't know that if it's true that GHD hasn't spoken to the Coastal Commission staff since the LSC LUP certification. I think we would need to review the tape to see what Ms. That's fine. You can review the tape.

Yeah. I specifically asked the question. I remember him answering. But that's fine. We can review the tape.

Mr. Okay. And then we'll, in that case, either re-agendize approval of minutes for the next meeting then.

Ms. Okay. All right. Thank you. So we'll approve it without the minutes. Ms.

Right. So then there is a motion on the table though. Does the maker of the motion want to amend the motion to withdraw consent agenda item number one, or do you want to proceed with the motion as you've made it?

I'll amend it to include Christine's changes. Is that okay?

No, we're pulling it.

We're pulling the minutes. Oh, pulling the minutes. I'll amend it so we pull the minutes.

Okay. So there's the motion has been amended. Was I the seconder?

I don't think there was a second. I don't think there was yet.

You were about to say.

I was about to, and then you said, wait, I have some changes.

And I have a comment I'd like to make, too.

Okay. I will withhold my second until your comments are done. Please share your comment.

I just wanted to point out that I had the fortune to get a briefing on the OCPA with the mayor here, and staff, Yulia and Marisol back there, handled all my questions and COMPLETELY THOROUGHLY, AND I WAS SO IMPRESSED WITH THEIR DEPTH OF UNDERSTANDING OF OUR FINANCIAL SITUATION. I WOULD NOT WANT TO BE STAFFED WITH YOU AND ME ASKING QUESTIONS ON THE FLY ON SUCH A BIG DEAL, AND THEY DID GREAT.

THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT, YEAH, AND WE'RE SAVING NOT HAVING TO ASK ALL OUR QUESTIONS FROM THE DICE, BUT THANK YOU, STAFF, FOR DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB ON OUR FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.

AND WITH THAT, I WILL SECOND THE MOTION. Okay, please vote.

Okay. And with the motion to approve the consent calendar minus item number one and with item number six as amended as stated by staff, the motion was made by Councilmember Beer, seconded by Councilmember Beckmeyer, and passes unanimously. Thank you.

So, our next order of business are public comments for items that are not on the posted agenda. I have currently three cards. So, again, the cards are in the back. If anyone wants to make a comment on this or other items, please fill one out and indicate the item number. So, we'll start with Cindy Abbott, followed by Sean Stack, and then Michael Maloney.

anything under that desk we should know about I'm sorry I don't know where you're all underneath the diet so okay good evening Cindy Abbott and I wanted to bring up an ongoing request about transparency related to short-term rentals You know, after spending so many years researching this issue, looking at other cities, most recently have spent some time looking at other platforms about how they present what are current short-term rentals. They make it easy to find. Ours are not easy to find. It's buried clicks back. Some people provide both the way to look up an address or the list. That should be really easy. Doesn't have to be updated every day. It's just looking at one they have posted right there. We update this list every two weeks and put it out there for you. And you can see all of them in the city. You don't have to sit there and know addresses or streets and do searches. You can easily get a sense of what's going on in your neighborhood or in the city. Reporting is also still pretty difficult with the community. wanting to help out with regard to enforcement, but it's hard to find out how to do that. Again, in looking at other city platforms, they have a page that lets you know exactly how to do it. Even some have buttons to click this one for a trash issue. Let us know over here if it's noise. Let us know if there's no signage or if you think it's an unpermitted STR. So I'd really like to see that be updated here in the year ahead as hopefully we move forward with it being permitted throughout the city. And then also is issue resolution. Heard from a community member earlier today that they had had to call out the police about a parking violation. It was a parking violation not only that the short-term rental visitors weren't parked in the driveway, but that they were in front of their driveway and then blocking access from the other neighbors. But they had no idea how they would find out what happened. So, you know, an openness and willingness to share information so that the community can feel more confident that issues are being addressed and that safety issues and other concerns are being handled would be really appreciated. And that includes an update on a long-time complaint at 1987 Beach Boulevard, where things continue to get worse on almost a daily basis. And I hope that that comes to resolution publicly very soon. Thank you. Thank you, Cindy.

So, Sean Stack, followed by Michael Maloney, and then Lila Ranera.

Hello again. My name's Sean Stack. I am part of a nonprofit here in town called the Pacifica Bicycle Park. I spoke semi-recently to you about it, and I'm here to talk again about it. Real quick, I just wanted to talk about bicycling real quick. Riding bicycles is considered a rite of passage that marks a significant milestone in a childhood. symbolizing a leap forward towards independence, freedom, and self-reliance. It's a key physical milestone that helps develop balance, motor skills, and coordination. For young children, going from training wheels to two wheels represents their first taste of freedom to basically explore their neighborhoods. Pacifica is and always has been a premier hub for action sports as well as many other sports in this town. We just learned that from the amazing Hall of Fame that's gonna happen with all the sports that have been part of this wonderful town. Specifically representing a rare intersection where elite bicycle riding and surfing and many other sports thrive on the same geographical space. Baseball stars, movie stars, and action sports stars have all come out of our wonderful town. Riding bicycles with friends fosters camaraderie and community. Our main goal as a nonprofit is to leave our community in better shape than when we arrived. March 28th, 2022, Pacifica City Council unanimously approved the bike park to move forward with a conceptual building of our dream for this community. Before that, we worked very hard to accomplish everything Pacifica asked for us to do. and to become a better nonprofit, not only for ourselves, but for the community. This project has become bigger than just a youth project, but it's a community investment. We have a chance to build something bigger than Pacifica, something I have talked about and dreamed since the early 90s. That's why today I'm calling for a call to action. We need your help. We have done what we can, and we are still trying to do what we can. There's things like a TOP survey, I believe, that needs to be done that can help us apply for grants, and it helps a lot to continue. We've done things from the flash vote survey to countless opportunities for residents to give their opinion. And overwhelmingly, the residents have asked and continually ask for this project to happen. I recently was involved with talking to another bicycle company that gave us a better proposal at something that was installed in a town called Rockland, and it was a much lower price than what we were initially priced at in the beginning. I have much more information and more to say, and I appreciate your time, and I'd love to be able to talk to everyone after that.

Yeah, and do please email us, too, whatever you have written. We'd love to see all of it. But, yeah, we'd be happy to talk to you.

If it's all right, I could hand you some pamphlets and email.

Just hand it to her.

I appreciate all of your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, Michael Malone, followed by Lila Ranero. And that's the last card I have.

Good evening, council members, residents, community. My name is Michael Malone. I've been a resident here 17 years, Pacifica. I'm on the board of directors of Pacifica Resource Center, and I want to talk about some of the many programs we provide to help our community. So the one I'm going to talk about tonight is the tax prep program, which is free to people. And we have IRS-certified tax preparers, so it's just like you're going to H&R Block, except you don't pay for it. And last year, we provided 250 tax preparations for our residents, $361,000 in refunds were returned to people in our community. Tax refunds. And they saved about $65,000 in tax prep. Tax prep, sorry. All right, not used to this. All right. And we have also plans to help residents save money. So, for instance, a person who puts $50 into their savings account from the refund will get a $20 match from us. And if you're a first-time tax preparer, use our services for a first time, you can get up to $300 match of whatever you decide how much your tax refund you want to put into a savings account. So we're trying to teach people to be fiscally responsible, I guess you would say. And if people are interested, you can call Our number, 650-738-7470. And I'd also just like to mention that we have our next grocery distribution, which is free to people. It will be on the 25th of February at the American Legion Hall at 555 Will. And that's what I have to say. So I thank you for your time.

Thank you, Michael. You did a great job. Thank you. Lila Ranero, hello.

Good evening, council members and staff and everybody here. I echo Cindy's comments on transparency, not just for the short-term rentals, but with many things. Trying to find out what the deal is with 1987 Beach Boulevard. Where are we at with the permit revocation? This is something that should have happened a long time ago. It's just been going on for so long, and it's next to impossible to figure out where we're at with it. Additionally, the recent storm that happened last week knocked down a tree limb at the nuisance STR property at 400 Belfast, where there was a mudslide over three years ago. The tree's located on a hillside that's already experienced landslides. The City of Pacifica directed the owners more than three years ago to install a retaining wall which further underscores the instability of the area. If a larger branch were to fall or if the entire tree were to topple toward our home, the result could be significant property damage, serious injury, or worse. I've been pushing the Department of Public Works, code enforcement, and the building inspector to try and find out where we are with enforcing getting this retaining wall made, and it's just felt like an exercise in futility. I hope that we'll see this wall built before there's a further detriment to our dwelling. Thanks for your time to listen tonight.

Thank you, Lila. Emily, do we have any one online? We have three raised hands. OK.

I think there's another.

There's another one coming. We'll go ahead and take. Brian, do you want to come on up?

Thank you very much, council members and Mayor Bowles. I just wanted to plus one everything that Cindy Abbott and my wife Lila had talked about. Transparency is very important. The lack of any kind of update about 1987 beaches is an extremely frustrating situation, and I think that given that this is a particularly problematic and notorious property, that some indication of where the progress is, we're aware that there may be an investigation, when did that investigation start, when is it due to complete, would be very helpful for everyone involved, including the people of Pacifica who are interested to see their ordinance fully all existing ordinances fully enforced. Another note I would like to make with regard to the limb collapse at 400 Belfast and the saturated slope that the cypress tree is on. This slope has already collapsed. Redirecting water that's coming down Belfast towards across the street and eroding soil around a power line. So it's not just that this tree poses a threat to our home or neighboring homes, it's that it will take out power lines. In fact, the limb that came down just narrowly avoided the power lines on Belfast itself. Now what's important about this is that you can see the saturated slope, you can see the movement in the soil adjacent to where the hoop, the failure has already occurred and around the limbs of the tree. So my typical point is to say, let's take care of problems proactively and address this and please inspect that site. The soil is saturated, the tree, it's coming down one of these days and that's a corner where the power lines branch on that intersection. So it's pretty alarming to watch that. Thank you for your input on this.

Thank you, Brian. The first raised hand is for Sam Casillas. Okay, go ahead, Sam.

Hi, Mayor, City Council. I would like to raise the alarm on the builder's remedy application for Shamrock Ranch. The potential developer has sent a will serve request to the city for sewage services. Shamrock Ranch is in the county boundary, not the city. Our sewer plant is way over capacity and we do not have to serve a property in the county. That would be like giving sewage services to a builder's remedy application from Daly City. If the planning staff is considering a will serve letter, it needs to be a public process and we should issue actually a will not serve letter. Our council member who serves on LAFCO should realize that serving this monstrous development in an environmentally sensitive and hazard area will be an environmental disaster and functionally serve as an annexation for the city and will paint us into a corner that will shift a budget-busting sewage and floodwater expense to the burden of the citizens of Pacifica. We do not want a repeat of a closed-door approval like staff did with the illegal SB6 conversion at 1200 Danman that was completely illegal and still approved. We need a public process for this will serve ransom letter, and we need to know what staff has already communicated to the county or the developer. Thank you.

Thank you, Sam.

The next raised hand is for a phone number ending in 5903. Okay.

Go ahead and please state your name for the record.

Stop.

Okay. Hello. My name is Icy Cox.

I'm sorry. Could you please provide your public comment such that it relates to the subject matter jurisdiction of the council?

Well, yes. What I'm asking is, am I out of order to comment on 650 Cape Breton?

Yes, you are. That's item 7, which will be taken a little bit later. So this is comments for... Okay.

I'm sorry to bother you. I shall go back online. Thank you very much.

Okay. Thank you. Look forward to hearing from you later. Okay.

Thank you.

The next raise hand is for Caitlin Quinn. Go ahead, Caitlin.

Hi, Mayor Bowles and City Council members. I want to thank the other members of the public who spoke to you tonight about the ongoing issues at 1987 Beach Boulevard about the unhosted STR there. As you're all aware, this is a problem, a nuisance STR in the Three and a half years now that it's been in existence, there's been over two dozen phone calls to the police about it. You have also heard from four different sets of neighbors asking you to please remedy this situation, begging you not to renew the permit for this property. And lo and behold, the permit was renewed for the property a month ago. You know, three of the issues, three of the calls to the police have resulted in actual criminal cases, two criminal trespassing cases, one that involved the theft of signs, a second that involved vandalizing personal private property, and the third that resulted in illegal dumping. We were treated, the neighborhood was treated to a raging Super Bowl party by a large group of people who, when it was over, proceeded to dump half a dozen trash bags at the seawall and then also dumped another five or six of them in the trash bins of the neighbor at 1989 Beach. And by the way, those neighbors are brand new here to Pacifica. They bought that home three months ago. They already... are frustrated to the back teeth with the problems that they've had to put up with living next door to this unhosted STR. I mean, I've been dealing with it for three and a half years. They've only been dealing it for two and a half months, and they're already frustrated. You know, when we ask for information about the violation, about what's going on with the investigation into this, We had no information. Instead, we're told that there's super secret LA confidential hush-hush star chamber meetings going on about it. This is not good government. This is not honorable government. Take a look at what Santa Rosa is doing. Mark Steckbart sent an email to you earlier this week. It's a completely transparent process. That's what good government is. That's what honorable government is. And I honestly, I don't understand or I can't imagine how in good conscience that you're all allowing this to continue, that you're allowing a neighborhood to languish like this. Don't you want Pacifica to be better than this? I mean, don't you want your leadership to model better behavior than this? Please help us neighbors on Beach Boulevard and give us answers to what's going on and give us real help, right? I appreciate the sympathy. I appreciate the compassion. I appreciate the kindness. We're past that. We need help. Thank you. Thank you, Caitlin.

There isn't another raised hand from Sam Casillas, but it may be for the next item.

Okay. Sam? He lowered his hand. Okay. Perfect. Okay. We will close public comment. And just for those of you who are new, we don't typically respond to public comments. for items not on the agenda, but we'll be following up with staff. Councilmember Wright, you have a question? MR.

Yes. I was wondering if staff could clarify for me how they balance the difference between due process and transparency.

CHAIR BAILETTA- That's a big question. DR.

So, this isn't an agendized item. It's public comment, and after public comment, councilmembers can ask clarifying questions.

and that's a pretty deep question on speaking more in terms of STRs in particular if that helps you at all what what what why is it that some things we can't be totally transparent about in the process of investigations for example

So, I'm not sure what part of the process you are referring to.

So, there are... Martin Blaser- If there's an investigation on an SDR, do we put all the facts out there in the air for everybody to see?

Teri Manolio- Not to my knowledge. Maybe City Manager Woodhouse could speak to that, but to my knowledge, that is not something we typically do for code enforcement items, matters. And if somebody were to make a public record request, we would provide those records that are subject to production related to the code enforcement matter. And we would, of course, remove exempt public records. But any records that are not exempt, we produce those records relating to code enforcement matters. CHAIR BAILET.

And I'm happy to comment on that as well. Assistant City Attorney Bozzano's response is absolutely correct. So for code enforcement violations, as for other criminal cases, we don't comment publicly on those. The notice of violation for cases is a public document that's already been provided regarding 1987 Beach Boulevard particularly. But in terms of the case and the investigation, that's not something that is public until it's resolved and becomes public. You know, same goes for other activities. In terms of your philosophical question, transparency and due process are two incredibly important values, and they need to be balanced. And sometimes they conflict with each other. That's right. That's right. And we work through how those get balanced. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. All right. We're moving on to our CONSIDERATION, AND AS WE SAID, WE'RE GOING TO START WITH ITEM 8. SO I WANTED TO INVITE DAN PATTON AND MELISSA TO PRESENT THE STAFF REPORT. AND I UNDERSTAND REPRESENTATIVES FROM WOODWARD AND CURRENT ARE EITHER HERE OR ONLINE.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. Melissa Tigbaugh, Public Works Director. This evening we are bringing forth to you a master agreement for consultant services with Woodard and Curran, and this is for the wastewater facilities master plan. Here I have presenting will be Interim Assistant Public Works Director for Wastewater Division, Dan Patton. And in the audience, we do have project manager from Waterton Curran, Greg Sands. And online, we should also have his sub from Carollo Engineering, and that is Brian Burnett. So with that, I'll pass it over to Dan.

Director Tigbao, may we ask the consultant that's on the Zoom to raise their hand so I can promote them? Yes. Yes.

While we're waiting, I'd like to thank you, Dan, for stepping up and assuming additional responsibility. Really appreciate it. We're lucky to have you.

You're welcome.

I have the consultant online that's now a panelist and is able to unmute and speak when he would like to contribute.

Good evening. Tonight we're bringing to you the wastewater facilities master plan agreement for consideration and approval. And let's see if this. There we go. So I'm going to begin by giving a brief overview of our wastewater division. We operate and maintain approximately 100 miles of pipelines. five sewer pump stations, two stormwater pump stations, the Clara Creek Water Recycling Plant, a collection system with over 3,500 manholes and other assets. And this is all done with 28 staff across administrative, engineering, operations, and maintenance. We work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. THE WOISTWATER DIVISION WAS RECENTLY AWARDED THE SMALL COLLECTION SYSTEM OF THE YEAR AND THE SMALL PLAN OF THE YEAR BY THE CALIFORNIA WATER AND ENVIRONMENT ASSOCIATION LAST WEEK. IT'S A HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT FOR OUR STAFF AND I'M REALLY PROUD OF WORKING WITH ALL OF THEM. WOISTWATER FACILITIES MASTER PLAN IS A COMBINATION OF THREE SMALLER CIP'S. THE FORCE MAIN CONDITION ASSESSMENT UPDATE. WATER RECYCLING PLANT AND PUMP STATIONS CONDITION ASSESSMENT UPDATE AND THE SEQUENCING BATCH REACTOR FEASIBILITY STUDY. THESE ARE COMBINED INTO A SINGLE AGREEMENT FOR GREATER ECONOMIES OF SCALE AND TO PROVIDE A HOLISTIC LOOK AT OUR WASTEWATER FACILITIES. THE GOALS OF THIS PROJECT INCLUDE STRENGTHEN OUR WASTEWATER INFRASTRUCTURE, ENHANCING RESILIENT OPERATIONS, ADVANCING ENERGY INDEPENDENCE meeting regulatory compliance, and developing a sustainable plan that is practical, phased, and built for our community's realities. Last year, we released a request for proposals that was evaluated on a qualifications-based selection process. On December 10, 2025, we received two proposals and evaluated them based on fees and level of effort, PROJECT UNDERSTANDING AND APPROACH. PROJECT AND TEAM REFERENCES. WE SELECTED THE TEAM OF WOODER CURRAN WITH CAROLO. THIS TEAM HAS VAST LOCAL EXPERIENCE IN THE BAY AREA AND COASTAL CALIFORNIA AND HAVE WORKED TOGETHER NUMEROUS TIMES. TEAM HAS KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE WITH OUR FACILITIES AND TEAM MEMBERS HAVE BEEN PRESENT ON MANY RECENT SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS. And the team's experienced in providing adaptable solutions to maximize our existing facilities. The master plan builds on our past and current investments. In the last decade, the force main condition assessment was completed in 2014. In 2018, the Clara Creek water recycling plant and pump station condition assessment projects were both completed by Woodard and Curran. These condition assessments led to many current and recently completed capital improvements projects, including the recently completed Lindemar Pump Station upgrade project, the nearly completed Lower Lindemar R&R project, the Rockaway Pump Station rehabilitation project, the UV disinfection system replacement project, AND THE ONGOING SHARP PARK PUMP STATION R&R PROJECT AND HEADWORKS REHABILITATION AND IMPROVEMENT PROJECT. NOT INCLUDED IN THIS SCOPE WE HAVE THE ONGOING SEWER RATE STUDY WHERE SOME OF THE CONCLUSIONS FROM THE MASTER PLAN MAY BE INCORPORATED INTO THIS TO BETTER ASSESS OUR FUTURE SEWER RATES. THIS ADOPTED PLAN WILL INCLUDE SANITARY SEWER AND STORM WATER PUMP STATIONS. INCLUDING THE LINAMAR STORM WATER PUMP STATION AND SEWER PUMP STATION AS SHOWN ON THE SCREEN. THE FORCE MADE CONNECTING OUR SEWER PUMP STATIONS WITH THE PLANT AND THE CLARIC CREEK WATER RECYCLING PLANT ITSELF. PLAN WILL HELP US OPTIMIZE OUR EXISTING FACILITY EFFECTIVENESS, IMPLEMENTING OPERATIONAL IMPROVEMENTS, IDENTIFYING CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROJECTS IN A 20-YEAR PROJECT ROAD MAP. IT WILL HELP STRENGTHEN THE CITY'S POSITION FOR GRANT AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE FUTURE. AN IMPORTANT PART OF THIS PROJECT WILL BE A SYSTEMS RESILIENCY ANALYSIS. AS WE'RE A COASTAL COMMUNITY AND WE HAVE SEVERAL PUMP STATIONS THAT ARE LOCATED WITHIN THE COASTAL ZONE, WE ARE GOING TO ANALYZE RELOCATING THEM BASED ON RISKS OUTLINED IN THE LOCAL COASTAL LAND USE PLAN AND OTHER COUNCIL ADOPTED DOCUMENTS. This will ensure that the wastewater division continues to meet our council goals and provide our current or better level of service. Some of the risk factors we're looking at include sea level rise, tsunami inundation, flood inundation, land use, and the condition of existing assets. This will be incorporated into our project roadmap, which will have two scenarios. The first, a business as usual case where facilities are largely kept in their existing locations, and a pump station relocation scenario where facilities are relocated based on the risk, excuse me, the risks identified previously. Scheduled for this project, in the first quarter of this year, we'll begin the condition assessment update of the force mains, the pump stations, and the Calera Creek water recycling plant. In the second quarter, begin updating the flows and loads to the Calera Creek water recycling plant, and the team will begin to develop alternatives. In the third quarter, we will begin to evaluate and recommend alternatives. And in the last quarter of the year, The roadmap will begin to be established, and reports and presentations produced, and the team will incorporate staff feedback. Once the master plan is completed, we'll be bringing it back to council for adoption and approval. Any questions?

Female Speaker- Any questions from council right now?

Male Speaker- Sure. I have a couple of quick questions for you. I know you're working on replacing the solar eventually at the plant. I was just wondering if you plan on expanding that array at all, if you have any idea of, are there ways that we can do more panels on pump stations, for example? What is our total energy cost? And I really appreciate the fact that we have solar panels there, but what are we doing to make that even more energy independent?

Well, first of all, Vice Mayor Wright, I'm glad you asked. Currently today, we just got back our executive agreement with a consultant to upgrade our existing solar array, which I think will potentially double our existing generation capacity. In the future, we will be looking into additional sources of energy generation.

Yep. And then I'd say for this specific plan, In that criteria stage, energy efficiency will be part of that. And so Pacifica has a track record of doing this with our wastewater facilities. This was done for the UV project and the headwaters project, so it'll also be done for the pump stations and for the sequencing batch reactors. When we consider what we can do to modify those, we'll also look at opportunities to increase efficiency, redundancy, and look at alternative supplies, if that's viable. So we're going to be kind of picking up on the track record that you guys have already laid out for how you like to see your projects look at the impact to the community at large, especially with electricity.

I want to tell you that when we review our payouts, I see very big PG&E numbers, and I appreciate the fact that you're addressing some of that concern. I'd also like to hear a little bit about how do you consider future growth in your plans for what you're doing around. I don't get a chance to talk to you very often, so I'm really glad you're here.

Don't freak out, Greg.

Yeah, so we're also going to be working with the planning department, so As part of the flow and loads updates, which will be largely like looking at historical trends and trying to see where both your average uses are, but also those peak events where you might see high I&I and things that you need to be considering for your worst case scenario. We'll also be looking to see where you think you might have additional flows coming into the plant. In terms of the evaluation, I think the idea is not to change the plant's rating in any way. In theory, the design of the facility shouldn't meet the growth that had been projected long term, but we're seeing some inefficiencies with the current process, and so what we want to look towards is ways that we can either optimize the existing SBRs, sequencing batch reactors, or add some sort of optimization enhancement to them. Because right now, you're not getting the same performance that you historically had. So that compounded with these more extreme events is what's really causing a capacity crunch for your team.

And when you say more extreme events, are you talking more frequent 100-year storms? What level?

Specifically the higher intensity. I know I was here last meeting. I know there's some back and forth on how valid these return frequencies are on storm events, and that's true. We're seeing stuff that's breaking records all the time. It wouldn't make sense. But it's specifically the intensity of the storms that we're worried about. So even if it is just a 15-minute or 30-minute duration event, we want to make sure that the facilities are as well-equipped, as reasonable as you can afford to handle those. The facility has been doing a great job at trying to attenuate those events. But sometimes it means that the performance, in terms of the water quality, isn't as high as you'd like to see. And so we want to try to make sure that you're providing the same level of service through as many of these events as possible.

Well, I appreciate your attempts to handle multiple variables in order to get what's best for our community. Thank you.

I had a... Oh, Sue, you have a light. Go ahead. Do you want me to go?

Yeah, please go. Okay. Thank you. I'll try to keep this brief. I'm looking at packet page 680, and I have a specific question about task 3.4, stormwater pump station condition assessment and recommended projects. The proposal outlines the... methodologies, including staff interviews, visual inspections, et cetera. We've lost some key staff members to other cities in recent years, people who are very knowledgeable about our system. And I wonder if it's outside the bounds of normal to reach out to not just existing staff, but key former staff who may be able to weigh in on some of this. City manager? And director of public works? And attorney?

So what I would say, yes, that's outside what's normal. I think our historic record and the institutional knowledge that the department does have should be able to COVER THAT. THOSE FOLKS ARE NO LONGER CITY EMPLOYEES. AND, YOU KNOW, ANY INPUT FROM THEM, IF THEY WERE TO GIVE INPUT, WOULD NEED TO BE AS A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC, NOT AS A MEMBER OF STAFF. AND I'LL DEFER TO THE ASSISTANT CITY ATTORNEY TO COMMENT ON, YOU KNOW, ANY LIABILITY ISSUES THAT MIGHT RELATE TO THAT. BUT IT WOULD BE OUT OF THE NORMAL. AND, YOU KNOW, I'LL ASK MR. PATTON OR MS. TIGBOW ABOUT The department's institutional knowledge because there still is quite a bit of an institutional knowledge there.

I know yeah, so all the knowledge Madam mayor if I may Just yes, I agree with city manager Woodhouse and also just adding that you know The city is supposed to have the universe of information about its facilities its processes etc and going outside to members of the public creates other levels of complexity, like they may bring their biases or specific issues that they may have for or against the city to their responses. You just don't know. And also, they're members of the public. We don't have any ability to make them cooperate. Understood.

So what I heard the city manager say was if there was any desire or need on the part of anyone to weigh in who's no longer employed here, it would come at the end of the process during the presentations with a public comment? It seems like task six was the roadmap, final report.

It depends on how and at what phases public input is being sought in the project.

Well, that's a valid question. Let's hear that.

Sorry the there in test six there isn't a public comment portion and for as far as past staff a number of those who've left the city have Downloaded quite a bit of knowledge to existing staff. So I believe that we will be sufficient with our in-house knowledge

And so in terms of public comment on the process, is that built in at any point? Or is that just when the final presentation is given to the council?

It's my understanding that it's the final presentation given to the council.

Under task six. Final report and 20-year project roadmap.

Yes.

Okay. Thank you for that. And it looks like from what I saw in the slides, that's happening in Q4.

Ideally, yes. Ideally.

Okay, maybe there'll be another member of the public coming forward if it's after Q4. Then I have one last question, and that is with regard to... It is on packet page 680. City Manager, you and I discussed this bit about the optional stormwater station relocation analysis, and that was in regard to... planning for this area where we are sitting right this minute and our future work that we've laid out that we're doing on our coastal resilience plan, our adaptation plans, all of that. And my question is, is this the place where we need to ask for that optional to happen? The Sharparks pump station isn't listed here, and I don't know if that's a separate optional or it's folded into this project.

I do believe it might have a different name. I do believe it is included. Is that correct? Yes.

Yes.

Can you point me to it?

If you could elaborate on where that is. is staff, if you could elaborate.

It is included as a part of this to analyze the pump station. I'll let Mr. Sands.

I do see on task 3.3 on packet page 679, there's the relocation analysis. How is that different from 3.4?

3.3 is for sewer pump station.

Oh, that's storm water. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Sorry.

Yeah, so it's bifurcated, so Wastewater facilities are gonna kind of be looked at as a discrete issue because they have related conveyance That's different than the stormwater conveyance. So we'll kind of try to treat those individually So there's five pump stations that will be looked at on a wastewater basis and then two on a stormwater basis Okay, and I was asked to restate my name. It's Greg Sands with Woodard and Kern.

Thank you That's all my questions, okay I appreciate that this work is going to be starting and, you know, helping us with our climate adaptation work. I had asked previously, but I think it would be important for the public. So what time period of climate change and what impacts are you looking at, you know, The FEMA flood maps don't show sea level rise. We have some data from the state. Are we looking at intermediate? Intermediate high scenarios are increasing storms and, you know, convergence with king tides, you know, where things are really bad and our, you know, storm dreams are often below sea level at times. Yeah, what is the scope and sort of determining factors that you're looking at?

That would occur in the criteria development phase of the project, and there are workshops incorporated as part of this where we do want to integrate with other departments to try to see what their latest and best thinking is for these planning and whether it's appropriate to be stacking these discrete things or treating them as individual events. Some of them are more likely to be happening at the same time than others. And so trying to come up with those appropriate scenarios that will be the critical set points for determining whether or not the station is able to maintain the level of service that you want it to, or if in its current location it's not able to meet that level of service. So it's not a hard and fast rule. Every community is different. They all have their own challenges. I know being so close to the water for a lot of these pump stations, it's compounded because you have the effect of the hillsides, which create a lot of high I&I. And then you also have the proximity to the ocean where you have sea level rise. potential for tsunamis, king tides. So making sure we stack those appropriately at the criteria stage is what we want to do as a group and not have any one person say this is going to be the criteria we use.

Okay. And in terms of council public input on any of that, it's not until it really comes before us, right? If

There are interim deliverables as part of this project. And so if council would like reports on the interim deliverables as they're developed, we can do that. If you see in the staff report at the end of each task, there's typically a certain milestone that's delineated. And so if council would like updates on those, we can do that and certainly incorporate the feedback as we go.

Yeah, I think that would be great, especially as we're going to be working on our adaptation planning, and these are issues that are really important to our community. And then I noticed, so you'll be looking at, like for some of these, like our pump station here, for example, at alternate locations, and I know that's difficult, and it has to do with how things are flowing, and you mentioned you're looking at, available land, obviously we don't have too much available land, you know, are there certain times when you might say, well, you know, all the sewers converge here and this location might be the best and maybe we have to look at an eminent domain or a redevelopment of something, you know, is that ever a possibility in your analysis?

From a planning perspective, you try to avoid those situations. But if you want us to broaden out what we'll look at, like other city-owned lots, or if the criteria for selecting this would be the most economical way to... Essentially, we'd be cutting off flow further upstream than Sharp Park in the example that you gave us. If you want us to try to locate those areas, we could. I think for like a high-level planning document that can be pretty sensitive to identify specific private parcels and try to say we're proposing something there when it's pretty conceptual. We wouldn't want to convey any sort of certainty or decisiveness with that.

Yeah, I understand that. But I think as we're looking at long-term planning and we have all this development that's potentially coming up, right, if there's a place where This will only cost $40 million, and this will cost $300 million. You know, it might be good for us to know, right? And maybe it doesn't have to be identified to a particular site, but an area or so. Is that more reasonable?

Yeah, I think we could be broad. And I think there's always opportunities for creativity. So what you're able to do maybe within the right of way, like, you know, if you're determined to make a managed retreat of your wastewater facilities from a certain zone, you're going to have to be creative. And so we can work to find other ways that will hopefully be less impactful. Obviously, you know, it's the rate payers that are using these services and paying for these services. So we want to make sure that it's something that they're supportive of as well.

Right. 100%. And that is why we're asking these questions. It's really important to us. We don't get to do this very often in Pacifica, and that's why this is really critical. And that's why we asked for this to be brought forward at this time on this agenda tonight, because you waited a long time, and we weren't really able to go into these levels of detailed questions. So thank you for that.

we've neglected to take public comment so I'll stop but do that now do we have any comments or questions from the public on this item I don't see anyone in room no one online okay any other closed public comment is there any any other final questions comments I DID WANT TO SAY THAT I ATTENDED THE ONE SHORELINE, THAT'S OUR SAN MATEO COUNTY FLOOD AND SEA LEVEL RISE RESILIENCY DISTRICT MEETING TONIGHT. AND THEY'RE ACTUALLY IN THE PROCESS OF AND ACTUALLY JUST HIRED A CONSULTANT TONIGHT TO WORK ON GUIDANCE FOR ALL 20 CITIES IN THE COUNTY FOR RESILIENT PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AS WE'RE ALL DEALING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE. Just really encourage you to work and talk with one shoreline and staff also as part of that. Okay, great. Is there an action item? Are we voting?

So, there's a resolution. Okay. We would need a motion to adopt the resolution approving the agreement as stated in the package.

Okay. So moved.

Second.

All right. Please vote.

Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm waiting for one more vote light to complete the votes. And I think I heard the motion made by Councilmember Beckmeyer, seconded by Vice Mayor Wright. And the vote passes unanimously.

Thank you for your patience. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, staff, for the presentation. So we're moving on now to item seven, which is the consideration of the rezoning development plan and specific plan in relation to the Cape Breton project. And why does it say Bayview here? It's not Bayview. Okay, so first I need to ask There have been any ex parte communications or any conflicts with council members? Teri Manolio- Ex parte communications. Teri Manolio- With the owners or no?

Teri Manolio- No.

Teri Manolio- Okay. Teri Manolio- A lot of email. Teri Manolio- Yeah, a lot of email. Teri Manolio- A lot of email. Teri Manolio- A lot of email. Teri Manolio- And conversations with community members too. Okay, so we'll ask Community Development Director Updegrave to present the staff report with assistance from the City Attorney, Assistant City Attorney Denise Bazant. I have lots of cards, but again, if anyone wants to comment on this item tonight, please fill out a card. They're in the back.

think about time.

Thank you, and good evening, Mayor Bowles, Vice Mayor Wright, Council Members, Samantha Updegrave, Community Development Director, presenting on 650 Cape Breton Drive on behalf of staff. I'm also joined by Michael Christensen, the Deputy Director, and Planning Commissioner Davis is also present as the Planning Commission Liaison. One moment. Okay. Great. Thank you. Tonight, we'll look at the project description and information about the site and the project context, explain the required entitlements, look at the finding or review the planning commission recommendations, the staff findings, and conclude with staff's recommendation. So the project that's before you this evening is for a rezoning development plan and a specific plan to allow single-family residential use for currently existing residential uses in order to obtain a grading permit for unpermitted grading that was subject to a notice of violation in addition to a 400-square-foot detached carport at 650 Cape Breton Drive. So the site is located at the eastern terminus of Cape Breton Drive. It's two parcels, approximately 835,000 square feet. The general plan designation is open space, agricultural, and residential, and it's a split zone. There's a portion of the site zoned R1 in the Hillside Preservation District overlay, and the remainder of the site is commercial recreational, also in the Hillside Preservation District. So there's currently one active single family residence on the site and all of the other buildings are used for non-hazardous storage. During the review, staff made an interpretation regarding the parking for that existing single family. Within the Hillside Preservation District, two covered parking spaces are required in addition to two uncovered parking spaces. And so, to align the existing conditions with the hillside preservation district parking standards, staff and the applicant discussed this issue and agreed to provide two covered parking spaces in the paved area that's used for the single family. Just a quick project context. In 2021, there was illegal grading, the removal and relocation of approximately 100 to 300 cubic yards of sand and soil from the covered arena to the perimeter of the arena without a grading permit. In May of that year, the city issued a notice of violation and the owners filed an administrative appeal. During that hearing, the appeal was denied by an administrative hearing officer and they issued a decision in order of public nuisance to correct the grading. In September of 2022, the applicant and the city entered an agreement or the owner in the city entered an agreement And in October of 2022, the planning application was initiated. So, the requirements that were established by the hearing officer in the order were to install erosion measures to contain the soil piles in their current locations to the satisfaction of the building official, to limit use of the covered arena to its occupancy classification, and to refrain from any additional grading or removal of sand soil from the property and to obtain a grading permit for the illegal grading sand relocation that occurred on the property. The date to apply for that application was extended while the owner and staff worked through the process. So that was extended by mutual agreement and the application was filed within the agreed upon timeline. Within the Hillside Preservation District overlay, any development activity, including grading, requires a rezoning to a planned development or a PD zoning district. When you rezone to a planned development, that then triggers the requirement for a development plan to establish what the allowable uses are. And that triggers a specific plan requirement for specific to the proposal. Similarly, under the PD zoning and the hillside preservation overlay, grading permits are required and must be directly related to the approved specific plan and meet all conditions of approval. So, again, part of the agreement between the owner and the city was to provide parking for the existing single family to better align it with the requirements of the HPD. And so, it does require two covered spaces and two uncovered. Because there was no covered parking on the site, That's why the city required the addition of a carport with two spaces. There are also land coverage controls within the HPD. The established approach when you have a developed site is to apply coverage controls to the project site at the time of the application. So there's no new coverage proposed as part of this project because The grading happened within the covered arena, and then the soil was relocated to the perimeter of the covered arena, and the carport is on an existing paved area. And so, that's why it's not triggering those requirements, but staff did review that. The required entitlements, as I said, are to rezone from that R1 and CR, which are both in the HPD, to a planned development. The HPD overlay district would also remain. The second entitlement is the development plan to allow the existing single family residential use and uses consistent with single family. So this isn't establishing a new use or something that isn't there, but a development plan specifically requires that when you go to a PD, you have to name what the uses are. And so this is reflecting that current use of single family. And then the third is the specific plan which is specific to obtaining the grading permit. The installation of the prefabricated carport located in front of the existing residence would be required to obtain a building permit. This project went to Planning Commission twice in August of 2025. Planning Commission continued the hearing and requested additional information related to confirming whether there were public access easements on the site, confirmation that the installation and conditions that required erosion control measures had been put in place, and whether or not there were alternative pathways to obtain the retroactive grading permit. It went back to the Planning Commission in November of 2025, and staff was able to confirm that there were no easements, that the erosion control measures were properly installed and still in place, and also confirmed that the rezoning was required for the retroactive grading in the HPD, and that the rezoning also requires the development plan and specific plan. So the planning commission recommended denial of the rezoning and the development plan because they were unable to make the findings for approval. For staff analysis, you know, we have looked at this in depth, tried to find every pathway and solution and determined that based on the language in the municipal code, that the rezoning development plan and specific plan are required prior to obtaining a grading permit, which is required. They are required to obtain the retroactive grading permit per the administrative order. The site is already developed with residential uses. So there's no change of use proposed, there's no new uses proposed, and, you know, any New development activity is limited to the work approved under the retroactive grading permit and the installation of that carport under the building permit. So no change or intensification of uses would be authorized. And any modifications to what's approved would also require discretionary permits. So the PD zoning and the development plan and the specific plan would all require modifications should they want to do something else or some kind of new development or additional development activity on the site or change the use. So it would still have to come back and go through all of those approvals. So staff believes that the findings can be made because the existing residential use is consistent with the general plan. The existing residential use is consistent with the current R1H HPD and CR HPD zoning and the proposed PD HPD zoning. The permits can be obtained within a reasonable amount of time as condition that's 90 days of approval. The site is already developed and no new uses are proposed so it does function independently and the existing residential use is not detrimental. And the prefabricated carport is consistent with the residential uses and again intended to better align the existing development with the HPD standards. The retroactive grading permit would help ensure that any work is done in a safe and a code compliant manner. Again, staff did verify in July of 2025 that the erosion control measures that were installed for protection were in place and still functional. There is a geotech report with soil samples that analyzed and reported concentrations that were below residential screening levels or within expected concentration for the region, so the existing soils are safe to be used on a residential lot. Or, alternately, they could be hauled off to a Class III municipal landfill. So because the zoning ordinance requires rezoning of properties located in the Hillside Preservation District to a PD for any development activity, including grading, and does not provide exceptions or alternative pathways for projects to comply with the notice of violation and the city's requirement to obtain a retroactive grading permit, Staff recommends that the council introduce the ordinance approving the rezoning and development plan, adopt a resolution approving the specific plan, and finding the project exempt from CEQA. And so that concludes staff's presentation. And we are available for questions. And I do believe that the applicant has a brief statement.

Thank you, Director Aptergrave. So, I'm told we have, this is some time for council questions before the applicant's presentation. Are there any clarifying questions at the moment?

I, too, am going to reserve my questions until later in the evening.

Anybody? Well, I have a couple. Could you pull up page 357 of the staff report, please? Hmm. THANK YOU. SO THIS DRAWING SHOWS THEIR HILLSIDE PRESERVATION CALCULATIONS AND THEN ON THE RIGHT IT ALSO SHOWS THE USES OF THE VARIOUS BUILDINGS. SO ONE SIMPLE QUESTION TO START WITH. SO 9 AND 10 ARE SHOWN AS SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTS AND I UNDERSTAND I GUESS IT'S 9 THAT'S BEING USED AS STORAGE. right now, is that correct?

Teri Manolio- I believe that is correct.

Teri Manolio- So in the future, can this be used as a residence?

I believe it could be because it is a single family that's already existing and permitted, but it's currently being used for storage.

So if they wanted to clear out the storage and someone move in, they could and wouldn't need to come back to staff or the Planning Commission for approvals?

I don't believe so because, again, it is an existing... residential use that has Been on the site for decades. Okay, so so technically if that was used as a residence then it would need the covered parking also, though It's technically legally non-conforming without the covered parking and Again as part of the the rezoning, you know staff you know, was looking for more alignment with the HPD, which is why they recommended and negotiated with the applicant on getting that carport for the building that's actively being used as a single-family, and that has been in continuous use as a single-family.

Teri Manolio- Is the storage a residential zoning designation? It's designated as a residential zoning, the storage right now?

That's correct. So it was built as a residential structure. It may require building permits, you know, for I don't know what the inside of it looks like, but it is a residential structure. occupancy building that was built and historically used as a single family.

Perhaps I could shed a little bit more light on that because I was familiar of what the inside of that particular structure looked like a number of years ago. And to the best of my knowledge, there's multiple bedrooms upstairs, a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, and in the downstairs is the site of an old restaurant. And so in terms of What is there, to the Mayor's point, I think it is potentially still very viable for use as a residential structure.

Madam Mayor, if I may, I'd ask Director Updegrave to confirm, I mean, one of the parcels is zoned residential, so it is appropriate that residential uses take place in a residential zone.

I understand that. I guess I'm questioning, I mean, because HPD does require covered parking per residence, if we're applying it to one, I'm not sure why we're not applying it to the other. But we can take that up under deliberation. The other question I wanted to ask on this page, so looking at the top middle, the HPD site coverage, so this is a calculation that's based on the average slope that defines how much coverage is allowed on the site. Coverage, disturbance, there's different ways to define it. And it says zero, right? So basically, no new development is allowed on the site according to that calculation. It would require variance. Correct. OK. That's what I was thinking. Okay, so if we go back a page, and then I just want to point out that, so the arena building, which is number one, I believe, right? So that coverage calculation has been taken to the edges of the building, and you can see that the wavy lines to the right of it are grading lines that show the slope of the land, and there's no disturbance calculated there. So if you now go to packet page, the one right before, 350? 355. Yeah, 355. So it's hard to read the legend, but the, no, well, it doesn't matter, either one. The green is the area where the soil was moved. So that goes beyond the HPD coverage that was analyzed on the previous page. So my reading of this is that this project and this, you know, trying to figure out what to do with this illegal grading is actually a violation of HPD because they're already at their coverage, you know, above their coverage maximum. So by doing this work, they have violated HPD. And just to make that a little bit more clear, the HPD Ordinance 9-4-2257 Land Coverage Control talks about what is included in that C number coverage, and it says, Site coverage C shall include all areas of the site occupied or covered by buildings, pavement, and grading, except for recreation facilities and active recreation areas, which these are not. So my understanding is that I don't see how we could approve the grading without granting a variance because they've exceeded their coverage.

Yeah. Thank you, Mayor Bowles. Staff's understanding is that these soils were relocated to areas that have already been disturbed.

That's not what it's showing in the pictures here. That's not part of the calculation.

Right, so it was moved along the perimeter of the covered arena. We spoke with NGO to confirm that the soil has been moved to the perimeter and that these are areas that have been previously disturbed.

But this isn't showing up in their calculations.

But, Madam Mayor, Director Updegrave is saying that she spoke with NGO to confirm that it was considered.

I hear you. Disturbed in terms of land is different than disturbed in terms of construction and activity. So, actually, if you read the memo that previous planning director Murdoch put together, it's very clear that it says, I mean, when we're looking at a site, and sure, maybe it was disturbed 20 years ago, but we don't have all that data, right, about what the original conditions were. And so what we're supposed to look at is the conditions when the permit is applied for. So, you know, I mean, this was open land, right, with grass and other things growing on it. They have additionally disturbed it by putting this This soil outside the arena is my understanding from looking at these pictures.

From looking at those pictures, I would agree with you, but I would agree with staff's interpretation from practical reality from having been there 20 years ago.

But this disturbance happened as a result of their illegal work. That's the point I'm making.

That I understand, but that was a previously disturbed area.

but that's okay what we can go back to the HPD and and and Christians anyway we're I'm deliberating I just wanted to clarify that question because this is the screen area is not included in their calculations so at a minimum that calculation sheet is incorrect okay with that I'll I think it's we can open up public comment I have I think nine cards. I believe the applicant would like to. Oh, the applicant. I'm so sorry. You're right. I'm jumping ahead.

Good evening to the mayor, vice mayor, to the city council. Special thanks to the city staff for all your hard work and guidance. And thank you also to all of the residents of Pacifica for allowing us to have this opportunity. It was a great recap of what transpired to take us here, but I'd like to take it a little bit earlier than that as to when the Church of Christ became the owner of a property in Pacifica. We bought the property in 2020. And we were, if you can remember, in the throes of a pandemic. And our intention is our intention with every community where we establish congregations or houses of worship or places to bring services to the community. And this was evident when we had reached out and we had a project with the Terra Nova Education Foundation. The president at the time was Rachel, excuse me, forgive me for pronunciation, Cauteruccio. And the Church of Christ on October 2020 donated $10,000 and Chromebooks and iPads to help with all of the needs of the Pacifica School District during that very challenging time. Now why are we here tonight if that was our intention? We're here tonight because in 2021, Through the actions of a project manager that was overseeing our project, there were some actions taken that this is the reason why we're here. And we'd just like to state for the record and to let everyone know that when the leadership of our organization, when the leadership of the church, the administration came to be aware of that project manager's actions, not only was he removed, but he's also no longer a member of our organization. And that's why through the order that was issued and all of the work that has been done, again, working with the hard work of the city staff, we have been trying ever since to remedy the situation, to fix the problem, in short, to correct what was done wrong. And of course, in life, we know there's no do-overs or magic erasers, but there is good faith efforts to correct things that happened in the past. And that's why we're thankful that we're here, because we just want to Take the opportunity to say thank you for continuing to work with us And we hope that we are able to comply with everything that the city is asked of us The application that is before you is not Something that we have planned or recommended or it is following the instructions of the city So that we can comply with the laws and the ordinance and that's what brings us here to tonight so again, we want to say thank you for all of the hard work of the city staff and Again, we look forward to not only putting this behind us, but we hope and pray that we will be able to work once again with the community of Pacifica and serve the community's needs as our intention and our goal. So again, thank you for allowing us to have this time, and thank you to all the residents.

Thank you so much. Are we allowed to ask the applicant questions? Yes. And I'm sorry, can you tell us your name again?

Hi, my name is Bernard Deos.

Bernard, thank you so much. Thank you. I have a question I don't know about the rest of you. So thank you for explaining that this was not intentional and that you've made corrections within your organization. And I know you and staff have worked together for a long time to try to find this solution, which is you know, obviously still problematic to our planning commission and to our community with all the public comment letters. My assumption is that you want to fix this issue and, you know, whatever is needed to rectify the illegal grading. Are you, is the rezoning or any of the particular details, the carports, are those important to you or your church to happen as part of this process?

Thank you for that question. What's important to us is what was admonished to us for the administration of the church, that we want to show and prove to the community we respect the community of Pacifica. We want to respect everything that's been asked of us, and yes, there were some actions that were taken, so now we're here to rectify that. With you say what's important, if the carport is important for us to comply with the city's instructions, then yes, it's important for us.

Okay, and the rezoning, I mean, is that something that you care about more?

or is it again because this however we can work it out whether the rezoning is done or not is what's important to us is whatever the instruction is of the city so that we can comply with the order that is important to us if it's a rezoning so be if it's not a rezoning so be it as well that's okay too okay all right thank you does anybody else thank you so much questions for the applicant

Okay, thank you.

Sincerely, on behalf of our organization, thank you so much for the time, and again, we respect the community, we respect the residents, and we thank you for giving us this opportunity to rectify what we... Actually, I do have one quick question.

What I am hearing is that you are looking to make amends, and that you are willing to work with us to try to get to be able to make those amends. And I do appreciate staff as well trying to work with an antiquated code system that didn't really properly consider this. So we have a quandary. You have a problem. We have a problem. Everybody has a problem. And what I'm hearing you say is that you're interested in collaborating to get to a solution that gets everybody what they need.

That is crystal clear. Thank you.

That is your position.

That is our position. Thank you.

And I have a question. It might not be the nicest question, but the community think that you might want to do something else. So maybe everybody knows that. And we wanted to hear from you if that is not in your plans to do something else.

What was in the staff report is perfectly clear. Any other future development or variation would need to come back before this council, before the community once again. So we understand that. I do not unilaterally have the authority to make any decisions, but what I can tell you is that because of everything that has been transpired and because of all of the time spent effort, resources of our organization has been expended just to try to get back to where we need to get back to that we are really, we're looking at alternatives to this property.

But my question is that you are not, you are trying to fix the problem and that's it.

Yes, ma'am.

You're not hoping to do anything else on that property?

If we would put the property up for sale because of the nuisance, because of the order, we would be seriously disadvantaged by presenting it to anyone and not disclosing the current condition. If we could work with the city to remove that and to show that we comply and satisfy the order, then we can be made whole if we look to dispose of the property to move on to another project.

Okay. So you didn't say, no, I'm not planning to do anything other than fixing the problem. That's what I want to hear.

At this moment and for this application, yes, we have no other plans but to fix this order.

Thank you. And just to clarify, we're here processing this application before us, so we can't really require them to tell us what they might be planning in 20 years or... whatever but but thank you for we understand it but it we know that it is a concern of the community so we do want to be forthcoming in up front so thank you for that all right thank you okay thank you council questions now I'm gonna close the public hearing thank you very much and now open up public comment that I was jumping ahead of before so I have nine cards can can you tell me Emily how many people we have on the line with raised hands right now

Two.

Two, okay. All right, so I'm going to give, I'm going to let one public comment go. We'll start with Lori Yap, and then after her comment, we'll check in again how many you have, and we'll close that number.

Madam Mayor, are we giving public speakers this evening three minutes, or?

Yes, I think there aren't too many, so we'll do three minutes. So, Lori Yap, followed by Mark Hubble, followed by Lisa Funkhauser.

Hi, thank you. I'm Lori Yap, and I've tried to cut mine down here. The applicant performed illegal grading on the property almost five years ago and needs a retroactive grading permit. The contaminated soil was already removed from the arena and placed in various locations on the property. Obtaining a retroactive grading permit cannot undo what has already been done. However, trying to find a way for the applicant to obtain a retroactive grading permit has led us to this convoluted proposal. So, why don't we consider removing the retroactive grading permit requirement? Then no rezoning will be necessary, no carport, and no changes to the property. This proposal undermines the public desire. To keep the current zoning on the property, this would be an absolutely ridiculous outcome if approved. The applicant needs to submit an application disclosing their planned usage for the entirety of the property. Piecemeal applications like the one before you do not serve the public or the city well. No one can get a true picture of the overall plan for the property and render a knowledgeable assessment if the overall project would be feasible or appropriate on this site. It's easy to get caught up in trying to understand this proposal and forget that future plans for this property have been in the works since it was purchased over five years ago. Let's remember, the applicant performed illegal grading, so they had a plan. The applicant had applied for a temporary use permit to have services six days a week with up to 150 people two times a day, so they had a plan. The applicant hired professionals to perform a traffic study, so they had a plan. The applicant has held various events on the property, including one with hundreds of cars and people, so they had a plan. Don't be pressured into approving this proposal without knowing the full scope of the future plans for this property. I keep hearing that this proposal is just for this or just for that, but the issue is we shouldn't be making any changes to the property zoning without any idea of what the future plans and usage will be on the site.

approving this proposal may lead to unforeseen consequences for the city and the public thank you thank you laurie please just raise your hands we can't have clapping disturbing the meeting thank you thank you all for understanding um how many um colors do we have with raised hands now emily two okay we will keep it at two um okay mark hubbell followed by lisa funkhauser

Good evening, everyone. So I'm a 40 year resident of the back of the valley area where and I want to go back a little bit before all this stuff just but it was the place to be. And one of the best things was is that that had the best access to the whole set of trails here. Golden Gate National Rec area trails, all those kinds of things. And the best one was right behind the building there. and you can walk right up there and go as far as you want. Now that that's all closed off, you know, fenced off and everything, you have to walk an extra two miles in each direction or more just to get onto the trail to do those things. And I don't think, so, but anyways, back when the sale just happened and the church got involved in all that, one of the things I did think was very good with them was we did have some video discussions and back and forth on the video because of COVID or not COVID, whatever it was back then. So one of the promises they made to us was that they would open up that, give us access again to the good trails, amongst some other things, which never happened, obviously. The whole list that we're discussing now just has nothing to do with The good discussions. So, anyways, we have not heard back from them until recently. They are expected to approve their plan, which cuts off the neighborhood entirely. And I would just say, please tell them no. Thank you. Bye.

So Lisa followed by Trent Wakenight and then Joy Hitzema.

My name is Lisa Funkhouser. We moved to Pacifica five years ago. Our home is next to 650 Cape Breton. We knew when we purchased our house that the property was recently purchased by INC, but we also knew that their property was zoned for residential and commercial recreation. We knew that permitted uses for commercial recreation did not include church activities. The code also requires that all uses shall be conducted entirely within an enclosed structure unless a short-term permit to promote commercial activity is granted. With rezoning to PD, what happens to the CR designation? All I saw on there was rezoning for R1. We believed naively when we moved in that INC as Christians would be quiet, conscientious neighbors, that they would follow the law. And yet shortly after we moved in, we began seeing and hearing construction activity and church events. Fences and no trespassing signs were erected. Traffic picked up with 30, 40, or 50 cars coming to the property for meetings and hundreds when they would have special events. They would regularly hold events under the pavilion, not an enclosed structure, that would amplify down the street. They would use a mic and amp for their singing, basketball games, and other activities that could easily be heard with windows closed. As neighbors began documenting these unpermitted activities, the INC began intimidating the neighbors using various tactics. I and others were followed while out walking. We were yelled at. One neighbor had paint thrown at his vehicle. we heard their security guard threatened to shoot trespassers. And when their unpermitted construction activity blocked the storm drain hidden behind a fence in the first big rainstorm of our living in our home, all that contaminated water came into our house. Other neighbors pitched in, as good neighbors do, to help us try to minimize the damage. We were up until 3.30 a.m. bailing water. We had more than $27,000 in damage, and insurance wouldn't cover it. I tried talking with someone at INC, but there was no door I could knock on, no bell I could ring. Only no trespassing signs. I sent a letter. They said, no, not our fault and wouldn't help pay for the damage. Why didn't I sue them? Because I was scared. We share a fence. They could do so much more damage. They'd already shown that intimidation tactics were part of their MO. I didn't want that constant fear. So I moved on. But I'm glad to hear today that they want to make amends. So I'm really looking forward to a check for $27,000 for the damage that INC caused to my house. Here we are. If the city approves this, it's just going to go down the wrong way. We know they're not honest. We know they're not good neighbors. And they even talked about their bribe to the community with the laptops.

Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. So Trent, Wake Night, followed by Joy Hitzema, and then Kathy Maresco.

Hi, City Council.

My story begins on February 12th, 2022. While some back of the valley residents were prepping for Super Bowl 56, cars began amassing at the BOV property owned by INC. Banners were hung announcing the Western U.S. gathering of INC. The former equestrian property offers 100 acres of open space. By 10 a.m., it was filled with cars being directed by INC members wearing yellow jackets imprinted with the word security. Soon cars started filling the BOV, blocking driveways and backing up traffic out to Route 1. BOV neighbors wanted a closer look. One was invited in until being identified as an outsider. She was assaulted and forced to leave. Other neighbors were told in response to the size of the gathering and the noise, They better get used to it. This was just one of my introductions to the INC. Other unpleasant interactions affirmed a long history of many reports from former members, journalists, theologians whom I've spoken with, and academic researchers that attest to INC's reputation. Allegations range from the manipulation of members, including children, to political block voting and physical violence directed toward anyone who disagrees with the INC. These claims are widely available in public records and media coverage, and I believe they deserve your attention. Tonight's agenda requests a close look at the INC and its plans for expansion here in Pacifica and the lived experiences of people in Pacifica. Neighbors of INC's iron-gated stronghold have reported troubling incidents, ranging from verbal and physical harassment and intimidation, animal abuse that I have witnessed and the physical distress of members on the property, property damage to neighbors' vehicles, and repeated violations of city ordinances. Questions raised by neighbors include INC's authorization to conduct church-related events on the property. In fact, INC, in its authorized single-family home on the property, conducts gatherings every Tuesday and Friday at 9 a.m. The same eight to 10 cars show up every time, and the yelling, cheering, and singing that can be heard would suggest they aren't just enjoying brunch. There are also concerns about INC's potential construction of a large-scale facility and housing. Bernard described having a church in Pacifica, and when INC builds, they build big. So consider the implications on traffic, infrastructure strain, emergency response, and the long-term impact on our community. This isn't about judging anyone's faith, but INC functions with significant global influence, property holdings, and strict top-down control. It's appropriate and responsible to pause and ask thoughtful questions. Thank you for your commitment to serving Pacifica with integrity.

Thank you. Thank you, Trent. Joy, followed by Kathy Maresco, and then Kelly Maresco.

Hi, thank you so much. I'm Joy Hitzman. I don't know if you're trying to pronounce my name or not.

Say it again, please.

Pardon me?

Can you say your last name again?

Hitzman. Hitzman. Yeah. Thank you. Sorry, I mispronounced it. Okay. Anyway, thank you. Actually, I'm here on behalf of some good friends of mine, Sue and John Zucker, who live at 727 Cape Breton, just two doors down from the property. And John actually passed away last Wednesday and and I was with his wife this evening, and we were going over about the meeting, and so I decided to come here. And I want to apologize to you for clapping because I haven't been to a meeting before, so I didn't know about the hand-waving stuff, okay? But I really can't compete with what everyone has said here. I live back in the Valley, too, but on a court off of Odstead, so I haven't had the... direct experiences that some of these people have talked about here. So I can't talk about that per se. But anyway, I have heard about having a megachurch back. I live on a court, so I can imagine having a megachurch at the back of our court and all the problems that would come with that too. And I know that my friends and ones in spirit now really opposed the current owner building, but their plans were a mega church there. I think the best thing that could happen, and I don't know, I know hearing the problem with rezoning here, but it seems like what you're saying is the rezoning is the only way they can get the permit in retrospect, you know, to, because of the grading that they did illegally on the property. but that's the only way they can rectify that. Is that correct? Yes, and that is a problem with some of the people who have talked here. Okay, so I don't know. I don't know. I think the best scenario is for them to sell the property, quite honestly, but I don't know how they can do that without... So it just seems like a catch-22 here to me. You know, they can't sell the property. That would be the best thing, I think, for the whole... for all of us back in Park Pacifica if they were to sell the property, but they're saying they probably can't sell it without getting their permit and then the permit results in rezoning. So I don't know what the solution is at this point. Anyway, those are my two cents worth. Thank you. And I apologize again for clapping.

No, that's okay. Thank you, Joy. Thanks for being here today. Okay. Kathy, Kelly, and then Eric Edhammer. Okay.

Hello, my name is Kelly Maresco. I live at 828 Cape Breton, so right down the street from the property. This property is beloved by the community. It was once a jewel in our neighborhood. Our children learn to ride and care for horses. They learn to work hard and learn the dedication of what it takes to take care of those animals. It was a community gathering place where we would go to some of the equestrian events, see our children at their lessons, and share a meal in the restaurant when the restaurant was there. Since Iglesia Ni Cristo has assumed ownership of the property, they've locked it off. They've become very secretive about their intentions for the property. There's been no community outreach and no master plan for the property revealed. The church is not zoned for church services or residential development. However, ignoring the property zoning, they did have large-scale religious services without permits or rezoning. Our neighborhood was absolutely flooded with cars parked all up and down our streets, blocking our driveways, double parking. It was really amazing. Looking at where it's located, Cape Breton goes up to the mountain. We're in the very back of the valley. And a big concern for us back there is if there was an evacuation, how would we all get out? There's only two ways out, either Lindemar or Fassler. So adding another 200 cars to that is just, it's not safe. So when they bulldozed the sand out of the arena, obviously contaminated soil and pushed it out. They did push it out through the front of the property as well, not just to the back. And when the rains came, they had actually clogged some of those drains that are called swales on the property. And it doesn't, from the pictures, it doesn't look like they're maintaining them either. That a house on their street was flooded with the contaminated soil. And I want to know, Have they compensated the neighbor? Obviously they have not. Have they removed any of the contaminated soil or is it just sitting there for rain to keep moving the soil down through the property? And I think the reason everybody is so upset about anything having to do with this property is we don't trust them. They have not behaved in a way that has been honest or forthright. They've abused all of the rules and done what they've wanted to and even been very unfriendly to the community. So I would suggest that we don't give them anything to possibly open the door for any more violations that they would continue to move forward on the property. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy.

Kelly Marasco, followed by Eric Edhammer, and then Cliff Lawrence is my last card.

Hello, everyone. My name is Kelly Maresco, and my parents live on Cape Breton. The stables was like my second home growing up there. After school and after doing my homework, I would go to the stables and take care of my lease horse. My parents did not really have to worry because they knew where I was and who I was hanging out with. The stables is where I learned about responsibility, patience, and trust while working with the horses and other people. Now the church makes me a little nervous because I don't know who is up there or what their intentions are for the property. I really don't understand why they need a carport when they have two covered arenas and a shop. The shop can fit up to Eight to 10 cars. I have a couple questions from the Planning Commission meeting. Why were the city attorney and staff pushing for the rezoning to be approved? Why reward the church with a carport when they have done damaging work without regard for the repercussions of their actions to the community and without permits? Please listen to the people who live in the neighborhood. Again, I think this is a wrong property for the church, and it should be restored back to being a stables. Thank you.

Thank you, Kelly. Eric Edhammer? Mm-hmm.

Hello. First, I want to say the same thing Joy said, is the first few people came in really prepared, and I had a lot to hear from them, and it was like opening my eyes. I didn't come here with anything written. I just made a few notes, listening to all that was said. First thing, with that soil, they tested it in July, it looked like, when it's nice and dry. Have they tested it during the rainy season? You know, all that soil, all the horse manure, everything, going down the creeks, we got endangered steelhead fish. They're probably half dead now, okay? I don't know. There's a lady who walks around the block. I was just talking to her. She walks her dog. She told me a lot of things, and This grading they did illegally, and now they want to be rewarded with getting this new permit and rezoning everything. I mean, why don't they just build the church and let you rezone it later on? You know, I mean, it's ridiculous. You know, you don't reward someone for breaking the laws. Apparently it wasn't the first time. You know, they weren't supposed to take the soil out. Then they put it over there. They seem like... They don't really respect the city. I have nothing against any church being built in the city if it was in the right place. You know, I live right there on Rainier, very close to Cape Britain, and that'd be a lot of traffic. Seems like they get a lot of lawyers trying to influence all you guys. I think it's okay, and it's, we're not, like the gentleman that part of the organization just came up here a minute ago, and he was saying, It sounded like to me, from what he was speaking, we don't have any other plans right now. But, you know, you let them move forward continually, they're going to maybe another five, six years going to do that church just like that's what they want to do in the first place. You know, the people that live back there, I live back there, and all these people live back here. We don't want a church in that area. The people who live there, it's a skinny street. When cars come in one direction, you go to that. The other car's got to move over to the side to let another car go by. Now you want 100 or 200 cars and all those people, just the wrong place. It's a wrong, it's just a bad location. And I don't want to be manipulated and lied to like I just heard that other guy saying earlier. Thank you.

Thank you, Eric. Cliff Lawrence, you're my last card.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, City Council. Cliff Lawrence. I heard some things tonight that kind of surprised me. I will say the people who have spoken up against this plan, I support all that they've said. I just want to add a little bit to that. You know, over the years, I have a few, I've met a few people who have said, My word is my bond. And what was more interesting, those people lived it. What confounds me is a self-professed faith community can't keep its word. It has offended, trespassed in ways, not in the... since we normally use it, but the way it's in the Our Father. There have been trespasses against this community. I don't see how that's respect. That's what we were told tonight. This is respect for my community and my neighbors. Well, I think they would disagree. I would ask that you don't grant this. It would seem like... A gift to them? Okay, so here's my suggestion. Grant this at the escrow closing of when they sell it. And that's my answer. Thank you.

Thanks, Cliff. Emily, can you help us with the online comments? Yeah.

The first raised hand is for Richard Zeromski.

Okay. Go ahead, Richard.

Can you hear me okay, council people?

We can.

Oh, great. Thank you. Richard Zeromski, coming to you from my home of over 20 years on Glacier Avenue, right down the street from what was formerly the stables. couldn't hear anything in that five second pause oh we couldn't either that's because that's where we live we live in a quiet neighborhood and that's how we like it it seems like the proposal by the church is a lot of work just to approve a prior illegal action could there be more to it you heard the applicant say tonight that this is, quote, everything at this moment, quote, for this application. It's a lot easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. So what is the long-term play here? It's undisclosed. The consequence of today's approval is going to set a standard for future approvals at this site. that's the neighbor's concern is not necessarily approving something that unfortunately has already been done illegally. It's what's the standard that's gonna be set for the future use of the site? Why not just fix the problem in compliance with current law and zoning? If it seems like there's more than meets the eye, there probably is. The consequence The unfortunate consequence would be destroying a peaceful neighborhood under the guise of a simple rezoning. I'd like the council people to also take note, just four days ago in Los Gatos, and this is on, you can check it, all the news sources, four days ago, a religious organization sought to extend their hours. The outcry over the noise, traffic, disruption to the neighborhood, the quiet neighborhood, has the entire community up in arms. That's my concern for our neighborhood as well. We didn't ask for this when we moved there, and we don't need it now. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Richard.

The second raised hand is for Dinah Verbee.

Go ahead, Dinah.

Good evening. I just wanted to express a couple of thoughts on this whole situation. I understand that staff's interpretation of the HPD coverage ordinance is that if a portion of the site has already been disturbed, that the grading that took place would not be considered additional coverage. I think that's what you're saying. I would like to see more evidence that that was the case because I really haven't heard that discussed at all. Because if, I mean, if this was additional coverage, then clearly a grading permit would not be allowed to be issued. That itself would violate HPD. And beyond that, I also just think looking at sort of taking the macro view of what HPD is all about. This wasn't the type of project I think that was contemplated by the HPD regulations that a plan development would be granted to somebody who committed illegal acts in order to get an advantage by getting a planned development. I just think that the whole... that this sets a dangerous precedent, I guess, if this is allowed to occur. So, um... I don't really view this as a development. I view it as a disturbance of dirt that shouldn't have taken place. But this is not the type of development that I think the ordinance contemplates when they require rezoning to plan development and a specific plan and all of that. There is no, we've just heard from the applicant, there is no other development being proposed. So I think the way to approach this is to not treat it as a development and to treat it as an abatement of a violation. That's all it is. Thank you.

Thank you, Dinah.

There were additional hands received after closing the queue.

I think we're not going to take, I'm sorry, we're not going to take your comments. We did close the queue. I did get one more card in the audience from Kimberly Finale, so I'll allow that.

Thank you, Mayor Bowles. Sorry for the late submission. Kimberly Finale, Pacifica resident. And as I'm listening to public comment on this agenda item this evening, it stands out to me that I haven't yet heard anyone mentioned that this area, 650 Cape Breton, is ecologically sensitive. Ecologically sensitive areas are ecosystems with high biodiversity or fragile ecological value that are highly vulnerable to change and have low resilience, making them unlikely to recover from human impacts. require strict protection with regulated or prohibited activities like mining, heavy construction, and major industrial projects. People love Pacifica for its quiet, peaceful connection to the natural environment. It's hard to hear birds, the wind, and the sounds of peace in this noisy, negative world. Listening to the neighbors of 650 Cape Breton, it sounds to me like this property is an event center, a private club for members only, an STR on steroids, a nuisance. This doesn't sound like a very peaceful proposal to me. It just sounds awful. I can't imagine living here in this beautiful, quiet space when you're used to listening to owls and birds and coyotes howling when the sun is going down. And then all of a sudden, you've got all of these cars parked all up and down your road. And you've got speakers and microphones. And Lord knows what's going on. And when you go to take a peek, you're threatened. And you might be invited on until you're told that you're not welcome here because you're not one of us. I mean, come on. This is not a welcoming environment. And it sounds like a nightmare. If the project is approved, it sounds like it could quickly get out of control. And before we know it, it'll be being permitted for other things, just like 1987 Beach Boulevard. So I'd like to just remind you that the best indicator of the immediate future is the immediate past. Thank you.

Thank you, Kimberly. With that, I will close public comment. Madam Mayor, I just want to confirm you're closing the public hearing? Oh, yes, I'm closing the public hearing. Thank you. Any public comment? So, I realize staff has a rebuttal period. I mean, sorry, the applicant has a rebuttal period. I'm not sure if I am seeing Bernard. Did you want to come up and address any of the comments you heard tonight, you or your association?

Again, we just want to say thank you for this opportunity. We heard and have heard many of the concerns. And again, if we could go back in time, we would love to. But what we would also like to say, you said immediate or past actions are a good indicator. So I ask, please consider the actions of the church. Ever since we have been working hand in hand with the city staff, The application that is before you is not our wish or desire. It is the instruction of the city so that we can comply with the ordinance. Again, whatever the city is telling us to do, we promise you we would like to work hand in hand and fulfill that. That's why we're here tonight. And so thank you again for listening to us. We have listened to you. And again, we respect the community. So we will do our best to show that and to prove that going forward.

Can I just ask if you have a response to the lady who said that there was flooding damage?

Madam Mayor, that's not before the council this evening, and so, I mean, the applicant can answer the question if he desires, but that's not an issue before the council. That's a private matter. Okay. I understand.

I personally have no knowledge of that, but I would like to extend an olive branch and say I would like to discuss with her if she's willing to, and at least open that communication, but I personally have no knowledge of that.

Okay.

All right. Thank you.

Can I ask the applicant one more additional question? Is the applicant aware that this whole process has actually cost the city way more in terms of staff time and money than what your permit fees were, and that we're not doing this out of spite for you or to try to milk you for money? Are you aware?

We are aware, and if we could be made aware as well, that our church has expended significant resources.

But you're also the one who created the problem.

Yes, yes.

So I'm less sympathetic to you than I am to our staff that's trying to deal with An impossible situation.

And wholeheartedly, we thank them for their hard work. And again, we are here because we have been following their instruction and their guidance since we've been trying to rectify this. That's the reason why we're here. There's no hidden agenda. There's no secret plans. We would just like to clear the ordinance. If there's another way that this body can clear the violation, we are all ears and open. All right.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Appreciate that.

Director Updegrave, did staff want to respond to any of the other public comments?

Sara Updegrave- Thank you, Mayor Bowles. I did just want to reiterate that there's no proposed change of use with this application, and that the application that's before you is the rezoning development plan and specific plan required in order for the owners to obtain the retroactive grading permit.

Teri Manolio- And if, Madam Mayor, if I can speak to, there were a number of comments requesting that the applicant provide some sort of indication of what their future development will be at the site, and that is not something that the city can demand of an applicant. What the council needs to consider is what is before the council this evening. The application plans are speculative. Any future development of the property is speculative at this point. What the council needs to consider is the application that is before them on for the retroactive grading permit, and I do want to reiterate that this process was as a result of a code enforcement action by the city. So, the city indicated to the property owner that there was a violation and that the way to correct the violation was to obtain a retroactive grading permit, which, as Director Updegrave mentioned, because the property is located in the HPD, based on staff's interpretation of the HPD ordinance, that required a rezoning. a general development plan preparation, and specific plan preparation. So, all of these steps that the applicant has taken is because city staff believed that the only way to rectify the grading was to obtain a retroactive grading permit, but because it was in the HPD, there were all of these other steps that needed to occur before that permit could be issued.

Female Speaker 2 Thank you. Sorry, I see your finger up. Sue's light was on first.

I just had a question for staff, and I apologize for not asking this before tonight's meeting. I'm looking at packet page 326 at the top, numeral 2. This is with regard to what the city attorney was just saying, the hearing officer's requirements as a result of at the end of that hearing and stating what needed to be done. One of the things was limit the use of the covered arena to its occupancy classification and subject to the approval of the building official. I don't know what the use of the covered arena occupancy classification is. Could you clarify that for me?

That's a great question, Councilmember Beckmeyer. I believe that they were holding events within the arena, and that structure has not been reviewed for that type of an occupancy. And I don't know what the occupancy would be. Some kind of a public assembly, so there may be different code requirements based on what occupancy of a structure is.

Madam Mayor, I can respond if I may. Okay. So, there is in the package a letter from the city attorney's office. It's in packet page, starts at packet page 574 that was issued February 25, 2022 to INC that it speaks to the family sports event that occurred. I don't know exactly when, but it occurred on the site at some on February 13, 2022. And basically that letter indicates that the covered arena is classified as a group U for utility and miscellaneous. And the category U includes buildings and structures of an accessory character and miscellaneous structures not classified in any specific occupancy, including agricultural buildings. and that the INC had hosted an event that was not consistent with that group U classification. So, our office sent a letter indicating that that was contrary to the hearing officer's order. Since that time, I'm not aware of any further violations occurring on the property of a misuse of classification.

Female Speaker 2 And is there currently a use permit for the property is that what was a real I'm going back to something the mayor referred to a memo when Christian Murdoch was here. I'm literally seriously trying to go back in my memory banks and remember. Her what the permit was he it seemed like it was a use permit.

I believe you're talking you're speaking about the the the horse that was on the property.

No, I'm talking about once the INC took possession.

I'm not aware of any use permit for the property.

There was an application that was withdrawn.

Oh. And I can settle a little light on that, what actually relates to your question.

Okay. So any development application that was submitted and withdrawn is not That's not before the council at this point. So, yes, they could have submitted, it sounds like they did submit a special use permit, or some type of discretionary permit, but that was withdrawn, and so to not.

Okay, so it wasn't, it didn't go through the process. Right. It was withdrawn prior to going through that process.

I think that's what the rector up to grade is saying. I understand. That is correct.

Got it. Thank you. Yeah. The classification for assembly, which is anything over 49 people, is an A occupancy. And I actually did some research on this. The building, it's not just about, and here in what was just quoted by the city attorney said, you know, it's based on floor area, and then that's how you calculate the number of people. But it's not actually allowed to be 102. Because the building isn't designed with the right fire ratings and so forth for an assembly occupancy over 49 people. So it's just not allowed to be used.

And in a high fire zone.

Right. Well, this is just building code in terms of how it's built. Right. So it could never be used for a large gathering like that.

Thank you. That was the question I had at this point. Okay. Thank you.

So go ahead, Council Member Wright or Vice Mayor.

Yeah. What it is that I'm uncomfortable with is what we've seen in terms of zoning and the state stepping in, insisting we build more housing and taking away and mandating less local control. And if we grant... zoning change and we diminish the restrictions of HPD in even the slightest way or if the state sees it comes down later and says in PD zones because you've changed it from HPD now you lose more local control if we don't build the right amount I feel terribly uncomfortable with that for in the future and setting that kind of precedence or appearance or real granting of a benefit for doing something wrong. And that's what I have the issue with. So to get to my question for staff on this side and staff on that side, is if we were to continue this, and if the applicant was agreeable to it, Do you think that there would be any benefit to the two of you having an opportunity to work something out that would allow the property to remain in the existing zoning and still get this done somehow, some way, through a collaborative effort for them to make amends for what they did?

Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Wright. First, I do want to clarify that the HPD overlay is not proposed for removal, and so that the proposed rezoning would be PD with an HPD overlay.

So, I do just want to clarify that that's not- Amend my question to fit that. Yes, please.

Going away. YOU KNOW, ALTERNATIVE PATHWAYS, YOU KNOW, STAFF HAS DONE A LOT OF RESEARCH AND A LOT OF THINKING ABOUT THIS AND EXAMINING IT AND BASED ON, YOU KNOW, WHAT IS IN THE MUNICIPAL CODE, YOU KNOW, THIS APPEARS TO REQUIRE THE REZONING AND THEN THE SUBSEQUENT PERMITS. City Attorney Bazzano to address it as well.

Director Updegrave is correct. Staff has given this a lot of consideration, and this has been discussed. It was discussed at the Planning Commission as well, potential alternatives. And based on staff's interpretation of the HPD ordinance, staff believes- But staff can't change the code.

We can.

Correct. That is very correct. But staff's interpretation is that this is development under the HPD. And so if it is development under the HPD, then grading requires all of these things.

Can we make a finding that it's not? Is that within our purview?

So it is within the council's purview to decide, take a different interpretation than staff.

Well, my goal is to put the dirt back. It's that simple.

I mean, I appreciate the simplicity because it doesn't matter. I appreciate staff. I really do. And I want to hear from our planning commissioner in a minute. But to me, and we've been explaining this over and over and over again, and it doesn't make sense to me at all.

And it's not a status quo.

I'm not saying that you're wrong because I'm sure you're right. It just doesn't make sense to me. And so, my one question was, is this the only way that we can do this? And I want to hear from Commissioner Davis about the, just like a summary of the Planning Commission. I watched the meeting. I heard all of your comments. But a summary would be nice about how you came to what you did, because I really respect the Planning Commission's work. That's why we have a Planning Commission.

I'm going to give this a whirl. Whoa. Wow. Sarah, you didn't tell me it had a volume control. I won't hold it so close. At my son's wedding, he said, you want to practically eat it? I'm like, OK. OK, so as you're aware, PC did This came before us twice. At the last meeting, there were five commissioners present, and we all voted for recommending denial. The two overarching concerns that were expressed by the commission were, one, that they did not want the applicant to benefit from a situation that was created by grading being done without a permit. And one commissioner referred to that as rewarding a violation. We also agreed that a rezoning to PD would be a beneficial outcome. So we were all opposed to the PD rezone. There was one on the fence when we polled, but by the time we voted, we voted unanimously. And that was one of the driving forces. Another really important point that Chair Hauser brought up, a concern she had, was that by approving the application as presented, it would set a precedent, and this is a direct quote. She said, if you have a site in HPD and you want to rezone your property, just violate the law. And for us, much as you said, Mary, it just, rezoning for this does not pass the logic test. It almost felt like the project was created around the zoning, which was an element of the project, in order to get this accomplished, but it just didn't pass the logic test. Chair, we did ask, as indicated by City Attorney and Director Updegrave, that they look at some alternatives. That was one of the outcomes of the first meeting. One of the options that was, Chair Hauser actually brought it up, was a variance, and she had looked at, we were being asked to do findings under Article 22. We looked at Article 34, and she said, you know, I really think we could find, we could find the findings in that. They are simple. The Commission could find those. Several of us voiced the opinion that a variance seemed logical. My understanding at that meeting was that a variance in HPD, they did not believe we could do it. But when Mayor Bowles asked tonight about the lot coverage issue and further development. I believe I heard Director Upgrave say that it would require a variance, so I am a little confused. The variance option is something that we thought should be explored closely. And we could accomplish the, you know, taking care of the unpermitted grading and yet not have to rezone to PD, which was the thing that we really couldn't

Teri Manolio- Beautiful. Thank you so much. That's exactly how I feel, too.

Female Speaker 2- And I have a suggestion. I suggest that the proposal- Teri Manolio- Can you speak into the microphone? Female Speaker 2- I suggest that we send the proposal back to planning to find an administrative solution to, like a variance, to solve this issue. So, that's my suggestion.

Greg has his hand up, and then I have some things I want to say.

I still just want to be clear. So the answer that I got to staff about whether if we continued this and gave you an opportunity with the applicant's agreement to try to resolve something is what was the answer to that from this side and from this side?

Thank you, Vice Mayor Wright. My understanding is that

we need council front we would need direction from council to do something different for for staff okay you mean can i ask a follow-on do something different such as amend the municipal code like what right i mean so what kind of category of something different are we talking about yeah i think staff is happy to do whatever council directs but the problem

will inevitably be, will come back to you and say, okay, but you still have these code requirements that are legal constraints. And the applicant has filed an application for these legislative acts and, yes.

Male Speaker 2 So, what if we open up a new classification of permit with the HPD overlay however, all those other letters and numbers, and said that it's an NOV abatement permit, period.

Well, so I think what you're talking about is amending the HPD ordinance.

And would that require a vote of the people?

Correct.

And is there some other way, or would staff and the applicant both benefit from sitting down and trying to figure out a way around this thorny issue. It's got to be doable with a willing counsel who wants to work with you, wants to work with the applicant to make the problem go away.

I'm trying to let everybody speak first. Go ahead. Now it's your turn. Now it's my turn. I'm going to grab it. Well, two things. One, I mean, I agree with the Planning Commission. I can't make the findings. And I can point to the particular one. Sorry. I can find that in a minute. But the other thing, going back to the permitting of this grading, you heard Diana Burby. She agreed with me. you know as we saw in the plans the place where the soil was moved was not considered disturbed slash coverage in the application and so we're being asked to approve grading that in an area where we have zero coverage allowed and so that's ties into what Commissioner Davis was saying that in my opinion if we granted a permit for grading, that would require a variance. And just, so this is from, I just wanted to read a part from, this is the document on the hillside preservation.

Before you read through the point of personal privilege.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. Shall we wait for you? Yeah. Okay, okay. Please. Yeah, thank you. And we are going to take a break after this soon. So... So this particular question was asked and answered by a previous planning director What happens if a site has previously been graded or otherwise disturbed? Article 22.5 does not address situations where a site is no longer in its natural state the city has approached the situation by applying the HPD coverage control to the project site in its condition at the time of the development application and unless the city has a record of prior HPD approval. So the HPD calculations don't show the area outside the arena as being coverage. Do we have any record that shows that that was previously approved disturbance?

Thank you, Mayor Bowles. Again, staff's interpretation is that this is disturbed area where the covered arena and the areas where it was moved. And so, you know, utilizing that same interpretation that you just read in our published procedures, you know, staff does not believe that this is considered new coverage.

And I'm sorry, but... THE APPLICATION AND THE DRAWINGS THAT YOU HAVE SHOWN US TODAY DO NOT SHOW THAT AS PREVIOUSLY DISTURBED. AND SO THE THING IS THERE ARE AREAS IN HPD, I'M JUST THINKING OF OTHER PROJECTS TOO, RIGHT, WHERE THERE'S, YOU KNOW, THERE'S LANDSCAPING AROUND A PROJECT. BUT THE APPLICATION ISN'T SHOWING THAT THOSE ARE BEING DISTURBED NOW. HERE THEY HAVE DISTURBED AN AREA BEYOND THEIR BUILDINGS AND THE DEFINITION IS NOT PAVED YOU KNOW, THERE MAY HAVE BEEN PLANTS ON IT THAT WERE NATIVE PLANTS. I MEAN, HPD ALSO SAYS, YOU KNOW, AREAS THAT ARE NOT CONSIDERED COVERAGE SHALL REMAIN IN THEIR NATURAL STATE. SO BY PUTTING THE SOIL THERE, IT DID NOT REMAIN IN ITS NATURAL STATE. SO I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE WITH YOU AND I DON'T THINK WE CAN APPROVE THIS PERMIT. And this is where, I mean, I totally agree with Vice Mayor Wright and other council members that we need to find a way around this. You know, as Dinah said, this is obviously not the intent of HPD, right? The intent of HPD is to protect our hillsides, our steep hillsides from excessive grading and to try to leave things in a natural state, right, and not develop more than we need to. moving soil out of an area under a roof on a flat ground is not really covered in principle by the ordinance. I mean, I know you're looking at the letter of the law, but I think we have to look at the spirit of the law. And we should not be giving this gift. I agree with Chair Hauser, right? We shouldn't be allowing rezoning for people doing work illegally. So I can't make these findings. I can't approve this. I would really hope that we could send it back to the city attorney to try to find a creative solution to resolve the illegal work, whether it's putting the soil back or whatever it is, finding some avenue that we as council can maybe overrule some rules, whether it's the definition of development, whatever it is, that maybe the planning commission isn't allowed to do, but that we as council can do.

Are we allowed to ask the applicant if he's willing to try to work with you guys, or are we not allowed to ask that question?

Well, the public hearing portion of the meeting has been closed. So, at this point, if council wants to reopen it, they can reopen it to hear from the applicant, but the- I move reopen to hear from the applicant the answer to that question. He said he was, he just wants to resolve it.

I understand that, but he has some more specificity now. I would like to see- Okay.

I will grant that. So, Mayor Bowles, I think, I mean, it sounds like there is some question as to how development is interpreted. So, if there are, if there is some questions that the council wants to ask staff about, like, potentially how that term has been used in the past for other HPD projects, or what the legislative history is on how that term has been applied to projects in the HPD. I'm sure staff would be happy to look at that. And if council wants to continue the matter, we can come back with that information. But as I mentioned, whether the applicant is willing to discuss things with us doesn't negate the fact that we have an application that's pending before the council.

I'm sorry, I need you all to keep it down in the back or take it outside.

Teri Manolio- And that these are staff's interpretation is that essentially that the code doesn't allow for any other process besides the rezoning, the plan development, and the general development plan.

Martin Blaser- Okay. Then I have a follow-up question for Sam, or Director Updegrave. I'm sorry. How far outside of the covered arena do the footings go?

I do not have that information.

I happen to know what it is, so I have an unfair advantage because I know the size of those footings.

Thanks for setting me up.

You're welcome. No, but what I'm trying to suggest is that the size of those footings to stop the arena from flying away in a windstorm is huge. They're like three feet across. And that extends out into the area that's represented on the map. If that's a benefit that allows us to negotiate, and I still want to know, can I hear from the applicant about my question?

Female Speaker I'm happy to reopen the public hearing if you'd like to come back up and answer that, Bernard, or someone from the church.

And I am hearing two different things. You said give it back to the city attorney, and then Meyers said send it back to Planning Commission. So what's the difference? What would be the difference? Okay, let's let him speak first.

Thank you again, Vice Mayor. Again, we are ready to work with the city, the city staff, the residents, however we need to, to resolve this situation. Great. Thank you very much.

Okay, closing the public hearing. I think we'd be sending it, I think it's really more a question for staff and legal. I mean, the Planning Commission has asked these questions over and over, and we're not able to get the answers that they wanted, and that's why they voted to deny the project. So, I think the place we need to send it is back to legal.

Yeah. My question is, like, you're saying stuff, but there might be someone that is making those decisions or interpreting the code. So, don't we have a city attorney that we can talk to when we have issues like that, instead of just making that decision? So, I think it would be very We have to be careful. And when we get things like that, maybe talk to other people to see if that's the right thing to do. I'm sorry.

Should we take a five-minute break? I think that's a good idea. Okay.

We need a little break right now.

Okay. And we're taking five. So the attorney can think about our options while we're taking a break. Okay.

How long, ma'am? Five minutes.

I don't want to.

You know what I don't like? I don't like.

If we're considering the same substantive issues, but of course it is within council's discretion to reopen public.

So we can decide that the day of and don't need to decide that now. Okay. I do a couple of other questions came up that I, and I don't know if you have answers to right now, but someone said that there were, you know, some church services happening in the homes. 8 to 10 cars or so. Is that permitted currently under the existing zoning for single-family residents? Is that like a party at someone's house? Are you talking about home occupation?

Yes. So they are entitled to home occupational use, and they can certainly have gatherings like anybody in a residential home. I mean, it is residential uses out there. So like anybody... Can have people over at their home. That is perfectly acceptable.

And you can have a worship service at your home and sing, too. I mean, I've had one at my house. That's not prohibited. Right. Somehow it's when it becomes a larger gathering that, you know, what is the cutoff when it becomes, just to educate the public, you know, what to look for. When does it become something that's not prohibited?

So I would defer to Director Updegrave on this particular issue. I'm not sure that the city has any sort of regulations that delineates what a church service is. But like I said, I would defer to Director Updegrave. And I will say that I have not heard of any complaint. I myself have not heard of any complaints relating to the property in like the last year or two years.

I have. Could I? No, I'd actually like to apologize for staff if in any way they interpreted that I am at all upset with them. I absolutely 100% think that you're doing your job trying to interpret our...

Darling.

messed up codes to the best of your ability to follow the rules and I get that and I'm sorry if I'm venting my frustrations on you and it's not yeah ditto it is not being taken personally we know you're in a hard position so wait I think she's looking up that answer but the other question I wanted to ask so I know I read the planning commission asked about the easements for the trail and there were a few public comments about that tonight too And I understand there's not a formal easement. But legally, I've been told, and I mean, this is happening in Pedro Point, too, that if a trail is open and the public is using it for a certain amount of time, something could be a prescriptive easement. So can you tell us if there's, I mean, is that something that we would ever look at, that there is a possibility for reopening that trail?

So staff looked at whether there was any recorded easements, and there is no such easements. But whether it was a prescriptive easement or not, I don't know. There are legal requirements. And that's not up to the city to decide. That would be between members of the public who are asserting that right and the property owners.

Teri Manolio- Okay. So, maybe it's something for the public to research and document and find out on their own. And it's certainly not part of the hearing today, but I'm asking because it was part of the planning commission's questions, too.

Teri Manolio- Oh, yeah. And I know we answered, Director Updegrave, correct me if I'm wrong, but staff provided an answer on the recorded easements, whether there was an actual whether there was any type of recorded easements against the property, and the answer was no.

Okay. All right. Thank you. And I would have to research information about gatherings.

That's fine. So you can bring that back when we come back next time, too. That's fine. Okay. So we would just need a motion. A motion to continue to a date uncertain.

But Sue had made such a motion.

I move continuing this matter to a date uncertain.

Do I have a second? I'll second.

Should there be specific instructions?

And with the motion to continue the public hearing, item number seven on the agenda to a date uncertain, made by Councilmember Beckmeyer, seconded by Mayor Bowles, passes unanimously.

City clerk coffee, I think we renamed its item 7a.

I don't know if that matters Yeah, so we changed the agenda Thank you Okay, thank you everyone for your patience So we're moving on to our last item item 9 which is a continuation from our last item meeting, adoption of resolution ratifying the denial of the appeal of the planning commission's decision, site development permit, tree removal permit, et cetera, for property on Bayview Road. Director Updegrave, presenting the presentation.

Sorry, I have to switch gears a little bit here. Okay. Good evening, Mayor Bowles, Vice Mayor Wright, Council Members, Samantha Updegrave, Community Development Director, presenting on behalf of staff. Tonight we are looking at Bayview Road, Calera Terrace, and the resolution ratifying the denial of the appeal of the Planning Commission's decision and approving site development permit and tree removal permit subject to the revised conditions of approval. I'll just provide a brief overview of the project information, look at the revised conditions of approval that were directed by council, and conclude with staff's recommendation. So again, this is Bayview Calera. It's a vacant lot, about 26,000 square feet. The general plan land use designation is low density residential, and the zoning is R1H in the hillside. The surrounding land uses, as you can see here, are residential development. The site development and tree removal permit are for a 3,100 square foot single family residence, attached three car garage. which conforms the applicable zoning standards and also includes the removal of a protected Monterey pine. The project also includes an accessory dwelling unit, which is subject to ministerial review. The application was initiated in December of 2018. It went to the planning commission twice in April of 2024. and again in December of 2025, where the Planning Commission approved the project with additional conditions of approval, and that was the second hearing. The appeal was filed in December, and it was heard by City Council on February 9th, and continued to revise the subject, the conditions of approval. So that was the third hearing, and then tonight, THE CITY COUNCIL'S CONSIDERATION OF THE REVISED CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL IS THE FOURTH HEARING. AND SO UNDER THE STATE LAW, A TOTAL OF FIVE HEARINGS ARE ALLOWED FOR THE PROJECT. COUNCIL HAD DIRECTED IN ADDITION TO CONDITION NUMBER NINE, SO THERE WERE, WAIT Okay, so at the last hearing, City Council closed the public hearing and instructed staff to bring the resolution back to City Council for final confirmation regarding the revisions made to the conditions of approval. So there were three revisions and three new conditions. The first one was an addition to condition number nine, which states that prior to the issuance of the building permit, the applicant shall submit an updated arborist report for review and approval, as well as provide the tree protection plan. So a condition was added here in red and underline that the potential impact of the access roadway and other improvements on tree number one to be analyzed by a qualified arborist, the amended report shall include specific protection measures, or if preservation is not possible, recommend appropriate replacement species to be planted at a two-to-one ratio. Condition number 20 was revised to strike the definition of the 100-year event. So now it just reads excess site drainage must be conducted UNDER THE SIDEWALK TO THE STREET, STORM DRAINAGE SHOULD BE DESIGNED FOR A 100-YEAR EVENT. THE STORM DRAIN SYSTEM MUST BE IN COMPLIANCE WITH SECTION C3 OF THE MUNICIPAL REGION PERMIT FOR SAN MATEO COUNTY. CONDITION NUMBER 43 WAS AMENDED. to address the potential of providing planting along the south side of the driveway. And now reads, applicant, planning staff, engineering staff, and North County Fire staff shall make good faith effort to redesign the project driveway to be more aesthetically pleasing, including but not limited to installing a planting strip on the south side of the driveway if approved by North County Fire. And now we're moving into the added conditions of approval. Condition number 46 was added to memorialize the code requirement to connect to an existing functional storm drain or install a new storm drain line that connects to the public storm drain system. So prior to the issuance of building permits, the applicant shall field verify the location and functionality of the existing storm drain system indicated on civil plans. If the storm drain cannot be located or confirmed as functional, the applicant shall design and install a new storm drain line connecting to the public storm drain system on Rockaway Beach Avenue to the satisfaction of the city engineer. Condition 47 was added to provide additional information about the final design of the driveway to neighboring lots. So prior to the issuance of grading and building permits, the applicant shall provide a revised rendering of the refined driveway design that includes the windows on 125 Bayview Road to the property owners and residents along Bayview Road on both sides of the street and provide a receipt or some other evidence of certified mailing to property owners and residents along Bayview to the planning division as evidence. And condition number 48 was added to require that the improvement agreement be recorded prior to any grubbing or tree removal. So no grubbing or tree removal shall take place prior to the issuance of a grading permit or prior to recordation of the improvement agreement required under condition number of approval number 45. So staff recommends that the City Council Adopts the resolution with the revised conditions of approval Finding the project exempt from CEQA and that concludes staffs presentation and we are available for questions Thank you I wanted to say a couple of things first It was really late when we were making our last

comments and continuing this item, and I think it was already 1130. We had already been going for seven and a half hours, and we all have day jobs too, so you can imagine we were tired. When the motion was made, I did not realize that we were actually, we had actually voted to deny the appeal as part of that motion. So, I'm not sure how everybody else felt. I know we didn't deliberate on the conditions on the appeal, you know, items. We had just gone through the project questions and through the COAs, but we didn't actually deliberate. So, I asked the question of staff, and they confirmed that we're allowed to deliberate tonight. And if that results in any changes to the resolution, that is something that we can bring back to our next meeting. I don't know if it's needed, but I want to apologize to my council I want to apologize to the public because I I missed that myself I didn't know that that's I didn't understand. That's what had happened until the next day and then the other the other point I was a little confused about and I went back and listened to part of the meeting, but We were all having trouble with the renderings and I the plans, and, you know, there were still errors with the driveway rendering. I was bringing up, I think, inconsistencies with the other rendering, and I heard at least three of us ask for renderings to be brought back. I thought they were coming to this meeting. I think staff didn't interpret it that way, and, you know, this resolution was added for the one rendering for the residents, but I just, if any of you feel like that was important to your decision-making or understanding of the project, I want to open that up again, too, because we've just heard we can't have one more hearing if we need to. So, I want to start with that. And then, Michelle Kenyon was the city attorney at the day, and she specifically said, like, we can't use the renderings to imply other conditions that aren't objective, right? It's just the whole issue with the Housing Accountability Act because it's a unit and an ADU. But I still think, I mean, for most of us, it's really hard to understand these detailed grading plans and to know what it is we're approving and for the community to be able to really understand the project and the impacts. So, anyway, that's what I wanted to say to start, and I'm happy to hear from you. some comments and a few other questions too, but I'll let you all go first. And Greg, I see a light, but that may have been from before. That was from before. Okay.

Yeah, I wanted to talk about the- Microphone. Microphone, yes. Yeah, I wanted to talk about the sloping grading. And the sloping grade, the applicant says that it's like 49.23%. And I got this letter saying that the building site is 56%. And I went there today and I noticed that at the beginning, there is like little, but then in the middle of the whole thing, there is the big slope. And I noticed that the property next to the driveway is kind of in distress, big time. I have photos of them, I might have to share with you guys. And I look around and There is another property on the other side that also I saw notice of kind of stress there. I don't know what is going to happen when they start doing any excavation on top of the hill. But it's very, very deep. I was like, you have to be in good shape to walk through that lot. So I'm concerned about the house next door to the driveway. The fence on the other side of the lot is tilting toward the driveway and that's why I know the people who owns the house on the other side are concerned because I see a lot of distress and also the property next door too. So I think we have to be kind of careful. to maybe send somebody to give us a second opinion to make sure that we're doing the right thing, the right elevation, like the grading. I don't know much about those things, but the elevation, if the elevation is that, I don't know what the approval cutoff is. And if they're using 49.23 to get, so they don't get to 50, to be able to get the approval. So, I'm not sure.

Female Speaker 2 Yeah, I saw that public comment, too, where the drawing said something, but the geotechnical report said something else about the average slope. I don't think we, I mean, other than in HPD, and this is not that, we don't, I don't think we have a maximum slope by which we don't approved projects, but can you confirm?

Teri Manolio- That is correct.

Teri Manolio- Madam Mayor, I just want to clarify. So, tonight, what's before the council is the the potential resolution ratifying the denial of the appeal and the amended conditions of approval that were previously discussed. And my understanding was that the public hearing at the last meeting was closed. And so, what's before the council tonight is whether or not to ratify that resolution with the amended conditions that have been conditions of approval that have been prepared for by staff. So, not revisiting the project as a whole. It's whether or not this ratification for denial should be approved by the council, and the conditions of approval meet the discussions previously made by the council.

Teri Manolio- I understand, but in the answers we got from staff, we were told that we could deliberate, and if we need to make any changes.

Teri Manolio- On the item that's before the council.

Teri Manolio- That's not what I understood.

Teri Manolio- So, it says that the council may deliberate on the item that is presented on the agenda. So, if the council wants to say, wants to do something different besides the ratification for denial, then the council can give direction to staff to bring back that, whatever it is that the council wants. But tonight is not, you know, this isn't intended to be a rehearing of the appeal, so to speak.

Okay, so we're not allowed to talk to the appeal that we didn't do last time.

Well, my understanding is that there was going to be a discussion of what was before the council to decide whether it was adequate and whether the conditions of approval were as discussed previously. And then that there would be an opening of the public comment to hear comments that relate to the proposed resolution and conditions of approval.

So it... We had said we weren't taking public comments.

So that's the what is before the council this evening. If the council doesn't want to accept the resolution that's been prepared or has issues with the conditions of approval that have been prepared by staff, then council can give direction for staff to do something different and we can bring back that whatever it is that council desires.

I'd love to hear from you all what you remember and what you think we did the last time if you asked for renderings, too, besides me. Is there more information that we need, and do we need to go back and deliberate this project?

I mean, I do agree that it was so late. I think I am a little confused about what's before us tonight. And I do think that more clarification will be needed for me. I appreciate Councilmember Espinoza and your going to the property and letting us know about that. I mean, I don't feel like I'm ready to vote on a resolution ratifying the denial of appeal. So I don't know what that means. I feel like I need more. And I'm not sure what. But I just, yeah.

My memory of what happened was we did deny the appeal and that we had asked staff to draft us these conditions. Yeah, we did. Not on these conditions, but we voted to deny the appeal subject to having staff prepared the conditions that we asked for. That's my recollection.

That is what happened. I went back and watched it, and I had somebody type out the motion. Michelle is the one who made that modified motion, because we were asking for more time. I was asking for more time, right? We had just gotten through comments on the resolution and the conditions of approval, but we hadn't gotten to any deliberation about the project. I didn't understand that we were denying the appeal as part of that motion. It is in the words. My brain didn't take it in. Maybe your brain didn't take it in.

It was super late.

Yeah.

But I did understand that.

Yeah. So I don't want to. And you're the first one who said, you know, I make this motion. So maybe you were ready. But I want to check in with all of us, right?

Right. I have the same recollection as Greg with regard to the question of renderings. the one who brought that up and I was concerned that the neighborhood because there isn't a way for them to have a good sense of how it's going to look and and what was put before us we saw what the rendering looked like the first time for that driveway and it looks super steep and high and then that was expressed that there was an error it wasn't done correctly in the rendering we saw and the last council meeting was the correct one but that was the first time anyone had seen that and my concern was for the neighborhood to understand what it's going to be but it looks like and how high is it and how wide is it and that was why I asked about renderings being distributed to all the neighborhood but I didn't know that you were thinking they were coming back here That's not what I was, the line of reasoning I was going down when I said that.

Yeah, I think I had said it, Greg had said it, and it was rendering. I thought we were coming back to discuss. Uh-huh. You did too. Uh-huh. Okay. So that's three of us.

Mayor Bowles, for what it's worth, what I do recall is we were at the point of making detailed revisions to the conditions.

Right.

And it was just too late to be able to do that at the moment and have council consider that at the moment. You wanted to look at those conditions with fresh eyes. And so I think that was, and that's what we're bringing back, right? So you can really look at those. Concerning the renderings, what I would offer on that, there was a lot of discussion about that. From my perspective, it was, that renderings, like the condition says, would be created and distributed to the neighbors, but that's in the future. I don't think I would have been able to say, we're going to continue this meeting to a date certain two weeks from now without consulting with the applicant about the development of renderings in time for this meeting. I would have, for what it's worth, I would have said, well, we need to confirm with the applicant whether that's even feasible before we decide on a date. That didn't come up because what we were interpreting was the direction that new renderings will be developed, distributed to the neighbors, but it wasn't intended to be before this approval.

And I think it's partly because it was so late, right? And certain things were said at the meeting, like Michelle was telling us, what we could look at as renderings if we got new renderings. And so, you know, I think, yeah, our hearing, our interpretation were different from each other and from staff. So, I mean, personally, I would still like to see new renderings, and not just the driveway, but the other one. And we said renderings, plural, because I was pointing out the discrepancy with the height of the ADU and the height of the house that didn't match. And so...

So, exactly what views of elevations are you...

The two that he provided, but I want to see that they're accurate. He has them. the line drawing model from the computer, which is in Revit, which he's built his model that way so he can take any view. So that would show us whether the drawings match the rendering. The rendering was apparently done by someone else completely, and like the first one was completely inaccurate, right, to the drawings. So even just seeing that line drawing to show that it's accurate would be helpful.

For me, I mean for other people you might want to see one of the things I thought about after the meeting You know because I was completely glazed over it at that hour was well part of it is just when you look up that driveway It's this huge expanse of concrete and I thought well, what if you just put a gate down at the bottom to break up? That vision, but you know that's not for us to decide that's an aesthetic but it was a way to address one of the concerns.

From the street, not necessarily from the resident next door.

And I guess the question that comes to mind is, due to the late hour and the excessive amount of work we were putting into this, did we do a disservice to this? And that's what we're talking about right now.

I think we haven't given the neighbors a fair shot at, like, looking at their arguments and I think we spent a long time oh I'm not saying we didn't have a lot didn't spend a long time looking at the plans but I mean and I can address these now I think but where I think we're not allowed to so and and maybe not everyone's prepared to do that I I know the neighbors are concerned if we could it like

make sure that in every step of the building process that the neighbors can get like when one stop is done then the neighbors can see that this is this process was done with permit with well with the um the way supposed to be done so that way they don't feel like because they have concerns because this house is upper on the top and there's other homes around And it's like this and then goes down. So everybody's concerned about their homes. So it would be nice to have them like phrase one so they can, once the phrase one is approved so the neighbors can see that that was approved. So that way they feel like, okay, they're doing the right thing. and they feel good about it because I felt the same way. If I was living next door, I would be very worried about my house.

And if I saw that freeway on rendering right next to my house, I would be freaking out too.

Not only that, the house, even though the house is in a very deep hill, plus the driveway. So I parked at the bottom because I'm afraid of the hills. So it's like when it's raining, I would like to see pictures of how much water is going down there.

Just to be fair, though, that house that is down below it also did excavate to create part of that grading difference. And so you need to consider that as well. And there was a number of soil engineers on the project who spoke about exactly, and these are guys that the geotech engineers are, this is, the dirt is their life.

So here we're deliberating about things that maybe we're not supposed to deliberate about. Probably. Sorry. I'll be quiet. If we need to have these conversations, do we need to come back to another meeting is what I'm hearing.

Is the inspection report as they go through the process, is that a public document? Or do you got to wait for the job card to get turned in with all the inspections on it before it becomes public?

Thank you, Vice Mayor Wright. I believe someone could probably file a PRA request for job cards. I'm not sure what the process is while it's ongoing.

Because, like, I know in San Francisco, for example, it's on file on the computer, accessible to the public. But I don't count on us to have the money to be able to support a system like that. We don't have the technology. Right, exactly. And so I'm just wondering if that information is available for people if they want it.

Director Updegrave, I believe that information would be available to the public if they wanted to make a public record request. And the city had that information. Yes.

So city attorney, we can give some feedback on the COAs. Correct. And we can do that tonight. Right. But if we want to talk about other things, the project, the... the appeal, then we need to bring this back.

Teri Manolio- Correct. So, the council can definitely look at the conditions of approval that have been amended by staff and give any feedback that the council desires. In terms of the resolution ratifying the denial of appeal, the council does not have to take any action on that, and the council can give staff direction to bring that, the appeal back for further consideration by the council. The council voted to deny the appeal at the last meeting, but that was really just an indication of where the council was going to go with the appeal. This ratification of the resolution would make a final determination on the appeal. So, if the council doesn't want to do that, the council can give different direction to staff.

I feel embarrassed. I really do. Same.

I had to start by apologizing.

I need to apologize to my community. Like, I'm just confused, and it was so late, and these are all excuses. I should be much more prepared than I am tonight. And that doesn't feel good. So you'd like to bring it back? I would. Just because I don't feel prepared tonight, I didn't realize that, what we were coming into, I guess. And that's my own fault, so I... Apologize to my community.

Yeah, and apologize to that same to me and my right here the same thing from you.

Yes, I Think we need to make sure that we we don't go that late on those meetings because to be honest if we were here we came here for and We were here so late so I wanted to let the community know that we work very hard here, and we don't want to disappoint you guys. So forgive us for that.

We might still not be able to vote and give you what you want, but we should honor you by deliberating and understanding what it is that we're voting on.

I bear some responsibility because I was one of the people that was asking a lot of the questions. The reason I was asking the questions, however, was to condition the project in a way that would then make it palatable to me, and that was what it was I thought we would go under. So that was my intent, was to make the project safe for the neighbors in the conditions. That was the operating principle that I was going with.

I think we've done that, and the Planning Commission has done that. that too, right? So it's a better project because of the work we did and all those questions were important that we asked. So I'm hearing three of us would like this to come back.

With the renderings.

With the renderings, whenever that can happen. Are there any other comments on the conditions of approval that have been brought back just now that we've had a chance to?

I'm glad that we got a closer look at the magnolia tree, tree number one. I'm very pleased about that.

So I don't know how that tree can stay. Are they going to have a driveway there?

If they move the driveway up the hill a little bit in order to afford the planting strip in between, I agree with you. I don't see.

Even with the 18 feet. Maybe cutting the half of the tree. The arborist is going to pine, and what is written, we can bring that condition back up, but. what is written in the condition is that if it can't survive then they have to do a two to one tree replacement.

And at the same time, these were conceptual plans. They weren't meant to be a builder set, so they weren't meant to be as specific as it is that I think we're implying.

Yes, but dimensions matter. If the things don't work in dimension, they're not going to work later on either.

They need to make them work or the builder set won't get approved. Yeah.

On COA 48, if you can bring that back up. So what I had noted was no grubbing or tree removal shall take place prior to the issuance of a grading or building permit. So you would need both, right? Sometimes a grading permit IS GRANTED EARLIER. SO JUST A MINOR CHANGE.

WE CAN ADD THAT. THE BUILDING PERMIT CANNOT BE ISSUED EITHER AHEAD OF THE IMPROVEMENT AGREEMENT, BUT IT MAKES SENSE TO HAVE BOTH NOTED, BOTH THE GRADING AND BUILDING PERMIT NOTED HERE.

OKAY, GREAT. THANK YOU SO MUCH. AND THEN THE OTHER THING, THE APPLICANT, SO AGAIN, THAT RENDERING AND MAYBE THIS IS topic for when we see the renderings. The rendering showed a fence right next to 125 Bayview. From my studying of the grades along that it doesn't need a guardrail until a little bit past the building when it's above 30 inches above ground. But I think Some kind of fence screening is important because you're going to get the headlights of the cars, you know, shining into the house, but also maybe wanting a little bit more protection from cars that might, you know, go over the curb since it's so close to the house. So I don't know if we can add a condition that the applicant works with the neighbor at 125 to finalize a design for the guardrail stash fence.

I do or a planting area because that would also serve as a planting So this is the the access is the fire is the fire access roadway and so Any improvement in that area needs to be reviewed and approved Like in coordination with North County fire So I don't know I don't know about adding a requirement for a fence within that access. There is already a condition of approval, you know, to, you know, for interdepartmentally to work and to work with the applicant on improvements to that design. But, you know, adding something prescriptive like a fence, I can't speak to whether that is going to be approvable.

By fire, you mean?

Yeah. Yes. Because this is a fire access roadway.

Inside the 18 feet or outside the 18 feet?

I don't know because it, again, it's a, you know, it's a, there are a lot of requirements that are, need to be met within there that fire is working really closely on, you know, that includes You know, surfacing, the ability to hold the weight of the truck, the surface material, the slope, you know, any plantings, retaining walls.

The 18 feet is clear, and then they've got curbs that go up the two sides, you know, presumably.

I understand what it is you're talking about.

What I'm just saying is the fence would be on top of that curb, so it's not within the fire access. I don't think it's a problem with fire. All I'm saying, and we can condition it, but, you know, Javier was here and he said he would work with the neighbors. I just want to make sure the neighbors, because they're so impacted by this driveway, that they have a voice in whatever this fence is. And it can be written so that, you know, of course the fire department, you know, anything the fire department would say would, you know, take priority and they might not get what they want, but just to encourage them to work with them.

We're looking for a good neighbor resolution to a visceral obstruction.

And he said he would during the meeting, so I don't think it's anything.

And we need the good neighbors because if this truck has to get out of that driveway and a car is parked on the other side of the street, I don't even know how a fire truck is going to get out of there.

They're going to have to paint the curbs red, so... Anyway, I would like to see that as a condition. If I'm the only one, I'll let it go. But I think it's important to try to be a good neighbor, too.

Well, actually, I would like to pick up on that if I could. There was some public comment that was giving me great concern that the conditions of approval that I recall us talking about were things that were more Aesthetic, you know, impacting driving in the neighborhood and such. But what I'm now asking about, based on public comment that we received, is if you could please point me to the condition of approval. The Planning Commission requested a bond for protection from dereliction, property destruction, or abandonment. Now, what would the purpose of that bond be and to whom would that bond or whose interest is that bond in? Do you know what I'm asking? Yes. Yes.

Thank you. Council Member Beckmeyer. So the Planning Commission added a condition of approval related to what happens if they start THIS WORK ON THIS PROJECT, WHAT IF THEY START GRADING, WHAT IF THEY PUT IN A RETAINING WALL AND THEN THEY ABANDON THE PROJECT? AND SO THERE'S, THEY REQUIRED AN IMPROVEMENT AGREEMENT TO MAKE SURE THAT IF THAT WERE TO HAPPEN, IF THE PROJECT WERE TO BE ABANDONED, THAT SOME SITE ABATEMENT OR RESTORATION WORK COULD HAPPEN, WOULD HAPPEN. in order to protect surrounding properties and to not leave an unfinished hole in the ground or whatever it may be.

And that's what I'm bringing forward. That's the concern I have. And I want to understand where that condition is and how far it goes because the public comment that we received is specifically on behalf and in the voice of the neighbors themselves. And so when you say restoring the property, I'm thinking about, you know, if there's a drainage requirement for building this house, but then the house isn't completed, the owner decides to not do it, if there's already been impact to the drainage, the storm drain or such, that the rest of the neighborhood is now going to be living with What is the recourse for them? That's what I'm trying to understand. If this condition goes far enough to address those needs and those concerns, or if not, what turning to the city attorney is the remedy? Is there a process by which the project can be conditioned to protect the neighbors?

THAT IS WHAT THE PLANNING COMMISSION DID, THOUGH. THEY INSISTED THAT THE RETAINING WALLS BE COMPLETED. NONE OF THAT GRADING IS JUST THEY DIG UP ALL THE DIRT AND THEN STOP. THAT WAS WHAT THE CONCERN WAS. AND THEN THE HILL IN THE RESTAURANT IS FLYING DOWN BECAUSE THERE ISN'T THE RETAINING WALL THAT HAS THE DRAINAGE IN THERE. THAT'S WHAT THAT CONDITION WAS ALL ABOUT. I BELIEVE THAT WAS A SAMANTHA HOUSER IDEA, IF MY RECOLLECTION IS CORRECT. Well placed, and we're lucky to have Sam looking out for the neighbors the way she did.

Right, and I just want to make sure.

I'd like to read it again.

Yes, please.

If we could pull it up on the screen.

Yeah, I can. I think it's on packet page 705. I might be looking at last week's. It is on packet page 705, but I think that's the copy of the staff report. This isn't a copy of the resolution. I'm sorry.

Is it condition 45?

I'm going to find it. Sorry, I can't.

Back at page 705.

Maybe that is it.

It is condition number 45. I was just, I was trying to find it in the council resolution, which I'm just, I'm having a hard time putting my finger on that packet page number. But I can read it from, I can't read it from there now. Oh, here. Okay, it's packet page 723. And the condition is prior to the issuance of a grading or building permit involving grading, retaining walls, or slope disturbance, the applicant shall enter into an improvement agreement with the city to require the completion of the retaining walls and other related improvements, retaining wall improvements, and shall provide a security in an amount necessary to complete the retaining wall improvements as determined by the city engineer. The agreement shall be recorded against the property prior to the issuance of grading or building permit and shall be in a form approved by the city attorney.

Can you perhaps explain to me why on one of those sentences it says and other related improvements and on the other one it doesn't?

What do you mean on the other one? I'm sorry.

On the second sentence. The first sentence ends in and other related improvements. So in other words, things like gravel collection system for.

Yeah, that's a good question, Vice Mayor Wright. So the first sentence is, you know, provides a longer list and then in parentheses says retaining wall improvements, meaning that moving forward, that's how it's referred to or defined, correct?

So it does include all the other things that make it safe?

Yes. Well, I mean, that goes to the points that Council Member Espinoza made about slope. And so when I look at that sentence where it says retaining walls or slope disturbance, I think that's what has given me pause. That's what I'm worried about is, okay, retaining wall you know the slopes have been meant you know changed around in preparation for building and then what the building stops it's not going to happen what's going to happen with drainage on the property right is there is this storm drain system that was conditioned in one of the ones we added is that already in place So that ever more into the future when the rain falls, it's going somewhere? Or is it just running down the hill into the neighbor's backyard? That's my nightmare of why I'm asking this question.

And I don't think we can get that detailed within this condition. And so this condition is meant to globally address... the safety of the site should construction stop midway. And so that is going to include, you know, whatever those factors are based on what the state or the condition is.

So would it be appropriate to add language like around the perimeter? I mean, do we have to be more specific in the condition of approval? I know you're saying we can't be that specific, but I'm afraid if we aren't specific enough, How can it be enforced?

I might ask Chair Hauser if she would like to speak to this. She is online. Oh, that would be lovely. And Assistant City Attorney Bozzano has something to add.

So I was just going to add that the scope of the improvement agreement would address all of these issues. So the improvement agreement is where we would have the details on what it includes and what the requirements are for the security and when the security gets implicated. In other words, when the city gets to pull down on the bond or pull down on the security to come in and make the improvements by the city if the project is abandoned.

To make it safe.

Correct.

If it pleases the council, I am here and can answer the question. Please. Thank you. Thank you.

Please.

Hi, everybody. I'm Samantha Houser with the Planning Commission. So I just wanted to add that improvement agreements are a defined mechanism in our code, so Section 10-1-1007. gives a pretty detailed list of what's required and like what the forms of the bonds are. The city would be the beneficiary of the bond, right? Like a surety would issue a bond that would be satisfactory to the city engineer. in the amount satisfactory to the city engineer for performance and warranty. The warranty is a really important part of this. Grading, drainage, and retaining walls are all kind of wrapped up in it. We could add the specificity of those additional words. I think it is already kind of covered the way it's written, but if it would make the council more comfortable, we could absolutely add that. I do also, and I don't have the resolution in front of me, but I do also want to point to the fact that the Planning Commission added a different condition that requires that biannually or at a higher incidence to be determined by the city engineer, all of the stormwater drainage features would be inspected and the property owner would be required to maintain them in a way that was satisfactory to the city. And so erosion control and bonds would also cover it

that if that makes sense that does make sense and thank you and I do feel like we want to look at adding more specific language although I'm the last person to tell you what that correct language would be I love this chair house or a follow-up question yeah if I could just just if I mean I agree with sue and just adding the word retaining walls drainage and other related improvements because yeah that

If the drainage fails, the walls will fail, too. So it just helps cover us. I have a follow-up question, too, but go ahead.

Mayor Bowles, before we continue, just a time check. It's 10-11 right now, and the council should decide whether you will complete this item tonight or consider extending the meeting beyond 11 o'clock.

I think right now we can complete the COA stuff, I think. We'll let you know if we need a thing.

So my follow-up question is for staff and or Chair Hauser. Is it implied permission that we have permission to go on the applicant's lot to deal with taking the bond money and fix it? Or is that written someplace that we actually have permission to enter their property and do work on their property?

That will all be part of the agreement. So the agreement is really where all of the specificity is going to come in.

Yes.