City Council - Special Meeting

All right, it is 6:00. We're going to get this meeting started. With that, madame clerk, will you please conduct the roll call? Mayor Potim Castillo, here. Council member Steber here. Council member Terry here. Council member Welty here. Mayor Smith here. Mayor, you have a quorum. With that, Council Member Mark Terry, would you lead us in prayer? Yes. Would that work? Please stand.

Lord, first and foremost, we ask that you look over the troops that are currently deployed. Lord, we ask that you protect them. And Lord, that we ask that you may that they may feel your presence. We also ask that you wrap your arms around those families who have sons and daughters who are currently deployed. And we ask that you protect them all. We ask that you look after our first responders, provide them with protection just as they protect us. We ask these things in your name, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

Speaking of troops, Tony, will you lead us in the pledge? And thank you for your service, buddy. This one right here. 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. Madam clerk, public comments, please. We have one comment on a non-aggenda item, Renee Griffith. Perfect. Let's go ahead and hear that now. On non-aggenda item,

yeah,

skipping formalities because I have three minutes. Um, I would like to to address a statement on the staff report for tonight's agenda. The report states that council member Wely transmitted written correspondence to the city council indicating his support for the proposed moratorum. However, during the March 11th meeting, the mayor stated at the beginning of the discussion that he had received text messages from council member Welty with his opinion and later during deliberations, the mayor read that message directly from his phone. After re-watching the meeting video around the two hour 24-m minutee mark, Mayor Smith read the text message and then look directly at Council Member Terrion stated, quote, "He clearly sees, especially after what took place on social media involving involving comments directed at him and his wife, that council member Welty is in support of this." To my knowledge, that message was not distributed to the rest of the council prior to the meeting. It was not provided to the city clerk, and it was not made available to the public. It appeared to be a private text message sent to the mayor that was then read during deliberations. Because the staff report characterizes this as a written correspondence to the city council, I would like clarification on whether that message was ever formally submitted to the city clerk or entered into public record prior to the council meeting beginning or at least provided to the council and the public at the time it was read during the meeting. I would also like to ask the city attorney to clarify whether it is consistent with the Brown Act for the opinion of an a absent council member to be introduced into deliberation of the council through a private text message read by another council member during the meeting. If a council member's position is communicated privately and then relayed publicly during deliberations, it effectively allows participation by a member who is not present. In this case, the message was read during discussion immediately before the vote and it appeared to influence direction of the discussion. Because of this ma because

this matter is being reconsidered tonight and prior and the prior vote is referenced in the staff report. I believe it is important that the public record accurately flect reflect how the communication occurred and whether it complied with open meeting minutes of the Brown Act. So, city attorney, I don't know if you're allowed to comment on that. Not unless the council last. Mr. City attorney, would you like to comment? Are you done? Yes. Okay.

Um, yes. So, the council member is allowed to communicate with a member of the council and they can read that aloud at a meeting just like any other member of the public is allowed to come to a meeting and give their opinion either written or orally. In fact, in in my opinion, I think it would have been inappropriate for council member Wely to communicate his opinion to the entire council outside of a notice public meeting. I think that would have been much more concerning than the way it was presented. So So you don't believe ma'am. There's no back and forth during public comment. No. Oh, sorry. That's why I asked if you were done. Sorry about that. So hopefully hopefully that answers your questions and I'm happy to talk to you after the meeting uh to clear it up if you'd like. All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. All right, moving on. Business item number one, the only one tonight. Um, Mr. City Manager, did you want to take the lead on this to start us off? Uh, I would be happy to, Mayor, Mayor Prom, and city council. Uh, obviously, what you have before you is the, uh, urgency ordinance. Uh this was brought uh as was discussed in that public comment was brought uh last Wednesday uh in a slightly different format. Uh hopefully uh you're able to see the uh frequently asked question kind of format in addition to numerous changes that the city attorney made uh to what was the original uh proposal and uh ordinance as compared to this one. Uh what the uh staff are looking for is uh absolute direction here on which way you'd like to go. if you'd like to do the uh uh ordinance uh the urgency ordinance uh or not. But one thing I really want to make clear cuz uh I've read more social media in the last 6 days than probably the 60 days prior. um when you're dealing with something like this that is a a moratorum urgency ordinance you're actually talking about many of the things that I have heard and seen from the public where they say you just need to take a bre take a breath stop analyze this and see where you want to go that is what a moratorum is so a moratorum the urgency ordinance as compared to a typical ordinance gives the council the ability to act immediately.

In the event that you were to say, uh, do this as an ordinance, you could bring it forward, you've got a week, almost 6 days for us, uh, in the agenda. Then it would be heard and decided. That would be your first reading. 30 days later for us, we do once a month. You would have your second reading. 30 days after that, your ordinance would go into effect. So, in the event that we went in that direction, you actually have all of that time for new business licenses, new whatever you wanted to do to to come in place. And uh correct me if I'm wrong, that that uh city attorney, you you can't undo that if it happens in the legal period. There there isn't a unspen category. Uh so until the ordinance goes into effect, the current existing rules uh would be the rules that their applications would be processed under. Um any use that is lawfully established before the new ordinance went into effect would be what is called a legal non-conforming use. Collo colloquially people refer to that as being grandfathered in. So uh that you're correct that is why you would have a moratorum that goes into effect immediately during that study period. So many of the questions I've received and that I saw were why is this so urgent? Why is it that it has to be done right now? It is the method at which this is offered to if council decided to do that thing to to immediately enact the rule. So it is not necessarily that it's an urgency ordinance because suddenly we figured out that this there was this situation. and it's an urgency ordinance so that it can urgently be or immediately be enacted. So I think that's very important. The other thing is a 45day moratorum which is uh u what you would look at

does that pause it gives a chance for council to give direction to staff if there's more analysis that needs to be done if there are more questions that need to be answered. It is perfectly normal for a council to do something like this. Uh we've got uh Paris just did it. Uh I believe Hemmet just did one um uh before uh I left my last city. There was a industrial moratorum. Uh and it just it is a normal part of business for that. not saying that this in general is normal for the city of Canyon Lake. It is a normal part of local government. Uh the the next important thing is the question was asked repeatedly of if it was going to affect the individual businesses to where this moratorum would make it so the business could not do their job, could would shrink them, would any that has not been discussed with me. That is not what is in the staff report. That is not what the city attorney and I discussed. So if there is some intent for council to do that, that would be a modification to what we have. The intent that we understand is to keep the businesses as they are during the moratorum to study whether or not this is the right number for the uh for the town center and then make a decision after that. So I wanted to be able to explain those items, the importance of them and what a moratorum is so that both uh the the the public and uh council would understand that portion. Be happy to answer any questions that that you may have. Mayor Mayor or council

Mr. City attorney.

Uh yes. I just wanted to note that uh between the regular meeting and this meeting uh I did go through the draft ordinance uh I made changes that I believe reflected a lot of the concerns that we heard from members of the public as well as from members of the council. I provided a clean and a redline version so you can see the changes. I summarized those changes um in the staff report and I also thought it would be helpful for the public if we added FAQs or what if scenarios uh that we could address those prospectively instead of having person after person come up and say well what if this what if that we could address those uh in in the staff report so you'll see that I think we included eight scenarios in total seven seven scenarios in total that I think uh addressed all the concerns that we had heard uh during the meeting. Um I I've not been viewing social media for the last week. Uh thank goodness. Um so if there were other areas of concern that were coming up um I I wasn't uh aware of those. But I do think that we've hit the big ones. Uh additionally, you know, there was a lot of concern from existing businesses. What happens to my existing business? And and that makes sense. uh this isn't a future potential issue. This is my business, my livelihood right now. So, we made sure that we had very explicit language in the current version that you have in front of you. Um and also addressed relocation because that was one I think I heard at least one person come up and say, "What if I wanted to relocate within the town center? How would that go about?" You'll notice that there is a little bit of a buffer and I I got asked this question, why' you throw in the extra 10%. Uh and and the answer for that was, you know, the suite sizes within the town center are not uniform. There isn't 20 700 ft² uh spaces. There's some that are 708 ft,

some are 720 ft, some are 630 ft. What we wanted to do was make sure that someone could go into a similarlysized uh location, keep the gross square footage generally contained, but give them that buffer so that they're not coming forward and saying, "Look, I want there's only one other suite available and it's 10 square ft bigger than my current one, so I can't move." We wanted to make sure that there was that buffer. So, we're really trying to address those concerns. Happy happy to answer any questions that the council has as well.

Mr. Mayor, I have a point of order. I I believe tonight is improper. Uh first, I'd like to recognize all the people here tonight for taking your time away from your families and spending the holiday with us. Uh before we proceed, I want to address the process here. This is a violation against Rosenberg's rules of order per the city attorney uh stated that we follow when I uh question him on it. Mr. City attorney, is there case law on this issue? Because if we act improperly on this, does it or does it not invalidate our actions? At the last meeting, the council voted on this exact policy and the motion failed under the required four-fifths vote with me on the prevailing side. There was no request made by me for revisiting of the item on tonight's agenda. Under commonly recognized parliamentary authorities, Rosenberg's rule of order, there are limitations on bringing back a matter that has already been decided, particularly when the prevailing side has not requested it. While I understand this item is being presented as revisited, from a public perspective, this is the same policy being brought back just days later without new data or analysis. that raises concerns about consistency, fairness, and the integrity of our process. I'd like city attorney your opinion to proceed any further and how this is not discriminatory against one business class over another. I'd like this to be entered into the record as I object to this process.

Mr. City Attorney, I'm popular guy tonight. Okay. Uh so I I would say to address the issue of procedure uh council member uh the city council adopted rules of procedure under resolution 2019-42. Uh it's available through the city clerk's uh file system online I believe. Um it has its own rules and procedures. When the rules are silent it adopts Rosenberg's rules under rule 410. It's on page nine of that resolution. So Rosenberg's is generally the place we look. Uh when it comes to a motion to reconsider, uh the adopted rules of procedure for the council actually have their own specific rules for reconsideration. I'll read those into the record now. It's rule 7.4. It's on page 13. Any council member who voted with the majority may move a reconsideration of any action at a same meeting. after a motion for reconsideration has been made and acted upon, no other motion for reconsideration thereof shall be made without the unanimous consent of the council. So if we were working with a motion to reconsider, which I don't believe we are, but assuming we were, it would be it would have to come from the majority. So Rosenberg's, you're correct, and I think Roberts, although I'm not as I don't have it committed to memory, generally has a motion to reconsider laying with the prevailing side. However, the city's rules that it adopted reference the majority. And I think we could all agree that when you have three votes on one side of a motion and one vote on another, the common understanding of majority would be with the three votes. That being said, I don't consider this to be a motion for reconsideration. I I understand that colloquially people are saying, "Oh, you're reconsidering this." And I think in a non-legalistic way that would be appropriate. But reconsideration is a very specific motion that goes back to and essentially erases the original. It also requires that action actually be taken. In the

case of the meeting on the 11th, no action was taken. There was a motion to adopt the moratorum. That motion required four affirmative votes in order to pass. It only received three. So it failed. That is not action. That's actually the lack of action. So, you can't reconsider something that never occurred in the first place. Here, we simply have a new meeting that has been called uh pursuant to the Brown Act. I don't see any legal legal procedural issue that would prevent the city council from proceeding. So, I think that answers your first question. And then as far as the second question, I think I understood it which is a legal opinion as to whether or not this is discriminatory. Was was that the question? Could you maybe state it again? All I wrote down was discriminatory question mark. So

uh yes, I again would like your opinion. Um I'd like your opinion to proceed if any any further. How is this not discriminatory against one business class over another?

Understood. So, um, for those of us who grew up, uh, in the '90s and after, the word discrimination has very negative connotations, right? Unless you're saying that someone has discriminating taste, which case it's generally seen as a good thing, right? Um, what I would say is this ordinance clearly treats one class of businesses differently than other class of businesses. That is permissible under both federal and state law. For example, this city, we talked about it at the last meeting, has an ordinance on the books and a resolution that follows it up that limits cannabis businesses to having only one cannabis business that operates in the city at any given time. The city council has selected that type of business, applied a rule to it to limit its peripheration throughout the community. All that is needed is what's called a rational basis for that. as long as the discrimination or the treating differently, right, is not based on a protected characteristic. So, race, sex, national origin, things like that, the city council can absolutely pass um ordinances that treat different businesses differently than others. That's the entire point of the city's zoning code, right? the zoning code treats different uses separately from others and it says where they can go, how they can operate. Um, so that's the core of land use regulation and as long as there's a rational basis for that treatment that is different between the two, uh, then it would be considered lawful in my opinion.

Uh, thank you for that. Uh going back to your first one, uh I I stated on the record the word revisiting since that's what has been brought to my attention uh both verbally through city manager and also uh in writing as well. Um and if you don't mind, I actually have Robertson's uh rule here uh or not, yeah, Rosenberg's rule here from from Cal Cities. um states on page six the motion to reconsider. A motion to reconsider requires a more majority vote to pass like other garden variety motions, but there are two special rules that apply only to the motion to reconsider. First is the matter of timing. A motion is reconsidered must be made at the meeting where the item was first voted upon. A motion to reconsider made at a later time is untimely. Second, a motion to reconsider may be made only by certain members of the body. Accordingly, a motion to reconsider may be made only by a member who voted in the majority on the original motion. If such a member has change of heart, he or she may make the motion to reconsider. Any other member of the body, including a member who voted in the minority of the original motion, may second the motion. If a member who voted in the minority seeks to make the motion to reconsider, it must be ruled out of order. Is that correct? I I I do believe that you have read the majority. I didn't know if you I didn't track every word, but I think you read it. I think the part that you're missing is under resolution 2019-42. Uh and that's again rule 410. It says in the absence of a rule herein to govern a point or procedure then Rosenberg's rules of order shall be used as a guide. So two things are important there. One

if the rules that the council's already adopted speak on an issue then the council's rules govern. The second part is it says Rosenberg's rules shall be used as a guide right to to to guide the discussion. In in this specific instance the council has adopted a rule on reconsideration. So the council's rule that's stated in that resolution governs. So everything in Rosenberg's I would use it as a guide to generally look at how it should be interpreted, but we should be going by the language that the council has adopted. The other thing to point out again, I think that we are colloquially using the word reconsider, but there is not a motion to reconsider that I've heard at at this body. The the council has an ordinance in front of it. It can call a special meeting to consider it. There is nothing that prevents the city council from having a vote on this topic under the rules of procedure or under state law that I'm aware of.

And when was 2019-42 rule 10 or 410 when was that adopted? November 6th, 2019. It is usually given uh to to council members upon election. I can't be certain that that happens every time. Uh but it is available on the city's website is my understanding. And it's to my understanding I did not receive that when I was elected. Thank you. Any other questions, Council Member Stber? Not yet. Any other comments, Mr. City Attorney? The only thing I would say is that if the council uh did believe that there was a concern that this was about reconsideration,

uh the council could always vote to suspend the rules, right? uh and that requires the same four votes to do uh a as an urgency ordinance would. So, you know, it I don't see this as a legal issue. I don't believe that it would be used as a basis to challenge it. But if the council did want to have a belt and suspenders approach to address council member Stever's issue, it could as part of the motion to adopt uh the urgency ordinance include in that a precautionary measure to suspend any rules related to reconsideration. if if that was a concern that the council shared.

Colleagues, no one wants to consider. Okay, Mr. City Manager, can you do me a favor and just tell us why we're here? How do we how do we get here? I know there's been a lot of questions. I didn't even realize it was St. Patrick's Day until I saw a post. So, I'm sorry I got a 2-year-old and a six-year-old and 8-year-old, so I don't pay attention to holidays, but can you just Why are we here? Absolutely. Uh, thank you, mayor. Um,

there's a myriad of reasons. Uh, the the big one is uh I received calls uh from multiple council members that uh wanted this item on an agenda. My concern is this is a very big item and on our next meeting uh it was moved to April 14th. Uh April 14th is the first look at the budget and this is an extremely difficult budget uh for staff to prepare. It is our job to prepare and propose a budget. It is council's job to decide on that. Make any modifications that you may want. Ask among your colleagues what you what changes you want. Get an agreement there. Give us clear direction on what you want coming back. Um, it it was it's such an important item that I I even made the comment last year that I was sad that everybody left when it was budget time because as a city manager, it's one of the most important meetings that I think any city has. And so when uh I don't remember if it was the first or the second council member called me, but um when the council member called, I had already talked to the city attorney and said, "What day are you available?" Because he he's he's got slots. And uh Tuesday was a day that was available. So the first thing I said, "Okay, you want a special meeting on Tuesday? Are you available?" And the answer was yes. I then proceeded to call every single council member um and find out if they were available on Tuesday. Five out of five on that short of notice is very very rare. It worked out perfectly. Five out of five were available. Uh we got everything rolling

to be able to do this. Working with the city attorney to be able to create uh the the ordinance and staff report and get things rolling. Welcome. Thank you for that. Absolutely. Um any comments from our colleagues as we're kind of working through this?

I have a just a question for clarification purposes. So you had mentioned that we're here for an ordinance which would basically pause everything so that studying and analysis could take place over that 45 days which essentially amounts to a month and a half. If we did not go through with the moratorum for studying, this could be agendaized as a regular ordinance on the next agenda in April and instead of a four vote or four person requirement for passage, it would only need three.

That is correct, Mayor Prom.

Okay. So the question um I guess in moving forward tonight is do we want the public to actively participate in that analysis and studying or do we just put it on the agenda and and move forward without as much community feedback or participation? Is that really kind of what we're looking at? Uh that one's hard for me to answer as to kind of what you know which one is which. Um but you're absolutely correct in that they are in in a different fashion. And then I go back to my answer of a moratorum is just a pause. It is just saying no more while we analyze. Council could at the end of that analysis say there is a concern. This is how we'll do it. I'm really having trouble mayor. Um If you don't mind, everyone please try to keep quiet.

Uh so the council could at the end of that analysis say okay uh we're not going to move forward. The analysis has told us that maybe the data we we thought was not correct. So we would or it may in fact prove that what the initial initial an analysis is just a fancy word for for guesstimate as they say as we look at business licenses and things like that. that it really gets us to to um to drill down. So absolutely th those two exist. So the last time we had a moratorum or discussion about moratorum was the dock ordinance. Is that right?

That is correct. That was the last or uh mortoriium I could find. Okay. And so that allowed the community to provide feedback and then staff to do additional research. Absolutely. And then ultimately the the ordinance was changed based on the feedback of the community. It was Do you can I ask Josh or Council Member Steward, do you have an objection to more feedback from the community?

Uh I do not uh have an objection about feedback. I definitely do though regarding the moratorum and I would like to ask uh a question to city manager if possible for clarification. Uh after last Wednesday's fail on this item, how many beauty establishments uh business license were pulled on Thursday, Monday, and today? I believe it was two. Were there any additional uh that came in after those two? Just the two. Currently, there there are two new ones that came in.

Thank you. Oh, and if I didn't answer, I clarify a little more if you'd like. No, my my question was just kind of since you brought the I think I'm I'm reading it as an objection to participating in the process. Uh I'm in objection of a moratorum as I recommended last Wednesday. I would love to see city manager and staff do a study, collect more data and analysis prior to us making a decision on this moratorium. Okay. But you don't want to pause it so that there's kind of status quo for the purposes of that consideration.

No, I don't believe two is a sense of urgency on why we would have to do that. Okay. I

I think to to Mayor Prom's point that she was trying to make earlier is is that you know when we're looking at you know mor moratorum this is obviously going to be revisited. So this is a time at which staff can can further research if this is an actual issue or not. I mean this thing could come back and you could be like look in the last 45 days we've had zero interest in folks that are trying to apply for a new brick and mortar and you know this isn't a an issue that we thought. And I mean, for me, I I I know this this item is on the agenda, not tonight, but Wednesday more so, um, because we got calls from business owners with complaints and residents with complaints. And I know there's two sides to everything. So, I actually appreciate it coming to the council as a moratorum requiring a four-fifths because then it requires four of us to be on the same page as opposed to three of us. Um, I like that. But, um, I know that, you know, this is this is one of those issues that Canyon Lake is not used to seeing. And it's, as I mentioned in our last council meeting, you know, we're unique in this community. We don't we don't have a planning commission and we don't have some of the optics that other communities have. I mean, when we were looking at some of the data, when you look at just the overall amount of salons that are around cities that are close to us, I mean, you know, we're at about one for every 400 people. Um, other cities are one for every 15 to 1,800 people. And that's the city of Tmacula at about 75, city of Marietta at about 65, city of Mini of about 55, city of Lake Elsenor of about 45, and city of Hemtt right at about 65. So I I can see why this is a conversation. I completely understand why this was brought forward because when you look at our numbers per population um especially when you look at our

numbers with the amount of land we actually have to give out uh for certain businesses, it is it's an oversaturation. And is that a problem? I don't know. I mean, that's that's really what we're here to discuss. Um Council Member Wely, do you have any questions or any comments? I hate to call you out, but

no. Uh I think we're all very concerned about the health of the center. It's our primary retail spot up here and we are concerned very concerned as it ages that it does not become obsolete economically and and I think the careful attention needs to be paid to it and I I think the opportunity for a moratorum it does give an opportunity to get uh feedback from the community. I don't work up in the center. Um I I of course visit the center and I come up here. But from what I understand there's a lot of feedback about people being overwhelmed by the number of say beauty salons I think is part of the definition. I think the opportunity for the the merchants in the association, the community members to come forward and have a a thoughtout discussion is is a pretty valuable thing. And and I think what we're trying to avoid here is people hear, oh, there might be a closing. So, let's all run down and get these 27 licenses kind of lined up. Uh and and that's would be that's not our intent. The intent of the mortorium is say let's take a deep breath. Let's see where we're at and let's see that uh you know we we keep our center viable uh and we don't overwhelm it with one product or another. And I I think that's important. And uh you know if we had 30 different shopping centers and we had one in the corner maybe not such a concern but this is this is our only center and we we the city and also being part of the merchant association needs to make sure that it it stays vibrant and successful.

Council member Terry do you have any comments? I have a couple questions. Um, the two business license that applied, are they also leasing a new brick and mortar or are they just what are the circumstances behind those two licenses? That's not working. They are within a suite. So, they're leasing either a suite from one building um or a chair. Okay. So they already are in a salon, correct?

And they're obtaining their business license and going to work for an existing salon. Is that correct? Okay. Second question is, what mechanisms in this 45 days do you vision

in an effort to get public feedback? because we're saying that this time is to be dedicated in a portion to public feedback. I was do we have any mechanisms? Have we given any thought to what that may look like? We have a lot of mechanisms, council member, for um for public feedback, including um what sometimes becomes the bane of my existence in social media uh and email. And uh it is perfectly within the council's prerogative also to do some type of town hall uh community outreach meetings, anything along that line. As well as uh council just being out and about. Um I've done this long enough to know that many of you don't get to go to the grocery store and just go pick up your items and go. You will often get input whether it's good, bad, or you know, compliments. uh disagreements or just input. So we have numerous mechanisms for community input.

I I since our last meeting received two phone calls. Um, one was not in the beauty industry, one was in the beauty industry, but based on, this is my opinion, the amount of traffic on social media, I question why I didn't receive more calls. I'm a voting member. Um, I know that Gus had uh reached out and I made it a point to call Gus when I was in Arizona, but I would encourage more communication with council members, with community leaders, people who have the opportunity who who in my story today, I want to hear your feedback. I want to hear what your opinion is because it's valid. We we need to turn the We need to turn this around a little bit and you need to have faith that I don't know how many times Mayor Smith, Council Member uh excuse me, Mayor Pro Tim um Castillo has gone online and put their personal phone number out there. And I encourage you to within respect utilize that to ask your questions and to to get further information. I do know there is a person in the audience who did call me and we had a conversation for well over 45 minutes. I don't know what we accomplished but um it was a very fruitful discussion. Um, we are oversaturated. If you were to take a look at, and I I said that in my

comments before, um, I'm going to be conservative. I think that 14 brick and mortars, I think, is a conservative number. Um, currently housing uh, this industry. Correct me if I'm wrong. If I'm wrong, I I want to be told I'm wrong, but I I believe that there is approximately, and I do believe it's somewhat of a conservative number, 14 buildings that that service the beauty industry. In one respect, man, what a great opportunity for those who are employed, for those who are looking to um operate their own business, and I truly appreciate that. And it takes a lot. Takes a lot to go from having a job and clocking in to saying, you know what, I'm going to pull a business license. I'm going to go get a suite. I'm going to pay some rent. And uh I'm going to make a go at this. And um at the other side of that is this, and this is where I'm coming from. My number one obligation to you is public safety. Is to keep you safe. Number one, you're not a city unless you can keep your residents safe. In doing that, I have an obligation to raise revenue to pay for that public safety portion of that lies in our business community and the revenue that we can receive. To this date, we do not have a sales tax. Correct me if I'm wrong. Is that correct? Correct statement.

The city does not. That is correct. And I've heard council members that are here tonight say in the past they hesitate to go in that route. Therefore, it is our obligation to take a look at our business community and to see how we can if we can generate additional revenue to pay for those services. this 45 days, I would hope we truly take a look at not only where we're at, but where we want to go. It's one thing to say, "Hey, I'm going to take a look at this for 45 days." It's another thing if after the end of the 45 days, you kind of shrug your shoulders and go, "We're nowhere close." So I would hope in this 45 days if it if if it was to move forward and I feel confident that it will that we really have some concrete ideas and some direction that we want to follow this council and I can't speak for them. I can only observe what I've seen um over the past three years that I have been on council is extremely ambitious. They created a fire department. You know, uh the the issue of contract services, we'd currently be paying about a million dollars more than we were had we not did what we did. Um the uh the moving forward with the police department uh we currently would have had a we currently would have a contract that would have increased um minimum 5% this year. Is that is that fair?

I believe 9% is the

I try to be conservative 9% and there really is no indication that the following year that wouldn't also increase as well. And I applaud this council for their courage to make those decisions. I speak to other councils. I speak to other members on councils and they all have the same problem. They can't afford their police. They can't afford their fire. They just don't have the courage to do anything about it. Your council did. Public safety. We've got to take a look at our town center. We've got to take a look at our businesses. And we've got to at least investigate the possibility of revenue. Now, for all of you who have, you know, I see I see a member here today who who owns several businesses who in thus in in in turn employs people in a roundabout way who are in his um uh whether it be a chair, whether it be a suite. And it's it's um it's it's it is a big service to our community. And therefore, it would be horrible if we were to make a decision to try to eliminate anything that we don't already have. And the intention here is not to decrease, prohibit, or to minimize what we already have. So, if you're here, if you are operating a business in one of our buildings, you're going to continue to operate a business in one of those buildings. If you currently have um a suite or you currently have a chair, it is my understanding that you will have that chair tomorrow, you will have that

chair next week, and you will have that chair after even the 45 days. That's where I'm at. Thank you, council member. Mr. Mayor, can I make a comment? Yes, sir.

I'd love to uh let the public know about my experience, which has been a little different than uh Council Member uh Terry's, and I appreciate your feedback on there. Um first, I want to thank every single person that has reached out to me. I've received a lot of feedback. Um, my number was probably a little over 200 phone calls since Thursday morning and I probably had just only a couple of them that didn't know which way they were feeling. The remaining of them all provided great feedback and support and I'm very proud to be sitting up here. Actually, I'm honored to be sitting up here representing this community. These were not just residents. These were also business owners. These were business owners in the beauty establishment. These are different business owners. These are also building owners of our town center as well. And so I just really wanted my colleagues to know plus the public that my experience has been very different these last six days and just listening to the support that I have been able to provide to all businesses in our community. Again, I'm I'm honored to do that. I I would like to ask city manager, uh, do you believe the study could be completed prior to the April 14th or do you think it would take longer past those 45 days of the moratorum?

It would entirely depend on the complexity of that study. There hasn't been direction given by council. So I I really would have to know what that complexity would entail. And when does does this council tonight vote on what we are looking for in that study or is that tabled for another meeting or are we doing 2 by twos on what's going to entail within that study?

Uh I I might be the better person to answer that. Uh, council member, uh, it directing your attention to section four of the draft ordinance. Uh, I felt it was important to in take a stab at including specific direction uh, in the ordinance itself so that um, it was clear. Uh so section 4A uh directs the city manager to evaluate the number and location of existing beauty establishments within the city and the need if any for additional establishments in light of current and projected demand and the city's broader policy uh objectives. Um, section B, it's a direction to the city manager, but the truth is it'll probably be my office working closely with the city manager's office is to develop and present to the city council for consideration proposed amendments to the general plan, zoning code, or other business regulations. um including but not limited to standards for addressing the number, location, and concentration of such uses within the city's commercial centers, including the town center as well as potential spacing requirements and other regulatory measures intended to maintain a balanced mix of commercial services. And then lastly, to the point about public input, C, direct city manager to provide opportunities for public input and participation to ensure that residents, businesses, and other stakeholders may comment on those potential policy and regulatory changes affecting beauty establishments. Um, I think we can come up with a draft regulatory measure uh by your April meeting. Um, but I do think like the city manager said, it depends on how complex the council wants to make this. So, if the council wants a report on how many beauty establishments there are, there are and where they're located at, that seems like something, not to speak for the city manager, that could be done relatively quickly. Uh, and if you're looking for a relatively, and this this is what happened with the dock

ordinance, right? Uh the council wanted the the dock ordinance to be straightforward, hit the issues and only the issues that were concerned. Um so there's two potential ways to address overconentration if the council adopts the moratorum tonight. Uh and those are both relatively simple ordinances to draft. So I think that if there was the coun and the last thing I would say is this has come up before it's up to the council. If the council says city manager, city attorney, come back with this report and with this draft ordinance at the next meeting, then we will make that happen. Uh if there's significantly more complex information that you want, then obviously that's just going to depend on exactly what you're looking for. regarding uh section 4 number B or letter B uh just for for for my acknowledgement the general plan and the zoning ordinances those were adopted in 2022. I don't know the exact date our general plan and all of our zoning ordinances were implemented. Uh this would generally be subject to the town center specific plan. Um, but what we would likely do is draft it as a business regulation, uh, which would go, I believe, in title five.

Then on the city's website under the planning page, there is the general plan of the town center. Can you state if that was adopted or is that just a draft online? So, the the general plan is for the entire city. I think you're talking about the specific plan for the town center. The general plan of the town center. Yes. Okay. So, the the specific plan, uh, 2022 sounds about right. I I think that was right. It was, but again, I don't know the the date off the top of my head. So, relatively recently. Thank you, city attorney. I appreciate your feedback. Before we go to public comments, I have more. Do you have some more? Yes. How many public speakers do we have?

Thank you. Um, can I So, I appreciate both uh Mayor Terry or I'm sorry, you were Mayor Terry before, Council Member Terry and Council Member Fed um Ste's feedback. My experience was different because I spent all weekend on social media and um which is fun, super fun. Um, but it's a different way to engage with the community and I think that sometimes you have to meet them where they are, right? if they want to talk on comm community on community pages or tag me or or try not to tag me so I don't see it. I don't know. Um I feel like it's important to have those conversations and I'm grateful that um I did have those conversations. I know Alex and I went back and forth and some other people that I had never met before. So it was a way for me to meet other members of the community. I did get a lot of phone calls as well. um something that I think I think the community feels comfortable talking to different council members for different reasons. The feedback that I received was from some business owners who were afraid to post online because they felt they might be bullied. Um, that's information I got and I took that to heart just because I think it's as important to recognize that everyone is entitled to their opinion here. We represent the community as a whole, not necessarily special interest groups, but we do have to take into consideration every group, right? And everyone's feedback. Um, how do other cities handle oversaturation of business services? because I know that we talk about taxing, right? And that's generally a sales tax situation and I think we can

acknowledge that businesses that are beauty establishments do have a retail component. Um, so I'm assuming they're paying taxes, right? Um, how do other cities who have by and large bigger service industries handle kind of that revenue? Mayor Prom, there there is a fee uh that many other cities have for service industries if that was implemented and I don't remember what year Prop 218 was. Uh,

thank you. If that was implemented prior to 1996 when Prop 218 came about, it was, as the the city attorney said earlier, essentially grandfathered. If it was implemented after that, then it is just like any other tax measure where it would have to go to the voters and then the uh the measure would then ask the voters to vote on a fee, which is essentially a tax on services. And so many many cities have that and had that implemented uh well before 218, but some have after 218 gone to the voters for that.

So there So it's not just a potential for a sales tax, but also a services tax. I I'll let the city attorney answer because it's a fee, but but a tax.

Yeah. So, it's part of the those cities and they tend to be older cities that were established uh you know much earlier than the city of Canyon Lake. Um it's part of their business licensing process. Um and it's generally a percentage of gross receipts uh for services uh that are provided within that jurisdiction. And that is been historically the way of addressing the fact that service businesses do not pay taxes or generate revenue uh the same way that retail sales do. Uh we obviously don't have that in the city of Canyon Lake. some of the questions that I saw online and I think that it's important to have the community hear maybe not just from me um was a question that if the city of Kenyan Lake had recently purchased the building over to the left of us why did the um or or the building where the school rents why did the city rent to AMR if it's not generating revenue Why did the city rent to a school when there were tenants there?

Uh I I can answer both questions. Uh AMR uh between myself and uh the fire chief, we negotiated as much as we could to keep AMR here because AMR's option was leaving the city, going somewhere else. That directly affects the response times of AMR. If AMR goes to Lake Elsenor, add that drive. If if AMR goes to Meny, same thing. Add that drive. So while it was not going to generate revenue, it it literally could be the difference of saving somebody's life or not. So uh it was uh that was the reason for doing what we could to retain that.

Mr. City Manager, do you remember a gentleman by the name of Peter Hubard? He was a former government relations manager for AMR. He approached the city back in 2019 2020 and said, "You will have a problem on your hand and that is that we're going to move to Lake Elsar." And so I commend the city for doing all they can to keep AMR at the town center. That was a big deal. They were very unpleased with their current living situation because they had to go upstairs. And so I know there was a lot of work done in in making that happen. So, um I just wanted to say thank you because I know we had to move some walls and do some stuff and we kept them here. And how long of a lease did they sign? 5 years. It's 5-year lease. Thank you.

And uh in in terms of the 31600 building, uh is that the school? That is the the school. Um that is something council had given direction to um look at buildings within the town center uh that could be acquired for purposes of economic development. Uh when that building was purchased, there were several tenants in there. The amount of money that those individuals were paying was way below market rate.

What were they paying? uh anywhere from 90 cents a square foot to I think the highest was just under $2. Uh it it was at a point that um we know for a fact and we found out after acquiring the building that there was an individual living within their office even though that is not allowed. We are not zoned for that. Um the original plan was to be able to take that building uh really refurbish it kind of to fix it up and have the city invest money in it and then bring it to market rate so that uh you'd have people in there and when we were going through that process I was personally uh approached by the school sat down and had a discussion with them and they said I want the whole building what what would we need to do for that? And I kind of gave a a a scenario and talked about what they bring to the town center asking about the number of students because the way economic development works is you're you're not just bringing that business that is sales tax, you're bringing I I hear this all the time and uh uh every city manager cringes at this, but everybody wants a Trader Joe's, right? give me a Trader Joe's, we're going to get all the sales tax. Trader Joe's represents 0 in sales tax. They do not have prepared foods. So, when you go to our uh market here, you go in and you buy maybe some buns or you buy a hot dog and you take it home and cook it, the city gets zero revenue from that. You make a left and you have the the amazing burritos or the bowls or the barbecue sandwich or the I could go on forever because it was one of my favorite lunch spots. You pay uh tax on that. So, the

reason cities go so hard for places like Trader Joe's is because they want something that's going to bring you to that center. And you may not you may not provide revenue to the city through Trader Joe's, but you go to Trader Joe's and then maybe you stop by the restaurant that's next door or you've got a a store a couple places down that you go to. It's the same thing. When the the school owner approached me and I talked through how big they plan to be, let's just look at 100 students. 100 students is a possibility of up to 200 parents coming over to the town center. The hope is they're going to come over, take part in this local economy, buy food, buy buy items, whatever it may be. So that is the reason that the the transition happened from what was there when we bought that building. individuals and there were individuals that were very upset when uh the the city made that decision and told me you don't understand I have to move because I can't afford to pay market rate and I I understand that but market rate is is that it is market rate and once the city acquires a building we cannot because it is the the tax money the we we cannot essentially give favors to individuals and say, "Hey, this person has to pay that amount, but we we we feel really bad for your situation, so we're going to do that." There has to be a justification for why an individual rate would be different, and it could be uh AMR, we'd be willing to negotiate a little less because it is well within the city's interest to keep the response times down. Does that answer your

question, Mayor P? Yes. Another question that I received on social media and I'm I'm just asking this because maybe someone didn't see it. Um it was all week. Um prior vacancies in the town center. I heard that there were buildings that were vacant for maybe two years. Can you explain how that is something that we need to consider or deal with?

Absolutely. represent that that that is not regulated currently by council to where we say if you are a business owner and you are not motivated to rent out your building. There is nothing that council at this time has done to say you need to do that in an expedited nature. Um there have been businesses that have been vacant and um they're in a different position maybe financially where they say you know we'll kind of get around to it when we get around to it or they may have some other plans and at this time that is in no way regulated. So it is up to them. I can tell you the city what we have done for uh our buildings is we're constantly discussing what the options are if somebody wants to move in. We really try hard to give um the ability for a business within the town center to move into ours if they're trying to grow because it becomes kind of like an incubator. So, we've already had businesses that have grown into larger areas. We then come after and it's the simple paint the walls, get everything going and then start advertising. But uh we've been selective in some of the businesses and that we're not looking for something that's not going to be here very long. We're not looking for something that's not going to provide any benefit to uh the the other businesses around. It's try to try to feed off of the others. And so we have been somewhat selective, but um we've not experienced at all a two-year vacancy. Uh it's been quite the opposite. We we've had some turnover move to other spots. So again, if an individual has a vacancy of that long, it's well within their their right. Another question that I saw was why wouldn't we just apply the moratorum

across the board to all businesses service or um retail like why would why would we just worry about the one that seems to be oversaturated? uh it is within council's right to uh regulate uh the zoning and uh planning as the planning function of the city. Um I doubt if the city attorney has experienced that and I certainly haven't where a city would say we've we've got too many gosh darn businesses. Um it is normally a very a as uh uh council member Ste said a very discriminate look at the uh the prolifer proliferation of individual types of businesses. So certainly it is within the council's right to analyze all businesses within their jurisdiction.

Could an economic revitalization district work in Kenya Lake? I know like Elsenor is doing rediscover Lake Senor and I know Meny just posted over the weekend that they have a specific plan going on with public hearing for the purposes of a boardwalk. My concern is when I hear like Elsenor's doing cool things and Meny's doing cool things. I'm I mean we're now going to be spending our money not here. um could that kind of um utilization of CDBG money or that kind of could that work here?

Some of that is difficult because you're talking about funds that we inherently do not rate. Um uh redevelopment obviously was ended uh city attorney may know that one as well. What year? The 2011.

2011. Uh and uh the very small amount of community development block grant funds we get really are from the county saying, "Hey, you don't get any, so we'll give you some of ours. Um we we don't rate some of the same ones that they do." So there there are um enhanced infrastructure financing districts which are sort of the successors uh to the old redevelopment agencies. Uh they use a portion of tax increment. The uh state carved out tax increment that goes to schools. Um so they they have been used uh successfully in some jurisdictions um as a as a basis for economic development and revitalization. But not to get too far into the weeds, uh it's called tax increment financing, which means you are financing the improvements based on the increases in the tax revenue. So you have to do something that's going to increase tax revenue. If you're talking about businesses that by their nature are not taxed at the local level um and are unlikely to result in significant increases to uh not indirect tax measures like property tax, I I would say that it's it's not likely to be financially successful

if if we after whatever we decide to do moratorum ordinance nothing. Um would this uh process be subject to a public hearing? It's a good question. Uh so if we went as fast as possible and we followed uh the timeline that council member Steber had recommended uh which was if the council did adopt the moratorum bringing the proposed revisions at the very next meeting so that we are minimizing the delay uh you still need to have first reading second reading 30 days till adoption or till till it's enacted I mean so first reading April second reading May goes into effect in June you would want your moratorum to cover that that whole period. Um and it would terminate when the new ordinance goes into effect. That's how we've done it in the past. Um that extension requires a notice public hearing. So newspaper on the public hearing gavel proponents opponents the whole the whole uh nine yards. So if if you do pass the mortorium, expect an extension. That's part of the proposed motion. And that extension would be a noticed public hearing with newspaper notice.

So a notice public hearing that would have community feedback in favor, community feedback in opposition publicly. Is that right? Right. And that would be in addition to whatever the proposed ordinance was. You'd probably take them both at the same time. Uh so it would presume based on the number of people we have here today, I would assume it would be a relatively robust conversation.

Thank you. Any other questions before we hear from the public? Madam clerk, our first speaker is Alex Cook. Thank you, Alex, for joining us. Three minutes. Don't get mad when it goes off. It's not my fault I have to tell you to stop talking. That microphone's portable, so please don't throw it at me. I would never do that. Thank you.

Um, I want to thank Mayor Smith and the city council for letting us uh speak tonight and the opportunity. Um, I also want to thank I talked to Josh, Council Member Stever, Mayor Tro Prom Castillo, and Mayor Smith um, in the last week and I really appreciate you guys taking the time. I know how busy you are. You guys have careers and so do I. So, it's all good. Um, I'm asking the council to reject the moratorum by either voting no or tableabling this to a later date so more research can be done and a real plan can be put in place. Now, why I don't want a moratorum? Mortoriiums are initially temporary. I get that. But in my experience, mortoriiums eventually turn into permanent bans and also moratoriums are safety issues not limiting growth of a profitable successful business model that works here and that's my biggest concern. On top of that, it's brought to tonight I'm kind of changing and going off the thing. I know Mr. Brown is like Superman and I know he has budget next meeting and this will have to come back up on the meet meeting next April. if you do vote for the moratorum and everything has to have ducks in a row because 45 days you don't get 45 days you get 27 days or whatever that math is um or it goes away. So I would like to see more research being done adopt or talk about this maybe in June meeting when when there's more time he's trying to put a police department together. There's a lot going on the city and I just feel like we need to make sure we have our ducks in a row before we really put a plan out there so the community can understand. So, why single out one of the most profitable and successful business models in Canyon Lake? The business model works for many people for many reasons. It encourages many people to start their own business with the ability to have freedom, the freedom to have free time, to spend with family, friends, travel, still be a great parent. A lot of these are moms that can work on their own schedule. And that's super important. Very few other small businesses offer this. Canyon Lake is a

recreational community and we all value those freedoms. The the goal is to create more retail space for taxes, we really need to look at all the service industries in the town center, not single out just one that's the most profitable for both the landlords and the individuals that work in them. If we want real retail, a town center needs to have an anchor store. That's a fact. You brought that up with, you know, right there. A real store that draws traffic. We don't have one and we don't have the retail space large enough to offer that and that's a big thing. Um I was going to talk about the Brown Act. You you talked about that so I'm not going to go into that. Um but I just want to remind everybody this meeting was called so council member Wely could deliberate. I appreciate it. I'm sorry you were sick last week but I'm glad we're here and then I do not want it's kind of weird coming back six days later and deliberating again kind of puts a bad taste in all our mouths. Um it you know so it it's it was voted on now it's back we're doing it again and a lot of people have taken time out of their day so I please ask you guys to reject the moratorium tonight thank you

thank you right on time too next speaker selecty mayor if I could just remind the speakers hold the microphone up top the bottom is actually the the antenna so if you cover that up you may lose a little Gotcha. As stated in the last council meeting, we got two for the price of one. Yeah. So, we apologize for the inconvenience.

So, before I start, I want to give everybody uh these are the petitions we had signed. There's 88 business owners and residents that signed it against the memorum. What's up, everybody? You guys ready? Thank you for having me. Thank you for letting me speak. Um, you know, my name is Gus Licky. been here 16 years in the town center. We've owned retail places. We own Wild Blush uh salon suites. There's a lot of salon suite owners here. Retail doesn't really survive here unless somebody helps. We've had Sugar Dolls here 16 years. We struggled every 16 years. We try to make it work. We got to close it down. We turn it into Wild Blush Suites. A lot of people get upset over that cuz we're taking over buildings. We're not here to take over buildings. We're just here doing what works. What really works is the service industry and that's what really survives here. There's 80% of all the businesses here are in the service industry. And like you guys, the city, you guys follow our model. You guys get buildings, you guys make rooms, you guys have some of our previous tenants in those rooms. I know you know that, right? By the way, the urgency does not match the facts. Anyway, one complaint should not become the foundation for an emergency legislation affect an entire commercial sector. Like, who's complaining? Who's the one that's saying, "Hey, there's no parking. Hey, you know, there's too many salon suites. Hey, everybody's too beautiful around here." Like, what's the big deal about that to be honest with you? Yeah, I want more sales tax. I want the I want the town center. I I became the president merchant to make the town center better. I'm on your team with you and that's all I want. But I don't want to be singled out. I don't want everybody calling me saying, "Gus, they're going after you. They don't like what you're doing." There's all these little groups that are saying, "You're doing too much. You're asking for too much. You're dangerous." I'm not dangerous. I just want what's best for Canyon Lake. We're Canyon Lake. We look

like Sun City out there. I want everything to look better. And to be honest with you, I do feel attacked. I feel attacked kind of by you as well. You kind of tell me something and then you kind of change things and I just want to This is me talking from my heart. And Casey, I reached out to you. You never called me back. You say, "Hey, call me." I reached out to her. You never called me. The only people that called me were Jeremy Smith, Mark Terry, and Dave Welty. Thanks for being here. I appreciate that. But to be honest with you, this is an attack on the beauty industry. I have all the buticians here. It's literally a sad thing that Canyon Lake wants more tax money and they want to squeeze it from us. There's so many other places you could get it from and you have to pick us. That is not right. I think we should work together and find a solution to this. That way we don't have to put a pause on things. I don't want to grow anymore. We just leased out to a commercial baker. I could have built more suites. I said, "You know what? Let's do something different. I need a break. We've been building sweets two every two buildings every year. I'm done. I told my wife I need a break. I went back to my career. We have a commercial baker. I was going to give you some retail money. I mean, I'm a little nervous up here, but

there appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thank you,

Renee Griffith. Renee, thank you, Renee. Floor is yours.

Thank you. I want to address the language in the ordinance stating that an overconentration of beauty establishments threatens the public health, safety, and welfare. This is a serious claim. It's important for you to share if there are any documentation in de demonstrating the harm to the public safety or welfare from beauty establishments. Nothing about the situation presents a sudden or immediate danger to public. What is being described here is an economic concern about generating revenue and a mix and the mix of businesses in the town center. And this isn't new. The town specific plan was adopted in 2022. If the city believed the business mix in the town center was a problem, the council has had nearly four years to address it through normal policy process. If the argument now is that there are more beauty establishments today than there were in 2022, that should not surprise anyone. Over time, some retail businesses in the center have closed and other businesses, including beauty establishments, stepped in to fill those vacant spaces. Would the city have preferred those spaces remained vacant? If the city believes that service-based businesses limit their ability to generate revenue, then any policy addressing that concern should apply equally to all service businesses, not just one specific industry. Because if the suites that might otherwise be leased to beauty establishments end up being filled by other service-based businesses, those businesses also generate little to no city revenue. Restricting one specific type of service business does not solve the threat. the ordinance claims exist. If the goal is to bring more retail to the town center and increase revenue, why didn't the economic development committee seek out a retail tenant for the property acquired in 2025? Instead, the city entered into a long-term lease with a

service-based business that generates little to no city revenue. So, how can a service-based business now be described as an urgent economic threat when the city itself just chose to add another one? And I agree with your decision to go with a long-term lease, by the way, because that's right as a landlord for you guys to do it. The other thing, too, and I want to thank you. You actually made the argument beautiful about why this shouldn't happen and the vote should be no. I speak for myself, but I believe most women when they get their hairs done, they get their facial, they get their nails done, whatever they do, the last thing they want to do is go home and cook a meal. So, we're ordering takeout or we're having our family meet us at a restaurant because Pepes is great, Kenny and Cowboy is great, Sports Stop is great, or we're going to the market because you're right, everything is amazing, and we're doing takeout. So these businesses, while maybe not directly, certainly indirectly generate revenue. And last, I always stop at the market to buy things I would normally go to Stater Brothers for when I'm here. I also learned about just food for dogs and how to spend more money on my dogs because I was walking around the town center after a facial. Thank you.

Sorry. Thank you. Sorry about that. Thank you, Patricia Strong. Good evening. The floor is yours. Hi.

Good evening. My name is Trisha Strong and I'm a nail tech and small business owner here in Canyon Lake. I just wanted to share my experience with opening a beauty business in the town center. I recently moved here from New Mexico with my husband after he separated from the military. Like many families going through that transition, we were stepping into a very uncertain chapter of our lives. We didn't have everything figured out. We didn't have guaranteed stability and we were trying to rebuild. We arrived at the end of August and at that time my husband was still in between jobs. He was actively applying, interviewing, and doing everything he could, but he wasn't officially hired until the end of October. That means for two full months, my business was our only source of income. And I want to be very honest about that because I think it's important to understand what that really means. 2 months without income isn't just tight for us as a young couple. I am 24, my husband is 26. that is devastating. It can determine whether you could pay your bills, whether you could afford groceries, and whether you could stay afloat during a life transition that is already stressful enough. Many of those weeks, we had to choose between just one of those things. If I had not been able to open my business here in Canyon Lake, I truly don't know what we would have done. My only other option would have been gone to go to somewhere else to another salon suite with a long wait list where I could have been waiting weeks or even months just for a suite. And when you're in a situation like mine, waiting is not an option. Waiting means no income. Waiting means uncertainty and waiting means risk. Canyon Lake gave me the opportunity to start immediately. And that opportunity made a real difference for my family. But beyond just income, I want to speak on something that is just as important to me. Community. Everyone behind me. A community. As a young business owner, finding a place where you feel supported, welcomed, and encouraged is everything. And through Wild Blush, I didn't just find a place

to work. I found a community. A community of other women, other business owners, and people who lift up each other, support each other, and genuinely want to see each other succeed. That kind of environment is rare and is incredibly valuable, especially for someone like me who is starting over in a new state away from everything familiar. Taking away opportunities for b beauty professionals doesn't just take away income. It takes away spaces like that. It takes away safe, supportive environments where people can grow, build confidence, and create something from themselves. And it also limits Canyon Lake as a whole. I have clients who travel as far from Chino Hills and the high desert just to come here. And I've had multiple conversation with these clients about how they love this community so much that they've even considered moving here. That's the kind of impact small businesses have. We don't just serve, we attract, we connect, and we contribute to the growth of the city. So when you consider restricting new beauty businesses, I just ask that you think about the bigger picture. You're not limiting businesses. You're limiting opportunity, stability, and community for real people, real family, and real futures. Canyon Lake gave me a chance when I needed the most and I hope that you continue to give the same to others. Thank you.

You nailed it. Thank you, Rose. Rose.

Hey, Rose. Floor is yours. My name is My name is Rosalia Gana. I am a small business owner and a member of the community. I'm here tonight because a proposal moral can never say that word ortorium.

There you go. I got you. On a new beauty related businesses raising serious concerns not only just my livelihood but many hardworking professionals who are part of the local economic here in Canyon Lake. I have been in the industry for 28 years and during that time I have worked in a different locations but I can honestly say I have never experienced the level of growth and opportunities that I have had within the salon of salon wild blush suites. I have allowed myself and build my business in ways that I have never possibly before and the opportunities had made me difference have made a big difference in me professionally and personally. That is why I deeply concern the policies that could limit the future growth. Now just for me but not not just from me but from many other professionals trying to build them something for themselves. The beauty industry is not made of mostly independent professionals. There's not there are not large corporations or chain businesses. These are local residents. People who lived here raised their families here and work hard every day to build something of their own. Many of us have invested years of training, thousands of dollars into licensing equipment and countless hours of building a relationship with our clients. What concerns many of us is that while proposal may seem like it's only affects new businesses, the real impact could reach much further. Many beauty professionals work in salon suites and share spaces. If someone leaves a suit, that space can could remain empty because of new professionals would need a new business license to take over. If those licenses are restricted, it means empty storefront viewer, fewer opportunities for local professionals and less economic activity in our commercial areas. This is what frustrates This is what is frustrating. This does not just affect future businesses. In theory, it is affect real people who are already working hard, paying rent, creating jobs, and contributing to the community. It risks slowing growth, limitation opportunities, and makes it harder for independent business owners to succeed.

The beauty industry is also represents opportunities for many people especially women, young professionals, single parents or field offers one of the few accessib paths of entrepreneur. It allows people to serve small, grow their client base and eventually build something suitable for themselves and their families. Policies that limit the opportunities risk closing the doors for future entrepreneurs who want to contribute to the community. Our industrial also our industry also helps support the local economy in ways that may not always be obvious. Beauty professional rents commercial spaces, bring regular foot traffic to local shopping centers, and create environmental where people gather and connect. Our clients often visit neighbors, restaurants, shops, and businesses during their appointments. When our businesses thrive, the surrounding businesses also benefit, too.

Thank you. You did good. Thank you, Amy. Next speaker. Hello. I'm ready. Are you ready? Yeah, you're good.

Okay. I I did have something on my phone, but I feel like everybody covered everything I wanted to talk about. Um, one thing we didn't talk about was the future. The future of my daughter and particularly and all of the children in Canyon Lake. I feel like with this what you guys are going to do, you're going to limit them to becoming entrepreneurs here. They're not going to be able to go get a beauty license and do cosmetology here. I I eventually this will all die out and that just makes me sad. Will my daughter even be able to take over everything I've worked so hard to build for her, my husband and I. Will we be able to transfer that license in her name one day? Or is this all for nothing? all the 16 years we've put all of our money into this town center, this community, serving all of you, your wives, your children, building so many memories with custom swimwear. I mean, all the events we've done here. I I feel um that you guys are targeting us. You're targeting our business. And now I kind of feel like a mama bear that my daughter's going to suffer for what you guys choose to do for the future of our Canyon Lake kids here. Um, that's just what I wanted to say. But you guys did answer all the questions. Casey um was asking a lot of questions I had. And um that's what I'm worried about. I'm worried about the future of the Canyon Lake kids and my daughter's future. And one other thing, these girls when they start in our business, I encourage them to to start small. Go in a 10 x 10 and then you can move up. But most of them go from a 10 by10 to a 10 by 20 to a triple and then they go sometimes into 500 square feet. Are they still going to be able to do that? We are a launchpad. We encourage them to grow and to eventually, you know, have their own brick and mortar to dream big. And I feel like you guys are putting a cap not only on my dreams but on everybody else's dreams who want to dream big and have their own salon suites one day,

which many of our tenants have. I mean, look at Pier Studios, um, Frozen in Time. There's there's so many of them that have come from the suites and who have built something here that are bringing revenue and value to our community. And that all started just from our business. Um, you know, and I just I don't know. I would like for you guys to think about that and reconsider um this decision that you're making. It's affecting a lot of us. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Next speaker,

Sarah. Turn on my brightness. Okay. My name is Sarah Denell and I have operated a salon business in Canyon Lake Town Center for the past six years and I also live in Canyon Lake. The decision you make regarding our business community directly affect both my livelihood and my home. I want to bring this conversation back to what is actually happening. The beauty and service industry is not overcrowding out other businesses. In reality, it is one of the few sectors consistently filling vacancies, operating sustainability, and contributing to the overall activity and stability of the town center. Our clients don't just come for a service. They shop locally, dine locally, and support surrounding businesses. This industry drives consistent foot traffic and real economic activity. Salon suites in particular represent modern small business work ownership. Each suite is an independent licensed professional running their own business, paying rent, taxes, insurance, and contributing direct directly to the local economy. These are not just corporations. These are local residents supporting their families. Personally, after years in a traditional salon environment, moving into a suite allowed my business to grow in ways that were not possible before. In the past 8 months, my business has grown more than it did in the previous six years combined. That growth reflects client demand, professionalism, and an environment I've built. But this isn't just about me. It's about creating opportunities, especially for women, to build stable, independent businesses in a professional and respectful environment. That's why it's concerning to see these policies that appear to single out one industry while other vacancies and challenges in the town center remain unressed. A moratorium may sound balanced, but in practice, it restricts a sector that is already working. If the goal is true economic balance, the focus should be on supporting and attracting other industries, not limiting ones already already contributing. And it's important

to say this clearly. Policy decisions that impact an entire industry should not be driven by individual frustrations, including concerns over newly imposed fees. These decisions should be based on what is best for the community as a whole. There's no more than enough opportunity in Cany Lake for everyone. Health businesses, healthy businesses, communities thrive on fair competition and equal treatment, not selective restrictions placed on industry simply because they are visible and growing. I live here, I work here, and I am invested in this community. And tonight, I'm actually missing celebrating my wedding anniversary with my husband to be here because this matter this matters that much. All we're asking for is fairness. If policies are going to affect businesses, they should apply equally to everyone, not selectively to one industry. Success should never be the reason a business is limited. It should be the reason it is supported.

Thank you so much. Next speaker Hamry.

Hi, I was here last week. I'm Kaylin Salon. Is it D?

Yeah, you're good. Sorry. I want to start by addressing my serious concerns regarding the city's decision to place an urgent moratorium on the beauty industry. This action feels like significant overreach of authority and raises concerns about fairness and potential discrimination singling out one specific industry while others are allowed to continue operating and expanding creates an unequal and troubling standard. Secondly, the stated reasoning behind this moratorum is to support the city and increase revenue. However, that reasoning seems inconsistent with current actions. The city is actively remodeling a building it owns, converting it into suites, and leasing these spaces specifically to beauty service-based businesses. Additionally, the restructuring of larger spaces into the smaller units limits the potential of other types of businesses such as retail that may generate higher tax revenue. This appears to directly contradict the justification being used for the moratorum. I also have photos taken recently that I have illustrated that are going on with your development in your city business as we speak that they own. This is them actively painting one suite. This is the front of one of the other buildings they own that is available to lease. So if you know anybody that would like to bring a coffee shop in, which will bring tax revenue for you guys, it's available so it's not a restricted issue. This is the actual painting of the suite. Um, there's another photo that didn't get printed out, but it has the actual picture of the directory that states what is currently in there, which is a hair salon and a massage parlor. Um, so those are also services that aren't creating tax revenue. So, if this is what the reasoning is, it's clearly not your objective. Lastly, I have concerns about how this situation has been handled procedurally. The use of text messages between council members during a meeting, including sharing the opinion of an absent member prior to a vote, raises questions about compliance with the Brown Act. Furthermore, proceeding with a vote, finalizing it, and then calling for a urgent reconsideration due to that member's absence does not appear

to meet the legal standard for urgency under the Brown Act. Overall, the situation raises serious concerns about fairness, consistent, and proper proper governance, and I believe warrants closer scrutiny. Thank you,

Vanessa. Thank you.

Good evening, guys. Good evening. I am a luxury necessities located here in the city of California. As a matter of fact, I'm actually located I'm sorry. Oh, of course. There we go. I'll give you more time. No problem. Okay. Uh, wait. Do you want me to start over? Yeah, let's start over. Okay.

Okay. Um, my name is Vanessa and I'm the owner of Luxury Beauty Necessities. I'm located inside of Wobblish Wobblish Suites. Um, I've been established here um since July of 2024. Um, at since I opened, um, like many small beauty professionals in the city, I've invested time, money, and energy into building something meaningful here. While I chose Canyon Lake because it's a community that supports small businesses and entrepreneurs, my clients are local residents, families, and also visitors who come from afar. They're not just locals. They are also people who come from Riverside County, San Bernardino County, and so on and so forth. The concern I have with the prop with the proposed mortorium is how it may affect existing businesses like mine in the future. Right now I operate in a small suite as a business has as my business has grown. I've also planned to move into a larger space within the same building so I can better not only myself but my my clients at the end of the day. I provide services that require equipment and sometimes my clients come uh my clients come with family members and children. Having a larger suite would not only allow me to create a more comfortable and professional environment for them, but it's also going to help me to grow in the industry. But if this porttorium limits ability for beauty professionals to move into new suites or fill spaces when someone leaves, it could ultimately trap businesses o business owners in spaces that no longer fit their growth. Small businesses are supposed to grow. Growth means expanding, upgrading spaces, and sometimes moving within the same location to better serve our clients. If those opportunities become restricted,

it could not only slow down or even slow sorry, it could slow down or even stop the natural growth of businesses that are already contributing to the local economy. This also um this also affects the long-term stabil stability of beauty suites, beauty suites, and small salons in Canyon Lake. If a professional leaves a space and another licensed professional cannot take it over, those spaces may sit empty. That doesn't help. Not only the property owner, the city or the local economy. Beauty professionals are not are not large corporations. We are independent small business owners who work really hard to build our clientele base and provide services that re residents rely on. My request to the council is simply that while considering this proposal, you also consider protections or ex exceptions for existing businesses. Especially when it comes to relocating within the same building, expanding or transferring spaces between licensed professionals. We all want Canyon Lake to thrive. Many of us choose a city because we believe it was a place where small businesses could grow and succeed.

Thank you so much. Next speaker, Alicia. Hello. Do you want me to go ahead and start? Um, yes, please. Your time working okay? Yeah, we're good.

Hi, my name is Alicia McCarthy. I moved into Canyon Lake um about 2015. Um so if this passes, this would mean that I could never have a salon here in Canyon Lake, which sucks. I'm a single mom of two boys and within the next year here, I was hoping to do that. So, um without that opportunity, that would mean I would have to travel outside of the place, which takes all my clients with me away from Canyon Lake who come here and utilize all the services here. I know my clientele as well as many others clientele has brought in people to move into Canyon Lake to utilize all the businesses there. Um, and I have a 9-year-old niece who her dream one day is to be a hair stylist and to come work over here in Canyon Lake. So, that potentially takes that away from her, which sucks as well. Um, I won't repeat everything everybody else said, but I support everything that was said um before me 100%. And I hope that you guys reconsider that and you don't allow this to go through because I think it really would set back the center a lot because if we're limited, that means that we have to move out. And I think you would see a lot of the salons that are currently there or beauty industry services that are there start all moving away and then you just have empty buildings. I know there's one building that's been empty in there for 2 years. Um I think there's four buildings total in the town center that are empty. Um I don't see a rush of other businesses wanting to come in. So I'm not sure why the salon indust or the beauty industry is being targeted. Um and I guess I'll leave it at that. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comments,

Anna. Can you hear me? Am I supposed to? Yeah, you just she turned it off. So, yeah. I'm certainly not an entertainer. No, you're good. You're good to go. I'll start it.

Um, it seems like a lot of people have kind of covered a lot of the same things and a few things that I um wanted to bring up, but I'm here as just a community member, a resident of Canyon Lake, and a patron of the town center. I don't have any, um, financial interest or monetary gain with really any of the businesses. I'm not a business owner, but I do come into the town center um frequent in town center, I'd say at least 5 days a week, whether it be eating out at the restaurants, getting my hair done, my nails, other services. Um but I do have to say that um the one thing that was brought up that I find interesting was talking about the uh ratio of the population to you know the population versus the number of salons that are here in the town center and while there are a lot of salons and different beauty industry professionals here in the town center all of these other communities that don't have as any or that um I don't really know how to articulate it because it was just something that I um that was brought up here tonight. So, I don't really get to think about it, but I know that just from my own personal experience going to salons and other beauty businesses outside of Canyon Lake, whether it be like Elsenor or Meny, even Mya, they're inundated with clients. They're overwhelmed. A lot of people come from other cities here in the town center to get those services done because we have that ability to take care of those clients. Um because there are so many businesses here. Um, and I know that I even as a patron of a

lot of these businesses. Um, I'm able to get it get an appointment within a couple of days where rather than if I went to Meny, I'm waiting weeks. Uh, it does bring a lot of people from other cities and those people are not only coming here to get their hair done, they're going to the market to get lunch. They're going to uh the post office. they're going to the veterary establishments here in the community uh because it's convenient. So while there is a lot of beauty establishments here in the community, they're bringing people from other places here as well. Um so I think that that's a benefit and I think that everything else that I had to say was

Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Next speaker, Tony Hey, Tony. Floor is yours. I think the mic's on. Yep.

All right. Good evening, Mayor Mayor Pro Tim, and council members. Um, want to thank you guys for uh setting this up. Give the community an opportunity to voice their opinion on it. I I would say I I would have one that is um unique. Um I'm an entrepreneur. Um I'm an American and I believe in pretty conservative ideas about how businesses should run. I think the basis of this mortorium is truly unamerican when it comes to the spirit of Canyon Lake and the entrepreneur spirit that is here. These girls, whether they're nail techs, whether they're hairdressers, whether they're estheticians, whether they're some other name I'm not even sure of, but my wife sure uses it. They're all entrepreneurs and um they're they're more so the small entrepreneurs, right? This is these are the hardest times to build the business. Thank God we've had support over the last five, six years in both of our businesses to be able to grow to the point we can sell product. We weren't a tax revenue generator. I would be I would be surprised to find out that we aren't the largest now. So, I I I don't like the idea of it truly based on Republican ideas and the idea that this is unamerican and it's a slippery slip when we start limiting and getting involved in the free market and the economic development that is in this city. Um, the hairdressers wouldn't be there if they weren't being used. And just like a golf cart dealer, an automotive shop, if there wasn't the customers, it wouldn't exist. Um, thank you golf for your time. um want to show my support for these here entrepreneurs that are uh putting in the hard work. Thank you.

Next speaker, Amber. Amber. Oh, shoot. That was two in a row. I was hoping for three in a row. Working.

Yeah, we're good. Um, most of the stuff, like everybody said, was already covered that I was originally planning to speak on, but um, and I spoke last week, so I manage Wild Bush Suites here, um, in the Kenyon Lake Town Center. I also previously owned a restaurant called Fat and Happy Pub and Grab here in the town center, so I'm um, familiar with different business aspects here in um, the town center. Um, hearing the girls talk from the suites. Many of the girls that come here, they're they're coming somewhere new. Like Trisha, she came from um out of state. Amber has come from out of state. Um some of the women are just going through divorce and just having to get back out in the in the work field. Um, and these small salons, how they get to get their foot in the door and get started back in these back out in the world, you know, of the workforce. Canyon Lake gives them their opportunity here to start their business, to regrow their life, to redo that, but they start small with the the hope and the dream to grow. And all of these as as other people have mentioned there may be a lot of them but they're all being supported because they're all successful and they're all growing. So there is a lot of community support to them. You guys by by placing the moratorum is limiting all of these women on the potential growth that they have to develop their business and the community that's been supporting them the whole time. Um I think that's sad. I think um the amount of women, business owners, entrepreneurs that probably start here in Canyon Lake is I'm sure higher than surrounding cities because of this. And I think that's something Canyon Lake

should be proud of. The amount of women entrepreneurs that that start and grow here. um not I wouldn't say embarrassed by it but not try and change that not try and limit them and limit the growth of um every business in here potential and I guess that's all I wanted to say thank you thank you so much council members any comments

I have some questions based on the comments because I think there was a lot of really good points made And um I I think everyone who came to speak, I know you're taking time away from your families to participate in this process. And I think for me that's part of the reason why I think participating in the process is so important without just making snap decisions. and um because we we we do have the ability and sometimes the responsibility to change the trajectory of a town center. So some of my questions um are pertaining to some of the comments that I heard um as the ordinance looks at this moment. There was questions um related to if someone leaves, can they not be replaced? Can you answer that?

Uh they are explicitly allowed to be replaced. That was one of the concerns that we heard at the last meeting. So you'll look at the red line language. Uh a change in ownership, teny or operation of an existing establishment standing alone where the gross square footage of the premises devoted uh remains the same would not be affected by the moratorum. And so that was one of the questions we heard. If someone leaves one of the suites, would the owner of the suites be able to lease it to a new tenant? The answer is yes. Uh, additionally, they would be able to, you know, say you had a new person come in, you wanted to add a chair to an existing salon. That's expressly allowed by the ordinance as well. Uh, I know you have a list of concerns, but I did just want to sort of say I I was listening very carefully to each of the individuals who came up and told their stories. Thank you for telling them. I did not hear a story that would have been would be prevented by the moratorum. Uh the only example would be if you wanted to create new square footage in the town center that doesn't currently exist. And I didn't hear any person say that that was what their plans were. In fact, the one business owner who does have square footage, I think said he was done expanding for now anyway. Um so I did just want to say I heard all those concerns. I checked them against the ordinance. I didn't hear a single story that would be prevented by the moratorium as it's written.

One one of the other questions I think that was just brought up was if they wanted to move from a smaller suite to a larger suite, not necessarily replace someone, but if there was a vacancy. So, what you're saying is that would not be a problem either.

No. So, if you're talking about, and I'm just going to use Wild Blush as an example because that's one I've heard a lot tonight. Um, you know, let's say you're at one location uh in the town center and a larger suite that they already own and operate becomes available uh in another location. You could transfer there without an issue and then a new person could get a business license and take over your old space. As long as the gross square footage of the buildings does not increase, it would not be affected by this moratorum.

Does the moratorum prevent business licenses from being issued? It does not prevent business licenses from being issued so long as the gross square foot I'm going to keep saying that because that's the test that it uses. So long as the you are staying within I'll call it the box of the existing suite that's currently devoted to that business new business licenses will be issued. In fact, it requires that they be issued in the ordinary corset. One of the other questions that I have was um Miss Grant was showing photographs. Do you mind if we can see those? I thought we weren't allowed to talk back and forth. No, I'm just asking if I can see them. Could you deliver them to the clerk and she'll pass them out to the council

and then I was wondering if the city manager could address her comments because I that I've not seen that. So,

uh absolutely, Mayor PM. So, the comments that I think I'm addressing is did did did we paint and clean up the areas for uh uh leasing them out? We absolutely did. Uh that is one of the things that we do. When a uh individual or business leaves, we then go in and kind of uh almost like a reboot, refresh, coat of paint. Uh the they're they're not remodels. It is really just uh paint and uh cleaning up. Uh unfortunately, sometimes a business may leave behind things that uh they shouldn't. We would clean those out. Um that is that is absolutely correct and it was conducted. Um certainly not in secret. Uh just what we would do every time a business leaves.

So one of the photos that she was showing was a church. Was that where the New Hope Church was? Is that church not there anymore? Uh the church actually downsized. Uh they were a large portion of that building. They went to a back portion. As a matter of fact, the AMR business that we discussed, uh part of that was where the church used to be. Um and she mentioned some of the tenants in the um areas that the city is leasing. Can can you describe because I don't have a list who are who are the city tenants? What kind of businesses are there?

Uh there there's a a mix there. Correct. There's absolutely service businesses. Uh there is a uh hair salon that I believe has been there for 10 years or more. Uh there is a uh I believe there's two spa and and massage locations. Uh there is a uh contractor that just left one um AMR as we discussed the church. Uh I believe that's the current existing tenants. Um, one of the comments brought up a um a business in the town center that was vacant for two years. Do you have any additional information for us about that?

Uh, I do not. I mean, I've I've heard that a couple times now, and I I go back to it is absolutely the um the right of a business owner or a building owner to put somebody in there if they desire or not. Um I I will say um I can only represent the two years that I have been here uh next month. Uh we as a city and uh the uh individual council members have done the things people are talking about like what what are you doing to bring businesses here? uh even going as so far as to go to Las Vegas to the ICSC, the International Conference of Shopping Centers, uh to start getting that kind of understanding that that research done so that next year we will be going as part of Riverside County's uh group to start looking at what options we have. we're we're not going to compare to the largecale town centers, but what if we are able to find that right niche that that wants to bring their business here? And so that's that's the efforts that we've been putting in to see what we can do about bringing businesses here. Um I have personally brought businesses in to be able to drive through and see what options we have. Uh there was uh just no way we could find a way, but there was a a bicycle shop that wanted to come in that would have been a tremendous resource for the city. There just wasn't anything that was available uh even um in the town center at all. Um, uh, one of the speakers, uh, uh, uh, Tony Schwarzman that that spoke, um, I think

Tony can attest to, I I've done everything I can to be able to facilitate new businesses coming in and what we can do to retain businesses. Uh, so it's the same thing for our building as it is for the rest of the the area. um to speak to the to the service industry and uh being in the city building uh I can tell you we have been somewhat selective in that there are businesses come in and say hey we want to add another one just because of competition it's not fair to have a building and say great you're you may not have a non-compete clause but I'm going to put somebody in here right next to you that could put you out of business because the city just wants some revenue so we we are somewhat selective in what we're doing. Uh we had a uh uh masseuse come in that was a direct reference from the the spa um uh health studio. And my first question to uh the city clerk was, "Hold on, have you talked to and" and she made me laugh cuz she said, "Yeah, I did." That's where the reference came from. and she thinks that she should move in because there's different kinds of and and I'm I'm right up there with I think it was Tony. I don't know. I've never had a massage. There's different kinds of them. They're they're uh they can support each other if they're not doing the exact same thing. So, we were uh discriminate, if you will, in making sure that anything we're doing to bring another business into the city-owned building was not going to in any way be detrimental to the businesses there because I believe and I I know the council believes that we owe it to them to help them be successful. I think my last question was um

how do other and I know we're we're different so we can't say it's one sizefits-all but because I've never sat on council I've never been on a planning commission in another city. How do other cities handle situations like this? And and maybe it's not a beauty industry but some other kind of industry. How do those communities kind of master plan so we don't run into an issue where variety and balance and mix are gone? Well, I was going to start with the general plan that you had discussed and then regular uh timely general plan updates, specific plans uh that are specific to an area to be able to make sure that that area is going to function within the zoning that you're expecting. Uh you'd hit on the planning commissions. uh planning commission is one of the very few uh commissions that a a city will have that is not just a uh advisory body. They are a um I believe it's quasi um hanging on quasi judicial body meaning that they do actually make some level of decisions independent of the council. Uh because we do not have a planning commission, the city council acts as the planning organization for the city. Uh we have not done uh to my knowledge a general plan update. The specific plan that was done in 2022 is in um uh it is not contrary to the general plan. So it did not facilitate or require a general plan update to make

that change. But I will tell you having gone through general plan updates, it is a difficult task to get participation in those because it is a very technical function and it's much like I would assume the specific plan that you did. I was not here. um it it ends up kind of going through and many times people don't I won't say grasp they they they don't understand the complexity that is involved in a general plan or a specific plan until much later down the road. So to kind of restate why we're here tonight, if the moratorum that's proposed does not affect businesses that are currently existing in any way based on their normal operations right now. Are we discussing normal operations right now or are we really discussing prospective opportunities down the road?

What's on the table now is the moratorum. So the best way I would explain this moratorum is

and I don't mean to interrupt you but the reason why I asked that is because a lot of the questions and comments that we heard tonight were from business owners that appeared to absolutely love where they're working and have flourished there but have all kind of said but I'm going to leave there and then now open another place in another spot. And so that is my um question. I think that maybe the people who are watching on YouTube or at least maybe some of our council because I know that council member Welu wasn't here. Those are the things that I feel like brought this forward and I don't necessarily want to lose sight of what we're actually discussing today versus when this discussion reveals itself in terms of data analysis and research.

So the best way I could explain this if you moved forward with the moratorum is it is a temporary ceiling meaning you cannot exceed the current number. it does not affect anything below that ceiling. So, no business would be impacted to where you could you would say um you no longer get to do business. In fact, this this version of the ordinance says you can grow within your square footage. So, say you had a salon that was I don't I don't know uh 4,000 square ft and you're currently only occupying 1,500 square ft of that. You still have growth ability within that address. This moratorum does not address that unless I am missing something.

You are I am missing it. You are uh so it it it's the gross square footage currently devoted to beauty establishments. So if there are vacant if there are vacant suites that are not currently being used for beauty establishments, you would not be able to expand into those.

I I should clarify that. Thank you. But what what I meant was if if those suites are open, if you're not using you're only using half of it, your build out, if you will, is already done, you can grow that in. You can replace what is there. What you cannot do is if you're only half built out, build the rest of that suite for those purposes. But just as an example, if um we we've used uh uh Wild Blush quite a bit, say they're at a point right now where they have and I don't know, maybe they have 16 suites or whatever it may be and they only have 12 full. They're already built and ready. There would be nothing to stop them from filling out their current buildout within this ordinance. It would not modify that in any way. What it would do, which which is important, is if somebody was in that individual brick and mortar that was part of any one of them and they did want to leave and go out on their own, it would prevent them from being able to open their own salon. They could go from salon A to salon B if they already exist, but they would not be able to leave salon A and start their own salon C. because if they leave as the ordinance is written that individual salon would be able to replace them. So that's why I say it really is a a ceiling meaning this is how many you have in terms of the gross square footage of the individual addresses at this date. So just my comments before you ask for a vote. Some of the feedback that I have received from community members and from um business owners who are in the beauty industry who maybe don't rent from that group. I don't know where they're actually located. Some of the concerns

that I have heard is that is there going to be a ceiling on which there's no more beauty salon brick and mortars in Canyon Lake and at what point does it become if it's not urgent now at what point does it become urgent? And so I I think that is a question that I'm struggling with because um I certainly don't want to stifle businesses. I own a small business here and I employ four canon leakers. I think it's amazing that people come here to open businesses. And so my question is not just I think my question but feedback from the community as a whole and that's that's part of the the question right is the the five of us represent everyone here and how does that question translate to action?

Your your question mayor prom would really be a step two question. So step one if you decided to move forward with a moratorium would be to implement the moratorum direct uh staff to do the research and then when staff comes back and presents to you what that research is you'd make a decision at that point to either do absolutely nothing and say that based on the information you have we think things are are fine status quo we'll continue on or you modify it some at some point and one of those things could be the council could say we're going to set a number of uh those types of businesses. So it could be whatever the the existing number is right now. It's the reason that I had said it's so important uh to have business licenses come in and uh to council member Stever's point, my belief is that those business licenses came in because they probably were operating already and somebody uh nudged them and said you might want to get get that taken care of if you haven't done it now. So that is the reason I was saying get a snapshot because depending on what council decides that next step that step two could be okay we currently have I forget what it was uh 47 total with 24 brick and mortars that may be the number that council said okay we're going to stick with the the 24 brick and mortars and we we move forward but that's a step two it's not part of this current moratorum uh urgency ordinance So I have a question. So we we could set the number possibly to a square footage number in the center. So we could say only so many square footage are is going to be allowed for this type of business.

You you could make the ordinance that explicit. I I would say the moratorum as it exists now is focused on gross square footage devoted to beauty establishments. Right. If you were looking at a future ordinance and right right we may get direction to bring that back at the next meeting. Right. Um the it could be very explicit which is the total gross square footage in the town center devoted to this shall never exceed this number. And then however that however that shakes out is that you know one massive building is that a number of different suites that would be up to the individual property owners and businesses to decide.

And obviously in the future if we could always modify that number. It's like we we vote on that number and then three years later we see a change in the the layout of the the center and we say, you know, at this time we could probably allow more. That that's something the council could always do.

It could. And you know, I I think that after reviewing this industry, how it operates, the gross square footage devoted to the use makes the most sense, not the number of business licenses or necessarily the number of brick and mortars because like several of the speakers talked about uh you know, the intensity of the business can can change the uh number uh you know, you could have one business license, but it's one chair or it can be an entire, you know, 4,000 square foot unit. And so I think focusing on gross square footage is probably where I'd recommend we end up. Um, another comment, this is for the city manager. My feeling is that the demand in the center is fairly stable in the sense that there may be some owner that's holding out for maybe out of market rent or maybe as a personal reason for not renting that would result in a unit being unavailable for two years or vacant. I mean, that's that's potential. But as far as market rate, there seems to be a reasonable amount of turnover in our center and I'm not

and so I that's what I I hear from when I go out. I do you think do you think that statement is true that there's a balance? I I do think the statement is true and once in a while you'll get um careful I say this but maybe an owner with delusions of grandeur and they feel like their building is way more expensive than others and so you will see uh maybe a longer term uh vacancy. We had one of those recently where numerous times I had discussions with the owner to say, "I understand that your prior tenant paid way more. The prior tenant that had issues paying uh its bills and eventually went out of business maybe wasn't making the best financial decisions. And so let's look at your evaluation of your building in comparison to everybody else around. And after numerous discussions, they um acquiesced, if you will, and now we're very fortunate, the city is to have uh uh great businesses running in in that area. So um again, I go back to it is up to the individual owner. uh if the market rate is at set at at what it is and they feel that their building is way more and they spend um inordinate amounts of money trying to be right, that is their business uh of whether or not it happens. But what normally happens in what I've seen is they're demanding a very high rate and then the longer it goes on, the more realistic they tend to become. Okay. And if the moratorum is to pass, the units that we're proposing to rent

would not be eligible for uh beauty service because it goes out. Absolutely not. It applies to everyone including the city. We don't have a sneaky road to to Well, it applies to everything everybody else but us because that is correct. It applies to everybody. And the the remodeling that you saw, it happens as that's why I said a reboot. soon as somebody leaves, uh, we go in, clean it up, and it's ready for the next item. Uh, we we don't do any type of remodeling or anything for the individual tenants. That that is a requirement of them to do what are called TI's or tenant improvements. We are not part of that.

Um, I guess my last comment is a is a moratorium is 45 days. It's not forever. I I I personal bias is I'm really careful about rules that mess with the the marketplace and tends to make me uncomfortable. A 45day to review something may not be a bad call, but I think there would need to be some fairly decent evidence that that it's necessary to continue the 45day. Well, we'll say 45 days comes and we still need another 30. Well, that that would be that would be a reasonable period of time. But beyond that, I think we would need some pretty overwhelming data and maybe we if we we look at it and maybe we we would look at a square footage for the center and expand the square footage to allow a little more space and see where that goes. But I I don't think we want the whole center to be beauty supply or beauty beauty shops. On the other hand, we need to provide an open market for our center. So it's it's kind of a gray area we're sitting in. There's no no clear answer. Uh so in that sense uh I'm hesitant would be I'd want some data before making a permanent rule. I'd want some good data before making a permanent rule. And that being said the moratorum maybe go 45 and maybe another 30 to get the data. uh probably wouldn't do a lot of damage, but I think I think it feels bad to the to the beauty people and I understand it feels really bad, but I think the practicality of the of that kind of thing wouldn't really damage the businesses, but I think we need to be careful when we do this kind of thing and not just pull the trigger arbitrarily. So, um yeah, I'm just saying uh that's my comments. Don't let it go. My my comment would be just how much are we going to actually

accomplish in 45 days? I mean, we're I guess the the idea is that we're taking a look at what we have existing and the impact that it has on the town center. Are we looking at alternative directions? Are we looking at a better mix of businesses? And if so, really, what control do we have in ensuring that direction? And I I I guess I'm having a problem thinking that in 45 days that we're going to come up with anything that's even going to be really substant have substance even to us. I I would love it if we did. I mean, I I I I spoke at the last meeting in regards to a center where people can gather. I don't think we necessarily have that now. I don't believe that we necessarily have the mix. At the same time, we're putting a segment of our businesses on hold for 45 days. And if we were to do that, then I would definitely expect I I just don't see what the end result is in 45 days. I mean, I know. No, I don't. Um I I agree. I think, you know, I look at this as is not just, you know, 45day moratorum on beauty salons. I look at it as awareness

to what we're dealing with. Um, I think this item, you know, I've had to spend a lot of time researching it and I have so much respect for our business owners here on what you have to do day in and day out and I appreciate each of you taking the time to come and speak to us tonight. And I want to thank those that also posted this meeting on social media. And I think for me, it's always been to try to get as many people involved as the decisions that we're making here at city hall as we possibly can. Um whether this is popular or not, I don't care. I think this has been, you know, a robust conversation in in regards to enlightening the community on how some of the tough decisions that we have to make from whether it's an economic development standpoint or the idea of a sales tax. Canyon Lake doesn't have a sales tax. So, you got you got this very conservative body up here looking at every which way it possibly can to bring on tax revenue to our community. without asking the question whether or not our community would be involved in willing or to take on a sales tax which everyone else has around us. And so, you know, I applaud this council when they look at goal setting, when they look at opportunities to look at everything we possibly can to bring additional revenue to the city of Canyon Lake. And some these are some of the tough conversations that we have to have and we have to have them publicly with our business community. And for me, what excites me about tonight, um, besides the fact that I I forgot to tell my kids happy St. Patty's Day before they went to school. I just found that was happening tonight. is um is the fact that we're having this robust conversation and our residents are understanding maybe just a little bit some of the impacts of what it's like to try to balance a budget at city hall and what it's like to try to do that in an environment where we don't have a lot of tax revenue that's coming in. And I don't want to go straight budget on you,

Mr. City Manager, but what do we bring in sales tax as a whole for the town center? what what do we rely on what we currently have? Uh I don't have the answer for the council. I can tell you for the entire city uh we are just about $430,000. So that that means it'd be approximately 1% of uh the the $4 million that the city uh uh spends to obtain sales tax,

you know. So if if the residents, you know, want Red Bull and monsters and try to sit through a budget meeting, they can they can see some of the stuff. And we we have this pie chart on where money comes in. And it's it's astounding when you see and I and you come from big cities, Mr. City Manager, Rialto, couple out in the desert. So you you understand the conversation of tax revenue and you understand how cities survive based upon a Walmart coming to town or cities survive based upon a dealership or some of these other uh big growing tax revenues which we just don't have here. Right? So I think our economic team, our committee are doing the best they can to look at all avenues. Not to say that this was their idea, but I think coming from businesses and they're coming forward to have this conversation, these are the tough decisions that we have to make is is look at is this something that we we have to address. So for me, I think this was a win just for the discussion. I think this was a win-win tonight just because I think some of our business community got to see the stuff that we're dealing with internally. they got to see some of the tough decisions that we have to make with a industry that in my opinion does not bring a lot of revenue to the city. Um, and you know, I'm I'm I'm very proud, you know, of some of the comments that were made tonight. And one of the comments that was made was it's unamerican to to look at businesses in this in this way. And and I don't disagree at all. It's unfortunate because every single municipality, not just that border our city, but in the entire county, does this day in and day out and they do it through planning. Um, there's not a developer or a planner, whether they work for the county or the city of Mini or the city of Lake

Elsenor, that would ever allow this many beauty salons to exist in this type of location. never would happen because it would be dead on arrival. And it's unique because if you ask any of my colleagues in any other city, they would tell you why in the world are you having a council meeting on a moratorum on St. Patty's Day on a Tuesday night? Well, we have over 20 of them. And that's the shocking number. When I talked to my colleagues, which I have in the city of Tmacula, Marietta, Miny, Lake Elsenor, HIMTT, and Sana Seno, when I received their numbers, it was astounding. Um, I don't think it's necessarily fair. You know, it's just the stats that we're dealing with. And so, these are some of the tough conversations that I know uh my colleagues have been having with my city manager. But um I think that this group from what I'm hearing tonight is as opposed to going after um businesses or looking at new ways to bring in different businesses, they would all be supportive of a sales tax for this community to generate revenue as opposed to looking at economic developments at the town center for for business growth. Um I don't know. It's another tough conversation that we have to have. But I think um I'm just very thankful for those of you that took the time out to come and speak to us and share what's going on inside your studios and businesses. It gives a different perspective of what we're dealing with. Um and for me it's tough because my wife kicked me out tonight and said, "Don't get rid of my hair salon, please, cuz it's important. I want that." I go, "Never do that." Um I know how important our business is to our community. I know how important our business is to our Canyon Lakers. Um, two or three of us up here own our own businesses and so I know it's a sensitive conversation. I know it wasn't easy for you all to come up and and

speak tonight. So, I want to say thank you for that.

I think it's frustrating. We We most definitely need to take a very hard look at our sinner. We need to take a look at those who own the buildings. We need to take a look at what is that proper mix. What is you know we you know they I I question are we punishing them? At least they feel like they're being punished. I would really like to pacify that because I know that the intent of this moratorum is not to punish them and that we are very thankful and very grateful that they do the job that they do and they have been as successful as they are. They make great arguments. You know, if there's 70 seats and let's say two people a seat come in to the center every day, every couple of days, and they go to the market or they go to a restaurant. I mean, that's a good thing. My question is how and I'm asking for for feedback. How important is it to have the moratorum preventing future leases in this industry? and and does that stifle any

way our ability to still move forward? And because you you get the gist of my question, how is there a way to accomplish what we want to accomplish in taking a look at our town center and coming back to this exact group, but with actual factual a game plan.

I have some feedback on that. So I think you make a really good point. Right. Hypothetically we don't move forward with the moratorum. We still come back and say, "Hey, we need to have a very specific layout plan, anchor store. Here are the here are the objectives of us beyond the business spotlight, beyond the Canyon Cash, all the other things that we're trying to do, tax incentives, all those things. We're still going to end up where a population of the community feels like we're not encouraging them individually. Right.

So the what is the compromise then? Is the compromise to avoid a moratorum and go status quo but continue to let everyone know that our intention is mixed use beyond what we have. I mean there's been some good points about other service industries and taking a look at those. Um I don't think anyone is opposed to that. I mean the I think you take a look in the last what 30 years very little concentration has been made towards this. This is not a problem that just rose just just came about. I know that council member Wely and I have met on this and and it's it's it's tough tough dealing with the um the owners the owners gosh darn it when Aaron became a board member um probably that's the most they've been shook up in 25 years and we are making progress. Um, I would also bring up, you know, we there there is light at the end of the tunnel. We're not the only center that has 26 owners. If you take a look at downtown um, Oldtown Tmacula, they have an, you know, an incredible amount of owners. What they do a little bit different is they're not just meeting with the owners, but they're also meeting with the business owners, owner of buildings and business owners that they have a seat at the table that you kind of can create that momentum

momentum and then you know your guess is good of mine. Can you possibly leverage that against the owners? I I believe that that our residents would like to see diversity. I know and I've said it. I personally would love to have a place where hey honey, you want to go out to eat? You want to go listen to some music? You want to go walk around the stores and entertainment? We're not there yet. Um, I guess at the end of the day, is this approach preventing us from getting there?

One of the things I think that you just brought up that's pretty important is so from my perspective being on council since 2018. When we started, Jeremy and I, we were at a negative $800,000 structural deficit. Yes. So, our priority was let's not be bankrupt.

Mhm. Then that was one, right? Then the the next priority when we were able to check that off the list was let's not go bankrupt because we are paying a fire bill that we can't I don't like to sign contracts that I'm not going to honor, right? And we did not want to go to the community with our hands out even for public safety. So we fixed that. The next thing that we needed to fix was the same kind of issue with the police department and we fixed that. I don't know that it's for lack of prioritizing this issue. If we didn't have those issues, I believe that this would have been tackled sooner. Um, and it and it does go hand in hand because because we were able to be creative and save a million dollars here and maybe a million dollars there. This wasn't as top of mind.

I take full responsibility to, like I said in our last meeting, I I I serve on this committee and I feel like I haven't I haven't moved the needle forward. Um, Aaron's going to hate me for saying that, but um, but we one of the things I did think about today is that the concentration on our public safety over the last three years and the success that we've had and the courageousness that we've showed, I I I truly believe the next step is the town center And um I I once again it's just a matter of fact. Is this really the right step? Are we making a segment of our business population feel bad whether that's right or not? Because I think Casey, you made a great case that a lot of the comments this would not affect them. you know, they would be able to continue to do business the way that they have. Um, I guess my only question is, can we do both?

Josh, what do you think? We haven't heard from you in a while.

First, before I uh address your question, I appreciate that. I I want to let the public know I appreciate all of you coming out tonight. Um, you know, you're you're you're missing time with your families. You're missing time enjoying the holiday. Sarah, you're missing time on your anniversary right now. Um, and it's just brave of all of you to be able to come here and provide your feedback. So, I appreciate that to address uh Mayor Prom, you kind of it was a question slash, you know, what are our thoughts? Uh I I really want to stand uh firm from one of my two recommendations from last Wednesday of stating I I I completely agree most likely with my team that a study needs to be done and direct city manager and staff. Don't know what that length is. Don't know what that criteria at this time is going to entail. But I think as us uh policy decision makers um I I just don't see a moratorum being placed when we all agree we want city manager and staff to be able to look into this a little further. So that was my recommendation last week and and it's going to be my recommendation again this week. is a compromise not a moratorum but a finite date to bring this back.

I as your city manager take direction from the council. So if the council says um we're not doing a moratorum but we want basically everything else everything that's listed we want staff to research and bring back at x date. It is our responsibility to do that. The council member Terry asked a pretty good question of of what are we going to come back with and is it going to be far more robust than the information that you have now and we don't know that until we start getting in to to make the sausage. We we really could come back with uh laying an egg and saying we don't really have anything. um that's not our goal. But you may have the things you've discussed so far, the per capita comparison, the numbers we have, that may be your data that you work with, the analysis, we could go a little more in depth of what the approximate total square footage is of the town center and how much of that is represented. That's the stuff we'd be able to concentrate on. That may help you make your decision. But uh one of the things that you may find also is whether you did a moratorium or not, continuing that that outreach to see if there are perspectives that maybe were not shared with you or were not shared with staff to be able to provide to you that that may be part of your decision-making process. So we absolutely could take direction. we can bring back uh what council wants whether you decide to do a moratorum or not.

Does that does that well some of your concerns? Mic's off.

It it does. I think that this definitely needs, you know, as a council, once again, I gotta be careful. Um, one of the things that I appreciate over the last two years has been our singular focus on one goal. You know, identify what that one goal is and then go after it. And um you know, if I was sitting with any other council right now, um I'd probably have absolutely no hope, right? I would just be sitting here going, "We're screwed." But this is such a capable group. Um Dale and I have gone down this road. We haven't gone down this road with Aaron. Um, I think Aaron would be a huge difference in the experience that Dale and I have had in the past. Um, but I think we definitely need to commit to taking a hard look at what we can do. I'll give you an example. This is what a recommended mix of a successful center. 50 to 60% of your center would be restaurants, food and beverage. Um 10 to 15% would be entertainment. 10 to 15% would be retail, boutique, experimental. um that that's kind of where our beauty salons would would fit. Uh 10% would be office, 15 to 25% would be residential, and 5 to 10% of that area would be then committed to a public gathering space. Um, I apologize for our forefathers.

Had a developer come in here, one one developer, and had he taken this property, he he would never have he never would have handled business like that. And we have had developers here. And the first question they ask, correct me if I'm wrong, how many owners are we dealing with? 26. they're gone. So, we really do have to find that mix where gosh darn it, we're relying on ourselves. We're actually getting some buy in from these zoners. Um, once again, I I I don't want to make I don't want to give an aneurysm to my my city manager, but I do think that business owners need to start getting involved in the And I'm not talking about building owners. I'm talking about owners of businesses. And tonight, I think we've heard from a segment of those um those those business owners and and Casey knows me very well. I she was trying not to make eye contact with me and and and the reason for it is because I love success stories.

I love hearing people compete. Coach, yes. And um yeah, I'm having a difficult time because I love passion and um you know, you guys are screwing everything up. But that's why they're here, man. It's good stuff. But you're actually being very, very successful.

One of the conversations that I did have is do we embrace it? Do we get out there for right now and just put on our new uh board, hey, beauty capital of Riverside County? You know, we got better looking people than Lake Elsenor. Come over here. Right. I mean, if if that's what we have right now, um, a smart business owner would say, "How do I capitalize on that?"

At the same time, I'm going to be very honest with you. We've got to get a better mix and that's what we're going to end up doing is sitting down there and if we can we've got to get some anchors and the anchors help everyone. Um and that's a very tall order. Is it not council member Wely? Yes it is. It's an extremely tall order.

Um but I agree with you mayor prom. it. The reason this is here is because it was identified in a strategic planning that this has got to be one of our top priorities. And I hope you understand that we've got one town center. How many does Marietta have? How many does TmAcula have? How many does Miny have? They have 50. Real easy for them to say, you know, only one hair stylist. Only, you know, you know, no more massage, right? Because they got 50 of them. We have one. Yeah.

Well, and another concern that I think if we're explaining hard truths is the greater number of people, it's going to fall on them to support the community. Like at some point, if that's what we have, that's what we have. If that means that we're, you know, using those service industries to support public safety, that's what we have.

And and and great point and I hope our audience understands that. And you know, I tried to maybe it was a little off base, but you know, number one concern I think we all agree up here is public safety, keeping your residents safe. Yeah.

Um that is not a free service. And the reason that this is being brought up is we have a particular industry, a very successful industry, and it makes up a very large mix. I don't have the ex exact percentage down, but I just went over how that mix would look in a successful center. We're way over that mix. And I think that's to your point, is it not? No. No. Did I miss it?

If nothing else, this conversation, the conversation that we've all had online, the conversation and phone calls and personal contacts that you've had, the email, which by the way, I feel very bad. He got 200 phone calls. I got two. Step up your game. um Facebook messages, whatever. This is I think probably one of the first times we've had an economic discussion related correct

to the interior of the town center versus um you know that citizens initiative that was tied to cannabis like that was citywide that was brought forth by that group. Um that was that was very different than saying what can we do here internally before we go externally to our community. And so I think maybe that's why and I will say I was one of the people who asked for this to be brought tonight or close in time while the conversation was still fresh. It's because we have to have these conversations. They're not I mean, they're they're tough conversations. We all have other jobs. Sometimes our jobs suck. This is one of the times where this job sucks. It's not great to tell your community, "We're going to rely on you just like you rely on us to make decisions. We need the feedback. We have to have these conversations."

Mayor, if I may.

No, you may not. Yes. Go ahead, Mr. City Manager. One of the very difficult parts of economic development is it becomes a belief that economic development means going to land the big stores. And sometimes a natural part of what is seen as economic development is almost overlooking the existing. paying less attention to retention and putting all of your efforts into the girl that doesn't want to go to the dance with you anyway. What I get all the time is it'd be really nice if we could get a Starbucks here. I don't think SIPS would agree with that.

They are a new business. Starbucks has a lot of requirements of what they would want to do. And one of the first things they would say is that store needs to go, that needs to move, that needs to go. Economic development is not going to an event like ICSC or going somewhere and saying, "Hey, you you're with me." And coming back. I wish it was. It is about planting seeds. Uh it is sometimes none of the individuals in an administration or in a council will will be around to see the fruit of what was planted. I have seen almost 20 year relationships. Um I'll tell you um it's a different scale, but it works the same way. Uh, one of my responsibilities when I was at uh, the the city of Palm Springs was the Palm Springs airport. There was an airline that we had tried everything. You know, we we danced, we sang, we whatever they needed to do, threw our hands up, we had absolutely no hope. We started growing leaps and bounds. All these other airlines were coming to us. We're going crazy. And then we get a call, hey, we want to get on. We had done nothing at that point for probably two years. Hey, we want to get on board. And they're a big name. And we get to laugh and say, oh yeah, look what we did at that point. We did nothing. It was everything that was done before. It was the growth that was invested into the other businesses that made them want to be a part of it. So economic development is not that's why I want to I want to set the expectations. Economic development is not landing your well. It is planting

those seeds, doing what you can to retain business and make those other businesses wonder why they missed out on that opportunity and want to be a part of it. I'll make a recommendation. Wait, I think Oh, Josh. Sorry, Council Member Steber.

Mine will just be real f uh fast. I I really wanted to provide um or obtain feedback on a recommendation uh with a slight modification based off the staff report. When you look at the staff reports recommendation, there's there's kind of three sections of the recommendation. Um I'd like to see one and three be stried and two be modified. Uh because I think we all agree here that we we would like to direct city manager to provide some form of a study, a report. Um I don't know if we're going to get to it by April's cuz that's less than 30. It's less than 45 days, but definitely less than 30 days. Um, my feedback that I'm I'm I'm looking to obtain from my colleagues here is is what's something that that everyone might have an appetite on when we expect city manager and staff to be able to come back with that form of a report.

If my climate is I think the city man trying to get I think city manager agree let's not squeeze him too tight over the next 30 days. He's got a budget to do. Um, I think if we were to look at it, we would, what's that? June, 60 days out.

That if if I may make a request, June would be the most convenient because we've got uh our first look at the the budget. Um, and all of us, staff across the board, this has been our sole focus. Uh you you've heard my 2:30 a.m. story of going through every aspect of the budget and being back at it at 6:00 in the morning the next morning. We've only got so much and this has to be the concentration because no one is unaware that we lost UUT. So, we have to do the same things we've been doing as a city and continue to operate with less revenue, not more revenue. Uh, and if if you look at the totality, so it is we're we're getting creative and every department is looking for where we can uh get more creative. So, as we finish that out, bring to you the first look at the budget in April, uh hopefully we have hit the target for what you're looking for and there will be minor if any changes for May. The budget would be adopted in May, bringing you to June where uh we could do an analysis of um a new business item or or bring back an old business item to be able to discuss this. So, you listed numbers. I don't know if I'm seeing what you're looking at.

Under the recommendation, there's three parts of it. One, two, three. So, striking one, striking three, modifying two, which I'm open to June per uh council member Wely and city manager guidance there. So the compromise is don't impose the moratorum do the research bring it back not long term but fairly short term that is correct.

Can I ask a question? Is the the research focused on beauty establishments or is the research focused on the commercial areas of the city and looking at potential regulations that would support a greater mix or preventing overconentration. Uh it would be helpful to know what are we being asked to research?

That's a great question. uh city attorney. Um based off just this agenda being regarding around beauty establishments, I would be okay. But if my colleagues think that we should take a much larger approach, which maybe city manager, you might want to chime in and give uh one more additional month out of that one. if we're looking at all the business but for the sake of the businesses that are focused on this moratorum I think June suffices but I'm willing to listen to my colleagues if they would like to expand on that if we want to do a whole town center of business all the businesses in the town center um congratulations tonight folks I think you just saw my opinion how public policy is supposed to work I don't think tonight there's going to a motion on the item and I think that's a good thing. Um, my recommendation tonight would be um there was a comment that was made tonight that stuck with me and if you know me, you know why this comment would stick with me is because someone tonight said that the city has a lot going on like the fact that they're starting their own police department and that's a big focus. Um I cannot sit here tonight feel comfortable um if we're going to look at a plan for the entire town center when it comes to economic development or whatever it might be knowing that our start date is August 1st can't do it. Um so for me it's very simple. I think tonight's exercise for me especially was needed. It showed um how I believe local policy should work. It shows how members from the community um come out and spoke and I just want to say thank you for your comments tonight because they were for the most part very respectful and I do believe that most of you spoke from your heart and that always works with me. Um but I think we should we should move forward with an

internal plan, Mr. City Manager, working with our business community, working with our merchants association to look at some of these hard conversations and not be afraid to talk about it anymore. I think that this needs to be an item that we look at um in the near future and I don't want to set a date to June. I think that's unfair. Um I would like to see this item u move forward with real discussion because we've had homework because we've had time where we've sat down with multiple facets of business and we've come together with a new plan on how we can not just help each other from a city side um but also look at new opportunities for the town center. So, I I would be, you know, I would not feel comfortable uh putting a time on it and saying this needs to come back with real thought and energy spent by June. Um I would look for a later date, especially after uh we start our police department. I believe you'll have a little more time on your hands, Mr. City Manager, when when you can successfully say that uh chief, it's on you now. Um, and I think that's when we can start looking at a single source item, which is the town center, like council member Terry said, where we can focus on that and brainstorm as a team with with the business community and also the merchants association to say, okay, what's best for Canyon Lake? What's best for our current businesses, our incoming businesses, um, and what can help us on all facets? And I think that takes more time than this. So for me this was a great educational experience and I want to thank again each member of the public for coming forward. Thank you Mr. City Attorney for um for educating us on how a moratorum works in a municipality. Um, but for me, I think my my direction if if this council wants to second it and move it along, um, would just be that that we take a hard look at the town center as a whole, our business community as a whole. Um, and we use our resources to

try to help um, as opposed to going after one or, you know, one entity. We we do it as a whole, as collectively, as a group. So, that would be my recommendation. And just to emphasize something and the emphasize that we work with the business community, the chamber, the merchant association that we we have a you know we we work with them.

Yeah. And and the POA and and we make sure that we're you know I called um almost all the board members before this meeting and you know I I have so much respect for for our POA and just what it takes to do do the job and you know getting to to meet you know what goes on at the merchants. That was an education process for me too. So there's a lot of entities, there's a lot of stakeholders, believe it or not, in such a small community. And I think we all need to be the best we can. We're going to disagree sometimes, but I think we need to be on the same page. So I would just encourage that um if we're going to do this, we do it right and we do the proper type of study where we include all those different entities. We invite members of the public to come forward to really allow them to speak like they did tonight on the importance of um surrounding you know the city with making sure that our businesses are successful.

May I make one more comment, Mr. Mayor? Please do. I want all of you to understand that the intent here was to do everything that we possibly can to create revenue before the sales tax. Yeah,

I know for a fact that I probably need to be careful about who I say, but I know that one council member who may or may not be our pro Tim worked so very very hard to make sure that every every avenue, every effort was made to do that. It's why we're here. I appreciate that. Thank you. Um, not to additionally be a dark cloud, but I'm pretty good at it lately. The fact is we will also have that budget meeting. So, we will have additional information. I don't know what it's going to be because I don't have a crystal ball, but that budget information will also be very relevant to this discussion, I think.

Yeah. Yes, I would agree with that. Um, any further comments from my colleagues? If not, I'm assuming I'm not going to get a motion on this item. Going once, going twice. Since I did not, the item dies. Um, mayor, before you adjourn, could I make some comments at the end? Absolutely not. We are, it's been three hours. I haven't peed yet. Go ahead.

I I wanted to specifically address the merchants association and a lot of what was discussed. Um, as as Gus mentioned earlier, he's the president of the Merchants Association. I made the motion to make him the president of the Merchants Association, and I think it was the right decision that somebody that has a lot of passion for the town center, for what we're doing. We're not always going to agree, just like the five of you are not always going to agree. There's going to be things that we're we're never going to see eye to eye on. I may stand on an island because I do not agree with certain things just like others may. But the reason I made that motion is because I saw what he was doing. I saw what he was doing for the for the town center. And who better than somebody that wants this town center to be successful. So, I wanted to make sure that it was clear that there are times that that that Gus is going to speak as a business owner. There are times he's going to be speaking as one of the members of the merchants association, but at all times it should be a pretty similar perspective. And that is how do we as the merchants association work alongside you, the city council and as you said the chamber of commerce with the sole goal of making this merchants or this uh town center successful because if the town center's successful, it then in turn feeds up to the city. And so I I wanted to get that out there and make sure that there there isn't a division within the merchants association board other than I happen to be I happen to disagree on an item and there are going to be times that they disagree as well. Yeah.

So I wanted to get that out there in the public record. Um and thank you for letting me do that, Mayor. Of course. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. With that, I'm going to adjourn this meeting at 8:58. Thank you everyone.