City Council - Regular Meeting

All righty, good morning or good afternoon, everybody. It is May 26th at 3 p.m. We are going to start the Temecula City Council. We are first going to start with the invocation with spiritual leader from Trumpets of Tazara, Miss Karina Reed, if you can please come up. And then following that, we're going to have three incredible young brave children to do the flag salute. It's going to be Hunter, Mia, and Olivia, and two of the young ladies are going to be from American Heritage Girls. So if we can all rise.

Please bow your heads with me. Lord, I ask that you would fill this space with peace. Lord, would you fill the grounds with peace today that so many have come with. Just things on their hearts, Lord. So many different agendas that we see today and we just call upon your peace, Jesus. Jesus. We thank you for that peace over hearts and minds, peace that calms emotions. Father, we ask for your wisdom to come to the council. Lord, we ask that you would open their ears to hear without agenda. And we thank you, Lord, that every decision that they make will be of you and from you to serve this city. Lord, we ask that you would bless this beautiful city through the council's decisions and that today there would be honest conversation, not just within the public, Lord, but within the council itself. I ask that you would remove deception and manipulation from all decision-making. Lord, we know that you hear our prayers, and so we call upon you to come into this place. Lord, you have placed every council member in their seat. They are there and accountable to you, Lord, and so I ask that they would feel the weight of the seat that you have granted them. Lord, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your peace, Jesus, which is ruling over this meeting today. Bless everyone who enters into this space. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, ma'am.

God bless you. If I can please have the three young children come up. You guys are going to do great. Thank you for joining us.

Place your right hand over your heart, everyone. And please take off all your hats. Now let's begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic, for one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

Wonderful. Why don't you three come on up real quick? Let's have something for you. You know, I have to say, that was incredible to be able to hear everybody at one time. So I just want to thank you all for contributing. And thank you again to the three that just were here. And yeah, you guys are amazing. All right. So the next one, we got to do roll call.

Yes, Madam Mayor. Mayor Alexander. I am here. Council Member Kalfas.

Here.

Council Member Rahn. Here.

Council Member Schwank. Here. Council Member Stewart.

Here.

Outstanding. All right, we're next going to move into our presentations. First one is going to be a presentation by Mayor Alexander myself regarding the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. For many of you who maybe this may be one of your first meetings this year, we have been rolling these out every single council meeting. So there's a quote from our founding fathers every time. And so this time around... Let me see if my, there it comes. I was able to pick this one from Thomas Jefferson. I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves. And if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. Just to expand on that a little bit, this quote from our founding father, Thomas Jefferson, shows that the ultimate power of society lies within all of you who are sitting in these seats. That if people lack the knowledge or judgment to use the power wisely, then the solution is not to remove the power from the people, but to be able to educate them to make a wise decision. And I believe that Jefferson wanted to inform and educate the populace and is essential for the functioning of our democracy. So I just want to thank you guys for listening to that and just reminding ourselves the importance of the founding of our nation. Next, we are going to move into A presentation by a local nonprofit, Circle of Care Ministries Food Pantry. If you can come up. So one of the things that we also have been doing this year is every time in the beginning or every first meeting of the month, we bring in a local nonprofit to be able to share what they're doing. We want to be able to encourage and let people know how they can be a part of this community by serving each other. And this year's quote is serving, it's going to be community serving community Temecula together. And so this is just a part of that. And I just want to say thank you and welcome to begin your presentation.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. My name is Charles Keim. I'm the CEO and pastor of Circle of Care Ministries. We started in September 99, and this September we'll celebrate our 27th year of continual operation. We started first on Peugeot Street with the aim of ministering just to the single moms that were there living in Section 8 housing. Since that time, we've grown from the first night of 20 people served or 20 families served to 250 families a day being served currently. During COVID, we were at our height of 500 families a day, five days a week. God has always made the provision and in that his promise to us is that the supply would always be sufficient for the day. We've provided you with a short video. I'm sorry that it's not specifically for Circle of Care, but Circle of Care is greatly featured in the video.

Wonderful. Well, let's roll that video.

Feeding America Riverside San Bernardino is the largest hunger relief organization in the Inland Empire with over 100,000 people who rely on us each month. Feeding America Riverside San Bernardino distributes over 2.5 million pounds of food per month and partners with over 250 local nonprofit agencies.

Hello, this is Circle of Care in Temecula, California. This morning we've already loaded up the van with totes. They'll be preparing to go out to different stores that we pick up from and then bring it back to this warehouse.

Our mission is to alleviate hunger in the Inland Empire. We envision a community where everyone has access to an adequate and nutritious food supply. Our Retail Rescue Program goal is to feed more people and fewer landfills.

The Retail Rescue Program works with 270 stores and benefits 94 of our partners. Every month they rescue over 1 million pounds of food from meat to produce to dry goods and even non-food items. Our pantries, with the help of all their volunteers and staff, are able to serve over 75,000 families each month. The Retail Rescue Program greatly benefits our partners, but is a very demanding program. Our partners have to ensure food safety throughout the entire process, from the store all the way back to their site. They have to check all their donations once they receive them. Monetary sponsorships are needed to ensure our partners have key pieces of equipment to run this program, such as transportation, cold storage, and heavy machinery.

This is our warehouse. The Crossroads Church here on Yanez has given us about 4,000 square feet of warehouse space at no charge. We have our 12-foot racks. stage our products by date when they come in and then also when we buy bulk items we do it according to the products.

This exclusive program also helps grocery retailers benefit from reduced disposal costs and donation tax advantages while supporting their local hunger fighting programs. It's a big job that we can't do without you.

We invite the community to participate with us in food drives. High school students needing community service hours can get their community service hours with us. We constantly are looking for new avenues of resources. And in that, we thank you for your participation with us. Chuck Washington has been generous with CDBG, or I may have the wrong acronym there, this past year in the absence of FEMA's CDBG. Two years ago, we were awarded $250,000, and this past year, there hasn't been anything. So we buy food as funds are available, but primarily the foods come from local grocery stores, restaurants, and logistics centers. So in that, we've been able to serve the community, and about 60% of the participants that come through, those that receive, are actually citizens of Temecula.

Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Do any of my council comments? I cannot talk today. Do any of my councilmen have anything to add or comment about? No? Please, yeah.

I wish there was a bigger crowd that could be here to hear this today. So I'm really happy that you were presenting today of all days, yes. Thank you. Thank you.

I was thinking the same thing. Absolutely. What a perfect time. If I can ask one thing while we have just a few people in the crowd, what is your biggest need? If there's something you can say, this is our biggest number one need, what would that be?

Finances.

Okay. All right. Does everybody hear that?

It costs to give away free stuff.

Yes. Well, thank you so much for your time and your presentation. We look forward to connecting further with you in the future.

Thank you very much.

All right. Bless you. Thank you. All right, we have one more presentation that just got added on to the agenda. And that is going to be a presentation by former mayor and city councilwoman Lori Stone. And this was quite a surprise to me. So thank you, ma'am.

Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, council members, staff, and guests. It is my pleasure on behalf of the Uni American Eagles to present an honorary doctorate to Mayor Jessica Alexander. Upon the recommendation and the faculty, and by the virtue of authority vested in them, the trustees of the Uni American Eagles have confirmed Dr. Jessica Alexander, having successfully completed the requirements, and thereof she is awarded the degree of Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy, Community Service. In recognition of her lifelong learning and her extraordinary leadership serves and achievements in the fields of community service leadership and global peace. With all rights and privileges, Obtaining in whereas, whereof the seal of the Uni American Eagles and the signatures of its officers have been affixed here on this day, the 27th day of April 2026. So congratulations, Dr. Jessica Alexander. That's a surprise. Thank you. And I know that you are the presiding officer of this meeting. Thank you. I was wondering if we could just take a quick little picture, and I'll send it to the Eagles, the American Eagles. Thank you, ma'am. Wow, what an honor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much, ma'am. That was a wonderful surprise and an honor. OK. Next one, we have public comments. City Clerk, how many public comments do we have?

Yes, Madam Mayor, we have approximately 100 comments on the main item today. However, however... Thank you. Yes, congratulations, community. However, we have just a handful of people, two people here on non-agenda and two people here on the general plan update. So with the mayor's concurrence, we'll go ahead and hear from them first. With the non-agenda, they have three minutes. With the general plan update, they have five minutes or less.

So, oh, I'm sorry, I just got a third... Non agenda.

OK, so the first non agenda speaker is Mr Jim Davis to be followed by Tim Kimball. Mr Jim Davis to be followed by Tim Kimball to be followed by Philip O'Reilly. If any of you are here in the room or in the conference center, we will go ahead and give you an opportunity to come up and speak now. And then on the general plan update, I also have Gerald Montante and Dennis Fitz. So any five of you, if you are here and would like to be heard now, we welcome you. Jim Davis, Tim Kimble, Philip O'Reilly, I see them walking in right now. Dennis Fitz and Gerard Montante, when you come up to the podium, if you could just give me your name and go ahead and speak, please.

All right.

The first one, if you want to come up, please.

Hello, sir. How are you?

I'm wonderful.

Go ahead.

So Jim Davis and I are here together. It would be better if I could go first. So.

And what was your name, sir?

Oh, my name is Dr. Timothy Kimball. There you go. I have resided in this valley for, well, since 1985. Is this something I can put, oh, right here? Yes, sir.

If you want to just pick that right up. On the right-hand side, just pick that arm up. Oh. Yes. Aha. Should, there it is.

There we go. All right. On Saturday, April 25th, 2026, the Old Town Temecula Gunfighters performed in Old Town on private property. On Monday, I received a phone call from Jamie Alenos from Temecula Code Enforcement. I also received email and a letter that was enclosed. Notice of violation. The first sentence stated, the City of Temecula Code Enforcement received a complaint regarding a potential violation of the Temecula Municipal Code. A potential violation. I am here today to determine if there was an actual violation or a potential violation. If there is an actual violation, the gunfighters would like to have the ability to correct the violation. so that we can continue performing in Old Town. We were only given the option to discontinue our shows, not correct the problem. I told Ms. Lenos that we have performed in Old Town for at least, for the last, excuse me, 38 years. I asked how we could be in violation. She likened our situation to speeding and driving recklessly for years and finally getting caught and given a ticket. I thought that was a real poor analogy. We were not told of the nature of the complaint either. The Old Town Temecula Gunfighters have performed at Sam Hicks Park, Front and Fourth Street. In the 80s and 90s, we used to perform in the intersection of Main and Front Street. We have performed on the steps of City Hall as well as the balconies of City Hall. We performed for 10 years at the Hotel Temecula for the benefit of Old Town and Reality Rally. We've performed all over the last 38 years. California Nevada, Arizona. And so pictures of the gunfighters have been taken by enthusiastic visitors to Temecula. Visitors are excited to see cowboys and they enjoy our skits and our gun safety demonstration. Our photos are in family picture albums in every state of the union and every country of the world. The gunfighters were founded in 1988 and has been active in the entire time. At every performance, we do a gun safety demonstration that is geared towards kids.

And that is your time, sir.

Okay. Please don't erase the history of the Old West or the history of the contributions made by the Old Town Temecula Gunfighters.

Thank you, sir. The next speaker is Tim Kimball, to be followed by Phillip O'Reilly. I'm Tim Kimball.

That's Jim Davis. Thank you.

Thank you, sir, for coming.

Good afternoon. My name is Jim Davis. Thank you for having us be allowed to speak. I'm a member of the Old Town Temecula gun fighters and have been since 2004. As you already know, we received a notice of violation from code enforcement on April 27th. The notice is extremely vague. It mentions that there was a complaint, but about what was not mentioned. It says there was a violation of the Old Town specific plan and mentions the land use matrix 4-1. It does not say what we violated. The notice gives no option of appeal. All of these are blatant violations of due process. It's not like we've been performing in secret. We performed all over Old Town for over 38 years. We were on the vacant lot at 4th and Front State long before I joined in 2004. Newspapers printed articles and photos of us from Western days. So I think we have a right to know what we're being charged with. Oh, I forgot. We advertise on Facebook. So we have been ambassadors for Temecula, as Tim mentioned, all over California. Nevada, Arizona, we performed in front of 10,000 fourth graders at Anaheim Stadium. We have a 100% safety record. Not one member of our team or one audience member has ever been injured during our shows. We are not rushed. My question is...

If we can... I know you guys are all wanting to support. If we can just let the speaker speak, please. I appreciate you very much. Thank you.

My question is, though, is why now? Because of one complaint after 38 years? Really? I spoke to businesses on Saturday, up and down front in Main Streets. Most of the owners of those businesses love us. Why? Because we bring business to Temecula. And like us, they don't understand why we are now persona non grata. So all we're asking is, how did we actually violate the code? And what can we do to rectify this short of no longer performing? After 38 years, I think that's the least that is owed us. Thank you.

Thank you, sir, for your time. The next speaker is Philip O'Reilly. Philip. Philip O'Reilly. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for coming in.

Good afternoon. My name is Philip O'Reilly, and I've proudly lived in this valley for 30 years. I think it's a beautiful thing that we've got the valley support out here today. And ultimately, I brought with me a few things I'd like to share. We can get this going over here. I bring to you today the Morita Gateway Monument petition. I bring this today because my father was the original crafter, fabricator, welder of the old town arches here in Temecula. And to say it as I see it, I watched this town go from 10 to 110,000 people. Currently, Maria and Wildomar are looking at redefining their border by Palomar Street and Jefferson Avenue's connection, which would bridge right unto us over here. Jefferson Avenue connects the old town and those beautiful arches. All things to say, I wanted to bring some awareness to this as ultimately the city of Marietta has brought forth that they will be widening the road from a two lane to a four lane. Our house here is the only ranch that has not had this eminent domain process started as they were unable to 20 years ago to put public easement on our property. We fought off the power lines then and I'm here to fight them off here today as well. And ultimately, I see the opportunity for Marietta as well as Temecula and the Valley for something that just doesn't exist currently. I'd like to bring my phone out and showcase some photos to highlight some things as they exist. This is our property here. We are the last bump in the road on Jefferson before that dead end. There's the church, the water towers, and us. This is the current 180-acre development that's going on in Wildomar. And to highlight, they'll be bridging together Palomar Street here with Jefferson over here. And we are the first house that you will see coming into there. Now, the idea of this Gateway Monument would be to herald and honor the whole region, as ultimately I think there's a lot of things that have fallen unrepresented in our region. As I put in this little spiel down there, we're talking about Juan Murrieta's sheep farm, the Pechanga Bond of Indians representation in Murrieta, the Southern California Railroad and the Murrieta Grain Elevator, the Ranchero era, Highway 395, as well as modern and future Gem of the Valley representation. Unfortunately, unlike Temecula, we don't have a lot of brand work and artwork in Marietta, so I just urge the crowd If it is something that interests you, I'll be passing these out, if that's OK with everyone up there. And ultimately, I'd like to get some support with this QR code on a change.org petition in order to show the council that we do mean business, we want to honor our city, and we want to see that beautiful highway constructed. As a last little tidbit, This Highway 395 reconstruction, as Marietta calls it, will be bridging together 79 south and north through Lake Elsinore to the 74 freeway, as well as through Temescal Valley Canyon to East Ontario Avenue, all on a straight line connecting to the 91 freeway. If that doesn't scare you guys in terms of traffic of what that back road's going to become, well, I'm telling you right now, it's a little bit more serious than people are taking it. So ultimately, that's my time. You guys have a beautiful rest of your day, and don't let these power lines happen, please.

Thank you, sir, very much for coming.

Dennis, Dennis Fitz. Dennis Fitz. And just a friendly reminder, sir, you have five minutes. And just a friendly reminder, the city council prohibits any audiovisual usage up during public comments other than still hard copies. So if you have pictures of something, you're more than welcome to go ahead and use that slides, but no videos or telephones or those kinds of things. Thank you. Welcome, sir.

Okay, I'd like to address the land use plan in the general plan. While much of the residential area of the city was mostly developed, the draft land use plan ignored a large area of underdeveloped, residentially zoned land in the northeast part of Temecula. This area bounds Nicholas Road and is generally called the Nicholas Valley. We have an area where many houses are still on dirt roads. This is really outrageous for an upscale community. When I moved to the Nicholas Valley in 1991, the potential land use by the county, the swap map, was zoning for a half acre residential lots. The city's original draft plan showed two and a half acre zoning for most of the Nicholas Valley. The city staff recommended this zoning due to the lack of paved roads and drainage issues. This zoning has not changed since then despite the pavement of major roads and drainage improvements. As stated in the original general plan, the city of Temecula, at the request of residents, prepared a study overlay for the Nicholas Valley. This special study overlay was completed in 1995 and presented to the residents at several meetings. The proposed land use varied from very low to medium low density. Largely due to the high cost of road construction and flood prevention for the proposed alternative zoning, the residents favored the original designated plan. In 2007, the city of Temecula studied the Nicholas Valley again with the primary intention of paving Leifer Road. A number of public meetings were held and many residents attended. The Nicholas Valley was divided into four planning areas with proposed densities from one half to two and a half acres per dwelling unit. The intent was to form an assessment district for Leifer Road. A survey was taken, and do I have to do anything here?

Nope, just put your paper right under there.

Oh, there it is. Okay. Of all the residents, and this is the respondents, if you look at the lot size, out of the 72 respondents, only 10 wanted to keep the original two and a half acre zoning. And that was in 2008. A final survey was conducted in 2009 with density options of one-half, three-quarter, one and two and a half acres per dwelling unit. While most of the residents wanted higher densities, the vote was split between the four choices and no clear majority was shown. At this point, the city took no further action. With the extension of Nicholas Road complete and most of the drainage issues addressed, it's time to finalize the zoning for the valley. I think one acre zoning would be most appropriate and would be acceptable by most residents. A change from very low to low density would accomplish this. An alternative would be for the city to perform another survey. Instead of splitting the vote between four choices, it would be better to use the rank sum vote, where residents would rank the choices that they like best in four, all four of them, if there are four. If no majority is obtained at first, then the rank sum process would be used, and the one that received the least votes would be dropped, and that would be filled in by their second choice. A higher density zoning would benefit both the landowners and the city. With the current zoning, it's not possible to subdivide lots less than five acres because they don't make two and a half acres each. Such large lots really aren't in conformance with the rest of the city in this area. Rezoning would give the residents more flexibility in developing their properties. Thank you.

All righty, thank you very much, sir, for coming up. And I believe we have a few more speakers on these items.

Yes. Madam Mayor, as a reminder to the public, these three speakers are receiving five minutes each instead of the standard three for non-agenda because their items are on the business portion of the agenda. Gerald Montade. I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing that right, sir. Thank you. And then lastly, Heather Stanford. Heather Stanford. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for coming in.

Good afternoon. I know some of these people. I'll just bore you with about two minutes here. Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Gerald Montanti, and I'm a four-decade resident at 31605 Coyah Garasol near Riverton Park. I'm here this afternoon to ask the council to update the zoning designation in Zone 4. I guess that would be west of Balcott, from very low density to very low to low density housing. That's the one acre Dennis mentioned. Our current very low density restriction no longer matches our community's needs. It severely limits housing options at a time when families and seniors are struggling to find attainable places to live. Transitioning to low-density development enables a subtle and thoughtful variety of single-family lots while preserving the neighborhood's distinct character. This minor change promotes smart growth, uses existing infrastructure efficiently, and keeps local tax dollars in the city. This is not about high-rise development. This change affords new opportunities to my children who are currently shut out of the housing market. I respectfully request that the council direct staff to initiate a zoning amendment study for Zone 4 to explore this change. And thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you very much, sir.

And our very last speaker is Heather Stanford. Welcome, Heather. Good afternoon, Ms. Heather.

Good afternoon, Madam Mayor and council and city staff. My name is Heather Sanford, like Sanford and Sons, not Stanford like the college. But anyway, I am the CEO of Mission Hope. And thank you for allowing me to speak before the real party begins today. One of my favorite parts about living in this valley is this, that we have a heart of a community that cares about the people that live here. So my agenda item is completely unrelated to the big fiesta of the day. But I did want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for myself and my team. for the opportunity with the agenda that it is on today to partner with Thessalonica Family Services, our DVA, Mission Hope, to ensure that every single citizen in Temecula has a place to call home and healthy food to thrive. And by doing this partnership with us this year, that's exactly what we're going to make sure happens. We're going to be able to save the city time and money by funding it through my Mission Hope team that are well-equipped to do wraparound services for people in need. especially families with kiddos. We don't ever want a family living in a car or at a park or on a couch at somebody's house and bouncing around. We want them to be stable in school, be able to get food every day, and get the wraparound services they need to get their life back in order to thrive. So I just want to throw out there really quick. I'm not going to take up my whole five minutes because I know you guys got a lot to get to today. But in the last five years here, we have housed over 99 children, 167 people individually. We have served 60,892 people in our resource center in five years, and we have provided 103,000 people with 3.45 million meals in the last five years. And we'll continue to do that at Mission Hope with partnerships such as the councils and the city of Temecula believing in what we're doing. And thank you for honoring us as we honor our values of dignity and hope and resilience for these people. We see the humanity in every single person. regardless of creed, race, color, or anything, and we believe that they deserve the right to thrive in our environment. So thank you, Council. I appreciate your consideration of the proposal today, and I hope it all goes through, and you all have my phone number and email address if you have any follow-up questions. I would love to chat with any of you. Have a wonderful day.

Thank you, Heather. You as well. Always good to see you. Okay, so moving into the reason why I think a few people are here today... I am just going to read the script, so that way we just have a couple of house cleaning items here, make sure everybody's on point, and so that way we can have a very smooth meeting. The goal here, and I'll reiterate it again, is I want to get everybody who submitted a card to speak today. That is this council's goal. We all want to hear from you, and we would like also SDG&A and other organizations to do the same. That being said, again, I want to thank everyone for being here. It is an important meeting today, as we all know. At this time, I want to share, again, just a few housekeeping notes. First, please note that agenda item 16 regarding the Red Hawk specific plan is being taken off the calendar today. It will be placed on a future item and will be re-noticed. Any written comments already received will be part of the record for that item on a future agenda. If you are here for that item and you do not need to stay for the rest of the meeting unless you wish to do so. Second, we are moving item number 19 regarding the SDG&E proposed transmission line to the top of the agenda. So we're going to take that here in a moment. I know many of you are here for that. The city is facilitating this meeting for community awareness. This meeting is the first of many meetings to come. Today we will begin with a presentation from staff, followed by our council questions of staff. We will then hear from SDG&E representatives, followed by council questions of the representatives. We will then go into public comment, is where all of you get to speak. We currently right now have approximately 100 speakers right now on the docket. And so in order to hear from everybody, each speaker will get one minute to provide their comments. Please note that you can comment in one of three ways on this item. I know some of you don't like to come up to the podium and speak, so there's some other ways here. You can comment in person here at the podium, via email, or via QR code. Please feel free to ask staff any questions you may have on how to provide comments. All public comments, no matter how they are received, will be made part of the official record. Finally, I ask everyone in the council chambers and in the conference center be understanding and respectful of each other. This meeting may be a little long, but it's very important. We will take recess as needed. Please refrain from interruptions or displaying signs in front of other people. So if you want to display a sign, we would ask at least that you go to the back so you're not in anybody's view. Let's see. I want to make sure I do not lose my spot. All right. We will take recess, as we said. Disruption of council meetings is prohibited pursuant to the law and policy set for the council protocol manual. We would like to hear from everyone in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Instead of clapping or jeering, consider the following. This is what we would ask. If you agree with the speaker's comments, please raise your thumbs up. If you disagree so everybody can see, go ahead and put your thumbs down. we raise uh we please raise your thumbs when needed the city clerk will be calling up two names at a time please be present to speak when your name is called as we will try to move this meeting quickly to accommodate every one of you is there anything to add from any of my other council members yes sir

Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. And just sort of build off what Mayor Alexander was talking about. We'll certainly take some breaks, but you might see one of us or all of us at some point step off the dais. Let me use the restroom or something like that. Just know that there is technology in the back. It's super weird. You can go to the bathroom and actually still hear the people talking. We will be able to hear you 100% of the time.

Do you now understand why I had him do that comment? Thank you very much, Council Member Zach Schwenk. All right, with that being said, I want to make sure, let's get a staff report, if we can start out.

Madam Mayor, City Council, I'd like to introduce Brandon Rabideau, the Assistant Director of Community Development, to present on this item.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council, residents, neighbors, and fellow businesses. Tonight we're presenting on the SDG&E Golden Pacific Power Link project. But before we get started, we want to make sure we're providing some facts to the community so everyone is aware of what's going on with this project. We want to be clear in saying this is not a city project. The city is not a municipal utility. We do not have a utility. This is not the city's project. We do not approve or deny transmission projects. We'll talk about who does in just a few moments. Additionally, we're sharing information. We've been provided to us by SDG&E or San Diego Gas and Electric and The city was made aware of the project in mid April 2026 and I'll share more about that timeline in just a few moments We invited SDG&E and the California Independent System Operator to today's meeting and we will give them an opportunity to share their thoughts as well So why are we here? clearly, this is a project of immense community concern and We want to provide transparency to the public. We want to provide an opportunity for the city council to hear from the public. And one opportunity for the city council to communicate with each other and the public. And if desired, the city council can provide direction to staff on next steps for this specific project. We're going to go through a little bit of alphabet soup so everybody knows what the acronyms mean. We want to be clear and transparent with everyone. So the California Independent System Operator, KCO, is an organization. It's a nonprofit through the state of California, and they manage the flow of energy within the state. Additionally, there's San Diego Gas and Electric, which is a regulated investor utility serving San Diego and Orange County. I want to be clear, SDG&E does not provide services to Temecula. Sempra Energy is the parent company of SDG&E. And the proposed project is called a extra high voltage transmission line. This is a standard to transmit 1,000 to 2,000 megawatts of energy, which could power approximately 1 million to 1.5 million homes. It's also called a 500 kilovolt or 500 kV project. We talked a little bit about the California Public Utilities Commission. We'll talk a little bit more about that in just a minute, but we call that the CPUC. You also may hear a term, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. That is the federal arm of the utility regulators. You may also hear the California Environmental Quality Act, also known as CEQA. That is the environmental document that provides transparency, public input, and studies to back any type of project within the state of California. On the federal side, you have NEPA, which is the National Environmental Policy Act. It does something very similar to CEQA in terms of transparency, communicating, studying to understand the impacts of a project. And then finally, the branding name for this project is called, through SDG&E, is called the Golden Pacific Power Link Project, which is an extra high voltage power line project. This isn't the first time the city's gone through a power line project. In March 23, 2001, the Valley Rainbow Extra High Voltage Transmission project was submitted by SDG&E. This was a different alignment than what is being proposed, but it was going through the city. On December 19, 2002, the CPUC, the California Public Utilities Commission, denied the project. They found that the project could not be justified and was not cost-effective to ratepayers. On the current project that we're speaking about today, on May 18, 2023, the CASIO board approved the 2022-2023 transmission plan. This plan included a line called the Imperial Valley North of Songs. That's for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, for those unfamiliar with that acronym. And that was for an extra high voltage transmission project, or 500 kV project. On April 29th, 2024, the project was awarded to Horizon West. And in the summer of 2025, SDG&E assumed responsibility to build, own, and operate the new line. The city is unaware of any notifications from the California system operator to the city about the project at that time. In mid-April 2026, the city started to receive emails from SDG&E and public relations firms hired by SDG&E about the Golden Pacific Power Link project. The graphic on the right of your screen is the initial graphic that was provided on the webpage, and it did not show any high voltage transmission lines going through Riverside County. The city manager, being wise and been through these projects before, directed staff to learn as much information as possible and to attend any outreach meetings. And just for clarity, the city added the red star on this map just to show you where Temecula is in proximity to the region. During that time, mailers from SDG&E went out to residents along the proposed or preliminary path, I should say. These are an example of the mailers. There's no map on here. The image is not from the city of Temeke on the left. And I'm sure there'll be additional comments about that in the future. But that is what was sent out to folks along the path. Then on April 15, 2026, a fact sheet showed the proposed extra high voltage transmission line following Temecula Parkway along Highway 79. As you can see, in comparison to the prior graphic, this is now showing the proposed project going through Riverside County and Temecula. On April 24, 2026, a meeting is scheduled with SDG&E, the mayor, and city staff to learn more about the project on May 4, 2026. And at that meeting, SDG&E provided a presentation to staff, and the mayor and city staff shared that the preliminary route was of major concern. Concerns about the mapping provided were also shared that needed to be more transparent, clear to the public on what was going on. And we shared a litany of concerns related to public safety, hazards, insurance, CEQA, planning, evacuation routes, high fire severity zones, economics, cultural resources, habitat, biology, and more. There was also a letter of concern from Mayor Pro Tem Ron. And at that meeting, we asked about alternative routes. No alternative routes were shared at that time. On May 5th and 6th, the city manager sent a letter to SDG&E to hold all records and notify the city of any future meetings. We also started to share information on social media. So on May 6th, the community was made aware of this project through the city's social media, through various social media platforms and emails. On May 12th, 2026, the mayor sent a letter to SDG&E sharing concerns. And the mayor also invited SDG&E and KCO to today's meeting. On May 12th and May 14th, SDG&E held community virtual open house meetings. And there was hundreds of people that signed up for these meetings. We're not sure how many people attended multiple meetings, but for instance, one meeting had well over 300 people attending. On May 12th and 14th, a new map was shared at these community meetings. And this map actually showed an even more clear alignment of the preliminary route going through Temecula Creek. Temecula Creek was shown as the preliminary route. And then SDG&E during their presentation to city staff provided this slide, which you may see again. The city was notified at this fourth step in the transmission line planning process. We were not notified in the first three steps. We're currently at the fourth step, which is about to start environmental engineering and studies. At the next step, the California Environmental Quality Act and NEPA process, or National Environmental Policy Act process, will begin. In terms of timeline, this is a slide that SDG&E has shared. We are currently where the red arrow is. We're at the virtual open house point. But SDG&E is stating that in summer, fall 2026, there'll be in-person open houses. And then the process for starting state and federal permits will start shortly thereafter. So let's talk a little bit about the preliminary alignment. The red outline is the city limits. That's been added by city staff from SDG&E's map. That is the boundary of Temecula. And you can see the blue dots on the screen that follow the Temecula Creek path. We understand from SDG&E that the preliminary route alignment is a 1,000-foot corridor study. And we understand that the map shows, again, it's following Temecula Creek within the city. As everyone is aware, Temeca Creek is surrounded by homes, parks, schools, and businesses. So let's talk a little bit about what extra high voltage transmission lines look like and are. So just to be clear on the terms that I'm using, I want to share with the public. When we talk about height, this is what we're talking about. When we talk about span, the distance between two transmission towers is what we're talking about. And we talk about right-of-way, or ROW, that is what we're talking about. It's the land below the towers that doesn't necessarily follow the footprint of the towers. It's usually larger than the actual footprint of the towers. So what do these extra high voltage transmission lines look like? Well, they have height ranges between 125 feet to 191 feet.

That's comparable to a 12 or 19 story building.

So in comparison to existing buildings in the city limits, Abbott Vascular off of Overland Drive is approximately five stories. Temecula Valley Hospital is a five story project as well. The spans, we discussed what those look like on the screen before. Spans are between 1,400 feet and 1,800 feet. For approximation, that's four to six football fields for the NFL. As mentioned earlier, the right-of-way is approximately 200 to 250 feet. That was the red line that I showed earlier, and it may be more depending on terrain. So as we talk about these extra high voltage transmission lines, we have questions and some of those are, what do these look like in a residential or commercial area in terms of scale and how does the massing look? The following examples are not in Temecula. And many of these transmission lines existed prior to development occurring, not after. There are various types of extra high voltage transmission line structures that may be utilized. They can change shape and form. So these are just examples. So this is in Ontario, California. You can see the scale of a single-family home. That's a two-story home. And then the transmission line in the middle of the screen. This is another example from Rancho Cucamonga for scale. This is an example from Duarte. This is a commercial office area of the high-voltage transmission lines. So why is the project being proposed? According to SDG&E, it is for California electrification policies, grid reliability, and reducing transmission congestion. I mentioned earlier we talked about who actually approves these projects. The California Public Utilities Commission approves these projects, the CPUC, and this information that's highlighted and quoted below is directly from CPUC's website. I'll read just a brief excerpt of it. The CPUC regulates investor-owned electrical utilities, which SDG&E is, and the CPUC also approves the necessary certifications and permits for the construction of high-voltage transmission lines, anything above 50 kilovolts. What is the CPUC? It's made up of five commissioners that are appointed by the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. And these appointments are confirmed by the state senate. The commissioners serve staggered six-year terms. So that's a little bit of overview and facts about the presentation. But as we can see, we have a lot of community concerns and questions. So here are some of the questions we've already heard. What type of users will be served by these extra high voltage transmission lines, industrial, commercial, and residential? What communities and areas will the project serve? Who is making the specific decisions where the preliminary route is going? Why was this selected as the preliminary route? Who benefits from the project? What are the other alternatives? How will Temecula and our community be included moving forward? And how will our stakeholders in our community be engaged? These are just a few of our stakeholders, but not all of them. And we also want to know what already has been studied. Again, I'm saying it again just for clarity purposes. This is not a city project. The city does not approve or deny transmission projects. So today, staff is looking for direction from the city council to consider a resolution of position. conduct further research and requests for information or direct staff to, and any other direction the City Council deems appropriate. And with that, the QR code on the screen would allow residents or community members to submit their comments and make those available for the record. Additionally, we have SDG&E's webpage available. Staff is available for questions, but obviously SDG&E will be coming up in the next presentation. They're available to answer questions.

Outstanding. Thank you very much for that report. Great job. With that, I'd like to push that out to the council members here. Do we have any questions for our staff? Nothing at this time? Okay, I see nothing at this time. Next, what we'd like to do is move into calling up SDG&E for their presentation. Are they here? SDG&E? I think they're walking up right now.

Excellent.

Again, we want to thank them for their time for coming in today to be able to go over all of this information. And thank you. Thank you very much for, is it the four of you, three, four of you for coming back. I think I've met a couple of you from our last meeting. Thank you very much. I know the public is very excited to hear about what you have to say. We're going to have a lot of questions and comments. And so if we can just move forward and I'll give you guys the floor and we'll go from there.

Thank you, Mayor. My name is Kevin Garrity. I'm the Chief Operating Officer for San Diego Gas and Electric. Appreciate this opportunity to have a discussion about the Golden Pacific Power Link. I think the way we'd like to address it is Jeff Billington from California Independent System Operator will talk about the need, how the line became to be something that our state selected, and then Erica Martin from SDG&E will walk through just where we're at in the process of this initial routing. So thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Councillors. As indicated, my name is Jeff Billington. I'm the Director of Transmission Infrastructure Planning at the California ISO. The California ISO conducts a transmission planning process on an annual basis. It's based upon our order tariff. It's an open and transparent process throughout. And like I said, it's an annual process. It's currently effectively about a 15-month process that does have overlap of each of the years. And one of the main inputs or two of the main inputs actually come from the state agencies. The ISO has a memorandum of understanding that was renewed in 2022 with the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission in that it's to really tighten the linkages of resource planning, transmission planning, interconnection and procurement of resources and planning the transmission system reliably to meet the load growth. And so the California Energy Commission is responsible for the state's load forecast, which they provide to ourselves and the California Public Utilities Commission, which is used so it's consistent planning for the resource and transmission needs within the system or within the state. And the California Public Utilities Commission is responsible for the resource planning And through their integrated resource plan, they developed the portfolios of resources that we utilize in our transmission planning. And through that process in the 2022, as staff indicated, the California ISO in the 2022-2023 transmission planning process and within the Transmission Plan identified the need for transmission to meet the load growth and make in terms of the resources that are identified within those portfolios to meet their liability and state goals, the need for transmission projects. The line and in the Transmission Plan, it's identified as the Imperial Valley to north of Songs Transmission Plan. It is the one that is now being referred to as the Golden Pacific Power Link. It is one of the transmission projects that was identified within the transmission plan to reliably supply the load that is continuing to grow within the state, as well as particularly along the coastal system. with the renewable and the resources that are needed to meet those from a reliable point of view to transmit that power to deliver to those loads. And so through that, the need was developed in terms of for that going through. The analysis was selected in terms of that a 500 kV line For this project from the Imperial Valley area to what's referred to as the Norse of songs substation that will tie into the 230 KB system on the coast in that area And through through the transmission planning process once that project was the need was identified and through our board in terms of the transmission plan and We go out on a project of this nature for competitive solicitation for the projects. Going through that process, looking in terms of for developer to identify, to meet the functional specification and the technical requirements and from the point of delivery to the interconnection point that in a cost effective manner giving consideration in terms of the affordability and efficient in terms of alternatives to meet the needs to reliably develop in terms of the system in the California system. And so that was the, as the staff indicated, San Diego Gas and Electric secured the project and are proceeding with the project based upon the needs that were identified within the 2022-2023 transmission plan and the functional specifications that were identified as a part of that transmission plan. I'll turn it over to Erica.

All right. Thank you, sir.

Hello, my name is Erica Martin. I'm the director of project development for SDG&E on the Golden Pacific Power Link. I'm going to walk through some slides, although I'll say the staff report covered a lot of background and helpful information that I don't need to repeat, although you'll see some of it in the slides. We can move more quickly through it. And since we had Jeff here cover the need from KISO in the transmission plan, I won't go back through that either.

And I'll keep an eye on the time.

So Mr. Billington covered the statewide transmission planning process that occurred before the need for the project was identified and the KISO annual transmission plan that identified the project. Those steps you can see on this slide, they're the first three arrows up there. And that's that statewide transmission planning process. That gray arrow is where we are now. And although it looks like we're at the end of a process, what we're at now is the very beginning of the routing and siting process, the development of the project, beginning with SDG&E, as Mr. Billington described, securing the rights to the project after a competitive solicitation as the staff reviewed, and working to refine and develop the project. Once we've completed this early development process, which includes engineering studies, technical studies, environmental studies, and significantly community outreach, which is what we're doing here and what we will continue to do for the next several months, then we will submit an application to the CPUC. And in addition to their transmission planning responsibilities, they have ultimate responsibility over the routing and siting for the line. And they will review in a formal regulatory process both our proposal and they will also conduct the CEQA or the California Environmental Quality Act review for the project. And they will determine both if the project will be built and or where it will be built. And so... I'd really like to impress upon you all that this is very early in the process, that we have not submitted that permit application yet. And once it goes to the CPUC, that is a lengthy regulatory and environmental review process where routing and environmental and community concerns are discussed and considered. So just a review, and I'll go through this relatively quickly. SDG&E's project goals are first and foremost to design and build the project that CAISO identified in the transmission plan. Any project, any proposal has to meet CAISO's project objectives, or we don't have a project. That includes the origination and the endpoint of the project, starting in Imperial Valley, an existing substation there, and ending in that new substation that will be built by Horizon West, somewhere north of the Songs generating plant. And so the goals of CAISO are our goals here, including delivering a project in a cost-effective way. Because ultimately, this project, the costs are borne by the rate payers in California. And that's all of the rate payers of the investor-owned utilities, PG&E, Edison, SDG&E, all of those customers have the benefit of the transmission system. And so all of those customers will bear a share of the costs for this project. And so a top consideration will be the affordability, how much when we design and route the project, considering the cost that would be associated with the design and the route. And I'll just note, as part of that, that we know from our experience owning an operating transmission system that the largest driver of costs for the transmission line is the length of the line. Each additional mile that's added adds construction and material costs, and that's the biggest needle mover for determining what the cost will ultimately be. And so that's one of the considerations as we're looking at developing the most cost-effective project that we can. And then we also heard that KISO has set a target in-service date for this project of 2032. So that's the date that we're working to meet with our project timeline. Here's a map of the area without the line on it showing the starting and end points as identified in that 22-23 transmission plan by CAISO. That red triangle is the existing substation in Imperial Valley. And the white triangle up in the northwest corner is an approximate location of the new substation. Since that is being built by another developer, we are not here to talk about that. We don't have that location to provide to you today. But we do know that it will be north of that Song's generating station. And this, I think you've already seen, this is the preliminary proposed routing corridor. This is the starting point. And when I mentioned earlier that we're at the beginning of that routing and siting process, this is where we're starting. No final decisions have been made. We are at the beginning of the study and analysis of this route. We're at the beginning of really hearing public comment on this route. But this is the starting point for us to continue to refine and develop. I know that this is a very high-level map, and that is because our Development and engineering is also at a very high level stage at this point our continued public outreach and Stakeholder conversations as the project develops will continue to provide more detailed information as it becomes available Oops wrong way And so this Highlights the segment that's in Temecula also a still very high level, but it shows some of the topography and the features of the map just to give a better understanding of the portion that is in Riverside County and that passes through the city of Temecula. It's approximately five miles of the current proposed alignment, and the corridor, as was mentioned earlier, is still a thousand feet. That's not ultimately what the right-of-way would be, even if the alignment didn't change. That's just a very wide, steady corridor for us as we're continuing to understand what potential impacts might be, what are concerns and questions, and how can we incorporate that into the design and development of our project. Here is, again, the timeline of the project. And you've heard us talk about each of these pieces a couple of times. I also want to reiterate the in-person public meetings that will be held in the late summer and fall. We don't have the dates for those yet or the locations. We're using the information that we gather in this early public outreach process to identify the places where those need to happen. and the folks that we need to hear more from, especially as there is more information that's available about the project and the status of it. We do know that things will change. Information will change. And we want to continue to communicate out about that. Those public meetings will be an opportunity for us to communicate and for the community to communicate with us. We will plan to file our project application before the end of this year another opportunity for us to communicate with agency oversight and for the formal record of the proceeding before the CPUC to begin and to have public comment on the record and public participation. Those are additional opportunities for communities and stakeholders to be involved. And again, we are shooting for a construction timeline in the fall of 2029 and an in-service date in 2032, I think. Got some information on here for you all to contact us. I think you also have that. I'll just end by saying that we understand the questions and the concerns that are raised by a project like this. And that is exactly why we are out holding virtual open houses and public open houses to be able to hear and take that feedback. We're grateful for the time. We're grateful for the input. We'd like to keep the dialogue open. Thank you.

I want to thank you all so far. I know we have some questions coming up. But again, I want to thank you guys for coming out here, being able to present this, and allowing the community to be able to be heard and have questions as well. So with that being said, I would like to start opening this up with our council first, as we always do with questions. As the mayor today, I have some questions that I would like to lead with. And if anybody, whether KISO or SDG&E would like to be able to come up and answer any of these questions, that would be great so thank you very much so first i'd like to start off by asking a question regarding the planning and the transparency of this project so we can ensure that the council and the public fully understand all of the options tonight okay so i believe you're in the house if you can come up just for a minute can you please share on the primary maps and full bids submitted by queso in 2023 for this project They received four bids specifically from Horizon West, SDG&E, SCE, and California Grid. Of all the bids, KSO picked Horizon West map, which KSO has revealed was the only primary map going through our city of Temecula. All of the other bidders' maps went through open spaces and not through populations. Remember, up or down. And although Horizon West won the bid, you gave it the route over to SDG&E, if I was correct on that. So we'd like to see what SDG&E's original 153 mile route that did not go through the urban areas of Temecula, as well as the other maps from the bidders that did not go through the urban area of our city. Would you by any chance have those today? I know that we had asked for them before.

I don't have copies of those in terms of with me.

Okay, so we want to respect everybody.

We do provide in terms of a selection document that's posted on our website. The full bids themselves have a significant amount of confidentiality and that within the bids. And so those have not been made available. Like I said, we do make available a selection report. I will note as we go through the selection process, There's a number of factors that are taken into consideration to come up with the selection of the awarded bid, looking at in terms of right-of-way being one component, costs, and a number of other factors with regards to the bidders. That is all a part of the analysis, and for those components, the individual bids themselves are confidential with the exception of what we have provided within the selection reports.

Okay. Would any of my council members like to ask a question on that one directly?

Yes. Yes, I would. You didn't answer the question of... Yeah. Why was that route selected? I don't care about the bids. I don't care how much money it was going to cost. Why was that particular route selected? Going through a dense residential area down an environmentally delicate stream bed and Temecula is known as a hot air balloon community. So how in the world can hot air balloons exist with 200-foot towers of high power going through it? I mean, it makes zero sense to me. And so that's what I want an answer to. I could care less about the bottom line. Tell me why it came to Jamaica.

As I indicated, the routing is one of the factors when going through the selection. And so taking into consideration of all of the factors, it was determined that at the bid that was selected was the, taking all of that into consideration, the appropriate alternative or proposal to proceed with.

So when a hot air balloon, and it happens often, you see it on the news, hot air balloons hit those power lines because you're at the mercy of the wind. So you don't always have the ability to outmaneuver a power line. And so, therefore, you're putting, and if someone were to die with those power lines, I'll be the first one to support whoever's going to sue you guys forever. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Thank you for your question, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. We need to just keep it to questions, guys. We'll have our time for comments, but thank you very much, Stu.

Well, I don't envy your position here. So just following up on the mayor's original question, your selection criteria, there's a lot, but it's a bit of a black box when it comes to the public or even our city understanding why this particular alignment or why that particular project was selected of the four. But in that criteria, and what you do have on your website talks not just about the alignments themselves and different proposals, but it specifically mentioned local opposition in its analysis along with cost. And the only local opposition in any of the bids, as I understand it, there's only one urban area it's going through, which is the city of Temecula. So how does, and if you could also clarify, because we've heard several different descriptors of what, I always say CalISO, but what the agency, how you prefer to be called. But if you could explain to us, how did you come up to this decision, given that those don't seem like criteria when you and the CPUC and others are supposed to select the environmentally superior alternative in this analysis?

Well, that's one of the components, and as Erica indicated, that is identified as preliminary. and will go through the CEQA process with the CPUC for the detailed permitting and routing. A preferred alternative will be submitted by the proponent as well as alternatives are required and they'll go through the EIR in terms of the environmental review to determine as to what a final route will be.

Okay, but it didn't answer the question again. I don't understand how, I know this is frustrating, but just bear with me here. How opposition comes into the selection criteria. Like that's specifically mentioned on your website. So why was that even discussed as part of why you would or how you would select a project? That doesn't seem like a criteria that should be considered by the state of California.

Well, as we look at it in terms of the the preliminary proposed routing as, like I said, one of the factors, that gets weighed as we look at it. And so as we're looking at which alternative or which project sponsors project to proceed with, we give consideration to that routing and to, like I said, in terms of other factors which include costs, which includes the track records of the bidders, cost containment that is determined within the bid, and like I said, all of that is outlined within the selection report that is publicly available and posted on our website with the selection of the project sponsor.

All right.

All right. Thank you very much for your question. I believe Council Member Brendan Kelfis.

Yes, thank you. This question is for yourself as well as SDG&E. As was said, this wasn't your original route that you submitted. My question would be, if you can't tell us due to confidentiality of what your original route was, can you explain to us why you believe that going through this route initially wasn't in the best interest of SDG&E since that was not submitted on your initial proposal?

That is a challenging question to answer because we are in a different phase of the project now. We are refining and developing the project that we acquired in this past summer of 2025. I will say that we have spent a lot of time looking at the different ways to get from Imperial Valley to north of Songs. And we know that there are alternatives in different segments of the line. And those alternatives will be submitted to the CPUC for their review also. It is a challenge, to say the least, to get about 140 miles from Imperial Valley to the north of Songs. There are a number of considerations that we have to weigh for a proposal as well as for alternatives. KISO's project objectives are the first. There is constructability and feasibility where Can the towers go? Where does the topography allow them to be built? Where is there space to put them? There's cost. We talked about affordability and length. There's environmental concerns that need to be studied in a transparent and public way. We haven't completed that yet. There are community concerns. There are cultural resource concerns. All of those are potential impacts that will go into both a proposal and an alternatives analysis that will be submitted as part of our of part of our application. That will be a chance for us to share what we think about those alternatives and that route. And then ultimately, it will be the CPUC that studies and analyzes it to determine what actually should get built and where it should go. And I know that's a hard answer. But because we're in this preliminary phase of development, I wish I could be more concrete. But I think that that additional information will be part of our public outreach process.

Absolutely. And just a follow-up question on that. Would it be fair to say that your original bid that you guys would like to win, right, because that's millions of dollars in cost generated for your private entity, you believe that the route that you submitted was the best for your shareholders at that time in order to win the bid?

If we didn't believe that, we wouldn't have submitted it.

Thank you.

Am I good to go?

Yes, please go.

Thank you much, Madam Mayor. I'm just trying to build off of your question, because I have several questions and trying to figure out where they're going to align. But if we're talking about planning, we're talking about maps, you had mentioned that this is like the very early stages of this process. So it doesn't feel that way. When we received emails in April, it feels like very late in the game, right? So my question is just essentially like, why does this feel so late to us when you're saying it's like, hey, this is just the beginning. It doesn't feel that way from our perspective. And looking back at the timeline, there's three years between the start and where we are now. And to get an email in April just doesn't seem like it's the beginning of the process. So I don't know who'd like to answer that or speak to that.

Yeah, I understand that. And it feels like that in some ways to us as well, because the competitive solicitation process started in 2023. And we were a bidder in that. And so we know that the need for the project has been identified for a couple of years. The awareness of the project in the public also has been, this is a unique process for an electric infrastructure project. For SDG&E, and I think relatively in the state In this transmission plan, there were three projects that went through the competitive solicitation projects. Many of the other ones, the rest of the other 42 projects, did not go through this process. But this extends the timeline. a transmission plan, there is a bidding, there's an awarding of the project, and then there's a project development phase. Because whatever is submitted in the competitive solicitation process is extremely high level, and it's a bid. It's not a fully developed, fully engineered project. So since that project was awarded originally to Horizon West, and then it was acquired by SDG&E in July of last year. There has been some development of the project, but really we've taken it up in earnest nine months ago. And so in order to know, have any information to share, even a high-level public route, we needed to take that time to understand what it could be. These very preliminary engineering studies, technical studies, That's what we've been working on for the past nine months in order to have something to share. There are many questions that we get where we don't have specific answers to them because we have not developed the project to a high level of engineering or citing, and because we are so early in the process. So I know that those are a lot of steps. That all took a lot of time. I understand that that would feel that this project has been out there for a long time. But I just have to emphasize, again, how much more there is of the process to come. When we're submitting an application to the CPUC, we don't usually start with public outreach six months or more before we file. Because we usually like to know a lot more about the writing, about the routing, about the structures, about the impacts. because it does make it easier to provide information and to have that dialogue. But given the size of this project, the places where the route currently goes, the questions that we knew would come up, we made a decision to have these discussions earlier, before we have even settled on what our proposal will be to the CPUC, before the CPUC does their public outreach. And so that's years to come. So there is, as I said earlier, lots of opportunities for participation, written comment, oral comment, on the record, off the record to us. There are lots of opportunities for continued engagement.

All righty, and I believe if you want to just stay at the podium one more time. Sorry. I believe I have one more question from Mayor Pertem.

I should have brought a bigger water bottle.

If you need more water, let us know, please. We have more.

Okay, so the maps that are provided are like a, you know, treasure map on the back of a, you know, restaurant's, you know, placemat, right? But the... CalISO and SDG&E aren't making decisions on that. You have a lot more detail in these. And specifically, running along some of the alignments that we're most familiar with in our backyard, there's only one place you can put a line of that magnitude, and it's along the Temecula Creek. So you have higher level engineering and drawings and details than what you're providing us today.

We really do not. We are actively studying those things. We have identified, using a map, those high-level locations. Now we need to go out and do field surveys. We need to do LIDAR and check those physical locations. We need to send out... biologists and other folks to go out and do field surveys for those to identify habitat.

I understand how that works, because I actually used to do that for a living. But what I'm wondering is, like, your alignments don't have a lot of wiggle room around them. You're not going to put it into a neighborhood with existing houses. You're not going to put it in the middle of a street or a freeway. So you're already selecting areas where you know you have a high likelihood of placing the alignment. So what I'm asking is, why wasn't that information shared with the city early on in this process? And I'll also say, no clapping. Come on, let's keep it together. I'll also say, when you came to the city's meetings, you provided and brought forward every map except the map of the city of Temecula. But I also have it on good authority that you did the same to tribes in San Diego County when you met with them and had missing maps of their specific tribal territory. So I'm having a hard time understanding how this is a community outreach process. It's open, it's transparent. You're trying to get the feel of what's going on. When you're showing up to meetings with municipalities and tribes and other entities who are going to be impacted the most by these projects, Knowing full well where these alignments are and not divulging exactly what you know about those alignments.

I'll say on the meeting with the city, that was a display problem in a PowerPoint slide. And so it just wasn't clear. It is a high-level map, but it was not at all an attempt to leave out information. And we offered to come back and correct that. We haven't had that opportunity yet. We are providing the information that we do have, what we do know. And I don't know what you're referring to in terms of the tribal meetings. We have tried to be very open and transparent And that sort of goes back to my earlier point about how we get asked questions about really specific location of siting and exactly where will the right-of-way be, and we don't have an answer because we genuinely don't have an answer. We don't know, but we want to understand what are the concerns, what are those specific areas questions, things that we don't know about that are on the ground. We're looking at maps. We're going to go out and look in the field to engineer it, but we also need to know from the folks who are there, what are those things that we need to know? That helps us to cite, to even understand where it could be cited. That's why we have a thousand foot corridor of a place where it might go. But again, no final decisions are made. No routing has been finalized by us or by ultimately the state agency that will make that decision.

OK, good. Alrighty, thank you for answering that. I'm going to ask some questions here because I know a lot of these questions are probably things that the public is going to ask. But what's a really good thing right now is we have these wonderful individuals here who are going to help answer those questions so everybody can get those questions answered. So with that, I'll just leave it ended open for anybody who would like to answer this. Independent real estate valuation data shows the placing of high voltage corridors near residential parcels can slash properties and empty lots values to up to 50%. How does SDG&E plan to financially compensate Temecula property owners, developers, and municipal tax base for immediate destruction of the residents' family wealth and hard-earned property investments?

So we really hope to design a project that limits any direct impact to private property. That is certainly our goal. And because we don't know the route yet, and we don't know if or what those impacts might be, it's hard to answer that question. However, we prefer to work with any private land owners understand concerns, understand what impacts might be, and the type of property or the value of property, if that is where the project routing leads. So we would interact directly with that property owner to understand what their concerns and damages might be, and then we would go from there.

Thank you for that answer. Any of my colleagues have any other questions about property value? Yes, sir? No, not property value. Not property value. Anybody to my left? Seeing none, I'll go to my next question. And thank you very much. Our city's economic growth relies on vibrant housing business and new construction. What developer will buy empty... Will a developer buy empty lots or building family residential tracks directly under a 500 KV corridor? And how will you... offset the long-term economic strategization. I cannot say that word today. This project forces into the fiscal security of Temecula's families.

Thank you for that opportunity. We work with developers frequently along our 230,000-volt lines or 500,000-volt lines, so I can assure you home development projects are continuing in and around those type of assets. However they value those, what they ultimately develop them for is really up for those individual speculators. But we have not seen existing transmission lines in San Diego County or Orange County actually prevent development of housing.

Okay. Any of my colleagues have anything? I might have you answer the next question. Anything?

I do have a question on that, Mayor.

Yes, please. Go ahead.

With that being said, in regards to developers, the city of Temecula, especially in this corridor, is already developed. The homes are already built. So in this area, I'm not concerned about develops coming in. I'm more worried about and concerned about the current property owners there. Thank you. And I understand that you work with the private homeowners, but has SDG&E ever done a study on the equity lost near these transmission lines? And if so, have they reimbursed these homeowners for the equity that they lost?

I'm not familiar with that. We have, I would say we have very public line siting processes here in the state of California. And within those documents, we may be able to find examples where that has been done historically. It's not uncommon to study that. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Kalfas. OK, sir, maybe you can help us with this one. So Temecula is the most important thing for us, besides our residents, is their safety. So I want to ask this question. Temecula is completely surrounded by high fire risk zones. During a wildfire, minutes matter. A low-flying firefighting helicopters are our primary defense. How can SDG&E justify stringing massive high-voltage lines and towers directly through our airspace, knowing they can create a deadly physical barrier that can and probably will actively threaten lives, property, and total financial investments of our citizens? Can you help me understand that?

We don't think there's a lack of coexistence there. We work in very detailed ways with our firefighting communities to have that awareness, co-train with them, et cetera. Just this weekend, and folks may or may not be aware of this, there was the tank up in Orange County. Behind the scenes, almost nobody knows Edison had to de-energize several transmission lines associated with that. This interconnectedness of the grid in moments like that matter. Now, while the temperature was really very cool, had that showed up in 100-degree days, it would have been a very big deal. And so these transmission lines have to be weighed on totally how they provide for a community, the reliability, and the benefit. This line, in most likely scenarios, will provide resiliency and wildfire space. But I will also tell you, it's one of the main reasons we wanted to step in and build this transmission line. We think SDG&E is the world's best operator of transmission lines in high fire threats area and one of the reasons I will tell you that is Personally, I live in a high fry threat area. I have 230,000 volts line half a mile either side of my home Right and so this is not something our teams take lightly in building assets like this in wildfire spaces but what I will tell the community is wherever the line ends up being, it will be safe, it will be reliable, and its fire safety will be the top thing for SDG&E.

Thank you for that. I believe some of my council members have other questions. Yes, sir?

Well, just following up on the threat of wildfire risk, Having spent the better part of my career working on wildfire and wildland urban interface projects and specifically research on community resilience, I can unequivocally say that this project creates a significant risk of fire within the community and the surrounding area. You know, and I would love to hear why you think that's not the case because, you know, and I understand that SDG&E now considers itself a leader in, you know, wildfire resilience and, you know, safety of the grid. But y'all were also responsible for the Witch and Guajiro fire in 2007 that burned down a significant part of San Diego County. Not caused by a line like this, though. Not okay, we can talk about the severity of these lines.

The relative risk of these lines really does matter. are almost never, ever the source of ignition or wildfire. Never. Almost. Almost never. I'm going to disagree with you on that on a national scale. We shouldn't disagree. I think what we should provide is facts that where fires happen, it is in the lower voltage. And as you get them into these structures, almost never because of how high they are and how far the wires are away from each other. That's just a fact. Almost never. Almost never.

All right, we're going to disagree on that point.

We don't have to disagree. I'll provide you that study of the individual line levels.

I would love to see it, and I'll be happy to provide you others as well. But what surprises me is how cavalier you are with the wildfire issue because it's a serious threat.

Not at all.

And placing this type of infrastructure in our community not only enhances that risk, in a pre-existing high fire risk zone. But it severely impedes the ability of our fire department to actually respond to those incidents because of the high voltage lines and because of the air attack and other resources that they're going to bring in. You're placing this specifically in the zone that poses some of the highest threat to the city of Temecula. The other piece, too, is firefighters generally don't like fighting fire under high tension power lines when there's a fire going on in a creek where these lines are placed. So I'm just finding it really hard to understand how you're saying, well, this isn't a fire problem because there's layers of issues that we're just simply not going to be able to handle when it comes to fire risk for Temecula.

Mayor Pro Tem, I'm sorry. If in any way, shape, or form I came off as cavalier, this is the number one thing we worry about every day, and we've worried about every day since 2007. And in 19 years, SDG&E has not started a wildfire. And what I can tell you is when we carefully examine the facts, which I will provide you, 500,000-volt lines do not start ignitions. They do not. And that's just a simple matter of fact. So we don't have to disagree about that. The benefits of often lines like this come in the rights-of-way or fire breaks that they can cause. We coordinate directly with the firefighters in San Diego County that are fighting any fire anywhere that may start two miles away from our transmission lines, but may burn there. And we actively coordinate with them. And in most cases, they'll say, let it burn under your lines. And that's in a wildland interface space. Where this line is, I don't suspect that that's where the treatment would be. But our intensity of working with our fire partners is unmatched. We own the helicopters that get on into any potential wildfires in and around our assets. And again, not to be cavalier at all, this is something that is everything that we do. And should this line end up anywhere near Temecula. Anywhere near this proposed route, you will absolutely have the best operator who's the best safety provider in this space. Okay.

All righty. Thank you for that. And I believe we have another firefighter here who'd like to be able to ask you a question.

Just a few questions on fire. How much money has SDG&E paid out in wildfire settlements in the last 25 years?

I don't think not even a single dollar in the wildfire fund as we think about it here within the state, not a single dollar. Not in that wildfire fund. If you're talking back to 2007, sir, I wouldn't know that.

2007 was $2.4 billion. Thousands of homes burned in that fire as well. And we talk about almost never, right, that these lines almost never start fires. It's not never. It's not 100%. They will...

I don't think we'll find a single line of 500,000 volt that has ever started an extreme wildfire in western United States. I feel that strongly about it. Starting an extreme fire is what we're talking about here.

Well, extreme is subjective, right? Because it can start out as a little brush fire.

We can start with 2.4 billion. I'm quite confident there's not a 500,000 volt line that's done that.

This next one is a rhetorical question, which you don't have to answer. But I think it's important for us... to stop pretending that major utility infrastructure through high fire severity zones like the one that is proposed here comes with no consequences. There are consequences and there's absolutely the possibility of wildfire through this corridor.

Will answer it only because if you take a look at the map and it is one of the biggest challenges we have here in the western states in order to get power from outside of California and into California There's not a spot around our state's borders where we can cross without going through the high fire threat district right and and that's just really very critical for us all to consider if there was a means to get from where this line originates in Imperial Valley and up into Orange County without traversing the wildfire threat area, all of us would have thought about doing that. It's just not possible in this case.

Go ahead. Mr. Schwenk.

All right, thank you very much. Yeah, so trying to build off my colleagues a little bit, thinking about... You know, even if these lines never start a fire, fires happen. We've had fires in this creek in the past.

It's been an active wildfire season for Riverside, yeah.

And so I'm mostly concerned about right next to homes not being able to, an air attack, like thinking about there could potentially be a fire, and you have these resources, and you're mentioning you have helicopters, and that's great, but I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned about... Sort of the Temecula Valley Hospital component of it as well is very close. And if we're talking about flight paths and we're talking about air attacks, how do these lines impact the existing flight path to the hospital? Have you reached out to the hospital and done any work on modifying or the potential modifications with the FAA or sort of building off of this sort of air attacks and flight paths?

I'm just going to join Kevin for a second to talk about the hospital. So we will go through an FAA review if the route stays where it is to determine that there is no operational risk or conflict with the hospital. We don't see there being a need for any conflict there right now. But since we don't have a precise location for the route, I can't say that with certainty other than we would coordinate with the FAA to make sure. We would be required to do that. We would never place a line where it impeded the helo pad from the hospital. So that would be a barrier to placing the line there. And so that's for the further development that needs to come to determine what those limitations or restrictions might be, both from the hospital's perspective as well as the FAA's perspective, that is going to make sure that there's no aircraft conflict.

And I would like to make sure it's clear that the line itself does not prevent firefighting on them, under them. Airdrops across them happens frequently. If that's the right thing in our coordination with fire agencies, if the right thing is to drop retardant on those lines, that's what will happen.

Next question I have for you, still staying within public safety question. I know you're stating that wildfires, this isn't really a thing that happens. We're saying that it can possibly happen. But I do want to put out there for the record and ask that Temecula currently maintains an excellent ISO rating, Class 2 rating, which directly keeps our residents' homeowners insurance affordable as of today. By introducing massive industrial ignition risks and obstructing aerial firefighting assets in a high-fire zone, have you had the opportunity yet, sir, to calculate how much our ISO rating can and will drop? And will SDG&E step up to pay back the skyrocketing insurance premiums for our citizens when the project destroys their financial security and instability?

That's a hell of a question to try to answer, so no, I have not done any studies on the ISO ratings here, right? But again, I want to make sure it's clear. These are not the type of lines that create wildfires. These are also... These are also the type of lines that also do not prevent firefighting, and I know we keep saying that. That is just untrue. These lines do not prevent air attacks at all. They happen all the time on any structures we have in and around San Diego. We witness it. I've seen them happen up here in Riverside this year, direct drops onto Edison lines, right? So the lines themselves do not prevent air attack.

Okay.

And the men and women that fly, if you've never gotten into a CAL FIRE and the way they coordinate their air attacks, you'll really quickly learn the reason why those lines do not end up being a hazard. They're absolute professionals in understanding how to fight in and around those assets.

Okay. Thank you for your statement. Open up to anybody else to finalize. Any questions on public safety?

Okay.

Yes, sir. Just a quick one. Related to public safety, but I was curious why CalISO and SDG&E are traveling to the city of Temecula with armed security detail. You know, we're consistently one of the top 25 safest cities in the nation. Police presence here was fairly substantial today. So is it the city or something that we're doing that makes you feel like you needed a security detail today?

Really great question for the public discourse. So very informative. So I think it was in response to understanding that the Riverside County Sheriff's Office was spotting additional folks here in response to how many people were attending. That simple existing protocol. You responded by posting sheriff deputies. Our security detail came in. I myself did not arrive here with security. My piece of shit, 2013 Tacoma trucks out there in the back. I mean, in case you think this was added to this, Mayor Pro Tem.

Well, I say it because, you know, you're coming here.

Yeah, you say it, why?

Yeah, I mean, it's a little surprising that you chose to do that, coming to the city of Temecula. It's a showing of trust and faith in, you know, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department and the city of Temecula. We work with the Riverside Sheriff's Department on this. Yeah, I understand that, but bringing in private security, it's just an odd move. It's never happened in this city hall before. I don't think, Mr. Washington, I'm not sure that's even happened at the County Board of Supervisors meetings. And I know you guys have had way more contentious meetings up there than we have. And so it just struck me as a surprising move by San Diego Gas and Electric to come to our town and have that sort of discourse.

I appreciate the discussion on it. Very helpful. Okay.

All right, I've got four more questions. Let's get out of the public safety area. I think we beat that pretty well. Let's move into, let's talk about our tribe, Pechanga. I can't speak for Pechanga, but as mayor, I have an obligation to ask this question. Have you evaluated whether this corridor directly threatens our tribal neighbors and their ancestral heritage? sacred lands. Why should the city of Temecula support an intrusive infrastructure project that shows complete disregard for the cultural heritage, sovereign rights, and historical legacy of Pechanga?

Of course, we would never do that, but we can discuss siting transmission lines and doing it in a very environmental way is par for the course for any transmission line in California. No transmission line is ever going to get built that rises to that level of disrespect you just mentioned. But we have met with Pechanga, and Erica can brief you on that.

Yeah, we have placed a top priority on our dialogue and partnership with our tribal partners that may be along this route. Those were among the first folks that we reached out to when SDG&E obtained the project, understanding how culturally rich this region is. And so input from them as we develop is going to be crucial to understanding how we can reduce and avoid as much as possible, any impacts to cultural resources, to areas of ancestral origin. And we know that those exist along the preliminary route, and that is why we need continued study. We need that to be a publicly, transparently studied process to understand what those potential impacts might be. We want to hear directly from the tribe what is a meaningful way for us to avoid that. Can we avoid that? And what, from them, from their perspective, is a meaningful way to mitigate any impacts, should there be any. We want to hear their voices. And so that's why we've had several conversations with different representatives of the Pechanga tribe. And we will continue to do that as development moves forward. as long as they're wanting to continue to dialogue with us, and so far they have been.

And can you help me understand, if you guys don't have a route, how are you going to decide whether it impedes in their areas?

I think that's where the dialogue comes in, right? We can say, here's this general area, tell us about this area, and what is it that is your that are the priorities, what are the concerns, what are your questions about this place where these area where it might go. And then we can take that and inform our project development. And then ultimately, in that CEQA process, studying any potential impacts to cultural resources is a very technical and transparent part of the public process. So in addition to the dialogue that we're having, the CPUC will also take this piece on and make sure that to the extent that there are impacts that they can be avoided and reduced. And they, again, will choose the route and identify the route that poses the least impacts.

And how soon do you figure that those routes, so that way the city as well, along with the tribe, Pechanga, can look at that together? Because it sounds like you guys don't have any of that currently.

We're going to continue to share information as the project is developed. Over the summer, we talked about those public meetings that we'll have. We'd love to come back and have more specific conversations with you all when we get to that stage of project development. We'll file our application at the end of the year where there will be our proposal in it and alternatives and an assessment of potential impacts. And then the CPUC will have their process. That will be a couple years long, and they will provide a schedule and opportunities for additional input through that as well.

Okay, thank you for that, and I will open that up to any of our council members. Yes, sir? Mr. Stu?

Yeah, so did you take into consideration other historical... Significance of this route because it is the old Butterfield stage route which she was basically the southern immigrant trail and to litter this trail with these high powered super tall lines would totally destroy the historical significance of even that. And so even the Pechanga tribe was this whole valley. So really, as far as I'm concerned, put it outside the Temecula Valley and you'll be safe. Inside the Temecula Valley is all poultry sensitive. That, you know, and I realize we're early, even though we feel like we're not early, but I hear you guys saying that there is opportunities. I think it would make us all feel better if you had routes that didn't include Temecula in it.

Yeah, we don't know what alternatives there will ultimately be. But I feel pretty sure that there will be alternatives that avoid the Temecula segment of the route in order to determine whether there is an alternative that reduces environmental, community, cultural resources, all the things that we just talked about. I also want to note that there are cultural resources all over the Southern California region. San Diego County, just in particular, has more federally recognized tribes than any county in the country. So we know the challenge that we have here to find a route that doesn't have impacts. I don't know if we'll be able to find that. We're trying to weigh all of these significant routing criteria to identify the best route. Ultimately, the CPUC has to weigh that. But I don't know that even the CPUC will be able to identify a route that doesn't have impacts to the environment or cultural resources or all of these things. I think it's how can we mitigate, avoid, reduce? Where can this go that is the least impactful? That's where we're trying to get right now.

So that's my concern about the CPUC is because according to your timeline, it looks like it's December you're going to submit a route.

Before the end of the year.

Before the end of the year.

Yeah.

So, and how are we going to be notified of that route to... And is this meeting, the CPUC meeting, is this a closed-door meeting? Is it a public hearing? Is it something that we're going to be notified well in advance?

That's a great question. Yeah, we will certainly be continuing to provide updates about when we file our application. The CPUC will also notice interested parties, including the City of Temecula. And it's not one meeting. It's a years-long process that has multiple steps and stages. including specific opportunities for public comment, open hearings. You can provide written comment. You can provide in-person comment. And they'll decide what the dates of those things are. So when we have them or when the CPUC has them, there are specific notice requirements in their regulations that provide for public awareness. The role of CEQA in large part is public awareness, and public input. And so all of those requirements will be fulfilled.

All right. I just want to make sure that you guys are aware. We just want to know as soon as we possibly can so we can make our opinions known.

Sure. Yeah.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem. So if we're talking about, we'll let Pechanga speak to their cultural resources, but we do know that this alignment is going through a traditional cultural property that's designated and sits along the corridor for their creation story, which was fairly significant. I'm not sure if you guys looked into the Liberty Quarry at all. I'd recommend it. Yeah. The... The reason I bring it up is because this alignment is going through a very similar area that was designated and talked about during that seven and a half year process that identified this river corridor as the last fully protected free-flowing river in Southern California. Also provides the drinking water supply for Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The... wildlife corridor that sits here is the last inland to coastal wildlife linkage and habitat linkage left in Southern California. I mean, I could go on. And I wasn't being facetious in the letter I submitted to SDG&E saying you could have taken a crayon and drawn just about any other location besides this and found a less sensitive spot. Given all the history that's gone into this region and the dedication of our tribal partners, our federal partners, the city and our community to protect what are arguably some of the last of their kind in all of Southern California, it just kind of surprises me that this alignment is even under consideration.

I can assure you that all of those areas would be studied, understanding what the impacts would be.

Well, but they have been. I guess that's my question.

In relation to this project.

Well, but in relation to the land itself, it has been studied. And you're also aligned directly adjacent to and potentially through the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, which is one of the largest outdoor research stations.

The preliminary alignment does not go through the Santa Margarita.

Well, it's right on the edge, right?

There are no direct impacts to the preserve in the preliminary alignment, as we said.

How do you know that if we don't know where the preliminary, because the map I'm looking at.

We do know that a thousand feet corridor does not go through the ecological preserve.

So it's going through private property predominantly then?

We don't know. can have a more detailed discussion about that portion of the alignment when we have a map in front of us. It's really difficult to do that in this context. I think my larger point was we, as part of our process, as part of the CEQA process, the impacts of a transmission line to all the resources that you just talked about will be studied. But also, I just want to note that this is a very constrained region. a really big challenge to get from Imperial Valley to north of Song's without creating impacts, no matter what potential alternative or alignment is chosen. And so there's a phenomenon of just a trading of impacts that happens. You can eliminate an impact in one area, and then if you move the alignment, you create new impacts in another location. And so that's part of this deliberative, iterative process to understand from our perspective, and eventually the CPUC will take it on, How can we find a location that is the least impactful? We have to do some study to understand how a transmission line would affect different pathways to know what that might be. And that's what we're at the beginning of right now.

But I guess I'm still, I mean, we can talk about this later, I'm sure, but... I guess I'm still not understanding what the point of the project is, you know, because it was provided to us both in your materials and in the presentation earlier in fairly obtuse terms, you know, talking about grid stability, talking about moving, you know, electrical, you know, capacity into, you know, north of Songs and Orange County and so forth. But can someone provide us, like, where exactly is the energy coming from that's being transmitted? And where exactly is it intended to go, ultimately? Like, who are the end users on this?

The resources that it's intended is developed and included within the CPUC's IRP. They provide us with the locations of the resources right down to kind of like better the bus bar or the substations where they're projecting The needs, taking into considerations a number of factors as they go through that bus bar mapping process with the methodologies documented on the IRP website, taking into considerations costs, different types of resources, the mix of resources, environmental from the land use point of view of the resources.

Okay, but where is the energy coming from?

It's coming from, for lack of a better, east of here in the southern areas. I don't have, if I can, if you look in terms of in the transmission plan, I don't have the numbers right here. We have a number where we look at the zonal aspects of it. And so there is in the southern all the way out to the Arizona border, there's resources on the eastern which go on kind of the Delaney, Colorado, the whole areas.

So are you anticipating the renewable solar wind in Imperial County? Some of them are, yes. Are you anticipating any import from out-of-state?

There is in the portfolios of the CPUC in terms of out-of-state wind from the New Mexico area that would be feeding into here as well. And delivery is intended to go? Well, delivery in terms of as we look at the renewable resources is for the resource or the loads within, say, California is what the portfolio is based upon. And the lines that we look at bring basically those resources to be deliverable to the loads. And those would be in the San Diego, and a lot of it is the coastal area. The tie-in to the north of Song's area provides more for the local, tying in to the 230 kV system in that area. Like indicated, the lines themselves go, as indicated, there was three competitive solicitation projects. One was a line that goes east of Imperial Valley. There's the line that goes from here to north of Songs. and ties into the north of Song substation to the 230 kV system just north of Song's generation location, as well as a 500 kV line that goes up to Serrano and ties into the 500 kV system in that area. to make an integrated project in all in terms of as part of the transmission plan. Like I said, is to make the resources that are within the portfolios as identified in the locations of the portfolios to the loads and those loads in a large part in terms of are in the coastal area from San Diego all the way up to L.A.

So is it fair to say that there's a lot of unused or abandoned energy in the desert that's not currently making its way into the areas where you'd like to distribute it?

Well, that's one of, as we look at, is making access to those resources to be able to be deliverable. and be incorporated based upon the resource needs to supply the loads in the area. So it's continued development as we look at the renewable resources that have been identified to be installed. between now and as we look at the next 10 and the CEC and the CPUC are required to provide us out a 15-year target now for the loads and the forecast of the loads as well as for the resource portfolios for us to plan the transmission system to be able to deliver that power reliably to meet the reliability needs of the state as well as the state's goals as well.

So ignoring for a moment the Anza Borrego State Park and BLM land and all of that that this is traversing in San Diego County. I think the question for everybody sitting here today is why are we becoming the dumping ground for abandoned energy created in the desert to be able to move it into areas that don't benefit our own community. I mean, I'm having a really hard time understanding how the CPUC and the state of California think that our community, the only urban area that's being impacted by this project, should take the burden for a project that's clearly benefiting Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

As we look at it, it benefits the entire, really from the point of view of the ability to supply the loads within the California area, California system, as well as the renewable resources that are required in terms of for the state for overall supply. reliability, for resource adequacy, as well as the state's goals.

But isn't that outdated engineering? I mean, we've been talking for years about distributed energy, microgrids, you know, other forms of, you know, a more resilient, reliable infrastructure that does not include specifically the development of high, you know, energy power lines.

I would say the distributed generation is a component of the mix. But to meet the overall reliability needs and transmission connected resources have been identified and that would be in terms of also as to the CPUC and their IRP process which is an open and transparent process as to those resource needs as well.

Okay, we'd really like more information on that if it is that open and transparent. I've been looking, and I can't for the life of me figure out, and why nobody has it on the tip of their tongue, where's the energy coming from and where is it going? What is the critical need that this is filling?

The energy is coming from, and I don't have in front of me, within our transmission plan and our subsequent transmission plans, we do identify the zonal locations that the CPUC has provided. So where that energy comes from is transparent as to what we're planning for and identified within our transmission plan. As well as in the CPUC's IRP, they do provide a complete workbook, and it comes out in the development of the IRP before it's approved by the commission. That clearly identifies all of the locations and resource types that they've included in the IRP, right down to the location and substitutions.

If you could make sure we get a copy of that, I'd appreciate it.

We can take that as to provide you the links to those by all means.

All right, thank you for that answer. I have a couple other council members who have a few questions, and I have one or two right after. But just kind of doubling down and asking a little bit more about what Mayor Pro Tem was asking about. You know, one of the things that I had noticed is on your slides, you had said over the next 20 years, California will need at least by 2035 85 gigawatts, is that correct? And then within 10 years of that, by 2045, we're needing 160. So we're doubling the amount of energy needing. So my question to you is why, and is that going to data centers? For instance, the one in Imperial County that has been submitted and is going through the process that that entire county does not want to deal with an imperial. So is that going to be part of the energy that's going to be used in these data centers? And if I'm correct, I believe there's over 300 data centers currently going through California ready to be implemented. So can you help me understand that a little bit more, please?

The data center loads that we plan for are included within the CEC's load forecast as to what they've developed in their forecast. I will say those have increased over the last probably three years in the forecast that we have. Identified, I believe, the total over the 2030 to 20, or 2035 to 2040 timeframe that's included in the portfolio or in the CEC's forecast is about 4.9 gigawatt. And so if we look at the load growth that the CEC's load forecast currently has, and I'm referring to in terms of what's in the 25-26 transmission plan that we just had approved by the board a week ago, In those time frames, the load increase that the CEC has increased, it's probably about, the data center load is about one-third of. By 2035, the load forecast for the KISO system has been forecast to increase by about 15 gigawatt by 2035, by 20 gigawatt in the 2040 time frame. And by the 2035 to 2040, it's about 4.9 gigawatt, which is included as data center load within the CEC's load forecast that they develop as part of their IPER forecast for the state of California.

Great. And would I assume correctly that as this continues to roll out that we're going to see more and more of these projects wanting to be able to be pushed into communities? Is that correct?

I I can't in terms of respond as to in terms of it depends on where those locate. We have had a significant amount of the data center load growth being in the Greater Bay Area, the south of Greater Bay Area, and we have transmission projects that have been identified to support the load growth in that area where data center is a component of it.

And what are the energy sources that are stemming to be able to utilize that energy?

The energy resources are the resources that make up in terms of within the portfolio of the IRP that is designed to meet the load growth and the locations where they have identified those renewable development. So is that wind?

What kind of energy is being sourced to utilize that?

In a lot of ways, a lot of the resources like you identified in terms of in the portfolio make up a lot of it is either solar, storage, or wind are a large component of the resources that are identified.

Okay, thank you. Council Member Stewart, I believe you have a question.

Yeah, so I'm just going to say this. The Temecula Valley is a high wind corridor, and it's coming straight through where these transmission lines are supposed to go through. So that is another consideration, but that's not what I'm... Solar production. I mean, there's so many homes with solar on their houses right now. I'm having trouble understanding how the need for additional power is so great unless it is for data centers. And just the fact that the energy efficiency of everything from refrigerators to air conditioning units have gone so well that, again, I'm having trouble understanding this additional power need that, and to Mayor Pro Tem's point, this, we have become basically the... dumping ground to supply power for San Diego County, high density areas along the coast. It has really nothing to do, when you say California grid security, that's along the coast. When it comes out to here, we're producing a lot of that electricity on our houses. You don't go into Los Angeles and find a whole lot of solar systems. But out here in the valleys where we get sun intensely, there's a lot of people with a lot of solar producing a lot of electricity. So that's where it's not making any sense to me that you want to put it through Temecula for grid security and for... Los Angeles and Orange County, and San Diego County. Honestly, that's where it's all going. That's what San Onofre did produce, all that power. Why don't they re... reuse San Onofre. There's ways to create nuclear energy now in smaller nuclear reactors that are incredibly safe, uses totally different radioactive material, and can actually be reused. So why are we looking that route instead of And it's, to me, that's security. A nuclear power plant is way more security than some solar or wind farm. And so that's what I don't quite understand is, I don't understand the load that you're talking about keeping increasing, increasing, unless it's for data centers. That's the only thing that makes any sense. I...

I will leave a lot of that in terms of discussion with the California Energy Commission within their IRP process. They do develop the forecast, and like I say, it is looking out into a 10- to 15-year time horizon. They do do an hourly as they look at the profile. That is one of the things that... that is shifting, and as you look at the solar, the peak shifts has shifted to later hours. As we look at things of the, in terms of just fuel switching and electrification and electric vehicle requirements, those are driving a significant amount of the load growth that is within the California Energy Commission's load forecast. And those impacts on the profile are driving those needs for the requirements. It also drives, especially the changing of the profiles, the resource portfolio and resource mix that the CPUC develops as part of their integrated resource portfolio or plan. And the question in regards to nuclear would be one I would suggest that you bring up and participate within the CPUC's IRP because that's not a component that we're responsible for with regards to the resource planning and, like I say, the inclusion end of specific resource types. But I would encourage you to participate in the CPUC's IRP process.

I do have a quick follow up on the whole solar because I do know now that there is almost no solar going on anybody's houses right now without batteries. And so that solar, that load that, like you said, has shifted to the evening, I totally agree with you. It is. But we're using our own power at that point. We're using the battery power we've stored up in our batteries to charge our cars. So again, it doesn't make sense what you're saying as far as the load increase in the evening. Because if we're producing our solar power, and then we're storing it, and we're probably still shoving some back into the grid on top of that. So again, but I don't want to belabor it.

And I will just, like I say, encourage you, and we can provide you links directly to the CEC's load forecast. They do forecast, and there is a significant distributed generation behind the meter solar. as well as growing as to storage that they do incorporate into their load forecast and into the profiles that they develop. Basically, like I say, as they develop an 8760, forecast for every year out 15 years that is incorporating the growth of behind the meter solar as well as storage and the impacts of the profiles to come up with the load forecast. But like I say, we can provide you with some links to the CEC's load forecast information if you would like.

All right, thank you very much. And I believe Council Member Kalfas.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. To go back to an original question that you had a few minutes ago, talking about the tribal communities, I just want to touch on that real quick before we move forward. First off, is it fair to say that SDG&E has traversed through tribal communities in the past? And if so, you talked about mitigating the impacts. What were some of those mitigations that you had with the impacts? Good question. And did they include whether to the sovereign land or public land that you've traversed in the past or private land paying a one-time fee or recurring fee to the owners of those lands? So the mitigation to the impacts through tribal communities and has SDG&E paid impact fees, if you will, to those communities once you traversed them?

I don't know. I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to. I will say we have facilities that are on or near our tribal partners' land throughout our service territory. So we have easements and leases from them. So we pay them for the right-of-way that we use. Different locations, different infrastructure, different places are structured differently.

But there are leases out there between SDG&E, tribal communities?

We do have right of way with tribal communities, yes.

Do you have right of way leases with any public or private entities as well?

I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head. We'd have to get back to you on that.

Yes, please get back to us. And if so, I know I speak on behalf of the Temecula community when I say that Temecula is not for sale.

I'll take that for 200. All right. Any other questions? Yes, sir.

Just on the alternatives analysis, you mentioned CEQA. Is NEPA... going to be required as well for the project?

Yeah, you mentioned BLM land earlier, Bureau of Land Management. So the substation in Imperial Valley is almost entirely surrounded by land that's managed by BLM. And so we will likely, no matter which way we go, need right-of-way from them, and that would trigger review under the Federal Environmental Review Act.

So under federal, unlike CEQA, federal requires a much more rigorous alternatives analysis.

It is different than the state review, yes.

Yeah. Well, not just different. I mean, it's actually referred to as the heart of environmental impact statement in the regulation itself. And so just starting off this project, you've provided an alternative, which I'm assuming is the preferred alternative at this point. But... you create these alternatives based on the project description. What is the need? What are we trying to accomplish with this project? And then you back into, historically, you would back into different potential solutions to meet that objective. But I still don't have a clear objective of what it is CPUC or anybody is trying to to accomplish under this scenario, but my bigger concern is that we've seen these maps We've seen these alignments you say oh, this is just preliminary and we're here to talk But clearly time has gone into both the bid the proposal the acceptance and the situation we're in now with that line and My concern is is we're starting off the at least from a federal perspective the NEPA process absent the kind of alternatives analysis that one would expect under that scenario.

The NEPA process has not begun yet, much like CEQA has not begun either. But there will be a robust alternatives analysis, as you identified. The NEPA review is agency-specific. Policies have changed in the last couple of years. And so BLM has their own guidance about how they will conduct NEPA review, including alternatives analysis. obviously provide data and information to the agency as they do that. But that will be part of the process, and that has not begun yet.

So, and I guess that's why, why even have a map at this point? Right. I mean, if the alternatives analysis is supposed to be rigorous, including the no project alternative, that's supposed to be analyzed at the same level as any of the other alternatives. So we're not seeing that conversation at all, and we're not seeing any rigorous review of any of the other alternatives, including the several that were presented to CalISO in the bid process. So I'm... You know, I'm just saying it concerns me that we're backing into this, at least from a NEPA perspective, in the wrong direction. And you're already presenting, you know, and we're here today talking about, you know, the preferred alternative in essence.

So I think I mentioned this earlier. Usually we don't come out this early with a map for the reasons that you're talking about right now. But we wanted to have early discussion with stakeholders, with community members, with local jurisdictions to understand what the preferred route should be, what our proposal should be to these agencies, and then also what alternatives should be evaluated and studied. That's part of this public engagement process. That is our goal. We aren't backing into anything. Those processes haven't started yet. But when we had some early discussions with stakeholders, what we heard over and over again was, We don't have anything to react to. This is a huge geographic area that you need to cover that Kaiso identified in the transmission plan. It would be helpful to us to see a map so we can react to it and give you feedback. And then additional alternatives development flows from there. And so that's part of what we're responding to in this process.

So I'll just end on a couple of quick things. So if what we're describing from the environmental perspective, cultural perspective, community perspective, economics, so forth, is not appropriate for our our community specifically um then then why not just take an eraser and you know align that thing along a different corridor or something where we're able to have a i think a more fair conversation about this because what you've done is you've come to temecula there's been some hiccups in the public outreach and marketing campaign here um and and i'm just trying to figure out like it there's probably there probably was a better way of of handling the rollout of this to have a more fair balanced and I think transparent conversation on this.

I can assure you our goal is to have that transparent conversation. That is genuinely what we're trying to do. And hearing your impacts and feedback is loud and clear. We're hearing that. Obviously no decisions have been made. No final route has been identified. And ultimately it is the CPUC that decides that route. And so All of the public impact information and feedback is part of the process and will be both received by us as well as by the agencies that are involved. And so that is how you continue that public transparent process. Make sure that your information, your data, your perspective, your very strong opinions are all part of that record. That's the goal. And that will be factored in for the decision makers when they ultimately determine if it will be built and where it will be built.

But you hold a lot of the cards right now. And for those decision makers, giving them an alignment that does not include the city of Temecula is fully within your purview at this point, right?

No decisions have been made. Not even our final proposal has been identified. That is what we are trying to get information on. in this public outreach process.

Well, we would appreciate continuing that dialogue. I also want to just close the loop on the 500 KV fire risk piece real quick. CPUC's own publications, including multiple EIRs, and I'm just reading from one. I know I've read this somewhere before, and I know it's in a lot of the documents that we've reviewed. ignition sources related to construction operation of new 500 KV circuit would have a very high potential to ignite wildfire surrounding the corridor. This is the CPUC's, I'm not looking for a response because clearly you have a company in line on this.

I don't know if you use Google or AI for that, but really very carefully I said that you can start any extreme wildfire. Excuse me, nobody's asking you to speak right now.

Okay, well thank you. Yeah, why don't you sit down. I will do that, thank you. This is the California Public Utility Commission's own document and own publication making those. This is not a Google or an AI search. This is a qualified response from somebody who spent 20 years doing research in wildfire and urban interface fires. Sir, what you're saying is just patently wrong in the state of California. Do not speak. Well, if you're going to call the state of California, the state of California would disagree with you.

Sir, if you could do me a favor, sir, started a major wildfires.

What I said, we can all go back and check the records. We're done. Construction could start ignition. A major wildfire hasn't happened.

Let's get our facts right, sir. Listen, sir, we're just trying to be able to have dialogue. So can you please just I understand that you have your opinion. Our mayor pro tem is sitting here as an expert as well, being able to share. I'm looking right at his computer, exactly the document that he's talking about. So let's just, I know this is very tense. Let's give each other the ability to have that conversation completely. I appreciate you. Thank you guys for answering so far. Anything else? Okay. I've got two more and then we're going to open it up. All right, we've talked about a lot of things. I want to say first off, thank you very much for our County Board of Supervisors, Chuck Washington, for being here, because this is actually going to land right in his backyard. Temecula's and our region's economy thrives on our world-class wine, country, and massive tourism industry that brings millions of dollars into our local businesses and schools. Can SDG&E show us any definitive evidence after you finalize your project that turning our scenic landscape and our homes into an industrial power corridor will not permanently wipe out the asset value of our local tourism economy?

I'm going to give you another unsatisfying answer on this one, because we don't know where the routing will be.

We cannot speak to specific values. Can I ask you a question? I don't want to interrupt, but have you guys done these before? I would assume you guys have some type of data or have done a little bit of preeminent, just a little bit of, what's the word I'm looking for? Thank you. Information on this. And I know you're sitting there. You're by yourself. Trust me. I get it. But you see the importance to our community. And I'm just here to tell you. To be in this position as the mayor and to sit with incredible council members and a community that does not want to see the destruction of our city, I need to have more factual information to understanding how you guys coming in are not going to destroy everything that's been built over decades of time and to be able to destroy businesses, tourism, families, and schools. Please help me understand that.

I hear you and appreciate what you're saying. I think the challenge is that valuations and damages are very location specific, property specific, use specific. And so to have more specific information, We need to know those things. And so that is part of the process when we have more specific information and we understand what the impacts are. We can work with property owners before a decision has been made to understand what visual impacts might be, to understand what, from their perspective, the damages are that they might suffer. But we don't, I can't speak to that specifically now. I certainly wouldn't want to be inaccurate or make any guesses.

And I appreciate that. But can you understand? We asked you guys to come. Yes, I hear you. This is our second time that I'm here with you. And I'm still hearing the same information. We don't have it. And I get that. But I would hope that you guys can continue to bring the information. Because you guys even said, you know what questions we're going to ask. You stated that. You know what questions we're going to ask, and so you wanted to prepare yourself. Then why are you guys not prepared for these questions? These are very simple questions.

You earlier asked me, or one of the other council members asked me about why it doesn't feel like we're very early in the process, but we are, and this is part of how I can show you that we are so early in the development that we don't have that specific information. We need to know parcels, location, siting, to be able to answer it. And so that is genuinely a demonstration of how early this development is. But hearing from you all is part of that development process. And as it advances and as we get additional stakeholder feedback and we do know parcel numbers and there is noticing of additional public meetings and a regulatory agency process, more of that information would be available and developed.

And do you guys have a mapping or some sort, and I hope you guys have this, of the impact region or area as far as how far out either animals, vegetation, anything is impacted from the point of those power lines? What does that look like?

We are currently conducting surveys on habitats, presence of species. There's a lot of desktop information that's available, so we're reviewing.

I'm sorry, ma'am. I mean in general. So you guys have done these before.

Yeah, we do have the layers of data on.

What does that look like? So if I have your tower and I sit there in my backyard, How far, because I can see those towers depending upon where they're going through that corridor, and I know plenty of other people here can as well, how do I know that those are or are not going to affect my home or any of the residents or businesses or schools around there? What is the impact zoning area?

We do not have specific structure siting. But when we do, that will be part of the visual or aesthetics impact that is steadied.

Any of my other council members have anything on this one? This last question? I got one more.

Yes, please. Just on that question, Mayor, in regards to, and we haven't really hit on it, the EMFs, the electromagnetic fields.

Thank you.

And I know there's various studies by many different agencies out there, and there's a great debate on the long-term health effects and health concerns in regards to the EMFs. Would you or have you committed to an independent, publicly available measurements of before and after construction of said EMFs on these extra high-voltage towers?

California is one of the absolute best states for managing that illness or concern. has been that way for more than 30 years. All the utilities in the state are required to do exactly what you ask for on a daily basis, even around any existing lines. And so yes, for this new one, there will be before and after and a study directly to anybody's home to what that impact from EMFs would be. In general, most states do not even offer any EMF measurements anymore because of the minimal impact.

And that will be done. Thank you. And those studies you're referencing are publicly available, is that correct?

Yeah, I don't think in the United States there's a clear standard for it. I think that's the reason why you hear some debate. I think it originally originated in Europe maybe 40 years ago, 35 years ago. But in all the studies here in the United States, we've not ever landed upon an exact number. And it's not uncommon for somebody to move into a new home. see a power line in their backyard to call a utility and ask them to come out and measure that. And then we actually have professionals who go out there and measure that and sit down with a homeowner and actually show them what the EMS are at their property and give them other things to show what that might compare to. But that's routine every day.

And with that being said, with all of them that have been out there in California, is there an average EMFs or is there the ratio that we're looking for before there's zero and then after? Do we know that number on how much these emit?

I don't know the exact. It does come down to the distance, but rapidly when you get 100 feet away from any of the large power lines, they're pretty much near background noise. Thank you.

Any other council members about health risks or concerns? Stu? You good?

Okay.

All right. With that, I would like to open it here up to the rest of my council members for other questions. I know we've been able to get questions in and out, but I think there's a little probably more specific questions. I'll just say this before I finish. I really hope that your concern is more about the people rather than your power lines. I really do. Because in our position, it is my honor and duty to put people over power lines every day. And this will not look good in our city, and nor do I ever want something like this. I'll open up to the rest of the council members.

Yeah, I don't have any other questions to talk about. I think we've hit on most of the points. I would really just ask that y'all take this meeting seriously, take it into consideration, recognize that this community is unique in a lot of respects. And in fact, I kind of want to thank you all for doing this because this is the reason why I moved to Temecula 17 years ago. This community has a remarkable spirit and a remarkable way of coming together. And surprisingly, in the middle of all the political upheaval and disagreements we can have on a whole variety of issues, This, much like Liberty Quarry, is uniting our community in a way that I haven't seen in a very long time. And you really have to watch the documentary that was produced by Pechanga on Liberty Quarry. Do some digging into this because you will see this community will give you a run for your money unlike any other. And so, My hope and question to you all is that you take this seriously, you take this back to the state of California to have them understand what it is they're getting into, but also just take into consideration the cost for municipalities like ours, the tribe, the community, and all the dedicated folks who will see this thing through to the end, and say there's a better way to do this, and it's not through the city of Temecula.

All right, we've got a couple more questions. I'm going to send it over to Councilman Zach Schwenk.

Thank you very much. So maybe just a few comments and sort of like open-ended questions. Maybe I'll start with the questions first. So, you know... Like was mentioned, you know, this is the beginning of this process, although it certainly feels like we're at the home stretch. I've been looking at the grid. I mean, it's a complex grid, right? There's just no way around, you know, looking at the electric grid and getting power to and from. you know, everyone. I was looking at data centers is a big one, EVs is another big one, right? So we need to think about, you know, some of the impacts that aren't necessarily associated with some of those things. My concern is, you know, the alternatives. Like we haven't talked about a lot of alternatives, right? And so hopefully through this process we can look at alternatives and, you know, upgrading existing infrastructure. We talked about more localized power generation and things like that. So, you know, just know we're ready for this fight. We're ready to start in earnest in this. But I don't want it to come off as we're just being nimby, right? Like it's just not in our backyard. I'm sure you build into this process. You know there's probably not a community you go to that says, oh, can we have a 500 KV line run through our community? You already know this is a problem, right? And so I will fight for Temecula, 100%. But I'll also fight for Murrieta. I'll fight for San Diego County. I grew up in East, in San Diego, in the mountains in Julian and San Diego, and so I have friends in the desert. Ansabrigo State Park is a beautiful, beautiful, culturally rich, environmentally sensitive landscape that I will fight for as well. So there's not a, for me, there's not a better alignment it you know it's thinking about um impacts to our community of course and that's why i'm sitting here and i'm going to fight for it like i said and everyone up here is and everyone in the audience and everyone in the conference center and everyone watching online um mayor protem mentioned you know just the fact that this has brought the community together um This is your first meeting you ever attended, but I talk a lot about building community. Hey, this is great. We're building community. We're getting folks to come out and be part of the community. It's really important, and I think Temecula sort of speaks to that. So I'll sort of wrap up with that. I really want us to truly think through alternatives. I'm looking at... You know, the cost-effective way to this, California is already paying significantly higher energy rates than the national average, and I don't understand how this project will lower rates. It's certainly not going to lower already insane rates, and the cost of living is already through the roof. So I'll stop there for now.

Great questions. Thank you very much for that. Any other questions directly from Council Member Kalfas, please?

One question in regards to alternatives. We haven't hit on it. Can you just discuss underground, undergrounding these wires and what that process looks like? Because we talk about there's no good route to send these high voltage lines through. Can you just walk us through what SDG&E has done in regards to undergrounding?

I'm sure that could be something to get studied as part of the ultimate project. It could be interveners, stakeholders ask for that. On a general scale, overhead lines are somewhere around $15 million a mile. A direct bearing underground for 500 kV might be 150 or 160 And that's just based on something I think that Edison has a project that they're moving forward with. The thing with undergrounding, of course, is the massive disturbance that it actually takes to get them underground, right, as well. And so it won't be something that will be dismissed. It'll be something that'll be studied. Its relative cost impact could be significantly against the project, though.

But it will be studied. Thank you very much. That's all, Mayor.

All righty. Thank you for that question. Stu?

Yeah, I, you know, for me, it's all about alternate routes. And I really, really, and I understand you guys are in the early process, and I understand why we feel like you're not, but it sounds like you are. So I'm giving you that credit that, you know, what you say is true. So the Temecula Valley is too beautiful, too nice, too everything to disturb, like, like is planned. So if you can reach down and figure out an alternative route that skates by us, that's what I want to see. But anyways, that was my.

All righty, at this point in time, that ends council questions. We are now going to be moving to public comments. All right, we are going to take a break, but let's keep rolling with it.

Yes, Madam Mayor, as a reminder, at the beginning, I do have approximately, well, I'll just say over 100 comments. So I'm going to go ahead and read two names at a time so folks can go ahead and come on over from the conference center as well as the patio. I think both of those spaces are full. And each speaker will have one minute. If you have heard something that someone else has said, you might want to go ahead and focus on something else. Your one minute starts when you literally start speaking, and the podium clock will show you exactly how much time you have left. And I will just keep calling the names so that we can just roll as quickly as possible.

If I could just let everybody know, I understand that there have been individuals who were expecting or have written speeches three to five minutes long. Again, this is for us to be able to make sure that every single one of you, 100 plus, get heard today. That is our goal. I want SDG&E... CPOC, all of them to be able to hear what you have to say here in our city and whether you are for or against this project. So thank you for that.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Okay, with that, the first speaker will be Shalini Renfro, to be followed by Rachel Allen, to be followed by Paradise Barona.

Good to see you, ma'am. Haven't seen you in a while.

It's good to be back. I wish it were under different circumstances. Honorable mayor and city council members, my name is Shalini Renfro, or Shal. I am one of the co-founders of the newly formed coalition Save Temecula, Fight the Power Link. Our two-week-old petition to stop SDG&E currently has over 6,000 signatures. Multitudes of residents are rising up and voicing the many ways SDG&E's plan would devastate our community. It's important to note that this decision does not need to wait for the CPUC. We get to decide it here, tonight, when our city commits to immediately invest the financial and other resources necessary to win this fight. We are at a pivotal moment now during the preliminary routing and planning stage. And that is your time. Your time is up.

The next speaker is Rachel Allen to be followed by Paradise Verona to be followed by Patricia Granja. So Rachel Allen followed by Paradise Verona.

Thank you for coming.

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Rachel Allen, and I'm a local realtor here in Temecula. I work directly with families who choose this community because of its beauty. Constructing massive 500 kV transmission towers through Temecula Creek will absolutely impact South Temecula and surrounding communities. Families do not move here to stare at 200-foot industrial transmission towers outside their homes. I also have serious concerns about wildfire exposure and insurance availability. We're in the middle of a California insurance crisis, with rates rising and insurers pulling out of high-risk areas altogether. So I have to ask, did SDG&E, CASO, and the CPUC fully evaluate this proposed route against Southern California's high fire severity zones, the Temecula Wind Corridor, and the earthquake fault zones? So why should Temecula bear the visual impacts, wildfire concerns, and economic consequences while receiving no benefit from this project? I will add the investigation of the famous Eaton Fire is pointing to failed transmission equipment. Thank you. Your time is up.

The next speaker is Paradise Verona, to be followed by Patricia Branca, to be followed by Charlie Coe. Good evening.

Hello. Hi there. Thanks for having me so much. So whether you've lived here for 30 years or just moved here, Today's decisions affect all of us the same way. So thank you for having me. My name is Paradis Barona. I'm here as a resident, a parent, and someone who truly loves Temecula. My family chose here, like many of you, for the beauty. And that identity took years protecting. And we have welcomed over 3.4 million visitors just last year and generated over 1 billion in tourism. And that's because We value the opportunity to welcome folks into this beautiful valley. Now imagine these towers. It's going to disrupt so many different local businesses, so much of our community. And wildfire concerns are immensely real here. In my own lifetime, there's been 3,600 California wildfires linked to utility equipment and transmission systems. And so I just wanted to leave that. I know that there's a lot of folks wanting to speak. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

Next is Patricia Bronsha, to be followed by Charlie Coe, to be followed by John Hicks.

Good evening, Patricia.

Good evening. Thank you for having me. Location and distance to these electric lines matter. These lines cause electromagnetic interference by electrical fields, magnetic fields, and corona discharge. That's the buzzing sound you hear around them. Comparing a 500k volt electrical wire to a microwave is negligent, and that's what you said during your meetings. There have been numerous destructive fires tied to power lines. I can name a few. Dixie Fire, Zog Fire, the Caldivore Fire, the Lecter Fire, the Camp Fire, and so on. Please quit trying to gaslight us. These lines will be emitting electricity 24-7. We are in a fire zone on a personal level. I have been evacuated. I was evacuated with the Samantha Fire. There's no way for us to escape. On a personal level, I will no longer be able to view the luscious surrounding. I'm by the creek bed. I will no longer be able to hear the frogs croaking at night that I fall asleep with. and the birds chirping. I urge you to find a better path.

That is your time, ma'am.

Thank you.

Charles Coe, to be followed by John Hicks, to be followed by Dennis Long.

And just to let you know, if you have not spoken here before, there is a timer right in front of you that gives you a countdown. Once it hits red, you know you're kind of in that 10, 15-second mark. So just to let you know, sir. Thank you for coming.

Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council Members. My name is Charles Coe. I've lived with my wife near Temecula Creek Inn for... 33 years, and it's a lovely place. Matt Rum mentioned the Liberty Quarry a while ago, and I spoke against that quarry many, many times, and in fact, I'm even in their video. And I'm totally prepared to speak as many times as I need to against this crazy project. In fact, I'm hoping, in fact, I think the city was prepared to sue should the Pechanga Indians not come to the rescue at the 11th hour and saved us by buying the property. There probably is no property they could buy to save us this time. So it's on us. We've got to make it happen. And just an observation, I think we've heard a bunch of politicians tonight, not people who really mean what they say. Thanks.

Thank you very much, sir, for your time.

John Hicks, to be followed by Dennis Long, to be followed by Brene Carter.

Thank you for coming, sir.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of council and city staff. I'll take my minute just to say one thing. I open my personal phone and information up to either one of you that sit on this committee and anybody else in the city of Temecula. I'm in a unique position to be able to answer every single question that, unfortunately, Southern California Gas and Electric was not able to answer. I have it right here. I was one of those that was going to come in with a five-minute speech that can tell you that Riverside County as a whole will be holding the burden on its population in the number of 81% to 87%. And in respect to community unhoused associates, I have exhibits. In order for you to understand what they're trying to accomplish, you have to understand how power companies deal with energy trading, power trading, power procurement, and energy procurement. I happen to know how that works. So any of you that have a question, I will leave my number with staff, and I can talk to you all directly. And then I would welcome another opportunity to come here and actually give you a presentation.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker is Dennis Long.

Yes, please. If you can leave your information, we'd be happy to get a hold of you, sir. Thank you for coming up.

The next speaker is Dennis Long, to be followed by Renee Carter, to be followed by Jared Schlescher.

Thank you, Dennis.

Good evening. Thank you for letting me come. This is my speech that I prepared. My wife proofread it. Now I have to go off script. I'm a father of three. My daughter gave us two grandchildren, and my two sons are Eagle Scouts. This is an over $2 billion project, 150 mile in length, correct? My son's EGLE projects were about $1,000, and they needed to come in under budget. You're not in budget when you're passing off the cost to 9%. Let me help you with your study. Leave Temecula now. Thank you.

Thank you, sir, for your comments. Next speaker is Renee Carter, to be followed by Jared Slusser, to be followed by Lawrence Slusser.

Who was that first one?

Renee Carter. Renee Carter. Renee Carter.

Renee, raise your hand if you're coming in.

Renee Carter. Okay, we're going to move on. Jared Slessor. Jared Slessor to be followed by Lawrence Slessor.

Jared by Lawrence. Okay, there we go. We've got two Slessors in here. Sounds good.

Mayor Alexander and the Temecula City Council, my name is Jared Slusser. For the past 16 years, I've worked in the energy sector. I spent a decade working on energy efficiency programs for the major utilities like SDG&E, SCE, IID, the gas company, and so on. Six years ago, I started a company called Transform Power. We install solar, and we're based locally here in Temecula. The most important factor that I believe we're overlooking is that the utility company does not need the power that these lines are meant to carry. Over the last three years, 3433 megawatts of solar have been installed in SDG&E and SCE territory. That's an average of 1144 megawatts per year. This proposed project is meant to carry 1500 megawatts of power. At our current pace in SDG&E and SCE territory, solar installers will have installed 8,000 megawatts of solar paired with batteries by the project completion date of 2032. These solar installations will provide double the amount of power these lines are meant to bring.

And that's your time, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you for coming in, though. And Larry, I would assume that was your son? Sorry.

Larry Slusser, to be followed by Melanie Neiman, to be followed by Adam Ruiz.

Madam Mayor, and should I say Dr. Mayor, thank you, and members of the council, I want to thank you for looking out for us. I really appreciate it. We all appreciate it. And what I'd like to say is just make sure we need it. Try to hold their feet to the fire. Make sure that we can't accomplish it with what Mayor Stu said, batteries. I understand the problem between 5 o'clock in the afternoon and 9 o'clock. But I think batteries could take care of that. The next thought is, as Mayor Koff has said, how about undergrounding? So it's only five miles in the city. Why not have that undergrounded? And lastly, if you see that beautiful graphic behind you, the city medallion, we don't want to have high transmission lines going through our emblem. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Larry. Good to see you. Next speaker is Melanie Neiman, to be followed by Adam Ruiz, to be followed by Christopher Bailey.

Good evening, ma'am. Thank you for coming.

Good afternoon, Mayor Anderson, City Council, and staff. My name is Melanie Neiman. I live on Loma Linda Road near Garter Middle School. My home border is the Temecula Creek Basin. Last week, I received a letter from SDG&E Notifying me to expect a field crew to access my property as soon as May 18th and possibly multiple visits over the next 18 months. I received this letter in my mailbox on May 21st. Questions. Why did I receive the notice? And why was it so late? How many other residents received this letter? And where are their properties located? How exactly could this project affect the resident properties that received this letter? What are your plans for mitigation? How could I possibly even sell my home today or for the next 18 months or whenever this is settled? I'm opposed to the SDG&E project anywhere in Temecula. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

The next speaker is Adam Ruiz, to be followed by Christopher Bailey, to be followed by Eric Schwartz.

Adam Ruiz, thank you for coming with your expertise.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Well, now evening, I guess, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Adam Ruiz, and I'm here on behalf of the Temecula Advocacy Coalition, which is a partnership of Visit Temecula Valley, Old Town Temecula Association, and the Temecula Valley Wine Grower Association. TACRETS represents the organizations at the core of this region's visitor economy, and today we're asking the City Council to formally oppose the proposed route of the project. We want to be clear. We understand the need for infrastructure, and that's not what we're opposing. What we're opposing is this specific route, which would run a 500 kV transmission towers directly across State Route 79, Vail Lake, Galway Downs, the Deportola Wine Trail, and the Temecula Parkway Corridor. That is the heart of wine country. That's what visitors come here to see. Tourism generates more than $1 billion in annual economic impact for this region. That economy is not separate from the landscape. It is the landscape. And once you put industrial transmission infrastructure across those viewsheds, you cannot undo it. Running out of time here. We left a more detailed written comment. Look forward to continue to work with you guys. Thank you.

Thank you very much, sir.

Christopher Bailey, to be followed by Eric Schwartz, to be followed by Lori Holsey. Mr. Bailey, good to see you.

Good evening. Truncated statement here also. So good evening, honorable mayor and members of the city council. On behalf of Visit Temecula Valley, we stand in opposition to the proposed route of San Diego Gas and Electric's golden Pacific power link through our region. Temecula Valley's tourism and agricultural economies depend on the natural beauty of our landscapes. The introduction of 500 kilowatt kilovolt Transmission towers across State Route 79, Vale Lake, Galway Downs, and the Temecula Parkway corridors threaten the scenic character that draws millions of visitors each year. This route also poses unacceptable wildfire risk, placing high-voltage overhead lines in high-severity fire zones near our vineyards, businesses, workforce, and visitors. While infrastructure expansion may be necessary, this project should account for the $1 billion economic impact created by local tourism and follow a route that does not damage the viewscape and ambiance of Temecula Valley. We urge the City Council to demand alternative corridors. Thank you, sir.

Eric Schwartz to be followed by Lori Holsey.

Hey, guys, remember, thumbs up, thumbs down. I know we're very excited, so we can just keep it moving. Thank you guys for all of your comments so far.

So again, Eric Schwartz. to be followed by Lori Holsey, to be followed by Robert Quaid.

Good evening. My name is Eric. I live in Morgan Hill along the Temecula Creek. There's little doubt in my mind that the proposed route of the Golden Pacific Power Link will have detrimental effects on Temecula's economy, home values, and safety. Fire risk is not theoretical or hyperbole. Two years ago in Morgan Hill, June 24, we had a fire that was successfully mitigated by CAL FIRE. aviation assets. I'm not convinced that the power lines will not be encumbered to the aircraft. A deluge from 50 feet is much more effective than a fine mist.

Sorry, can you pause this time for one second? I'm so sorry, everybody. We're trying to hear if we can just keep it down a little bit. Thank you so much. Go ahead, sir.

Dropping for effect from 50 feet is going to be much better than a fine mist from 200 feet. Additionally, sometimes we get a stray hot air balloon right up behind my fence. It's pretty cool. My dog goes crazy, but those power lines will definitely be a risk to those pilots. Thank you very much.

We appreciate your comment. Thank you.

Lori Holsey, to be followed by Robert Quaid, to be followed by...

There are many more residents who strongly oppose this project but are unable to attend this due to work schedules, family responsibilities, and other obligations. Please understand that the number of people presented at this meeting do not reflect the true level of concern throughout this community. Many hardworking families or residents want their voices heard and share these same concerns about safety, health, fire risk, and preserving Temecula's identity. Many residents feel and long-term impacts have been adequately addressed, including environmental concerns.

And above all else, as a teacher, if I came to a job and gave the data you guys gave, I'd be fired.

Thank you.

Robert Quaid, again, Robert Quaid, to be followed by, I think it's Ed Gersow, to be followed by Samantha Nguyen. Good afternoon, neighbor.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the council. Yes, let's be clear. I think the routing of these lines had something to do with the city's best friend, Governor Gavin Newsom, and his cronies up in this PUC, particularly for all the years that we've supported him. But the point is, this is like having, we are the only area outside of SDG&E's service area that is getting these lines. That would be like my neighbor who owns two houses next to me with wanting to build a dog walk across my property so his dogs can get back and forth. Well, all I have to say to Gavin Newsom and the whole program running this through our city, keep your dog walk.

Thank you very much. Ed Gersow? I think it's Ed Gersow. Okay. Samantha Nguyen. Mike Flora. Kathy Sizemore. Okay, I'm going to read all these names again. Renee Carter. Oh, coming up. Kathy, go ahead and come on up.

I'm slow, but I'm coming.

Okay. Great to see you, Ms. Kathy. Come on up.

All right, in 2022, I had the privilege of being a member of the committee that updated our Quality of Life Master Plan, the document that governs our city. I helped to write the QLMP, and this project violates it. Core value number one commits to hardening our community against wildfire. This project runs 500... Kilovolt lines through a high severity wildfire zone. Core value four commits to protecting wine country from urban encroachment. Core value five envisions a city surrounded by unscarred natural terrain. This project scars it. Core value six says that the city's strength is its people. A whole bunch of them are here today, so... Let me just say that this project doesn't serve a single home in Temecula. All of the risk, none of the watts. Yeah, one thing, I've lived in Temecula 20, 30 years. We don't back down. We're forced to be reckoned with. Thank you, ma'am.

All right, our next speaker.

I'm going to go ahead and just play these cards one more time. And if you are here, please come on up. Renee Carter. Renee Carter. Renee Carter. OK. Renee Carter. OK. Ed Gersow. Ed Gersow. OK. Samantha Nguyen. Samantha Nguyen. OK. Mike Flora.

Wait, there's some people coming through the back. Can you say the name one more time?

Yeah. I'm happy to say the names one more time. Renee Carter. Ed Gersow. Samantha Nguyen. Mike Flora. Okay. Chris Sizemore to be followed by Dax Snyder. Keep going through Chris. Okay. Dax Snyder to be followed by Erin Dornan.

She'll be back.

Can we? All right. Jim Niderrecker. Jim.

Wonderful.

Welcome, Jim, to be followed by Edward Hubler and Amar Kampnijar.

Good afternoon, sir. Good to see you as always.

It's actually good evening. I believe the proposed transmission line poses a real safety threat despite studies claiming there are no causation between EMF exposure and cancer or leukemia. A study conducted at Slater Elementary School in Fresno, California, located near high-voltage transmission lines, reported 13 cases of cancer or Over 19 years, the expected number of cases was only 3.2. That's a 322% increase. At the Montecito Union School, there were six childhood cancers in seven years. That was 15 times the expected rate. At 200 feet beyond the right-of-way, the approximate magnetic field is 5 to 20 milligauss. The exposure in those schools was 3 to 5 milligauss. So all the homes south of the creek and the businesses north of the creek are going to get 5 to 20 milligauss approximately. That's totally unacceptable. The data in those schools demonstrates... That is your time, sir. It's not a good idea.

Thank you very much.

Okay. It's either Dax or Dan Snyder. Come on up, sir.

Good evening, sir. Thank you for coming.

Good evening. Mayor, council, neighbors, and also... I'm here right now as a representative for the Red Hawk Community Association. We've got several, if not many, complaints and concerns about this project. We put together a letter and we sent it off to everyone in the association and we mailed a copy to the council for your review. Basically, we're very much opposed to this for a number of reasons that have been spoken so far and uh... mostly the uh... property values whether you direct site it affects everyone drop affects everyone in comparison the environmental impacts, and also the long-term health implications. Whether they're proven or not, they're still perceived, and that means something. Myself, Don R. Snyder, I'm the president.

And that's your time, sir. Thank you. I appreciate you very much for coming in. Thank you.

Madam Mayor, I'll go ahead and make an announcement at this time. It looks like there are some seats available in the council chambers. If there are individuals in the conference center or in the patio that have filled out speaker cards and would like to speak, please go ahead and make your way over. It looks like there's about 20 seats or so here. And I'm also going to call these cards one last time. Renee Carter. Ed Gersow. Samantha Nguyen. Mike Flora. Chris Sizemore. Okay, those are They have been discontinued, withdrawn. Dax already spoke. Dr. Aaron Dornan. Okay, we will start afresh here. Edward Hubler, to be followed by Soraya Badinia, to be followed by Krista Cheich.

Hello, sir. I spent most of my career as a corporate executive. And whenever we started a project, the first and foremost thing that we talked about was cost. We all know that it's cheaper to come through Temecula than it is to go onto the south side of Mount Palomar down Highway 76. That's the reason that they chose Temecula is because it's going to be a whole lot cheaper for them and the CEOs of the companies can put more money in their pockets.

Thank you very much for your comments.

Soraya? Soraya? Bidinat? Krista Cheitch.

Good evening, Krista.

To be followed by Gabrielle Renfro.

Good evening, mayor and city council members and city staff. My name is Krista Cheitch, and I serve as the executive director for the Temecula Valley Wine Growers Association. I'm here today in opposition to SDG&E's proposed Golden Pacific Parade route through Temecula Valley and our wine country. Temecula Valley Wine Country is more than just a tourism destination. It's an agricultural preserve, an economic engine, and a source of pride for our great community. Families, vintners, and local businesses have spent decades building a world-class wine destination centered around scenic beauty, hospitality, agriculture, and outdoor experiences. Massive industrial towers cutting through our wine region would permanently damage the rural character and visual landscape that attract millions of visitors each year. We respectfully urge the City Council to formally oppose this proposed route and advocate for alternative alignments that avoid Temecula Valley and Temecula Valley wine country. Protecting our region today means protecting its economic sustainability, agricultural heritage, and quality of life for future generations.

And that is your time, ma'am. Thank you for your comment.

Gabrielle Renfro, to be followed by Ross Jackson, to be followed by Michelle Cormack.

Good evening, sir. Long time.

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Gabriel Renfro. First, huge thank you to you for taking the concerns of residents seriously. We are trusting in you to be our heroes. I strongly oppose these monstrous towers that would cut through our neighborhoods, increasing our costs and risking our safety while providing no direct benefit to Temecula residents. Our community is prepared to fight this for as long as it takes, but let's not do this for years. Let's squash this thing now. To SDG&E, you don't want this fight. Temecula is going to stop you every single step of the way. We will drain your time, your money, and your energy. Don't do it. Get out. To my neighbors in the audience, I encourage you to join the Save Temecula Facebook group, which is an activation hub for future activities, to sign the change.org petition, to go door to door and pass out Save Temecula flyers. Get one of these sweet t-shirts and put a sign in your front yard. Woo!

Thank you. All right. Ross Jackson. Ross Jackson. Hi. Welcome, Ross. To be followed by Michelle Cormack. To be followed by Monty Sharp.

Thank you. I know you guys are very excited to hear what they have to say. Remember, let's try a business meeting. All right. But thank you, though. I appreciate your energy.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. My name is Ross Jackson, Secretary of the Board of Temecula Old Town Association. We've heard a number of stories about pros and cons. What we would like to suggest is that simply keep your decisions made with the community's voice in mind and a long-term character of our city remain part of the conversation. On behalf of the President, Julie Knoll, and our board, we would like for you to please oppose this item. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Ross Jackson. Michelle Cormack, to be followed by Monty Sharp, to be followed by Bob Cormack.

Thank you for coming in, Michelle. Good to see you.

Hello, Madam Mayor and our beloved City Council. I want to thank you guys so much for your love for this community, love for the people, your well-informed and well-thought-out questions. I know we are in great hands. It's just that you covered most of what I have, but there's something I want to state. We back up to the creek, our house, and we have measured the distance across from our back fence to the back wall of the homes across the way. It's 600 feet. They say they need a 1,000-foot corridor. We do not have a 1,000-foot corridor there. We also, it's right where the wildlife preserve is. So it's full of trees and shrubs. And we were forced to go on the California Fair Plan this year for our fire insurance. We don't need something else that's going to contribute to that. My own brother lost his home up in Paradise to power line fire, along with 18,000 homes up there. So we just want to thank you guys for having our backs. And SDG&E, we don't trust you. You say so many statements that are very misleading. We are not going to trust you.

Thank you very much. Monty Sharp, to be followed by Bob Cormack, to be followed by Rose Corona.

Mr. Monty Sharp, Pastor, how are you, sir?

I'm great, thank you. Madam Mayor and City Council, we are blessed to have you. SDG&E has said that the cost is basically going to determine the route, but they have not acknowledged the cost to our community. They have not acknowledged the cost to our families, and especially our children, and longevity of life and quality of life. The tower poles and the lines that run right next to the homes of Vail Ranch and Vail Ranch Middle School, to which they argue there is no health problem, yet studies do suggest to the contrary. A 1999 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences report concluded that ELFs and EMFs exposure can not be recognized as being entirely safe. They cannot. So we put our kids at risk. It's like playing Russian roulette with our children's lives. Now, I know that these people would not do that with their children. Why should we have to be forced to do that? In addition to that, our communities being faced with...

Thank you, Monty.

I'm being done. I'm being done.

The next speaker is Bob Cormack. Thank you, sir. Please submit any of your comments into the email. I know you are. The next speaker is Bob Cormack, to be followed by Rose Corona, to be followed by Tim Parks. Hello, Bob. Good to see you.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, City Council. Thank you for your support. I'd like to say that historically in California, half the most destructive fires have been caused by power lines. Why? Because power lines like to use creeks and drainages to install these power lines. Creeks and drainages significantly influence wind-driven wildfires. The proposed power lines are directly targeting the drainage with heavy vegetation that runs throughout our city. Every day, the wind blows through that drainage depending on which type of weather we're having. Here's some examples of these fires. 2018, the Camp Fire, the deadliest in California. history with 85 deaths and 18,000 structures. 2025, the Altadena Fire only burned 14,000 acres but destroyed 9,000 buildings, mostly homes, and killed 19 people. This was an area very much like we live. And in 2021, the Dixie Fire, the largest in California history.

That is your time, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Bob.

I appreciate you.

Rose Corona to be followed by Tim Parks to be followed by Marsha Casso. Ms. Corona, good to see you, ma'am.

It's a lot to get me out here before you start my time. I just would like to thank, as many people know, my family's been here for over 50 years. And it's a long, long time to see a lot of change. And I thank you for all of the work and hard questions that you put together and really did your homework on this. And as somebody who came here when there was 200 people in town, I really appreciate the work you put in, and I wish that SDG&E had done the same. I just will be as quickly as I can. My name is Rose Corona, and many of you may know me and my family as the owners of Big Horse Feed and Mercantile and Corona Ranch on Highway 79, Temecula Parkway, and Butterfield Stage Road. I preface my comments to say, first of all, that I'm not here to speak on behalf of my family. We've owned it for over 50 years, but may or may not be impacted by the potential project, but more so I'm here to speak on behalf of the citizens of this community as a voice who has seen a lot in 50 years. And that's your time, ma'am. Thank you. I'm so sorry.

Tim Parks. Thank you.

Great to see you.

Tim Parks, to be followed by Marsha Caso, to be followed by Linda McDonald.

Just to remind people as well, don't forget you have your timer in front. I know it's a lot. You have so much information you want to share, so thank you.

Go ahead, sir.

Yes, thank you for this moment. Long-time resident since 91. Own a couple properties out here. And I appreciate the health concerns. I appreciate the historical aspect of the city and the blight that it will cause. I don't like the disclaimer, however, that the city has nothing to do. I would hope that our city has a say in this matter, that legally we can go against this, such as the historical value. We mentioned that as far as the Butterfield stage. The real estate values, all of that you've covered today, I appreciate, but I oppose this project. Thank you.

Thank you very much, sir, for your time. Thank you for coming.

Marcia Queso, Marcia Queso, to be followed by Linda McDonald, and then Avalyn Travis.

Hi, Marcia. Hi, good evening. I'm Marcia Caso, and I live in Paloma del Sol for 36 years. don't trust these people I'm sorry I don't there's no clear transparency here as far as I can see and I want you guys to protect our city and I will do as much as I can to protect Temecula I love this city and I don't want these transmission lights coming through It affects our health. It affects our children's health. Something needs to be done. And where are the attorneys of Pechanga Indian? I'm going to go over there and go talk to them. Okay. They need to come here and defend us as well. Okay. Everybody needs as a community to come forward and defend our city. Do not trust these people. Please do not trust them. I beg you. I beg you. That's all I could say.

Thank you, ma'am, for coming. Linda McDonald, to be followed by Avlin Travis, to be followed by Yuan Hawks.

Howdy, Linda McDonald here, 40-year resident. So I've been through this before. This ain't my first rodeo. I fought you guys before when you tried to come through here 25 years ago. We won. Liberty Quarry tried to get in here. We won. So that should be a little bit of a notice to you that we're not going to back down. We will win. And this is the stupidest route I've ever heard of to come through Temecula. Here's something you guys can do. Ordinance. Get an ordinance going, you guys. Declare that no power lines can come through this city. Do it. That's all I got to say.

Thank you, ma'am.

Avlin. Avlin Travis. Hi there. Hi. Hi, Avlin.

Thanks for coming in today.

It's Arlen. Arlen.

Okay. Arlen. I have sloppy handwriting.

No problem, sir. That's why I type.

Thank you for coming.

I typed up my thoughts on the project. I'm semi-retired. I've got 30 years in the business. I spent some time doing projects for San Diego Gas and Electric.

If we could just hear you in the mic so everybody can hear everything you have to say.

So anyway, so hello. Hi, sir. Mayor Alexander, councilmen, fellow residents, guests, I submitted my comments. You have them to be part of the record. I'm available to help out. I helped out on the Valley Rainbow project that we successfully kept out of this valley. And I wanted to mention a couple of things while I'm here. If you look at the Ironwood project, the Ironwood project is a 500 kV line that will come into Imperial Valley to bring wind power. And Horizon Wind is the sponsor of that project.

The next speaker is Yuan Hawks, to be followed by Jim Schloss, to be followed by Michael Farewell. How are you, ma'am? Good.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and council members. My name is Dr. Ewan Hawks. I am a longtime resident, 19 years in Temecula. I'm here to strongly oppose this project. Temecula is a home. It's not a dot on the map, and this project is not a line on the map. I want to urge you to stand with us to protect our home and defend our homeland. And we are here. You see, hundreds of us here, we will stand with you. So please consider to oppose this project and keep our home safe for us and for our future. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

Jim Schloss, to be followed by Michael Farewell, to be followed by Julian Larson.

Thank you for coming in, sir.

Yeah, hi. I'm Jim Schloss. I'd just like to say first, thank you for your insightful questions. I thought they were awesome. And as an engineer, I'd like to say to the SDG folks, there's no way you'd start a $2.3 billion project with this little planning as you did about Temecula.

You can just come closer to the mic.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Thank you.

So I encourage the city council to not take their word for it and start forcing them to do the engineering studies that they need to do, look at the alternate routes, hold their feet to the fire, let me know how I can help. And just thank you for your support.

Thank you so much for coming in, sir. How are you?

I'm good. How are you? Thank you all. My name is Michael Farewell. I live in the Red Hawk community in the fairways. First of all, city council members, thank you. You did an admirable job representing us today. I appreciate that. Real quick, California doesn't care about us. That's the truth, right? So we have to fight for ourselves. The problem is they passed SB 149, so it's going to limit our ability to litigate. So we have to unite early, and we have to push for alternatives quickly. I'm sure they have plans. So we need to push them toward that. Thank you all.

Thank you, sir.

The next speaker is Jillian Larson, to be followed by Joseph Komroski, to be followed by John Mitchell.

Hi, Ms. Jillian. Good to see you.

Good evening, everybody. I'm here opposing, obviously, but first of all, and actually only, this doesn't matter anymore, what I was going to say. Thank you to the city staff for your excellent, well-prepared information that you gave us that covered everything on mine and I'm sure everybody else's. Thank you to our city council for your intelligent, educated remarks and questions and answers. And I have to say to the people behind me, and I won't turn around because I want to be heard, you came to us without a horse. It's not a cart without a horse. You don't have a horse. And also, it was a case of not radiating fire. It was fire... aim and not ready. So if this is the project that's going to go in with this kind of preparation, lack of answers, not really getting anything clear, having no information for us, please just leave us alone. You've got a fight on your hands and you don't want to pick Temecula. So thank you everybody and thank you everybody for being here. This is not going to happen here. Thank you. Thank you.

Joseph Komorowski, to be followed by John Mitchell, to be followed by Cindy Allen.

Good afternoon, or good evening, Dr. Komorowski. Good to see you.

Thank you, Mayor Alexander, Dr. Alexander, city staff. I have never been more proud to be a Temecula resident than tonight. Thank you so much for what you're doing. I'm going to speak from two hats. Hat number one, I'm an elected official for Temecula Valley Unified School District, and these power lines become danger close to Vail Ranch Middle School, and I speak on behalf of the 800 students that are enrolled there and the parents and the community members that live there. I condemn this. Secondly, I speak as a resident. Stu, you hit on my argument with the balloons. That's what I was going to center on. That's the very DNA and identity of Temecula. What I didn't hear was the FAA mentioned in depth. So when the CPUC kicks in with SICA, make sure you tag that national governing body and force as much impact as you can on this vacuous and empty SDG. And to answer your question that they couldn't answer, it's called the federal... Communications Commission, FCC. They don't have the answers and they never will, Brendan. I'd be happy to educate you on EMFs. Thank you so much for your time. I know you're going to do the right thing. Thank you, sir.

John Mitchell, to be followed by Cindy Allen, to be followed by David Allen.

Thank you for coming, sir.

John Mitchell. I moved to Temecula with my wife five years ago. We live on the creek. And I want to thank the council for their questions. I think they're very intelligent. I wish I could say that the answers that we got from the Golden Pacific Power Link were anywhere informative or close to that. And I hope that the next steps that the council makes is to engage our legal council and start putting injunctions and lawsuits on these guys. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Cindy Allen, to be followed by David Allen, to be followed by Alessandra Thornton.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and council members and everyone else here. My name is Cindy Allen. I'm a Temecula Concerned citizen here to oppose the SDG&E power lines being put directly through our city. Bringing in many of those high-powered lines will directly affect the health of the residents in and near the proximity to the power lines. They are known to cause cancer and leukemia. No matter what you say, I know it to be a fact. Do your homework. Other issues. When purchasing homes, people did not expect these power lines to be here. They bought their homes. You can't put them in after you buy. They're going to degrade their properties. And then I just have a question for SDG&E. Would you live 1,000 feet from these power lines with your family? and your children and grandchildren. I can't imagine you doing that. I couldn't imagine doing it. So please consider David Allen. Thank you, ma'am. That's your time. Thank you so much.

David Allen, to be followed by Alessandro Thornton, to be followed by Lisa Sleeman.

Good evening, Mr. Allen.

Hello. I oppose this method, period. There's no give and take or nothing. Take your toys and go home. I will not put up with it. And I've spent $50,000 on my house. I have solar panels and battery backup systems. I'm not draining any power from them. I've got my own power. But that's the way I feel about it. They can go home.

Thank you, sir. Alessandro Thornton. Alessandro Thornton. Lisa Sleeman. Okay, Alessandro Thornton, Lisa Sleeman, Mark Winkler.

Just as people are coming up, I'm just going to let everybody know we're going to continue this. We're not going to take a break if my counsel is okay with that. We're over halfway through, and so we want to make sure everybody gets heard, and then we'll take a break after the motion. Yes, ma'am.

Good evening. I'm a homeowner in the Temecula Creek area directly impacted by the proposed project. I stand before you today in strong opposition to this project and the placement of massive transmission towers behind our homes. Like many people, purchasing my home was one of the biggest financial decisions of my life. After going through a divorce, I essentially put all my eggs in one basket to create a stable and fresh start for myself. I invested everything into my home because I believed in the safety, beauty, and long-term value of Temecula. With this proposed project, I'm being told that my investment, my sense of security, could be significantly damaged. Homes affected by these transmission tales could see property values significantly reduced. This, in turn, should be reflected in our property tax assessments, which will affect you. These towers would permanently change the character of the Mecula Creek area. Families chose this community for its open space, scenic beauty, and quality of life, not to be left behind. Thank you.

The next speaker is Mark Winkler, to be followed by Bill Beal, to be followed by Dennis Fitz. Good evening, Mr. Winkler.

Good evening. Council, thank you. I appreciate you fighting with the full weight of your authority, your resources, and your financial commitment. The supposed greater good scenario would have Temecula to take all the risks with no benefits, and SDG&E reaps the profit. In return, our city receives increased health and safety issues, environmental damage, visual blight, declining property values and rising insurance concerns, harm to our local economy, erosion to our city tax base. Temecula will carry the brunt of the devastation caused by a giant transmission infrastructure where none existed before. In a region threatened by wildfires and earthquakes, these risks are very real, not theoretical. We need action, advocacy, expert resources, and a united front. Together we are stronger. That is why community members and I have formed Save Temecula, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting the power link. Our mission is simple. Unite residents, businesses, and community leaders to protect Temecula's future. Other alternative routes and technologies exist. The T&G board would not put this monstrosity in their neighborhood.

We wouldn't put it in ours. Thank you for your time, sir. To be followed by Christina Bracamonte. So, again, Bill Veal. Bill Veal. Okay. Dennis Fitz.

Thank you, Mr. Fitz.

My name's Dennis Fitz, and I'm a retired environmental researcher from the University of California, Riverside. All indications are is that distributed power is the future. San Diego Gas and Electric should get out of the past and look into the future. They could be building an outrageous power line that could be obsolete the day it is built.

Thank you, sir.

Christina Bracamonte. Christina.

Mayor. Thank you for coming. Immaculate Council, thank you so much for your insightful questions. I couldn't have done it better myself, with or without a PhD or any kind of education. Thank you so much for working so hard on behalf of this beautiful city. Mother's Day, I should have been celebrating. But instead, I drafted a petition.

One of my guiding principles in life as a mom is Mother Teresa's saying, we can do no great things, only small things with great love. And I feel like we have to come together as a group I don't care what it takes, but my mama bear says, bullshit.

Thank you, ma'am. Don Smitty. Don Smitty. Don Smitty to be followed by Mike Wachschel. Yes, come on up.

Yes.

That person isn't answering. Don Smitty. No, Don Smitty. To be followed by Mike Wokshaw. To be followed by Sandy.

Yeah, that'd be it. Thank you for coming, sir.

Thank you, Madam Alexander, and council members. I only have a couple of items. One is the height of the towers. If a developer came in here and said, I wanted to build 12-story or 19-story buildings, you probably would not approve that because we don't have those here in Temecula. Another one is for our relatively friendly people here. I heard from their project management perspective that And some of the things I didn't hear about are one, do you have a risk management plan and can we see it? Two, you talked about stakeholders, but are you talking about, did you do a stakeholder analysis including future stakeholders, not just people today, but what are you doing to impact the future people and the future of our environment? Because when we talk about stakeholders, we're not just talking about people, we're talking about the environment as well. And from that perspective... And that's your time, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Thank you.

Okay, Sandy B., come on up, to be followed by James Novello, to be followed by Ryan Roofs.

Thank you, ma'am, for coming.

Yeah, thank you. I just have a couple questions. I just want to know, by the time they have a specific structure location on this matter, is it then too late? Is that why they're hemming and hawing and not telling us? Also, how many microteslas is deemed safe? Microtesla is a unit of measurement for electromagnetic field we'll be exposed to. In America, short term is 100 microteslas. Long term, 0.4. Not four, 0.4 is deemed safe. 200 meters is supposed to be the setback. Those houses in Duarte didn't look 200 meters behind. So I don't think our safety really matters one bloody bit. I think the dollar does. That's why they don't bury these. They could bury them. They don't. Because we don't matter. The dollar does. F that. Thank you, ma'am.

James Novello, to be followed by Ryan Roofs, to be followed by Jeanette Noseda.

Thank you for coming up, sir.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'd like...

If you can get right into the microphone, that'd be great. Okay, how's that? Perfect. Wonderful, thank you.

I was a worker at San Onofre, and we learned about radiation. And so one of the things is that the power lines, I learned about a town on a river, and another town on the river. And... One town was getting cancer and the other town wasn't. The town down river from the other one had power lines going across the river. And so the town below was drastically more cancer. And so with the power lines going over the water district and the kids.

And that's your time. Thank you for your comments, sir.

Ryan Roofs. Ryan Roofs. Jeanette Noseda. Welcome, Jeanette. After Jeanette is Catherine Lopez.

First and foremost, thank you so much for your fight and for fighting for us. Second of all, if Mr. Washington from the Riverside County Board of Supervisors is still here, please take up this fight for us. Because where I live, I live on Summit View. And I invite the people from SDGE to come to my house and stand in my front yard. Because I am across from where the panels and these big towers are going to be. Madam Mayor, we can't hear. Yes, if you can just talk. You will see. What we will see, you will see the destruction. And most importantly, if you don't think Temecula is important, then go and tell that to Disneyland. Because if you go to California Adventure and you go on the soaring ride, and they say the most beautiful parts of Southern California, they show Temecula. That's how beautiful we are. That's how important we are. And that's why this cannot pass.

Thank you, ma'am.

Okay. Madam Mayor, I'll just remind the audience on your behalf that we need to speak into the podium, and your comments need to be addressed to the mayor and the council, please.

Thank you very much.

Catherine Lopez, to be followed by Nancy Snowden, to be followed by Taylor Law. Catherine Lopez? Catherine Lopez? Okay. Nancy Snowden? Nancy? Welcome, Nancy. And then to be followed by Taylor Law and Jody Christopher. At the very end, which we're coming near, I will read all the comment cards that were not answered to one more time just to make sure we didn't miss anybody. Welcome, Nancy.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Nancy Snowden, and I'm here representing my community called Aubrey Place. I'm on the board, and we are on the corner of Butterfield and Channel Street. We border the Temecula Creek. So this project would directly affect our homes. And we have 180 units in our community. So we want to just let you know that we're against it. And I really appreciate tonight and the questions and answers that you posed were really great. So thank you for this informative evening.

Thank you very much for coming, ma'am.

Taylor Law, to be followed by Jody Christopher, to be followed by Bob Kalk.

Hi, ma'am. Yep, just leave it right there.

Good evening. My name is Taylor Law, and I live on Temecula Creek Road in Barringer Creek neighborhood, and my home backs up to the creek. My four kids attend three local schools, and most mornings before my kids wake up, I go for a run with friends along the creek trails and into the hills. We run here. We walk our pets. We ride our bikes. We gather at parks. We walk with our families. And these moments matter. So please don't take that away from us. Two years ago on the last day of school, a fire erupted.

If you can pause for one second, because I'm very thankful for your slides that you're putting. There we go. Thank you very much. In the back. Thank you.

Is that good? OK. A fire unrelated to power lines erupted directly behind my house in the creek area. From our backyard, we saw red and orange flames racing through the brush towards our neighborhood and even closer to those on Morgan Hill. We all watched Cal Fire save our neighborhoods. The airplanes flew skillfully close to the homes on Morgan Hill and just above the ground. Helicopters dumped water again and again, dousing the fire until it was out. Cal Fire responded so quickly with air support and firefighters on the ground that were delivered by helicopter directly to the creek bed. They were able to do this because the creek bed was open and unobstructed. If high voltage power lines had been there, the aircraft operations would have been impossible. that puts every family in this area at greater risk when the next fire comes. And in California, we know there will be a next fire. Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it.

Next speaker is Jody Christopher. Next speaker is Jody Christopher, to be followed by Bob Cowell, to be followed by William Boyd.

Good to see you, Mr. Christopher.

It's good to see you guys, too. And I want to say again, just like everybody else said, Mayor, city council members, and our staff, thank you for what you've done tonight. I'm very proud of you all. My concerns are not EMF. My concerns are non-ionized radiation. This is something that we don't measure, and it is caused by our power lines. We keep saying that this is not a problem. It's not a problem. It's not a problem. The health concerns based off of these high power lines are a huge problem. Please consider that, SDG&E. You also have a high power line corridor just south of us. Why aren't we using the same corridor that's already there? Why are we proposing a new one right through a city? It's ridiculous. The third thing is, is This is outside our state's power. We're bringing power from outside our state to inside our state because we can't build powers here in our state. It's ridiculous. We need to stand up as citizens and get power back in California.

Thank you so much, Mr. Christopher.

Bob Cowell to be followed by William Boyd to be followed by Barry Schmidt.

And Mr. Bob, good to see you.

Hey, council. I'm very much against the power lines going through Temecula, as you would think. The broader question is, why do they need 160 gigawatts of power by 2045, when each gigawatt is one nuclear reactor? So if you need 160 gigawatts of power by 2045, you're going to have 160 nuclear reactors you're going to need along the state. And you're not going to have enough solar power from El Centro. That's where the solar power is right now. They're building out. So where are these solar panels coming from? They're going to come from China. Or they're not going to come from the United States. And we're going to have to import these, and I don't even know if they have enough to supply us all. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

William Voigt, to be followed by Barry Schmidt, to be followed by David Sola.

Thank you, Mr. Voigt. Coming in.

Thank you for stepping up.

Oh, sir. Unfortunately, we cannot have any of our devices. But thank you so much.

That's fine. I wanted to say thank you to you all for stepping up and being the champion for the city. And I really appreciate it. My name is William Vogt. I am a resident and only been here for about seven years. I put my entire life savings into a home that's 500 feet from these lines. I'm on Nighthawk Pass, like my neighbor, who just spoke eloquently earlier. This really can't go through. I'm here for my grandkids. We've moved my whole family here. Their schools are right there next to these power lines. I've seen videos of people walking on these trails behind my home. I want it to be the way it is now forever for my kids and for our house and for our family's future. I'm for sustainable power and for green power, but not at the expense of our future, not at the expense of Temecula, period.

And that is your time, sir. Thank you for coming and giving us comments.

Barry Schmidt, to be followed by David Sola, to be followed by Michael Antonucci. Barry Schmidt? Barry? OK. David Sola? David? OK. Michael Antonucci? Michael?

He had to leave. I think I heard.

OK. Tara Thomas, to be followed by Mary Mikolic.

Welcome, Tara. Well, hello, ma'am.

Good to see you, as always.

Thank you so much for having me and for the great work you guys have done already on this. My name is Tara Thomas, and I serve as a children's pastor in Temecula, and I'm here to voice my opposition to the proposed project. I'm here to point out that, yes, there is a school along the proposed lines, but there are also many churches along the route as well, and many of these churches have preschools. And these preschools serve the youngest and smallest residents of Temecula, and as stated on earlier and on the SDG&E website. They provide free measurements for electric and magnetic field upon request. And that SDG&E follows California Public Utilities Commission guidelines to mitigate exposures So this raises a question for me. What effects do these frequencies have on the youngest and most vulnerable among us? I'll leave those answers to our resident expert, Dr. K. But why would we risk exposing them to these effects? For a company to save money, I propose that we do not run the lines through Temecula.

And thank you, ma'am, for your comment.

Next is Mary Mikulich, to be followed by Jessica Chadwell. Mary? Okay, Jessica Chadwell to be followed by Michael Feinberg.

There we go.

And after Michael, we will have Lorraine White to be followed by Alice Richter.

Thank you for holding out, sir, and being here to speak.

Thank you for this opportunity. Michael Feinberg, 36-year resident, local rancher, and very conveniently, I am a power line fire lawyer. In 2018, I'm sorry, in 2007, A power line fire was ignited by SDG&E power lines on my friend and rancher's property, Glen Drown, in the Ramona-San Pasqual area. I've heard the COO say the same thing. That's the corporate statement. We did not cause that fire. They didn't cause that fire. You know what they did? They paid my client $600 million because they didn't cause the fire. And yet that continues. This is a matter of corporate integrity. believability, support, and follow up support. The power line fires across this nation, where I have been, and including the campfire where eight of my clients died, were caused by transmission lines, just like the lines that are planned here. Those were older. So was the one in Ramona.

However... And that's your time, sir. I would love to keep listening to you. If you can actually... I just want to make sure I have his information.

We have everyone's information, yes.

Outstanding. We'll be reaching out to you. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir.

The next speaker is Lorraine White. Thank you. Lorraine, are you here? Welcome. And then Alice Richter and Sarah Geiger.

Thank you for coming. Good evening. Thank you, city councils. Thank you for being rock stars. I think everything's been said. You did your homework. You had intelligence questions. I wish I could turn around and address them, who I want to address. I've been in the business world for 30 years, and you were not prepared. And it's really embarrassing and it's disrespectful, and one of you didn't even stay. I live in Morgan Hill.

Ma'am, you need to speak into the mic.

I live in Morgan Hill. My backyard is Temecula Creek. I had someone from Edison come out, said how tall they would be. They would be all the way to my fence, all the way across my yard. My property value goes down. My insurance guy said, we won't get insurance. And I've been watching your faces from the other room the whole time. Please at least look like you care, and please come prepared next time. And thank you again. I'm proud to be from Temecula. Thank you, ma'am, for your comments.

Alice Richter. Elon Musk has the answer. To be followed by Sarah Geiger. She made it in her time. Alice Richter. Alice. Okay, Sarah Geiger. Sarah Geiger. Welcome, Sarah, to be followed by Teresa Breaker.

Thank you for waiting.

Good evening. My name is Sarah Geiger, and I have been a resident of Temecula for 17 years. Our family does not want this project here. My own house backs up to Temecula Parkway. We do not want the upheaval, the mess, the fire danger, the health consequences, the eyesores, the decreased home values. or the environmental impact. Temecula, an upscale rural city known for its beauty, wineries, horse trails, and tourism, is obviously the wrong location for this SD&E project. Quite frankly, it's appalling that no one had the sense to stand up and say to their committee, you know what, this is a terrible idea. It doesn't matter if it has moved to a few miles in any direction outside of our city or even if it's suggested to put lines underground. SD&E, ultimately, if you cannot complete this line without going through or by Temecula, then you need to kill this project full stop. Thank you.

Teresa Breaker, to be followed by Peggy Bartels, to be followed by Miguel Gonzalez.

Hi, ma'am.

Hi. Thank you, City Council. You're doing a great job. We have a home that's directly on Temecula Creek, and we paid a premium for our view, and that was two years ago, and now we're already impacted. It's not like a future impact, because if we tried to sell it today, we would have to disclose this going in and that it's on the map. We'd have to give the map and show them it's going right. You can see this on here. That's our view. It would be destroyed. Can you show that?

I believe if we can just open it up, please, so it can be powered on. Oh, for that, I apologize, not for your phone. I'm so sorry, though, ma'am. But thank you.

Everybody saw it, but thank you.

Thank you very much, ma'am. I appreciate you.

Peggy Bartels, to be followed by Miguel Gonzalez, to be followed by Christopher Muller.

Hello, ma'am. Thank you for allowing me to speak here tonight. I want to talk a little bit about California having the highest death rates related to transmission line wildfires in the nation. Other comparisons are when you look at In Oregon, the transmission line related wildfires have killed 12 people. In Washington, three people. In Idaho, one person since 1994. In California, since 1994, transmission line fires have killed 157 people. You need to ask, why are we putting transmission lines up in residential areas We can easily divide a 500 kilovolt line and bury it underground. That's the first thing. The second thing is the proposed project area, the Temecula Creek corridor, is the second highest wind velocity area in Riverside County.

Miguel Gonzalez.

Thank you very much, ma'am, for your time.

Miguel Gonzalez, to be followed by Christopher Muller, to be followed by Hong Min.

Evening, Miguel.

Good evening.

As long as it's not a phone, we can have it on there.

I came to this meeting expecting to see more information on the alignment. I opened the website for the California Energy Commission. Anybody can see in there that there are already transmission lines that go from Imperial Valley to San Onofre. So the railway is already in place. and they are 230 KV and 69 KV, but the railway is there. So I would like to see more homework from this project to see why to Temecula. At this point, I will oppose the project to going to Temecula Creek, and I can mention multiple reasons why, but I would say it's simple. I will oppose the project as it is right now.