City Council - Regular Meeting

We're getting stuff done. [music] We talked about getting stuff done for a long time, but we are seeing stuff get done. Stay tuned cuz we're getting stuff done. It's a really exciting time to be living and working in Corona because of the downtown revitalization plan. The downtown area has not received a whole lot of love in a long, long time. We're stepping up and we're going to do something about it. The team is very excited. It's going to be really awesome to see these projects come to the center of the circle and just see the area [music] thrive. Downtown is a huge, huge focal point and it's a huge goal of ours to accomplish. [music]

Downtown sixth in Maine is number one on every single one of our list from the day that we started on council to [music] today. We are trying to create a safe, walkable downtown that has the things that our community [music] has expressed to us that are important to them. a place for community to gather and the endless opportunities that come out of that. Everything the council [music] directed us to do has either started or has a planned start date. Most importantly, a planned completion date within the overall cycle for downtown.

I feel like that what we're doing in our downtown area is a big win for this community. When it's done, it'll be way better than what it's been like for the last four decades. We also have six streets beautifification revitalization project getting ready to hopefully kicking that project off for construction in the first half of next year. And so that will really just start to really bring that area together.

So Sixth Street transformation overall it's to create not just a street corridor for vehicles but really a pedestrian friendly environment and the entire concept for what Sixth Street [music] will look like has been solidified. We start at the center right at Sixth and Main really to connect South and North Malls together. There's a new supermarket that's coming to round off that fourth corner there. And then over time, we expand [music] that grand to grand to fill in that circle.

There are nine project areas throughout the downtown that we're working on. And Sixth Street in general has been ugly for a long, long time. And we're going to do some street paving. We're going to do some [music] center medians with trees, shrubbery, just to make it look prettier. We're finally, you know, able to do something here to try to bring more amenities, bring people downtown, bring the community together with new restaurants, just places to have fun. When we started the city, Sixth [music] Street was one lane each direction.

We need folks to be able to walk safely [music] in a downtown. Part of that is reducing the lanes on Sixth Street and creating [music] an ambiance. Sixth Street and specifically in our downtown district will be a space where [music] folks can ideally be able to slow down and enjoy the businesses. They have all been overwhelmingly in support because now their customers can park in front of it.

Feels really good to see things go from idea to plan to vote to actual implementation to like come to life. Claros was probably a really good example just how much our citizens [music] are craving a cool business, a great place to eat. Claros is it. We saw something very similar with the Circle City [music] Tavern opening up. That place has been packed every day.

So the Circle City Tavern is kind of proof of concept that Coronins want [music] and need something more in our downtown. Just wanted to bring something fun and exciting to the city of Corona. This space, the parking [music] lot, the new backyard is just a great example of the city getting stuff done here in Corona. Corona really needs something like this. Seems like such an exciting place. Like it really gives the people of the city of Corona a place to come to, especially in downtown. Claros was a big win for our city. Circle City Tavern is a really big win for our community. The Windown

Windown is a upscale wine bar. I'm really really excited about it. When I thought about going out and doing things, I would always have to leave the area. It's great to see that the city is putting something like this together for the community to come out and participate, build relationships, and enjoy live entertainment and good food from end to end of the city. We got really good businesses coming in. A lot of them are, you [music] know, small business owners, mom and pop shops. From an economic development standpoint, that [music] is what makes our cities thrive.

With the South Mall, [music] we call it the hub. You know, not only is it going to be a place that we can all enjoy, something that's [music] going to increase our quality of life, but it's also a huge economic benefit to our community. The hub, the south side of the mall, [music] it's planting a flag. It's saying our city, our city workers, our city managers, [music] they're all in. of all the things at the hub that I'm most excited about is the skating rink for kids to play at and, you know, [music] parents to have a good time. You're going to have that food hall concept.

We really want that hub, South Mall area, [music] to be kind of a focal point in bringing community there to make that the hub of the heart of [music] Corona. What are we doing with the North Mall? What are we doing with the North Mall? That's one thing that we hear constantly is, "Yeah, they've been talking about that for 30 years, but is it actually going to happen?" [music] Well, when you start seeing buildings being torn down, you know something has happened. Step one is to getting it all under single ownership. We get to push our vision, which is what the community wants. They want retail options. They want dining. They [music] want a place to go. They want to be able to walk in the evening. You know, all of these things that the community has said that they want goes in this space. North Mall redevelopment, a project near and dear to my heart with the city council acting as the developer for the site to guarantee the best project [music] for Corona. When the North Mall was developed, it sort of consolidated those four blocks into a single large project. We have the opportunity with this reset to bring back those [music] historic blocks. The north south is really to recreate what Main Street was. Each of the projects are going to have four different uses. They'll have parking. We have the Corona Regional Medical Center here which brings in a lot of people. We have residential in there to build out that mixeduse development. And then entertainment, retail, and food and beverage really is that fourth primary component to provide a destination in downtown.

We want to [music] make sure that we're very thoughtful in that process because we also want to give the community what they want. This is their community.

One of the greatest things to happen in this city in a long, long time is Riverside Community College decision to put a satellite campus at Maine and Park Ridge. This is all RCCD. Riverside Community [music] College District took on a difficult challenge [music] and said we want it. We want to be part of Corona. And the voters the voters said yes. So the Corona Education Center, which is its official name, will be coming online. [music] It'll take a few years and I believe the final completion is 2030. But what we're ultimately going to have [music] is an institution of higher education within our city boundaries.

They've got a vision for that campus [music] to be a tech campus. And how exciting for our community to have in Corona its very own college [music] campus. An awesome project that's also up to come is the City Park revitalization. City Park was built in

[music]

Hello. Hello. Welcome everyone to our city council meeting of Wednesday, January 21st. I'm very happy to see you. Please join me first in the pledge of allegiance. Um, if you can take stand and put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America [clears throat] and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please be seated. We're going to convene open session. At this time, I'd like to call the meeting to order. Miss Edwards, can you please read the special instructions?

Yes, mayor. Individuals wishing to address the city council are requested to complete a speaker card and deliver it to city clerk staff prior to the item being heard by the city council. Please observe a three-minute limit for communications and once called upon to speak, please state your name and city of residence for the record. Thank you, mayor. Thank you very much. We're going to start with some uh with a welldeserved recognition. I would like to invite Corporal Joe Kelly and K9 Bruce to the podium for this recognition [applause] and the chief of course.

Welcome. Welcome. So, we've got this great recognition. a lot of whereas, so bear with me, but um so um in recognition of 5 years of loyal service to the Corona Police Department, whereas Bruce is an 8-year-old Belgian Malinoa born in the Netherlands, he arrived in the United States in 2020 through Alderhorst International and was soon selected to become the next Corona Police Department K9. Bruce completed the six-week basic handler academy at Alderhorse International where he consistently demonstrated an exceptional sense of smell and energetic personality. In March of 2023, Bruce further showcased his ability by attending a specialized tracking course in Modesto, California. He's quite a worldly dog. [laughter] California. Um later that year he successfully tracked and located an attempted murder suspect who was hiding approximately 700 yards from the crime scene. [snorts] And whereas Bruce served the Corona Police Department for 5 years and was also a valued member of the special response team throughout his career. He played a vital role in enhancing community safety by locating numerous suspects and helping gain compliance from individuals who were uncooperative. Bruce assisted in 4,325 calls. Um, and he conducted 871 different searches. And whereas Bruce transitions into retirement, he will spend his days enjoying family walks, chasing his ball, dismantling every chew toy he's given, and spinning endless amounts uh spinning in endless amounts of circles. Although he will undoubtedly miss police work, Bruce has fully earned his retirement and the abundant family time that comes with it. Now therefore, I, Mayor Jackie Casillas, on behalf of the city council, thereby gratefully acknowledge Bruce for the dedication he has shown and the manner in which he has carried out his duties as a member of the Corona Police

Department. We wish you best wishes and a long and happy retirement. [applause] would you say a few words? Sure.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, and I just wanted to add to uh what the mayor said. You K9 Bruce led a very distinguished career. Uh, our K9 team are invaluable to what we do each and every day. We love our our K9 partners and they truly are partners to their handler. Um I'm sure Joe's the reason why uh Bruce has been retired. While he had a few medical issues throughout his career um is because he worked so hard and the bell Belgian Malininoa have they just drive their drive is off the chart. is uh Corporal Kelly was promoted and because of that uh he went back to patrol which took him out of his K-9 position and uh after serving five years which is a distinguished career career we uh and the city allowed Corporal Kelly to purchase um K9 Bruce for $1. So he is officially Corporal Kelly's dog. Um so I'm sure Joe is kind of being very cautious about what happens now. [laughter] So thank you Joe. Thank you, K9 Bruce. You guys had an awesome career uh doing the K9 world. Yep. I wish you more success. [applause]

Can we get a picture with you? Can we get a picture right in front of the podium? Oh, yes, please. Can I ask his wife and children to Corporal Kelly's wife is one of our dispatchers, so like for them to come down, too, please. [laughter] here. Let's move this. I think

[applause]

All right, we can head back up and I will hand it over. Um, oh, actually, Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public for the recognitions? Mayor, we did not receive any speaker cards for the recognition. Okay. In that case, we'll move on to item 5.2, presentation about the Corona Blood on board program. And I'll hand it over to Fire Chief Brian Young, who will provide the presentation. All right, Chief, here you go. Do you want to do it from here? Yeah.

All right. Okay. Thank you, Madame Mayor and Council, and thank you everybody for being here. I just wanted to take a moment to provide a little bit of background before I share a rather incredible story. So, the Corona Fire Department embarked on a pretty significant initiative uh several years ago that really focused on innovation, tenacity, and excellence in service delivery. And a little bit more definition of what drove all that is. Back in August of 2022, uh, several members of our EMS committee, uh, brought forward a very innovative idea that had never been seen before in the state of California, and that is to carry field blood, um, on our EMS units. This had been trialled and and worked very successfully in small organizations in Texas and Louisiana. But our small team of nurse educator Kelly Long, uh, Captain Steve Douglas and Captain uh, sorry, uh, Captain Steve Wells and Captain Chris Douglas started working on this thing in August of 22. And it was not an easy undertaking. First, they needed local approval from our own medical director. Then they needed regional approval from our regional medical director and then ultimately came the big bureaucracy of the state. So it took them until November of 24 to get this program off the ground. After their hard work and tenacity for all those years, they received the EMS cross medal which was a highly prestigious recognition from the state of California EMS and it brought us where we are today. having the first fire agency in the state of California being the Corona Fire Department to carry blood in the field. Incredibly innovative and driven by the men and women of the Corona Fire

Department. We also knew though that there was more to this story. It wasn't just providing excellence in service delivery. We knew that we needed a strategic partner. Blood is a very precious commodity as many of you are aware. We didn't feel right just simply going to a blood bank and buying the blood. How many times have people heard the scenario of there's a blood shortage? We didn't want to be part of that problem. So, we looked at it from a medical ethics perspective and we said, "Let's help solve this shortage of blood and start monthly blood drives." So, on the heels of being approved, we started these monthly blood drives. Since its inception, we have a total of 60 gallons of blood that's been donated by members of the Corona Fire Department, by members of the city of Corona, and by members of the community. That is a perfect example of how we can all work together to have an ultimate positive outcome. 60 gallons of blood, that is mind-blowing. If you think about that, that's basically the functioning blood volume of almost 50 human beings that we have had people donate in order to make a positive impact. Well, the whole reason we're here tonight is we had one of our very first survivors from this Corona blood program that requested to be reunited with the crews that were instrumental in a positive anome. So, with that, I'm going to call up Vlad Meyer um as the amazing survivor from his accident. He's going to share a few comments with you, and I'd also like to bring up the crews so they can reunite with Vlad as he requested to do so. So, the crews that responded, please come on up with Vlad. [applause] So with Vlad, before I give him the mic, we have Captain Jake Portio. We have

engineer paramedic JD Tony. We have engineer Kevin Campbell. We have firefighter paramedic Robert Aguilera and firefighter Justin Brower. So Vlad, if you'd like to say a few words.

Hi, my name is Vlad. I reside in the city of Huntington Beach, California. The way this day started out was just like any normal day. I got the package with my new motorcycle mufflers. I started putting them on, got them put on. Instructions said take a 100 mile ride. I was like, "All right, go up to Victorville where my friend Sandy lives. Tighten the bolts and I'll go back home." I get on the 55 in Newport Beach. I transfer to the 91. I'm going up the 91. [snorts] The express lane is to my left. I'm doing about 60 65 three car lengths back. Everything goes black. I don't remember anything. November, that was October 17th. November 3rd, I woke up. All I knew is I was laying in a bed in a room. I didn't know who, what, where, when, or why. And it was the scariest moment of my life because all I knew is I had I was hooked up to machines and I couldn't even ask the questions that were in my head because the head trauma was so bad I couldn't get them out of my mouth. [snorts] But I knew what I wanted to ask. And that's when the long recovery process started. But get back on the topic of the blood drive. When the paramedics arrived on scene, um Campbell along with a few others realized the severity the severity of my injuries and the amount of blood I lost was just tremendous. [snorts] And it was ultimately because of the blood transfusions at the scene of the accident that I am standing in front of you today. Because if it wasn't for those blood transfusions in that blood bag at the scene of the accident on the 91 in Green River Road, I would have been another statistic and I would have been DOA at the hospital. Guarantee

you that right now. So I am very thankful for that. And you know, I took a lot for granted when before the accident. And you know, tell you what I've told people before, tomorrow's not guaranteed. And life's precious. So when you guys hear about these blood drives in your cities, your counties, go out, donate, because it could save another life. You know, I'm hoping with sharing my story that we can get this out to more cities and more counties because over the weekend we had another fatality in the city of Huntington Beach involving a motorcyclist. Um, so really hoping we can get this moving forward sooner rather than later. That's all I got.

Thank you, Vlad. [applause] [clears throat]

I'll grab a quick picture. Thank you, Vlad, for sharing your story and encouraging everybody to donate blood to this life-saving program. Way to go. Thank you. We're glad to have you with us tonight. We're glad that that um program was successful and way to go uh Corona Fire Department for being the first in the state to do that. We're proud of you guys. Okay. Um, we're going to move on to item 5.3, presentation, the final design for the city park project. Uh, Miss Donna Finch, community service director, will provide the presentation.

Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council. I am really excited to be here tonight um to present this important milestone in the city park revitalization project. I know we've been working on this for a long time. We've been to council and the parks commission and the community multiple times to get feedback and input on the design for this project and we are really really happy to fin be in the final stretch of this. Um tonight I'm going to be giving an update on the final design and our ask is that the city council receive this update. So before I get into the design, um I just want to start with providing for those of you who aren't familiar with the history and background of City Park, um just some of the important um historical facts about the park that got us to this point. So City Park was originally established in 1913. It is Corona's um oldest historic park and it has really long served as a gathering place for the community. Since its inception, it had been a place where people come to do family picnics, community events, parades, um all sorts of things that really just brought the city of Corona residents together. Um [snorts] it is the home of the historic municipal plunge. This was constructed back in um 1925 and it was uh the city's first municipal pool. It operated for many, many decades as a pool um in different forms. The municipal plunge closed several decades ago and then another pool was opened. Um, we also had the founders monument that was constructed at city park back in 1936. So, it is a very historical significant location and it's something that we really um have a lot of pride in and want to make sure that we preserve it for many decades to come. Around the 1980s, we started to see a decline in City Park. Uh, people stopped attending and participating in activities there as much as they did in the past. A lot of this was due to safety concerns um deteriorating conditions in the park and um ultimately in 2020 the city park pool was closed due to due to some structural

challenges with the park and we be began the process to start the revitalization of that site. In 2021 a objective was put into our city of Corona strategic plan to redevelop city park to include a new fullervice purpose-built community center. And this is something that Corona did not have before. We had um other sites that we had acquired and operated as community centers, but none that were ever designed intentionally as a community center to serve the needs of our residents. So with that um goal and objective in our strategic plan, we began the um master planning process for City Park that started in June of 2022. It was an 18-month process that include a significant amount of community engagement. Um, we went out, did door knocking, held pop-up events in the park, did multiple community meetings, workshops, brainstorming sessions with the parks commission, with the city council, and we collected over 2100 survey responses from the community to really identify the amenities that the community wanted to see in the revitalized city park. Um, in July of 2023, the master plan was adopted and we went directly into a um, request for proposal process to bring on an architectural firm to help bring this plan to life. In December of 2023, we brought on Rios Architects who has um been our our primary architect on the project and we be began the design process. And over the last two years, we've hit several milestones. We completed the 30% design in January of 2025, 60% design in April of 25, and then just this past December, we reached the 90% mark, which is, um, wrapping up our final design process. So, um, with that, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to our architectural firm, Rios. We have Bob Hail and his team here. Um they are going to be going through all of the primary elements of

the design, walking you through the project, showing some really beautiful renderings that are helping to bring this project to life. Um and I'll uh wrap it up with next steps on the timing process. So I'll go ahead and turn it over to Bob.

Thank you so much, Donna. We are really excited to be here at this point in this project. Um we've worked very diligently, I think, with your team. They've been extremely um great to work with um and we feel really terrific about the the product we've got to show you tonight. So um I'm here with my team and we're all very excited to uh um to present it to you. Um we are by the way both the architects and the landscape architects for the project. It's one of the things that um we think we brought to the project that was unique is the ability to sort of see this as a whole project um both inside and outside. Um so I'm here with Jason Shenoda is design director in landscape architecture. Um Robin Kim who is the lead landscape architect on the project and uh Simony Lea is our design director of architecture. So, I think Jason's going to kick us off here.

Thanks, Bob.

Uh, so we want to start with our overall master plan. Um, and you know, really when we look at this plan, we're just really, really proud of it. Um, and that's because through the last few years of co-creation with uh your team here, with the city, um, all of the community input that we've received, um, the design really has held, uh, and and stood the test of the of time uh, through all of the development of the of the design from the very beginning. Um, and so when we look at this plan, um, you know, we can really strongly see the original ideas still intact. Um, and, uh, just a great variety of experiences and wonderful spaces that we're, um, really excited to present to you today. Um, so, uh, at the heart of the park, of course, is uh, what we've always called the Corona Crown. Uh, and this is a celebration of the identity of Corona, the history of Corona. um that's represented by uh this big community canvas in the center um that's embraced by trees and parkland. Um and then embracing that on the east side of course is the community center. Um and it's really this interlocking of those two pieces that really forms the heart of this park for us. Um that's looped by a uh connective path which you'll see in the lighter brown there um which is our quarter mile um corona crown loop. Um, and then the darker brown path uh is this framework of a meandering trail uh that connects the rest of the park and all of these different uh programmatic spaces and garden rooms uh and really ties the whole park together um in a another three 3/4 mile loop. So, uh that 3/4 mile loop plus the uh crown loop form a onem loop for the whole park that ties it all together. Uh my colleague Robin's going to now take you through uh the detailed design of all these different spaces. Thanks. So, starting from the west, traveling east, we're going to focus on

uh what will be the new sort of multi-w wheeled uh skate park and pump track. Uh one of the additions of this project that uh we were really proud to be able to bring more usability to uh the idea of a mix modal uh uh use of you know uh skate park BMX mixing together within the space itself. We also have um updated outdoor basketball courts which we will have um uh ample lighting to make sure that we'll be able to have recreation day and night within the space. Moving uh east, we're going to focus on the different sort of activity zones oriented toward uh a lot of play uh namely the uh new playground, custom playground and splash pad. Uh that's surrounded by various picnic areas and um recreation zones. You can see also that uh just to the east we have the crown, the community canvas in which we have a large lawn area and a sort of burmed uh backing for to allow for everything from multi-large music gatherings to other you know events that might happen within the city itself. uh with the community center as a beautiful backdrop to this and as we go through the presentation you will see more uh direct views of uh what we are talking about here. Um just a bit more detail on the splash pad itself. You can see um hearkening to the you know uh mining past of Corona. We wanted to make sure that we were highlighting uh various fun zones but also having uh ways for sort of history to be revealed within the spaces. You can see that we have uh water towers, cascading water tables, sprayers, and again we'll have some views that sort of really put you into the space.

We have the aquatic center shown here which is the uh combination of an activity pool and a actual competition lap pool within the area. Zooming in a little bit more, you can see within the activity pool, um, starting with a very gracious entry and, uh, depth of, uh, 18 inches, the pool itself then gets to a depth of 5t to allow for a, you know, variety of different, uh, activities, whether it's sort of, you know, the exercise classes that might happen there, swim lessons, general play with families, uh, who might come and spend time here. Uh to the north you will see a lazy river component with um various interactive uh play elements and then a vortex within the space. And then to the south you'll see a custom large uh tube water slide and a specific landing area for that program. There's also a uh spa you can see at the sort of upper right corner that would be integrated and allowing um you know visitors and and competitors and everyone alike to use the spa itself. And we have a canopy that will be dividing between uh the activity pool and the competition space here. As you can see, uh the competition pool is a 25 yard pool. Um, one change that recently has been added is, uh, we are able to provide two 3meter and two one-meter springboards and thus the depth of the actual competition pool has increased to allow for that new activity. Uh, surrounding the pool itself are also shade canopies to uh, make sure that there is um, maximum comfort throughout the hot summer days. I'm going to let Simone speak a little bit more to the building now. Thank you, Robin. Thank you. So, the building is conceived to be one with the park. Um, it's arranged into three blocks and two wings. One on the north that we call the active wing and one on

the south that we call the quiet wing. And at the center is split to accommodate for the central block which we call the central hub which accommodates the reception and also some of the amenity and function that serves the two other wings. On the north wing, we have what we call the fitness wing, which accommodates for the main gymnasium, which is a 20,000 square ft gymnasium uh with an outdoor fitness that can also accommodate for exterior gatherings. And then we have two different fitness rooms. Uh one is an enclosed space for different activities with machinery and equipment and the other one is can be used for group fitness that can be split into two for uh two different u venues that can be used at the same time. On the southern side we have the active wing which we um have assessful to be a recipient for the banquet which is our crown jewel. It's a large gathering space that can be divided into two and accommodate up to 400 people at the same time and it provide it is provided with uh a dedicated kitchen for gathering and for dining. On the northern side of the wing we have two conference rooms and uh a game room and also some administration offices. These renderings really depicts uh the arrival point to the community center. We can see how we arrive at the community center through a beautiful welcoming um gesture where we can see how the building connects uh the arriving arrival point of the park into the ground park and it displays really this beautiful open lobby that connects visually the visitor to the park on the other side. Getting closer, we can see over here the the lobby and the beautiful facade that is a transparent facade to allow for visibility and for light to come through and to really welcome uh the visitors to the experience of the community center and the overall park itself.

Coming inside, this is the the lobby, the main lobby. It's a very tall space of 40 feet at its peak and um it splits uh the two wings um arriving to the re reception desk as I said before and we decided to split the height of the building with two different type of tonality of plaster to try to create a sense of human scale at the bottom still celebrating the beauty of the high uh tall ceiling that are cut in a warm uh wood to create this sense of welcoming space on the uh opposite side we can see the reception desk. There is an embracing gesture to um welcome the people and kind of direct them to the different wings. Uh this also has a wifeanding uh device to um distribute people along the two wings of the building. This is a view of the gymnasium. Again, it's a 20,000 square ft room. Um you might see on the ground multiple level of graphic um uh lines. Those are basically to try to accommodate for different configurations for uh different uh activities that can be um done at the same time. It can accommodate from one to eight different fields um distributions for you know a number of different venues and a number of different events at the same time. It can be split into two by a devices curtain that we have designed and the seating areas that you see over here are retractable. Uh in order to accommodate for that flexibility, we decided to go for for a very simple design uh humble but at the same time uh full of character painting in in yellow all the trusses on the top to um kind of like you know create a n to the graphic identity of the city of Corona. This is the bunket room. Uh as I said before can be split into two. It's completely cladded into the same wood of the reception and the welcoming space and uh it's open to a beautiful garden

and outdoor covered area on the outside by two foldable window system. When closed uh it can accommodate for two different events at the same time and we have created a series of chandelier at the center to you know create a center point of uh focal uh point for the space for the main event happening on the in the room. By the welcoming center at the entrance, we have provided a game room which is a flexible space with an open uh area in the center and a side section with a series of different type of um case work and meal work that can accommodate for different types of activity and function as well as having a series of desks that can be used for people to um access um and work from here. the aquatic center. It's a a great um you know uh point of attraction for the entire um community center and the park. You can see over here the big pool with the plunge build building in the back that serves as a background and on the right hand side the two slides that can serve as a beacon and a visible element of connotation of the park from the outside. We propose to um put a mural and paint the two sides of the plunge building facing the pool to try to create a backdrop to the experience of the pool itself. This is an aerial where I think that we can see how the building wants to provide this continuity between the park and the community center. really displaying this beautiful hugging gesture between the architecture and the landscape and at the same time really try to create this center of gathering for the community canvas. from the community s canvas. The building wants to grow from the ground and be this, you know, uh porous gesture that really celebrate the city of Corona uh as an identity but also as a new center for people to gather creating

this common ground that can be lived outdoor but also inside and the building in its transparency and porosity wants to celebrate that indoor outdoor condition that we can celebrate here in California. looking more close. Uh this is one detail of the overhang of the canopy. The facade basically, you know, pushes in and out to try to accommodate for different type of activities that can be uh held outside in continuity with the spaces indoor. And with this, I give the to Robin the opportunity to speak more about the park.

Thanks. Here you can see the custom uh age group playground that will be one of the other sort of anchors within the park itself. Uh, we wanted to honor the history, the deep history within Corona that recognizes sort of the the citrus industry and sort of how that comes into play and really worked [snorts] hard to uh coordinate with the playground manufacturer to ensure that we brought a unique and authentic play structure that you would not find anywhere else. Along with this, you can see the um not only the actual historic uh imagery of different uh uh citrus providers and such, the actual space itself has been designed around the mature trees that exist within the project. In addition, we're trying to add also uh larger mature trees to provide shade in the areas uh that aren't necessarily covered. Uh again, we want this play space to be integrated within nature and to embrace the fact that it's within a really beautiful location as is and to make sure that we keep that space feeling uh the historic trees and the beautiful spaces that are within the space. You can see here a detail of the toddler play area. Um, this is a design nod to the idea of pollinating those actual citrus fruits that become where the older kids play eventually. Um, the idea is that uh kids will meander between the two play zones, but that there are specific areas that are oriented toward the younger crowd, but that gradually they would buzz on over and play within the large uh the older kid areas. Um, I will tell you my kids who have seen the renderings of the big kid area already are talking about wanting to go there. And so, you know, understanding that there's sort of this aspirational connection between the space was

important in the design and interactivity within the space. Here is an image, updated image of the splash pad zone. Um, again hearkening to the mining past within Corona. The idea is that the pre-cast uh water features would allow for different um elements to have uh you know water towers that would have water that could splash down, waterfall elements, sort of interactive sprayers that are in the ground and within rocks themselves. Uh surrounding this area would be uh spaces for onlookers to watch uh in dry zones. But then again, this zone was designed to be within um uh surrounding uh existing trees. Again, trying to make sure that we preserve those trees and have those trees be an element within the backdrop of the space itself. Another view where you can really see kids getting in and interacting with the space. Here is a view of the skate park. This portion is looking west. Um you can see that this is a more the more traditional skate park where you sort of see the urban, you know, rails and bowls that are coming within the space. that's also integrated with um the landscape and allowing for there to be a connection but also a separation within the space so there's full v visibility within and here you can see um this is basically looking east now um the pump track with the basketball court in the background that you can see uh again there's this ability to connect between the skate park and the pump track to allow for uh various modes of use within the case. Going a little bit into uh trees within the park and historic preservation. This diagram here highlights um the combination of trees to remain in place, trees to be relocated and um basically slotted in with the design particularly

around the aquatic center and then trees uh to be removed. Uh I want to emphasize the fact that the trees that you see in green to remain we wanted to make sure that we preserved and designed around the most beautiful majestic trees that exist on site itself. And so we have very big design moves in order to u preserve those trees and have actually changed a lot of where the original design came in order to uh accommodate and make sure that we're highlighting those trees. Um in orange you can see the trees that we are hoping to relocate at various different places within the uh project. And then in addition we will be planting 205 trees uh to the project. Here you can see the existing historical artifacts that exist within the site. We wanted to make sure that um we relocated them in areas that would be integrated within the different rooms and entry sequences of uh the project itself. Um you can see also for example we want to highlight you know one the historic fig tree that giant fig tree that's at um basically along sixth street. So um there's also some really great other specimens within the project itself that we wanted to make sure we highlight that's almost a botanical flavor that happens within the park and we want to make sure that we honor that. I think I'm going to hand it over to Donna now. All right. So, I just want to give a big thank you to the Rios team again. Um, they've been a great partner throughout this whole process. We've we've been working with them for over two years. They really have taken the time to listen to us, to listen to what the community wants, and to create this really special design that um and captures everything that we were really hoping for for City Park. So, I'm going to wrap up the presentation by talking about next steps. Um, as I mentioned, we just finished the 90% design mark in um December. We're currently at about 95% design and all of the major design elements have been completed on the

project. We're just finishing the fine-tune um pieces to get this wrapped up to 100%. Uh currently we are going through a pre-qualification process for the contractors to make sure that when we do take this project out to bid, we will have a pre-selected, prevetted group of contractors that we know are highly qualified and able to give us a a quality project um and construct it within the parameters of what we've designed. Um that started in November and we um anticipate wrapping up that pre-all qual process in February. Um, we're also going through the permitting process right now with the construction documents to get the project ready for construction. We anticipate that wrapping up in April and at that time we'll be going to the historic preservation board to get final approval on the project and then go out to bid. Um, because we have we will have a pre-qualified uh group of contractors. We anticipate a fairly uh quick turnaround on the bidding process. We've got two months allocated for that for April and May. and then we will be back to you to council in July to award the project bid and begin construction in um summer of 2026. So again, very very happy with where we are in the design process and um all of the iterations that we've been through. I know we've been here to council several times to do value engineering, also to make some enhancements to the project. Um with all those changes, we are really happy to say that we have stayed um close to our original estimate which is about hund00 million plus or minus 10%. So, as we begin to go into the bidding process and get the contracts ready for um council award, we'll have those final numbers for you. Um and we'll be bringing that back in July. So, again, our ask is that the council receive an update on the final design for city prep city park and we're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Miss Finch, and thank you, Rio's team. I'll bring it to my colleagues for questions and then we'll go to the public and we can come back for um any comments. Any questions? Clarifying questions. Council member Dario, just have three questions. [clears throat] What is the difference between a a warming kitchen and a full kitchen?

A warming kitchen is really meant for um supporting a team that comes from outside to um cater um as opposed to a full kitchen where you've got people actually cooking from scratch. Gotcha. And then the pool size, I heard that it was 25 m long. Do we know what the width is? It's 25 yards long. 25 yards, sorry. Yes. Uh the width itself, I believe, is I want to say it's 22 yards. It's not quite the equivalent, you know, uh alternative. Okay. Yeah. The reason I ask is like an Olympic size pool, the width is 50 yards or meters or whatever it is.

It is 50 m. So take the pool that you saw with the where the lane markers were, double it, and then add some extra change. But I think the only thing that's important is the length of the lanes so that there could be actual swimming events. It doesn't the width of the overall pool doesn't matter, but the length of the lanes are th those are the proper length. Is that

they are uh what would be regulation shortc course swimming lanes. So that's 25 yards. Uh for an Olympic size pool, it's 50 m. So those are the two types of competition pools. And then the [clears throat] trees that are um that are going to be removed, are we going to are we going to put any of those removed trees back in separate spots? the majority of the trees that we are removing. Um so we have actually worked closely with the ar an arborist from this outstart of the project to understand which trees were in good health with trees we could easily uh save and want to preserve. The trees that could be easily relocated and then trees that are at the end of their lives and are either having issues with visibility or just you know at a point where removal would have to happen within the next decade or so. And so um we have noted the trees to that are being relocated that we noted in there. Those are the ones that we find are the ones that we can easily put somewhere else.

Okay, that didn't 100% answer my question. Um I know that there are some trees that are they're diseased and they would have to go. I know that there are some trees that are, you know, have lived a great life and it's time they need to go. But the trees that are otherwise healthy, are any of those trees going to go back in the park in a different location? Yes. Okay, that's what I wanted to know. Thank you. Lots of them. We have, I believe, uh, 60 of them, 59 of them. That's great. Council member Richens, do you have questions?

Just a just a couple. Um, for the landscaping, the community grass, is that going to be what what species of grass is that? Do you know? We're trying to find a resilient drought tolerant lawn turf that would be used within that space itself like Bermuda. Is that kind of your thoughts or something like that? It would be a variant that's actually better suited for the climate specifically in Corona. And so there are special um blends that we would be working with local uh basically local growers to understand what that is. But yes, it basically be a type of bermito grass.

And the thought process is it's a place where citizens can go and hang out and not be in 6 in deep grass, but more okay. A traditional lawn that you would picnic on and play games and things like that. Okay, that's what I want to check out. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor speak. Um, thank [clears throat] you. Uh, can you go to slide number 28 or 29, one of the two? I just my question there was I'm there seems to be a lot of places for people to hide and I didn't know uh if this was a if this is just a representation or is it going to look exactly like this? Uh so you're talking specifically about the playground. Yes.

Yes. So um this is the concept of what it's going to look like. The structures are going to be very similar to this. In one of the earlier um renderings or renditions of this, we had the slats um closer together where it was very easy to hide. We've purposely separated those so you have that visibility, that sight line right through the structure. So um that is something that we wanted to make sure we addressed in the development of the playground that you have the ability to see through and we did separate those slats in the in the actual playground structure to have that ability.

Great. And then my my last question was on the the specimen trees. The thank you for mentioning the Morton Bay fig. It is I think it actually is probably the top five largest Morton Bay figs in the state. Um but I think Santa Barbara has the has the record and it's and we're not much smaller. Um I just wanted to verify and I think I saw a green a green um spear in the right place. That buna buna tree. Okay. All right. Perfect. That was my the other thing I was worried about. Um, I don't have any other questions about the about the design. Um, that's it. Thank you. Bring it back for comments. Okay. Um, thank you. We're going to open it up to public uh comments and questions. Uh, Miss Edwards, are there speaker cards from the public for this presentation?

Mayor, yes, we have one speaker card for this item. Okay. Please come on down. And if you are choosing to speak and haven't turned in your card, please do so on this item. Thank you. [snorts]

Good evening. Joe Morgan, 2063 Ren. Um, it's fascinating to hear Miss Finch talk about what the community wants because there was a pretty exhaustive uh planning process and community survey and a lot of work done over the years to decide what to do with the city park and then promptly that plan was tossed out and it's not really what the community wants, it's what the council wants. So, this is the reason why we can't have a real downtown because you're spending all the money to build another civic center down at the park. This is the reason why you're having to flip all of that stuff to make another metro at Main Street. You could, if you thought this was such a great idea and such a beautiful community center and really valuable, you could put it in an area that would attract investment, you could put it in a place that would attract people to come to town, but you're not doing that. You're just building apartments and another strip mall. So, yeah. And you're also burdening the neighbors. You're taking away a beautiful canopy. you're basically paving most of the park, you know. So, this is why we lost like the two most qualified parks commissioners we had because they saw just exactly how ignorant and how willing you were to just throw out community needs to do this plan. So, this is going to saddle the city with millions and millions of dollars of annual bond debt upkeep. Um, and it's really not going to be much different except just larger than Circle City Center. To your point about the warming kitchen, that's what Circle City Center has. Uh, it wasn't deemed, you know, like sufficient there, probably not going to be deemed sufficient here. So, you know, it's you're just trading it up for a larger model that really has a pretty a pretty scant chance of success. We do need a aquatic center. We've needed one. We needed the city to keep up the one that we had, you know, but you guys abandoned that much like you abandoned the Corona Mall. So, as an excuse to basically build something shiny and new, um, you know, this is

going to cost field space. This is going to cost cost a park that's used by the neighbors and it really had no real benefit to the neighbors. It's going to be more congestion if it works. It's going to be just another uh financial burden on the city if it doesn't work. And there's really not going to be much return in terms of uh like they talk about the the turn on the money. There's not going to be return on this investment in terms of economic development. You can put it downtown if you thought it was really cool. If you thought it was really worthwhile, but you just want to build something new and easy because you have the land. There's not really burn, you know, it's not really burdened with some of the surplus land stuff that you've burdened this chronal with. And you think you got the best parks guy in the world. So, you know, that's why it's going to fail. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other speakers on this agenda item? Come on up. Please state your name. Thank you.

Hello. Good evening, council. My name is Adrian Aros, owner of FC Riverside County. I've been a longtime resident here uh in this community. uh longtime server uh uh of soccer services uh all the way uh from students of age two all the way to adults. What brings me here today? Uh I let me tell you for the longest have been attempting to utilize public field spaces. I'm telling you since age 17 my story started at El Certo Sports Park because I am a resident of Elserto and even at during those early uh uh during that early age Mr. RS, are you going to speak on this item? Do we have public comment?

It does pertain to this one. Absolutely. And so even at that early age, I was denied field access. I had about a group of 80 students and I was not allowed to use the field. We even had the police called on us and escorted from Elserto Sports Park. So for the next few months, we spent uh going from park to park and experiencing the same thing. This has continued on to today where we have cronyism where the field space is allocated to a lot of your friends. Right Mr. This is about the city park. We do have a public I I I promise you that this does pertain to it. Yes.

I am telling you that your field allocation process and really your allocation process as a whole has been corruptedly managed. We've brought these issues to uh director Donna Finch, our community services uh director Donna Finch. And by the way, she's ignored and many of the council members that are here today, I've also brought this forward to you and no response. So, Mayor Casillas, how does this pertain to this item? Doesn't matter what you build, you're going to continue on the same uh uh uh uh culture that you've had here for many years, for decades. you will continue to allocate this field space you or any public space anything else that you build to your friends. So how why should any other resident be so excited about this? I believe that you need to open a more transparent process. And so just going back to this item here, I am asking in particular for you to be more open to particular parks, specifically El Certo Sports Park. Now, I will save my words that let me tell you, I got a lot of words here, but Mayor Casillas, I just want to uh provide insight into how public space here is allocated. I've even spoken with city manager Jacob Ellis, and I've sent emails and have had response from some of you up here. So, um I'm hoping that uh as you do build more public resources that you can allocate these to the residents equitably and not stick to cronyism or allocate it to the friends of politicians.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Aros. Are there any other speakers speaking on the item of the city park project design? There is I just want to remind folks that there is always a section in our agenda reserved from communications from the public and that can be on anything you want to talk about but when you come and speak on an agenda item please keep it pertaining to that agenda item please. I'm going to talk about the park. Thank you.

Uh Don Fuller I'm resident in town. This is a little thing. Um, I reminded in one of the James Bond movies, he's getting ready to go out for dinner and gambling with the lady lead and she has bought him a dinner jacket and he's a little puzzled by this and her comment is there are dinner jackets and there are dinner jackets. And so I'm reminded of that when the persons are talking about the trees and I'm glad to hear that they're going to keep the old trees. Uh, but they also said they were going to plant a bunch of new trees. There are trees and there are trees. It gets hot here in the summertime. We all know that. People like to go to the park, put a blanket out on the grass, have a picnic with the kids, maybe toss a Frisbee around, and it's important to have some shade. So, if those trees that they're going to plant are about three or four feet tall, we're going to be 20 years before you get any shade. So, I would just like to put in a reminder that I would like to see these trees be big enough that we don't have to wait until I'm 107 and I plan to make it um before we get any of those trees cranking out any shade. So, uh they said trees, but trees is a big broad area. So, I would just like to say they ought to be decentized trees. And if you want to put me in charge of that committee for the size of trees, I'll take that on. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Fuller. Any other speakers? And don't forget to turn in your card to the city clerk. Any other speakers on item 5.3? Okay, seeing none, moving on, bringing it back to the council. um opening it up to my colleagues for um oh before I do, Miss Finch, can you or the Rios team please speak uh to the question about tree types? I know Rios had shared the Rio's team had shared about planting mature trees, but can can you dive into that?

Yes. Um so I do have the size of the trees. We are going to be planting a total of 205 new trees in addition to the trees that are going to remain and the trees that are going to be um relocated within the park. Of those 205, um, 192 of them are going to be 48 inch box trees and then 13 are going to be 72inch box trees. Um, I don't know if anybody from Rios can provide insight. I'm not sure the actual height of those when they're planted, but um, I'll turn it over to Robin to give some more details.

Thank you. Um so we in our plans currently are trying to allow for trees that will provide shade immediately upon uh installation because we understand that for trees to provide shade they have to be tall enough to do that and we ourselves want to advocate for more trees in general and to have that interaction. Um the we have a variety of different specimens that we'll be uh planting within the project. everything from uh Mexican sycamore, uh coastlife oaks, uh uh Australian willow. These are all trees that are well adapted to the heat and the climate within the area, if not native themselves. Um we the 48in box trees typically when you install are approximately like 15 feet to 20t tall when you install them. Again, you kind of base it on the trunk size themselves. And then particularly around the crown itself, we're actually asking for 72-in box trees. These trees are actually pretty large at installation. They are something close to 25 ft tall within um and they will you will feel the presence immediately upon um installing planting them.

Okay, thank you so much. Okay, so coming back um the ask is remind us Miss Finch. U the ask is just to receive the update on the final design. Thank you. Are there any final comments? Any final questions for my colleagues? Nope. Nope. I think Oh, go ahead, Jim. Yeah, I just want to thank Rios for the presentation and u I think this is going to be a success and Miss French, you do a great job. So, thank you. Council member Richens, I want to mimic Council Member Steiner. I think this is an excellent project. Formed certainly followed function. I believe there are going to be a lot a lot of happy kids in this new park and I believe there's going to be a lot of happy citizens when it's built. Congratulations all of you.

Ditto. I am thrilled that we are finally reinvesting in this community in this part of our town and getting back an aquatic center, getting back a pool um and really uh paying attention to um what the community has told us that they want to see and giving that opportunity and not neglecting it, right, for fear. Uh um and so I'm excited. I'm really excited about this project. I'm glad that we're close to uh final design and I'm looking forward to um starting construction ideally in the summer of this year. So thank you Miss Finch. We appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay. So um this is the part we're moving on to item six, consent calendar. Oh no, just joking. Not after this. After the consent calendars when we have communication from the public. So consent [snorts] calendar. All items listed on the consent calendar are considered to be routine matters, status reports, or documents covering previous city council action. The item listed on the consent calendar may be enacted in one motion with the concurrence of the city council, a council member, or any person in attendance may request that an item be removed for further consideration. Would my colleagues like to pull any items for discussion? No. No. Okay. Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public? Mayor, we did not receive any speaker cards with the consent calendar. Okay. Can we make the motion? Motion from Council Member Richens. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh,

I'm sorry. What's the item? I actually do want to pull 6.5. 65. Okay. So, the motion uh council member Richens. Everything but 6.5. Thank you. Second by Council Member um said speak, but it's [laughter] it's council member Steiner. Okay, everybody vote, please. And the consent calendar passes unanimously. Uh we're going to come back to item 6.5. Council member Dario. Um floor is yours.

Thank you, Mayor. Um I I don't have any questions, but I I wanted to give uh Chief Young an opportunity to kind of highlight this. Um, for those that aren't uh in the weeds with purchasing fire equipment, it's one of the longest lead times in all of lead times. And um I think we ordered a firetruck in 1979. I think we just got delivery of it last week. Is that about right, Chief? Um, firet trucks take a very long time to make and it's for a litany of reasons, but you know, one of the things that I'm constantly um excited about is the way that all of our city leads and all of our city departments are constantly looking for ways to shorten lead times, to um stretch the dollar, to do a lot of different things. And this is one of those opportunities. And Chief, I'd like to I'd like for you just to you don't need to wax poetic. you don't need to give a dissertation, but just kind of highlight why this is kind of a cool thing.

Uh, thank you for the opportunity. Um, one of one of the biggest positives out of this is I perceive this as as a long overdue disruption to the industry. Um, there's significant work happening at the federal level to question the monopolies that are taking place in the fire service industry, excuse me, fire apparatus industry. and we've been waiting for something to create this opportunity for us to go in another direction. Um, obviously with the recently approved purchase of a new apparatus at approximately $1.5 million, um, this is something that is new to the industry. It's not new to to automotive, right? I mean, people that collect classic cars are used to this sort of premise, but there was really no large organizations that were participating in this. So once we started seeking other options and this came across um as one of those options, we quickly jumped on it and we really hope that this will be a significant positive impact as we move into the future, especially to address your comment. Four-year lead times for some of our large apparatus. That's unsustainable and ridiculous as well as the price points. So, we're looking at getting um between 10 and 15 years additional service life out of a apparatus for half the price. So, um really excited for this. Um there is proof of concept. Um some other agencies have have led the way before us and we let them be the uh the first uh toe in the water, if you will, and we're really excited for this.

Thanks, Chief Mayor. With that, I'd like to um motion to approve this. You got it, Miss Edwards. There weren't any speaker cards on this item. We do not have any speaker cards for this item. Then we've got a motion on the floor. Is there a second?

Second by council member Steiner. Let's take a vote. Okay, that item passes unanimously. Thanks for saving us some good dollars. We appreciate it. Moving on to item seven, communications from the public. Persons wishing to address the city council are requested to state their name at the city and and city of residence for the record. You don't have to give your address. Um, this portion of the agenda is intended for general public comment only, which means it is limited to items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council that are not listed on the agenda. Please note that state law prohibits the city council from discussing or taking action on items not listed on the agenda. The city council will appreciate your cooperation and keeping your comments brief. Please observe a threeminute limit for communications. Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards from the public?

Mayor, yes, we have five speaker cards for communication from the public.

Thank you very much. Okay, let's come on up. Whoever wants to be first. Good evening, Chris McCoy, District 3. Um, unfortunately, I am here about the last meeting because I was ill and not able to attend. I want to talk about the North Mall and I just want to give some thoughts on that and I'm tried very hard to not be upset and to not be negative and think of a good way of phrasing this and putting this out there. I feel very much like we've gone through this kabuki dance to get to 300. We are building 300 units there. There's no way around it. Uh, I would have expected a 3-2 vote based on what I've heard from all of you up there as far as I don't want to go over 200 or I don't want to go over 150 or I think that's too much for that corner. I think the sightelines are horrible as far as the height of it goes. And this goes all the way back to 5 years ago when I was standing up here talking about the fact that that street which was built in the 1900 at the turn of the century was built for carts and horses and it's not wide enough to handle four stories running the edge and I hear oh we're going to do a setback but a setback doesn't widen the street and we're still going to have the same problem of a very crowded street and I don't know how to fix that with 300 units and I'm terrified not of that but what I heard staff talking to you about at the end of that meeting because I did watch the whole thing from home and it was well we're eventually going to get a developer in and then that developer is going to say well I need to do this or I need to do that and we'll have a final negotiation. So I'm going to challenge you all now because I know your sentiments on this and I know we I've communicated with

most of you about this about this being 200 units. We're not going to get that. We're gonna have to take 300 because of the surplus land act. But I'm going to challenge you to hold that line. I'm gonna challenge you to hold the line as far as keeping the facades historic because a developer is going to come in and staff has no compunctions about pushing this to 400 or 500 and telling you guys, "Oh, well, we can't find a developer that'll do this." And that's you. We can find a developer that'll do this at 300. So, I'm going to ask you to hold the line at 300 because that street cannot take any more height. And if you go from 300 to 400 or 500, now we're at five stories. Now, we're at six stories. And that ruins this whole project that you want to do. And I understand you guys want to get something done. And I am all for it. I live in District 3. But you have to get it done right. And the two things left that cannot be compromised on because we've compromised for five years to get this to this point is the height of this thing, the number of units, and the facade. If you're not going to do that, to Tom's point, it's just going to be colorful boxes and it's going to look like any other four over one or five over one or six over one. So, I'm challenging you to hold the line where it is right now. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Okay, next up.

Good evening. My name is Kathy Armstrong. I'm a um local manufacturer here in Corona. Also the board chair of Corona uh Chamber of Commerce this year. I look forward to uh working together supporting our businesses as well as our community. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy. Thanks for introducing yourself. All right, next up, [clears throat] Richard Rogers. I live in Corona. It uh I'm not restless. I just can't speak very clearly about Maybe if you could just push the mic a little closer to your Okay,

that would probably help. Okay, I'm going to give you some examples and about trees on Green Brier and Meadow View Court. I've done everything I can and somebody has got to step up and say, "Okay, take the trees down." Uh there are there were 25 of these humongous humongous pine trees and there's only four left, five left and they have caused so much destruction and uh the people who live on 10007 Menview Court [sighs] has had a serious this problem. They he did all the paperwork and uh the city council or the the city attorney says get your homeowners insurance. And homeowner says, "Uh, no, that's strictly a city problem." And the city attorney uh said, "Well, you're going to have to get a lawyer." Oh, fine. And the same thing happened at at 1050 Mview Court. This house in this um tree is just tearing up the driveway. It has cracked the foundation of the house. And again, the city attorney says,

"Well, you have to get a lawyer." But and getting back to 1007, this tree has really destroyed their driveway, their garage, and now there's a tree root coming up into their kitchen floor. Uh, and then uh the tree on 10:38 I was standing in the front yard and with this neighbor. Oh boy, I'm done. You can always don't you can email or call [laughter]

and uh we called the tree people, okay? And they said, "Okay, we'll send someone out." Well, this has been over a year and this tree is huge. The same one that should be taken out. Anyway, the bottom line is I think that the tree people have more authority in this city than in the department and if the chief of police Thank you, sir. There is a process. I think we are connected with you and I think that folks are going to be out there trimming the trees next week. Um but um who who can I get them in contact with? Jacob,

if he leaves his information, we'll make staff make sure that staff contact you and they can explain uh the what's happening going process on the on the tree evaluation. I think they've been in touch with you, [clears throat] but we'll make sure that they chat with you again. See if you have any other questions. Can you connect here with Brett? Actually, get your contact information right here. This gentleman right behind you to your left. Okay. Thanks. All right. Next up,

[clears throat]

Hello, good evening. I am here as a representative for many residents. Uh some that are here today, some that are back at home. Uh many who uh are a little bit shy, a little bit scared to talk, right? But uh that's why we do have leaders, right, to represent and uh voices. And I'm here today to demand ICE out of Corona. Today is the day that we stand up against racism, bigotry, and hatred. Today is the day that we as a community stand against the government overreach. That we stop looking at the color of our skin, religion, or ethnicity. That any man or women can walk in Corona and any city with confidence and dignity. That a person of color can walk without needing documentation. The day of peace is over for many residents. The Trump administration has militarized the streets of America. Children are being traumatized by ISIS ruthless tactics. Citizens are being taken from their homes. Police officers themselves are being targeted outside of their working hours. And now they are shooting their own people. Us. A soccer mom, Renee Good, was a victim of government of the government's violent tactics that have no limits. They shot her in the face. In the face. That's why I'm here today demanding a resolution. I am demanding for a resolution that's similar to Riverside's transparency resolution in Herupas Valley's number 20267. We must act. On Christmas Day, several members of our community were detained by ICE. What makes this very concerning is that they use the same tactics that

they use on Reg Good. We could have had our own Renee Good incident here in this city. Now, I know some of you might get a little upset because three of you five endorse Ken Calvert. You are pushing for these policies. Now, of course, you are all city government officials, and your power rests within city policies, but let this be no mistake. We see what you're doing. We see who you are. Your facade, Council Member West, making others feel like you care about the indigenous people. If you cared about the indigenous community, you would act on this resolution. Mayor Jackie Casillas, I have nothing but the highest respect for you. Join us, Jackie Casillas. Mayor Jackie Casillas, join us, your people. Take one of our shirts. We have a shirt ready for you. And we ask for all of you to adopt this resolution. Put your citizens and not just the Caucasian people, but the people of color in mind here. We are not going to walk in the streets like secondass citizens where we have to wear some sort of uh uh identifier that we are a citizen. While many of you get to walk freely, I kindly

Thank you, Mr. Aros. Thank you. Next speaker. [applause]

Welcome sir. Can I get your name too? Yes. My name is Hanife Carter. Good evening, ma'am. Good evening. I do miss out here in Corona. Awesome.

I'll go off with my speech. My name is Hanife Carter, a dossia in the city of Corona, a trustee of a private family trust. And I am here today to raise a serious issue affecting many residents. The lawful use of negotiable instruments and the refusal refusal by financial instit institutions to honor them. Under California Commercial Code section 3-104, a negotiable instrument is a written signed unconditional promise to pay a fixed amount of money. Promisary notes, drafts and similar instruments are not fringe ideas. They are the foundation of commerce in this country. Banks operate every day using accounts receivables and accounts payables which are settled through credit, not physical cash. Mortgages, car loans, municipal bonds and interbank settlements all rely on negotiable instruments. This is not theory. It is how financial systems function. Under California Commercial Code sections 3501 to 3505, when a lawful instrument is presented, a bank has a duty to either process it or provide a lawful basis for dishonor. Silence is not compliance. Holding a percent without crediting it or formally rejecting it is not good faith. Federal law reinforces this. 12 United States Code Section 411 and House Joint Resolution 192. Make clear that obligations are discharged through lawful money and credit. Every Federal Reserve note itself states its legal tender for all debts, public and private. Credit is not separate from money. It is how money functions in modern law. Additionally, under California Commercial Code Article 4, banks act as a collecting agents and fiduciaries when instruments are deposited. They are required to exercise ordinary care in good faith. Arbitrary refusal, delay, or nonresponse violates that duty. I have personally experienced a situation where a lawful presentment was received by a financial institution, acknowledged by return receipt and then ignored. Even

after sworn affidavit were delivered, no response was given by executive leadership. That is not transparency and it is not acceptable in a in a city that values fairness and economic opportunity. This is not about avoiding responsible responsibility or free money. It is about lawful discharge of debt, financial literacy, and equal access to the same tools institutions use today. I am asking this council to encourage dialogue, education, and accountability between financial institutions and the public. When banks operate above the law or refuse to explain their actions, the people suffer. Economic freedom begins with understanding the law and the law already provides these tools. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Okay. Any other speakers? If Okay, I was going to say you get you get one. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak? Okay, seeing none, then thank you very much. Um, we appreciate you always taking the time to come and speak to us. Um, thank you. Moving on to item eight, public hearings. We're going to go to 8.1 general plan amendment 2024-00003 to change the land use designation of parcels at 323 Southbell Avenue and 322 South Washburn Avenue from low density residential to sorry lowdensity residential to general commercial to mixeduse downtown including 0.87 acres of rideway. Does any council member want a staff report on this item? Seeing none. Jim is gonna say no. Wes, do you want to uh report on this?

Uh, no. Thank you. Okay. Then, Miss Vanyan, you're off the hook on that, but the public hearing is now open. Miss Edwards, has the city clerk's office received correspondence or speaker cards from the public regarding this item? Mayor, we have not received any correspondence or speaker cards for this item. Thank you. In that case, the public hearing is now closed. Do I have any questions or comments from my colleagues? Seeing none. Seeing none. Okay, then I'll entertain a motion.

Moved by Stanner, seconded by Rich, and second by speak. [laughter] All right, let's take a vote on that item. Item 8.1 passes unanimously. Moving on to 8.2, 2 specific plan amendment 2020 2024-00003 to the downtown revitalization specific plan to change the zoning of parcels at 323 South Bell and 322 South Washurn from single family to gateway business to downtown including 0.87 acres of public rightway. Does any council member want to report on this item? Okay, off the hook again. Public hearing is now open. Miss Edwards, has the city clerk's office received correspondence or speaker cards from the public regarding this item? Mayor, we did not receive correspondence, but we did receive one speaker card for this item.

Okay, then let's go ahead and have the speaker come on up speaking on this um specific plan change amendment.

Good evening, Joe Morgan, 2063 Ren. Um so I want to speak a little bit, you know, partially on this item, but partially just overall on the process it. So I've been to a lot of meetings, been a lot of planning commission meetings. Um, I generally think that our our planning commission does a great job. What I see them do is go doortodoor. Um, I see them uh make sure that the residents are up to speed on the project, that their concerns are brought forward. Uh, and they they diligently work and press to to level up every project that comes in front of them. What I saw the night that this project was approved was uh shockingly familiar uh kind of a process. It's in fact the process that has brought me down here for this last decade plus which is when the Kaiser was built behind our house. We got a 3x5 card that there was a planning commission meeting about a thing being built on Kellogg. Nobody said what it was. Nobody said what it was about, how it would affect us, what it would look like. Nobody gave us any any idea what it was about. I didn't know really how the planning commission process worked at the time, but we got a 3x5 card that says, "Well, if you want to take off work in the middle of the day on a Tuesday, you can come down here, talk about a thing about which you know nothing about." Seems like that's what we went back to with this one particular item. There's one thing, this one supermarket. This is a planning commission that sent that sent on Green River back to the drawing board three times to get a double drive-thru. They went and talked to all the businesses, found out what the uh what their busiest hours were, how how the

the the shape of the drive-thru might affect their uh their business. But this project much bigger, much more invasive. I think a a a plus for downtown. But the fact that for at least the two years that I know of, this hasn't changed substantially. There was no improvement. There was no nothing. I have the plans from two years ago. There's one planner got changed in the parking lot. Everything else is the same. And the fact that it wasn't changed, modified, been pushed by the planning commission to level up really says something about how this city works. When you see a when you see a process that that works a certain way all the time and then one time it just works completely different says a lot. Thanks.

Thank you. Okay, Miss Eders, are there any other speaker cards for item 8.2? Mayor, we do not have any more speaker cards. Okay. All right. Well, then the public hearing is now closed. Any questions or comments for my colleagues? Okay. Move to approve by who said that? Council member Dario. Seconded by Vice Mayor. Speak. Mayor, the motion needs to be read because it's the first reading of an ordinance. No, you moved, Council Member Dario.

All right, I'll read it. It's fine. Um, introduced [clears throat] by title only and wave full reading of the consideration of ordinance number 3425. First reading of the ordinance approving SBA 2024003, an amendment to the downtown specific plan to change the [clears throat] zoning designation from two parcels located at 323 South Bell and 322 South Washburn Avenue from single family and uh from single family and gateway business respectively to downtown and and to establish a downtown zoning on approximately 87 acres of public rideway within fourth and fifth streets. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Everyone, please vote. And that item passes unanimously. Moving on to 8.3, parcel map 38981 to merge 13 lots with 87 acres of public rightway to create one lot totaling 4.7 acres for commercial purposes generally located at the northwest corner area of West Sixth Street and South Main Street. Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards or written comments from the public?

Mayor, we did not receive um correspondence and we do not have any speaker cards for this item. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion.

Move to approve by council member Steiner, seconded by Richens, and let's It came up and then it There it goes. Thank you. That item passes unanimously. 5 to Z. Coming up to item 8.4, the precise plan 2024-00001 to review the site plan, architecture, and other features associated with a proposed Northgate Gonzalez market and remodel of an existing commercial building on 4.7 acres located on 6th Street, Bell Avenue, and Main Street. Miss Edwards, are there any speaker cards or written comments from the public?

Mayor, we did not receive any written comments for the item, but we do have one speaker card. Okay, let's go ahead and bring up the speaker card. the speaker

to to the point that I made last time that nothing was leveled up, nothing was improved. Um, the part about this this particular section that just chaps my ass and really says what's going on down here is the fact that you are deliberately running a truck route through a neighborhood. You're going to have 8 to 15 trips a day once the store is in regular operation. Probably way more than that while it's being built, while it's being stocked. And I challenge you. Would any of you approve a truck route through your own neighborhood? To illustrate the point, I thought I would bring, you know, kind of a visual aid, maybe an oral aid, I guess, to know what you're going to subject this neighborhood to. 10 plus times a day. So, you might want to cover your ears. I'm giving you I'm giving you fair warning. Cover your ears. Morgan,

I don't have my time. Oh, you're going to beep for a minute and 30 seconds. I've got a minute and 30 seconds to go. So, yeah, that truck driver probably would get in trouble. It's a long backup. Thank you, Mr. Morgan. We appreciate you making the point. Thank you.

If you wouldn't approve that in your neighborhood, if you don't think that's acceptable in your neighborhood to have se backing up down your street, you shouldn't do it on Fourth Street and Bell. You shouldn't do it to them. I remember when Fullerton and Ontario was developed, the city made them go to the neighborhood. They had to move they they moved this they moved the store. They twisted the store. They put the loading docks on the other side. They moved them away from the houses. They didn't run them down a residential street, you know. So when they when they were messing around with the Green River thing, that's the neighborhood that the planning commissioners live in. So, you see the difference when everybody just comes in and says, "Well, you know, it's tight. It's a challenging situation." It's not challenging for you. You just get to vote for it. And the neighbors down there get to deal with it. They will literally have semi-truckss backing up down their street multiple times a day. If you don't have a problem with it, that says a lot about you. You could talk about being, you know, from downtown. You don't give a about downtown.

Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Okay. And I believe we have the applicant here. Would you like to come up and make some remarks? We we also have staff that are ready to to introduce them with the presentation.

Oh, there's a presentation. I didn't think there was. Okay, then let's actually um let's have the presentation. So, sorry. Good evening, mayor, members of the council. I'm just going to go through my presentation and take us to the site plan which is associated with item 8.4 which is a precise plan that that's being reviewed right now. So this this is an exhibit showing the site layout of the North Gate project that is the subject of this item. Um just to orient yourself. So on the left side that's Sixth Street and on the south that's Main Street and then at the top of that image that's Bell Avenue. The development side is 7 excuse me 4.70 acres overall. Um, the Northgate Market is proposed on the right hand side of this image and that would be the northern portion of the site. The building is 40,000 square feet in size. Right behind that building is their loading area. The site does abut um existing residential properties immediately to the north. And so I do want to go over what some of the things that the Albagan will be doing to help mitigate some of that noise and to screen this development from those existing residential uses. So, the applicant will be constructing a 6-ft high block wall along that shared property line between this site and the existing residences to the north. In addition to that, they will be installing a line of trees along that

same perimeter. And so, the block wall in combination with the landscaping will help not only screen those development from the residential land uses, but also to provide that buffer to help mitigate any potential noise. The development has a total of five vehicle entrances. One is located on Main Street, one on six, and three on Bell Avenue. The entrance on Main Street that is designed to align with the existing entrance for the Corona Mall that's located directly across the street on the east side of Main Street. That entrance will also be shared uh with the parcel that's not a part of this development. That parcel is under separate ownership. At the top um left corner right there, that is the former citizens bank that's currently vacant right now. With this development, the applicant will be remodeling that building to accommodate two future tenants. One will be a bank and the other will be a future restaurant. And in the middle of this development is the proposed parking lot. Those parking spaces will be shared among the tenants within this development. With respect to public improvements, the applicant is required to install a traffic signal at the main street entrance right there at that intersection. In addition, they will be widening Main Street um the portion of Main Street that abuts the project site. Um, as well as doing some restriping to include a designated U right turn that would allow for vehicles to turn into the project site.

This image here shows the truck route for Northgate delivery trucks. The truck routes are anticipated to come off of the 91 freeway. They would travel southbound on Main Street. They would swing right on to Sixth Street, make another right onto Bell, and then they would access this the back of the property from Bell Avenue. If the council has any questions regarding the track access or the truck route, we're more than happy to answer those questions at the end of this presentation. The next four slides um contain renderings of the development after it's built and they are showing the development from different um angles from the different views of the surrounding streets. So on this one here, this is from the main street entrance. As you can see, the architecture includes um Spanish elements and this design does comply with the design guidelines and our adopted downtown Corona revitalization specific plan. This is a view um from Bell Street and this shows the rear side of the Northgate Market. In this image here, you can also see the block wall that's proposed along that shared property line adjacent to the existing residences as well as the line of trees that the applicant will be constructing with this development. And this view is from the southbound lanes on Main Street. And this shows the east side of the Northgate Market. And this here shows the development from the corner of Six and Bell. And this is the this would be the newly remodeled Citizens Bank building. Steph is recommending that the council approve the items that are over the precise plan that's being presented

before you tonight. There any questions? I'm available for um any questions and the applicants team is here as well. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Fion. This is the presentation that was um on item 8.2. I apologize since we didn't ask for the report. We should have done that earlier, but I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Um, okay. So, thank you for that presentation. We have the applicant. Um, would the applicant like to make any remarks?

Good evening. My name is Michelle Gonzalez and I am a proud to I am proud to represent third generation of the Northgate Market family. I want to sincerely thank you for the opportunity to present our project and for allowing us to the chance to become the part of the Corona community. I have been blessed to be involved with this project since 2019 when we first acquired the first property. Over the years, I have closely followed the city of Corona and have been inspired the strong presence of family-owned businesses that truly care about their community. Like many of them, Northgate Market is a family-owned business built on a long-term commitment, shared values, and a deep sense of responsibility to the neighborhoods we serve. We believe in putting our family, our associates, and our community first. That that commitment is reflected through the outreach efforts including Christmas toy giveaways, food distributions, health focused community events, scholarships to our associates, and our community. We appreci we anticipate approximately 250 total hires for the Corona residents. As part of this project, we personally delivered information to the residents on Bell Avenue, Third Street, Fourth Street, and Washurn. And I was honored to meet several community members who share their thoughts and hopes with us. On opening day, our amazing associates prepare to welcome the neighbors. But it is when the first customer walks through the doors that the store truly comes to life. That is when the heart begins to be because our customers and our community are the soul of our store. We look forward to serving Corona for generations to come and become a trusted contributing member of this community.

We're thrilled. Thank you. We're Did you have anything to add or Well, we are thrilled to have you. Thank you so much for coming and um making those comments and I know for a fact that the Northgate market is always an asset to the communities wherever you all are. You um you invest, you hire local and um you stick to your authentic roots and we just deeply I deeply appreciate that. I'm very excited to have you here. I I know I can speak for others. Um yeah, I just interject. I know that Northcate did you guys have a video that you'd wanted to show? We do have a bit that we would like to do. Okay. Yeah, sure. Let's go ahead and have that.

Great story begins with family. For the Gonzalez family, that story [music] starts in Palos Stolan Alisco, a place rooted in faith, hard work, and the belief that together anything is possible. In the 1950s and60s, Domiguel Gonzalez was a proud shoe merchant in Mexico. But after a devastating factory fire and mounting financial hardship, the family made a brave choice, a leap of faith that would change their future forever. Don Miguel brought two of his youngest sons to the United States to rebuild their lives. Dona Teresa stayed behind raising the rest of their nine children. Resilience, resolve, faith. These values became the foundation of everything that came next. In 1980, with the family reunited, they took a courageous leap of faith and converted a small liquor store in Anaheim into a grocery market. They couldn't even afford a new sign, so the name Northgate stayed. One store, [music] 13 siblings, no employees, only family. From that humble beginning, a dream began to grow, one store at a time. Today, Northgate Gonzalez Market operates 45 stores across Southern California, employing more than 8,000 associates and serving hundreds of [music] thousands of customers every week. But the true success of Northgate, it's not just in the business growth. It's in the impact on people. Every new Northgate market brings something powerful to a neighborhood. More than 250 new jobs, access to fresh, authentic Mexican foods, ingredients sourced from Mexico, prepared with tradition, and a shopping experience that feels like home, warm, welcome, and treated with respect. For more than 45 [music] years, the Gonzalez family has believed that success means giving back. When Northgate Market opens a new store, it partners with clinics, hospitals, schools, and nonprofits [music] to provide mamograms, flu clinics, chronic illness screenings, nutrition classes, and healthy cooking demos. Through the Gonzalezo Family Foundation, students across Southern California

receive scholarships and support to pursue their dreams. And every year, Northgate Market helps thousands [music] of families through food distributions, 5K races, and its beloved Santa Toy Drive, now nearly 30 years strong. Because at Northgate Gonzalez Market, faith, education, and wellness aren't just corporate pillars, they are a promise. As a proudly family-owned business now led by second and third generation brothers and sisters, Northgate Gonzalez Market continues to grow, expanding into new neighborhoods, creating new opportunities and uplifting the communities we call home. From one small store to a legacy of service, from a family dream to a force for good, Northgate Gonzalez Market is more than a grocery store. It's a community partner, a place of culture, and a gateway to opportunity. Northgate Gonzalez Market. Proudly serving our communities yesterday, today, and for generations to come.

That's beautiful. A lot to be [music] proud of, a lot to um to show for it. Thank you so much. Thanks for uh bringing the family to Corona. I know it's been a long process, but we appreciate it and uh we can't we can't wait to have you as part of the downtown. Thank you so much. Okay, so um do we have a motion? I'd love to move on this item. Is there a second? Oh, sorry. Sorry, sorry. I'm so excited about it. I just I was like, let's let's get let's move through. But yes, my colleagues, questions, comments. Go ahead, Tom. Go ahead, Tony.

Um, having grown up in Anaheim and being very familiar with the Northgate market, I'm super excited to see them not only come to Corona, obviously they're expanding into the Inland Empire, but what a great um family story that they have. Um, candidly, I don't know how they get anything done with 13 or 14 family members all running the business. I mean, that just seems to me like a recipe for disaster, but they're able to get it done. So, that what a testament to that family. Uh, I've seen them open locations all throughout the Southland, and they are genuine in their commitment to partner with the community. So, something that I'm very excited for. Uh, it's a beautiful facility. I'm excited that they're going to come here to Corona. So, thank you for investing in our community and that's going to be a welcome addition to not only our community but to that corner as well. So, thank you.

Ditto. Thank you, Tony. Tom,

yeah, I uh I had the chance to go walk Bell Street and talk with the neighbors. I went house to house and gave them my business card and overwhelmingly every one of them said thank you to Northgate for sending them a letter in English and Spanish and that they're going Northgate's going to be meeting with them. And then second, they're all excited for the project. They can't wait for it to show up. They they said they're it's going to clean up the area. They're not going to have to go far for shopping. [snorts] I'm a little jealous on that. And uh I'm just really happy about this project coming. I feel like they followed our downtown design guidelines. And I'd also like to give a shout out to Mr. Hmley uh who owns the building on the corner because he's gone out of his way to cooperate with Northgate and to work with them and help help proceed that process forward. And so I'd like to as a actual representative of District 3 in the downtown. I really want to thank him for doing that. And with that, I'm excited for Northgate. Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks, Tom. Jim. Yeah. I just wanted to welcome you to Corona. We're really happy to have you. So, thank you.

Yeah. Um I [clears throat] just wanted to thank you. I I I know I'm familiar as well. Um and normally I would say in normal situations since this this is not normal right now. Um and that normally you would do a big outreach a larger in-person um big gathering outreach to the folks that live in the neighborhood. I know that you know the reasons why you didn't do that and I appreciate the fact that you went back and did it after the planning commission. You said you would do it. you've done it. I'm really happy to hear that um Council Member Richens um went and did that as well. And I have heard the same that folks are really excited about coming down. Um I took my wife over to the um the Northgate Market in Riverside and um had her try some of the the tumalies and my my Cuban wife was very very impressed. In fact, she's went back twice um to get to get more and she keeps asking me, you know, when you're going to start and when you're going to open. Um, so I'm excited for you being down there. Excited so much. I want to thank you for the investment downtown. This is a a major step in and what we want to see downtown and the investment there and and I know it wasn't easy. You guys have spent a long time and a lot of money to getting to this point and we are so excited and I can tell you that everybody I talked to if I mentioned like I think I was posted something about um just a business that was struggling that you know didn't get a lot of folks uh to come in and the third comment was when is Northgate opening?

Y um so thank you and and welcome and uh looking forward to uh to your grand opening and and I know you're going to be a wonderful member of the community. So, thank you so much. Yes, everyone has said it so so well. A lot of halos pride, too. Thank you so much. We're excited to have you here. And with that, can I get a second on my motion?

Okay. Second by the vice mayor. And let's go ahead and vote. Approved unanimously. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. Looking forward to Northgate. Moving on to item nine, administrative reports. Uh we have item 9.1 request from Vice Mayor uh Westpak to explore cord and pricing for the Green River Road Foothill Parkway corridor. I think we have um Miss Udeno, city traffic engineer, who's going to present this item. Hi. Good evening. All right. [clears throat] So, good evening, mayor and council members. Today I'll be presenting the request from Vice Mayor Speak to explore a court on pricing program for the Green River Road Foothill Parkway corridor. I'm Rosie Reeno and with me today is Leah Kmar, associate engineer.

Right. So together we're going to try to provide it and make it a nice and brief presentation. So the purpose for this discussion is to seek your direction on whether the city should explore implementing a cordon pricing program to deter cut through traffic along Green River Road and Foothill Parkway. On October 14, 2025, Vice Mayor Speak requested staff to explore this concept. The idea is to charge a fee to vehicles entering and exiting the city from the SR91 and I-15 within a set time frame. The goal is to reduce congestion caused by motorists cutting through Corona to avoid freeway traffic. Corona residents would be exempt from these fees. The feasibility study for the Cordon pricing program will check its legality along Green River and Foothhill Parkway uh and freeway connections, monitor other city programs, and find funding options from regional projects and determine potential revenue and expenses. So, I'll turn it over to Leah. Hi. So, I'd like to just take a couple minutes to um talk about what the difference between cordon pricing and toll roads are. So, cordon pricing is a dynamic based zone, sorry, a dynamic zonebased pricing system used during periods of heavy traffic. Motorists entering and exiting a designated zone pay a fee. It's primarily installed to manage traffic demand, reduce congestion, and improve air quality while encouraging alternative modes of transportation to zone users. For example, New York City implemented Cordon pricing in 2025 for a portion of Manhattan. The zone is clearly defined and entrance and exits into the zone have a fee collection equipment.

A toll road on the other hand applies to specific roads, highways, bridges, tunnels. Uh it is primarily installed to generate revenue for roadway construction, maintenance, and operations. Some examples you might be familiar with are the 91 Express Lanes, SR73, 17M Pebble Beach, and SR 241. So just to compare them side by side so we all are on the same page. The primary primary goal of cordon pricing is to manage traffic demand and reduce congestion emissions and noise in specific dense urban areas where a toll road aims to generate revenue for the construction maintenance and operations of the segment. The area of effect for cordon pricing is more of a zone boundary where a toll applies to a specific road and drivers pay for the privilege of using that road. The fee structure for cordon pricing typically has different fees for entering that zone at specific times of day and a toll road is a fee for a distance traveled for a specific time of day. [snorts] Examples of fully implemented cordon pricing programs are currently only international such as London, Stockholm, and Singapore. Toll roads can be found internationally as well as all over the United States. Potential impacts of cordon pricing include the encouragement of public transit, cycling, and walking within the city center, while a toll road provides a potentially faster travel option to get from point A to point B. And now I'd like to explore some of the preliminary uh review that I've done of a couple case studies in uh San Francisco, LA Metro, and New York City. San Francisco, the study is currently on

pause. They has a various fee structure to to look at. And the study, the reason why it's been paused is they've stated in light of the changing and fluid conditions surrounding traffic conditions and transit use. And if this program ends up going through, they have a five-year phased approach, but again, it's still uh being reviewed. Uh another case study is Los Angeles. They are refining concepts with three different potentially potential options. uh they're getting feedback from the community to see how everybody is feeling about that and they're forecasted to open in 2028 for New York. Uh that was actually implemented in early 2025. They have a various fee structure and they are currently in phase one of a long process to fully implement by 2031. This program actually has uh various lawsuits against congestion pricing and it's currently in review by the courts. Uh one involving the current federal administration. Um there's a few case studies around the world. Uh and this image just shows you existing pricing systems and other places that are considering or that have implemented it. So what does cordon pricing look like in Corona? The concept involves installing toll collection equipment in the in strategic locations where drivers commonly enter the city to avoid freeway congestion.

These include primarily the Green River and um surface club onramps as well as ramps near s the southern end of the city including Magnolia Avenue, Ontario Avenue and Foothhill Parkway. As noted earlier, vice mayor's speak envision an exception to Corona residents. So, some factors to consider before looking into um this type of program. Some legal considerations. Federal restrictions on tolling highways may require possible legislation. Further investigation from a procured consultant and the city's legal team will be needed. Um a strong public transportation system and infrastructure. Our public transit system is limited compared to the cities with successful programs. So, that is something we would have to consider. Um, robust feed connect collection technology um, and fee collection systems are essential. The city would need to partner with a vendor capable of identifying vehicles and verifying resident exemptions. Uh, number four, corridor versus zone. Unlike a down a downtown zone, Green River Road and Foothill Parkway is a corridor, making enforcement complex. Determining which access points trigger fees will require careful planning to avoid unintended impacts to our residents and our adjacent roadways. Economic impact. Reduced pass through traffic could negatively affect our local businesses. Uh financial sustainability and pricing schedule that advances equity. Um full exemptions for residents may struggle to self-support this program. Other cities typically offer partial discounts rather than full exemptions and coordination. Collaboration with CALR and neighboring agencies is critical for equipment placement and regional traffic management. So today we're seeking your direction on three options. Option A is status quo

keep um no additional resources and fundings required. Option B, Option B would be wait to and observe, learn from the other cities as they're implementing and fine-tuning the programs and we can revisit this topic later. Or option C, prepare a focus case study. Uh this would include procuring a consultant to analyze the legality, constructability, and strategy. Estimated cost for a study like this would be anywhere in the 300 to 600,000 range, which we do not have budget today. [snorts] So in summary, court on pricing could keep could help reduce cut through traffic, but it has the potential to become with significant legal, financial, and operational challenges in addition to unintended consequences that may have an impact on our businesses and residents. We request your direction on the options pres presented.

Thank you very much for the presentation. I'll bring it back to my colleagues for clarifying questions. Go ahead.

Yeah, thank you. Just wanted to can you go back to the the decision slide? I I don't I want to describe kind of where this came from. Um a few years ago, um there was a a bill that pro provided uh the the case studies, the options, two locations in Northern California, two locations in Southern California. And I had seen these go forward. I talked to a couple of folks in Los Angeles that were producing this. And at the time I I you know thought, "Oh my gosh, this is crazy that you're going to have to pay to drive, you know, downtown." And I was working downtown. Um but as I you know started walking neighborhoods um in the the the south side of town and when people tell me that they can't leave their leave their house between you know two and and 5:00 in the afternoon I started thinking well maybe there's a different you could have a different idea different plan and I know that we've um [clears throat] recently as part of the the 91 ecop project and the 24191 project that we're capturing license plate data and it you know got me thinking about um look, we're going to we can't avoid it. The the the state's not going to improve the freeway. We've tweaked as much as we can. Um there may be a possibility for adding a a third toll lane. Um but Corona's surface streets live and die based on how well the freeway works. And we we're not in control of that. We're not in control of the freeway investments. we're not in control of of the, you know, 40,000 units that have been approved, you know, south and east of us. Um, so I'm looking for ideas. So I'm looking for ideas for finding ways to keep people on the freeway. Um, so this idea is that 100% knowing that right now that they're still in a case study that that that project would have to be go back to the legislature to be approved. I know that the you know previous council asked a a question um whether or

not and the answer came back that oh the the city didn't own the roads and frankly the city doesn't no city owns any roads because they're they own them but they are all funded by gas tax and all other fun stuff. So there's always comingling. So, but with this case study and the possibility of this becoming a law, I want to be in a position that if something changes that we we put a flag in the ground to try and find a way to make this work. So, I'm not in favor of of um uh preparing a case study because I think right now there's still a lot of things up in the air. But I do want to keep this open as an idea because we need to find other tools and and you know grasping at straws because we only have so many tools. we're, you know, between AI um traffic signals and and all the other tweaks that we're doing this, we have to have some other tools in our toolbox. Whether or not the legislature will let us do this, who knows? Um and yes, 100% there are a lot of operational a lot of operational questions that can come from that. Um but I think that as time goes on, uh the freeways get worse, um I think we need another option. So, I I'm I'm, you know, advocating for a wait and observe that we continue to watch how these other projects go, that we um we uh work with CALR and with um RCTC to, you know, keep measuring what we've said that we're going to measure. I know we're we're uh TCA has promised um that they will compensate us if there are issues based on their project, and I I think we all think there will be. and whether or not that that money can be used to help um help move this forward again if legislatively this moved on. So, this is basically a a move I I you know, I see on the the west side of town in the morning where there's, you know, cars that back up on every single street and then and then in the afternoon where, you know, cars are driving down 40 miles

an hour down residential streets, um that's just wrong. And if we can find a way to deter that and I think that that uh you know, charging a toll to you have to do both, enter and exit, not just exit or enter. um that that that may be a possibility in the future, but I am fully uh in favor of um the wait and observe and keep our options open to see if we can plant a flag in the ground for something that could come forward.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Speak. I um I wanted to first start with clarifying questions because I do want to go to the public on comments on this, but do you all have any clarifying questions? I'll come Okay, comments. Yeah, I think we all do. So, we'll come back for comments. Um go ahead and take a seat. We're going to take some public comments. Um, thank you so much, Miss Edwards. Are there any speaker cards from the public on this item? Mayor, yes, we have three speaker cards for this item. Okay, come on down. Speakers. [snorts]

Hi again. I'm not smart enough to know anything about this, so I'm speaking. Uh, I wish whoever does the PowerPoints would make the letters big enough and the contrast sufficient so that those of us sitting in the room can read the damn thing. Thank you. Noted. Thank you, Mr. Fuller.

To back up, Mr. Fuller. Um, I'm going to be turn 60 next month and yeah, I I cannot see them at all. I'm And I got brand new glasses on. So, please please let's make sure that we can see anything that's up there. Um, I'm just going to give you some public notes on this. Uh, I I think it should be B or A. I was reading in the staff report and it still has in here uh regarding the fee exception currently recommended by vice mayor speak uh other cities use a 50% or less discount. I I think we need to pull everything out of that except for that residents aren't going to be charged and there's a caveat in there that well this might not make financial sense if we don't do that. Um, well then hang it. We shouldn't do it because I shouldn't be charged to drive on my own streets. And if I want to use that shortcut, it's my street. It's their street. It's our street. We should be able to use it however we want because we live here. And if I want to take Green River to Ontario, then I should. So that's my opinion on that. I don't think that I should be charged to drive in my own city because I pay a lot of taxes here and I pay a lot of fees here and I think that that's only fair. Now, the other thing that I would bring up on this is that I don't see this as something we should be spending $300 or $600,000 on down the road either. We've already done studies on this. We've already had two surveys done. We know about where we need to be on this. So, I think when we get to the point that we're ready to do this, if we get to that point, um I I don't see us having to spend this ton of money on that. I think it should be spent on whatever group is going to come in and implement this for us and put in the polling pieces at the end, the toll the toll boost or whatever we're going to use. Um and finally,

I don't see this as being workable because I think if we say, okay, well, you can't take Foothill, they're just going to use other areas. And where I live in district three, 9inth and Howard, it to your point, Wes, in the morning, they're still blasting through there at 40 miles an hour because they want to bypass six. They want to bypass everything. They want to get to the end of the street and they want to jump back on sixth and take the freeway and take and grab that entrance. Nothing is going to stop that unless we do it for every road in town, which is impossible. So, I I don't see this as being something that's viable. Could perhaps the corridor reduce that or encourage people to use the corridor and pay for it instead of everything else? Uh maybe. But I think the majority of people are going to just go, I'm just going to find another route and this is going to be a waste of half a million dollars or whatever it's going to be and we're still going to have the same idiots racing down our streets. The only answer there is enforcement. CPD does a great job, but we need to give them the resources instead of this. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, next speaker. You're getting old, Chris.

Oh, um, it was It's interesting because I remember when Foothill opened, um, it was supposed to take traffic off of Ontario and now it's the traffic source. It's It's the problem. I've never I mean, I see in the morning sometimes going westbound, it's it's kind of crowded. It's crowded by the high school. It's mostly because of the high school. Um and and all this, it seems like all these bad decisions between Sixth Street and and this is all driven by this weird sort of almost like a junior xenophobic kind of a oh, it's the outsiders, it's the cutthrough people. Every city in Southern California is next to another city in Southern California. That's how it works. all the way from the beach all the way back out to San Frernardino. You know, every city's next to another city. Everybody cuts through some city to get to some other city. But every presentation I've ever heard seems like it's pretty insignificant number of people that traverse the city just to get to another city entirely. Who you're talking about are my friends that live in El Certo, you know, who work on Sixth Street and drive to Elserto. I guess technically they're not Corona people. They're still local members of the community. They work here. The kids go to school here. They pay taxes here. Even if they don't live in the city limits. They they use our utilities, you know, they're part of the community. Who who the hell are you talking about? Who's the cutthrough people? It's it's like this unicorn person, this somebody lives down in Mya who's calculated it out that they could save 30 seconds taking Foothill. So, they're going to exit and then cut through. Good luck in the afternoon. you know, you're almost better off on the 91 and the 15, you know, and every one of these little stunts just throws the traffic somewhere else. It just throws it onto another street. So, you charge people to drive on Foothill, they're going to end up back on Ontario. I thought the whole

point of having Foothill was to take people off Ontario. At least that's what the stated purpose was at the time. It's almost like this is a stunt for an election year. It's almost like It's almost like you want to be seen talking about traffic. It's almost that way. I I think generally we agree on more than we dis you know more than we disagree on a lot of things, but this is just you can see it. It's just all the red lights flashing about this just being a stupid idea. Thank you very much. Thank you. Are there any other speaker cards for this item, Miss Edwards? Mayor, we do not have any more speaker cards. Okay, let's bring it back up to the DAS for my colleagues on comments. Go ahead.

Thank you, mayor. Um, I actually think this is a fantastic idea. I I love the fact of making anybody that's driving from, you know, uh, driving northbound on the 15 from anywhere south of Corona that wants to cut through on uh, Foothill and to the 91 freeway that we charge them for it. I love the fact that, you know, there we were thinking about or that we are, you know, thinking about this as let's wait and see when when Miss Rosie has to go international to find other people that are doing this. While I appreciate it, that's probably not very helpful. But I like the fact that there are people in Northern California that are thinking about this and let let's let them be the guinea pig and let's let them go through all the lawsuits and figure out how this is going to work. But I do have them go three exits or four exits and weave their way through regular streets of Corona. So, how do we make it painful for them? I want them off of our off of foothill and if they really want to do it, let's charge them for it. Keep that money here in the city and keep it, you know, free of congestion for our residents. But it's almost like we have to do this pass through pricing, cordon pricing for all of Corona to make it so painful that they just stay on the freeway, right? Because I don't want to burden any other street with people that are like, well, I'm going to not pay to go on foothills, so I'll just drive through neighborhoods. I don't, which is naturally what they're going to do. They're just going to try and figure out another way. So, I don't want to burden any other streets. So, we would have to figure out a way to just make all of Corona cord on pricing. If you get off the freeway,

don't start any rumors. I think I think that's the idea. I mean, it's not not not about a street. It's a it's about if you exit and you enter and exit. Yeah. So, it wouldn't matter what street you went on. So, it wouldn't push people to any other street. I I talked to a resident that's that lives on on Ontario and was worried that he was going to get saddled again with, you know, what was going on before Foothill. And I said, "The idea would be for to keep people on the street. If you got off the freeway, you would not be charged. If you got off the freeway and on the freeway, you would be charged." Yeah. So, you have to do you have to hit both gates in order to be charged. So, again, [clears throat] the idea is to to wait and see how this works out and

you monitor the situation. We we have, you know, good streetlight data now that we're going to be keeping track of, especially as these two huge projects are going to impact the city of Corona. They are there's no ifands or buts about it. All the designs, all the modeling says this will impact Corona. Period. There's there's not a guess. So, it's going to happen. So, I want I want to have, like I said, another tool in the toolbox. Yeah. Let's let somebody else deal with the lawsuits and then once they figure all of that out, let's wait and see and see how we can make it work for Corona, if if it works at all. Thanks, Council Member Richens.

Thank you, Mayor. I I'm still convinced that the toll road project back in 2014 through 16 through whenever is probably the worst project that ever happened to our city. So I I'm very anti- toll roads, but I I also do like to learn about options and I I'm wait and see. I I just don't like toll roads. But if there's a point in time and it's in the future where it's a tool that we need, then let that council deal with it then. But uh I I still enjoyed learning about it and I do like to have tools. So thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Ste. Preferably the yellow kind. [laughter] Go ahead, Council Member Steiner.

Well, I made a few notes. Um so I am concerned about the business impact. Yeah. What if I'm coming back to Corona or to wherever I'm going to and I want to get off the freeway and grab a burger at McDonald's and get back on the freeway? Well, I'm not going to probably do that. So, that's affecting our businesses. What about deliveries? All the deliveries that come into Corona to deliver to Northgate or wherever else. I just think there's too much to if if you have to explain it too much. It it it's not probably a good project to do. I'm not willing to spend that much money to do to study it further right now. Um I I am worried about traffic being diverted back on Ontario. I talked to a former public works for Cronin who lives on West Ontario and he was like, "Oh man, you know, we can't divert traffic back to Ontario because we I think most of us have lived through that and and remember what that was like. people literally not being able to get out of the driveways that lived on West Ontario. Um yeah, I mean the studies San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles were none of that. So um I'm option A do not proceed which is not really much different than option B because I think what's going to happen is when when the different AI technologies come out there's going to be maybe some opportunities to say oh that is so much better than what we were talking about maybe doing years ago. So I'm I'm option A do not proceed.

Thank you. Um I should have said this earlier. I'm so sorry. Thank you for noting the text. We will we'll work on that. Also, there's QR codes if ever you want to uh you're sitting there and you want to check out the agenda. You can also um get access to the PowerPoints on your phones and zoom in, zoom out. So, that's an option, but no, we'll work on the text size. Um so, I want to say that I appreciate the exercise in, you know, exploration. I think often you have um you know these spaces can can feel a little uh scary and so you have councils that aren't willing to even have conversations like this and so I appreciate that we have a process where any council member can propose a future agenda item. They get a majority of the council to say yeah I want to explore it further and then we're at today and then we can get a presentation and then we can actually decide whether or not we're going to move forward. So I just I appreciate that process. I think it's healthy. I think it's good for democracy. And so I want to say thank you um for for this exercise. I I will say though that um I also understand that you know population growth or really population concentration and where the state is heading with its regulation and its um uh lack of support for further infrastructure. It's a real it's a real problem and I know that there's development happening in outside cities. I just don't I'm not so sure about this as the solution. Um and and it's interesting because we had a presentation from Chris Gray from WRCOG and he was talking about transportation and saying actually the the problem is you're not using your streets, you're using the freeway. So I just I find that contradictory. Anyway, I just I don't see how we could actually implement this. There's I have a lot of I just I think this isn't this isn't worth further exploring, but I do appreciate

having um the exercise. So, I'm option A as well. Um with the understanding that Wes, if something does come up, you're going to make you're going to put it on the future agenda item. We're going to have a discussion about it. So, I kind of feel like the wait and see is Wes is going to is going to keep us on our toes. So, I'm option A cuz I don't want to invest any more resources in particular your time um to to any of this. So, um so I appreciate it, but it's it's a no. It's a no for me. So, uh we got an A A. You're a B and a B, but the majority says A. So, that's where we have it. Majority has it. So,

I will say thank you for for considering it. It's something that I've been working on for more than a year. I know it sounds like it's a election thing, but I I actually wrote this in March of 2024. You did? Um [clears throat] and I've been researching this since 2023 or 20 actually before then. But that's why I know if something comes up, you're going to bring

I app I appreciate it. Um, I know that, you know, with the street light data that we currently have and with the, um, the money that TCA is going to be, you know, providing us, we're going to be keeping a close eye on on the folks getting off there and we'll be able to get an idea, a little better idea of of what that impacts really are. Um, I mean, pretty black and white with the numbers there, but I guess we'll we'll find out. So, um, yeah, of course, if something changes, I will certainly have no hesitation to bring it back. going to be there and make sure that it's okay that I can bring it back that it's go [laughter] back to the process.

Well, that's what I mean. I'm I'm saying if if it gets voted down right now if if uh then can that future agenda can I submit another future genum for the same thing that got turned down? You can. It just takes a vote of the council to put it back on an agenda. So, okay, great. And I was just going to say, Wes, we know that traffic's been your baby for seven years, and so we really appreciate you. Your wheels spinning in that PE brain of yours trying to figure something out. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, moving on. Item 10, legislative matters. There are none. Item 11, reports from boards and commissions. 11.1, library board of trustees. We have a receive and file the library board of trustees report update for November 8th, 2025. Is someone presenting that, Mr. Ellis? the receive and file 11.1. Why does it say report update? No, it's just getting submitted for the for the record. Okay. 11.2 Planning and Housing Commission. None. 11.3 Parks and Recreation Commission. Receive and file the Parks and Recreation Commission report update for December 9th, 2025. Also on the record, 11.4, Regional Meetings. None. Uh item 12, City Attorney's Report and Comments. Mr. Derlith, do you have any comments tonight?

Thank you. City managers, item 13, City Managers report and comment. Mr. Mr. Ellis, do you have any comments tonight? No, mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Item 14, city council members reports and comments. Do my colleagues have any comments tonight? Seeing none. No. No. Council.

Wow. No comments from the city council. Okay. Item 15. Thank you all so much for joining us tonight. We will adjourn. The next meeting of the Colonel City Council is on February 4th, 2026 at 6 p.m. in this room. This meeting is adjourned. Downtown district will be a space where folks can [music] ideally be able to slow down and enjoy.

The businesses, they have all been overwhelmingly in support because now their [music] customers can park in front of it. Feels really good to see things go from idea to plan [music] to vote to actual implementation to like come to life. Claros was [music] probably a really good example just how much our citizens are craving a cool business, a great place to eat. [music] Claros is it. We saw something very simple.