City Council - Regular Meeting

If having reached the hour of 530, I am calling the April 28th, 2026 Modesto City Council meeting to order and ask the city clerk to call the roll.

Council Member Alvarez. Here. Council Member Rickey. Here. Council Member Bavaro.

Here.

Vice Mayor Williams. Here. Council Member Wright. Here. Council Member Scootia Brayton is absent and Mayor Zwollin.

Here. Will everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by the invocation from Bill Knoyer, Redeemer Church. 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.

Father in heaven, holy is your name. May your kingdom come, may your will be done in this gathering this evening as you see it fit. Forgive us, God, of our many trespasses against one another, and we choose to forgive those who have trespassed against us. Provide for the needs of the city council members and their families, for those in this room and for those in our city. And may you have your way in us today. We pray, Father, that you would allow us to grow old into this city and be safe. It's in his name we pray, amen.

Amen. Thank you. Does the city clerk have any announcements?

Yes, Mayor. Just a reminder, public comment is three minutes. There are speaker cards at the entrance of the chambers. In addition, written public comment was received pertaining to item 15, and it was forwarded to the council. Thank you.

Thank you. It was received. Do any of the council members have any conflicts of interest? Seeing none, will the city attorney please report out on closed session?

Yes, Mayor. The council met a closed session today regarding an existing litigation case and also property negotiations. No reportable actions listed.

Thank you. We'll go on to item one, a proclamation declaring May 2026 as National Mental Health Awareness Month. I will read the proclamation. Mental health is essential to everyone's overall health and well-being. Mental health conditions are common and widespread across our nation, affecting one in five adults in the United States. Yet only 52% of those adults received treatment in 2024. Extensive research supports various strategies and tools that all people can use to protect their mental health and improve their well-being. Effective treatments allow those with mental illness to make significant progress toward recovery and lead productive lives. This year's theme is More Good Days Together. which encourages individuals and communities to reflect on what makes a good day for themselves and others, and use that understanding to connect people to the right support at the right time. Make sure to recognize and celebrate small moments of happiness and well-being in everyday life. Connect with others to encourage and support each other in taking action for themselves, for their loved ones, and for their community based on what works for them, whether that is practicing self-care, advocating for change, or seeking medical treatment. You can also text or call 988 for immediate support. Now therefore, I, Suze Wallen, Mayor, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as National Mental Health Awareness Month in the City of Modesto and call upon all residents to take action to reduce the stigma of mental illness and increase the mental health of our community, dated this 28th day of April, 2026. Accepting the proclamation will be Ruben Imperial, Director of the Stanislaus County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Department. Please come to the podium, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor, for those wonderful words and the declaration and the partnership with the County Behavioral Health Department and declaring this month a day and a month to focus on behavioral health. In addition to all of the very important statements about mental health and behavioral health that you shared here today, we are also taking this opportunity to educate the public on where to find help when they are in time of need due to a behavioral health crisis or behavioral health issue in their life. We want to remind the public that There are behavioral health mental health treatment services available through one's commercial or private insurance and many of the health plans in California that are covered whether through its employment or other Effort you can call your health insurance and say I am struggling with a mental health condition or behavioral health condition and need some help and health plans in California are mandated to provide mental health treatment services For our community members that are not covered through a private or commercial health care insurance, and are covered through the Medi-Cal program, they can call the County Behavioral Health Department. And that number to call is 1-888-376-6246. This is a 24-7 access line available for our community's Medi-Cal members. And they can call and ask for support or an appointment or an assessment if they are experiencing a mental health condition that they feel that needs treatment. And then lastly, and most importantly, at times in our community, individuals experience a mental health crisis where it rises to the level of an emergency. You can also call the county's crisis line. It doesn't matter if you are a Medi-Cal or private insured. We are the county's crisis access line. You can call us 24-7. We do have services available for us to respond to folks in the community if they're experiencing a crisis in the community. We work closely with the Modesto Police Department in the city of Modesto to respond to mental health 911 calls. And we also want to say that through this month and in recognition of the great partnerships with the City of Modesto, thank you for all you do. We have several partnerships, not just with the law enforcement, with the fire department, with others in our housing and homeless programs through the City of Modesto. And so beyond Mental Health Month, we are working daily, working weekly to improve the overall mental health and wellbeing of our community. We thank the city of Modesto and the leadership for that. Thank you.

All right, you're very welcome. Thank you, and please stay here for comments and also to receive the proclamation. Are there any comments from council members? Vice Mayor Williams.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Ruben, for your partnership, the county with the city. And right now in this day and age, mental health is a real thing, and it is very well needed. So continue that. Thank you for doing what you do through the county and the dollars that come through the state. So thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Council Member Bavaro. Thank you, Mayor.

I also would like to note that the Affordable Care Act, which was passed and signed into law in 2010, includes mental health as any other illness. And I just wanted to just highlight that point. Thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome. Councilmember Rickey. Thank you, Bear.

I just want to thank you and the county for all the support you give on mental health. It's such a vast responsibility. You're dealing with people that are suffering on the streets maybe that have mental health issues, but then mental health challenges can happen to anybody, and you have to help them too. And so I just appreciate the fact that you all take that on and try to get through it. So thank you.

I truly appreciate your efforts. As we've had many discussions, you know I spent 42 years working in the emergency room taking care of the most seriously mentally ill of our patients in our community. And I was honored to do that during some of their worst days. But I am so grateful for the strides that we've made. of the last 50 plus years since I started nursing school. We've come a long ways, we have a long ways to go, but we're working on that in our city and I'm proud of it and I appreciate your efforts and partnerships. Thank you so much. I will now bring the proclamation down and present it.

Thank you. Appreciate so much that you came and spent your evening to do this.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

Next is item two, consider accepting the resignation of Ricardo Ortiz from the Entertainment Commission. Does council have any questions of staff? Council member Rickey, no? Okay. I will open this up to the public. Any comments from the public regarding item two? Seeing none, I'll close public comments. Any comments from council members? Seeing none, I have a resolution accepting the resignation of Ricardo Ortiz from the Entertainment Commission. Do I have a motion?

Motion.

Motion by Vice Mayor Williams.

Second.

Second by Council Member Wright. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Alvarez. Aye. Council Member Rickey. Aye. Council Member Pavaro. Aye. Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. And Mayor Zwollin.

Aye. Carries 6-0. Item three, consider accepting the resignation of Brad Hong from the Community Police Review Board. Does council have questions of staff? Seeing none, I will open this item up to the public. Please step forward.

Kevin McClardy, District 1. It is my understanding that Brad Hong was the chair of this committee. So I'm wondering what will happen now. Will the council appoint a new chair or will the committee itself appoint a new chair? And does that open up a vacancy on the committee? Thank you.

Thank you. Scotty Douglas will respond. Deputy City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. So currently Brad Hunt is not the chair of the Community Police Review Board. There's another person that's been assigned and this will create a vacancy and there will be a recruitment that opens up following council's approval of the resignation.

All right. Thank you very much for that clarification. Any comments from council members regarding item three? Vice Mayor Williams.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to thank Richard or Ricardo and Brad for their services to the city of Modesto.

All right. Thank you. Any other comments from council members? Seeing none, I have a resolution accepting the resignation of Brad Hahn from the Community Police Review Board. Do I have a motion? So moved. Moved by Council Member Wright. Second. Second by Council Member Alvarez. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Alvarez. Aye. Council Member Rickey. Aye. Council Member Bavaro. Aye. Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. And Mayor Zwollin.

Aye. Carries 6-0. Next on the agenda is public comment. Public comment tonight is in person only. Zoom remains available for viewing and for wordly translation. Thank you for joining us. The city council meetings are a place where everyone is encouraged to share insights, listen, and participate in the decision making process that benefits our community. To ensure a fair and respectful environment, the mayor is responsible for maintaining order and decorum as outlined in the city charter and the rules of decorum posted at the entrance of the chamber. I ask that we are all respectful of all members of the public, presenters and council members. Anyone who disrupts the meeting may be asked to leave. I appreciate your cooperation as we discuss key issues and make decisions that affect our city. We will now open public comment for items not on the council agenda. You have three minutes to speak. I will read the speaker cards for the items that I currently have for items not on the agenda in the order that they were received. The first is Rhonda Allen. Welcome.

Good evening, council, mayor, city manager. My name is Rhonda Allen. I'm a resident of Modesto, and I would like to thank you for your leadership and hard work to improve our city. We are very fortunate that Modesto lies between two major river systems with a large aquifer below our community. It is because of our Tuolumne River, which is our greatest natural asset, and it needs commitment that we have this opportunity to have this aquifer due to the rivers and the permeable land that surround us. The river is not just a line on a map. or a drainage for our streets. It is a natural classroom, a playground, and a sanctuary from a busy world. How important is this river to Modesto? When our river system is healthy, it is the most hardworking infrastructure we have. These habitats act as nature's filtration system, stripping pollutants from runoff before it reaches our drinking water. It provides the main defense against the threat of urban flooding, acting as a natural sponge that soaks up excess rainwater. When we pour concrete slabs and lay asphalt, we lose our permeable spaces, which leads to a loss of the very systems that keep our city resilient and keeps our water clean. We also lose biodiversity and the song of birds, that future generations will lose the opportunity to hear. Low impact development that utilizes permeable pavements and smart density housing in our urban core is the wise choice for future planning. Not sprawling into our wild spaces that we need so greatly. Green spaces are irreplaceable. We should invest in the river's recreational value and the wildlife value. We have the largest oak woodland canopy on the Tuolumne River just a short distance from downtown. These oaks are vastly important in supporting the wildlife of our area and very little is being done to preserve them or even provide education about their value in our environment. We need an oak ordinance to protect them. They are part of our heritage with the river. The river habitat also needs restoration to bring back the native vegetation that sustains the wildlife. This will take a commitment and an investment. And now is the time to do it, to provide it, as we discussed, plans for growth in our city's future. This river is a corridor of life, the green lungs for our community. A healthy river is not just pretty. It is a necessary functional ecosystem that supports hundreds of species, and it was here long before our city's foundation was laid. It is our oldest resident. These green spaces make the city more vibrant and an attractive place to live. Together, I hope we can ensure that our river remains a haven for wildlife and a source of recreation for all, even as the city evolves. Lastly, let's build a city that respects the water that sustains us and the land that holds it. None of us wants to live in a concrete desert. Please consider more protections for our environment and the natural resources as you consider development. These are not opposing forces. Development and environmental preservation can be harmonious. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Next is Garrett Marsh.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, city manager, council members. I appreciate and thank you for your service. I view one of the major problems in our community to be adequate, affordable residents. I'm not talking about low income or supported subsidized housing. I'm talking about just affordable housing. I know you're always bombarded by not in my neighborhood whenever a question of apartments or complexes or condos comes up, but they are the only way to build affordable housing in our community. Be steadfast and move these projects forward. Currently, there are nearly 2,000 homes in the process of being built locally. Not one is affordable to the average household in this city. Currently, the median income, median's the middle, half the people lower, half are higher. The median household income in Modesto is $80,000. It takes $150,000 to $160,000 to afford the least expensive home being built on all the projects currently in process. Three out of four Modestians cannot afford those homes. They are not affordable. Some thoughts on what you might consider. While a downtown soccer complex seems attractive, I don't think it will pencil out financially. Maybe you consider soliciting bids for building condos on that property and giving them a 99-year lease on the land. Offer up the Munich golf course for apartments and build on those. These are just a couple steps that you might start. I feel that you need to be proactive and with outreach and support for building affordable housing in our community. Thank you.

Thank you. Next is Sarah Boyle.

Hi, good evening. Mayor, council members, city staff, my name is Sarah Boyle, and I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I recently joined the Building Industry Association of the Greater Valley as the Director of Government and Public Affairs. Today is actually my 12th day on the job, and I will be working alongside our CEO, John Beckman, representing our members here in the region i will be covering merced stanislaus and san joaquin county counties so i look forward to being here getting to know each of you and working together to move forward thank you thank you and welcome uh danielle morgard

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and council members. My name is Danielle Morgar. I'm from the office of Assemblyman Juan Alaniz, here to provide a quick highlight of the very busy past few weeks that we've had in Sacramento. Assemblyman Alaniz has had multiple bills passed through their respective committees. A quick highlight, AB 1612, which establishes a statewide process for safe, secure disposal of seas controlled substances. This passed the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. Then we had AB 1765. This would expand disabled veteran license plate programs, and this has also passed the Assembly Military and Veteran Affairs Committee. AB 1814, which equips law enforcement with tools to better detect impaired drivers. This passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee and AB 2328. this seeks to increase accountability for drivers who flee from the scene of a serious crash this had passed the assembly public safety committee as well if there's any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to reach out to our office thank you thank you next is ganit bella hi there

Good evening, mayor and city council members. Thank you for your time. My name is Ginny Bella and I'm a student at Modesto High School. I lead a youth initiative called the Remedy Project where I help organize workshops and events focused on mental health awareness and everyday wellness for students within our community. Through this work, I've had the chance to work alongside various students and one thing I've consistently noticed is how many of them feel like they don't have a place to go with what they're dealing with. Some don't even have access to clear or reliable health information and others don't feel comfortable opening up in the spaces that are available to them. Even when resources do exist, they can feel out of reach, whether that's because of cost, transportation, or stigma. The Remedy Project is my attempt to respond to that in a small, realistic way. We focus on simple, preventative approaches to wellness, things like managing stress, building healthy habits, and creating spaces where students can talk openly without feeling judged. It's not meant to replace professional help, but to make conversations around health feel more normal and more accessible. At the same time, I realize that there's only so much a student-led effort can do in its own. Reaching more students, especially those in underserved areas, is challenging without broader support. So I'm here today to ask how the city might be able to support or collaborate with youth-led efforts like mine. Even small forms of support like access to community spaces, helping sharing information, or guidance on how to connect with more schools could make a real difference in expanding on what we're able to do. i also think that there's value in continuing to include youth voices in conversations like this students are directly experiencing these challenges and being a part of the situation helps make those efforts more relevant and effective my goal isn't to ask for something unrealistic but to open the door for collaboration and to see what might be possible if students in the city worked more closely together thank you for your time

You're welcome. I'm gonna ask you to connect with Allison VanGilder, Deputy City Manager who works directly with our Youth Commission and Parks and Recreation Department to connect. Thank you very much for being here. All right, any other public comments for items not on tonight's agenda? All right, seeing none, next on the agenda is, oh, go ahead, sorry, Kevin, welcome.

Hi, Kevin McLarty, District 1. And I wanted to speak about the renaming of the baseball field. It's my understanding that John Thurmond Field has been renamed. I want to speak in opposition to this and ask that you reverse this decision. And John Thurman was an assemblyman in this area. Before that, he was a member of the Board of Supervisors. He was a farmer. I knew him. He was a very humble, down-to-earth man. not at all pretentious, very humble, very down to earth, very easy to talk to. He was an advocate for the schools, for education. He brought the first flu shots to this area and he was a prolific submitter of bills to the assembly for this area and probably submitted more bills than most other legislators did. And a strong advocate for the valley, for farmers, for water for the valley, for all of the causes that pertain to agriculture. And it's a real shame to rename the field I think it's Woodchuck or Woodland Field or something like that, not named after a person, named after an entity. I guess because the company that is remodeling the baseball field wanted the field named after them. I don't know what it is, but anyway. It was for a reason that had nothing to do with John Thurman, that's for sure. So anyway, I really would like for you to reverse that decision and You know, Modesto has lost a lot of its heritage. And, you know, the Hotel Cavell, the downtown buildings that were made of brick that were, you know, dated back to the 1800s, they're all gone now. There's so many things that are gone. This would be, you know, adding insult to injury, tearing that down. I mean, taking his name down from the park and renaming it something else. That just adds more insult to the heritage, to the memory of, you know, to Modesto's heritage. And also I wanted to... take a moment to remember Diane Coates who was a regular attendee here. She was a very strong advocate for the rights of the homeless and she passed away the other day and so I hope that we can remember her and thank you.

You're welcome. Any other public comments for items not on the agenda? All right, seeing none, next on the agenda is consent items. An item may be removed from consent and discussed at the request of a member of the public or a council member. Is there anyone on the council that would like a consent item removed for further discussion? Seeing none, is there anyone in the public that would like an item removed from consent for further discussion or comment? Will the City Clerk please read the consent items?

Yes, Mayor. Item 4, consider approving the minutes for the April 7, 2026 Council meeting. Item 5, consider approving the sale of 1,875 square feet of surplus exempt property identified as APN number 017-012-012 located at Grimes Avenue. Modesto, California in the amount of $7,500 and the sale of 880 square feet of surplus exempt property identified as APN number 072-04001 located at 917 Carolyn Drive, Turlock, California in the amount of $4,500. Item 6, consider approving an agreement with Turning Point Community Program providing short-term rental assistance for individuals experiencing homelessness in the amount not to exceed $1,341,040. Item seven, consider accepting the monthly investment report for January 2026. Item eight, consider accepting an informational report for the February 2026 accounts payable payment register and void report. Item nine, consider accepting an informational report on the January and February 2026 grant applications and awards. Item 10, consider approving the purchase for a trailer mounted Portable stage to Century Industries LLC, Sellersburg, Indiana, for a total amount not to exceed $275,303. Item 11, consider rescinding Resolution 2026-76 to rectify a clerical error between the resolution and lease amendment with Beard Land Improvement Company of Modesto, California, for the lease of the Modesto Fire Department Administration Building located at 402. 912 Street, Modesto, California, extending the term of the agreement to March 31, 2029, increasing the agreement amount by $490,716 to a new estimated total amount not to exceed $1,196,790. Item 12, consider approving an agreement for general liability third-party administration to George Hills Company Rancho Cordova, California for a total amount not to exceed $2,511,800 over five years. And item 13, consider approving an agreement for the transport of non-hazardous wastewater debris for two disposal site services with Bertolotti Modesto Disposal Incorporated, Modesto, California for a total amount not to exceed $158,946 over five years.

Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? So moved. Moved by Council Member Wright. Second?

Second.

Second by Council Member Bavaro. Will the clerk please call the roll for this item?

Council Member Alvarez. Aye. Council Member Rickey. Aye. Council Member Bavaro.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. And Mayor Zwollin.

Aye. Carries 6-0. Next on the agenda is council comments and reports. Do any of the council members have any comments and reports? Vice Mayor Williams.

Thank you, Mayor. There's a lot that took place in the last week or so. I'm not going to talk about that, but the one most important thing for me today is that my two twin sons turned 38 years old, so it's their birthday, and I want to tell them, Dad loves you, happy birthday, and we'll see you at Skewers, maybe.

All right. Any other comments and reports? It was delightful to participate in Love Modesto. I'm proud that that originated here and is such an amazing part of our community. I have multiple things that I could report on. Our new fire chief is here, Shannon Evans. That was announced recently, so we're delighted that we have our new fire chief and for the work they do in our community just last night. They responded to my children's home and showed their expertise and knowledge and professionalism in a way that I was so proud to call them ours. I held my State of the City Address on Thursday, April 16th, well attended at the State Theater. Thank you for anyone that took the time that evening to attend. Lots of things going on. One of the most delightful things that I did was spoke at Miss Acosta's third grade class at Modesto Christian School. And if you're having a bad day and you want a good day, go speak to a classroom full of third graders. They were delightful. I will end there. Councilmember Rickey.

I just want to thank our new baseball team, the Modesto Roadsters, for all the investment they're doing in our stadium and in selling the naming rights to the stadium. That's something that we as a city haven't been able to do in the last 70 years. So it's impressive that they were able to get modern woodmen to come out and purchase the naming rights. That deal, it's a 10 year deal, it's worth over $2 million with almost $400,000 coming back to the city of Modesto. I think this is going to be a really great thing for our city. And it's also exciting because they're going to be opening an office here and they're going to be hiring people. So this is the kind of deal we want in Modesto. This is the kind of partnership we want with our professional baseball team. And I'm excited to welcome. Thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome. Any other comments? Council Member Alvarez.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I thought I clicked it earlier. I didn't realize the button wasn't. But it's sticking today. Yeah, it is. I'll be brief. I respect everybody's time. I know a lot of folks here for a particular item. So this past weekend, over on the south side of District 2 at the flea market or... more accurately named Rematito, held their annual Kids Day event or Dia del Niño. And Save Mart, I want to give a big shout out to Save Mart companies for volunteering and their in-kind contributions. At this event, families and kids of those families were able to receive a free toy or a gift from South Modesto Businesses United non-profit, thanks to the Save Mark companies donating those in-kind contributions. So that was lots of toys, lots of smiles, and great food. And then this weekend coming up on the 2nd, South Modesto Businesses United, again, is going to be hosting their annual Single the Mile parade over on Crows Landing Road. That parade is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and there will be a variety of different floats and parade participants attending, and there will be a Grand Marshal. I'm forgetting exactly who the Grand Marshal is this year, but myself and several of my colleagues typically attend. Thousands of folks typically line the streets for that Cinco de Mayo event. And that's about it, Mayor. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, everyone. Does the city manager have any comments and reports at this time? All right. Thank you. Next on the agenda is new business. Consider accepting the Citizen Salary Setting Commission 2026 recommendations for the mayor and council members' salaries and setting a public hearing for the May 12, 2026 council meeting to consider an ordinance amending the salaries pursuant to the Modesto Charter Section 703, and we will have a presentation. Welcome.

Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council Members. uh my name is sandy sutton i was honored with the position of chair of this commission this past season and colleen preston is the vice chair and i don't know if our other members are here but let me give you an idea of where we're headed uh i'm going to present the first few slides then colleen is going to go over the methodology that we use to come up with our our choice and our decision and then we'll have the city manager or sorry the city attorney will will take care of his aspect of it and then we'll uh and we're gonna allow for questions as well so uh just to get started i want to introduce to you our commission uh we had five people on the commission and we had uh oh thank you thank you yeah we had uh julie julie sogsted and i don't know if julie or any of our commission is here and Seth Simas and Steve Zagaris. And the five of us spent a month or two months working towards establishing a salary for the mayor and for the council members. This was a great team, a lot of synergy. Everybody made a great contribution to it, and we were very pleased with that. And the staff, unbelievably supportive. We had, of course, the city clerk, Diane, Perez and Christina out Christina who's part of director of the human resources and Dana Sanchez And the city attorney's office. We had three We had City attorney and two deputies. I believe that they came alongside of us. So they were and they just provided great information and Helped us move it along pretty pretty well and And then, of course, for our mayor and our council, thank you very much for appointing us. That's an honor, and it was a pleasure to serve in that capacity this time around. okay so uh what i would like to do is give you some background and uh the the city charter establishes uh the guidelines for salaries for elected officials and it establishes a citizen salary setting commission it's a mouthful and uh and the commission is made up of five people five five qualified electors Residing within the city of Modesto and appointed by the council. The meeting requirements are that we meet from March the 1st to April 30th. And during that period of time, we met eight times and we had two public hearings. to continue on, the salary guidelines are established as well by the charter. So the salary for the mayor shall be no more than 50% of the salary of the Superior Court judge in Stanislaus County, and that cap is $124,184, and the salary for The council members shall be no more than 50% of the median family income from a desk to the metropolitan statistical area. And that amount is $39,945. Currently, the salaries that the mayor and the council members have were established two years ago in 2024. uh that was established uh yeah 2024 and that followed no increases from 2008 and i think you if you remember that part of it the mayor's current salary is 54 000 a year and the council members current salary is 30 000 per year

And now we're going to have Okay, great. Hi, this is Colleen Preston, and I will carry on with our methodology that we use and also our analysis that really helped us get to a result of coming with the recommendation to present here tonight. So what we did from the very beginning is that we really wanted to get a snapshot of what has been happening here in Modesto since 2024. So we first of all looked at the population. Our population growth has been flat since 2024, virtually no growth at all. We still are the 19th largest city in California. The median household income is $79,891. That is a 9% increase over 2024. I do want to just remind people of what the definition of median household, that means half are above 79, half are below. And a household for working people full-time, it's about 1.7 in a household that make that $79,000. We also, as a commission, noted that About 25% leave our county to go to work and many of them go to the Bay Area to commute. There's like a 10% super commuters that really commute away 90 minutes per time there and back in order to make their salary. We also looked at the individual per capita full time income and that is flat since 2024 at 32,706. We noted on the commission that we have a 13.3% poverty rate here. We also noted that when we looked at zip codes, there's really a salary inequity amongst some of the zip codes that all of you represent. The CPI has risen 5.4% since 2024. So we also did a data review. We did a data review of salary data for mayors and council members utilizing cities that were comparable in population and expenses. It's really not the budget, but it's the expenses that are really overseen by those councils. We also looked at the structure of the cities. Do they have a full-time mayor or do they have a part-time mayor structure? Because that drives the salary from what we gathered, the information that we gathered. We also looked at just the salaries of Stanislaus County just so that we could stay up to date from 2024. So you can see this is, whoops, sorry about that. That went quicker than what you had told me it would go. Anyway, the mayor's salaries from comparable cities, you can see how the solid line really divides up, separates between full-time and part-time. And you can see where we are with Modesto with our mayor at, is that 54,000? It's kind of really small for me. But you can see how we really are doing okay for part-time mayors when you look at population and expenses. In the county, you can see we do have the largest population and the largest expenses that we are much higher than the other neighboring cities in Stanislaus County. The council member salaries, we did the same thing. We did comparable cities, but we also still looked at the structure. Are they represented by a full-time mayor or a part-time mayor? And so we put the salaries together and took a view of it. And you can see where Modesto is. We're doing okay. We also looked at the salaries in Stanislaus County. And after all that analysis and review of really the snapshot of the city, kind of what the structures are of all the cities throughout California, we came up with a recommendation for a salary increase. I'm going to let the commissioner. Take it away. No drum roll. Oh, we do want to, I should have done this one. We do want to thank you for your public service. We know that you volunteer a lot of time. You go to a lot of crab feeds that we've heard about. And you have a lot of extra duties and requirements. And we really took all that into account. I really would like to say that the commission was really pretty thorough. I think in your packet, you might have the, It was a brief that we put together. We even put a glossary of terms together. So we really did our due diligence and thank you again for allowing us to serve. And go ahead.

So our final recommendation is that the salary increase recommendation is 6.2%. So the mayor's salary shall be set at no more than $57,348, or $4,779 a month. And the council member's salary shall be set at no more than $31,860, which is $2,655 a month. And at this point, we would like to have the city attorney provide his part. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. Mayor, members of the council, so where are we now with the process? I think the chair and advisor did a great job of going through kind of the requirements so far of the charter and the work of the commission. Now the commission is presenting their recommendation to the council. And this is the meeting tonight. Under the charter, as stated in the slide and in the agenda report, the recommendation now comes with also with the reasoning. I think the Chair and the Vice Chair have covered the reasoning. It's also in your packet regarding the reasoning for their recommendation. After the presentation, the Council, well, prior to even getting here, the recommendation, the Commission actually held two public hearings to present to the public. They held the public hearings actually earlier this month. where the two public hearings noticed that happened. One of them, I believe, happened here in the chambers. Two of them, April 6th and April 13th. So handling that part of the charter. Now that the recommendation is submitted to the council, it's final as far as on their behalf. You can't send it back to the commission for additional work on it. The council can now receive it. You can adjust it up or down. Not up or down, sorry. You can adjust it down, not up. from their recommendation. The council, in order to adopt it, has to do it by ordinance, and that ordinance requires a 20-day public hearing. So what you're doing today is, in the recommended motions, is one, is accepting the Citizen Salary Setting Commission's 2026 recommendations, and also making a motion setting the public hearing for May 12th. The city has already noticed the public hearing. So the public is aware it has been noticed since it requires a 20 day pursuant to the charter. And that's that's the recommendation that staff is asking the council to consider. Happy to answer any questions regarding the legal requirements.

Thank you. If you'll stay there for questions from council members. Are there any questions from council members at this time? All right, seeing none, are there any members of the public that would like to speak regarding item 14 at this time? Yes, please come forward. And Sandy and Colleen, if you could just step to the side while Kevin comes to the microphone, thank you.

All right, so what I'd like to know is, This includes any kind of 401 or retirement plan or pension plan? And also, does it entail or include medical benefits of any kind or medical and general benefits for them? Thank you.

From what I understand, and I'm sure the council will be able to help me out with this, but the council members are able to pay for the medical plans that are offered by the city. They are not given any or given any monies toward medical. You do have an opportunity for a 401 , as I believe, or not a 401 , something. It's not really retirement, but it's... Christina is from HR. Good. Where is she?

She's behind you, yeah.

Okay.

I cannot answer that. I know. I do not participate in any benefits.

Good evening, Christine Alger, Director of Human Resources. So because we don't participate in Social Security and we are a PERS agency, we are required for those that don't qualify for PERS, we're required to provide what we call a PARS. It's kind of like a 457, but it replaces a Social Security um portion of what they would have gotten if they if we did social security so They put they pay in 3.2 percent the city pays in 3.2 percent of their salary So that that's how that works Okay You do get a little something that's required by law All right Thank you Any other questions from the public or comments at this time from the public regarding item 14?

All right. Seeing none, I will close public comments. Any comments from council members? Council Member Bavaro.

Thank you, Mayor. It's a little bit awkward talking about the salaries the council and the mayor gets, but I would first of all like to thank Sandy and his citizen salary setting commission for taking the time and doing the research and working out the methodology which you shared with us. I would like to say that this council is a very active council. The mayor is a full-time job. here every day and meeting with constituents and dealing with issues at hand. So I can speak with all of us here, probably work around 35 hours a week between preparing for city council meetings, which are on weekends usually, preparing for committee hearings. And when you have six or seven zeros behind a number, you really need to focus. And so we do, all of us are very diligent about doing that and preparing ourselves. But for myself, I will speak, I will not speak for others. For myself, I can afford to run for council and not depend on the salary paid by the city. And not everybody who runs for office or thinking about running for office has that luxury. Somebody working a 40 hour job making 120,000 a year with benefits included. If they run for council, they're gonna have to work something out because these are 30 to 35 hour positions. They're gonna have to work something out with their employer. And so they're gonna cut back and become part-time. So they're gonna have like two part-time jobs and no insurance because most employers will cover full-time employees for benefits. So at some point, we need to find that sweet spot where somebody who's raising a family that's young wants to get involved with the process to be able to do so and make a contribution to our community. As it is right now, with all due respect, you're going to have guys like me on the council. who is not looking at raising a family or having to make house payments and those sort of things, soccer shoes. I mean, I have some for sale, but you know. So at some point in the future, I would like to see where we can pull the talent from the city of Modesto from different ages and different backgrounds and and be able to say, yes, I'm going to run for city council and I can afford to do so and feed my kids, my family. And so that's all I have to say. Thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome. Council Member Rickey.

Thanks, Mayor. I just want to back up what Council Member Bavaro just said. you know, having the privilege to be on council because you have a job that's flexible or because you make enough money or because you're retired or because you have a pension or because you own your own business. This is kind of how it's been in Modesto for many, many years. And I think that, and I don't think it's the citizens, committee's responsibility to change that necessarily, right? You're restricted. You can't say, hey, you know, we should try to fix this. But I think it's a charter issue. But I do think it's something we should consider, like we should make it so that more people can participate in government and provide us with different perspectives. And unfortunately, because we are limited, that's just not something that can happen right now. Thank you.

And we took those things into account. but we also really looked at the snapshot of what our residents are in Modesto and what kind of salaries they were making. And so, you know, we know that this is service and And when we feel your pain, and you're right, it's probably a charter issue. We did two years ago, we made the recommendation. We know you have a lot of committees. I even made a grid on all the committees that you go to. And maybe there's some ways to streamline some things or look for best practices from other cities or change our model. Right now, we really, the city manager is the one that really runs the city. And so we'd have to, I think, look at our whole executive structure if we're going to start paying, you know, You know a hundred and fifty thousand for the mayor and you know seventy thousand for for council members I think we'd have to look at our whole structure and To do due diligence for our residents where a lot of them probably can't even afford to buy a home here with their with their salaries They really can't so I don't know we really did our best within our constraints And we did make your salary adjustment higher than CPI so you know we

You know, so I would add this. I think it'd be worthy of establishing a task force of some sort. I don't think another committee is necessary, but maybe you have the citizens task force that comes together and pulls together a lot of statistics. We know, especially this council, how hard you work. And so, and we did, we had a lot of conversation about that. And you're right, there's nothing we can do about it because the Charter's already established those things. But I think that it'd be worth looking at.

All right, any other comments from council members at this time? I agree with my colleagues that it would be wonderful for more people to have the opportunity to serve in these positions, and I'm honored to do it. I just want to thank you, Sandy Sutton, for chairing the Citizen Salary Setting Commission, and Colleen Preston for being the vice chair. I know that you did this completely independent of us. You asked for our input. I gave you some input to what my day looks like and the other council members did, and I really do truly appreciate your service to our community and the conscientiousness with which you carried out this responsibility. So I have two votes for this. First is I need a motion accepting the Citizen Salary Setting Commission 2026 recommendations for the mayor and council members' salaries. Motion by Council Member Wright. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Council Member Bavaro. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Alvarez?

Aye.

Council Member Rickey? Aye. Council Member Bavaro?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright.

Aye.

And Mayor Zwollin.

Aye. Carries 6-0. I need a motion setting a public hearing for the May 12, 2026 council meeting and directing the city attorney to draft an ordinance amending the salaries for the mayor and council members pursuant to Charter Section 703. Do I have a motion?

Motion.

Motion by...

Whoever you want.

Council Member Alvarez. Second.

Second by Vice Mayor Williams. Will the clerk please call the roll? Council Member Alvarez. Aye. Council Member Rickey. Aye. Council Member Bavaro.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright.

Aye. And Mayor Zwollin. Aye. Carries 6-0. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. For doing the presentation. Thank you very much. Item 15, consider selecting a preferred land use alternative for the comprehensive general plan update. And we will have a staff report by Jessica Hill.

Thank you, Mayor, City Council, Jessica Hill, Director of Community and Economic Development. So today we're going to be going over the comprehensive general plan update through 2050 and then our preferred land use alternatives. So for a little bit of history, Modesto was incorporated in 1884 and in 1959 adopted its first general plan. In 1995 was the last time we had our comprehensive general plan update where we proposed our sphere of influence increase of 7,800 acres. And at that time council approved that and LAFCO only approved 702 acres. And today through 2027, we're working on our next general plan update, which will encompass kind of where my city could grow through 2050. So the general plan update matters because it's more of a blueprint for future growth. So it not only includes land use and where the city could potentially grow, it speaks about transportation, open space, traffic, zoning, jobs, cultural resources, and housing. So a little bit about our history and why we need to grow. So Modesto hasn't grown substantially since the 1990s, despite being the county seat and all the other incorporated cities within Stanislaus County have grown more than Modesto. So essentially Modesto is losing economic opportunities to our neighbors. Other corridor cities along the 99 and 5 have grown at a faster rate than Modesto and so our city is behind economically. And the city needs to plan for and have appropriate space for new development to help bring new amenities, a pride for a variety of housing options, jobs, as well as revenue. The areas identified for potential growth are in addition to what we're doing with our infill actions, as well as our downtown revitalization projects. And so those infill projects will still stay underway. And so when we look at our current sphere of influence, which is 35,790 acres, only 5% of our existing sphere of influence is considered vacant, which isn't enough to support growth. And so that's 1,840 acres and only 330 of those acres are industrial. So really looking at our infill activities, these have been actions decided and directed by council of things that staff will continue to do, continue to promote great things in Modesto. So we already have two mixed use zones, which includes multifamily residential and our commercial corridors. We also have a higher density of residential zoning. And so we've increased our R1, R2, and R3 zones to accommodate higher density housing, and that was done in 2023. We work really closely with different landowners in order to help really engage them of really looking for opportunities for redevelopment and filling their vacant buildings. We've done a couple of master plans, our Southwest Minesto plan and our downtown master plan to really kind of plan for our housing and economic growth opportunities are in the process of implementing those things. We are also currently working on our downtown Modesto Multimodal Transportation Network and Land Use Compatibility Action Plan. That is a mouthful, but basically we know a lot of great things are happening downtown. We're looking at the future of the courthouse, the ACE train, and really looking at land use and transportation and what that looks like for our future. So how an expanded sphere of influence can help. So what that basically does is as we're going through our general plan update, we're considering to grow our sphere of influence. And if adopted by city council, this expanded sphere of influence would then need to be approved by Stanislaus Local Agency Formation Commission, otherwise known as LAFCO. Areas in the expanded sphere of influence do not automatically come part of the city of Modesto and there are not automatically sites for development. And so any land that's identified in our general plan update, the property owners would have to then initiate annexation, which does require additional planning commission, city council and LAFCO approval. What they do do is they identify potential areas that could receive city services and infrastructure if they wanted to annex to the city in the future. And so essentially current city residents would benefit by enhanced city services made possible through this growth and increased economic activity. So when we're looking at the city revenue, city only receives revenue from economic activity and taxable properties which are inside city limits. And so if a business or property is located just outside the city boundary, those taxes go to another jurisdiction or the county. When new development occurs just outside city limits, the city often re-incurs some indirect costs such as increased traffic on city streets without receiving any of the associated revenue associated with that development. And so expanding city limits and attracting businesses and encourage housing group growth provides more quality funding for quality of life services, including police, fire, transportation improvements, parks and open space. So this slide overall really compares the city of Modesto to other jurisdictions within the California. And what it's taking is per our service population and our general fund expenditures as of fiscal year 2022, we can spend about $590 per person in our community. What we're looking at is when we're comparing it, we see that many of the other cities such as Tracy was able to spend 795. Turlock is able to spend higher at 668. And so we just don't have enough revenue to continue to support our population as some of our neighboring cities do. When we look at this next slide, this really looks at our service population again, and then our taxable sales. So the sales that are happening within the city of Modesto. And as we're seeing is our taxable per capita taxable sales are 12,650. And what we're seeing is a lot of our other local jurisdictions have much higher, which is meaning that more sales are being generated in those cities in comparison to where they're being generated in the city. So what this derives is people who live within the city of Modesto are going outside the city of Modesto to access some goods or services that they are looking for. So some key considerations that we looked at as we were shaping all our alternatives through 2050 is we wanted to ensure we plan for a variety of housing options. So the state requires all jurisdictions to go through a housing element and have a regional housing needs assessment. And Modesto for this period of time was identified to have 11,248. And this cycle is going to happen three more times before 2050, which would mean we need to plan for 11,248 three additional times in order to meet what the state requirements is for our housing demand. One of the other key things is mitigation measures will be put in place for agricultural land that's transitioned for housing uses. And so what that means, if there's any ag land that is identified as prime farmland, we have to mitigate that and come up with a plan at the time that land annexes. And so that is in place currently and will continue to be in place as we look at potential growth for the city. And then identifying an expanded sphere of influence, give landowners the opportunity to develop in the future if desired. It's just giving them access to the infrastructure that the city of Modesto can provide. So one of the key things that we do in conjunction with our general plan update and in conjunction with any annexation that happens into the city is we ensure there's adequate services for growth. And so as we go through our general plan process and as we go through our next phase, we ensure that we've looked at water delivery, wastewater collection and treatment, storm drain, fire protection, police protection, transportations and schools to ensure that we have all of those items identified and planned for as we look at approving our general plan update and a potential sphere of influence increase. So this is a look at our current city boundaries and sphere of influence. As you can see, our current city limits are just over 24,000 and our current sphere of influence is 35,790. As we're looking at residents that we currently have in Modesto, our population is 219, 215 individuals and our median age is 35.1. So here is a summary of the three growth alternatives and what they could look like. You have alternative one, which is our largest growth, alternative two, which is our medium growth, and alternative three, which is our smallest growth. I do wanna say there was a change in the acreages. They are actually a reduction from what was in the staff report. And so I will state that right-of-way was previously in there and the slide of community plan.

And so we made sure to take those out to make sure that we really reflect what would be a potential sphere of influence increase.

So as we look at alternative one, this is our largest growth. So we're gonna start at the east. You can see the east extension's gonna be north of Parker Road and aligned with the riverbank sphere of influence. As we look at the north, the north is looking to expand up to Ladd Road. Again, our largest growth area to encompass more of our business park or industrial areas as well as some residential. As you look at our western side, we're looking for growth north of Beckwith to stop over at Tombs Road. This is to have some commercial opportunities as well as business park opportunities along our main transportation corridors. And then we look specifically at the south and along 132. So many cities, as you can see, they're growing along their main transportation corridors and looking at that area to have a lot more of the job generating land use activities along the 132 to again help with the 132 and connection for jobs in between the 99 and the five. One key thing I do want to point out in all of the alternatives, the original wood colony tract that was stated in 1904 is not a part of any of the alternatives.

So I do want to state that.

As we look at Alternative 2, Alternative 2, the growth to the east stays the same. The growth to the north is a little less. It actually goes to the MID lateral, which is directly south of Ladd Road. And then when we look to the east, the northern part, I'm sorry, when we look to the west, the northern part stays the same, except it has some changes in land use. And when we look to the south, it's if tombs would actually extend all the way up to the 132, which would be where that total southern growth along the 132 would be. Our last alternative three, again, this is looking up and aligns with Crawford Road to the north. And then when you're looking at the east, you can see it actually doesn't. I'm sorry, looking to the west again, I did that twice now. You're seeing that over at the west on the northern part of it, it doesn't go all the way along back with two tombs. It actually has a little notch up. And then in the Southern part of the 132, it actually shows it through Dakota. So as part of a fiscal impact, the fiscal impact was done for each of the three alternatives where they reviewed all the revenue that each alternative could generate, as well as potential increased expenses for city costs. And so it was reviewed at property tax, vehicle license tax, sales tax, business license tax, transient occupancy tax, utility Uber fees, and franchise fees. And so when we look at all three alternatives, we're seeing that there'll be annual general fund revenues that will be generated by this potential new development, as well as additional general fund expenditures. And so you can see the net fiscal impacts annually for alternative one, two, and three. It's 34 million, 30, and then it goes, drops down to 28. So when we had these three alternative maps, we did a series of community workshops. So we held three community workshops, and we had a total of 108 attendees. Staff also attended two special workshops, one specifically for Wood Colony and one for Salida, both who invited the city to be there to do this presentation. During that feedback period of time, the city received 54 emailed comments, and we followed up with all of those emails and offered follow-up meetings, and nine wanted and took follow-up meetings with staff who had additional questions. Some major themes for the comments are support for infill development and mixed use, support for incentivizing development, especially affordable housing and workforce housing, Preservation of agricultural land. More clearly delineate the public facilities, schools, and existing parks to showcase complete neighborhoods. We had opposition to residential development west of Highway 99 and opposition to the sphere influence and expansion into Wood Colony. There was a consideration of renaming the alternatives to avoid bias, a look at the potential conservation easement along a parcel along 132, and the need to address traffic impacts through adequate public infrastructure along 99. During this period of time, the city also received four letters of support which were focused on our largest growth alternative, alternative one, to help with the growth of business in Modesto. So following that, we did hold a joint planning commission and city council workshop on March 18th. And that was to go through this presentation as well as review the three land use alternatives, outline our community outreach efforts, and to present the comments that were received during those workshops. At the workshop, staff received additional comments from the public who had the following feedback. We had many landowners who spoke who wanted the opportunity to annex in the city in the future and wanted to be included in the sphere of influence. We had feedback to ensure staff looked at that complete neighborhoods acknowledgement of a need to grow West with encouragement of healthy and responsible growth that allows for livable wages stopping people from being surprised out of their own homes. I need to understand the public impact to find the balance that improves with the with the work to look at our air quality in in our air quality overall. So recommendations to seek partnerships with the community to find champions within staff and city council to consider bringing additional projects here to the city and a need for really shovel ready grounds in a place that allows development that we see happening in other communities. So following all the public comments, we also received comments from the planning commission and city council, which really directed staff to evaluate and consider the following items. So review those transportation needs in the west area expansion, look for additional mixed use opportunities, find ways to incentivize greater infill development, finding industrial space to grow as a necessity. And then staff should also, excuse me, work with the landowners along the 132 corridor and the west side who want to be included in the sphere of influence. So with all of that feedback, staff's presenting, staff compiled all the feedback and we made the following changes. I'm gonna outline them and then show the map. So we were able to increase the mixed use designations. We did remove the agricultural conservation easement. We actually identified it as open space. The boundary changes to the west, we looked at those to have an improved transportation and circulation network west of 99. And also we identified the property owners who have reached out directly to council and or staff to be added into the proposed sphere of influence. The boundary changes to the north include the Kiernan Avenue and properties south of State Route 99 to accommodate improved access from the State Route 219 to the 99, and then include new land use designations that clearly delineate public facilities, schools, and existing parts to more accurately represent the existing uses across the city. We also made an adjustment with anything that we had current applications in or existing specific plans to ensure that the land use aligned with what those were as well. So here are key things in our proposed preferred land use alternative map. I'll point out some key areas. So you can see there's a lot more orange on the map. And the orange is the designation as mixed use. And so what staff worked really closely with our consultants on is really look at our main transportation corridors. Things added were Staniford, it was down Crows Landing. You can see the area adjacent across the freeway from the mall, which is added as mixed use. So try to find some more mixed use opportunities. If you can kind of zoom in on the map, you can see all of the parcels that staff received feedback from. And so staff received feedback from everyone that has a star on that. And so on those key things there is on the northern part of the west expansion, the most growth expansion included it only to go to tombs. And so if tombs were to extend down and that aligns with where the slide a community plan was because of interest that we had west of that and because it was outside the original wood colony boundary, staff did increase that to actually go through the parcels that were interested in potentially being part of the sphere of influence. When you look in the southern part, we did speak about that conservation easement that we were looking at along the 132. You can see that's in green. So that's open space that is designated as open space and no development in the future. And then you can see that area adjacent to 99. It's a horizontal orange strip. And that's really looking at the transportation in between the growth proposed along the 132 and the growth proposed up to Beckwith. And so you can see we have it as a mixed use designation to help support housing and commercial development next to our MJC West, as well as helping with transportation between those two areas. And those were some of the main changes that were made. I'm now going to show it to you actually and how it looks numerically. And so I'm going to pull up my so I can speak to it directly. So this is comparing what our existing sphere of influence is compared to alternative one compared to what we're proposing today. As you can see, some of the major big changes is we were able to increase our mixed use density by 2000 acres. And that was really to trying to look creatively at our commercial corridors and create, you know, that mixture of mixed use as well as commercial options. In order to do so, we eliminated some regional commercial and we eliminated some neighborhood commercial. And what that means is we're creating greater flexibility in those general areas. We also were able to identify all of our public facilities, which has a difference of 1,240, and then looking at our business center component. And so you can see our business center component was increased, which is our light industrial of about 700 acres. And so in total, when we're looking at our existing sphere of influence, And we're looking at our proposed preferred alternative. We're looking for a sphere of influence increase of 12,240 acres. So as we look at our preferred alternative, our preferred alternative and our difference to alternative one, the residential units that could be produced is about 56,570. And then our retail office and industrial space could be about 71.4 million square feet. So as we go through this process, our next step is our CEQA. And so the CEQA process begins with the selection of the preferred alternative as the proposed project that will be analyzed in the environmental impact report and takes about 15 months. The selection of the proposed project does not bind the city to approve the proposed project. Instead, it's the starting point and the process that includes the examination of changes to the proposed projects, any mitigation measures for the proposed project that would need to take place, and alternatives to what that proposed map would look like. At the end of the process, the council may choose to approve the proposed project, the proposed project with modifications, or some alternative to the proposed project. So as staff took a look at it, staff recommends that council select a proposed project that includes the largest amount of land that the council would consider adding to our general plan area. And that's because it is far easier for the city to analyze all environmental impacts of the larger project and ultimately approve a smaller project than it is for the city then to add land in in the future. And so because the CEQA process would have to start completely over. So again, adding land late in the process would require the city to revise its already ongoing or completed environmental analysis, which could delay and expense the entire project. Conversely, when you chose to remove land of the proposed project at the end of the process, once we determine all mitigation measures, it would likely result in less environmental impacts than those already analyzed in the EIR and would not require any additional CEQA analysis. So next steps after today, I'm hoping to have council direction on a preferred alternative. Staff and our consultant will continue to work together for our general plan policies review and update our environmental review. We will be looking for council approval of our draft general plan in summer of 2027. And then following of our council approval, it would then go to LAFCO for that sphere of influence amendment. And with that, I do have a staff recommendation, but I'm also happy to answer any questions.

All right, thank you, Jessica, for your report. Does Council have any questions of staff? Council Member Bavaro. Thank you, Mayor. Looking at your map on the west side of

Yeah, on the west side. I see on south of Beckwith, west of 99, there is approximately 30 acres. I think there's four parcel owners. Over the weekend, I was informed by either the property owners and or their representatives that they also wanted to be included in the sphere of influence. And your staff did not include that portion. I was wanting to know why.

Absolutely. So staff was trying to balance a lot of the different feedback I received from both planning commission and council. And one of the biggest feedback that we've received overall is really staying out of the original wood colony. And the original wood colony tract that was approved in 1904 actually abuts up to Beckwith and then over in that general area as well. So those four parcels are in the original wood colony. And so that's why staff did not recommend them to move forward.

On your council agenda report for this evening, I believe page six you have a projected full build out of units. Can you, I'm not sure if you gave us this information, but can you tell us on the residential units what's the current footprint as well as industrial space?

Yes, I can. So I am going to go back here. So here's what it looks like for our preferred alternative. So our preferred alternative is looking at having about 56,570 new units of housing. And then with our proposed alternative build out for the new industrial and commercial square footages, we're looking at the 71.4 million of that as well.

Okay, and under the CEQA, You mentioned they're going to do water studies as well, correct?

Absolutely, yes.

And sewer studies?

Correct.

Okay. And how about dealing with the transportation issues over there west of 99 on Beckwith, moving the traffic flow north to south by eliminating that 30-acre parcel? That would seem to me be very difficult to have a good traffic flow there. It should be kind of like what we see that's being done out by Rodin's property there, where they are building out. So you just see a real sharp turn. So that kind of concerns me about how that's going to be mitigated. But I'm done asking questions at this time. Allow other council members to speak.

Any other questions from council members? All right. I will now open item 15, open to the public. I will call the cards, the names on the cards in the order that I received them. I currently have 26 cards. Each person has three minutes. The first is Garrett Marsh.

Thank you, Mayor. I passed out some sheets about population growth. And the one real question I have about the whole plan that's being presented to you is there's no nexus between what our community, our state, our country is going to grow and how much we're providing for. Right now, the projection for our, we have 76,000 housing units approximately in Modesto right now. They're talking about adding 50,000 more, about 80% growth, 60,000 on some of the plans. Right now, the projection for the peak population of the United States by 2080 is a growth of about 8%. That's not 8% a year, that's 8% total for the next five decades. And yet, we're planning for 80% more housing in Modesto. It just doesn't make sense. There's no combination. It's kind of like a field of dreams. If we plan it, they will come. Well, I don't think so, you know. Of these choices that you're being given, you aren't given the choice of where we are today. They haven't told you how many housing units that are currently available to be built or planned residential. And how are you going to get to 60,000 more housing units. Where are you going to get the people? California's had negative growth since 2050. This last year, the growth in our state was less than 1 tenth of 1%. And they're also considering that it's not even by 2080 if reduced immigration, legal immigration, Happens it might be 2043 when the United States equals it reaches its maximum population 2043 17 years from now and All the factors, birth rate, the United States is projected by four years from now, 2023, to have death and birth rate equal, zero growth from internal population, just in four years. I think when you look at all these things, the planning that you're given doesn't give you the choice of none of the above. And I think none of the above is the appropriate choice. I would say you're talking about spending millions of dollars. It costs millions of dollars to do CEQA and all the other environmental things. You're planning on doing millions of dollars for a field of dreams.

Thank you. Next is Lori Wolf. Lori Wolf.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. Former Mayor Marsh addressed all the things that I've been thinking about too, and I just want to add that I think such an expansive plan as presented is disappointing, unimaginative, and pave it over business as usual. If approved on such a scale, it will increase traffic, increase air pollution. It will take away existing jobs and homes and replace them with different jobs and homes. and it seems to completely ignore farmland protection. Thank you. You're welcome.

Next is James Bejebi. Welcome.

Hello, my name is James Maggette my family owns property within the plan where we have lived and farmed for many years I want to thank the mayor and the City Council for the opportunity to speak tonight in favor of the plan being proposed I Nick, I appreciate you what you brought up about those parcels below south of Beckwith. I didn't get a chance to speak to you about that, but I'm also a part owner in some of those. And so, yes, we would like to be included as well. Throughout this process, I believe the city staff has done an excellent job with gathering factual information to logically explain and justify the need for growth in Modesto. The opposition is simply just not rational moving forward. Modesto's growth is essential. This plan provides a realistic path forward to the future. I urge you to support jobs, housing, and economic development for all the citizens of Modesto by voting yes on the general plan. Again, to the mayor and the city council, I thank you for your time tonight.

Thank you. Next is Vicky Morales.

Good evening, and thank you for meeting with the citizens of Modesto and the surrounding areas. I'm Vicki Morales. I'm with the Woodland West Community and Urban Forest. We have all heard, as Marcia had said, build it and they will come. That sounds good when we think of adding to the coffers of the city, but what about increased traffic pollution, use of city services, and many other things? We don't always need more. Often, we have enough. Covering our wonderful farmland will decrease food production, and much of California is already a bit of a food desert. I hear how California feeds the world. At the rate farmland is being taken out of production permanently, how can we produce this food? The plans for the west side will contribute greatly to our traffic and pollution problems. How are the truckers making deliveries to and from 132 going to enter 132? My understanding is just at one end or the other, not in the middle, so that's going to add much more traffic to Kansas Avenue. Okay, and one of the reasons 132 was built was to get the truckers off of Mays Boulevard where there are many stoplights and the diesels were contributing to the pollution. Growth isn't always good. Sometimes it's like a cancer. Thank you. Thank you.

I've had a request for a short break, so we will take a break and return at 7, 10 p.m. in seven minutes. Thank you. All right, we will begin again. Next person is Justin Wolf.

Thank you for this opportunity. I actually wrote a couple of A couple of speeches, wasn't sure which I was gonna give, but the presentation we had earlier filled me with admiration. I wanna laud the fine work of the ladies and gentlemen who produced the proposal. The way they came up with three options, one, two, and three. They gathered input in, they listened to it, they curated the information, and then bam! They make it even bigger, better. It was amazing. What a stroke of genius. True people of the people. These are the people that will run the People's Commission in the future glorious utopia. Not only that, but then we bring CEQA in. Our great excuse for why we have to make this thing so large is the only piece of legislation in the world that's even worse. We can blame it on CEQA. It's brilliant. I do laud that. I really laud it. This is getting good. And then the sublime beauty. of the strategy to strangle wood colony, it brings a tear to my eye. Using the technical definition of wood colony, that little cut out because that's gonna make everybody happier that we didn't take any of wood colony. We all know it's absurd, but we're not gonna say it. Just spectacular. So we found a technical way to leave wood colony alone while ruining them. It doesn't get better than that. It's a work of brilliance. to take a small two mile by three and a half mile area surrounded by a concrete jungle. Hey, them suckers will have to drive through miles of concrete just to get a gallon of milk. Not only that, but the farmers that live there, they'll slowly be pushed out of farming as it'll become impossible to transport materials, implements, produce, It will all become a logistical nightmare. There'll be complaint for noise, chemical use, everything. You can genocide them without a shot. The best part is that it's done in the name of trust and transparency right there in the document. We'll do it at the last minute. War is indeed peace. Ah, the artwork involved brings a tear to my eye. I think of that beautiful Catholic cemetery. We're going to put concrete around it. The Wood Colony Cemetery. It's nice that we're not including any of Wood Colony in this, except for the Wood Colony Cemetery. We'll put concrete right around that. I love the way we use that technical definition to do this. It's spectacular. Those people don't think about the community they have. We're going to go by the technical line. Oh, that's spectacular. Oh, I can't wait for us to bring our silver touch to the area to establish bum thoroughfares. Oh. Bum tents in almond blossoms. Like... Apples of gold in settings of silver. Amazing. I wish I could pick out my favorite part, but it's all so good. The new stars on the map are amazing. It makes it look like there's all these little small farmers that really want to be involved, or a few big landowners that have put it in there, and we didn't put the stars for the people that don't want to be involved. Brilliant. Brilliant. I like the projections of growth involved. Let's not tell anybody that the state of California says that Modesto is only going to grow by 20,000 people in the next 70 years. We're going to ignore that and build two houses for every one of them. It's brilliant. I don't know how we're going to think of this sooner. I really do like that.

Excuse me, you've exceeded your time.

Thank you. Rejoice in what we have wrought.

Next is Lisa Devicki. Lisa. Welcome.

Hello, I'm Lisa Devicki Braden. I live on Beckwith Road in the Beckwith Triangle, which is Wood Colony. You know, in 1995, the Beckwith Triangle was placed in the city's general plan boundaries. The attempt was made to add it into the sphere. It was denied by LAFCO. January 2014, it was just like this. Tons of people, cold as could be in here as you guys tried to freeze us out. The city council gerrymandered a map that would cut the residents that live on Beckwith Road out. So if there was an attempt to go to LAFCO again, we don't have a say. Wow. Thank you, you guys. That was really awesome for you to do that. You know, we need to have a say in what happens with our properties. I think tonight what you guys need to do is take a step back. This map is crazy. Like, you guys want everything. We could just hand everything over to you. I was born and raised in this town and I've seen a lot of changes. What you want to do to Wood Colony right now is unbelievable. You're taking away jobs, I understand landowners, they want to sell their property, but they don't live on Beckwith. They don't live on their land. We do. Today, for example, Beckwith Road, three times the traffic was backed up from Dakota all the way to the freeway. Three times. Can you get out of your driveway? No, you can't. You know how long it took me to get here tonight because of the traffic? Crazy. What I want you to do tonight is take a step back, Take the map, take us, put us back on there so we have a vote. If you guys, I kind of have a feeling how this is going to go tonight, but we should be able to vote what happens on our properties. So please consider taking a step back and looking at this logically, not just somebody sitting there saying, oh, what colony is only 760 acres? That's a bunch of BS. I'll tell you that right now. Thank you.

You're welcome. Next is Brad Spencer. Welcome.

Good evening, Ms. Mayor, Vice Mayor, council members and others. Neighbors. I live in the suburb called Wood Colony in Modesto. Fourth generation, fifth generation to be here tonight, but due to work. Sixth generation is in elementary school at Heart Ransom. So we've been around that area a long time along with a lot of other residents. I started to write several things. Instead, I wrote this one, Death of Wood Colony, Heritage of Modesto, one bite at a time. And since 2014, when we were in here before, October 2016, Palindale Overpass was completed. Fell short about 100 yards to get over the railroad tracks. Is that a Salida problem? Kansas Avenue, recently overlaid, 10 years overdue. Then we have the 132 expressway completed September 22, 2022, excuse me. This sees more automobile traffic than truck traffic. Suspect it's due to the amount of stoplights necessary to access the noted highway 99 expressway on-ramp, off-ramp designations. There's no flow and it's not getting any better. I don't see the information. We want to make this stick. We're taking the biggest bite that we can, and then we got greedy. And I hope LAFCO catches that. By extending even more, you're just chomping out more than what is needed. That's been stated earlier. I hope Modesto residents are being educated on what is being done here and why. Because they're the ones that got to vote most of you in. I didn't have much say there. but they're the ones that can make a difference and they need to understand what processes are being put in place and what the direction is Modesto needs to go. And I'm hoping you all are around for a while so you can see this through because we go from a new set of members and it's starting from scratch and you're picking up the pieces And it all goes on, well, this is misinformation and foresight for these concerns and conditions. We don't deserve to be in a cluster like this. We have this train going through California, bullet train. Well, we're just one train wreck away right here in Stanislaus County if this isn't handled correctly. Let's avoid the train wreck. God bless America, God bless Wood Colony.

Thank you. Next is Kerry Pope. Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor Zwollin and City Council and staff. Kerry Pope, thank you, first of all, for your service. You know, these are very difficult decisions, and we all understand that you could be home on the couch, but you chose to be here to serve your community and make these tough decisions, so I applaud that to you. The planning for the future is tough. There's a lot of other communities here and around the area that are being sued by the state that aren't doing this, and so I think it's one of those situations where you have to do it, otherwise you're gonna be in court. I personally have been involved with some companies that have wanted to locate here, bring their jobs, and we haven't been able to find land for them to build on. So I think that it's important that we bring these jobs to this community rather than elsewhere around us. I also represent some landowners to the south of Beckwith and Beckwith Court that have asked me to request that they are included in the plan. And when you look at it, the connectivity going down to Beckwith Court just would not satisfy what is going to be needed in order to make that north-south connection. I think that when you take a look at the stacking that will occur, I think that's going to require that those be included to be able to make that connectivity. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have of me. Otherwise, I appreciate your service and the decisions that you'll be making.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is John Paris. This is John, excuse me, John Paris? John Paris' name. Sorry, that's okay.

Two John Parises.

Do I have a card for you? Do I have a card?

Yeah, it should be at the bottom. That's why I was surprised I got called.

Okay, all right, all right. John Paris, welcome.

Thank you, Mayor, city council members, and city staff. My name is John Paris and I own an almond orchard and home on Blue Gum Avenue near the corner of Morris Avenue. My wife and I both support being included in the plan that is being proposed. We support economic growth and job opportunities in Modesto. We have three daughters, ages six, five, and three. We've asked ourselves if our children want to work and live in Modesto, what type of job opportunities will be there for them? Will they be able to afford a home in Modesto? Please look to the future generations and support the plan. Thank you.

Thank you. Next is Denny Jackman. Welcome.

Hi, Mayor and council members. Denny Jackman, president of Oders Farmland. Planning needs to prioritize a better future rather than simply a bigger one. These proposed city sizes are counter to current and projected population trends. Declining birth rates, shifts in family planning, and the aging baby boomer generation, of which I'm one, and which the oldest of the baby boomers is 80 years old this year, all indicate a significant future population decline This demographic shift will likely increase the availability of existing larger homes, reducing the need for new sprawling developments. The proposed urbanization is contrary to the health and welfare of our residents. Expanding north over critical water recharge areas depletes our conjunctive water systems Urbanization reduces natural aquifer recharging and eliminates the recharge provided by farmer irrigation, creating a greater dependency on surface water treatment and state-controlled water restrictions. No consideration yet, of course it is a general plan, has been given to the negative impacts of directing urbanization and eliminating some of the most productive farmland in the nation. These generational farms have produced renewable income for our support businesses from farm supplies, equipment maintenance and replacement, full-time seasonal workforce within our canneries, wineries, packaging industry, and more. Finally, Continuing sprawl increases automobile dependency, leading to higher cost and negative impacts such as air and noise pollution, traffic congestion, and increased danger to pedestrians and bicyclists. I urge you to reconsider these expansion plans in favor of a more sustainable approach for Modesto. Whichever plan you choose, put it on the ballot. get real input from people who pay the bills. Thank you.

You're welcome. Next is Les Johnson.

Madam Chairman and council members, my name is Les Johnson. I've been around here for many, many years. My family's been here 125 years and I'm getting pretty close to the 100. You heard a lot tonight about this great plan the city people have put together, a textbook thing. Looked good. But we can't sustain what we're doing. Can you get from one side of Modesto to the other side of town without traffic jams? If we didn't have any more growth, any more, we can't handle what we've got. I'm not gonna say anymore because most has been said. I've been a farmer at heart, been in wood colony for many, many years. Now I'm in the city and I don't like it. The people in wood colony got it made out there, the best ground, we got water. Our biggest contributor, the best, is the Metastable Irrigation District. Anyway, think about this for a long time before you make a decision.

Thank you. Next is Sarah Boyle.

Welcome. Good evening, hello again. Sarah Boyle, Director of Government and Public Affairs for the BIA of Greater Valley. I'm here this evening to reiterate our position outlined in our letter submitted on February 10th. We recognize that there are thoughtful concerns being raised by members of the community and we respect that. This process is exactly where those perspectives should be heard and considered. It is also important to ground tonight's action in what is actually being recommended. The motion before you is to select a preferred land use alternative so that it can move forward for environmental review, not to approve a final plan, annex land, or authorized development. From our perspective, advancing the proposed preferred land use alternative is a reasonable and appropriate step. It allows the city to fully evaluate potential impacts, identify mitigation measures, and continue refining the plan with additional analysis and public input. As noted in the staff report, from a CEQA perspective, it is far more effective for the city to study a broader footprint now and refine it down over time, rather than attempt to add land into the general plan after environmental review has already been completed. This approach ensures a more thorough and transparent analysis upfront. This keeps options open while ensuring that future decisions are made with the benefit of comprehensive environmental review and data. The choice is not a final decision on growth, but whether to thoughtfully study a path forward. Simply put, the proposed preferred land use alternative gives Modesto the tools to remain a competitive regional hub, while meeting housing demand in a responsible and sustainable way. For these reasons, we respectfully urge the council to support the staff recommendation and select proposed preferred land use alternative for future environmental review. Thank you for your time and your consideration.

Thank you. Next is Barney Eggers.

Good evening all. Good evening. My name is Barney Eggers. I've lived in Modesto for 65 years. My folks moved here from Orange County, Southern California in 1961 when they were tearing out orange groves and expanding like crazy. They, down there now, There are no separate cities. They all run together. The only thing that distinguishes one city from another is the street name. I don't want to have that happen in Modesto. the plan that's advanced looks like we're going to potentially grow into Salida, and that doesn't seem like a good idea. The staff report states that one of the recurring comments received was preservation of ag land, yet the proposal uh that is advanced option number one uh is for zoning designations that would pave over some of the best ang land and water recharge area in the county and would butt up against del rio that plan is inconsistent with lafco policy to maintain a buffer between communities homes need to be built on the poorer soils not the richest Even if you carve out a chokehold surrounding wood colony, that isn't a plan for saving land. It will only make it more difficult to be developed, the surrounding area be developed. Several things really need to happen. Number one, a survey should be done for the, like the one done for the proposed downtown soccer project. Find out what local residents want to see Modesto become. Take this matter to the Planning Commission before the city selects a direction, even if this isn't required. Come up with some additional alternatives, including one that really preserves prime ag land and wood colony. Stop pushing this through Several members of the Council and Commission at the March 18 joint meeting said that some version of a hybrid plan might be the best option. I agree with Mr. Marsh. All of the above seem inappropriate. Thank you.

You're welcome. Next is Jeannie Ferrari.

Good evening. Good evening, Mayor, council members, staff. I don't have any recommendations. I don't even have any good questions. I do have some observations. My two children live in much smaller houses than I live in. One lives in a house that's 500 square feet and one lives in a very, very small home. I'm just hearing that from young people. I'm hearing it from my friends that they're moving to smaller homes. I'm just wondering if this plan really identifies the trend to move to condos and smaller lot houses. I'm also wondering about this 80% growth for housing. Is it the right kind of housing? Are we honoring the land that we live on? Is the space that we're using the best space for building houses? And speaking of space, I think that green space is probably very important for water recharge, for the air that we breathe. I think ag is an element that we can't just ignore. And I I think there is a real trend For people to live in smaller communities smaller houses, and I hope that's being addressed because I heard somebody say that Salaries are flat people are maybe not making as much or have as much to spend on homes. And I hope all of these things are being considered because I was raised in Modesto and I have a heart for it. But I also have a heart for Stanislaus County and I hate to see our cities growing together. And that's what I see in these proposals. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. Karen Conrado.

Hi there. Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Karen Conrado. Thank you for this opportunity to speak tonight. All of you have received, I'm sure, and have carefully read and considered the heartfelt comments submitted by the residents of this area regarding the Modesto General Plan that will affect decades of growth and generations of families. As I stated in my letter, the three choices given to choose from were inadequate and were not representative of our area. To vote on these limited choices borders on deception, unless you can think of a better term for pretending to give a full range of choices when we were given limited ones. I also stated in my letter that the wording of these choices was prejudiced, making the most expensive growth plan sound like it was the best one. Again, making the voting on this plan biased and unfair. To be clear, no reference to saving farmland was given as an alternative. We all know the value of this productive farmland and the economic value it gives to our county as our cities and ourselves. The areas referred to are vital water recharge areas. Development would destroy them. Therefore, you would reduce the supply of life-sustaining water to Stanislaus County. Remember our official City of Modesto slogan, water, wealth, contentment, health. Ample water leads to everything else. Modesto City has already experienced water rationing. That alone should be sufficient to stop this short-sighted land grab. Water wars are already imminent. The proposals given would eliminate a green belt between communities. And I want to add, I didn't put this in my notes, but people talk about parks, but they're nothing compared to the biodiversity of weeds in a field. The proposals given would, oh, I just, quality of life would eventually be affected and reduced. The previous plan appeared well thought out and reasonable. a model that does not appear to be followed, but perhaps you may yet refer to it. And I'm talking about the previous general plans. I hope you understand and discuss carefully the consequences of the decisions you are making on future generations of children and adults. My friends have made various comments and I repeat them to you to show them, you, the frustration, exasperation, disappointment and vulnerability they are feeling. Leave us alone. Stay out of our farmland. There are other areas you can use, so stop picking on us. You carve us up a little at a time when you can't get the big chunk you want. You have already made up your minds. You have this forum to fulfill the law and make your conscience feel better when you approve this plan. Shame on you. These are heartfelt remarks made by people who live here and fight an unending tidal wave of assault. Please consider carefully the road you will send us on before you vote. Delay this vote if needed to make a reasonable and fair vote because it will affect lifetimes. Thank you for your time. And I also want to address, as Jessica was talking, Sorry. Thanks.

Next is Todd Heinrich. Good evening.

Good evening. Mayor, council members, I gave you walnuts last time I was here. I don't know if any of you tried that. I hope you liked them. Anyway, that's a sample of a wood colony. So I was a little bit disappointed when on Friday I got an email from the city that said, The council meeting is gonna be on Tuesday, and this is gonna be on the agenda. I thought, man, that's really short notice. I know it's probably legal, but it would've been nice to give us a little bit more notice than that. So then the next day, I think it was Saturday, I opened up the email and looked at all the maps and everything, and I was like, wow. Katie barred the door. They added a bunch more land, so it's not one of the three that Jessica talked about when she came out to Wood Colony and she went to Salida and she did all the city meetings. Now it's more than that. Disappointed. I thought you guys would be a little more transparent than that. I really did. But I don't know. Sue, you came out when you were running for mayor, came out to Tim's barn and heard from us Wood Colony residents. I think we stated our concerns about this very thing that we're talking about today. Something else was brought up that I wanted to address. I don't think I'm wrong on this. Most of the time when things get voted into the city, very rarely are they taken out. So this bigger plan, you can say you're gonna reduce some things or maybe take it out. Most of the time, whatever gets into that sphere of influence doesn't get taken out. My concern, I'm changing gears here a little bit. My concern, my concern is for the community, the wood colony community. It's a community of people, not different than you. It's people that want to be left alone. We want to have our peace and quiet. We want to do what we do, whether that's farming, whether that's gardening or whatever. Most of the people on that list, a vast majority of the people on that list that want to sell don't live in wood colony. They want to sell to you because they want to make 10 times the property value. They could sell right now if they wanted to, but that's not what they want. So who gets the shaft? Sorry, that's kind of crude. You understand what I'm saying. It's me. The 20-acre farmer that doesn't want to sell. It's my friend, Mr. Hardy, that doesn't want to sell that has a nice little acreage. You know, it's Jake Winger that has a small acreage on Beckwith. Those are the kind of people, these small ranchettes, these small farms that don't want to sell. These bigger farmers are the ones that want to sell, and they don't need the money. I'm just telling you. Most of the people on that list, they don't need the money. So what you're doing is you're siding with the big guy. And I know some of you probably don't really want to do that, but I understand where you're at. And I thank you for allowing me to speak, and I hope you'll consider that. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you. Ken Wilmarth? Ken? Okay. Okay, so Ken does not want to speak. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Next is Ruben Wilmar.

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. My name is Ruben Wilmarth, and I am a graduate of Modesto High, class of 88, and La Loma Junior High, class of 84. So I'm a longtime resident of both communities, both Modesto and Wood Colony. Tonight you have an important decision to make, and it needs to benefit the people who live here and the people who will live here. You had a speaker already point out the overwhelming need for reasonable cost housing and propose an excellent use for the old Muni golf course which I used to run around in cross country. This would make a great mixed use commercial and residential property with a park next to the river and freeway access. And the commuter train station that is coming soon. And it has the best high school right nearby as well. So we need to plan for the future smartly. And that means anticipating trends that are already in motion. Young people these days are driving less and walking more. So sprawl is just not the way to go. If you look at the number of people who have driver's licenses, that tells you a ton. Higher density urban renewal is the right direction to go. Building new industrial parks on premium productive farmland that is far away from the population center isn't smart. The orchard supply hardware and the Toys R Us buildings on Sisk Avenue have been empty. They are excellent locations, but they have been empty for years. They have large parking lots, all the necessary services, and yet they are unused. We have a lot of space in the existing industrial parks that are prime candidates for urban renewal and are directly adjacent to where the people are who will work at these future businesses. people who need the food that is grown on these farms in Wood Colony. I used to live near Yosemite Avenue, and I can see that it is underutilized. We need to work smartly, improving what we already have right here under our noses, making it attractive to the next generation of businesses instead of letting it decay in one place while we try to build what was the status quo yesterday elsewhere. Thank you.

You're welcome. Adrian Garcia.

Hello. Hi there. Good evening members and Board, Mayor, and Modesto. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Adrian Garcia. My parents settled in Modesto in the late 1970s. I was born and graduated from Modesto High School in 2007, and my four children were also born here in Modesto. I'm here to respectfully ask the board to approve the expansion plan for the city of Modesto. I believe expansion is not only about changing boundaries on a map, it's about managing growth to benefit families, all residents, and businesses. Our community needs housing that families and working people can afford, space and opportunities for local businesses to grow, and the infrastructure necessary to support local economic growth. Expansion with clear conditions and commitments from this city is the path to meeting those quality of life values we all share. I ask you to consider these important benefits the planned expansion plan delivers. Increased housing supply and affordability, including a range of housing types such as workforce housing, rental options, and owner-occupied homes. Expanding in a planned way reduces sprawl and can lower housing costs over time by increasing supply. Economic growth opportunities supported by current expansion of highway 132 and future traffic circulation projects which provide traffic traffic flow between the proposed zone and Modesto. Opportunities for local job growth, construction, retail services and small business development. New development means an expanded tax base that can help fund schools, public safety, road maintenance and other services that serve all city residents now and in the future. I have observed as Riverbank, Ceres, Turlock, and other neighboring communities have grown around us, yet Modesto's growth has been stagnant. I'm raising my family here and would like them to have opportunities to thrive without leaving our community. Finally, I ask the board to consider the long-term perspective, plan and regulated growth that can make Modesto City a great place to live, working farms, safe neighborhoods, good schools, and vibrant local businesses corridors. In closing, please approve the City of Modesto expansion plan with the enforceable conditions and monitoring measures needed to protect our city's infrastructure, environment, and agriculture heritage. Doing so will support housing affordability, economic vitality, and responsible stewardship of our shared resources. Thank you for your time and careful consideration.

You're welcome. Next is Wrangler Wheeler.

Hi. Good evening, City Council. My name is Wrangler Wheeler. I'm a farmer in West Modesto. I'm glad to finally see some other young faces in the crowd this time and so many of my neighbors here tonight. I want to thank you for your continued work, Mrs. Hill and staff on such a controversial and interesting topic. There's not going to be any one plan fits all solution to such a complex problem. It's no secret that we have a housing crisis here in Modesto. It's very difficult to live in Modesto and be able to work in Modesto. It's simply not financially feasible to work our jobs that are available here to us and afford a home here. It's very difficult to attend MJC and live near any of the campuses. We're simply outpriced and my generation is having a difficult time acquiring living conditions that are reasonable and affordable. We sat idle while our neighboring cities have continuously outgrown us. Now, some of the most productive farm ground in the United States with great water rights is going to be impacted by this plan. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I encourage responsible growth with consideration for agriculture. I encourage you to continue to accept input from landowners that want to be included and frankly, ones that do not. I want to thank Mr. Varro for continuing to be an advocate for landowners and inclusion of our opinions. Thank you.

You're welcome. Next is Teresa Gamboa.

Welcome. Thank you. Good evening, mayors Wallin, council members, staff, and members of the public. My name is Theresa Gamboa and I'm the chairwoman of Woodland West Community. No matter what side of the political aisle they are on, the people of Woodland West unite when it comes to quality of life. Your preferred growth map will drastically change the way of life for everyone in Woodland West. This is not welcomed growth. Since your new map came out, many people have reached out to me. None of the neighbors that I have spoken to support this. We live in this neighborhood because of where it is, on the outskirts of the city, neighboring Wood Colony. We love the orchards around us, the sunsets, the sunrises, the almond blossoms. We need to preserve our farmland and not pave over it. Wood Colony has premium soil unlike anywhere else. The landowners who want to sell should sell to other farmers to preserve the farmland, the culture, and the history. I applaud the city of Atwater. for standing up to the governor's mandate to require cities to develop and make growth plans I think the city of Modesto should, too. With everyone moving out of the state, we don't need to build 11,000 units every seven years. If this drastic growth plan goes through, many more people will leave and you will have plenty of available homes. No need to build more. Currently there are 13 houses in Woodland West that I know of that are for sale and two rentals. Just that I know of. We don't have a problem with housing that I can see. Thank you.

You're welcome. Kelly Talent Martin? Kelly?

Hello, good evening mayor members of the council and city staff I haven't had a chance to for those I haven't had a chance to meet yet My name is Kelly talent Martin and I am the general manager for vintage for a mall. I'm here on behalf of the mall's owners Mace rich and It's encouraging to see a proactive, balanced approach to planning Modesto's future growth, one that prioritizes economic vitality, job creation, housing diversity, while also supporting the success and longevity of existing local businesses. aligning new development areas with infill opportunities and downtown revitalization is a thoughtful strategy that can strengthen our regional competitiveness and help establish businesses benefit from increased activities and investment. I appreciate the opportunity for the meaningful community input, and I thank you for your time. You're welcome.

Next, John Herrick.

Madam Mayor, city council members, my name's John Herrick. I live on Locke Road. That's a block south of Downey High School. Thank you for the opportunity to continue to comment on the comprehensive general plan update, and I appreciate the work done by staff as far as making making access to documents possible. My comments deal with the EIR preparation. The EIR preparation should include at least one public scoping meeting, including Spanish language materials and interpreters. as part of the early public consultation process. The draft EIR should include an area map that features a designated land uses in series, the proposed Salida community plan amendment area, Riverbank, Oakdale, Empire, and the adjacent unincorporated area to better understand the context of the Modesto General Plan update. EIR alternatives discussion should include a project alternative that supports a regional collaboration among adjacent cities and the county regarding efficient siting of future manufacturing, commercial, and residential expansion to minimize ag conversion and loss of groundwater recharge areas, and which advances regional natural resource protection and environmental justice goals. The residents of these cities are our neighbors and perhaps our relatives. They aren't our adversaries. And finally, please present an alternatives discussion that reflects the issues raised over the past three years regarding environmental, agricultural, groundwater, and environmental justice impacts, not just limited to the comparison of the three land use alternatives. Thank you.

Thank you. Rod Kutstra.

Good evening.

Good evening.

I guess I better raise this up a little better. My siblings and I are owners of a small farm. It's only 23 acres. It's on Dakota Avenue. We represent the idea that we're pro-development, and we've been this way for a long time. In fact, as my dad, before he passed away, was involved with the Salida Plan. And that was many years ago, as you well know. But he definitely was in support of that, and he actually, you know, he envisioned support, you know, that development would come. But again, at the time, it was time to replant Ammons. So he replanted Ammons. He's a smart guy. He knew development was going to come, but he didn't know when. And you can't plan for stuff and expect things to happen. You have to do alternative type stuff. And we just replanted again last year, a year ago. We replanted all of our trees, all brand new, one year old. And I guess we took the lesson from him. that you can't expect when development is gonna happen, even though you're in favor of it. So you still keep doing what you gotta do. And it required the trees to get replanted, so we did it. I remember way back when the Modesto plan was being, or the slider plan was being done, there was a gentleman who lived in Modesto, who had moved from San Jose, right? And his comment was he was against the slider plan because he wanted that area to stay the way it was forever so his kids could enjoy it. Now I can appreciate the thought, but the ironic nature of his comment was that he's moving in here. He wants his kids to move in here, raise their families. Where are they gonna live? It makes no sense to think you want to leave stuff the way it is and then move here because you're changing what's going on. In fact, everybody here that is born and raised here and raises families here are doing the same thing, even farmers. If you're a farmer and you're raising your family, where are they going to live? They've got to live somewhere, right? So you've got a choice as far as the city of Modesto. And I applaud your effort. to extend your boundaries for a sphere of influence. Because if you don't do it, Riverbank surely will. And Salida already has crept out to Murphy Road. And they're probably going to zip out at some point in time too. So you need to be proactive and extend your boundaries so you keep the other cities from doing what they're going to do anyway if you don't do something. So I think what you have to do is do what you're doing and study the stuff and then try and make a decision about what to do. Thank you.

Thank you. Next is Bill Genesee.

Excuse me. Hi there. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Bill Genesee is my name. I was born in 1950. I live on Finney Road, which is where that section comes west of the Highway 99, right where that property is. My grandfather moved into this area out on Blue Gum in 1916, so we've been around for a long time. Ran a dairy over there for 100 years and sold the cows, still own the dairy and leasing it out. But I've owned 40 acres on Finney Road. My wife just passed away here not quite a year ago, but we had four boys. Those four boys got married, so now we have eight, and I have 12 grandchildren. So I've got 20 dependents coming up for that 40 acres of ground. There's no way. that I would be doing the right thing trying to say, no, we're going to keep farming it. Right now, I'm leasing that ground out because I don't own equipment. And I'm figuring out that I net about $7,000 a year on that 40 acres. That doesn't go very far for raising a family. Those four boys live in Patterson, Oakdale, Ripon, and one lives in Modesto clear out on Claus Road because they work at Johansen High School. so the fact that they couldn't find a place around here that worked for them and They've moved to other areas. I Just think that it's time to look at and prepare and not let What appears to have happened with some of the neighboring? Cities to take over those things that we could have done or we could have got some of the sales some of the money to support the firemen and the policemen and all those things you've gotta do. So obviously I'm in favor of this, so thank you.

All right, you're welcome. Next is Daniel Star. Good evening, welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and Mr. City Manager. My name is Daniel Starr, and I am the former president of the Modesto Police Officers Association. Michael Rokaitis is the current MPOA president, but was unable to attend tonight, and he has asked that I attend on behalf of him and the MPOA. First, I want to take this opportunity to thank the council and city staff for their work on this very difficult and very important topic. As we know, the city of Modesto has not seen substantial growth since the 90s. Due to this, the city is losing out on economic growth opportunities, including additional housing and low-income housing. This also means our community members are losing out on additional job, dining, shopping, and entertainment opportunities. The general plan update is an opportunity to ensure that future Modestoans will have a better and more sustainable future. This balanced and well thought out plan will help Modesto be a competitive hub where people will want to live, visit, and spend their money. The MPOA also values agricultural and open spaces. And I'm confident that the city council and staff have been able to come up with a smart and well-balanced growth plan while navigating this complicated topic. This is an opportunity to ensure that Modesto is able to have its fair share of growth while also help to sustain future endeavors that will benefit the community and the city. Modesto's growth is essential for a sustainable future. If Modesto fails to plan for its future, it will fall behind in our fear that it will become irrelevant. It'd be nice if I could say that word. The MPUA supports the proposed preferred land use alternative map and believes that this is a very in-depth, thoughtful, and appropriate plan to secure a vibrant future for the city of Modesto. Again, I want to thank the council and city staff for their work on this project.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. Next is Trish Christensen.

Hi there. Hello. Good evening mayor and council and city staff including Jessica and our team I'm here representing and my name is Trish Christensen I'm the president and CEO of the Modesto Chamber of Commerce and I'm here on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce And really our business community at large We have had opportunity to have Jessica and her team come in and share overviews of the work they were doing the outreach they've been conducting and And we witnessed how they've incorporated feedback. We recognize that this is a complicated and a very heartfelt challenge and place that our community is in. But as the Chamber of Commerce, we recognize that our neighboring cities are outpacing us and outgrowing us and we need opportunity to be competitive. without addressing for the common good and need to see our economy potential present itself, have opportunity to expand our circle of influence with regard and respect of honoring our agricultural land and community and our sustainability, our precious water. We support that as well, but we recognize that our city at large deserves the opportunity for growth so that we can see mixed housing become available for various economic levels and we see a mixed and diverse opportunity for business creation to be here so that our residents have opportunity for good jobs. So we stand here with encouragement and support to council to accept this alternative proposal to provide opportunity for our city in the future, thank you.

You're welcome. Next is Ron Ratto. Good evening.

Good evening. Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm Ron Ratto. I'm a landowner and a farmer west of highway 99. I commend the council for taking on the general plan update project, and I compliment the planning staff for really digging in and doing a thorough and comprehensive job. THE GENERAL PLAN UPDATE PROJECT LOOKS INTO THE FUTURE AND DEVELOPS PLANS FOR THE NEXT 20 OR 30 YEARS. THE ALTERNATIVE PRESENTED PROVIDES DETAIL ON THE FUTURE IN TERMS OF WHAT LAND COULD BE USED FOR. BY PROVIDING DETAILS ON WHAT LAND COULD BE USED FOR REALLY WHAT IT DOES IS PROVIDE FOR WHAT PEOPLE CAN DO IN THE FUTURE. The alternatives quantify the opportunities whether they're for housing or community opportunities or business or economic opportunities. It's a full-fledged plan. It provides a once in a generation type of planning activity and I support the most expansive alternative. A greater scope of planning provides more land area to work with and the potential for the city to think big and bigger about how to plan for its future. The selected alternative provides for significant housing options. Our employees live in a range of cities in the area, a large circle kind of bounded by Stockton, Tracy, Patterson, Merced, Turlock, and of course, including Modesto and Salida. But living closer to work and having affordable housing are goals that everyone wants to achieve. I hope you adopt the most expansive plan alternative, a plan that has housing options, has flexibility, and a plan that could be adapted as city needs and demands change in the future. Thank you very much.

You're welcome. Next is Brett Azevedo. Excuse me. Good evening.

Good evening, I actually wasn't planning on speaking tonight, but my name is Brett Azevedo. Our family has lived and farmed on Hart Road in West Modesto for 100 years. We're currently raising the fifth generation there, and we do not want our lifestyle and community to change for the worse, and we strongly oppose the westward expansion.

Right, thank you. Brad Johnson. Good evening.

Good evening. Brad Johnson from Salida. I've been on the Salida Mack about 25 years now and also on the sewer district. You know, the people in our families in Salida, we try to stay off that busy freeway because it's gridlock. It's dangerous on the way home. It's just dangerous. So we try to use Dakota, but that's at gridlock, too, during commuter hours. Past growth has resulted in unintended consequences, serious traffic issues. You might not have had any murders in Modesto last year, but you had a lot of traffic fatalities. Past growth has resulted in a lot of unintended consequences. Somebody mentioned the 132 bypass. That's useless. I work within walking distance, but 132 has no access for us in the west communities on the west side. It should be hooked up to Carpenter Road. And Denny Jacksman is right. This farmland is prime water basin recharge. And if you add in industrial factories, this would likely deteriorate our water quality. More unintended consequences. Good planning requires a development agreement where we have a contract of what's going to happen and what kind of business operation is going to happen, what will be the effects for the environment, and how much taxes will be paid. Development agreements are not just for cannabis stores. They should be for all of this new development. What's gonna happen to our part of the valley without a development agreement? Would we leave that up to chance or to corporate greed? I don't think so. I'd also like to point out that these types of special business zoning projects usually come with a special tax break. That's something us homeowners don't get, those special tax breaks. And all of this land is served by irrigation canals. Did anybody bother to check the soil type in the different development zones? Soil types really matter. As a member of the sewer district, we're finding out a lot about that. If you want your storm drain pond to drain, you gotta put it on the right soil type. We have four different soil types at our sewer treatment plant, things to keep track of. I noticed a lot of stars on the map. And I guess that's data on who's willing to sell. Where's that data coming from? Real estate office? Honestly, where's that data coming from with the stars? No answers? The map shows no infrastructure, gas, drinking water, sewer service. I know there's a lot of policy pushing from the developers. It makes it hard for the council. But you need to ask for more from them. We don't want just one more project. We don't want something to ruin our part of the valley. As public officers, we need to work on getting corporations out of housing so the housing prices are set by the area values, not by corporate greed. That's what we need to work on, not making tax breaks and shovel-ready projects for developers that aren't identified.

You've exceeded your time.

Yeah, and I just wanted to point out that we canceled the SLIDA meeting to be here tonight because we felt that this was coming way too fast for us to respond.

Thank you.

The meeting in SLIDA was inadequate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Debbie Schneider.

Good evening, council members. Good evening. My name is Debbie Schneider, and I'm a Salida resident and a board member on the Salida MAC. I too was a little upset when I saw the map that has been placed before you tonight, because that was very different from what we were shown at the community meetings that the Modesto City staff presented last fall and earlier this year. So the map looks like it was changed with no notice for those of us that had attended those meetings in Salida and Wood Colony. It looks like the map that's before you tonight now takes, or it looks like you intend to take, one third of the Salida community plan land. And I, I also noticed that the landmark business park area, which didn't look like it was included in the earlier maps, so that's bordered by CISC, Bangs, Kiernan, and Stoddard, that that was also placed in this new map. It kind of appears like a bait and switch tactic. We would have liked to have seen that and talked about that beforehand. And I'm just wondering why Modesto would do that to their neighbors. We're your neighbors in Salida and Wood Colony. That land in the Salida community plan is there for our future. And we don't intend to sit by and let that go lightly. We shop in Modesto. We eat in Modesto. We work in Modesto as Modesto residents come to Salida to shop, work, and eat. We're interdependent on each other, and it's just not the way you treat your neighbors. So we know that growth is coming. I don't think anybody objects to responsible growth, but I would hope that you would not approve the map that's before you tonight and you would go back and look at something less invasive to the neighbors that surround you. Thank you very much.

You're welcome. Next is Karen, and I'm not sure how to say your last name. Looks like C or G-O? I'm not sure.

My name is Karen Gourney. I am a Salida resident. I've lived in Salida over half my life. I've also been on the Salida MAC for 15 years and am the current chair. So I think I'm a little qualified to speak for the residents of Salida and we are not interested in your alternative MAP1. In 2007, Stanislaus County created the Salida Community Plan to set aside land for our future. We have an identity. What colony has an identity? We are your neighbors. We've been here the whole time. I'm not sure if any of you have read the Salida Community Plan. I'm curious. I have a copy here. Hopefully your attorney did read it because I just need you to know we will fight tooth and nail to stop this from happening. Salida is our area and we have things set in place. We're your neighbor. You shouldn't steal from your neighbor. And I'm also curious if any of you were here the last time this happened. Because there's an article in Time Magazine that did a whole story on wood colony and what Modesto was doing to them. And you should probably read it. Because this goes far beyond what your plan, your growth should not be impacting on our future and our communities. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

And I have a copy if you'd like. OK, great. Bonnie? Boney?

Good evening. Good evening. My name is Bonnie Boney. I am a Salida resident. I'd like to know how the city of Modesto thinks it's abiding by California Senate Bill 1000, which went into effect in 2018 by approving this alternative one map. the Bureau of Environmental Justice carved out the downtown area of Salida as a disadvantaged unincorporated community. Salida's population is now 54% Latino. If you vote to approve this alternative one map, then you're preying upon their unincorporated neighbor and taking away the tax base from a community that is more than half populated by people of color. Please take this into consideration. Do not approve the alternative map one. Thank you. You're welcome.

Next is John Martin.

Welcome Mayor board John Martin 34 years in slider. I as well as on a slide of Mac I Can't really believe that you know, I'm up here again in front of a council for probably about my third time Stating that you know, we disagree with all land grab that you know, the city of Modesto wants to do. That's what I call it is a land grab because in my mind that's what it is. You know, wood colonies are friends. You know, they back us. You know, we back them. You know, we're one. We come to Modesto when we need to. But honestly, I would stop. You know, I think most of you have already made your mind up how you're going to vote. But I would strongly recommend getting your car, Go over to some of the other areas in Modesto. Look at them. It's already been mentioned about Toys R Us and the old orchard supply. Vacant for years. The canneries are leaving in South Modesto. Why don't you look at that? Look at the vacant land. If you want to build, take care of your own city first before you try to encroach on somebody else. If you come to Salida, we're going to be just like Wood Colony. We're going to fight. We're not going to sit idle. We're going to fight until you know. You know, do whatever we have to do. But look at yourself. We're all voters. So, you know, we do see the ballots. We do vote. So, you know, take it to heart. Would you do this? to everybody? Would you do it to yourself? Would you do it to your staff if they lived out in these areas? If your family lived out in these areas, would you do it to them? I guess not. Thank you.

You're welcome. Next, Gavin Bruce.

Good evening, Council. I just wanted to bring up some concerns I have with the general plan, especially scenario one. First, I want to just mention that I think that the outreach was insufficient in order to get full community buy-in and community input on this process. Kind of reiterating that and not sure if this can be cleared up or maybe it was cleared up earlier before I got here, but I was at a work thing. But I was surprised to learn yesterday that this was going to be brought to the council tonight as I was under the impression that it was going to go to the planning commission first and then go to city council. So if that could be cleared up. And then Also, during that public process, that outreach, the presentation that was given was strongly skewed towards favoring scenario one. One of the blatant examples of that is that scenario three was deemed as minimal economic opportunity. I don't buy the argument that outward growth and taking up more and more acreage equates to creating good jobs. We can see with the proliferation of warehouses that have very high turnover jobs and don't pay quite as much. That takes a lot of square footage and creates relatively few jobs. Things like data centers that are happening across the country after initial construction create pretty much hardly any jobs at all. And then on top of that, it has been floated that the bio-circular economy is going to be the thing that creates the manufacturing jobs, but that depends on feedstock that comes from agriculture. So if you get rid of the feedstock, then where's your manufacturing base? The other thing I want to mention is that that model of outward growth, it's been appropriately called, I think, a growth Ponzi scheme, because what it is is you're building new growth in order to generate tax revenue to fund city services and infrastructure in the older parts of town. But then in order to maintain the new infrastructure you just built, you need to keep growing out. So it's a losing financial model that the city continues to perpetuate. I want to mention the point about being concerned about the growth of Riverbank. I've been to some Riverbank City Council meetings and their discussions about the Riverwalk project. They're saying the same thing about Modesto. We need to grow. We need to build Riverwalk because if we don't, Modesto is going to encroach. So they're saying the same thing to their people. And when it goes on the ballot for the people of Riverbank in November, if you approve scenario one, it's going to confirm their beliefs that Modesto is trying to gobble up as much property as possible. The last thing that I want to say is you need to think about soil, about prime soil as infrastructure in itself, not just for growing food, but also for groundwater recharge. As we see warmer winters, we're going to lose that snowpack every year and that's all going to come down as water and we need to put it somewhere. So I want you to, I strongly urge you to not support scenario one. Thank you.

Thank you. Next is Gordon Heinrich. Do you want a break? All right, welcome.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I really didn't want to be here tonight. We fought this battle for a long time in the West Modesto, Wood Colony area. I didn't even turn a card in. My daughter turned the card in for me, so I guess I have to speak. It's really difficult for me here tonight because as I look around here behind me, I've got a lot of friends that might be on the opposite side. I understand people wanting to pull up steak, maybe for their family's sake, because their time of farming is coming to an end. But for me and my family, we've put a stake in the ground that we're gonna continue to earn our living from farming. I live on 3424 North Avenue. I've lived there for 50 years on my ranch. My great-great-grandfather came to this area in 1904. And they started farming. They earned their living from farming. My great-grandfather, my grandfather, my father all earned their living from farming in this West Modesto wood colony area. At my location there on North Avenue, we've made an investment. We put in a state-of-the-art wall hauling and drying facility. We farm approximately 30 different locations west of 99 in Modesto, west of Modesto. And most of those are in that west wood colony area. I worry about my sons my got three sons right now. That's working with me farming They have made the commitment to continue to farm and I worry about What's in store for them in the future? When you have when you start developing and you have to farm next to any kind of development whether it be housing Whether it be commercial industrial It's a challenge We've had that experience in some locations or next to schools. It's a real challenge. You can't do normal farming like you would normally do. You have to work at night. You have to be careful. We've got some locations we can't fumigate to put new orchards in. It's real difficult. So once the development starts, it won't end. We have some of the best agriculture land in the world. We have great water, great irrigation district and I guess you can tell that I'm really not for any type of development coming our way. And I'll close with just a couple more thoughts. One, I took note of something that someone said earlier about the birth rate and the growth in California. I think you need to check that because I think that we may not need this growth. But if we do, let's have it in the right areas. Thank you.

Thank you. You're welcome. All right. I got one card that's a repeat card, but we won't be taking repeat cards, otherwise I would need to for every person that has spoken this evening. So I won't be doing that. Are there any other members of the public that would like to speak regarding item 15? Welcome.

Hey, Juan, it's cold in here. Juan Taiz, West Modesto resident. I'm not cold. Thanks, I'll bring a jacket. My concern is with the aggressive industrial and light industrial designations for West Modesto. I know it's a tough job to be visionaries, but I think that we also have to be stewards of our community too. And we shouldn't have to depend on CEQA to protect our residents from future environmental injustice. I think we need to take a step back, take a more balanced approach, do this right with quality jobs, high paying jobs, and then environmental mitigation strategies, and then we can bite off more. Thank you.

You're welcome. Anyone else for comments on item 15?

It's getting past my bedtime. I'm Virginia Hammond. I live in the city of Modesto, near the Harley and Michael's Pizza area. And I was involved in the process of the vision statement. And from that time on, it was clear that the people that lived in Modesto, particularly on the west side, wanted infill. They did not want to see expansion because when we came here, we bought a starter home, but I don't think I've seen any starter homes really built here since the 80s. And what's going to happen, houses are going to have to be built if property west of Modesto is annexed. And they will be built to attract commuters at prices that people that are coming from the Bay Area can afford, but people that live here cannot. And this has happened in other areas. This is what has been happening since the 1980s. Houses have been built. The developers want to make money. The people that want to come to the city have a lot. There's a lot of money to be made selling houses to commuters. And the talk about an ACE train station platform being between MJC West and Beckwith Avenue. facilitates that plan that some would like to see happen. So I am really concerned that places like the old orchard supply, Toys R Us, are Poor communities are going to continue to be ignored. We need to fix what we have. And if we do that, people will come. And last time I talked to a former city planner that's not here, there were no community standards. I support business, but no community standards by the city at that time regarding upkeep of vacant buildings and properties. Has anything been done in that area yet? And we are missing, I know that the planners, the consultants were really frustrated because there seems to be no interest in tourism. We need tourism in this town, and that's based on our natural resources. And our natural resources is agriculture. And I just hope that we consider that we can do more, we can be better than being another Bay Area community. Thank you.

You're welcome. We are going to take a five minute break and then we will return. Everybody can take a break. We will return. All right, we will resume our City Council meeting Is there anyone else from the public that would like to comment on item 15 at this time I All right, seeing none, I will close public comments. Are there any comments from council members? No comments? I have, okay. Okay, well, question, we already had question time, but go ahead if you'd like to.

Yes, I have a question for Jessica. Jessica, so it was already said today that there were some other individuals that wanted to enter into that sphere of influence. How would that be administered at this particular time, if it was administered at all?

So staff has presented a map, and if those were wanted to be included, council would have to make a direction and have a motion and a second. Jose, if there's anything from a legal standpoint that would have to be done.

Okay, and those,

Did you make that comment earlier, Council Member Favaro? Which comment?

Concerning those individuals that wanted to be in that plan.

May I comment? Sure. Thanks, Mayor. My question was the... property south of Beckwith that was excluded from your proposal to the council and at west of 99. My question was regarding the traffic and transportation concerns and looking at having that study done under CEQA so we can then determine how that all plays in. And with the landowners expressing an interest to be included in the sphere of influence, according to their representatives and or the property owner themselves, that is why I brought that question into discussion with the intent to under what is being proposed by staff tonight to have that amended to include that portion of land so we can then get a full picture of transportation all the other things that go into CEQA and in the EIR, Environmental Impact Report. Does that answer your question?

Yes, and is there a, are you able to identify these properties now, or would that even be up for discussion, attorney? Jose James Sanchez.

Sure. If you can explain. The properties, I think, that were brought up by Council Member Navarro are located in the map, correct? I think there was signifying properties that were requested. Correct. Or property owners have requested to be included but were not. I think if it's located in the map, I think there's some stars on the map itself.

Yes, so I'll have the map to outline those persons.

If you can identify that.

Right. So just for everyone's knowledge is on the map, there are certain stars on the map. These are property owners who reached out directly to the city staff or city council to state that they would want to have the opportunity to be in the sphere of influence of the city in the future and that would have access to the city infrastructure. And so when we look at this area, It's not going to buzz there. So if you look at the if you look at the Beckwith and the area of orange that's going towards vertically, you're going to look at four stars that are actually just south of Beckwith that are in the gray area, not in a designated orange area. I think those are the four parcels that both Councilmember Bovaro and Vice Mayor Williams are referring to. And so those currently aren't within that designated area but if they wanted to be they would have to have a formal motion second and be voted in in that way.

Would they have to be identified tonight particularly which exact ones they are or just because of the fact that there's the stars? I wanted to make sure that the clarification was good on that.

And I believe that the stars indicate those parcels. Therefore, and I don't know, Jessica, if you have more information, but it would be pretty much including those parcels, right? So the line would be changed to include the identified prices.

Okay, so my second question to that, if those were able to come in based on a motion and a second and a vote, would that help the Brink Road go through to where the veterinary hospital is where there's more of a traffic flow that would alleviate some of the other traffic flows in the area?

So all of the traffic flows will be analyzed at the time that we do the CEQA. Yes. So if those are included, the opportunity to analyze that area would be included as well.

Okay. And some of them have already left and maybe they may come back or listen or watch the video. But, you know, I truly am thankful to all of you who have come to voice your opinion. I can share the The fact of the matter is sometimes you feel as though you want to speak up and do something. I have property downtown and because I have property downtown it causes me not to be able to vote on several things that I would like to vote on. That's just the way it is sometimes. I know change is hard for some but then it's easier for others. So we'll see what happens here tonight. Thank you.

All right. I would like to make some comments. I feel that Everyone that's here is deserving of that. You've spent your evening with us and I truly appreciate you. I wrote down some notes as the meeting progressed and then I also have some notes from 3.30 in the morning when I couldn't sleep thinking about this last night and for many decades thinking about this, not in any way imagining that I would be here. voting on this at that time. But I too have lived here my entire life. I'm 71 years old and my grandparents and great grandparents, my great grandmother is a native Californian and I have Swiss German immigrant. grandparents that farmed here and Portuguese on my father's side, Silva side. My grandparents were the Webbers and they lived between California and on Garrison. Between California and maize and the silvas on Paradise Road, so I spent my childhood on their farms Some of the in response to some of the questions we have term limits in our charter, so you're exactly right none of us were here Before and we will all be gone unless someone runs for mayor and is in this position within about four years because we have two terms so I was elected twice, I will be out in two and a half years at the next presidential election. That's the way our charter is designed for term limits. Someone mentioned we aren't adversaries, that we're neighbors and friends, and nothing could be truer. And for my lifetime, that's how I always felt. growing up here. I felt like Salida, there were not these boundaries. There just was not wood colony boundaries, Salida boundaries, but I sure did learn as soon as I was mayor that there were boundaries and I was pretty shocked actually to learn that because I never felt that way. I love going to Riverbank and Oakdale and Salida and Wood Colony. That's where I will drive around when I just need to think. generally is in the Wood Colony area. Someone mentioned traffic fatalities. That's exactly, that is a true statement. We have worked and decreased crime by 65%, 75% with burglaries. Our numbers are impressive. Thankful so much for our Modesto Police Department officers and several that are here tonight, including our police chief. However, our traffic fatalities are a huge problem, and as I mentioned, I worked in the emergency room, so that is a top priority, and we are working on a Safe Streets for All campaign, and our goal is zero fatalities, and we are working very diligently to make that happen. We are interdependent on each other. I heard that. I agree. Starter homes. We've all been advocating for starter homes. I have six children, adults, and 15 grandchildren, and they're all in that same situation as so many of you described, where they're trying to buy starter homes. Upkeep regarding our buildings. I know that several of my council members, when they were first elected, top priority was to, especially I remember Council Member Rickey, regarding vacant buildings, and we've passed multiple ordinances to address that. I think it looks better. We have a lot of work to do, but it does look better. Tourism, agree, 100%. I would love to see... I mean, when I went to Pennsylvania and saw Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I thought of Wood Colony, quite frankly. That could definitely be an area that people spend their time. Now to my notes from the middle of the night. I cherish Wood Colony, the land, the history, the traditions, and the people, as I do every part of Modesto. Every part. I've put much thought into this through the decades. When I grew up, anything beyond Bowen Avenue, at least, really, Briggsmore wasn't even there, when I'd ride my bicycle out into the orchards where Davis High is right now. My mother commented to me when I was a child that when McHenry Village was being developed, that the word around town was no one would go all the way out there to shop. Who in their right mind would go all the way to McHenry Village to shop? So as a council, we have rezoned areas for infill. We've listened and we've done that. I also know that I'm responsible and must consider our future economic development. We've thoroughly rezoned for infill and are prioritizing our safe streets, as I mentioned already. We do have to plan for the future, and it's our responsibility. And I do take this at base value that it is an environmental report to look at So I would be in in support of this and I felt like it's important for me to state My thoughts and my feelings about our community and about the people like you that I'm truly grateful for Any other comments? councilmember Bavaro Thank you mayor

As a lifelong resident of Modesto, my family were farmers over on St. Francis Road by McHenry. And I did not go in farming. I was like one of your kids. And so, in fact, when I was in high school, for those who were in FFA, I received American farmer's degree from when I was at Grace Davis High School, second one at that school. So I'm not a city slicker by As you may view me today, I do have roots in agriculture. And I am pro-growth, pro-business, pro-environment council member. I was that when I ran, and that's how I am today. When I say pro-growth, I'm talking smart growth. When I talk about pro-business, I'm talking about good business that provides skilled labor, high-paying jobs. And then the environment, pro-environment, being good stewards and having clean water and clean air for us to breathe and drink. So that said, when I look at going west of 99, I do have a concern about transportation and traffic on the areas that were not included south of Beckwith, Mayor. And I would like to see the CEQA studies to look at those because as Director Hill said, if we're gonna make changes later on, it's gonna have to start the process all over and be very costly. So it's, in my opinion, best that we do everything at one time. And I would, Mayor, would like to, and maybe the city attorney can assist me on this. I would like to amend the proposed general plan update land use alternative. Number one, to include that area mentioned south of Beckwith. And I don't know how we, do we do a separate motion or do I include that and we vote a one time?

Through the mayor, of course. can we pull up the map maybe to be very clear because i think that the amendment would be to the uh to the preferred land use alternative that staff is presenting so maybe we could pull that up and we could identify the the properties or the area are we able to zoom in yes please

perfect and Jessica I don't know if you're able to kind of speak to and point to the so council member Bavaro just so I'm sure it's the four stars that are directly south of Beckwith and right above the wording that says North Avenue is that correct yes great

so in order to do that if you were to make a motion councilmember I think you could simply use if this is because this is the preferred land use alternative presented by staff the current motion says motion to select the preferred land use alternative as presented by staff they could it could include with the additional properties as identified and you could add some clarity there, for the comprehensive general plan update in order to evaluate all the environmental impacts, potential mitigation measures, and any alternatives.

That would be my motion, Mayor.

All right, now I would like some clarification on this map. This just includes the four

stars not the then above the road there's four others right in a row above the road that is in the gray area is still within our study area so anything that is outside the orange dotted line currently is not okay so it's four stars thank you for that clarification my motion stands second there

All right. I have a motion from Council Member Bavaro and a second from Council Member Alvarez.

And Mayor, before we do the roll call, just to be very, very clear, this is the preferred land use alternative that's presented by staff, but being amended to include that area identified there with the four stars that are currently there.

Correct. As you stated previously is what I was operating under the notion that that's what the motion was on. Thank you very much. All right, will the clerk please call the roll for this item?

Council Member Alvarez? Aye. Council Member Rickey?

No.

Council Member Bavaro?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Williams?

Aye.

Council Member Wright?

Aye.

Mayor Zolomon?

Aye. 5-1. So carries 5-1. All right, are there any matters too late for the agenda? Seeing none, I am calling this meeting of the City Council to be adjourned.