City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone. The time is 4 1 and we can call this meeting to order out of city clerk. Would you please call the roll?

Thank you very much. All right, we can jump ahead right away to item 8.1, our community empowerment plan update. We have Ms. Wood this evening. Welcome.

A full slate as always. Thank you very much, Misty. Any questions from Council? Right, no questions, but thank you for highlighting the event tonight with the police department at Dick's Sporting Goods.

I think a few of us are headed there after the fact.

Well, let's go to public comment then. For those of you online, remember to raise your hand or dial star nine so we know you have a comment. Are there any members of the public in council chambers who wish to speak? Seeing none, we'll turn to Madam Zoom host, Lauren. Is there anybody online with their hands raised?

All right, we'll close public comment. And Misty, thank you very much for your report. We'll move on then to item nine, our city manager and city attorney's reports. Jason, anything from the city manager side?

Thank you, City Manager. Do I remember correctly that this is the second year in a row that Santa Rosa has received the Business Friendly City in Sonoma County? You do remember correctly. And it's the second year that Rohnert Park did not win that reward. Is that correct? That is absolutely correct. Just as a matter of record. Thank you very much. Madam City Attorney.

Thank you very much. We'll go to public comment. Again, if you're online, raise your hand or dial star nine. Are there any members of the public that would like to celebrate Santa Rosa being named the business-friendly city in Sonoma County? I see one member of the public who happens to be my mom making her way to the podium. I guess legally we're required to allow this. Oh, thank heavens. Okay, no public comment yet. We'll turn then, Lauren, anybody online?

Thank you very much, Lauren. All right, we'll close public comment. We'll move on then to statements of abstention or recusal by council members. Are there any statements of abstention or recusal this evening? Seeing none, we'll go on to mayor and council member reports. Are there any reports this evening? Ms. Rogers, kick us off.

First, I'd just like to say hello to your mother. Too bad she wasn't here last week, because then she could have met my mother. So I think we're taking turns on sharing what we do here for the city. I'm excited to appoint Nadia King to Arts in Public Places. Nadia is a filmmaker, a photographer, a writer, and a substitute teacher for Sonoma County Office of Education. So I would just like to thank her for stepping up and wanting to support the city and what we're doing here. Also wanna wish Grant Davis from Sonoma Water a very happy retirement. The WAC and TAC met yesterday, Monday, August 3rd

Thank you very much. Any other reports by council? All right, I like the pace we're moving at tonight, folks. We will go to public comment then. Any members of the public wish to comment? Looking in chambers, seeing none. If you're online, raise your hand or dial star nine. Lauren, is there anybody online who wishes to comment?

Thank you, Lauren. All right, move on then to our consent items. Let's see, we have two consent items. This is a memorable meeting. Items 13.1 and 13.2, looking to council, are there any questions on either of these items? Seeing none, we'll go to public comment. Any members of the public in chambers wish to comment on consent? Seeing none, we'll go online. If you're online and you want to make any comments, raise your hand or dial star nine. Madam Zoom host, anybody online?

Well, for the second week in a row, let's have it, Lauren.

That's perfect. We'll do public comment on non-agenda matters at the end of the meeting and we can take this comment then.

All right, thank you, Lawrence. We'll close public comment and let's see. We will, Vice Mayor, I'll look for a motion.

I'll move items 13.1 and 13.2 as submitted by staff.

Second. We have a motion and a second by Mr. Alvarez. Madam City Clerk, you can call the vote whenever you're ready.

Thank you very much. All right, so we are not yet at five o'clock. What we're gonna do is we're gonna condense our usual two public comments on non-agenda matters into one at the end of tonight's meeting, but that will allow us to go forward and take item 15.1, our first report on our pro-housing designation program application authorization. We have a housing-focused meeting tonight. Thank you very much to our team. And Ms. Nicholson and Ms. Jones, welcome.

Thank you very much and thanks for the incredible amount of work that it takes to actually put forward one of these applications to say nothing of all the policy work behind the scenes. Looking to council for questions right now. We have time to kill folks. Vice Mayor, start us off.

Thank you so much. Thank you for the presentation. Can you remind me what the benefits at the state level are for having this designation?

However, that's all great and good for us, but do we receive any ministerial control back for doing what's right by housing according to the state?

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. I think it's great that we, it looks like we're doing nothing but improving by getting more and more points. I think that's excellent. I just had a question. In looking at the staff report, I was looking at the little tiny section on analysis and it talked about you know, state housing law requirements that we have to also meet a range of income levels. And that's an area that I'm really interested in in terms of housing. Because we talk about affordable housing, we of course have, which we'll see in the next item, lots of market rate housing.

At this point, we are building enough low income then, if that's what they want us to focus on more than, I don't agree with that. I think we should be looking at both. But if that's what they want us to do, do you all feel, I shouldn't say you personally, but you all feel that we're meeting that need by having the 89 points?

Thank you. Thank you. Other questions? Just a couple for me. And Kelly, I hate to make you get up again, but I am kind of curious. What is the total amount of grant awards that we've received? I remember we got the nine and a half million a few years ago to do site work downtown. Is the pot larger than that?

That's helpful. So that 9.5 million, just to refresh my memory, that wasn't directly related to the pro-housing, but it was taken into account as a result of that grant decision, as I'm recalling from a few years ago. Is that accurate?

Megan, am I making things too complex here? Kelly, sorry to put you on the spot.

That's helpful. Thank you. And what is the total pool of funds that is exclusive to cities with the pro-housing designation? Do we know that? Like a rough, back of the envelope number.

All right, so let me ask the Vice Mayor's question in a slightly nicer way. So it has been, I'm sure the state has heard much from cities with the pro-housing designation that we go through the work, you go through the work to put together 170 page grant applications to say nothing of all the policy work, all the other policy work behind the scenes. And yet that has not to date been taken into account when it comes to decisions of local control. We're not the first to voice this complaint. Are there even murmurings at the state level that they might be interested in treating pro-housing cities

THIS HAS BEEN BROUGHT UP WITH AT LEAST OUR CAL CITIES LOBBYIST. I'M SURE YOU HAVE BEEN IN THE EAR OF A LOT OF FOLKS AT THE STATE LEVEL TOO. BUT AGAIN TO THE POINT THAT THE VICE MAYOR MADE, IT'S INTERESTING THIS HAS NOT BEEN TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT GIVEN ALL OF THE HOUSING LEGISLATION THAT'S BEEN DROPPED ON TOP OF CITIES. ESPECIALLY CITIES LIKE OURS THAT HAVE MADE EVERY EFFORT TO BE GOOD ACTORS IN TERMS OF HOUSING DEVELOPMENT. I'LL END MY QUESTIONS THERE. NOTHING ELSE FROM COUNCIL?

Gregory, thank you. Anybody else in chambers wish to comment? Seeing none, we'll go online. Lauren, anybody with their hand raised online?

Thank you, Lauren. All right, we'll close public comment and I'll bring it back to council. Any final discussion? All right, then Ms. Rogers, I'm looking for a motion.

Thank you. First, I'd just like to thank staff for all their hard work, even if sometimes you don't see the fruits of the labor directly. Thank you for jumping through the hoops and all the hard work that you do. And with that, I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution as presented by staff.

Second. We have a motion and a second by Mr. Alvarez. Madam City Clerk, you can call the vote whenever you're ready.

Thank you very much. And Amy and Jessica, thank you again for all the work. Are you staying around for our next item, both of you? Amy, you get to depart. Thank you again. We'll move on to item 15.2, a report on high density multifamily residential incentive program. Mr. Osborne will join us. Thank you both.

Thank you both. Again, lots of work behind this. Bringing it back to council for questions. We have 15 minutes, everyone. Thank you, Ms. Banuelos.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the report. Just off the top, of course, I support this completely. Love to see incentives, because that's what we are always asked about when we're out in the community. Why aren't we offering more incentives? Even though we already are, people think we're not offering enough. So all of that is good. I was just curious about the impact fee study. or doing the updated, is that something that staff will do, or do you have a consultant do that, or how does that get done over the whatever time period you have that you're looking at?

Just one other thought. In terms of incentives, I assume, I hate to use that word, but assume that you all have talked to developers and other folks about whether or not they like these incentives or that these will actually incentivize them to build. Especially with this chart on slide seven, You can see that it's primarily market rate housing that we're doing here. And I know we're talking about mostly downtown and not, I guess what I'm thinking about is, and I've been talking about this the last few meetings, what can we do to incentivize more low-income housing, whether it's low-low or low

Thank you, other questions? Just one from me. So the list of projects that have come through since implementing this essentially pilot program, they're impressive. To what extent can we draw a correlation? How many of these projects would not have happened if we hadn't provided our impact fee incentives? And conversely, do we have a sense of how many projects are not happening primarily due to city impact fees? All of us get an earful on a regular basis and it's hard to suss out what the real impact is, what the correlation is. From your perspective, do you have a sense of either how effective

Very helpful answer, and I like your comparison of building homes versus building communities. That's a helpful clarification. Where do we stand on the spectrum of impact fees statewide and then potentially nationwide? Where is Santa Rosa? Are we super expensive? Are we kind of in the middle? Where do we stand?

Thank you. Again, helpful. And final question from me, and it goes back to a comment you made where you underlined that a number of incentive programs or policy changes that the city made, and I'm guessing you're talking about the Renewal Enterprise District as well. Some of the things that we put into place, we're attracting a different class of developer or a different category of developer. Are you referring to the related Californians and the LH housings? Are the larger players coming here because of this range of incentives or assistance that we've provided?

Thank you. And is that class of developer, are they a little less sensitive to impact fees? I hear it less in relation to their projects than I do with some of the more regional players.

Thank you. Helpful again. All right. No more questions from me. Let's open it up to the public. We'll start with in-chambers comments. But if you are online, raise your hand or press star nine. Anybody in chambers wish to make comment on this item? Mr. Farren, nothing? All right, good, good, good. We need to burn a few more minutes here, Gregory.

Thank you, Gregory. Lauren, anybody online?

Thank you, sir. Lauren, are there any other online comments?

nope they left mayor thank you very much so no more online comments correct all right we will close online com or close public comment uh bring it back for any final comments or discussion from council miss rogers did you have uh did you have a final a comment

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say that I believe we need housing for everyone. So when you say affordable housing, it really is what people can afford. I hear Council Member Benuelos, but really what happens is if we don't have the middle the middle housing that people that can afford a little bit more stay stuck in what is available for the middle housing. So it makes it difficult for people that's all they can afford. So having incentives and programs like this I think is very important. But we also need places like the Felix in different places for people that can afford it so tha

Thank you. Any other comments from council? All right, then I'm looking for a motion. And let's see, is it Ms. Banuelos?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I move that we adopt the three resolutions as presented by staff and waive reading of the text.

Second. All right, we have a motion and another second by Mr. Alvarez. Madam City Clerk, you can call the vote whenever you're ready.

Thank you very much. All right, we're close to the end. I'll call the public's attention to item 17.1. And Gabe and Jessica, thank you so much. Thank you for that item. I'll call the public's attention to item 17.1, our notice of final map. Let's see, you can find that information online. We are gonna go to our first and only public comment on non-agenda matters this evening. Normally we have two. We ran a very efficient meeting tonight, so we're down to one. Are there any members of the public in council chambers who wish to make comment on any items not listed on the agenda?

Let's see, Ms. Flores, let's start with you, and then we'll move on to John Claes.

Thank you, Adina. John? And if there are other members of the public who wish to speak, make your way to the podiums now to save time. John, go ahead.

John, thank you. I'm looking at our city manager right now. Do we have, are these areas on our radar screen? Do we have the information for them?

We're not, yeah, we won't go back and forth right now, but we will get your information. Thank you, sir. And a shout out to the Promise Center, a local faith community that's doing a lot to help the city and our graffiti evatement team deal with these situations. All right, next public comment. Mr. Fix, welcome to council chambers.

Brian, thank you, and thanks to the POA and SRPD. Are there any other members of the public in council chambers who wish to speak? Seeing none, we'll go online. Please raise your hand and dial star nine if you're online and you wish to make comment on any items not listed on the agenda. Madam Zoom Clerk, are there any questions? Are there any hands raised online?

Thank you for your comment, sir. We can't get into a discussion, but you can certainly pay attention to our planning meetings and contact the city at a different time. Is there anybody else online, Lauren?

All right. We're going to close public comment on non-agenda matters, and the time is 5.15, and we're officially adjourned. Thank you, everyone.