City Council - Regular Meeting

All right.

Recording in progress.

All right. We are here for the city council regular meeting to start with the closed session at 05:30. First, we will do a call to order with a roll call.

Good evening. Councilmember Janda?

Present.

Vice Mayor Holden?

Here.

Council member Galdo?

Here.

Council member Broadway?

Here. Mayor Bass?

Here. Thank you. All right. We are all present. Public comment on closed session.

Seeing none, moving on, we are going to be now entering closed session for item CS1 through CS4, and we will be back to see if we have anything to report out. To the city council Rockland City Council regular meeting, 04/14/2026. We have just left closed session. We do not have anything to report out. So we will now call the general session to order.

We'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. And now we will move on to agenda review. Does anybody have an item? No. And I do believe our city manager would like to move something.

Yes, thank you, mayor. If the council would be amenable, I would like to recommend moving our two discussion items, D1 and D2, to be heard ahead of the public hearings tonight.

I think that's fine.

Okay, thank you.

Absolutely. All right. Next we are going to move on to citizens addressing the city council. This is an opportunity for the public to comment on matters not listed on the agenda. Public comment on items listed on the agenda will be taken when the agenda item is called. We do encourage members of our citizenry to come up and talk. Just understand that this is a one way street. We can't engage in a dialogue like we would under other circumstances. You're free to talk. We do have a time limit that is semi strictly enforced.

So we'd ask that everyone be precise with it, and if you do have something that is raised that we can't address here, we will make sure we can direct staff to get in contact with you later. So at that, do we have any comment cards?

Mayor Bass, I do not have any comment cards for general public comment.

All

right. Without public comment cards, that means we get it's a free for all now.

I'm Jerry Mitchell,

mayor Bass and council. It's been three or four months since I've had a chance to talk to you about Sierra Pines Park, which is a park that was originally initiated almost three years ago, believe, and there's been various issues that have come up. As I understand it, the builder, Lewis Corporation, failed to build the drainage to the adequate depth to ensure that lower parts of the park and parts of the other park were fully drained and therefore safe for utilization by families and kids and such. I understand that there's been various discussions and thoughts about fixing it and apparently it's just not feasible. However, there's further discussions that occurred between staff and Lewis Corporation where they're looking for a way of isolating certain parts of that park that's inherently water bone, bone, bone bound and fencing it off in appropriate, tasteful fencing and getting rid of the constructed fencing which is at the lower end of the park which is all laying down and is not very good looking.

And the upper part of the park is quite nice and I'm sure many more people would use it if they felt comfortable with the rest of the park And if the city had got completed the tasks that need to be done to make it safe and usable, then it would be a good thing for a community and another park in our list of neighborhood, larger parks that fills it out. It's particularly important because in Sierra Pines and the adjacent gated community, there's a total of two sixty nine residences. Those residences are all two story, have relatively small backyards as houses are built these days. And so it's doubly important that some recreation space we provided for them. Not only for that, for them, but down the street, down Dominguez Road, there's a road called Healy Road and there's Humboldt Road.

And so there's other people in the immediate area who could benefit having a completed park that could feel like they could use safely and effectively. And if you've ever been there on a Saturday or something like that, especially this time of the year, there's lots of baby carriages going around, mom and dad, but not too many kids actually playing anywhere near that area. So my understanding from staff with whom I spoke is that there is a concept now to do as I described it. They isolated specific problem areas and fence them off appropriately. The rest of the park could be suitable perhaps suitable for acceptance by the city and we can move on and start using that facility like with anyone else.

This is particularly relevant because in your two weeks ago, you approved in your consent calendar the renovations of several other parks throughout the community. So it's time for council to assert to staff and subsequently to the developer to make a plan with dates and whatever commitments there and get it done. Thank you, Mr. Richfield. Additionally

Mr. Richfield. Uh-huh. Can have staff follow-up and actually, I will personally follow-up and we'll have a conversation about that particular park and I'll make sure that it gets addressed.

That'd excellent. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. With

I

I

was not built to satisfaction of the city based on the conditions that were approved by the city council many years ago and we're working through that as we speak. It will likely have to come back to the city council to approve those modifications because it was approved through an entitlement process. So don't I want to get too much into it, we're working through a solution.

:All

right. If there are no more public comments, all right, then we will move on to reports from city council as well as the city manager. I will look to my right. Councilmember Jen? Okay.

Councilmember Holden. Just, you know, want to report that excitement is off the charts for the opening of the Nugget tomorrow morning at seven a. M. I had a chance to take a little sneak peek today and it's really a beautiful store and when you're there or if you go visit it, look at the little touches that they've made in that store. Look up at some of the chandeliers, lighting, the little things, and they had a local artist do paintings throughout the store depicting agriculture and it's just really a very well done place.

And the whole center, Councilmember Gallardo and I had a little walk around the whole center. The amount of outdoor seating throughout the center, including that nugget, is really, I think, going to create a very good community meeting place for people to come and gather. They've a lot of construction work to do, but the nugget is ready to go and excited to be here in Rockland. Thank you.

Alright, Councilmember Gayla.

Thank you. Few things. Starting out Easter day, we had the Easter egg hunt at Johnson Springview Park that the fire department puts on, and I just have to give them so much credit. You know, it's not a city event. It is something that the fire department volunteer their time and their dollars to provide that. It was the biggest group I think I've ever seen.

I think they said there

were 7,000 eggs that they had put out there. They do such a nice job. And to be honest, then sometimes you see on social media some feedback that is not the most positive, and it's just hard for me to take that when I know that these are volunteers out there doing something wonderful. First time, I'll be honest, I saw usually, you know, we go to an event and you know half of the people there. Definitely we had some folks that maybe had come from other areas to join in on the fun.

I was in the one year old, two year old area and I mean there were kids with 30 eggs and quite honestly they had some great adult helpers to get them to get their 30 eggs and so you wanna it's really hard because it's such a positive thing, you want to remind people that, hey, let's let the kids do this, and no, they don't put anything in for choking hazards for the little tiny ones, but you come over there and you can win a basket. They had face painters out this year, and they had a giant bunny rabbit for photos, and it's just really positive and really nice. So thank you so much to everybody that helped to make that happen. On the sixth, it was the SACOGS Policy and Innovation Committee meeting. A lot of it focused on SB ten eighty seven, which is Christopher Kobolden is carrying that bill for us.

And really, it's again, the frustration you hear all the time about local control is trying to get some a little more focus on some local control, dealing with CARB and some of the others that can be quite challenging in these process. So the goal of this is to be able to have strength and some coordination with it and focus on implementation and really local agency control. So we'll see how that goes, I'll keep you updated. On the eighth, one of our high schools, Del Oro, invited us to come and serve and observe. They had something kind of like a shark tank experience, I guess, is best I would call it.

They had students do presentations on their businesses that they had either started or that they wanted to start, and the winner, which they didn't announce until after, but it was a $2,500 scholarship to help them get their business going. It was great. These kids are darn good. I mean, it's everything from apps to photography studio, know, focusing, all kinds of different little businesses, and a lot of these kids are already doing it. They're doing a great job, so I appreciated that opportunity.

On the ninth was the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Awards, and I accepted the Salud Award on behalf of SACOG for their innovation projects. Don't know if any do I know Councilmember Janda was with us on the tenth the big boy, the train was here in Roseville and it was dumping rain while we were out there, but it was really impressive and appreciated the Union Pacific inviting us And every chance I get, would remind people that remember the railroad was here in Rockland first before it went to Roseville, but that was really a fun event to get to see. Run Rockland, thank you to everybody, police, fire, our public safety folks, our our public works team, all the volunteers. It was a dumping, and and literally we were on the the conference call at ten, 11:00 at night going, what do we do? What do we do for this in the morning?

And everybody was so good about helping us get through. And we did decide to not do the half marathon, knowing that the pathway was up crest right at Boulder Ridge Park, and they said lightning around eleven, so we thought probably the highest point in Rockland and the most open wouldn't be the best spot. So people were really good about accommodating, and the weather held up perfect, and we couldn't have been any more fortunate, and they were the weather people were right for once. Boy, as soon as we were done, it came. But thank you to everybody.

I know we missed having the folks that just like to come and walk and enjoy the community, because it was raining pretty good, but the hearty folks were out there, and I just appreciate everybody so much for all that time they put in. And then also, they said the Nugget tour, go look, it is so beautiful. And even the backside, they had started on these murals as soon as they knew they were going to do a store there, and they're tied in. The ones on the backside were Mrs. Parker Whitney, when she was in Sunset Magazine, and they have these giant beautiful murals done of ranch, of Joe Parker Whitney's ranch, and as Vice Mayor Halden mentioned, the inside, you really have to look to see the detail of the wood.

The tractor that's out front is a tractor that's 100 years old this year, as is Nugget Market started 100 years ago, and so it's just really beautiful, and I'm so excited for that complex itself. We got to go look and see what's coming. They don't tell you everything, or they don't let us tell you everything that's coming, but it is going to be a central focus for that community out there. And then last, I just want to give kudos to our police department and our school district. There was an ugly day last week where all of our schools in the area, if you're familiar, Roseville got a call with a threat, and Rockland High got a call with a threat, and Delaware High got a call with a threat.

Hopefully what people take from it is how well prepared everybody was. You were there, you were protecting our schools, you took it very seriously. You know, in the old days, when I was working at the school district, we literally had a little here's how to respond to the bomb threat. That was always what it was back then, and it has evolved to now it's just so professional, and they did such a great job. And I know it's really disconcerting for our families, but hopefully, seeing the response that we did with PD and the school district will make people feel much more comfortable to know our kids were in great hands and well protected. So thank you so much.

Thank you. And Councilmember Broadway? No report today.

All

right. Lot of great comments already, so I won't double up on them. I did have a great meeting with the realtors on threethirty one, gave kind of a preview maybe of the state of the city, just what's going on and where we've been. I did want to make one comment about the Nugget, which is it's great to see. I know throughout the build, there's been a lot of back and forth with the city.

And what you've heard today is in a large part kind of the collaborative work that the city does with partners to get that pride of ownership that we want to see from developers, whether it's residential or commercial, that is what we talk about when we're talking about a project we want to see and the innovation and kind of intelligent approach to it. So thank you to everybody, but also to the city staff for listening and being responsive. We had a couple fire drills. There was a dreaded roundabout at one point that was talked about, so it didn't It was kind of funny stuff that we were all able to get through. And then finally, I do want to thank the city, everyone that made Run Rockland possible.

I've been a board member, a founding board member of that, and it was a huge lift for the Rockland Police Activities League to take on Run Rockland, but it couldn't have happened without the city really making it a great event, and for everyone that did come out, it's amazing, and all of the fundraising that we are able to do, it just goes right back into the community, including for mostly athletic type of activities, as well as academic activities for some of our more need based youth. So thank you for everyone, and thank you for the city for being there for us. And now, city manager, do you have some updates and some proactive comments?

Thank you, Mayor. I also will talk a little bit about this past weekend first, expanding upon the appreciation that's also been shared about our staff to the Parks and Recreation Department and Public Works departments both who were also out all day during Saturday wherein the weather was even worse with our cleanup day. So our annual cleanup day was Saturday and so we had teams in the field all day working on that event. So I really wanted to express appreciation to everybody who worked either Saturday and or Sunday to make both of those community events so successful. I also wanted to share the city council to make you aware that on March 24, we had a sinkhole that was reported on Pine Street just adjacent to the Oak And Pine development.

It was discovered by the contractor working on the new housing project. And we discovered the sinkhole was not just a sinkhole, but it was part of an unidentified active granite drainage system that had keblast. And it's an old drainage system created many, many years ago that serves the adjacent alleyways, which are definitely prone to flooding during rain events. And since was on-site, they assisted us in identifying the magnitude of the failure, which was in fact in the cities right away and not a part of the project. And because we were still in the active rainy season and with rain in the immediate forecast at that time and due to the flood prone nature of the characteristics of the area, we determined that this would be considered an emergency situation and that the delay it would take to solicit bids through our normal contracting process would put the impacted area at risk.

So we worked to declare an emergency on the site, worked with the city engineer to develop a scope of work for the emergency repair. We were able to actually have two contractors bid and I selected the low bidder from those two contractors, began the work immediately and the work completed actually prior to very luckily last week's significant rainfall. So I'm bringing that to your awareness as part of our requirements under state law and municipal code related to declaration of an emergency project, and we'll bring the contract back to the city council for ratification at our next council meeting. A couple of other items I wanted to mention that are in the future and on a more positive note. This Friday is our first of our twenty twenty six evenings in the park.

So we'll start this year. We're kicking off on Friday the seventeenth at Whitney Park. And then next Friday is our first concert of the season at the Quarry Park Amphitheater with Strange Love, which is a Depeche Mode experience. And then last but not least, this week we have two council member birthdays to both, mayor Bass and vice mayor Halden this week. And that completes my report.

All right. Thank you. Now we'll move on to the, consent calendar. Items C1 through C15 of the consent calendar are considered and acted upon by one motion of the city council. Is there any of these items that need to be pulled? Seeing none, I will now look for a motion.

I'll make a motion to approve consent calendar items C1 through C7. I'll second.

All right. Having a motion and second, all in favor, aye. Aye. Noes? Abstentions? Okay. The consent calendar passes unanimously, and we will now be moving on to presentations. First starting with recognition of the 2026 Leadership Award recipient and twenty twenty six Employee of the Year.

So I believe you have the plaque, so I don't if Do you want you want to meet me down here? Okay. And I'm going to ask our twenty twenty six employees of the employee of the year, officer Palmiovos, to join me. And our twenty twenty six leadership award winner, code enforcement program manager, Ryan Taylor, to also join us. I'm just gonna embarrass these gentlemen for a minute because I know they both love it.

A couple of years ago, we established an annual employee awards program that is two part. First of all, we have a city manager's leadership award that we call the Marble Award because we love anything that's stone related. Employee awards are annual, they are peer nominated. Then for those who are in the manager group, I select that award winner each year. And this year, I selected our code enforcement program manager, Ryan Taylor, for that award.

Ryan is a consummate professional. He brings innovation to the department and to the city. He's always looking to help us find new ways to make the city livable, vibrant, and safe. And this past year, he helped us work through our first receivership, which is a very significant process to help take a blighted property and bring it in up to code and into a safe place for not only the property itself but for the residents around it. And based on that nomination, I selected Ryan for that award.

So congratulations, Ryan. Officer Paul Miovis is the winner of this year's Employee of the Year Award, which is our Granite Award. And that reward is even more special because it's peer nominated and peer selected. So Officer Miovis was nominated by his department, and I don't have it in front of me, but it was about six pages long. The list of things that Officer Miovis did this year as a detective actually I might ask his captain to come up here and if he can talk about anyone that would be great.

But the list of accomplishments that he had this year was off the charts and so the applicants for this award are evaluated by a group of peers, and he was unanimously selected as this year's winner. So congratulations, Paul. And that's it. I just wanted to bring them and make sure that they were able to get the recognition they both deserve for these deserving awards.

We can do some more photos.

Okay. Okay.

Working. Alright. Well, unless counsel wants to say anything, I I do just wanna say that it's it's amazing the the attention we pay to quality of life issues in in Rockland and why we fight so hard to keep our quality of life. And it's no small thing that I'll just speak from the legal side of things a little bit that receiverships are not easy. They're delicate situations, and it requires a sensitivity that takes a really deft mind to be able to navigate.

And then just in general, the police work that is being done, Just amazing to see how great our officers are and trained. Thank both of you for the great work that you both did. Really, we appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts, so thank you. The next presentation is a proclamation recognizing April 2026 as Arts Culture and Creativity Month and Arts Commission Annual Report, and this is presented by the Arts Commission Chair, Pranil Shanker. Pranil, how are you?

Doing great.

So I think you have a proclamation for him, and then he has a report for you.

Is that how we're gonna

do this?

Yeah. I was I just wanna hear the report. Okay. I don't wanna hear myself speak. Alright. Let's do this. Okay. Alright. This is a long document. We got a lot of people here.

So I'm gonna get hit the highlights, if that's alright. Okay. This is Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month, April 2026. Whereas Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month of April is the eighth annual statewide celebration first established by the California legislature in 2019, and whereas the city of Rockland believes that arts, culture, and creativity are essential to our community, and whereas arts and culture is an industry that provides both economic and community benefits, California is the fifth largest economy in the world with a creative economy of approximately two sixty one billion, 8% of the state's GDP and 847,000 jobs. Whereas the benefits of the arts impact our health by reducing depression, lowering stress hormones, and increasing longevity, Benefits of the arts impact our hope by fostering a sense of community and personal fulfillment, inspiring optimism.

And the benefits of the arts impact our healing by offering therapeutic exercises and experiences that restore well-being, enhance mental health and physical health, and support emotional recovery. Culture creates connections, sparks innovation, encourages understanding, and strengthens the community. And the Arts Council of Placer County leads efforts to advance the arts through programs, partnerships in the community, building initiatives such as community grants and strategic partnerships. This collective work at local, regional, and throughout the state uplifts our community and changes our lives for the better, and therefore be it resolved, the City Council of the City of Rock land hereby declares April 2026 as Arts, Culture and Creativity Month and encourages all Rockland residents to join in the celebration. Thank you for all the work that you do in the arts.

Thank you so much. Let's do the photo. We're gonna do a photo. Uh-huh. So that yeah.

Alright. Speech. Right? It's your turn. Hi. Good evening, mayor Bass and city council members. I'm Prunil Shankar, chair for the Rockland Arts Commission and the only time you're gonna see me in a tie. So it's probably the first time most of you've seen that. Okay. Presentation's up. What an exciting time to be a resident in our great city. Thanks to your leadership, I'm going to walk through how our commission established just a few years ago is already helping shape the identity of Rockland today. And more importantly, where we're going next. Am I going backwards?

Oh, there it is. Okay. Great.

At its core, our role is simple but powerful. We advise city council, we build partnerships, and we help Rockland bring the arts vision to life. The Arts Commission was tasked with implementing and recommending updates to the new arts visioning document, encouraging arts programs that enhance Rockland's cultural landscape, and strengthening partnerships between the city, county, the local arts, and cultural organizations. Today, I'm accompanied with fellow commission members who you've met, miss Joanna Hansen and Lynn Sully, who are in the audience, and then two more representatives, Gloria Breveridge and Holly Clark, who could not attend this evening. As a team behind this effort, my fellow commissioners and I are deeply invested in building something meaningful for the city.

Arts and culture aren't just nice to haves, they help define a city. Rockland is growing fast and the arts vision gives us a road map to make sure creativity grows with it. It creates identity, brings people together, and improves the quality of life. One of our first major responsibilities was to take a step back and ask, what does Rockland actually want when it comes to art? So we went back to the community.

In 2024, we conducted a survey and to understand the engagement and interest. That input turned into the visioning document which was adopted by the city council in June 2025. That input wasn't just a document. It replaced the old public master art plan and became our playbook moving forward. Building on that vision and that visioning document gave us five clear goals.

One, to increase access to arts for everyone. To promote year around experiences. To expand public art. To support the creative economy. And to strengthen our advisory role. Everything we do ties back to that document. No guesswork. No just collaboration and execution. One thing we realized early, we don't need to reinvent anything. Rockland already has talent, it has organizations, and it has events.

Our job is to connect the dots. We act as liaisons, promote what's already happening, and create stronger collaboration across the community. That is strengthening the arts network. In 2025, we focused on showing up. We participated in major city events like the Civic Celebration, Maker's Fair, and how we made it a priority to promote local artists through the city channels, social media, newsletters, and outreach.

Simple moves but high impact. Well, this one is one of my favorite parts and one I'm most proud of is we launched the student arts at City Hall program. This gives students from Rockland Unified a real platform, not just a classroom wall. In 2025 alone, we had four exhibition and over a 100 pieces of student art. It's not just art.

It's confidence. That's exposure and community pride and we're just getting started. We also focused on visibility and recognition. This year, we created a public art map featuring the city's best art, established a certificate and recognition program, and supported a new conceptual art design for the Whitney Ranch Retail Center. Now let's talk about what's next.

So in 2026, we're focused on stronger collaboration across the arts community, continued promotion of local artists, promoting the launch of the public art map, and staying active in city events. And at this year's red, white, and bluegrass Civic celebration, we're working to introduce an artist row where artists have an opportunity to display, sell, demonstrate, and have a hands on arts activity at the event. And that's how we bring art to life. In closing, I'll leave you with this. The Arts Commission is still new but the impact is already visible.

And this is just the foundation. We're here to execute on the vision, expand partnerships, and continue building on our great city. Thank you city council, my fellow commissioners, and the community for their support. I'm happy to take any questions.

Great. Wonderful presentation. Thank you. Any questions? Anything? Comments? Comments. We'll go straight to comments.

Oh, good.

Well, for me, thank you. I had the opportunity to serve as liaison with counsel on the art task force for several years. And I am as far away from an artist person as you can get other than I appreciate it so much.

These are

volunteers. I think that's the part that thank you to everyone that volunteers to do this. I think we all know students are better students when they have arts and music in their lives. I think as a community, we're a better community when we have it in our lives. And people might not always recognize when you see the mural on the back wall or ore carts or the little free libraries, that that's things that you guys brought to us to say, Hey, let's incorporate.

And now when we do a building, if you see the sentinel bird up on top of the hill, that all came from what you guys are doing. Just thank you so much. I appreciate what you're doing, and one of our goals in our strategic plan is to be a vibrant community, and it is the arts that make us a vibrant community. So thank you.

Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you. All right.

We have moved ahead of the public hearing, as we spoke during agenda review, the discussion items, which we have two. The first one being, AB four eighty one. This is military equipment inventory annual update. Police Captain Luke Sincerni.

Good evening, mayor, council, all the folks here. Assembly bill four eighty one was signed by governor Newsom on 09/30/2021 and requires that law enforcement agencies obtain approval from the agency's governing body prior to purchasing, raising funds for, or acquiring military equipment, using military equipment, and collaborating with other law enforcement agencies in the deployment or use of military equipment within the governing body's territorial jurisdiction. Assembly Bill four eighty one requires an ordinance for a law enforcement agency to adopt a policy for use of military equipment prior to purchasing, raising funds, acquiring, using, and or collaborating with other law enforcement agencies in the deployment or use of military equipment within the governing body's jurisdiction. In May 2022, the Rockland City Council introduced an ordinance adopting a military equipment policy authorizing use of all military equipment as outlined in the Rockland Police Department inventory report. It is required per assembly bill four eighty one to provide an annual report to the governing body for each type of military equipment approved within one year of approval and annually thereafter for as long as the military equipment is available for use.

Staff recommends approval of 2025 Assembly Bill four eighty one inventory report and annual approval of Rockland Police Department policy seven zero six titled military equipment. Thank you.

All right. Do we have any questions? No questions. I will open public comment at this point. Do we have any public comment from our comment cards?

Not for the discussion items from your past.

Okay. Anyone from the public that would like to make a comment? Seeing none, we will now close public comment, and I will be asking for further discussion. Again, seeing none, then I will be looking for action on this item, a motion and vote.

Mr. Mayor, I'll move to introduce, waive the full reading and read by title only, an ordinance of the city council of the City Of Rockland approving and adopting a military equipment policy for fiscal year twenty twenty six-twenty seven. Do

I have a second? Okay. We have a first and a second. All in favor, aye. Aye. No? Abstentions? All right. This item passes. The motion passes unanimously. Moving on to D2. This is the amendments to Rockland Municipal Code Chapter 5.22 to implement the short term rental facilitator act 2025 code enforcement program manager Ryan Taylor. Man of the hour.

Good evening, mayor and members of city council. My name is Ryan Taylor, code enforcement program manager, I'm here to introduce proposed amendments to chapter 5.22 short term rentals. The purpose of these amendments is to ensure the city of Rockland remains compliant with the recent state law while also strengthening our ability to effectively regulate short term rentals and enforce transient occupancy tax requirements. Specifically, these updates align our municipal code with the short term rental facilitator act of 2025 which requires local jurisdictions to formally adopt provisions allowing oversight of third party platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO. Chapter 5.22 already establishes a strong local framework with which includes a permit requirement for all short term rentals, operational standards including occupancy limits, parking and operator response times, a ninety day annual cap on rental activity, accountability measures including permit revocation, and enforcement provisions.

While this framework works well at the local level, it has historically lacked visibility into the activity occurring on third party platforms which is where these amendments come in. The proposed ordinance amendments introduce three primary enhancements. The first enhancement is the facilitator reporting requirements. The city would be authorized to require short term rental platform to provide property address and listing URLs, parcel numbers when needed. This information will be provided quarterly for all listings or monthly for all TOT remittance.

This is critical because it allows the city to identify unpermitted rentals, ensure accurate TOT collection, and improve overall compliance. The second enhancement is listing requirements. Short term rental platforms will now be required to display a valid city issued permit number on all listings, Ensure listings include business license information and it gives the city the ability to remove or deactivate non compliant listings upon city notice. The third enhancement would be audit authority. The city will have the ability to audit facilitator records related to transient occupancy tax collection, pursue civil action for unpaid taxes if necessary.

This ensures the city can verify the tax collected on our behalf are accurately reported and remitted. These amendments are important for three key reasons. One, it provides a level playing field and ensures all operators both compliant and non compliant are held to the same standard. Second is revenue protection. It's strengthening the city's ability to collect tax TOT which supports general fund services.

And third is neighborhood protection. It enhances our ability to identify and address problematic rentals that may impact quality of life. In closing, these amendments modernize our our ordinance, bring us into compliance with state law, and provide the tools necessary for effective enforcement in today's short term rental environment. Staff recommends that the city council introduce the ordinance, waive the full reading, and move it forward for a second reading and adoption. This is the conclusion of my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Questions from council members.

Yes. Yeah. Thanks for your report on this, Brian. So is this required for us to do by the state?

It's requirement not by the state, but in order to have the tools to facilitate the auditing and some of

the

platforms, we'd need to adopt it.

Okay. So if we don't enact it, we're not in violation from the state, but we're also not able to monitor? The

That's correct.

Okay. All right. Thanks.

Thank you. With the onset of VRBO, Airbnb, I remember in the beginning thinking Rockland's not going to be a big draw for the party houses, and then we had it come up that we had that concern. What I'm curious, and obviously it's to protect neighborhoods so that they have peace and quiet in their neighborhood, But what is considered a short term? So if somebody rents their house out and said, I'm going to be gone for the summer for three months, is that short term? Or how do we define that?

So the short terms are basically established when they're thirty days or less, when they're on their rentals. In the city of Rockland, we have a ninety day cap on those rentals as well.

So ninety days, so if you're advertising your place on an Airbnb, you could rent it for the weekends or three days, but a maximum ninety days. That's correct. You.

All right. At this point, we'll be opening for public comment. I understand we have no cards for any discussion. It's okay. And then back to public comment out here. Seeing none, I will close public comment and now ask for any further discussion.

Mr. Mayor, I do have a follow-up question. So, know when we initially put in an ordinance, we were having some issues, and we essentially allow short term rentals, but cap it at that ninety days throughout the year. So since then, have we had any issues with short term rentals? Haven't really heard any problems?

We've had a few complaints just on parties, but they've been pretty minimal. But I would say that the ordinance as is has really helped with that.

I think we've had a few maybe neighborhood complaints where a resident may call in. They don't know what they're complaining about yet, and upon research we found out it might be a short term rental, and so we've addressed it through our natural process. But specific to when the city council reacted, I think, about five years ago to some concerns that were happening, there haven't been very many specific to that. But from time to time, we do get a complaint that ends up being about a short term rental.

Sure. And we're able to handle that with our current tools.

We can. But similar to a couple of meetings ago, we had to adopt ordinance in order to do certain things to allow our fire marshal to work a similar thing. We can only, the state will only allow us to use these enhanced features if we have them adopted by ordinance. So we're bringing that forward at this time as a recommendation.

Okay. Thanks.

And I just will say thank you for all any and all work on this. I do have my own personal story. Actually, it's not mine, but it's a friend. And there was short term rental issue and a little camping in the background because a group came through, they were tied to some items going on in Roseville, so they were here for a couple of weeks. It was an interesting situation. I know they don't pop up a lot, but the issue does pop up, and it could be a disturbance for the entire neighborhood. All right. Well, if there's no more comments or questions, then, I will be looking to city council for an action on this item.

Mister mayor, I'll move approval of, introduction of and waiving the full reading and read by title only and ordinance of the city council of the City Of Rockland amending chapter 5.22 of the Rockland municipal code related to short term rentals to establish reporting, listing, and audit requirements applicable to short term rental facilitators.

Second. All right. We have a first and second. All in favor, aye. Aye. Nose? No. Abstention? All right. The item passes with four ayes, one no. We have everything, Madam Clerk, for the record? Okay, great. We are now going to move on to public hearings. These, first one will be public hearing number one, which is the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, Hearing and approval of the issuance of exempt facility bonds by the California municipal finance authority for the benefit of Rockland, WJU seven nineteen LP. Management analyst, Megan Bressam.

Good evening, honorable mayor and council members. Megan Bressam, management analyst in the administrative services department. The item before you this evening is a public hearing pursuant to the federal tax equity and fiscal responsibility act or TEFRA. For the benefit of the borrower WJU seven nineteen LP. TEFRA requires a public hearing be held by the governing body of the jurisdiction in which a project to be financed with tax exempt financing is located and that the governing body approve the proposed financing.

On behalf of the borrower, USA Properties Fund Inc. Has requested the California Municipal Finance Authority, the CMFA, to be the issuer of tax exempt financing in an amount not to exceed $115,000,000 The purpose of the tax exempt facilities bonds will be to finance and refinance the acquisition, construction, development, and equipping of a three twenty four unit including three managers units qualified multi family rental housing project. The facility will be owned and operated by the borrower and is located on a 12.7 acre property northwest of the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and University Avenue, South Of Larksburg Drive within the City of Rockland. The proposed debt to be issued by the CMFA will be the sole responsibility of the borrower. The City of Rockland will have no financial or legal obligations or responsibilities with regard to the repayment of the debt.

All financing documents will carry disclaimers that the loan is not an obligation of the city. The city will also bear no cost in the issuance of the proposed debt. Staff recommends that the city council adopt a resolution approving the issuance of bonds not to exceed $115,000,000 by the CMFA for the benefit of the borrower. Such adoption is solely for the purposes of satisfying the requirements of TEFRA, the Internal Revenue Code, the California Government Code, and California Government Code section six five zero zero. At this time, city staff, the representatives from USA Properties, and CMFA are in attendance tonight to answer any questions you may

have. Okay. And so at this point, any questions? Yes.

More question or more confirmation. This is always such a strange one for me. We have no legal obligation. This isn't our financing. They're required just to have a public hearing, and we are the folks that host the public hearing, if I'm clear on that. And so we have no conversation about this is about the project itself, prevailing wage, anything like that. We're just holding, we're hosting their public hearing, basically. That is correct. Yeah, I just want to confirm. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes? Just when this project, correct me if I'm wrong, was approved, it was a market rate project. Is it coming back to us as an affordable project? Or has it already come back for that?

I don't believe it needs to come back to you because it changed how it's planning to be sold. The entitlements haven't changed.

Okay. Thank

you. Great. All right. Any other questions? No. All right. So at this point, we will open for a public comment.

Mayor Bass, we do have one comment card from Mr. Lloyd Reber.

Good evening, mayor, council. My name is Lloyd Reber, and I'm a field representative of of carpenter's local forty six. I'm here to encourage the council to instruct staff to table items, p h one and p h two, since the city of Rockland is investing millions of dollars into these projects. The labor standards on the projects should reflect and be consistent with standards rep, residents and voters of Rockland have with other public funded projects. Additionally, public hearing items one and two are TEFRA hearings, a democratic exercise whereby the city of Rockland, city council, or its voters choose to grant a subsidy to a developer, specifically by allowing federal taxes to not be paid on private active activity bonds.

Simply put, these are federal tax breaks. Given that the developers have failed to provide assurances that workers on these projects will receive living wages and health care benefits, again, despite receiving millions from the city of Rockland, Carpenter's Local forty six asks you to stand with workers and table the tax breaks for the projects as they currently stand. Failing to guarantee these basic benefits means workers are often forced to rely on already overburdened federally funded social safety net programs. To expect federal tax breaks on top of this adds to the lack of fiscal logic surrounding the demands being made of the city Rockland City Council with respect to these tax breaks. If you are torn on the matter, local forty six reminds the council of the legal option to allow Rockland voters to make these decisions.

We are confident that in this scenario, the people of Rockland will stand for the workers who build much needed housing for the community. Again, my name is Lloyd Reber. I'm with Carpenter's Local forty six. I'm here with, my coworker, Robert Blunt, with our research department if you have any questions for us. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other public comments? All right. At this point, I will close the public hearing and bring it back for any further discussion or questions that the council might have.

For clarification, the city has no funds invested in this specific project before we go on public hearing number one.

And I was actually gonna ask that question in terms of just the difference between what we are doing and what we're not doing here. I know that we had previously stated we weren't taking on any liability. We are providing the forum for which this

Correct. And there are affordable housing projects in the city where the city has provided funds or some type of incentive or subsidy, but this project, the developer has not requested any.

Okay.

And we have not considered it, nor has it come before the council.

Okay. And I can understand the concerns, and I do appreciate the issues of living wages and the cost of housing and whether we can afford to be able to build, and then how we build those is very important, especially to the people that are actually building them for us. Appreciate that. Is there any other comments from the city at this point?

Yeah, just the same. Thank you. I appreciate the speaker and the clarification that while there are some projects that the city is, this is not one where we're investing in anything. So thank you so much for your comments.

All right. If there are no other further comments, I will be asking the city council to take an action on this item.

Mr. Mayor, I'll move approval of public hearing item one.

All right. Do I have a second?

I'll second it.

All right. Having a first and a second, all in favor, aye. Aye. Noes? Abstentions? All right. The item passes unanimously. We move on to PH2, similar to the first one, another Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act hearing and approval of the issuance of exempt facility bonds by the California municipal. Finance authority for the benefit of Rockland Sierra, 703LP. Management analyst, Megan

Good evening once again. Megan Bressam, management analyst. This public hearing is pursuant to the Federal Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act or TEFRA for the benefit of the borrower Rockland Sierra 703 LP. TEFRA requires a public hearing to be held by the governing body of the jurisdiction in which a project to be financed with tax exempt financing is located and that the governing body approved the proposed financing. On behalf of the borrower, USA Properties Fund Inc.

Has requested the CMFA to be the issuer of tax exempt financing in an amount not to exceed $35,000,000 the purpose of the tax exempt facilities bonds will be to finance and refinance the acquisition construction development and equipping of a 180 unit including two managers units qualified multi family rental housing project the facility will be owned and operated by the borrower and located at 4930 Rocklin Road within the city of Rocklin the proposed debt to be issued by the CMFA will be the sole responsibility of the borrower the City of Rockland will have no financial or legal obligations or responsibilities with regard to the repayment of the debt. All financing documents will carry disclaimers that the loan is not an obligation of the City. The City will also bear no cost in the issuance of the proposed debt. Staff recommends the city council adopt a resolution approving the issuance of bonds not to exceed $35,000,000 by the CMFA for the benefit of the borrower. Such adoption is solely for the purposes satisfying the requirements of TEFRA, the Internal Revenue Code, and California Government Code Section 6,500.

At this time, city staff and representatives from USA Properties and CMFA are in attendance tonight to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. At this moment, we'll open the public hearing. Call for questions by any council members. Any questions? Okay. I now open the public comment period. Do we have any comment cards?

No comment cards for PH2.

All right. Opening up to the public. Anyone else would like to speak on this issue? No. Closing the public comment period. Final questions by council members to staff or the applicant? Okay. All right. Closing the public hearing. No further discussion. I'll look to city council for action on this item.

Mr. Mayor, I'll move approval of public hearing item two.

Second. All right. Having a first and a second. All in favor, aye. Aye. No's? Abstentions? Item passes unanimously. All right. We're at the top of the hour. Is there any request for a break? Anyone? Okay. We're gonna take a five minute break or a ten minute break. What? Five? Five minutes. Alright. The five minutes have it. Passes unanimously.

Alright. I'll be on the job. Two bits. Alright.

Looks like the ten minute group got the better of the five minute group on that one. So, we are moving on to our third public hearing, Granite Lakes Estates Development Agreement and development agreement DA twenty twenty four-one with our principal planner, Nathan Anderson.

Good evening. Thank you very much. Nathan Anderson with the Rockland Planning Division. Tonight, I'll be presenting a development agreement for the Granite Lakes Estates Project. The project is located on the Southern Port in the southern portion of the city at the southern terminus of Greenbrae Road and Monument Springs Drive.

The first phase of the 113 log project consisted of 48 homes, was constructed a little more than a decade ago. Approximately five acre parcel located near the center of the site was not included as part of this original project. That parcel is labeled Napots on several exhibits, which means it's not a part of the site. The original entitlements for Granite Lakes Estates go back to May 2002 when the project was initially approved. Those original approvals included an environmental impact report, general development plan, tentative subdivision map, oak tree preservation plan permit, and a development agreement, or DA.

Primary access to the project site was approved to occur via an off-site extension of Monument Springs Drive extending from its current terminus on the north side of Secret Ravine across the creek to Greenbrae Road. This extension included construction of a developer funded bridge along with a two lane roadway connecting to Greenbrae Road. Construction of the roadway extension and bridge has been delayed by several factors throughout the years, including changes in property ownership, minor adjustments to the roadway alignment, challenges associated with acquiring the necessary right of way, and one or two economic downturns. As of tonight, this extension and bridge remain undeveloped, although this is in the process of changing. The Granite Lakes Estates is one of three projects which were tied to construction of the bridge, The other two being Vista Oaks and Highlands Parcel A.

In 2022, in an effort to advance construction of the bridge, the council affirmed special conditions requiring the owners of the Granite Lakes Estate Project along with the two other neighboring projects to form a bond opportunities for land development or bold community facility district. That same year, both Vista Oaks and Highlands Parcel A were approved for development agreements that included ten year term extensions. Also in 2022, this body directed staff to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing city funds to support earlier construction of the bridge and accelerate its delivery timeline. In March 2023, council approved advancing city funds from the traffic circulation impact fees to support early construction of the bridge with reimbursements of the city occurring over time to the Bold Community Facilities District. This component in in particular was important as the city is advancing funds to facilitate construction of the bridge with repayment to occur over time as homes are constructed within the benefiting developments.

As part of that action, the city council directed staff to assume responsibility for the project and to deliver the bridge as quickly and efficiently as reasonably possible. Since that time, bridge design has continued to progress with 90% design plans anticipated to be submitted by Docket Engineering in May. Environmental permitting is also underway. The current construction schedule anticipates a spring twenty twenty seven start date, with construction expected to take approximately six months. The bridge is therefore anticipated to be fully operational by the 2027.

So, I want to take a moment to clarify something here that staff realize may have come off as a bit ambiguous in the Planning Commission meeting last month. Residents living outside of this new of these new development areas would not be paying for the bridge. The construction of the bridge will be fronted by the city from traffic circulation impact funds. It will be reimbursed by the bond proceeds backed by Vista Oaks, Highlands Parcel A, and the remaining phases the Granite Lakes Estates Project. So, if you live outside of the new development areas, your taxes are not going to go to pay for the construction of the bridge or any of the improvements in Monument Springs Drive.

This brings us to the proposed development agreement for the Granite Lakes Estates Project. Much of the language from the proposed agreement was derived from the development agreements approved in 2022 for Vista Oaks and Highlands A. Although several project specific provisions are included. So, we'll go through each of those briefly. The first relates to the term of the agreement.

The applicant has requested a ten year extension consistent with the approvals granted for Vista Oaks and for Highlands Parcel A. According to the development team, while the project is anticipated to be completed well before this timeframe, the requested term is intended to account for potential uncertainties associated with the project or broader economic downturns. Approval of the agreement would extend the life of the tentative subdivision map and the Oaktree permit, which are currently valid only through January 2027 unless extended by this DA or some other mechanism. Item seven of the DA would require annexation into the CFD and the establishment of a special tax rate. As discussed previously, proceeds from bonds issued for and special taxes collected within this district would be used to reimburse the city for the costs associated with construction of the bridge.

Item eight of the development agreement has generated the majority of the public comments received to date and was the broadest point of discussion at the Planning Commission meeting last month. As noted earlier, in this presentation, 48 of the 113 approved lots within the project have already been constructed leaving 68 lots remaining to be developed. The current subdivision map includes this condition right here which states that the forty ninth building permit for the project may not be issued until the extension of Monument Springs Drive, including the bridge over Secret Ravine, has been completed and is fully operational. Item eight would remove this restriction on building permits and allow the applicant to begin construction of the remaining homes once construction of the bridge foundations and abutments have commenced. However, of the 68 remaining lots, certificates of occupancy would only be permitted for six to eight model homes until a notice of completion is approved by the city council confirming that the bridge is fully operational.

As discussed previously, the full bridge construction timeline is anticipated to be approximately six months with construction anticipated to begin in early begin in 2027 include conclude before the end of the year. So, building permits would not be able to be issued until the bridge foundations have been poured and it's anticipated that the home construction will begin approximately six months prior to completion of the bridge. Meaning, the home construction and bridge construction will be on similar timelines. It's also important to understand the distinction between building permits and improvement plans as there has been some confusion regarding what the current condition of approval actually prohibits. Building permits authorized construction of vertical structures including foundations, structural framing, walls, roofs, mechanical, electrical, essentially everything above the finished grade improvement plans authorized construction of horizontal features infrastructure, utilities that support development of the site.

These include roads, water and sewer lines, storm drainage and grading, essentially everything at or below the finished grade. As currently approved, only building permits are restricted until the bridge is constructed. Under the current condition, the applicant could obtain approval for improvement plans and begin work on a plethora of items including roads, utilities, and other grading prior to any bridge construction. However, building permits for vertical construction could not be issued. The applicant has indicated that allowing the homes to be constructed concurrently with the bridge could potentially reduce the overall construction timeline of the area as different phases of the project could be coordinated to occur simultaneously.

Following the Planning Commission meeting last month, the applicant contacted staff to request a further modification to this condition. Instead of allowing additional homes to be constructed upon commencement of bridge foundation abutment construction, the applicant has requested that the trigger be revised to completion of construction of the bridge foundations or abutments. So, the revised language would require that abutments on both sides of the creek be fully constructed prior to the issuance of any additional building permits for homes. Ultimately, this new language that the Planning Commission, this is new language. The Planning Commission didn't review it but the council certainly has the option tonight to approve the document with this revised language if you so feel necessary.

Moving on, the development agreement would also require the landowners to align, align the location and design of the bike and pedestrian trail within the Granite Lakes boundaries with the Highlands Parcel A and Vista Oaks Trail. The DA would also require the dedication or granting of all reasonably necessary right of way and temporary construction easements to the city to facilitate completion of the Monument Springs Bridge. The final project specific provision for the DA is item 11, which requires the landowner to grant the city an irrevocable offer of dedication and construction easement. This easement would allow for a future roadway connection from the southern stub of Monument Springs Drive through the Granite Lakes Estates project area ultimately connecting to the eastern terminus of the Highlands A project. This is essentially a fail safe, just in case the Granite Lakes Estates project is never constructed for whatever reason.

This would allow the city to connect this future roadway. This roadway connection is important. Once the three projects are fully developed, it would connect the project area directly to the southern extension of Monument Springs Drive which eventually connects down to Scarborough Drive in Roseville. This connection not only provide residents in this portion of Rockland with more direct access to this part of Roseville rather than requiring them to use Aguilar Road to reach I-eighty or Sierra College Boulevard but would also provide an additional evacuation route in case of an emergency. This item was presented to the Planning Commission on March 17.

Approximately 10 members of the public provided comment at that hearing. In general, commenters did not express opposition to the overall development of the project or approval of the DA. However, numerous speakers opposed item eight, which would allow issuance of the remaining building permits prior to the bridge being fully operational. Ultimately, the Planning Commission voted three to one, with one member absent, to recommend approval of the DA, with a modification to remove Item eight, thereby retaining the existing condition requiring completion of the bridge prior to issuance of any additional building permits. As the Planning Commission serves as the in an advisory capacity, Item eight has been retained in the version of the DA which is being presented tonight, but staff is prepared to modify any portion of the document as directed.

The Planning Commission staff find the proposed DA to be consistent with the existing general plan designations, zoning, and requirements of the government code. Project has been approved for more than two decades, and approval of the development agreement would facilitate the completion of the single family project and underutilized residential site at a density that is consistent with the surrounding residential neighborhoods. This concludes staff's presentation this evening. The clerk has provided the council with several additional pieces of correspondence which were provided subsequent to publication of the staff report packet. If the council has any questions about that correspondence or any other portion of this project, staff will be happy to, do our best to answer those. So thank you very much. Thank you.

So in this public hearing, just like we've done for the past two public hearings, we're going to first start with a call for questions by council members and get staff responses. I'll then open the public comment period and then close the public comment period, and we'll have final questions by council members to staff. And then I'll close the public hearing. At that point, then we will ask for any further discussion. So I'm going to start for a call for questions by council members. Do we have any? Councilmember Jennings?

Yes. But before that, is the applicant going to speak at all?

If the applicant would like to speak, we can have that presentation now. I'd prefer to wait to hear that

And as then two questions or that's just me.

We'll have the applicant give a brief.

Mayor Bass, members of the city council, Nick Alexander, on behalf of Granite Lakes Estates. At this time, we want to thank staff for working with us on this project. We are concurrence with a very well written staff report. While there may be some debate on the issue of concurrent construction, we propose concurrent construction defined in Section eight of the development agreement be modified and may not begin until the completion of the bridge abutments. Prior to the completion of the bridge abutments, the only permits may be issued are for six to eight model homes.

Please note that the backbone infrastructure work for the subdivision, as staff mentioned, may begin prior to the construction of the bridge. However, this work is not likely to begin until 2027, as at the earliest, as the subdivision improvement plans have yet to be reviewed by the city. There are many benefits to this development agreement, and they are that the city of Rockland has allocated monies in the CIP to manage the design and construction of the bridge. To date, the city has advanced significant costs for the environmental and construction documents. As documented in section 7.2 of the development agreement, the construction of the remaining homes is the primary mechanism for reimbursing the city for the cost of the bridge through the Bold financing district and allows the city to recoup its construction costs in a timely manner rather than over a period of years.

Concurrent construction with the bridge results in the acceleration of cash flow to the city's CIP budget, allowing the city to earmark monies for other necessary projects sooner rather than later elsewhere in the city. And as well as saving financing costs and interest dollars. Allowing concurrent construction of the home and of the is intended to minimize overall disruption to the nearby neighborhoods by consolidating construction activity into an organized and coordinated time frame rather than occur sequentially over a period of several years. And as another another major benefit to this project is the early dedication of the right of way prior to the subdivision map being recruited, I mean recorded, pardon me, for its, for the southern extension of Monument Springs Drive, as was presented by staff. The southern roadway provides another point of access through Vista Oaks and Highlands Project located to the southwest.

The southern extension of Monument Springs Drive also results in decreased vehicle trips on Aguilar Drive and another point of emergency egress providing a more direct route to Sutter Roosevelt Medical Center. Furthermore, it provides another point of access if for any reason Aguilar Road or Monument Springs Drive becomes impossible impassable, I should say. And I would like to point out that there was a traffic study that was submitted that failed to include the Monument Springs right away. Also, there were some claims that there's an additional in the IR is necessary, but these are misguided as the CEQA according to the CECO guidelines, the challenge period to the addendum of the EAR has long expired. And once again, I'd like to emphasize that the development agreement establishes that the issuance of the final occupancy permits may not be completed until the Monument Springs Drive Monument Springs Bridge is completed and accepted by the city.

Given the benefits, including but not limited to tax and financing savings, minimizing overall community disruption, and improvement of emergency egress egress and access, we respectfully request the council approve this development agreement for you tonight. And I'll be glad to answer any questions

if you have any. Thank you. Let you start with

Yeah. You, Mr. Mayor. So I've got some questions. I go back and forth between staff and the applicant, but I do want to mention that I did have ex parte communications with the applicant. No promises, information only. Just wanted to get that out there. So as the staff pointed out, currently heavy construction can begin on the groundwork, utilities, pretty much everything except pouring a foundation and framing a house. Is that right?

That's correct. The existing tentative subdivision map doesn't have any restrictions on kind of improvement plans, infrastructure improvements, grading, all that can be done once improvement plans have been issued by the city. Okay.

So this could have been done in years past. Certainly. And it still hasn't been done yet. So on that, what's the process that the applicant has to go through to be able to actually get equipment moving and move dirt? They would

have to record the final map, and then they submit improvement plans. Those would be reviewed to make sure they're consistent with city standards, ultimately approved and then issued and then they could start construction and grading.

And what's the typical timeline for that? Nothing's been submitted yet, is that correct?

Is that correct, Lynn? Has any grading permits or tentative or the final map been submitted at this point? I'm sorry, I'm leaning on engineering. That's right.

I'm just trying to kind of build a timeline in my head here.

Yeah. Lynn Toth, Community Development Engineering. Yes, we do actually have improvement plans, you know, on file but they're not approved. So we'd have to relook at those. It's been a number of years since those were submitted.

From a They

have been through some review.

From a timing standpoint, which how do you what do you think how long would it take to for staff to go Are those even valid still?

Yeah, I mean, they're we need to look at them in case there's any updated, you know, city standards or anything. Excuse me like that. But I would say probably three to six months.

Okay.

Three, you know, is probably more likely, but just

To review and get them back for the applicant to

No, I'm looking at the entire

Back and forth. Okay. Three to six Yeah. Okay.

Yeah.

That's good. So, we're talking, you know, fall, I guess. If that was to happen tomorrow, it's going to be, you know, anywhere from mid summer to mid fall before any work can begin out there.

Yes, that would be probably reasonable. Just trying to

a ballpark.

Yeah. If I may.

Yeah, sure.

Councilmember Janda. Late fall would be it would be too early, I think, because you need to go out to bid and do all that and get the improvement plans approved. And then there's something called because we're working in the Creek area, we can't be working around the Creek area after October 15 due to California Department of Fish and Wildlife. So, I think personally, I think we would not begin the subdivision improvements until next construction

question. And

So,

Yeah. Yeah. So, even if the process started with right now, reality it'd be April 15 at the earliest to start that. Then, how long in your estimate, I know you're putting a little bit on the spot, before you'd even be ready to start foundation work?

Three to six months.

Three to six months.

So, now we're talking

the '27.

Yeah. So, I think it would be, it would time up with the bridge abutments.

Yeah. Well, the bridge abutments, Nate, can you refresh my memory? Is that kind of the same time, '7?

Yeah, essentially. So the bridge would start construction in May '7, I believe. I'm looking at May '7. I think that generally takes about three months to get the abutments done. So June, July, August, somewhere around there. So

from a timing standpoint, even if the improvement plans for excavation were started today, go through that process, you run up against the fall, you can't actually break ground until mid April, then that's three to six months before you're even ready to lay a house foundation, kind of aligns with the timing of the bridge. So even if we don't do anything, you're still not going to be able to be ready just on your own timeline to start doing foundations until the bridge is nearly done anyways.

Right.

Okay. I was just trying to wrap my head around kind of just the process. Know, outside of all the other issues we're talking about with the DA agreement, just the pure timing of construction is going to push foundations out until next fall anyways. Yes. Okay. Great. I think that's all I have for right now.

Thank you. Great. What is the status of the road from Greenbrae to the beginning of the bridge? And when when would that be constructed?

The status of the of Greenbrae to the beginning of the bridge, the Monument Springs. Can you bring up the sorry. It's easier if we have a visual aid. Are you speaking of this? I don't have a mouse, but where Greenbrae connects to Monument Springs there?

Yeah. The. It's it's stubbed

out as shown on the lower left hand corner. So basically it just needs to be The

bridge project?

Yeah. That's the Monument Springs portion which needs to be improved. Yes. The Monument Springs Drive improvement as part of the bridge project.

Okay, right. So that would be done, I assume, probably even before the bridge was done or?

I think all this is to be no, concurrently?

Yeah, concurrently. Okay. Don't want to destroy the asphalt being told by the city engineer.

I was watching the planning commission meeting last month and there was a fair amount of discussion about Aguilar Road. And I'd just like the staff to fill everybody in with what our plan is for Aguilar Road. And I know I recall, I think it was about three to four years ago that we set aside, I think, dollars 2,250,000.00 to improve Aguilar Road, and where we are at that.

Thank you. So you're correct. Back about four years ago, Aguilar wrote improvements and exploring alternatives to determine the most appropriate way to move forward. That was funded in the CIP. We started working on that project in, I would say, the 2021 and brought a contractor on board to start working on design plans.

At about the time we got to some alternatives for the city to start evaluating and considering was when the city council directed staff to consider taking on a bridge project. A couple of things. As it relates to human resources and financial resources, it wasn't something that we could do both at the same time. And so the determination was made that we would put a pause on the Aguilar Road improvement projects while we focused on the bridge project because that was the priority of the city council, getting that project up and running. As you know, it's something we've been working on pretty heavily.

And so that project has some preliminary design alternatives. And then based on what we think makes the most sense is to, once the bridge and road are open and completed, is again evaluate how traffic is working in the area and then bring back the Aguilar project and potentially consider what the best improvements are there. Aguilar Road, as you know, was a county road that the city inherited when it annexed the area in. And so any improvements to that road are going to cause impacts to the surrounding property owners, and so we want to be really mindful and thoughtful about what we recommend.

Thank you. And I also want to mention that I had ex parte communications with many residents on this topic, as well as a telephone call with Mr. Alexander.

Councilmember Galloway. Yeah,

so similar question, a couple things.

Actually, on Aguilar, when it comes up, so you say it so nicely, but basically, this was the county. We inherited it did was it been like eight years now, nine years?

I believe it was annexed in '20 I'd

say it's been a bit. Certainly, it was good for the rest. That area, it's always been so strange that there was this island in the middle of Rockland that was not part of Rockland, it was part of the county. If you look there, quite honestly, you can tell. Was and I apologize to my current planning or county supervisor, I know it was before your time, but there was no planning done in that area, and it is a mismatch of pretty bizarre design, as you can tell.

I'd say my favorite's the old Kiki Terrace apartments, and then we've got these houses. So I was really happy that the city annexed that area so they could get police and fire in particular. But it was frustrating a little bit to me that there was no push with the county before then to say, hey, how are we going to do this? Aguilar Road is not where anything close to what we would have required, But I understand clearly the problem is we don't have any easements to be able to build sidewalks. We need to work with those property owners to get property to be able to do something.

And I know we're focusing on the bridge, but is that something that we are still working on so that we'll be ready, that we can obtain some property so we can get a darn sidewalk for these folks?

I want to be careful to not start talking about an item that's not agendized, so I will just say that the alternatives that were being created back four years ago before we put this project on pause did include options for sidewalks. But all of them would include widening the road, which as if you live in that area, you know your property goes right up to the road. So we would have to be working with every property owner along Aguilar to make a project like that successful.

Thank you. And I get it. It's hard to think that that's not part of this project, but I get what you're saying on the legal aspect. The construction of the bridge. So the good thing when you're telling me six months, is that an accurate, realistic are we going to start this bridge and be done in six months?

That's the estimate that's been provided to us by the people who are designing the bridge. Think Ali has something to add.

I can share that to date, we have construction or the project timeline when we got it we all thought this is a really long timeline but so far we have continued to maintain it we haven't slipped at all it has stayed on track and so the our engineers who are working on it, believe that that's the estimated construction timeline, and so I'm going to go with it for now.

Because I'm thrilled, six months is very surprising to me if that's a realistic timeline. I think a lot of this seems to be communication with the residents in the area, too. What kind of communications have we had with meeting with these groups so that they're aware I mean, it was my understanding is the goal when we talked about doing construction at the same time was to lessen the impact on the neighborhood so that they weren't it wasn't dragging out for a year, it was focusing on a shorter timeline. Are we meeting with the community to get good information, or is it just simply through planning commission meetings?

As far as staff's noticing of the community goes, it's just the standard noticing. I believe the applicant had some meetings with various members of the community. In terms of the specifics, I would defer to the applicant on that.

The owner had some meetings with some of the residents there. Mr. Katakis did.

Is it something recently or how often?

It was a couple months ago prior to the planning commission.

And is that where then this recommendation came from to change it from to completion of the abutments instead of construction?

That was my recommendation to the owner primarily after hearing the concerns of the residents. Again, wanted to be organized and deliberate with the construction to condense the construction, which is what you mentioned, and do it in a timely manner rather than stretching it out and impacting the neighborhood over a period of three years.

Thank you. And I did mention we did have a phone call also today and obviously several with the other ex parte with other residents. Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Broadwind. Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. First of all, I did have ex parte communication with a number of the residents, as well as with the project applicant. It was information gathering and answering questions. No commitments were made. Just a couple questions and thank you, Councilmember Janda, because you've asked a number of those, clarified a number of items for me. The work on the abutments, so again, that is spring, so April, May 2025 is the plan that we expect that.

2027.

I'm sorry. 2020 yeah. 2027.

And In particular, can you put the timeline back up there? I would keep the why is she

And so the tie the the timeline which, council member Gaildo mentioned that six months is based on the type of bridge that is proposed for placement there because it requires significantly less time for construction which is enabling that to move forward much faster than you would normally in the construction of a much longer span type bridge where this is designed in such a way it's much easier to construct and put into place. Is that correct?

Based on my understanding, that is correct, yes.

Okay.

With regard to the timeline of the project itself, when you look subject to there not being interruptions, this type of a project given the number of units, time frame. So you start with the infrastructure and then you complete the last unit. If everything falls in place, the stars align, what is your expected timeline?

2028. Okay. So, okay. Again, provided we do it on a schedule.

Yeah. Okay. And then, with completion of the bridge, so subject to completion of the bridge '27, will all construction traffic be required to enter and exit utilizing the bridge?

Not all construction traffic, but the project does have a condition of approval on it that all not all normal traffic, but all construction traffic would have to utilize the bridge. In fact, I have that here because I thought that this question might be asked. Here is the current condition. C says upon completion of Monument Springs Bridge and roadway improvements, construction traffic for the Granite Lake Estates subdivision shall utilize that roadway instead of Aguilar Road. So once the bridge is done, all the construction traffic will be going in that way.

Perfect. Okay. Thank you. Completion of the abutments as was discussed tonight is part of the recommendation relative to any type of construction of homes to occur. So with that, is that actually part of our approval or do we need to make that as a recommended modification?

Currently, they can't pull any building permits until the bridge is operational. If item eight were to be approved tonight I'm

I'm just talking about the recommended change to completion. There you go. So is that included? Because I don't recall seeing that in our packet.

That's brand new from the last couple of days speaking with the applicant. He wanted this added

change. Subject to counsel choosing to move forward, we will need to make this modification then to ensure that completion is the trigger.

Yes, sir. Okay.

Thank you. And then just from the perspective of the bridge, as we've been talking about this bridge for a long time. And with one of the challenges that has continued to arise has been financing of the bridge. But as it stands today, the benefit that we do have is that is not an obstacle to moving forward. Today, our our obstacle is approving what we have before us tonight.

The financing is in place so the bridge moves forward. We don't have to worry about that component piece. It's a matter of proving this development agreement tonight.

Well, that's an accurate statement. One of the components of this development agreement would obligate this developer to repay the city for that financing that we're putting out ahead.

So Which Which is great. We we will be reimbursed for that. But but the funds are there. We are able to complete the bridge, which which for me is one of the key issues here that we have been saying is a requirement is ensuring that bridge is in place. And then coupling together these changes such as the completion of the construction of the bridge foundations and abutments is a huge piece for me that of course, increases my comfort with what we're discussing tonight. So with that, I I appreciate you confirming that. And and mister mayor, that is all I have at this time.

Okay. Thank you. So I wanna just get back to actually get a little more foundational, on approval of any agreement. What happens when we don't make an approval? Can you walk us through the that scenario?

Yeah. If the development agreement were not to be approved, the project is basically on a ticking timeline where it expires in January 2027. There are other mechanisms to extend the map. It's only been granted one extension to this point, so the subdivision map act still allows a couple of additional extensions. But the development agreement would extend the term, and it would also approve all of these other right of way improvements and different things. There's more to it than just allowing the construction of homes. The city actually gets some things out of it as well.

Right. But if it's not approved and then the next step, if let's say it expires, then what happens?

There is no development agreement. There's the map. If the map expires,

then

it's raw land that somebody could propose a project on. There would be no more project entitled on it if the map expires.

Okay. And what has our recent experience been when raw land goes up for option and development?

Well, I mean, it would be up to a developer to propose a project to us. It could be a much denser project. It could be a similar project. It's hard to say.

And then regarding the number of homes that are dedicated here, how does that play into our housing element, our numbers? I mean, just for us, because we talk about it all the time, but I always like to see how each project fits into that puzzle.

Well, currently, I mean, this project has been approved for twenty years, so there are no Rina sites here. Typically, when the city is looking for alternative sites to meet the state's housing requirements, we look towards residential pieces of property that do not have projects entitled on them.

And that's what this is zoned for, is residential? Yes.

Mayor Bass, if I may. Yes. One of the one of the advantages, one of the benefits of this development agreement, and you just asked a very specific question, if this this project went away and the map expired, one of the benefits is that the city has the Monument Springs, the Southern Monument Springs right away in hand as part of this development agreement. If we don't have the development agreement and the map expires, then it's just a waiting game.

Okay. Thank you. The next question I have is, and I do understand that we have an interplay between what is and what is not on the agenda. However, we do have a safety or an assessment regarding vehicle miles traveled, etcetera, And so I was hoping that I could get some insight onto the Kimley Horn.

Yeah. For VMT and any CEQUA, I would like to turn it over to our community development director who's also our environmental coordinator. He's handled most of the CEQA stuff.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Bass, members of the council. David Mullenbrook, community development. This EIR was prepared at a time when the requirement for doing traffic analysis under VMT thresholds was not required. When the addendum was prepared in 2022, even though that VMT requirement was in play, the addendum concluded that because of CEQA guidelines, there is no provision that requires the city to retrospectively apply changes in CEQA guidelines. So with the 2002 addendum, there was no VMT analysis.

It was, however, pointed out that because the project over the course of time has lost a number of units, that the VMT that would have been generated with the original project is now less because those units have been reduced by a handful. And

correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the VMT methodology does not apply retroactively to EIR circulated and draft before 07/01/2020?

That's correct.

And then also there was a 20 so was there a 2022 EIR addendum? Yes. Okay. And so generally with CEQA, in order to invoke any further analysis, and I say this because these are state guidelines, correct? Yes, These are not guidelines that we've created, and in fact, trying to change state guidelines, we would be running afoul of laws that we could be held liable for.

My understanding is that under the guidelines, it would require a substantially more severe change in order for us to even be able to revisit that. And as you stated, especially when vehicle miles traveled, it was determined there was a loss of units. We'd be going backwards as opposed to forwards towards that more severe standard. Would you agree with that?

I would agree with that, yes.

And again, it's not whether I'm endorsing or advocating for either side. I just want to clarify what the state wants versus what we can actually do, what's capable. I believe that is it. I just want to clarify, 2022 was the last EIR addendum.

There was an addendum. The '22 addendum was prepared at the time when this project came forward and there was a request for elimination of the conditions of approval that would restrict the number of building permits that could be issued. There has been another addendum since prepared that was more specific to the Monument Springs Bridge project itself because we felt we needed to freshen up the environmental analysis in order to get the permits that we need for that project. But it really didn't focus on the question of reducing the number of building permits or removing restrictions. It was really focused on the project itself in terms of the impacts that the bridge would have on the environment.

And just more specific, I know that we I saw a discussion about collision and collision rate. Was it the Kimley Horn study or was it us individually that looked individually into those collisions to see if there was a correlation between the size of the road versus any other extraneous factors? If anyone can answer that.

It a combination of both. So there was a Kimley Horn study done in 2019 that assessed the conditions of Aguilar Road. That study made recommendations with regard to some improvements that could be completed to better enhance the condition of the road. Those improvements have been installed. It included flashing speed limit signs and painting a yellow line to separate the lanes of traffic along the entire extent of the roadway.

So those conditions are in place. Because that study was done in 2019, staff also took the opportunity to request from the police department have there been any reported additional collisions since that time? And I believe there were about six or seven from that period of time that's discussed more in the staff report in terms of the causes of those specific incidents, but they were generally attributable to conditions that would occur on any road within the city, not just necessarily Angular Road. I wanted to move to because I think there's a lot that

I wanted to bring up that's already been brought up by my fellow council members, but I do want to talk about the I'll call it the IOD, but so everyone knows, they're a vocal offer of dedication. Thank you. So it's one thing to say that we have it. I'd really like for us to understand what it means. It's one thing to have this option, but what does it mean to put it into place? Because I think that there's a calculation here with this road that changes things, it could change things considerably. So I'd just like to flush that out so we all understand. Right now, to me, not being an engineer, it's just a blue line on a map. So help me out.

The IOD would allow the city to construct a roadway to connect Highlands Parcel A to the terminus of Monument Springs Drive if this project were to not go forward. So if this project were to go away, any future project would have to observe that IOD and incorporate it into it, but it allows us to connect this roadway network. I spoke of that a little while ago. It's a pretty cool roadway network that was envisioned when all three of these projects came together and connects a lot of people to an area of Roseville that's hard to get to now. You have to really kind of go up Aguilar, you have to come over on El Dawn. This would really shorten that route.

Okay. So you'd mentioned if it's not built, then it gets built. But with the dedication, what would a timeline look like to build it regardless? I know that it's a little circular, but I'm just trying to understand what we could do with that once it's dedicated.

The dedication would give the city the ability to move forward with that project. It would be an entirely separate question of does the city want to financially participate in the development of that roadway just like we're doing with the Monument Springs Bridge. It's a roadway that is intended to be constructed with the subdivision itself as part of the subdivision improvements. Normally that would all be accomplished by the developer. The thought would be as a safeguard, as Nate just mentioned, should this project go away, we would have that roadway dedication in place if the city were to elect to move forward and make a connection through this subdivision.

What is the if we have done any analysis with the fire department in terms of the benefit of that road, in terms of response times or safety when it comes to ingress and egress? Have we done any kind of or have we looked at it? Know this is a new development.

No, we have not specifically done any type of analysis. I don't know if the fire chief is here tonight. Anecdotally, I would think it would improve response times just by providing alternative routes of travel, but we have not done any specific analysis.

And I know that we do have the fire chief here, but I'll move on to the next question, which involves that, so we can we give the, just for the record as well as for everyone here, an idea, a timeline in terms of the new firehouse that is gonna be going essentially north of this as opposed to having to cross through

that road? So the design is still underway for the construction or the Fire Station 22 as we call it which is slated to be constructed on Sierra College Board Boulevard just north of Stadium Way on property that is on the Sierra College campus as we speak. We expect that we would be bringing to the city council in the fall construction documents for approval, bid it out, and award a contract in early twenty seven.

Okay. I'm just thinking long term, right, of what this looks like. All right, I appreciate that. I think for now, those are all of my questions. Have any other questions arisen since All right, well thank you very much.

So at this point, I will be opening for public comment. I just want to say that I think we've been through a couple of these hearings before, as have I. I appreciate. We do have quite a number of comments that came in, and we've included them to be part of the record, as well as I've read quite a few of them. So we do encourage public comment.

We will be imposing the three minutes, and we can take the questions, and what we'll do is then ask questions as well to staff. I ask that everyone direct their questions directly or concerns directly to the five of us up here, as opposed to asking directly of any of staff. Trust me, I will be taking down as many of the questions as will staff so we'll be able to address all of them. Many of the concerns that were raised in the public comment are concerns, I believe, that many of us have. On that, I will open it up for public comment. Do we have any public comment cards?

Mayor Bass, we have received four public comment cards. The first is from Ms. Carol Rubin.

Thank you.

Evening council members, I'm Carol Rubin. You've seen me before on this issue. I live at the corner of Aguilar And Greenbrae Roads, or as I call it, Ground 0. I was so hopeful and grateful when in 2022 you guys agreed to seek funding for and take over construction of the Monument Springs Bridge. But the solution to the protracted bridge problem only makes sense if any developer's agreement requires completion of the bridge, not just putting up the abutments, bridge open for traffic.

Approval of the proposed developer's agreement with the section 8 as it is intact gives the developer six to eight certificates of occupancy and all 49 building permits. And he doesn't have to wait till the bridge is complete. He gets all the building permits when the abutments or the bridges commence bridge construction commences. And contains no firm contingencies then linking the progress or completion of Monument Springs Bridge to the build out of Granite Lake Estates 2. So the the developer's representative has made a a big deal that section eight says that there will be no other building permits or certificates of occupancy issued until the city council has certified that the bridge is complete.

But the trouble is then there's section 12.2 in this agreement that says the agreement can be amended at any time just by approval of the city council. So the developer can come back and petition the council at any time to allow different conditions. If I were the developer, I would start the minute the agreement was finalized. We're saying that the bridge construction is gonna start in next May. That's a whole year from now.

So if I were the developer, I would be saying, look, you and I, meaning the city of Rockland, and the developer have a real incentive together to get started building houses because you're not going to start paying off that bold financing until I get some certificate of occupancy and can start selling lots. So how about letting me begin a little early? You know you're going to start the bridge in May, so give me a couple more model homes. Okay? And then suppose there's six weeks of rain along about February 2027, and the developer's going to come back and he's going to say, no progress on the bridge?

Come on, It's not my fault, and you guys aren't making any money, and I'm not making any money. Okay? So this takes all the incentive to complete the bridge out of this agreement. The whole incentive

Thank you, miss Rubin.

Is paying off the financing, the bold financing. I've

Thank you, miss Rubin.

Okay. The way to do this to please everybody is finish the bridge. Just

Thank you. Get it done. I thank you. Thank you. Much.

Next speaker is Justin Rozic followed by Jessica Rozic.

Good evening council. Justin Rozic, 4200 Caribou Court. I could go on for a long time about this. We've been dealing with this for well over a decade. So I'll just make it really quick. The first point I'd like to make is that the applicant is not necessarily going to be building any of these homes. They have specifically stated that once this goes through, they plan on selling a development property to a KB Homes or someone like that to do the development. That's gonna bring in a whole another round of problems for all of us. In my opinion, I think it's just looking for a way to get out of a bad investment decision. Secondly, the concurrent construction proposal is basically a scheme.

No one in the neighborhood wants that. We don't want four times the amount of construction traffic versus the bridge. Let's be honest, the bridge is gonna be built from both sides. Half the construction equipment is gonna go off of China Garden. The other half will be on Greenbrae. That's not a big deal for our neighborhood. But if the developer wants to concurrently build more at the same time, laying out that many roads, that much infrastructure, that much sewage, everything, that's a lot of construction. It's a lot of big trucks and it's a lot of congestion. And we all know how bad Aguilar is. You can't go down Aguilar in two cars without having issue.

I've almost hit numerous kids on bikes because they're trying to ride down the road. We're trying to drive by. Other people are trying to drive by. It's just not going to work. The concurrent scheme just is not going to work and it's going to make our neighborhood worse for at least a year or two. So I will leave it at that. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Hi. Jessica Rozek, Caribou Court. Despite the clear conditions that were set in 2022, here we are again. I know that I'd rather be home. I I don't wanna have to be here yet again, but here I am fighting the same issue because this guy just keeps beating the the dead horse. You already gave concessions. You already took on this project's responsibility. That was his. And he claims, well, I bought the property I didn't know. Well, that's not my problem.

That's not your problem. That's not the taxpayer's problem in the city of Rockland. It is his problem. But you chose to take it on because you saw the need for the bridge, which is fantastic. The problem now is now he's trying to change the game yet again. Item eight must state completion of the entire bridge before any vertical building permits can be done. That's the end of it. That's all the community is asking for to be consistent, to follow through on your promise. Mr. Janda, you also asked about the infrastructure and why years ago the plans were submitted and yet we've been sitting here and they could have already started.

That's because he's not the developer. He's an investor. He's turning around. He's told us he's going to sell this off. So you're going to be coming in and hearing another set of woe stories from the next person about whatever to get this project off and running and to get the money back that the city has forwarded.

So just take that in consideration. Also, this investor has not placed a good faith effort into reaching out to the community at all. I will tell you that since 2022 up until the week before the February meeting, we received no communication at all from this developer. I didn't even know about the meeting until he called me literally the week before and said, hey, you know, I just want to reach out and make sure we're all good. I said, what meeting are you talking about?

He said, oh, did you not get the notice? Staff never even noticed the community. So I sent a letter, told the community, we reached out and said to staff, hey, you're supposed to provide notice to all of us. That never happened. And then that day they turned around and said we're gonna postpone the meeting, not even recognizing the fact that they had missed the noticing.

So there's a trust level that has been further violated with the city and the community in that sense because the community needs to be noticed effectively and efficiently as a baseline activity of a planning commission and staff. And that goes to the community of people that are going to be affected by the construction traffic. There was conversation of having it go on Freeman or Foothill, excuse me. Those people never get noticed. Do you think they might have an opinion on this?

They're they're certainly going to be part of this project because they're going to be impacted if you allow these people to start full development with verticals. So there is a lot of consideration to take in in all of this and we just ask that you hold firm on item eight and that item eight state completion of the entire bridge because no one can drive on an abutment and neither can construction traffic.

Thank you. Mister Mayor, can I ask mister Rosica a quick question just for clarification?

Just for clarification.

So you mentioned something about a meeting that wasn't noticed. What meeting Correct.

That would

be the February planning commission meeting that was on the seventeenth. That meeting

It was a city meeting, not a meeting private meeting.

Meeting was in

the That's all I wanted to know. If it was a city official meeting or just a developer community meeting.

Yeah, we never we've none of no one in the community has had any meetings with this gentleman. He does, like, occasional bomb calls and that's about it.

Right. Thank you for that clarification.

And we'll follow-up with, city staff. Trust me. It's on the on the to do list here. Alright.

Mister Eric Fowler followed by Joe

Drab.

Good evening, council members. My family and I moved into the Greenberry Island in 2012. I just want to echo what's been said. I think it would be irresponsible to allow any model homes before the bridge is completed. We were told that there was gonna be a bridge completed when we moved shortly after we moved in in 2012 and that there was gonna be no development until that occurred.

There has been a couple developments. I understand they're outside the development area, but I think that the traffic impacts would negatively impact the community, and it's a potential safety issue to have only Aguilar as the only way to come in and out. If there needs to be an emergency evacuation, we don't need more construction vehicles without on either Green Bay or Monument Springs or China Garden before the bridge is built. Thank you. Thank you.

Mister Joe Drab. Hi, everybody. My name is Joe Drab. It used to be five minutes that we got. When did it go to three?

I don't know that.

Okay. Anyway, I was watching this thing on TV, and I said, I gotta come down here and talk to these people, man. I was in the original group of people around 2,000 that sued the city. Okay? We were here, and we tried to make our point. You need to do an EIR. You need to do this. It needs to happen. They laughed at us. Okay?

They laughed us out of this place that night. So then come to find out in Rustick Hills, there was the, Placer County Museum director. There was a civil engineer. There was a, attorney who does lawsuits for environment. There was a guy who does, motorcycle parks for the government and a couple of other people, and then we ended up getting Susan Brant Holly who stopped the Walmart in Rockland.

Okay? And we went and had garage sales, and we turned in soda cans, and we retained her, and we sued. Okay? Lee Smith was the attorney that night. He turned in 6,000 pages of documents because I guess unless you turn it in, you can't talk about it. Right? So anyway, the final thing was we went to Auburn in the lawsuit, and they had a fancy attorney from San Francisco that said, your honor, there's no fish in that creek. And he said, well, I'm sorry, but I fished in that creek when I was a kid, and there's fish in that creek. And I only need three things to throw the book at you, and I got, like, five already. So here's what I'm here to say.

I've seen the whole thing over and over. Fumble, fail. Some things turned out really good. The traffic circulation, the EIR turned out really good. The air quality, the flooding, all the things that they did to mitigate those things turned out really good. Our creek doesn't flood anymore. Here's what you need to do. Build the bridge, extend it once, twice, however many times you gotta extend this thing. Keep it going so the houses can get built. Fix Aguilar. Aguilar is a big mess. That road's a mess. I ride my bike, and I would have you guys go ride a bike down Aguilar. Just try it. Don't walk.

It's too dangerous. Try riding a bike down Aguilar on either side of the road. Also on Rustick Hills and China Garden, fix that road. That road's terrible. We've been paying for that road since 1963. Okay? Fix it. And then also put some bike lanes in. Alright? It's a nightmare to go under the freeway over here. You're taking your life in your hands. Alright? Anyway, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

No additional comment cards.

Okay. Now it is time for anyone that would like to step up to the mic. No cards needed.

Thank you, mayor Bass and council members Anthony Demetay, 4401 Bradbury Court. I've, owned this house since 2010. I heard a lot of feedback from my neighbors who, I lived there prior to me about this bridge. I'm in favor of the bridge being built, but my biggest concern is that bridge being built, all it does is divert traffic around China Garden. You still end up at Aguilar Lane.

I have numerous times have sat through green lights at Aguilar and Sierra College, when traffic is being or when students and people are leaving Sierra College. Sometimes easier to go all the way around Green Bay to to Sierra College Boulevard instead of going to Rockland Road just because of that traffic. I've always thought that adding the southbound exit on Monument Springs going into Roseau would probably relieve a lot of traffic, especially if Rockland Road and Aguilar Road really got congested and you can't get through there with emergency vehicles or what have you. But my suggestion would be whether this is approved or not, go forward with the Monument Springs connection to the south end of of that area. But I do have a concern about that as well is because before the houses were built on Monument Springs, we had a lot of activity going on, and Rockland police were called many, many times before the subdivision was built, and people jumped a lot of trash there.

So adding that road and an extension without having a subdivision there, I think, opens up bigger problems that we've seen in the past around 2012 to 2014 before those homes were built. We had a lot of traffic, a lot of drug activity back there. So just keep that in mind. So, that's just my comments from living there and my experience there. So, thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Okay.

If I see no others, I am going to close at this point public comment. And I'm now going to be bringing it back. We have further questions, a number of things I'd like to see clarified. I'm gonna actually allow if the staff has written any down before we start asking questions to address any of the issues.

I would just like to first speak about the hearing that was continued back in February and apologized on We behalf of the had an error in how our software system pulled the addresses. And so we typically send all of our notices up for public hearings to a 600 foot radius, which is actually more than is required under the state law, it's what we do here in Rockland. Go to 600 feet. List we pulled did not accurately pull that 600 foot radius, and we were not made aware of it until very last minute, which is why the hearing was continued to the March date. And so we that's what happened. It was an error.

So we continued it proactively

in

order

to make Once we were made aware that we had not appropriately noticed, we made the immediate determination that hearing needed to be continued.

Okay. Thank you. All right. That being said, I'm going to return this to first for questions before we get into discussion. Otherwise, I'll start asking some questions.

Yes. Just one additional question for the project applicant, if you don't mind. And so, it's been mentioned, and it's not out of the ordinary, happens pretty much all the time that this project most likely would be sold to a builder. I mean a lot of people that go through the entitlements aren't builders. They're entitlement people and then they find a builder to build and that's

Generally, the builder will do the vertical side of it. The developer would do the infrastructure and the utilities. So, that's what would probably occur in

this Which is totally normal. It's happened at Vista Oaks. The group that got the project through entitlements was not Toll Brothers. It's a building out there right now. So, just talking about this project and how maybe it compares to Toll Brothers because that's actually physical. People can go look at it and I think probably a lot of these people have already been out there to look at it. It's a nice development. Are these homes in your opinion similar, size, lots, cost? Think

they'll be a little bit more on the higher end. That particular parcel is flat, easy to build on, and that's when you want to do your more affordable units. In this case, the surrounding land, beautiful. The lots here are larger lots. So, I think you'll see again, I'm speculating but based on the size of the lots, I think you'll see homes on the north side of 3,000 square feet or more.

Good. Yeah, that's kind of what my feeling was as well. And from a price standpoint, you said Toll Brothers more on the affordable side, but I believe they're north of $1,000,000 probably 1,000,000

million Yeah. Couldn't speculate on what the final price would be on one of these things because obviously, there's a lot that goes into that. If somebody who wants to buy a home and has a list of extras, obviously that increases the price.

Right. Yeah. So, I think it's pretty safe to say that this is going to be an even more upscale project just given the topography, the way the lots are positioned, more space and a little more privacy.

It will be comparable to the part of the home development next door, the side loaded garages product. I don't know, I'm not going to say this has side loaded garages, but it would be comparable to that.

So, can you speak at all on so, there's I think six or up to eight model homes. And the Toll Brothers project, they put one model home. I mean, that's it. Model homes like that are extremely expensive. And for builders to just sort of tie up millions of dollars into a model home just to me doesn't seem like reality.

Well, think in this case primarily because these homes would be on the larger side of the square footage, you need to have a couple of different units to show them. This will this will get this price will get you this. This price will get you this. And, like I say, I think I think this would be a beautiful a beautiful project upon completion.

Alright. And then as far as homes, the Vista Oaks project has been under construction for close to a year now? So, in that time period, they've got one model home and I think maybe eight or 10 homes under construction, if that. And typically and you may or may not know what happens on the building side. But builders at that level even today in the more smaller level, KB Home project across the street on Pacific, they've got the model homes but they haven't started construction or anything. And those are 500 to $600,000 homes. So builders typically don't at this level just build houses to build houses.

That's correct.

That's again millions of dollars tied up and in this day and age that money is very expensive. So typically they would they build upon sale of a lot. Once they get a contract then they start building.

That's likely the case. One thing I do want to point out, you just reminded me about the Vista Oaks project. Mayor Bass had a question about the roadway. Now, if I'm the guy at Vista Oaks and I wanna improve my sales, why don't I build that roadway and get reimbursed? And I think the city has the ability to get a reimbursement agreement so when those lots do develop, you can get reimbursed upon being annexed into the Bold District.

Okay. Now that helps because again just because someone has the ability to build, in reality you don't just go out and start building. There's a lot of factors that have to be put in place, a lot of time.

Financing, of course. And that's one of the reasons why on this we want to try and have a specific date when you can pull billing permits because the bold financing bondholder will want to see that. Not grant going municipal bond money without a date certain of building permits.

Great. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. And then that kind of brought up maybe a question for the staff regarding the timing of of the bonds. At what point does the city what triggers the city's reimbursement?

That is something that I would like to defer to our finance department. Okay. Sure.

Daniel Cho, deputy director of membership services. So what we need to issue the bond the financing work will start about four months leading into the construction actual construction begins. So that will help us get the reimbursement started.

So, we will not we, but the bonds will be issued to help fund in real time the bridge construction?

Yes. So, approximately four months before the construction, we'll do the we'll work on the bond financing. And then, that will raise the fund to the bond funds will be raised as a part of the bond sale to reimburse the city.

But that bond sale or at least the amount of the bonds are dependent on how many on the ability to for those to be repaid, which is directly affected by the number of lots.

Correct. So, we need to have at least four to one value to lean ratio to support the repayment.

Okay. So, without these lots, is the bold financing even possible?

Correct.

Is it possible?

We need to so the current so it's based on the value of the property and how much yeah, so is the amount of the proceeds that we'll be able to secure will be depending on the value of the properties. Right.

So potentially a third less in value. I don't know exactly what the math is. That would mean we'd only be able to get a third less in bond Yes. Great. Thank you. That's all I have.

No questions? Okay. So I wanted to ask a couple more questions. The first, going back to the BOLD financing actually, when we went out to go and get that, what's the process to was it that we I mean, was your staff, it was a team effort to go out and get that bold financing, and how did that come about?

So, we will be this will be a conduit bond where the board team will be working on it on behalf of the city. So city will really be reviewing the application that comes forward, making sure that we approve the conditions. We'll be looking at value to lean ratios, conferring that with the developer as well as the board team and the Citi's team will be conferring together to develop the financing package that will be introduced to the bond investors.

And does any of I mean, there was a little bit of maybe a conflation or maybe an intimation of that. This other road that is being built, is there anything about that road that in the future we can start working on now and then put that in a

The road that the IOD would allow for? So that's not contemplated in this development agreement. I think we would probably need to negotiate more if we wanted to decide to take on as a public project another piece of this developer project. Could it be paid back by bold financing potentially? Is the bridge the priority for the bold financing? Absolutely. And at this point, may not that's the financing priority, so I'm not quite sure that the funds would be available. We'd have to do that research.

Okay. But I mean, I'm just looking at it from the future perspective of, a community that for well, I'm about to make a comment, so I'll hold on to that. All right. The next question I have is I want to go back. There was questions raised or kind of well taken comments by both Justin and Jessica Rozek about the selling of the property.

So I kinda wanted to understand the relationship that goes on between the sale of the land and then it's not as if our side of the agreement goes up in smoke, somebody can't just come in and say, Well, I'm a new developer and this is what I want. I'm going to what Councilmember Jen had stated. Obviously, this happens all the time. This is probably our thousandth rodeo, as opposed to our first. But we know all the inside baseball, and so rather than go through a Socratic exercise, I'd just like to ask if we could just get an explanation of what this looks like when a developer leaves the property, a builder walks in.

It's not as if the entirety of the project starts anew. They're bound. Kind of bound and gagged.

Yes. Do you want to take this matter? The development agreement is tied to the project. If somebody else were to purchase this project, they'd be tied to the same obligations within the development. Yes, it's recorded. Right.

I know it sounds, but I wanna make sure that we're all on the same page because sometimes we get lost in the minutiae, but then we also kinda don't see the forest for the trees. I just wanna make sure we're making it clear that somebody comes in. I mean, they can come to us all the time and ask us for things, but up until about four years ago, it was just a, Hey, we don't want to build a bridge type of thing, and here we are building a bridge. So I just want to make sure that if anybody is listening, they understand that the builder doesn't just get to come in and eviscerate an entire thing that we've been working this hard for.

Just Matthew McConver, city attorney. The agreement, if approved, is recorded and it is enforceable against any party that would come and become an owner of the property subsequently, whether that's the same party that's signing it or someone else that comes along and wants to take over the ownership of the property. Right. We

did have some comments about, the issuing of permits, and so to go back to this new sort of amendment

to

eight regarding permits being allowed to construction of the bridge versus what is actually being contemplated at the what can actually happen at the completion of the bridge under this agreement?

So under the current subdivision map, they can't build any more than the 46 currently have until the bridge is completed. If the development agreement were to be approved as proposed, they could construct the remainder of the homes, but they could only get certificates of occupancy for six to eight model homes. So they could not occupy any additional homes. Nobody would be living there, but they could be building them. Okay.

And that is the most recent April.

To clarify even further, those occupancy permits for the model homes would be temporary in nature and for business purposes only. For viewing, touring, the business office of the builder, the seller, but not for residential uses.

Okay. Thank you for the clarification. Now to the extent there was, again, well taken issues of, you know, with building concurrently the level of construction, to the extent that there is project management going on in the construction field, I mean, we have some people that are experts at it and others that aren't, What are can we get an idea of how we minimize impacts through in that construction of both the bridge as well as and this is probably a dual question, but the bridge as well as the everything going on with the development.

There's several conditions of approval and mitigation measures tied to the project regarding air quality. You you have to go out there and you have water down to prevent fugitive dust. There's noise regulations, the hours of operation, people can actually do the construction work. So there's a number of tools that the city utilizes to reduce impacts to the full extent possible.

And that's within our zoning, it's part of our ordinances?

Correct. And tied specifically to the mitigation measures and conditions of any development project, we include these as requirements.

And the extent that those are available, I mean, without us having to hunt through them, can we make those available so that people understand what those measures are?

Yes, certainly. Many of them are available in this tentative map resolution, which is part of the project packet. So you could go in there. Remember, this resolution for the tentative subdivision map is not going away. If anything, it's being preserved with this development agreement. All the conditions that are in that document with the exception of the ones that are discussed as part of the development agreement are still valid. So it would still be tied to all those requirements.

Mayor Bass, if I may. I've finished a lot of lots here in South Placer and once you have your approved improvement plans, there's a page of notes on it and conditions of approval that is approved by staff. And that after those after that are signed by staff, the person that's managing that construction of those improvement plans have got to adhere to those notes and those conditions on the improvement plans. And that's where your the city's engineering inspector will come out and verify those conditions.

Okay. Thank you. I just want to make sure I get this right. Okay. I think everything else is going to be a comment. All right. Yes?

And for Daniel, one of the things we were quite proud of this last year is that based on our very conservative budgeting, the city has a triple A Fitch credit rating. I think we're the only ones that I'm aware of actually. So when you go to do the bond financing, how's that going to be?

This project is independent from city's general bond rating. So this is the credit rating will be based on the project itself and then ability to pay the debt service, annual debt service. So the higher the value of the properties and the valuation is higher, the better it will be and then so they will evaluate it just based on the homes within the district as part of the board district and the credit rating will assigned based on that.

Run this by me one more time. So it's going to be based on the value of the homes but on our ability to repay the bond financing or the value of the home selling to be able to?

Value of the within so the properties within the district will be paying the debt service. So they'll have a shared responsibility. So the ability to pay that within the district will be will be a factor of the bond rating, the credit rating that they'll be receiving.

Got it. Thank you. Great.

All right. At this point, we are going to be now moving on. I'll close the public hearing and ask for further discussion. We can start I'll start with to my left, since I've been going to you, Councilmember Jennings, so much. So I'll start with you, Councilmember Broadway.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to thank everyone for their thoughtful and detailed comments, not only those who are here, but those who took the time to either reach out or to send emails in. There was a lot that has gone into this, but we started back in 2000 and here we are in 2026 trying to move this project forward. And I appreciate the fact that your desire is to advocate for a solution that ensures timely construction, which, you know, clearly is the interest of the bridge, while protecting what is happening in your your area where you live.

What I will say is requiring full completion of the bridge before allowing any type of vertical construction as has been discussed might seem like the most direct way to ensure delivery. The problem is in practice, and again we can go all the way back, that's proven to be a significant barrier to getting a bridge built at all. And so in short, a strict bridge first, homes later requirement risks even further delay or even indefinite postponement of ensuring that we get this bridge built. The phased approach that is being taken here basically reflects something that is very intentional for us as a city. It allows for building permits and a limited number of certificates of occupancy upon completion of the bridge construction.

And it's not meant to decouple the two efforts. So from my perspective, I feel that we all share the same end goal. It's a completed bridge, improved connectivity for our community, and a development that maximizes the impacts to both our existing residents and those who will join our community. The challenge has been finding a path that's not only ideal in concept but is able to be executed and that's what we've been talking about year after year. The proposed changes are intended to move us out of a long standing stalemate to a position where we could actually start construction and move this project forward.

So as I mentioned, the input from the community is an important part of this process and I truly appreciate everyone's engagement. But given what has been provided, given the timelines that have been discussed, the adjustments relative to the abutments, I can support the request, as proposed with that adjustment in

the language. Thank you, mister mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Gallo.

Thank you. Well, this has been one unique project, to say the least. It's been rumors. It's been you know, it's such a unique and beautiful area, and it has been a very unique and strange area. I literally have the map for my mother-in-law, I think it's like 1959, and it's got the whole map of the proposed Sierra College, Then somebody drew in Aguilar Road with a pencil.

That was their street at the time. And what's happened since then has been, say, constant rumors of, hey, there was supposed to be this CFD setup, and the city was supposed to collect money. I don't know what's true and what's not. I can't deal with what happened twenty four years ago, but I can tell you that we've never taken on something like building a bridge in advance of a project. And I hope you're hearing that we might not have been sitting here twenty four years ago, but we're here trying to fix this now.

And never have we not we the taxpayers of Rockland. If I go get somebody in Whitney Ranch, they're probably not excited that they're investing money into this project, but we know it's the right thing to do. And so the taxpayers of Rockland are stepping up to go, let's find a way to fix this, because you guys deserve to get this fixed. It's been such a strange piece. The gentleman that talked about, you know, since 1964, I totally appreciate it.

And I it's one of the things I've learned from sitting in this seat. If you were in the county piece, you didn't give Rockland a dime, unfortunately, dang it, but we're gonna make it right. It went to the county, and I and I get to heckle my county supervisor because he wasn't one then either, but the county didn't do a darn thing for us in this area. I'm just gonna be honest. But the folks in that area did get most likely the benefit of Rockland PD responding and Rockland Fire, because it was the right thing to do, and you didn't want to have to have you wait for the county sheriff to get there or wait for South Placer fire.

So I think finally us getting control and having everybody join so that Rockland is whole was really important, and I think it's good for everybody. The challenge has been there's some folks that came that was like, when are you going to come? I had one person call me just last year and said their street is terrible, and when I looked, it is terrible, and we don't own it. It's a private road over there. There's some of those really strange, unique pieces still.

I totally get the frustration, and hopefully you understand by the commitment we're making how committed we are to fixing this area and making it better for everyone in that area. Six months helps me a ton. I mean, worry because that seems like a really aggressive timeline, but I'm going listen to the experts that tell me that we can make that happen. And also, the reason why, for me, the six to eight, we keep saying certificates of occupancy, and thank you to our city manager for clarifying that. Nobody's living in there.

That just means that you can use it as a model home. So nobody's moving into those houses. I can't help for what somebody twenty four years ago committed to say maybe there weren't going be any homes built, but I can sure hopefully understand, and I think it was Ms. Rubin that was worried that we might change our minds. There's nothing that's going to change me six months from now.

I want that dang bridge built. I want to get access there, and I certainly want to not very far down the road see if we can't get a resolution to Aguilar. Hopefully you guys will talk to any of your neighbors that live on Aguilar and they will be helpful for us to obtain some properties so that we can fix and widen that road for you and get you some sidewalks. On the notification, and I thank you for bringing that up, this council a few years ago said, Yeah, the state standard might be this far, but that's not we want everybody to know and be aware, so we doubled it to 600 feet. So I understand that it didn't get out, So I'm glad that we rescheduled that to make sure that everybody gets an opportunity to be here and be aware.

Because that really is our goal here, is to get you involved, and I appreciate you coming out to have that communication with us to do that. We have an absolute obligation to the taxpayers to get their money back, certainly. So our goal is get this bridge built, get this done, get a great project going in, and then get the money back to the taxpayers of Rockland. So with that, I can support this with the understanding with the abutments have to be completed before we start anything. And it sounds like from the timeline realistically, that's what it's going to work out that way anyway. So with that, I am able to support the project with that change.

Thank you. About Vice Mayor Holman?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I I lived on that side of town for eighteen years. I I know a lot of people who live in that neighborhood, so I've heard from a lot of them continually for the last five, six years. I was surprised how convinced they were five or six years ago that bridge will never be built.

It will never be built. We've been promised a bridge for twenty five years. It will never be built. And I believe that the neighborhood deserves the bridge that they had always been promised and what we saw over time was that it didn't get built. So the council, most of us on this council, stepped up and said, no, we're going to take control of this bridge construction.

And for me, there were two reasons to do that. One was to deliver on the promise of the bridge and I think it wasn't until people saw contracts being let by the city that they believed, oh holy cow, the city's actually going to do it. The second was public safety, like to get that extra access point into the neighborhood, I didn't think it was acceptable for us to wait, wait, wait for this bridge maybe to be built someday. So we came up with an idea to build the bridge which was largely financed by 180 homes. The homes that are being built in Vista Oaks right now, those people couldn't physically get to Monument Springs today.

There's no way to get there today. So we had various developers and later homebuilders that we are working with to make sure that we can get repaid for the bridge. And so this development agreement, I think it's sometimes lost on people. This is a negotiated document with the city and the developer. Like this is not this is a two way street.

We get things that we want from the developer, the developer gets things that they want from the city, and ultimately these houses will pay more than a third of the cost of the bridge over time. So the I was surprised to see the initial development agreement said commencement of construction and I understood the reaction that that brought at the planning commission. I had a long conversation with Carol about that when it first came out. And then I'm pleased that the developer will make it the commencement or the completion of the foundation and abutments, which means the bridge should be done, I think, three to four months thereafter. So, the other thing that I think also gets lost, and I'm not a builder, so I don't know this, but putting in all the infrastructure of this development I think, is going to be the vast majority of the construction that gets done before the bridge is complete.

And there is no restriction on putting in sewers, PG and E lines, roads, curbs, everything else. And I think sometimes people think that that can't start till the bridge is in. Today, if they had all their improvement plans and everything all approved, they could start that today. So I'm supportive of this. This is the result of a give and take that the city has had with not only this developer but the other two in order to get these houses built, the city reimbursed and the bridge built.

And I'm looking forward to 2027 seeing the bridge get started and having Carol and neighbors be the first to walk across it when it's completed.

Council Member Jenner.

Thank you. Yeah, first I want to thank everyone that came out tonight. I know this isn't your favorite thing to do and you've been dealing with this for many, many years. It's unfortunate that I've only seen you once every few years. It'd be great if you came out more just on a regular meeting to see all the other work we do.

But you did your homework, your emails and questions were very well researched and direct and precise. So, I really do appreciate that. And it does make a difference whether the outcome is what you want or not. It really does make a difference hearing from the community to really understand what their concerns are. And I know living there versus trying to make the decision that we have to make kind of looking at it globally is a little bit different.

But I was, I believe, the only person on the council at the time that voted against the city taking over the bridge project. For a lot of reasons, but now that we have done it and I see how it's coming together, it's really the only way that this bridge would ever get done. Because it would never get built. The houses would never get built. But to me, the bridge is more important than the houses and the connection to Roseville is more important.

It's a public safety access that's critical. It would relieve traffic off Rockland Road, off Sierra College. All that traffic has to come around Sierra College down to Rockland Road to get to Highway 80 or go back out the other way. This would enable those folks to go out the backside and get off Rockland Road and that angular intersection that some of you mentioned, it would help that as well. But I don't think there's anyone else that wants this bridge to be done any sooner than the five folks up here.

Once the city took it over, it seems like an eon ago. It seemed like forever. Why is it now taking so long that we've got it? But of course, the city taking it over, there's all sorts of other requirements, environmental and whatnot. So, we're kind of at the tail end of all that and the construction is in sight and it will happen because we're in complete control and we've got the financing set up. But the bridge doesn't happen without homes. You can't have one without the other. You have to have both. Allowing this development agreement, like the Vice Mayor said, it's a give and take, it's a negotiation. The city is getting some very valuable things that we didn't have before and we wouldn't have.

I hope my questions earlier were really about the reality of the construction timing versus what might be theoretical or possible. I know we hear, oh, they've got 40 building permits. Well, in reality, they're not going be building 40 homes all at once. You could see that in the Vista Oaks project. It's a very slow process.

In this day and age of economic reality on a project like that, it's going to take a long time. And I believe I agree with Vice Mayor Halden that even just the infrastructure alone will probably take at least as long as the bridge to be finished, and that can start right now. So, that has no bearing on this agreement at all. So, there's really very little additional impacts that I see on the neighborhood by having this agreement. At least on the negative side, there's tremendous upside on getting the guarantee of the connector, getting the bonds funded.

Without these lots, we couldn't even get enough bonding to build the bridge. So, again, it goes back to the homes and the bridge. They're joined at the hip. So, for all those reasons, I support this DA, and I want to get this thing finished. Let's go. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Well, the very first conversation I ever had with a citizen about city business was this bridge. And in fact, the very first controversial decision I ever made when I was on planning commission was because of this bridge, because I was the lone no vote, I believe, on something very similar to this that came before the planning commission. I remember specifically citing another city council member about no street no more cars on these streets until the bridge is getting built.

And the funny thing about I've been thinking about that comment is, aside from construction, that still holds even underneath this current change to the DA. I have had so many conversations with members of the community. I have had conversations with Mr. Alexander over the years and just listening, and obviously nothing that's ever been promised. It's been interesting, though, the number of times he's kind of known that the conversation was going nowhere.

It wasn't really until this recent change, which is when the council decided to take on the bridge. I do wanna acknowledge, though, you know, in 2016, when this all came basically into our purview, our jurisdiction, just basic fire and police being provided. You know, what we adopted, though, were, I think, Mr. Feller's and Mr. Drab's comments on, you know, the past promises.

And, you know, I'm not in a position to apologize for anybody, but I sure do think that a lot of the promises that were made, which should have been acted on a little bit more. I do understand that there was economic downturns and everything, but it took until 2022, right, and then beyond. And so I also appreciate that Mr. And Mrs. Rosic coming in, speaking of, hey, in 2022, you said that there would be no building, I remember that.

And that's thing that does change everything is the fact that the council brought on the bridge. And to decide to take on that, which is not our business, it's not the thing that we were initially planning on, and I think it's been discussed mostly and covered well by the rest of the council. But that change in the circumstance was a monumental change in terms no pun intended a change in how we have to view this project, especially since we did bring it on with taxpayer funds. And because of that, I do believe that the change and our stance change is important. I will say that had Section eight not been amended just recently, and in a way that allows for, well, I should just say that the most recent change in April, if it hadn't been changed, don't think this would have passed.

I don't think it would have. I think that Ms. Carol Rubin had stated under Section 12.2 the amendments. I understand the concern there. But I also understand that our staff understands the importance of making sure that what is being said today is going to be followed through.

I do believe that we have good faith towards this community, that we're going to make sure that this is the agreement that is made. And the only reason that we are making any changes or agreeing to any change is because of the financing and our fiscal responsibility, our fiduciary responsibility under this financial agreement. I do believe that the roadway between Monument Springs Drive, that particular road needs to be a priority. It's a priority for me from here on out. I say that as somebody that said that the bridge was a priority as well, and it's getting built.

I think that there are concerns that we need to take into consideration that go far beyond just whether or not someone's gonna build in that time period anytime soon, and I think that if we have the ability, we need to be looking at putting that into some type of financing, and then we can put it on the homeowners later. And then I do appreciate Supervisor Dimitay and his statements about making sure that the road, if it is empty, until it is filled up, that we probably would have to put some kind of fire gate there so that it's just for fire and egress and ingress, but nothing permanent. I remember when I was a kid, I loved those roads. Nothing good happens on those roads. So the other piece to this is that I just I appreciate the other councilmember saying it, but maybe I can say it differently.

This isn't for accolades for anybody up here, but I will say this council has resolved decades long conflicts, and we seem to be doing it every single year. We've been putting a lot of things that have been put off, we've been putting to bed. And this is one of our, probably our biggest things we've ever taken on, that we're gonna get done. I know it doesn't seem like that to the community, and maybe to the community that this seems like a loss that it's obvious you can read the tea leaves, this thing is gonna pass. But I hope you understand that I think that the community has won, similar to the community of Clover Valley, won.

I know it doesn't feel like it, and I am so sorry that some people felt the need to leave because of their frustration. But without the amount of people that have come over and over and expressed their feelings, I think that we probably would have had a council long before us that would have just said, you know, let them just continue to build. The fact that you got this city council to take on a bridge that they had no interest in building, and that is getting built, and that we are constantly fighting for it, fighting for you. I know it might not feel like it tonight, but I can tell you we are. This is probably, of all the projects I've seen come through here, this is probably the project that I've seen the most city council members talk about or work on with the community.

I know it doesn't seem like it, but some of the things that have been accomplished by the city with the engineering of the bridge and how far we've gotten, I think it's a win. So I've talked too long. I appreciate everything and everyone that's come out. I think that we need to, with all haste, start working on figuring out how to build that lower road for safety reasons, for traffic reasons, and along with a focus on some of the other roads as well, and everything that we've taken today. But on that, I'll finish.

And at this point, I believe I'll be looking for the council to make a motion.

Mister mayor, I will make a motion to, introduce, waive the full reading, and read by title only, an ordinance of the city council of the City Of Rockland approving a development agreement by and between the city of Rockland and Capital Equity Management Group Inc. And Real Property Investment Pros Inc. Relative to the Granite Lake Estates Subdivision, Granite Lakes Estate Development Agreement, DA2024-one, including change in the language to state completion.

In Section eight or in Item eight, yep. I'll second that.

Okay. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Noes? Abstentions? The item passes unanimously. All right. At this point, we are addressing future agenda items. Anybody have a future agenda item? I will be asking for a discussion item or presentation, and we can discuss later. It might not be on the very next agenda, but I do want to, begin a conversation about that road that we were discussing the IOD.

Thank

you.

Having no other future items, we are adjourned. Thank you.

Recording stopped.