City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, good evening everyone. I am Mayor Erikica A. Stewart and I'm here to say that all of the city council is here in person and I will pass it over to council member Marks for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you of the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you council member Marks. So, um, before I get started, uh, I'll be doing a presentation for Black History Month and, um, presenting this to John King from the NAACP slow county. But I want to say I see more people in the audience today. So, I just want to make sure if you wish to speak today that you've turned in a speaker slip. So, I'm going to ask Mr. Collins. Oh, yes, the city clerk are waving. Our vanas over here. Uh, we have a pink, a green, and a blue slip. Those are for one, two, and three minutes. If you are so good as to have a one minute, you will be first. If you have two minutes, you will be second. And if you have three minutes, you will be at the end of public comment. So, I just want to give you that heads up. If you want to coordinate with friends now, I would suggest it. Okay. So, that leads me to our Black History Month and

which allows the city council at the Someone's joining me. It's exciting. the weekend.

Okay. So, today is the uh 100th anniversary. 1926 is when we first had Black History Week, we didn't have a whole month until 1970s. So, I just thought I would share that little tidbit before I got into the proclamation. So, whereas Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African-Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in US history. Whereas the city of St. Louis Abyispo values the diversity and contributions of black residents and acknowledges the importance of honoring the rich culture, traditions, and history of black Americans. The observance of Black History Month was established to remember and reflect upon the significant contributions of black individuals, leaders, and communities throughout American history, including the arts, sciences, education, business, politics, and social justice. During Black History Month, the city encourages community members, businesses, and organizations to recognize, honor, and part, sorry, to recognize, honor, and participate in activities that celebrate black history, black history, black heritage, and promote unity, equity, and inclusion. The city of St. Los Aispo is committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive community free of discrimination, free of hate, and recognizes the ongoing work required to achieve racial racial equity and social injustice. Now, therefore, I, Mayor Erica A. Stewart, mayor of the city of St. Los Abyispo on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim February 2026 as Black History Month in the city of San Los Aispo and encourage all community members to join us in honoring the legacy, achievements, and contributions of black Americans to our city, state, and nation. John, can we meet in the podium?

talk about ACP, Black History Month, etc. Thank you. Well, you're a tough act to follow.

Um, my name is John King and I'm um the chairperson for the Freedom Fund for the National Association for the Advancement of Color People, St. and Louis Abyspo branch. Um, as we all know, freedom's not free. Wow. 100 years. Um, it's really interesting. Carter G. Goodson, uh, who we know as the father of black history in this country, a Harvard educated scholar, uh, started the, uh, Negro history month. Um, in 1976, uh, Gerald Ford, our president at that time, um, declared a month for Black History Month. Then is why is it in February? Why is that significant? uh because uh both Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln uh were born in the month of February and we commemorate their contributions to the struggle. Um in St. Louis Abyspo County and the city of St. Lewis. Uh we are a very small in number in this community, but we like to think that we add a little spice and that diversity is a wonderful thing. Black History Month is not just to celebrate black people. It's also to celebrate diversity of all kinds. This country is built on that principle. We're all immigrants and we all contribute. I would like to say that often times people feel that we may be in a post-racial um America. That is not true. And there are still

people and institutions that have created a difficult time for people of color to be equal and to find the type of inclusion that is required to have an equal community. One of the things that uh you may be aware of is the hate speech that was written here on the sides of the wall uh just last year um right here at city hall that in the past this county had whites only um neighborhoods and it's on the deeds and so we see that there has been progress made and we want to encourage people to make more progress. And the uh I'll close with this. Black History Month can be celebrated by white people. And the way that you would do that is to learn more about your black neighbor, to learn more about black history, to not uh internalize it, but to open your mind and reach out a hand as an ally. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And we have another fun presentation today. I'll ask Chief Scott to come forward. It is always uh enjoyable to me to be able to see some of our employees uh get to be celebrated and recognized and uh I look forward to Chief Scott to share that.

Thank you, Madame Mayor, members of council. It is an exciting uh night tonight. we get to recognize and formally introduce you to Deputy Chief Aaron Schaefer. Uh very exciting one of the two deputies that we have in the department. And while I can't clone myself, and some would say that's a good thing, um these two individuals really uh lead from the front and take care of of things when I'm certainly not available. Uh you will often see uh Deputy Chief Schaefer at community events. He's going to be with you in front of council uh quite often and you'll see him all around out and about the town. Aaron is an 18-year veteran with the department, holding various positions, including crime scene investigator. He's been a detective, training sergeant, and lastly, he was our administrative sergeant or lieutenant over our internal affairs section. He's also been a leader of the POA, which is our police officers association, as well as slopsa. So I will also tell you as a former football player with Calpali uh he gives back to the community and coaching others as well as being a mentor for young athletes and he utilizes his same care and compassion and spirit of teamwork and leadership for our slow PD team. I will also lastly as I close out just tell you that most importantly Aaron is married to his wife uh Carrie who's with us still uh tonight and um they have two young children young adults now who've practically grown up uh in for the entirety of Aaron's career at the police department. So we're very excited to introduce you to Aaron Schaffer and I'll let him come up and give a few words on his own behalf. Aaron,

Madame Mayor and Council, it's really like it was funny because I was sitting here writing what I was going to say tonight and I have all these things written down, but usually when I stand up here, things come naturally and I think the chief says it the best and um I care about people and I think that that doesn't just transcend inside the department, it transcends outside the department with the community and I know I've had conversations with a lot of people that are in this room and they understand that I'm a charismatic person. Uh, but I couldn't do this by myself. I didn't get here because Aeron's, you know, knows everything and I have enough humility to know that I don't. And when it comes down to it, my goal is to lead and direct people. Uh, but also sometimes the smartest person works for you. And so utilizing that and using that using that as a strength is very valuable to make a successful organization. Um, I'd like to thank the chief for selecting me. It was an eight-month process and uh was not easy. I'm thankful for um Lieutenant Jason Dickl who was also in the running and uh the valiant effort that he put out. But I'd also like to thank Deputy Chief Amaroso who mentored and provided guidance through this process. This is not an easy job. Uh one that I won't take lightly, but also I want to thank my family. This career, if you've ever worked this, working weekends, nights, getting phone calls, woken up in the middle of the night as a detective sergeant, uh your your wife loses sleep just as much as you do every time you get a phone call. And so I wouldn't be able to do this without her and my two kids sacrificing not going to games and all the things that we sacrificed to to serve our community. Um obviously our city I know well there's no timer but I guess I got three minutes. um you know our our we went the police department went through a big incident 5 years ago and I was directly involved in that and um when the chief told me that I got this position I kind of just shut my door and and you know cried a little bit because everything that we do in this profession make us better but I think in the end like I'm a better person because of that unfortunately with the tragedy of of

Luca and to say that I'm standing here today is kind of like bittersweet but at the same time um I'm just forever grateful for the chief to commit this opportunity. So, thank you. Speaking of um additional exciting um awareness of some promotions, we have director Erin Floyd to share about our new Oh, good. I was say wait, there's only one new employees.

Good evening, mayor and council. Erin Floyd, public works and utilities director. Uh similar to Chief Scott, this really is one of the highlights of our career as well, serving the community, but also being able to share people who are coming up into these new positions who are amazingly talented. And tonight, this is actually two exemplary um definitions of that in that we have two assistant directors in public works and utilities. So the first that I will introduce will be Maline Casinta who oversees the public works branch of the department and then Shauna Scott who oversees the utilities branch of the department. So Meline actually with our new uh assistant director of public works role. Nataline stepped into this bringing more than 12 years of experience in public works across the central coast with expertise in capital project delivery program management and operational leadership. She began her career in Pismo Beach gaining hands-on experience in field operations, inspections, development review, and project management knowledge that continues to shape her practical solutions focused approach here in the city of St. Louis Abyspo. Since joining the city, Meline has led major initiatives, including the development of the city's first 10-year capital improvement program, and management of one of our largest programs in our city, the soontobe open cultural arts district parking structure. She's known for her collaborative leadership, strong communication skills, and commitment to building effective teams. Meline is passionate about fostering partnerships, advancing infrastructure resiliency, and ensuring our public works programs deliver exceptional service to our community. So, please help me in welcoming Maline to her new role.

Good evening, mayor and city council. Um, I'm truly honored to have been selected for this role uh and serve for the city where I live. my children go to school here um and where I get to see the impact of our work every single day. Um I actually grew up u in the public works field. Um my my parents worked in public works and my grandpa worked in public works. So um I'm quite familiar with it. Um and I learned early on that public works is like magic. Uh most people don't notice it um until it stops working. So, u my goal is to keep public works strong, resilient, responsive, and um as much like magic as possible. Um I'm committed to building trust, um finding common ground, and communicating early and often. Uh one of the best parts about this job is the incredible staff, um the engaged community, and the support from this council. Uh I'm I'm thrilled to continue in this role and uh and be more involved in a larger role in the city. So thank you. And for the utilities branch, we have Shauna Scott. In 2026, this year, Shauna will actually celebrate 10 years of public service with the city of St. Louis Abyspo which was preceded by 15 years as a planning and environmental consultant for municipal, county, state, and federal agencies locally and throughout the state of California. Shauna started with the city in 2016 in the community development department. In addition to development review, they led and supported a variety of projects and teams and provided and still do California Environmental Quality Act guidance and oversight within the community services group. In 2022,

Shauna joined the utilities department as our special product projects manager. And for four years, Shauna has enjoyed supporting the administration of utilities, water, wastewater engineering, and planning divisions through strategic planning and policy development, capital project management, planning and implementation, entitlement, and utility plan review, ensuring policy and regulatory compliance, and facilitation of city staff collaboration and regional agency coordination. So, I'd also like to introduce Shauna.

Thank you, Erin. Um, good evening, Mayor Stewart and City Council. I am grateful and excited to serve as the city's director of utilities. I truly value and support our incredible team and the ongoing collaboration among the utilities and public brs branches, the city organization, the St. Louis community, and our regional partners. As we move forward as reorganized public works and utilities department, my goals are to foster honest, productive, and solutionoriented conversations, further advance efficient communications and shared learning opportunities, expand operational infrastructure and water supply resiliency, and facilitate collaborative and strategic capital program planning. I am focused on the city's mission and provision of essential services and excellent customer service, achievement of our major city goals, employee support and development, and fostering and maintaining an inclusive and safe environment for our employees and our community. Thank you all for your time tonight and your service to this great city. Thank you so much. It was an honor to be able to share in your promotion and and hear about your experiences. With that, uh we'll pass it over to uh city manager Whitney McDonald for her city manager report.

Thank you very much. Uh thanks for the opportunity uh to introduce these new uh employees who are in new positions here with the city and really taking on that additional leadership role. So hopefully everybody in the community gets a chance to uh meet and engage and get to know each of our uh employees who we've just talked about um because they're all amazing people and public servants. So thank you to everyone for supporting one another and each other and getting to this point. And with that uh we have just a handful of slides of uh different events we want to highlight. Um the first is um our promotional coordinating committee's cultural arts and community promotions grant program is now open for the next fiscal year. Uh the city through this process will award a total of $100,000 to promote nonprofit cultural events that are in or directly adjacent to our city that will take place between July 1st of this year uh through June 30th of next year. We want to make sure everyone's aware of this upcoming opportunity um because funding is competitive and needs to be used for marketing and advertising expenses. We do have in-person and virtual information sessions offered in the coming weeks. So, if anybody's has questions about uh what this program entails and if you have an idea and an event you want to uh propose, please come and get some more information. Our deadline to apply is March 17th at midnight. So, I wanted to make sure everyone's aware of that. Next up, um we have published a our first uh performance monitoring report for our North Turo Greenway project. This is our 12month report uh published uh just a week ago, I believe in January. It's part of our post construction monitoring uh program of this project. The project was completed a little over a year ago and includes

1.7 miles of low stress bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure that connects neighborhoods north of Foothill Boulevard into the downtown via Broad and Toro Streets. This process uh and the report itself is part of a commitment to monitor the effectiveness of the project uh at a one-year and two-year marks. Um it evaluates project performance during the first year after construction. And the data includes vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian volumes, vehicle speeds, and parking occupancy. And then just some in-person community feedback we've received. But we're definitely not done uh in gaining additional feedback. And we really want to make sure folks are aware. We're collecting more feedback through a citywide online survey that is open at our slowcity.org/opencity hall tool. Um, targeted mailers with survey details are also being sent to residents who live uh along the greenway and we want to make sure they're aware. Uh, and the survey will remain open through the end of March. So, we hope people come and check it out and provide us some additional uh information about their experience. We want to highlight a couple of additional uh public art uh I things that are have happened or are happening. We want to make sure everybody is aware. Um, we very recently celebrated the installation and ribbon cutting cutting of a new sculpture out in front of Sloma at the lawn in Mission Plaza. It was called Sculpture Jam and it is brought to us by California artist Bruce Johnson. The sculpture project uh was brought to us in partnership with Sloma, the St. Louis Abyispo Museum of Art, and is part of our public art program that supports a rotating art installation at Mission Plaza. Um this sculpture will be on display for the next 18 months uh and also includes a showcase of additional art within the museum itself. So we hope people go and check it out. Um I one of the maybe that second picture on the

right does show scale a little bit because I was quite impressed at the scale of it and hopefully folks are able to go by and take a look. Um it's beautiful and we're really grateful to have it here in our community. More local art is occurring in our Laguna Lake neighborhood. Our local artist, Sally Llamas, in partnership with our public art staff, have completed the first of a few community painting days. Um, this will be a community art mural project in the walkway between Newport Street and Seal Smith Elementary. The first day of painting occurred uh just last weekend on Saturday, January 31st. Um, we even had a council member stop by and get handed a paintbrush, put her mark literally on the wall. Um, our next community opportunity for painting is coming up on March 7th. Students from Seal Smith fifth and sixth grade classes will complete the mural in April. Then, so for more information on this project and to find out just more about our public art program in general, please visit our parks and rec web web page at slowparksandre.org. And then we just want to highlight uh what's coming up on our next agenda. Our next regular meeting is February 17th. Um we have a number of consent items. I want to point out we will be bringing forward our community development block grant funding recommendations as well as uh approval of the uh local hazard mitigation plan that the county um put together on behalf of the county and all of the uh seven cities. And then our public hearing and business items will include our second quarter budget report which will also include a conversation of potential spending appropriation of our year-end fund balance um from the last fiscal year and an annual city employee recruitment and retention trends overview. Um we will be

having a lot of conversation about Haggera South Hagera projects. Uh it's actually two separate projects, a widening in front of the CALR building along with a complete streets project. Um we figured it's one street. It would be good to talk about it together. So we'll be um seeking direction to move forward with uh trying to get construction contracts and then discussing a grant agreement with the San Losbzo Museum of Art which we discussed uh last year as well. So those are the items we'll be talking about on February 17th and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much. Um it was also wonderful I want to say that the daughters of um the sculptor uh sculptor was uh there and with the scissors and so it was really fun to watch them be part of it and share what their father has done. So thank you for bringing that public art in your report.

Any comments or questions? Looks like none. So I'll move forward to public comment. So I want to uh remind people a couple things. This is public comment for items that are not on the agenda. Uh if you have an item you'd like to share about that is already on the agenda, we'll talk about that in a few minutes. Um if you have not had a chance yet to ban us, please our assistant city manager and city clerk. Um we have uh our public comment speaking cards. So if you have not turned those in, please turn them in now. Um one minute, two minute, and three minute uh slips. So if you have one minute, you'll speak first, then second. Two minutes, you'll speak second. three minutes, you'll speak third. With that in mind, um I know we did do a bunch of clapping in the beginning. So, I want to make sure to share um we had some presentations. So, we did do some clapping for the awards and proclamations, but we do during public comment do just kind of our silent clapping or if you are unhappy with something, you can do the downward boo sign so that people can keep talking and we can keep keep hearing them through their three minutes. So thank you for respecting that and respecting the people even if you don't like uh the things they are saying. With that uh who is our first uh speaker?

So we have six um speakers for items not on the agenda. I'm going to call three in a row and if you could please um be prepared to speak after the next person is done that would help us. John Pronic, Sean Harris and Bob Goldman. Hello everyone. Um, I actually had plans to speak about something near and dear to my heart, but this afternoon I had a very productive meeting with some of the city staff. Some of those people are in the room this a or this evening. And so I wanted to change course and just say thank you to the city staff members that took the time to meet with us and are helping us find a resolution for a very big problem in in uh in my eyes and I hope to find resolution and not have to end up back here at this podium in the future and bring this to you guys. Um yeah, so I think I'm going to yield back sometime, get everybody out here faster. So thank you to the uh city staff. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much,

Sean Harris. So, when's the time start?

All right, I'll make this quick. Uh, got a I'll spend a minute and a half on one issue. I was detained December 29th on Bulock Lane in the dark at 6:15 in the morning by some uh individuals in tactical vests in a police patch. Um, I am under the assumption their ICE. Uh, that was on December 29th in the dark. uh blocked in by three cars. Uh I was doing nothing more than going to work. Um and then uh as a followup, I I called the wash commander that morning and was told that uh there were some uh DHS operations in the county. Uh and when I got detained, I asked the person that stuck their head in my car why they wanted my ID. And they said that there was there had a report of a stolen car in the area. And then later when I requested some documents from the uh Sis Police Department, uh one of them said that the they the department was uh they DHS requested assistance uh regarding a vehicle collision. So I've also made a follow-up to that requesting documents to um uh validate that uh document and I'm still waiting. I made that on December 26th. I'm still waiting for the uh report that the officer presumably made regarding that uh collision. Um, so, uh, so what I'm basically saying is I got three different reasons why I was detained in the dark at 3:15 in the 6:15 in the morning. Okay. Uh, so, um, now what my concern is is that the policies and procedures, uh, section 414.6 of St. Louis PD, and I'll quote, request by federal immigration officials for assistance from this department should be directed to a supervisor. The supervisor is responsible for determining whether requested assistance would be permitted under the California Values Act. Uh so uh if if it's not already in place, my question is are there any um is there any way that the supervisor that would make that determination has been properly trained? Uh and if so, do they go through some sort of matrix? Uh because it's a very complicated question. You know, uh I'm certainly not qualified to make that kind of decision. I wouldn't be at this point. But my question is do these does the supervisors for the St. Louis PD receive some sort of formal training on

the implic implications of making that kind of decision? uh and uh if so is it documented and if not why not why do we not have them properly trained to make legal decisions on that that reflect this the community's values and whether they comport with the California values uh overall okay so I think I've spent about a minute and a half I'd like to discuss that uh bread line there thank you that is a 1920s great depression bread line I noticed there's a few older folks in the um galley here that would probably recognize that photo is that three minutes it is three minutes all right thank Thank you so much. Is your email or contact information with the clerk? Um, it might be Okay, great. Yes, we have it. Thank you so much. We'll get back to you.

Hello, my name is Bob Goldman and I'm here to speak on a couple issues. I don't know if the council ever dealt with any of these, but these are issues that came to me using the dog park the last 10 months. We spent a $1.2 million in the dog park. The parking is terribly inadequate. Um, the parking area is where they sort of get the dogs ready, either leash them or not leash them. It's dangerous. We had a dog killed there last year, last uh last last year. If you go up to the dog park, you only see about a third of it being used. Uh, twothirds of it. What happened was is the wreck department shrunk that thing down. So, there's really only oneird of that park that's being used. The other two/3s are both wood chips, which were unacceptable to us because they damaged the dog, and pearl, which is also unacceptable to us. Um, neither the dogs or the owners like the surfaces out there. Um, the grass, the one-third of the area that there's grass is overused. It's totally worn out. Um, another issue is the dogs are separated. We have the small dog park and the big dog park. What's happened out there for years? We've had social groups. We had a social group that's been out there for like 20 years. And unfortunately, with the dogs being split, that splits up our group. In my opinion, the only thing we can really do at this point to save this dog park is to get rid of those wood chips and to get rid of that pearl. And it's going to be an expense. Um, and put some really hardy grass in there because that's a good service surface for everybody. Um, I also believe closing the park on Wednesday morning is really inconvenient for the users and I don't know I don't know what maintenance really is required there, but I don't know why the maintenance work can't show up off hours instead of closing the park for for a half hour. Lastly, I've heard about talk of a new dog park in Emerson. I don't know if that how that where that's progressing. If we make these improvements to the dog the Laguna Lake dog park, you won't have to do that at

Emerson. And Emerson, I must add, is one of the last big open spaces in T city. Um, and lastly, I don't want to mean be mean about it, but I have really had difficulty meeting with a recck department. And if they if we do do another parks, another dog park, please don't have the recck department do it. Go ahead and foster farm it out to a ad hoc committee that has dogs and knows what they're doing. Thank you very much for letting me talk. Any questions? Thank you. No, thank you.

Our next three speakers are Candace Dear, Steve Del Martini, and Gene Nelson. And that's my final speaker card. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor. Oops. And council. I want to thank you for all the effort you guys do for ser serving the community. I'm here because I have a concern on the diet on South Hyera Street. I live in Chumash Village, which is 55 and older. And um I'm just going to read what I have. Okay. Uh road diet failures can include increased congestion congestion sorry longer emergency vehicle response times and negative impacts on local businesses. Some road dice may also cause traffic to divert to parallel residential streets leading to cut through traffic. These outcomes often occur when a road diet is poorly implemented, especially on corridors with high traffic volumes or significant driveway and in intersection density, which um coming off 101 on um Madonna exit would be very very in my opinion a very big problem because um Madonna and is such an iconic place. Um, couple more things. How much time? Oh, I don't have a lot of time. So, um, I'm just going to go with this. A reduction in the number of travel lanes can cause traffic jam, especially during peak commute times. Emergency vehicle delays, narrow lanes, and added traffic can slow down emergency response, increasing response times in critical situations. A traffic diversion. When a road becomes congested, drivers may divert to parallel residential streets which are not designed to handle

high volumes of traffic. This can lead to safety concerns and increased noise pollution in those neighborhoods. Poor implementation failures are often linked to a lack of proper anal analyzation and public input before implementation. I would think that if it went out to a vote among the community members that it would be inadvertently voted down. Thank you.

Thank you. Honorable mayor, council members, council, city manager, and the rest. I'm Steve Del Martini. It's nice to see you and I'm grateful to be able to be here. Um, I just want to touch on the upcoming discussions of the proposed rental registry that will be heard in a special session on February 24th. As in the past, the realtors are available for discussions about the registry as we've been a available in the past for such item items as the point of sale sewer inspections, home energy rating scores, and other various situations that come up from time to time. We are looking forward to continuing discussions with the council and staff. I want to be clear that there is 100% backing for safe and healthy housing. Uh we have had meetings with city staff, professional property managers, the tenants union, etc. And from these discussions and uh in conclusion, so far uh we're not sure that a registry will resolve the rental issues that have been discussed. One thought is that more more emphasis should be placed on the existing business license application process um that is already in place. I do want to let you know we have a lot of thoughts and ideas that we think are really great. Um if I'm following the numbers correctly then there are about 2600 rental business licenses in place but there are an estimated 10,000 to 11,000 rentals out there. Uh creating a registry doesn't mean that more of the rental property owners will cooperate. In fact, it may mean may mean less uh cooperation. I don't know the time and expense that it would take to track down

owners to achieve a higher percentage of involvement, but the current staff in the housing department may not be enough. I believe that there are properties that are professionally managed are not the problem. I think there is a smaller percentage of owners that don't keep their properties up. That concerns me. How are they how are they compelled to do a better job is what I think is more to the point of that discussion. We'd like to offer up some up suggestions in future discussions uh to take under consideration. We are looking forward to the next few weeks and a healthy meaningful session on the 24th to bring everyone on board and have a resolution to this to this problem. Uh I thank you for your time and I think this is a really important issue. We think it's an important issue. There's a lot to discuss and it may be one of those where you might want to even have another meeting after and not not make a decision once we know what all the it's hard to know what the concerns are if we don't know what the plan is and it's difficult to have that staff report come out you know 5 days before then try to you know round up everybody and get it done. So appreciate your time and efforts. Thank you.

Thank you. And that too will be a study session just like today's golf course, not at voting. Uh our final speaker card for items not on the agenda is Jean Nelson.

Good evening. My name is Dr. Gene Nelson. I live in slow. I oppose the city's plan to reduce the arterial roads south hyera from four lanes to two lanes at the geographic choke point between bridge and margarita. The final opportunity for the public to object to this harmful plan is during the city council meeting in two weeks. The plan will diminish public safety in St. Louis Abyispo. One, it will increase emergency response times to Chumash Village during rush hours or anytime there's an accident on Highway 101. Joe Little of the City of Slow Fire Department recently informed me via email that motorists could drive out out of the way of emergency vehicles by driving over the concrete barriers. Nope. The barriers are designed to prevent that to protect the bicyclists. The barriers are also topped with plastic reflectorized poles. With traffic stopped in both directions in the two traffic lanes, emergency vehicles will then slowly drive through the remaining narrow uh turn lane. Two, the Pacific Palisades fire, which occurred more than a year ago, underscored the need for wide escape lanes from wildfires. Recall the roads congested with stopped vehicles. Residents were forced to run on their two feet away from the fire. Given CalFire's recent increase in the fire hazard severity zones within slow city limits and nearby, we could easily find ourselves in the same predicament as Pacific Palisades with this intentional blockage of roads. Three, the premise that reducing vehicle miles traveled in rural St. Louis Abyispo County will make any difference in worldwide emissions is nonsense. The key fact is the People's Republic of China has been consuming more coal than the rest of the world for

the past few years. Emissions reductions in the West are nullified by China's coal consumption. Keep South Hyera at four lanes for safety. Put the bicyclists on the sidewalks on both sides just as is done on the west side of Madonna Road between the Madonna Inn and Laguna Lake. reduce the speed limit to 35 miles per hour. Problem solved. Thank you.

Thank you. That's the final public comment. Sure. Okay. Thank you very much. Um with that, we move on to the consent agenda. Before we do that, I just want to highlight um again, I know we have some new people in the room and um it's always hard because public comments are for items that are not on the agenda. So, we don't add any necessarily any comments or ask questions to that, but we do take notes to these so that we can hopefully respond to each person later. Um with that, we'll move forward to consent agenda. Before we go forward, is there anything that um my council members would like pulled? Council member Boswell.

5G. Thank you, C. Vice Mayor Francis. 5H. Perfect. That's what I have, too. So, before we get to 5G and 5H, um do you have any public comment, city clerk, about the other items on the consent agenda? 5A through 5E. No, we do not. Only on 5G and 5H. Perfect. All right. Can I get um a motion, Council Member Marks? Uh yes. I would like to move uh approval of the consent agenda with the exception of 5G and 5H. Perfect. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman.

And I'll second that motion. Thank you. Can we have roll call? Council member Marks. Yes. Council member Shoresman. Yes. Council member Boswell. Yes. Vice Mayor Francis. Yes. Mayor Stewart. Yes. Thank you. And that motion passes 50. Now we'll come back to 5G the tree. Um shall we start with a an update? Uh city manager, assistant city manager from our arborist or from anyone particular city manager?

Thank you. We do have both our city arborist and our community development staff as well as staff uh from our uh administration and IT department who have been working really closely with slowrep. And so we have a whole collection of folks to um answer any questions you might have. So I might recommend we start with just making sure we're clear on the specific requests we need to address and kind of go from there.

Perfect. Thank you. I know for myself I've asked um previously if we could have some more clarification on the heritage versus non-heritage aspect of the tree and um maybe just a highlight of the trees that will be replaced uh as this if this tree is taken down. That's one of my first questions. Sure thing. So certainly if you want we can start there with uh we're asking our uh community development director and our city arborist to come up uh and help fill that in and then we're happy to maybe go from there if that makes sense. Okay.

Good evening. Timmy, director of community development. Uh thank you for those questions. the the heritage tree design designation is a specific designation for certain trees in the community and they are uh decided upon by the tree committee uh if they meet that threshold. This tree in particular is not a heritage tree for our list. Um, in terms of the uh trees that will replace are proposed to replace this tree, I think Walter, do you have information about that council? And when you do that, can you please share with us um for the public what a heritage tree is and why this is not a heritage tree?

Certainly. Uh, thank you, mayor. Thank you, council. Um, I believe I have a couple slides in the T drive. Oh, Timmy's on it. All right. Um, so a heritage tree uh has to be requested um via an application and it needs to go to the tree committee for approval. That's the process and we have a website that lists all the heritage trees that are in town um through our GIS team and so you can see them um where where they're at. Um I think there's about 10 or 11 of them. So I prepared some slides. Um the compensatory tree information is at the back. Um we can start there. Um go up to the up above. One more. Thank you. Um so this is the compensatory tree species that was selected to replace the uh location of the current 48 in coastlive oak. This is known as Mandela's coral. It's athrina AFA. It's a fast growing species that is drought tolerant once established. It has a very good summer canopy and a long live flower. Um we expect it to get about 40 feet tall. If you're not familiar with this species, there was uh a 24-in box recently planted at Santa Rosa Park as a part of Arbor Day celebrations. And on the Cowpoly campus, there are several large specimens that aren't quite as large as the one in the photo, but are getting close. Um, and so that's been a really successful tree um in our area observed at Kalpali. Uh, for the uh additional lo locations, the uh site that we identified is on Pomo and Palm Corner. Um there's high voltage overhead. So that's a limiting factor for what kind of tree would be

appropriate to put there. Uh the gold medallion known as Cassioptoilyla will stay under the high voltage wires. Um it's drought tolerant once established. It's been very successful in our area and it provides again kind of that dense canopy cover that we're looking for in urban forest. Uh the next tree is known as uh the chalpa. Chalpa is an interesting one. It's a It's a hybrid of a California native known as a desert willow and a Midwest East Coast species known as the Chhatalpa uh Kulpa, excuse me. And now this is the hybrid chalpa. Uh but it is drought tolerant. It actually is deciduous. Um but it also has a very nice flower and another successful tree. There's a large specimen actually in Mission Plaza Park. Any questions?

Thank you. That's greatly helpful. Council member Shoresman. Yeah. Follow up to the compensatory plantings. Um can you clarify for the public uh what how many trees where they will be? Um because I know that we're talking about removing potentially one tree, but there's multiple trees being discussed here. So

certainly um there's a there's a compensatory plan that was an adjustment to an existing landscaping plan. Um the best way to think of it is that on site we're we're meeting the one to one requirement. Um where the oak is this this application is proposing to replace another tree uh directly in the same place. It's a 20x 20 planter uh that will be preserved for this uh coral tree. Um offsite these trees are going to be located at the corner of Nepomo and Palm. There's four trees uh to be installed and um that there is some flexibility there on where those trees goes and what that final species ends up being, but um it's one on-site and then four additional offsite for a total of five compensatory trees.

And is that our normal process that we expect that many trees to be planted uh for taking out one tree or is that are they planting more than is usual or is there a standard? The municipal code requires that for every tree requested for removal, one is replaced at a minimum onsite or if one cannot be replaced on site, a minimum of two offsite. And so because of the uh size and status of this tree um and have a robust planting plan um in excess of the minimum requirements was proposed. So, um, one of the questions that I know I asked earlier today was what what would happen if we just let the tree the tree in question, the the oak stay where it is uh, and see how it does with the further development on the site.

Uh, if I may, I'd like to take you through some of my other slides that I've prepared because I think that'll uh, help answer that question. Um, so this is our this is our oak right here. Um, a lot of the information that I'm going to be sharing with you uh has been provided in the arborist report that the applicant provided from a consulting arborist. Um, this is a tree in in fair health. There are some minor structural defects. Um, but overall it has a canopy with good vigor. Um, next slide please. So this is an o over over uh overhead aerial. The previous image I showed was from um fall 2025 and this also appears to be from the similar time frame. You can see the outline of the canopy. Um what the project is proposing is that um 86% of the critical root zone is going to be impacted and uh 35% of the canopy is going to be removed. Um, this is a outline of the plans that were shared uh with staff. And you can see in the center, lower center, there's a squiggly dot outline, and that's what the tree canopy represents on the plants. Uh, next please, Timmy. Uh, this green shaded area is the amount of critical root zone that would be preserved um if the project is to pro proceed as is. And now once we brought in once we requested that an arborist report be provided and a study done on the critical root zone um the arborist determined that the critical root zone um extended in a perimeter roughly indicated by the dotted dotted the yellow line. It's not exactly the scale but it's more or less there. Um and what we know when we impact this much of the critical root zone is that we make it difficult for a tree to survive. And when you couple a

86% impact to the critical root zone with a 35% removal of the canopy, you're also taking away the treere's ability to recover from any impacts uh to its root zone. Um furthermore, cutting roots um close to the trunk on even one side of the tree can introduce drought stress symptoms which will ultimately result in canopy dieback. And this project is proposing to um cut on all four sides close to the trunk. What we know from arboricultural best practice is that protecting the greatest amount of roots is the single best way to ensure the highest likelihood of success for a tree after a project has been complete. As this project is currently drawn, it does not allow for adequate space to protect the treere's critical roots. Without sufficient roots to sustain the tree, it will not be a long-term viable feature to the project. Sorry, I turned my light off. So that gets us to if the tree uh is not it looks very unlikely by your predictions based on the amount of impact to the root system that there will be with the rest of the development as it's planned. Uh there's a pretty high likelihood that the tree won't survive. If the tree does not survive uh if it's left in place um what happens then? Um if if the tree is left in place, um are you are you saying proceeding as is?

I guess yeah, if we decided to just leave the tree there, proceed with the development as planned and see what happens. See if it's viable that it might possibly survive all this um construction around it. Uh and it does not make it. Um then what what do we what do we do then? Um I I I guess at at a a future date a a decision will um be need to made to remove the tree and its removal will need to be requested by the city as I believe the city is the owner of of the property and if it would meet the criteria for removal then it could be requested and removed. So it could be it could be removed at a future date, but I think what you said earlier today was that it could uh impact the infrastructure that is built around that if if it it depending on how you remove the tree, it could impact uh the this the cement or concrete or pavers or whatever is put in there or landscaping that is there. It would probably impact that and cost um to replace whatever it disrupts in taking out the tree. Correct.

There could be uh some unintended consequences to the surrounding hardscape based on uh the tree removal. Okay. Thank you so much. I know my colleagues have questions probably similar. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, thank you very much. Um I'd love to go back to the compensatory planting. Um, I know we got some correspondence about kind of a desire to maintain as many native California species as possible um, within the city limits and I was wondering if you could talk to us a little bit about current best practices um, around natives versus non-natives and what the philosophy is but um, behind the compensatory planning planting plan. That's a that's a really great question and it's um something that I talk uh about a lot with my other colleagues in abor culture and with uh folks in the city. Um we are our approach to urban forestry is that often the urban forest is is a contrived environment. It's not a it's not a natural environment. And we find in our studies of urban forestry and our observations that non-natives tend to do better in this contrived environment, the compaction, the um subpar soils, the intermittent water, um and also the way they grow, the growth habits tend to fit into our built environment much better. Um, also as part of a diverse urban forest, um, the city's interest is to cultivate a diverse amount of species in that urban forest. And Slow is lucky in that we have some very unique features in our city. We have a a creek running through the downtown corridor. We are surrounded by open space. And in those areas in particular, we we do focus on natives. In the open space plantings, we focus on natives. In the creek corridor, we focus on natives. in the urban environment, um there's a lot more unpredictability and um we want to go for what works and I think a a goal of the city is to have a canopy cover that's robust and it's going to last and that also um is beneficial to the maintenance staff taking care of it and that also works for the space. And so um

you know tree tree species can be changed. Um in this particular example, you know, we were looking for a fast growing species um that could quickly provide canopy cover um and that was drought tolerant.

Yeah, thank you for that. And this question might not be for you. Um we did receive uh some late in the day correspondents that uh had a question about the the process and banding and public noticing and I was wondering if we could get a little bit more information about ensuring that the process was followed and kind of check in on that. Um I don't have the exact correspondence but uh I know the question came up and because the oak tree was in an active construction site o uh under management of a contractor there were rules about entering the job site and it was until very recently uh fenced off and there was no public access and so um the decision was uh I believe allowing the applicant to not have to ban the tree because of the restrictions in place of the construction CR site which is now changed as of I believe this week.

And were there any public notices posted at all like on the fence or anything in that area? Yes. Uh we actually had to post twice. Um we we posted on the fence in two locations. Um and then I was informed that the fences were taken down and the signs were gone. And so the next day we posted another sign at this time driven into a stake into the ground in front of the tree. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Boswell. Yeah. Uh, thank you. Uh, maybe just a few follow-ups on some of the good questions asked so far. Uh, could you speak a little more to why this specific the Mandela's coral was selected or will somebody be able to speak to that?

Uh, yeah. C certainly. Um, it's it's been observed to be successful here in slow. Um, Calpali has planted a lot of rare and unique tree species and and one of the goals of urban forestry is is is a a diverse urban forest is a resilient urban forest. And one thing as a city arborist I've tried to be mindful of is overplanting one species or being overrely reliant on one species. And so if there's an opportunity to incorporate diversity, I tend to go for that. So you're look you're looking for potentially something we don't have any or much of in the city to help you inform your decision.

Yes. And also being aware of um climate adapt species. Um there are projections about how the climate of California is expected to change and um that is could lead to a migration of species. There's a California native known as the Engleman oak um from Southern California that is likely going to find more fable conditions further north. Um and then also a tree like Mandela's coral which is a subtropical that can uh handle intermittent rainfall throughout the year but is also drought tolerant is also something that we're anticipating is going to be useful in our urban forest.

Great. Thanks. Um another question I had is I so I know I know we have uh this term heritage tree. Explain that. Thank you. Um, also in our conservation open space element in 7.5.1, we have something we call significant tree and I saw that was referred to in the environmental documentation uh for the parking garage. Um, can you tell me a little bit more about that designation and um do we have a list or do we know how many trees carry that designation in the city? And this tree, my understanding, does not carry that designation. Correct. This tree is not to my knowledge a significant tree or heritage tree. So the policy you're referring to is 7.5 in the conservation open space element and it reads protection of significant trees. Significant trees as determined by the city council upon the recommendation of the tree committee, planning or architectural committee are those making substantial contributions to natural habitat or to the urban landscape due to their species, size or rarity. Significant trees, particularly native species, shall be protected and then it goes on. So that's the significant tree program. the uh the tree program moved to community development from public works fairly recently, but we have been looking into documents and I I cannot find a list of significant trees, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. So, we'd have to phone some of our friends in uh who are around public works where the tree program was, but we do have a list of the heritage trees and so we'd have to see um that one is more readily available, but that significant trees is not um something we see often. Great. Thank you. That's all for now.

Thank you. Uh, Council Member Marks.

Uh, yes. I'm, uh, not sure who could answer this question, but to me, this is, um, a I won't say a comedy of errors. It's a tragedy of errors. I'm very concerned about the situation. So, who is responsible? I followed this this project along for years both on and off council and uh preserving this tree. Maybe we didn't give it the designation of a sign significant tree, but it's been very important. And now at the last moment, uh we in the public are being told that well trees got to go even though all this planning and all this time has um much of the focus uh has been on preserving this tree. So who is responsible for the situation we're in right now? Whose error was it? I can speak a little bit to how we got here if that helps. So one of the answers to the questions in the agenda correspondence from staff related to the process as it was when this project was uh g going through the entitlement process and now and we have made some changes. So in in generally the entitlement process which is the planning process is fairly conceptual and high level and um what at that time when things like this were going through the entitlement process we did not necessarily ask for an arborist report. Now, um, partially because the tree program is in community development, we, I believe, have a much more robust review of tree related issues during that entitlement process. And so, um, you know, if if this were project were to come in today, um, we would have

Walter take a look at it as part of the planning entitlement review. Um and hopefully his concerns would have been raised of hey you know is there an arborist report about where the root zone is and how are you going to protect this? Um that wasn't necessarily done. In addition you know if a project was built around a tree I you know would also hope that the project development team would have engaged an arborist to make sure that it was designed appropriately. So, I think there are things that we have all learned from this over time and ways that the city is doing things differently to try to ensure that we're catching things like this earlier in the process. The reason it came to our attention at this point is because they are now in the process of getting their construction documents approved and that is also uh routed to our city arborist. So, Walter was looking at it and at that time asked the applicant, "How are you going to protect this tree as part of the process?" And I believe that's when um the applicant engaged the arborist and at that time you know it was discovered that the root zone was different than what was previously thought. And so I think there are a number of things you know to learn from this project that we are moving forward with in the future. And I think it it does help that the the tree program is in the community development department where there are a lot of reviews happening for projects. So I

city manager, did you want to join in and add to that?

Sure. Uh thank you. I had a feeling that that feels like a city manager level kind of response to no. Hey, super helpful. I think uh a couple of additional points. One being uh and this is mentioned uh in the agenda correspondence that staff published on this item that there was a general best practice understanding at the time when the project was first being developed that you could really look at the the drip line is the sense of where the root system was most critical. Um and that meaning the extent of where the you know branches run out where rain drips down. uh and then since that time you know there's a much better understanding that that's not the case and it's I I believe it tends to be it could be species dependent it can be sight dependent but I think that all some of those factors around just uh different understandings of what a tree and then what this specific tree was going to need um kind of came into play at this time. The other piece on this site and with this particular property, there's a a long-standing history that's unique here, which is this is a cityowned piece of property with a project that's fairly intertwined and mingled between um the applicant, which is a slowrep theater and the city itself with our parking garage. And so there there were uh accounts being taken in the the documents we all came together and agreed upon that make reference to the tree and um ensuring that the applicant is essentially doing what they can to save it um and incorporate it into the design. Uh and at a point they're you know essentially comes a reckoning I think with whether that's possible or not. And unfortunately, we're we're at that point. And I don't think anybody is

um happy about the outcome or what's being presented, but trying to make sure eyes are wide open. And that um I think maybe one of the worst things we could do is allow it to move forward and have the the tree die in a few years and not have accounted for the realities of what it would be facing. Um we do have a number of folks in the audience um both from our staff who've been involved with the development of the um agreements about developing the property but also from Slowre Theater who I know have been working really hard on this issue to try to make sure they are evaluating and taking all reasonable steps to address what they can do for the tree and to accommodate it within the site. Um, and the reality is that uh trying to do what would be needed, which is to avoid a much wider root zone area than we thought originally would take um a significant redesign of the project. Um, but I'm just here to share that's that's where we're at and my understanding and certainly there are folks in the audience who can speak more directly um who really have been looking at this very critically again with the effort of um trying to not get to this point but recognizing that here's where we are.

So I have two more questions. Um I know uh just from general experience that trees oak trees can be uh transplanted. Is there a chance that this this tree could be transplanted rather than destroyed? Sorry. Can you press your button? There you go. Am I on? You're on. Perfect. Thank you.

You can move the mic up so that you can stand up straight. There you go. Thank you. That's better. There are contractors who specialize in um moving large trees. Um but I don't think this tree is one of those trees um due to its structure, its age, and its size. Um I think a a feasible move would be a smaller tree than this one. Um but that hasn't been evaluated. Is that correct? No.

All right. Um now are there measures let's just pretend that uh your direction and that to the applicant was to do everything to increase the chances of survival of the tree. Are there things that could be done or you know to enhance I mean some of the public comment that we've gotten talks about all the different things you could do to um uh give it a give it a chance to survive. Are there things that could be done?

There are directions in our engineering standards and specifications for how to approach u tree protection zones and what you do when you encounter roots. Uh but that is not this situation. The the extent that the building footprint is encroaching into the critical root zone is beyond making a couple adjustments um to your approach. um the the just the uh impact is just too extensive um to do a couple tweaks. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Vice Mayor Francis, thank you very much.

Just a quick followup to the what happens if we leave it. You've talked a lot about the change in how critical root zone is determined and I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about how precise that process is because I imagine it's quite difficult to determine with roots that are deep underground and going in different directions to to know how far and in what direction they're you know the most critical of the critical roots are going. So I guess I'm wondering is this something that's the fairly precise or is this something that's kind of more based on an informed gueststimate um previous tree experience that type of thing just so we can know if it's worth giving a gamble to leave the tree in place.

Sure. Um there's best practice that inform uh how arborists approach trees in construction and there are standards that we refer to. Um, generally the older a tree is and the larger it is, the less uh resilient it is to construction impacts and the younger it is and some species are more resilient. They um can bounce back. Uh but when we think about the the critical root zone of a tree, um generally it's about an inch or or a foot of radius for every inch of tree diameter. That's like kind of the middle of the road. Um, nothing special with this this tree. Nothing great, nothing, nothing bad. If you were to just kind of take an average tree on an average day, it's a it's a foot of radial uh critical root zone for every inch of diameter. And that's what the arborist used when writing his report to determine the critical root zone. So, that's a that's a radius of 48 ft from the trunk. Um, and we also know from best practice that when you cut large roots closer than six times the diameter, which would be 24 feet in this case, you induce that drought stress. And that's where we've we're going to be pruning the canopy away and taking the treere's ability to recover. And we're also going to be cutting roots close to the tree. Um, we're we're inducing a drought, stress, shock syndrome, and we're doing it on all four sides. Um, so there's there there's several thresholds that are being crossed. We have the the generally accepted maximum allowable impact for tree preservation and construction is 25% of the critical root zone. We're at 86% here. Generally, you don't want to come within uh six times the DBH and close to the trunk and pruning and and we're coming well within that. So there's there's several layers of impacts that um arborists use as thresholds for um determining whether a

a tree can handh handle it. And maybe if there was a little bit more room um this this tree could make it, but based on the plans, it's hard to say that it would.

Just one last one on the sidewalk side of things. Um there's going to be some disruption obviously, but perhaps less uh deep than on the other side where the building foundation and all of that is going to go in. And just kind of curious about this particular species uh root behavior and if it tends to stay fairly close to the surface or if having grown next to a sidewalk already if some of those roots are fairly deep because we're looking at a half moon um drawing of where the critical root zone is. But I imagine that's actually more of a a full moon there um of where those roots had gone unless they ran into that uh roaded and kind of came to an abrupt stop. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Certainly that's a great question. So this this yellow line is is what's called the calculated critical root zone and it's acknowledging that fact that there is a street there and there was a hardcape and a sidewalk and that there's likely not to be a lot of roots in that area. And so the focus of the critical root zone is back into the lot. Um most tree roots inhabit the top 18 in of soil. That's where all the oxygen is. roots need oxygen to uh thrive and they don't um they they they like to be near the surface. This location is sloping down and I believe with the grading cuts that there were um a number of routes that were had had to be cut to make the frontage improvements. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

Thank you, Council Member Shoresman. Yeah, just one more question and thank you for asking that one because I know um just walking near the site, the tree is quite a bit above where the sidewalk level is. And we did get another question from a constituent about could we do permeable pavers or something like that other than regular sidewalk to try to help protect the roots. But the the roots are already, as you said, they they would kind of be almost behind I don't know if there is a retaining wall there, but they're above sidewalk level by several feet. So, um they've already been cut at that level before they even get to the sidewalk. So, um just wanted to emphasize that because I um thought that was an interesting point when I heard it this afternoon. Um with the and I don't know if you can answer this question. And I know there's some folks from Slowre here and maybe they'll want to comment on this if they choose to make comment, but the the zone there, the yellow zone is obviously quite a bit wider than the green area that um was originally planned for. And and so it looks like it goes where the building is supposed to be. So there would be damage again to the roots um from the from the building of the building. And if we were to ask them to accommodate this larger root zone, would that inhibit their ability to to actually create the theater there? I mean, would they would they be forced to make it such a much smaller footprint that it wouldn't be a feasible project anymore? Any knowledge of that or maybe they can respond when they come up?

I I can't speak to the the design of of the theater. I can only comment on on the proposed impacts and what it's going to do to the roots. I see executive director Kevin Harris uh coming to the podium.

Uh good evening, Mayor Stewart and council. Uh thanks for the opportunity to speak and um to answer any questions you have. I have significant head colds, so appreciate your patience as I read through this, but I'll answer anything anything that I can. Uh this situation is not ever one that we wanted to be in of course or even anticipated. We always believed this tree would be a significant part of our overall design and landscape and we never contemplated that the tree would be damaged before we even set foot on the site. As most of you know, Slowre began the design process for this building 14 years ago in 2012. Since then, that project has undergone three major design revisions, all developed collaboratively with the city and approved through all the appropriate channels. I mention this because the protection of that tree, of this tree that's now in question, uh has always been a top priority for slow rep. Every version of the building has been intentionally designed around it and the assumed critical root structure given to slowrep based on best practices back in 2012. When our arborist uh visited the site in July of last year, his sole purpose his sole purpose was to gather information to finalize our construction phase tree protection plan. We were dumbfounded when he reported the extent of the damage to the already done to the treere's critical root structure and his professional conclusion that in its current condition the tree was very unlikely to survive. Since receiving that information in July of August before submitting our application, uh our design team explored every every alternative, including a complete redesign of the building and in every case designing around the remaining intact root system, as

Councilman Shoresman was was pointing out up there, uh would be necessary given the damage that's already occurred and that the resulting design, no matter how we moved it around the perimeter, would reduce the building's footprint and usable square footage to a level that would make the theater financially unsustainable most likely. Uh but more importantly, it would absolutely prevent Slowrep from achieving the economic and cultural revitalization goals that have driven this project from its inception. Slowrep worked for 14 years on this project and to protect that tree. I assure you of that. We have never set foot on site. Today both the staff report and our arborist agreed that the tree has been significantly damaged and will in uh pose increasing risk to both the public and the building. In response, as you know, Slow Rap has proposed a tree replacement plan that far exceeds the city's minimum requirement. We will absorb the expense for removal of the tree. We will do everything in our power if the tree removal is approved to to commemorate the tree in our lobby as a piece of art in that sculpture garden. We're looking into those alternatives now as we have been for the last seven months of this process. Um while this is not the outcome we hoped for, we remain absolutely committed to responsibly offsetting the impact and to reinvesting in the long-term environmental, cultural, and economic health of the district. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you so much. I know that it was mentioned from um our arborist that looking into moving the tree wasn't an option or hadn't been an option yet. Had you all looked into moving the tree? It it that went to a dead end. Moving the tree either to another portion of the site or offsite, our arborist was like that tree is not going to survive that. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Any other questions for executive director? Thank you so much. and thank you for coming as you don't feel so well. Also,

um you know, I I I asked uh director Tui to put up uh the picture, the rendering of the slow rep that we have been following this entire time. Um and included the two trees uh that you know, one of them we've been talking about. Um, and it looks like to the best of the options possible, if that's where we go, um, there still would be a tree in those two places. Is that correct? Thank you. So, the larger tree I assume would go right back into the place where the oak tree was, and then we'd have the other additional ch something tree. I can't pronounce that. Sorry, I have to go back to my notes. What was the ch one?

Chatalpa. Yes. So, would that be the one that would be next to it versus the men mandela coral squirrel? Coral. The uh mandela squirrel would be alone in the reserve 20 by 20 planter. Um there's will be other trees on on site as part of the landscaping plan replacing other trees that have been removed on site. But the four offsite which is the gold medallion and the chalpa um those will be at another location as tree trees. Okay. So the the remaining tree in this beautiful rendering would stay right just to confirm. I believe those are going to be newly installed trees as part of the final completion of the project.

Okay. Thank you very much. Okay, I think that's all the questions from us at this time. Um, can we have public comment? Yes, we have one public speaker for one minute and that is Daniel Glidden. Mayor, city council. Thank you. I just had to express my shock and dismay when I was walking my dog last week and I noticed a small little sign in front of this amazing tree and it said public hearing and I know that all through by the way the parking garage is spectacular. So well done and we were looking forward I'm sure as a community for the new slowrep theater and what it means for the cultural arts district. Um I respect all the information that we've been given. I just think that as it's been stated, this was not done very well over the last few years. Um, there were actually two trees originally. One was a U right on the corner, this huge tree that was removed, but it's a non-native species, so I understood it. This one, I also understand that they came through, but it doesn't mean that they can't change a plan that you still can't build around. We are a community, an architecture school. There's houses and buildings all around the world built around trees. There's no reason it can't be done here. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Um I I agree at the shock and awe um of this moment. Obviously, we got it a week ago, but what I'm saying is um it was definitely not the plan. Um and we look at the renderings, we hear the conversation. We continued to wanting wanting to build around this tree. It was uh it is um a beautiful large tree and it's part of our community and um I'm I'm very disheartened that we couldn't figure this out. And as you talk about the roots and 89% of the roots being damaged in construction, that to me doesn't seem like a very good odds um for the tree. And I have to say, Council Member Shoresman, I kept thinking, can we just try? Can we just make it happen and see what happens? Um, I also know that taking something out after we've just brand new built um, a beautiful new location feels a little bit like the Regetti conversation we had around Regetti Park, which was, well, we're going to go with alt one and alt three, the alternative one, alternative three, the pickle ball and the bike bike pump track, because when we look at the entire phasing, this will be the best with the construction and what we're going to come out with. So, I kind of feel like we're in that point right now where um to leave something to then die and then have to come back, take everything out construction wise that we've just done, just finished building to then put in a tree seems like an extraordinary amount of extra work that where the forethought maybe didn't happen before in the last couple of years. I think this is the forethought that is happening now. So, we don't have that happen going forward. Um, so that's my two cents right now. Council member Boswell.

Yeah, this is uh uh definitely a difficult decision uh to make. This is one where you wish you could go back in time. Um uh I don't I do think that, you know, slow rip me slow rep mentioned they've been working for 14 years, but the parking garage has been on the drawing board for 20 plus years. Um, I suspect that this tree was probably doomed uh when that decision was made to switch that entire block uh ultimately into um a parking garage. Um we should have had procedures in place at that time to look at a tree like this more in advance. Uh we did not. Um that's unfortunate. I am glad to hear that we now have new procedures in place that would if we were in a similar situation. Uh the staff and potentially the council would have an opportunity to look much earlier at what we deal what we do with a tree um a tree like this. So uh but it doesn't solve the problem um in front of us. Um I had asked in agenda correspondence the question about the potential of if we just left the tree and took our chances. I was hoping I was going to get a better answer, you know, looking for that kind of win-win solution. Uh but we did not. And uh I'm convinced that that probably would be a very low low probability outcome. And in terms of um you know, expectation setting might be a worse uh outcome uh than what we are faced with now. Um I I I mean just to be frank, it seems to me we're too far down the road with both a parking garage and slow rep. Again, this is a decision that we should have had in front of us 5 8 14 22 I don't know years ago. uh so that we could have done some

long-term planning around both the design of the garage itself and then ultimately uh the slow rep for the site. Um but that's simply not an option any longer. So uh probably likely I'm curious what anybody else has to say, but I'll probably be very reluctantly uh supporting the application.

Thank you, Council Member Marks. Um, yeah. Well, just to address, thank you, Council Member Boswell. I I um I probably agree with you that we're too far down the road, but I disagree that um uh we had no information about the tree. We were always assured that the tree would do fine all the way through. And so I I have to say that um I'm just very concerned. It's a city-owned tree. If the city wanted to nominate it, the owner of the tree has to is the one who has to nominate a heritage tree. Okay? Or at least agree. I personally have worked with a designation of half a dozen uh heritage trees. And if the owner agrees you can have it, this tree would have qualified for either a heritage tree or a significant tree. So in and I really sympathize with slowrep situation and I'm a big supporter of of slowrep as um they know. Um but um I feel that uh the city really is responsible. The city failed to um insist that the project be designed in such a way that the tree could be preserved. Um so um at this point I'm I'm uh just feeling mournful and sad. Um but uh if my colleagues all vote in

favor of it, I'm will probably vote no. So, thank you. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman.

Yeah, I empathize with a lot of what my colleagues have said. I feel mournful and sad about this also. It's heartbreaking. in case anybody doesn't see it um from our responses, we're a community and a council that cares about our trees very much. And uh this is one of the things that I'm going to say when I when I came on to council, this is not one of the things that I expected to be making decisions about. Um, just to be honest, I I just didn't have a didn't didn't think that that this kind of thing um would ever happen. I am torn because I'm concerned that saving the tree right now in the short term could lead to losing a theater that many many people have been working on for a very very long time and have tried to make accommodations for with the information that they had at the time. I think everybody was acting with the best intentions and the best information that they had at the time. Could we have done better? Clearly, there's a potential that we could have done better, but we didn't know what we didn't know, unfortunately, in this situation. And so, um, I'm honestly not sure how to vote on this to be honest. I, uh, I'm concerned, like I said, about losing the entire theater. Uh, I'm I'm troubled by potentially having to make the choice between saving the tree and losing the theater. Um, I I guess if my colleagues are all interested in giving it a try, I could probably be persuaded to wait it out and see what happens, but I don't think that it's very likely that it will survive this whole process. So, that's

where I'm at right now. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, thank you so much. Um, this is just really heartbreaking. You I spent all week feeling that we probably could go with the wait and see approach, but you know, the more we've asked questions and talked through this, that just doesn't feel like a a viable option. Um, particularly just based on the the damage that's that's done already. And you know, it's exactly these types of scenarios that I think um you know, members of the public get really frustrated and you have a project that looks one way and then over time, you know, process changes and the design changes and just really bums people out when um you know, something that they assumed was going to be part of a project goes away or changes fundamentally. And uh I I you know hate making a decision that um makes people feel like they were sold a false bill of goods, you know. Um but I think we also have to we listen to to staff today. Best practices have changes changed. The science has changed. Everybody who was a part of this really was doing their best to um preserve the tree and to have the information that they needed. And I'm really hopeful based on what we heard from staff today that we have a new process in place and a new understanding of how this works in place that we won't end up in these types of situations again or at least they'll, you know, be less common. Um, and I'm appreciative of how much work went into trying to find uh an alternative path to to keep the tree. So, I just want to acknowledge that I think even though we didn't end up in a good situation here, I think people were really working hard to to preserve the tree as it was and the site as it was and it was a really beautiful site with that tree. I I think just based on what we've heard about about the the science, there isn't

really a path where preserving the site with the tree makes sense. And um with uh sorrow in my heart, I think I'm going to support the removal of the tree and grateful to see that there's extra compensatory planting happening. Um and grateful that we have a new process in place. Can I ask one more question before? Sorry, M. Council member Boswell. Um, so back to the if the C tree can be moved. Um, sounds like it would be very expensive and difficult, but we don't have that answer one way or the other right now. Um, if that were to happen, I have to assume that would delay the project. Is that part of the conversation as to why we don't want to look into moving the tree? for that. I would call up the applicant. I think they had more conversations with an arborist about moving the tree and what that would take. Um I don't know if they got that far into the conversation, but thank you.

To be absolutely honest, the timeline or possible delay of moving the tree was not part of our conversation. It ended far before that as to whether or not the tree would actually survive being moved at this point. So, I can certainly follow up with our arberist, get some more information about the potential delay of of of moving that tree, but I'm confident that the answer we'll get back from from Rodney is you can try, but it's probably not going to make it.

Got it. Thank you. I understand that some of the roots are already damaged and so that move could be very difficult. Thank you. Um, I I also, you know, I do appreciate both council member Boswell and vice mayor um highlighting that, you know, we have done some new changes as far as our procedures and moving um the tree work and the uh community development departments more aligned. So, I I appreciate that going forward with the cityowned heritage or city-owned trees that could be heritage trees. Um, is that part of the work plan for the next within the next two years around significant trees or heritage trees that are cityowned? There's no work plan that I'm aware of to process the I think they come up naturally, you know, as we're looking at things. And so we're always open to receiving applications whether from ourselves or from someone else who owns the tree uh for it to become a heritage tree, but there's no um proactive look at that that I'm aware of at this time unless there's something I don't know about. But we're always open and you know happy to get applications for heritage trees.

Okay. Thank you. Just as we're looking at this, don't want to run into the same situation again. So trying to be kind of forth uh look ahead and hope that we don't do that. I would say that I um in this in the smallest way of of joy today is I I do appreciate the keeping the current tree as a public art piece um to at least give a little bit of homage to it. Um it doesn't make it a joyful moment completely, but I do appreciate that. Uh Council Member Boswell.

Yeah, just uh one more thought. You know, this is uh this is one of those situations where well, it's not often what we try to do is try to find the win-win solution, right? like is there we've got a dilemma. There are different sides to the issue. Can we find something that works for everyone? I think we put a lot of effort into doing that. I I know I certainly and my fellow council members asked a lot of questions of staff um looking up possible options, but um uh you know, nothing really came up that didn't seem like some kind of gamble uh and some kind of creating some false hope possibly. Um I do want to acknowledge that um you know we got a fair amount of uh email and mail on this from folks who are upset about the tree being removed and um you know I I feel quite similarly on the other hand as we've discussed there is a lot of people that have worked a long time in this community for um realizing the vision of the new slowrep uh facility. So, it's unfortunately one of those moments as an elected official and in public policy where you have to make a decision that's going to disappoint folks. And um so I just want to acknowledge that I'm doing that, we're doing that or might be doing that. Um and say we'll try to do better.

Thank you, Mike. Well said. Sorry, Council Member Boswell. Um well said. Um, at this point, can I get a motion? Council member Boswell. Yeah, I'll let me get the agenda item up so I can move. Correct. Move staff recommendation. Yeah, I guess I can just say move the staff recommendation. I'll second. Can we have roll call? Council member Boswell, yes. Mayor Stewart, yes. Council member Shoresman, Mournfully, yes.

Council member Marks, this is largely symbolic, but I'm going to say no because I feel it's um a real tragedy of errors and I don't want to ever see anything like this happen again in the city. Please put that in the minutes. Thank you, Vice Mayor Francis. Yes,

thank you. The motion passes 401 with a lot of for Lauren, but thank you for all the work from staff to get us to the point where we are today and to slow rep. Um, and we thank you for all the work on your community theater and our community theater going forward. And, um, I look forward to seeing what happens next. With that, I we're going to take a five minute break and then we'll come back to talk about the 5H, the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. Okay, thank you for our extended break. We'll get back to it. Uh just a little quick update. Um we're going to talk about the 5H, the draft letter to the legislators regarding Diablo Canyon Power Plant. Then we're going to skip down to um 7A, the Laguna Lake Golf Course. We have quite a few um public comments on both items. I want to make sure you all get to give your public comment and then we'll come back to 6A, the introduction of an ordinance to amend municipal code chapter 2.40.040 campaign contribution limitations. That will be um right after the Lagona Golf Course. So, just give a little lay of the land so that everyone's aware of what's happening and can give their comment. So, with that, uh, we'll move back to 5H, approving a draft letter to legislators regarding Diablo Canyon Power Plant. Um, first I just wanted to ask the vice mayor, no, just kidding. Uh, council member Shoresman and Council Member Marks, if you could share just a little bit about how you came up with your letter, if there's anything we should know. Uh so uh as you all know we discussed and deliberated sort of what the issues were that we wanted to cover in the letter and uh then we uh staff based based on our deliberations at the last meeting staff put together a draft that was

consistent with both what we talked about here on the dis as well as uh what was consistent with our legislative platform. forum. They shared the letter with us. We met uh last Thursday or Friday and reviewed the letter and uh tweaked and made some changes to it. And then that is the letter that you see in the packet.

Thank you, Council Marks. Uh yes, I went back and uh reviewed our deliberation before um looking at the staff um uh draft and made a few comments on the um uh on the document and then council member Shoresman also made some some comments and then we had that discussion and um came up with the draft that you all have in your packet. So that's it.

Okay. Thank you. And I know we've had some agenda correspondence on um this letter, including from our state senator and our state assembly member that represent our region. Um, and I didn't know from the agenda correspondents if any of my colleagues would like to um, amend the letter or maybe add anything in the memo to our legislators as far as what our letter says in relation to what they said. Sorry, that's a very complicated process to ask. Uh, Council Member Shoresman,

I think what you're getting at is the agenda correspondence that came from staff where there is a proposed couple of sentences to be added to the letter that the letter draft that we have already. I guess I have a question about that. Um, the letter is to be addressed to our legislators specifically or is it going to the legislature in general? Who is the who is the two?

Usually we send it to Senator Larair and Assembly Member Addis is our two like main people. Um we obviously include all of their staff as well and often uh the county if it's if it's relevant which in this case it would be but they would be in the CC section. Um but so since both Senator Leairard and as some member of Addis wrote us these letters and our information is similar but a little different wanted to make sure that we acknowledge that. Thank you and this is our response.

Oh okay. So um I'm content with the letter as is. Um it seems a little bit strange to reference a letter that the senator sent us in the letter back to them but I'm also fine with adding the additional language. I would think that maybe since both of our legislators uh Assembly Member Addis and Senator Leair uh did write to us that if we are going to reference them in the letter back to them that we should probably mention both of them

and I would definitely not say to have that in the letter. I would just put that in the email that we're attaching to the letter that we would be saying that to both Assembly Member Addis and Senator Leairard that we are acknowledging what they sent to us versus us just sending back something as though we didn't read what they said. Okay. Sorry, your light went off. Here you go.

Thanks. So, just to reiterate and make sure I'm hearing you correctly, the couple of sentences that were in the agenda correspondents were not meant to go in the letter itself. They were meant to go sort of in the email where the letter is attached. Okay. I'm I'm perfectly content with that. Great. Thank you. Uh, city manager,

thank you. just to go uh the back just maybe one step. The original request from the county uh was to sign on to a letter that they had drafted to all of the members of the state legislature. And so with that idea in mind, you know, we were going to similarly address our letter since we wanted to kind of provide like a companion to the letter that the county would be sending. Uh, and so that was part of the thought of wanting to acknowledge that we had heard directly from both of our well in the staff agenda correspondence was sent out at the time that we had received a letter for Sen from Senator Leair and we received a letter from Assembly Member Addis soon after that. And so we would recommend acknowledging both uh and the thought that we wanted to make it clear that we we'd heard it. We appreciate the sentiments. Um, at least that's a thought or a recommendation for your consideration that if you would like to make sure that folks are aware that we we have heard and been uh in direct contact with our our own representatives who um may or may not, you know, we know we've heard from them that they're working on this issue. Uh and uh whoever ends up sponsoring the bill, they'll still be heavily involved in that. Uh but also wanting to acknowledge that our own legislators have been looking at this and been in direct dialogue with us on this issue and to whatever degree uh you as a council would like to reference the correspondence we received directly from them andor any of the issues and items listed in either of those letters. We're happy to walk through that a bit. Um, we do have Natalie Harnett here ready to if you'd like to, you know, take a look at the language itself and make any modifications, we're happy to do that here, um, as well. So, just

wanted to let you know we're we're ready to take that direction. Thank you. I personally don't think we need to change anything in the letter. I just wanted to make sure that we're giving acknowledgement in the email that we're sending it to them. That was just my two cents. Um, I have some personal thoughts I will add in deliberation, but at this point I don't have any other questions. Council member Shoresman. Nope. Just kidding. All right. Um, so with that, is there any public comment?

Yes, we have six speakers on this item. Um, the first one is Cara Woodruff, then Jean Nelson, and then Rachel Wlin. Good evening everyone. Uh first of all, just thank you for your service. Uh my name is Cara Woodruff. I'm a 30-year resident of St. Louis Abyispo and I'm here today, however, as a district director for Senator John Leair. Um as you know, he represents the central coast, including the city of San Los Aispo. And as you've discussed, he submitted a letter dated January 30th on this item regarding Diablo Canyon. Um its potential future and also some new legislation that he will be introducing in the next couple weeks um which would restore some shortfalls in unitary tax revenues to the county, cities, schools, and special districts. Um it sounds like you've all read that letter, so I'm here if you have any questions. Um, and I just wanted to offer my email address to anybody who's listening who didn't receive a copy of that letter and would like to see it. Um, and I can be reached at k.wruff wufen.ca.gov. Um, thank you all again for your good service.

Thank you. And this letter is posted along with the other um, correspondents on our uh, website. Good evening. My name is Dr. Jean Nelson. I live in slow. I was an engineering professor at Cowpali and a physics professor at Questa College. I'm the president and senior legal researcher u at the independent nonprofit Californians for Green Nuclear Power. I'm available for questions from the public every alternate week at the slow downtown farmers market. CGNP's booth is near Feral Kitchen. I strive to base my decisions regarding Diablo Canyon on factual approaches instead of emotional appeals to fear. The record spanning more than 60 years shows that nuclear power is as safe or safer than solar or wind on a death per kilowatt hour basis. The city can make decisions based on new information. witness spending over an hour on the tree. The city of St. Louis Abyispo seems to want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs in their lack of support for Diablo Canyon extended operations to 2045. The county made a very reasonable request to sign on to the county's letter to the legislature. The other cities in the county agreed. Slow didn't. When I examined the relevant correspondents, I noted that the discredited arguments of organizations doctrinally opposed to nuclear power were raised extensively. CGN has already submitted draft legislation to legislative council to extend Diablo Canyon operations to 2045. We propose an innovative method to

restore funding for the county and cities that were severely cut by the loss in unitary taxes paid by P Gen starting in 2017. We also have a meeting scheduled with key members of the board of equalization this Thursday. We respectfully request the city sign on to the county's letter so there is a united front in support for Diablo Canyon operations. keep Diablo Canyon running. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Stewart and council members. I'm Rachel Whan, the governmental affairs coordinator at the slow chamber. We appreciate that you pulled item 5H from the consent agenda to allow for discussion and provide an opportunity to consider the chamber's perspective before taking action. We appreciate the city making us aware of Senator Larard's correspondence regarding Diablo Canyon. Thank you for sharing that information. While we understand the concerns outlined in his letter, it does not change the chamber's position. I'll keep this short since we've already sent you a letter. Um, the chamber continues to support the continued operation of Diablo Canyon and the extension of the unitary tax due to the significant benefits our community receives through its operation. Diablo Canyon remains a major clean energy asset for the state, a cornerstone of our local economy and the largest private employer in St. Louis Abyspo County, supporting more than 1300 head of household jobs. Equally important, the unitary tax is only available for as long as Diablo Canyon remains in operation, and five additional years is simply not enough. Our community relies on this revenue to support local schools and essential public services. And the loss of the unitary tax has already had real and lasting impacts. Restoring the unitary tax through state legislation is essential to maintaining financial stability and protecting essential public services. Extending the life of the plant is the only way to ensure continued unitary tax revenues for as long as possible. We recognize the city's decision to draft your own letter to legislators. However, we believe it is important for the council to consider the business community's perspective before

finalizing your position, particularly given the long-term economic and workforce implications for our region. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Suzanne Brown, then Ben Liippard, and then Aaron Abbott. Good evening, uh, council members and mayor Stewart. Uh, my name is Susanna Brown and I am a city of St. Louis Bispo resident born right here. Um, I am a mom with children in local public schools here and I'm a data scientist by profession and I'm also a Democrat running for Assembly District 30. I am also the wife of a union worker at Diablo Canyon Power Plant. I'm here tonight to speak about safety and the responsibility of leadership looking forward for families in our community. Diablo is not an abstract policy debate. The people who operate that plant are highly trained professionals. many of them veterans and longtime public servants who take immense pride in protecting this coastline and keeping our communities safe. Safety is absolutely paramount. And speaking personally, I do not worry about safety living close to the plant, raising our children here, and having a family member who works there. Diablo's culture of safety, redundancies, and rigorous oversight have been proven again and again for decades and decades. As California considers the future of Diablo, including a potential 20-year extension, this cannot be only a conversation about mitigation or looking backwards. A longer extension must come with a real roadmap, continued oversight, necessary upgrades, workforce stability, and long-term certainty for this entire region and the city of St. Louis Abyispo. It also creates an opportunity for more stable planning around local revenues like the unitary tax and for investing in the infrastructure and workforce pipelines that support our schools and the reliability of our grid and business community. I urge the city to look back

and continue conversations with our county. Solidarity matters. I also encourage you to advocate boldly and clearly for sustainable long-term planning with the infrastructure upgrades that will be essential if Diablo is a part of that California future. This is what leadership looks like. Ensuring our community is prepared, protected, and at the table shaping what comes next. Decisions will be made in Sacramento on this topic. And either way, the question is whether St. and Louis Abyispo will have a strong local voice at the table shaping that conversation and the support of their constituents in the city. Thank you for your time. Our families and future and children deserve nothing less. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Do we have any other speakers? Yes, Ben Libert and then Aaron Abbott.

Sorry. Um, hi Madame Mayor, council members, staff, members of the public. Uh, I found a non-squeaky seat which I'm very excited about. Um, first I want to just thank the council again for considering property tax issues separately from extension of operations beyond 2030. You know, um, I'm a dad. I'm one of the co-founders of SLC PIN. sort of maintained from the beginning that um tying those issues together kind of unnecessarily puts school funding considerations in the middle of as you're seeing a bigger political and economic and emotional sort of battle that comes with Diablo Canyon considerations. Um that said, when I think it comes down to it, I'd really love to see direct language that just says at a minimum P Gen should pay property taxes on the fair market value of its assets at Diablo Canyon. I know that doesn't sound controversial, but we're kind of that's where we are right now. Um, that's where every other property owner in this county and in the state stands. And I I'm so glad to hear them talk about the infrastructure that they I shouldn't say that. I'm I'm really glad to hear the community talking about the infrastructure that would come with continued operations because near as I can tell P Gen's position is that they don't have to pay property taxes on those infrastructure improvements as long as they're on the rate base. And so I'm not trying to make this about the details about rate base and unitary tax and stuff like that, but I think it's important that we focus on the revenues that are going to my kids and it's really just paying property taxes. It's just that's really what it comes down to. Um there's a level of representation and transparency that I think is really essential going forward on this. Um I know a lot of people don't want to talk about the past in 2022 and 846, but the fact of the matter is as a new resident to slow and as a parent,

my kids were not properly represented when they extended operations. That's just how I feel about that. And my goal going forward is to make sure that does not happen again. And the first thing that I care about is the property taxes to 2030 because last month we cut counselors. We cut library texts. We cut I'm not going to use acronyms. We cut essential support services for kids. And that's not P Gen's fault. The fact of the matter is though, our revenues are tied to operations at Diablo Canyon. I'm going to say again, at a minimum, PG& should be paying property taxes on the fair market value of their assets at Diablo Canyon, just like everyone else in the state. Thank you so much for considering everything. Um, and everybody, learn as much as you can about this stuff. It's really, really important. Um, our community needs to know everything that's been going on.

Thank you.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Uh, apologies for the attire. I came straight from coaching soccer. My name is Aaron Abbott. I'm a local resident, business owner, been here for 25 years, and I'm the 2026 board chair for the Slow Chamber of Commerce. Um, I've submitted more detailed comments by letter, so I'll be brief and focus on a few key points. First, I appreciate the city's thoughtful approach on the issue. I like the county's letter, but appreciate the nuance the city wishes to express. In the short term, unitary tax is the most direct local community impact of this discussion and I believe it should be addressed regardless of the length of any operating extension. Looking really long term, I believe we need the opportunity to plan thoughtful thoughtfully and deliberately for the next generation of local power production while keeping this critical work face workforce tax base and energy asset anchored here in our region. Expressing support for long-term planning is not about bypassing regulatory review. It's about acknowledging the practical need for a reasonable planning window and the full regulatory process as the full regulatory process continues. Given the importance of the carbonfree energy produced, the economic benefits, the economic development benefits involved, the potential for stable local tax revenue over time, and the extremely long timelines required to develop large-scale energy projects of any kind. My respectful request is that the city

consider acknowledging the importance of long-term planning certainty in its letter in parallel with continued regulatory review and public engagement. Thank you. Thank you. That was our final speaker.

Thank you. And you can wear whatever you want to the council, just so you know. Um I really Well, okay. Right. True. True. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. I was saying you don't have to be formal. That's all I'm trying to say. Wow. Um, with that, um, I really appreciate everyone's comments today and I also appreciate the many phone calls and, uh, texts and conversations I've had about this throughout the community over the last few weeks. Um, one of one of the parts about having a unified voice of the county is being involved first. It would really help, but here we are. So, we're here four or five weeks later, 6 weeks later, having this conversation about something that many people in our community have had um real factual feelings about and emotional feelings about. And so, I think all of that together is why we're here today. Um so, I will I'm just going to say my two cents first. I usually wait till last, but I think I'm going to be the opposite of everyone, so I'll just get it get it done with. Um, I appreciate the letter and the nuance it has because it represents all of the different people in our community. So, I just really first and foremost want to say thank you to Council Member Marks and Council Member Shoresman because that was very thoughtful and well put together. Um, I also feel the unitary tax I I really appreciate one of our public commenters um whether it's for five years or 20 years or whatever years in between that unitary tax has to be put into play. Um I I don't I don't know as far as property tax and board equalization all the details I'll let them figure that out. They're the experts in that but I do think that we need to make sure that unitary tax. So we are providing that support. Uh Senator Leair and Assembly Member at has heard us on that already which I appreciate. Um and I do think the land conservation is is vital. Um I had a very long conversation with someone from the Yaktichu teacher

Yaktini um tribe on Friday and there's some serious plus and minuses which is I think a lot of this conversation which is we need this clean energy. This energy is almost 10% of the energy of our entire state of California. So for us to even say that we don't um I think is kind of wild. But um and I also see that there's additional clean energy being discussed, other innovative ways that we can provide new energy into our community, which um could be quite honestly even safer than where we're at right now, which is to me really exciting. Uh I've also owned a business. I've owned a couple businesses and been in management leadership in many businesses. And certainty is so key for businesses. Uh we all do it. We go buy some toilet paper at Costco, right? are smart and final because we know that if we buy it in bulk, we get a good price and we know we're going to use that item for a long time hopefully. So, as as I think about a business needing to know with certainty how they're going to operate, I think that is important. Um, and that being said, safety has been a concern that people continue to bring to us. Um, I had many meetings with the NRC and I guess it's one of the the bonuses of getting to be uh mayor is I end up in a lot of a lot of different meetings and I spoke at length with people who spent independent time at the plant um not as a not as a P Gen employee, not as an NRC employee, but as an independent employee that is skilled in the science and engineers uh engineer aspects. And so as I look at that, I heard many, many conversations as to what they brought forward to NRC and what they brought forward to the IPRP. Sorry, lots of acronyms. Um, and to me, it seems as though we

wouldn't be looking at this 20-year option from NRC if they did not find that it was safe. So, I know there are some comments though from the senator that I would love to see those answers and see what PG's mitigations are. I'm not oblivious to the concept of people feeling uh a little unsettled with Peny and and fires and San Pablo and Santa Rosa and all these places and the safety um at the plant has been looked at time and time again. So without having that additional knowledge that none of us are nuclear experts, without having that additional knowledge from NRC or IPRP that says do not do not support this, it's hard for me to um sign on to a letter that says let's not do this. So I really again I appreciate the nuance that you put um council member Shoresman in council remarks as to how we support um safety unitary tax the land conservancy and if a business is to move forward and the state is going to put on those taxes that is what will happen. So that's my two cents at this time. Council member Marks

thank you. Well we did the best we could. you take

it was an agenda item. We had um an opportunity it was an open session. We had an opportunity for uh people to come forward. Um we made our deliberation. Um and uh then subsequently we've received correspondence from our representative Senator Leair and assembly member Addis. I feel that their point of view um Senator Lar's letter went into great detail uh about safety issues with the nuclear power plant and Assembly uh Don member Don Addis went into detail about the unitary tax. Um, I feel that uh what uh the letter represents um not just because I help write it but in general I feel that uh it does represent the best position for the city of St. Louis Bispo and uh being pressured by uh other cities or the board of supervisors or um unions or pro- nuclear activists. Um we feel that pressure. Uh but in the long run, our job is to represent the people who vote us into office. nearly 48,000 people living in evacuation zone number eight. And I believe that uh I I I think we should support the letter that is in front of us unless people want to tweak it tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Francis.

Yeah, thank you very much. Uh my primary purpose in in pulling the letter at our last meeting was um really having an opportunity to focus on ensuring that the requirements of the 5-year extension are met and that we iron out all the details of the unitary tax issue before we start to negotiate an additional extension. Um, the extension of Diablo impacts so many facets of our community from head of household jobs to public school funding to safety planning. Really, everything gets touched by by this plant. And um I I think the the mayor mentioned it here. I'm hopeful that, you know, moving forward, any discussion uh about the extension, it involves the county and all of the cities and all the rest of the stakeholders really having an opportunity to have thoughtful discussion and partnership in deciding and navigating what that next 20 years will look like. Um, I'm inclined to support the letter that was developed by the ad hoc committee and I'd also like to see the letters from uh both the senator and assembly member included in there just as a a little bit of an acknowledgement both of of um the issues they brought up, but also that the there isn't an urgency in this moment. I also acknowledge that having lot the ability for long-term planning is important, but we really need to get through this first hurdle of the five years and finalizing those details before we start talking about those next steps. So, I'll leave it there.

Thank you, Council Member Shoresman.

Thank you. Yes, I agree with a lot of what uh both mayor and vice mayor said and um thank you, Council Member Marks. Appreciated working on the letter. It's probably not perfect. So, if we want to tweak it, I mean, we we gave it our best shot. We had very little turnaround time and we were trying to get this done in a time period where they could our letter could at least be submitted around the same time as the county's letter to the legislature. So, uh again, it's not perfect. I want to appreciate uh the community members that have spoken up tonight and have spoke and have spoken up at our previous meet uh meeting. And I also feel like I I heard one of them talk about how they they feel safe and that one of them has a a spouse that works out at the plant. And I probably like many of us have many many friends uh and maybe family members that work out at the plant and I believe that they are members of our community and they want that plant to be safe just as much as we do because their families live here too. And so I fully agree and think that um that that everybody is doing their part and doing their best to make sure that we are all safe every single day. and I worked on uh Diablo preparedness and emergency planning myself for about seven years. So I know that our county office of emergency services and the Diablo Canyon staff uh they prep, they drill, they after action report and then they do it all over again pretty much every single day. So I know that they continue every day to keep a focus on safety and uh and I think we need to do that too. Uh, I don't think that just because maybe there's a report now that says it's safe for 20 years doesn't mean our work is done. It means that we all need to continue to do that work every single day. And I know uh that they do it and we need to keep advocating for it as a community.

I think in terms of our letter and what it says right now, it emphasizes what our legislators have both told us that we need to focus on right now. Uh the first issue that we need to iron out and settle is the five-year extension period and the unitary tax that we are missing as as the five-year extension has happened. They have told us that that's their they are there on the front lines in the legislature advocating for us and they have told us that this step-wise approach is the best way to support them right now and the work that they're going to do on our behalf. Just to emphasize what I think some of my colleagues have said, I don't think that that means that we're done advocating or that we're done uh as local governments and the county collaborating together on what the next steps will be. But right now in this moment, we need to take a step-wise approach and give our legislators the support they need to get the first job done and then we can move on from that afterwards. So, uh that's where I stand with the letter. Of course, I um helped write it, so I'm going to support it. But if there is tweaks that we want to make, uh if we feel like, for example, what staff has suggested we add I I now understand a little bit more why they're suggesting that we add a reference to the senator and the assembly members letters within the letter. um it might give the letter if it's going to all the other legislators a little more oomph um that our legislators are with us already. Why don't you come along with us as well? So I I would be okay with adding that language if uh the rest of you agree with that as well. Uh and open to any other tweaks as well.

I see a lot of head nodding here. So I think you're on on track. Where would it go? Um question is where will it go in the letter? But let me go to council member Boswell first.

Uh thank you. I'm happy to support the letters as drafted and with the potential amendment of the suggested uh language. Uh I'll be brief. I just wanted to be on record to respectfully request that in the future uh the county uh refrain from making requests of the city council 3 days before Christmas and giving us a month to respond on such a major and significant issue for this community. Um I I think somebody mentioned earlier the notion of trying to work uh collegial and collaboratively with the county in the future. So I'd hope that would be our way forward. Thank you.

Thank you. less than a month. But thank you. I appreciate that. Um with that, uh Council Member Marks, you know, it's a great question. Where would the uh language go? And I don't know, um Miss Hernett or city manager has her light on um where exactly that would go. Thank you. We're happy if it would be helpful to bring up the letter so we could show you what we're thinking. Um the red line.

The red line. if it it's at least the letter and then we could show you the language and where um so the we would recommend adding the two sentences in between the first and second paragraphs. Uh the sentence Oh, it's in there. There you go. It's highlighted. Uh thank you. So, this is a slight variation on what was in our agenda correspondence because it also identifies Assembly Member Addis uh and the letter that she's submitted to us. And so, that's where we would recommend adding it and happy to make any modifications. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yeah. Does it just need to simply add in that those letters are attached just so that they're able to reference those letters while reading? Sure thing. Absolutely. We can do that. probably with enclosure at the bottom. Yeah. Yeah. Um, council member Marks. Yeah, you can just say comma C attached or something like that. So, you should reference the attachment in in the in the body itself. Yeah. No, I think that that's good. It sort of closes the loop. So, sounds good.

Got it. Thank you. Well, with that, I don't see any other uh public I'm sorry, any other comments. Council member Shoresman, I'm happy to move approval of the letter as amended. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I will I will second. Sorry about that. Thank you. City clerk, can we have roll call? Council member Shoresman. Yes. Vice Mayor Francis? Yes. Council member Boswell? Yes. Council member Marks. Yes. Mayor Stewart.

Yes. And the motion passes 5-0. Thank you so much. With that, we'll move on to Lagouna Lake Golf Course. So, I just want to make sure that we are as everyone's getting settled into their new spots. Um, that this is a study session. No voting is happening today. We are receiving a presentation on the Laguna Lake golf course and its operations. And this comes back to us repeatedly. Some people that have been in this community for a long time may feel a little groundhog day. Um this is because it is not an enterprise fund. um golf course is part of our general um city fund and so it is uh used more than it was and we were pleasantly si surprised to see that in our um report which is fantastic and yet also not 100% paid for on its uh it's not net zero revenue. So some people have had some questions about the golf course. What does it do? What else could it do? um are there other options and uh housing has been brought up as one of them. Um but it is not this is not a session where we said uh let's talk about getting rid of the golf course and doing housing. So I just want to be clear that this is a study session to understand what the golf course is doing, what else it is what else it's doing that we don't know about and what can we continue to um add to the golf course. So, with that, I'm going to pass it off to Assistant City Manager Scott Collins.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council members. Scott Collins, assistant city manager. And as the uh the mayor said, um this is a study session. So, the intent is really to share in-depth information about the golf course, the finances and operations, current financial and usage data, current challenges and opportunities, as well as long-term planning. Uh a study session is well placed to also receive input from the community and city council. We've seen that with well over 150 emails uh to city council on this item. Um the study session also allows staff to answer critical questions and for the city to consider creative solutions all without the pressure of having to make a decision today. Um it provides an opportunity to think through the issues to brainstorm and provide general guidance for moving forward. Um, just by way of stepping back, um, this this conversation came up earlier last year in the context of some budget challenges, but also as a a checking point because we have several important capital improvement projects that are on hold. And they're costly, but important to the long-term viability of the golf course, but also provide us a check-in point to see, okay, where are we? How are we doing? How are we performing? What could we do differently? and an an opportunity to think long term about the golf course. So, that's the intent and and I know um it's scary when you start hearing about things like housing. So, we understand trepidation, but really the the goal of this is to to understand the golf course in more depth. Um we have Gregian, uh our parks and recck director and Devin Hyfield, our recreation manager here to present and a lot a lot of other staff here. Um council members were able to tour the golf facility and ask lots of great questions. Um, I've also had the opportunity to tour the golf course myself and as a lifelong golfer, I do need to say I am impressed with how our golf crew who are here tonight uh maintain the city asset. So, with that, I'd like to turn it over to our our

parks and park director.

Great. Thank you, assistant assistant city manager Collins, uh, Mayor, Council members. It's an honor to be in front of you tonight to really showcase a lot of the great things that our our property at the golf course does and our staff to our for our community. Um, I want to add a couple um acknowledgements that helped us get here today. Uh, we have a very extensive report that we uh provided in writing uh to council members and to the community as well as this presentation. So, uh with us along with recreation manager Devon Hefeld, we have our supervisor of golf operations Vladimir Cruz. Um Alex Hamilton who's our program coordinator and two of our key maintenance staff uh Sean Halfley and Adam Arabelloo uh in attendance. Um and then our business analyst uh Lily Honer Hostin who was in played intimal part in this. Uh we wouldn't be here tonight without support departments such as public works, utilities, community development, our city attorney's office, as well as our uh colleagues in natural resources division to help um maintain all of our properties within the city, but really help us u align our our information to present tonight. So I want to acknowledge that. So thank you very much, Scott, for your introduction and why we're why we're here. We have a a brief outline just uh I think we will uh

hi Scott. As as assistant city manager Colin was talking about um this this arose back in April um as an opportunity and uh based on priorities of the city and a lot of important things that occur over here at the at the city council meetings. uh here we are in February to kind of this. So, uh we're going to cover about nine different sections in our presentation and um have an opportunity for council questions as well as public comment from the community as well.

And I think when it comes to April truly, we actually started this conversation about December of 20 let me see 24 when we started the budget conversation. Correct. Wrapped in the budget. Yeah. So, I just want to make sure that's didn't just come up in April. No, we were confirmed to have a study session and we're excited to be here as of Okay, we are

just for anyone who's watching, we're having a little tech difficulties. We'll be back in a minute. Well, I believe um kind of the core principles of why we're here tonight are listed in our staff report and on the agenda. Um and there's three three topics that we're kind of presenting here tonight. Like we mentioned, uh we're hoping to get feedback from council on some direction on any future amenities or um um polishing up a little bit of our programs at the golf course or um opportunities to have some feedback on what we're currently doing. um provide some direction on our two uh significant projects with the pro shop and the um cart and pedestrian bridge. That's a big support uh area for connecting the two sides of the golf course together. And then we have a a nice opportunity to provide some potential opportunities or discussion on future of the property that's 26 acres of programmable kind of space out there for um a multitude of opportunities. So we're going to present all that for you tonight. Would you like a tech break?

I would defer to clerks. Oh, is there something on my end? First time my I see your screen.

My apologies. Now we're back. Um, we just talked about this slide, so we're going to move forward into the background of our um or not.

Great. Um, apologize for the size. It's hard to put 26 acres into a small slide on our presentation, but um, what you see up there is sort of an overview of the property um, outlined and, uh, some of the, um, amenities. But again, this is a municipal course. It's 10hole um layout. Uh it's par three kind of executive style course originally built in 1964 as part of a housing development um and run by sort of an HOA type model um for that. The city was approached in 1978 to take over operations and over the uh about a decade or so it was um operated as a leasey type format and then officially uh part of the city's um oversight and and staffing for operations. I'm going to turn it over here to recreation manager Devon Highfield to go over some of the more in-depth portions of the division. Council members, uh, thank you for having me. My name is Deon Highfield. I'm the recreation manager with the parks and recreation department. So, the golf division consists of four full-time staff members, including a golf supervisor, recreation coordinator, two maintenance workers. Division always also has about 10 temporary pro shop staff who are responsible for the pro shop management, which report to the recreation coordinator. The division is overseen by the recreation manager who supports and provides direction to the division. The golf course consists of offers a variety of mendies including um a golf a 10m coin operated driving range, putting and shipping greens, merchandise sales which include balls, teas, hats, gloves, and clubs as well as general snacks and beverages while operating out of a temporary pro shop. course provides a variety of rental equipment including golf carts, push carts, club rentals for adults, youths, left-handers, and for male and female clubs as well. Social gathering barbecue area is adjacent to the driving range

and is available for any public gatherings or rental opportunities. Golf course is open 7 days a week with varying hours depending upon the season. The golf course typically open around 37 357 days per year with select holidays and maintenance days being the only planned closure dates. Additional closures do occur during the rainy season dur to course saturation and suboptimal conditions. The course has recently been updated its fees in the 2023 fee study increasing the rates to some of the more popular course options including super twilight. The remaining fees are adjusted annually by CPI standard increases recommended by council as well as our finance department. Course features an adjusted rate throughout the day for adults, youth, and seniors, ending with the most popular rate in the county, the Super Twilight, which can see up to 40 golfers within a two-hour period during the spring, summer, and fall months. Staff have consistently reviewed the current rates and fees and compared them to other courses within the county. The Laguna Lake golf course is typically low price lower than other courses in the county, including Pismo Beach, Sea Pines, and Dair Creek. Fiscal philosophy for these fees is directly relied to the Laguna Lake Golf Courses providing accessible programming and services to the community. The Laguna Golf Course financial model and program operates and offer and offers se several reduced options such as family and super twilight play that are not available for comparison at other courses. Golf carts, pole carts, and club rental fees are similarly lower price than our peer facilities which helps provide the context that the course current structure is comparable with the regional market.

The golf course does have a lot of partners within the county, including local schools and nonprofits. Offered through the kinesiology department at Calpali, the course is utilized from September through June, offering two classes each quarter with around 20 students per class. These classes provide an introduction to the game of golf, teaching golf etiquette and fundamentals. The first TE program is a nonprofit youth development organization that enables kids to build their strength of character that empowers them through a lifetime of new challenges. By seamlessly integrating the game of golf with life skills, they create a learning opportunity to build inner strength, self-confidence, resilience that kids can carry with everything they do. First TE program runs annually at the golf course with around 20 kids per group. The Laggina Middle School offers physical education classes on the course in the fall and springtime with up to 50 kids per class utilizing the driving range and put greens for over a one-mon period. Additionally, the course is used by their golf team for practices and competition events throughout the year. The course is utilized by local high schools for practice matches throughout the year that their for their seasonal junior varsity and varsity programs. Special Olympics utilizes the course for an eight-week program that teaches golf fundamentals and course play through the eight-week spring session. Eoslow partners with the golf course in planting trees through our 26 acre property. Over the last six years, EOS has planted over 60 plus drought tolerant trees within the course boundaries. So over the past six years, the total rounds have increased steadily from over 16,000 rounds in 201920 to just under 24,000 paid rounds in the last fiscal year. Youth participant over the same period of time has dramatically increased from 1,600 to over 7,500 participants, which is an increase about 468%.

The course has suffered setbacks in 2020 due to the global pandemic, in 2021 due to the pro shop flooding, and again in 2023 due to the storms from January to March, where the course was closed 72 days over that 3-month period. This graph highlights the overall totals broken down by under 18, which you see in blue, 18 to 55, which you'll see in orange, and green, which is the 55 plus category. Adult uses rose significant or slightly over the years while 55 plus has actually decreased in that year span. The commoning reasoning is being that the pro shop is closed and that we have a bridge closure as well which causes a little bit of a safety concern during those time frames for that age group. This pie chart's a little bit difficult to read. So I'll kind of walk you through a couple of the steps on here. So this shows the overall breakdown of the user groups that we track on a consistent basis. So every fiscal year this is the categories that we break them down through. The largest group is the student group which is kind of the light yellow one in the lefth hand corner. So that's the student group under 18 ones which is the majority of our uses 31.65% which accounts about 7,611 rounds for that age group. Senior uses which is the bottom green is about 4,937 uses or about 19.56%. Super Twilight, it's dark orange kind of over in the corner. 16.21% of uses, which is around almost 4,000 um users. And regular uses, which is the orange one up in the top corner, 15.32 of 3,51 or 3,751 user groups over that time period. The chart to the right represents the breakdown of total rounds per category which is rounds which is individually paid rounds. Play passes which is utilized rounds purchased over beforehand. Complimentary rounds which is usually a makeup rounds. It could be an employee round. A birthday or super

senior which is our 90 plus category. And promo rounds which is essentially the Central Coast Golf Card which offers essentially complimentary rounds for golf advertisements on the radio. Over the past couple years, these ones have consistently provided um a lot of different variations that we've uh come to expect today. The bottom chart does show a breakdown of when the course is being utilized by the majority of the users both weekday and weekend both in A and PM sessions. AM's prior to 12 uh PM is after 12. Typically the rounds in the PM are the most attended rounds with twilight which is after 3 p.m. and then super twilight which is essentially 4 to 6 pm making up around 24% of the total rounds that are offered only through March 3. It's a lot of time period through that one.

So we're going to throw lots of numbers at you. So we we're expecting questions and revisit some of these slides later. So we're we're we're okay with that. um kind of going into the revenue portion versus the um demographic and stats. Um as mentioned prior, the pro shop that uh provides many amenities to our the golfers at the course. Um along with the um typical play or rand uh tea time style of play of golf. Uh we provide golf carts, uh push carts and club rentals which are also a revenue generator for the for the program. um as well as the passes that that Devon had mentioned that you get a discount if you buy ahead of like a kind of like a swim pass you would have at the swim center. Same thing for the golf course. Um while the revenue of the golf course as you can see in sort of the bar chart there um kind of uh the golf traditional golf play is the largest uh revenue generator. These non-golf items do contribute significantly to our um our merch through our merchandise uh sales. Uh, one of the uh concerns as you can see is um not having a concessionire as far as a food vendor has kind of impacted some of our opportunity for facility lease or um additional support. Um our staff at the course have um kind of pivoted in that model and are able to sell merchandise such as um the gloves and tees and some hats, but also some basic food prepackaged if it's waters or uh canned drinks as well as some snacks to kind of enhance the environment. Um over the last couple of years, again, lots of numbers start to type. we we'll kind of do uh the best we can here in summarizing what we're looking at here. But um many times we forecast a a potential budget and then we have the actual budget as we know of like what actually occurred. So uh here we break

down sort of our our staffing budget, our utilities budget, operations and then have the total at the bottom. And this is significant as we kind of move forward and talk about subsidization and uh where we were as a general fund support um compared to where we used to be in a potential enterprise back you know a couple decades ago. Um so over a six-year period primarily the the major changes have been in the operations with utility costs. We've had a lot of uh increase in part-time uh wage increases for minimum wage. Um and then the um aging infrastructure of the irrigation leaks has been an impactful for both staff resources but also in uh utility costs. With that, one of our favorite charts here, thank you for our business analysts for being creative, is to kind of represent where we are in operating expenses. So the the solid bar graph is kind of as our actuals and then you can see the line graph being more of our um or our actual I'm sorry our forecasted is the bar chart portion and the line graph is our actuals and you can see in 2122 there was uh an significant increase there in budget. We had a lot of irrigation challenges during that era. Um, as we moved forward, we kind of adjusted our expectations, but the golf staff, our maintenance staff, uh, really focused on being more efficient with some of their, uh, techniques and how they were managing the course. And you can see where our actuals have really dipped below our forecasted um, budget expenses there. On that same note, we are looking kind of here on the revenue portion of expectations. And again, the solid bar chart is really showcasing uh what we would forecast our revenue generation to be. Um as Devon kind of outlined a little bit earlier, that 21 through 23 time period, we had a lot of significant

impacts to the facility with flooding of the pro shop, uh flooding of our creek area and the impacts citywide, but um that impacted what we we had forecasted ahead of time in our in our two-year financial plans. So the actuals are showing much lower. As we compensated for that, we kind of regrouped and we made those improvements to the course. Um we still were being conservative in our forecast because we didn't have a pro shop and we didn't have a uh the bridge to connect the course. Um however, our community wanted to play golf and you can see how um significantly increased that line goes up if as far as our revenue generation through creative programming, through expanding our partnerships with our uh different user groups. Um, and then really just maintaining that course as a more um more playable uh format and really being more consistent out there. And then our favorite topic here is subsidies. We are um showcasing a few numbers here and you can kind of look at the the left hand um chart there with the financials. The right hand column is showing the percentage of subsidation, not not a percentage of of um profit. So, as you can see, uh there's a couple little notes there of uh 2019 through 2021, uh where we had sort of pandemic impacts, uh uh some flooding impacts, um which really in lowered our expectation of users and the I think you mentioned 72 days of closure at one point. We had four months of closure in the pandemic in that era. Um focusing more on a more traditional timeline of here this 2022 I'm sorry 2023 24 and 2425 you can see that we've really narrowed that gap of sub being subsidized um into now we're at to 55% and that's still without a pro shop or the bridge at that point. So, want to recognize the staff making those

big um efforts and and working hard out there to provide the best environment in some suboptimal conditions sometimes to be in an office trailer, but uh the atmosphere and the course itself is really what what draws people in. So, um same thing with the the line chart just kind of shows an um a bar graph of sort of showing the same physical impacts. Turn it back to Devon. Thank you, Greg. So, the golf maintenance staff consists of um constant consistently um the goal of the golf staff is consistently a well-maintained course with the maintenance greens, fairways, and TE's being the top priority. The maintenance team consists of the golf supervisor and two full-time maintenance workers that provide between 80 and 100 hours of maintenance hours be per week to complete the maintenance on the course as well as other responsibilities including equipment maintenance, building maintenance, construction, tree trimming and irrigation repel as well as supporting the community garden that's on site. Main maintenance crew is responsible for maintaining the maintenance shop and keeping all course equipment in good working order. So here's kind of a breakdown of a chart of their typical maintenance duties in order just to maintain the course conditions on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. The maintenance staff typically arrives 2 hours prior to the course opening just to get the course prepped and ready for play, but the majority of their work is completed while play is in progress. Unlike other parks and facilities which have dedicated maintenance closure hours during the day, the golf course is open while maintaining the while maintenance is being performed. Task and assignments are spread out throughout the week to ensure the course is ready for play seven days per week and the golf supervisor occasionally steps in to require aid on specialty course projects. There's been a lot of upgrades to the

golf course over the last couple years and uh just to assist with maintaining the course is also increasing golfer experience. One of the most effective equipment upgrades that was purchased was the water excavation equipment which we call the ditch witch. The ditch witch has assisted in exposing leaks very quickly and efficiently leading to reduction in staff time needed to expose those leaks and to shut down of a irrigation system. This piece of equipment allows staff to address leaks, repairs, and resume standard maintenance very quickly. And since the purchase, the course conditions have drast drastically improved as less time was needed to expose those leaks and repair the course. The course has been working to meet the city's climate action goals by incorporating electrical equipment on the course, including an electric mower and handheld equipment that's all powered by electric, replacing gas. The recent purchase of a new airator unit allows for maintenance staff to airate the course without a full course closure and reduce their reliance on a third party assistance. Typically, in the past, we had to close down to two to three days for them to airate the system. Now, we can actually do it ourselves one hole at a time, which is great. The driving range has also been upgraded over the past year to better um serve the golfer's experience um providing quick access to balls while they're waiting or just to hit a quick bicker of balls during their lunch breaks. The driving range machine and shed provide quick access to our city staff to also maintain and clean the balls and efficiently put them back in the system without having to go a lot long distances. Um because of that and the new range mass that we've been employed, we actually led to a 41% increase in driving range sales this last fiscal year.

Yes. So the golf course has a lot of unique challenges as do all of our facilities itself. Um this is just a couple of them and a couple highlights that we typically have on the course at any given time. So rain is obviously a very big impact uh to the course and the conditions of the course itself. When it rains, the course gets saturated. Can't play on the course when it's saturated. You can't drive a golf cart on there. We can't even complete our maintenance when it's being saturated. So, very big factor in the rain. Um, the other factor of the rain, if it rains too much, it leads to a lot of flooding. Um, that's our maintenance worker sitting in the driving range pumping out a lot of water. Not only does it affect the course itself, but it also affects Perfumu Creek. With the whole two bridge being closed currently, we can't access the other side of the course safely if there's water going over the maintenance bridge which connects the two sides of the areas. So, we can't safely allow golfers onto that course even when it's nice and sunny two days after raining. Sometimes if that course is still saturated or those conditions haven't improved, we can't allow course access on there. So, um there's caused a lot of damage to the courses itself as well as um just time and it takes to clear those areas out. Uh during the colder weather months, frost is also a factor that does affect golf play. So, we can't open the course effectively and um risk damage to the course if there's frost allows. So, there's a lot of frost delays typically in the morning time for those ones. Uh netting is also a big concern. Anybody who lives out in the Laguna Lake neighborhood knows that wind is a huge factor when it comes to these ones. So, the UV rays uh with all the netting, it does create a lot of tasks to replace those ones and it's not um a cheap experience or a very effective experience to get those nets replaced on a consistent basis. If you've been out there recently, you see some of the nets are in disrepair and we are in the process of getting those replaced, but takes time and energy in order to do those ones. Um, as there is a creek that

runs right through the Luna Lake golf course, erosion does occur over the last 50 years of history of the course. Natural erosion has occur occurred through the course and widening the creek area. Staff do work with our natural resources division to mitigate some of those um areas um setting up creek embankments as well as protect the environmental aspects of the courses and promote the patron safety while they're on the course itself. Now the fun ones. Uh so the golf pro shop that we were in flooded in December about mid December 2021. Um the way the wind and rain were hitting the course, it was hitting the side of it um leaking through the walls and essentially created a puddle within the area itself. Um because this was during the holiday season, we weren't able to get an inspector out there until after Christmas. Um when we did do that after a lot of the mitigation techniques that we were trying to figure out um through just getting everything dried, um there was report of mold and asbestous present because of the age of the facility itself. Um during that time once we got that report that it was going to be inhabitable, we started working on getting a temporary pro shop trailer on the course itself. Um during essentially January to March, we were operating just right outside the doors of the main pro shop area, still providing access to the course but not access to our rental supplies. So it was very limiting um with the course of play and um just a lot of constraints that we had to work with in order to get it placed in. But um working with our community development department and making sure we had the right trailer and the right access to those trailers present. Um, we got the trailer installed in March 22 and have been operating out of that trailer ever since. Um, during that time frame, we started working with our city staff and insurance companies and everything to get the right um, information to our insurance adjuster in order to submit a

claim on behalf of the the project itself. So, um, met with insurance adjuster, got the insurance claim submitted in December 2022. um which now I'll turn over to director

to take something small occurred in the citywide between January and March of 2023 that um impacted our entire city. Uh we were sort of in an state of emergency. We activated EOC um really all staff resources were in a um state of emergency and recovery in a sense for our our community businesses, neighborhoods. Um we had a lot of repairs. So, we did have to pause our project at the golf course because we needed to take care of much larger and we were okay with that in parks direct to take care of our community. Um, and some of those projects, as we're well aware of, happened to be the uh St. Louis Drive and the Creek Embankment. It's a very successful project by public works over there. Um, that was a time-sensitive and kind of all hands-on deck uh resources both financially and staff availability. Um so along with that and I think our Marsh and Hyera intersection area there was a lot of um support that the city needed at that time. So with that office trailer worked out for the golf course and um so there was a delay and that's kind of where this timeline has a kind of a a lengthy delay until 2024. Um, in spring of 24, we we reinitiated our our um outreach and had an RFP for uh design of the internal part of the pro shop to get um what it would take and kind of get some engineering estimates. As we headed into uh last spring, we were preparing for an RFP for the um the actual uh design construction documents, which would then lead into actual RFP for construction. So we we paused that to come prepare for our study session at this point along with the bridge project. So uh with those are all ready to go. They're in the queue. Uh we have insurance um support funds. We have some um CIP um allocated funds for the pro shop as well as for the bridge. So we'll talk a little bit more about those. But u that's kind of where there's a little um anomaly in our timeline of of delay. We

we're focusing on some of the bigger issues within the city. and it continues with me. All right. Um, speaking of the bridge, uh, similar uh, uh, kind of format here. Um, the creek embankments, um, over that 50 years of of, um, the golf course being in existence. Uh, there are infrastructure uh, work that we have done with natural resources, with our public works, with our golf staff over those years. The current bridge that is currently out of repair is a 42 foot, I think, 40 foot bridge. Um, and based on that, when it was originally constructed, they used the um the footings basically on the on the creek embankments. So, over time, those wore out or washed out is probably a better way to say it. Um, so that was deemed uh uh a risk, not able to be uh crossed over by pedestrian or our golf carts. So, we pivoted to utilizing our maintenance pathway, which is kind of at creek level. So, as Devin was saying, do during traditional rains and obviously heavy rains in the winter, uh it's not accessible. Even some of our maintenance staff can't make it over there with with certain vehicles. So, um we started the process working with public works engineers um to kind of assess uh the bridge, but also the creek uh repair for the embankments. That's an important part of our uh ecosystem and um our natural resources department spends a lot of time down there doing their their sampling and testing. Um we uh overall the city had um reimbursement kind of tracking for FEMA and uh we used uh general funds to kind of get some projects moving with the expectation that FEMA would be reimbursing um the city for the the flood situation that occurred and I think I don't recall the full number but we've been providing updates over the last couple years on where that stands and uh the finance department has been tracking that and being uh patient and we know it can be frustrating. Um due to

that, we originally were looking at an October installation and then the funds weren't coming through as re as as planned for reimbursement. So we kind of paused on that. Um moved that project into a traditional CIP to move forward and and funded in that next uh financial plan. Um and that was scheduled for a fall 2025 installation. uh with our budget uh questions and topics from last winter and spring. Um that has been on hold and we're here tonight to kind of hopefully get some direction on where we can pick that and move forward. Uh the nice thing about the bridge is we have a 100 foot bridge in our courtyard uh ready to go. It'll it'll be the length over the creek embankment. It will no longer have to be um it's well double the size basically. So, it'll it'll have plenty of room to not impact a creek area where you look for long-term uh use of that. Um, the last time a bridge was replaced was more of a footw walking bridge in 200 2008. Um, so it takes a crane. It takes some some closure and some work on that, but we're um working with our partners in public works to have that prepared to move forward um with direction hopefully after after this evening. So, irrigation is always been a challenge at the Laguna Lake Golf Course. Um, I provided just some example pictures here, but I'm not going to go into the details of what how much time and energy is taken by our maintenance staff to uh get to this level. Like I said, the ditch which has been a savior uh for them. Uh usually some of these projects would take sometimes three days in order to accomplish. That means three days where the course is not getting warmer. Uh there's about three miles of irrigation pipeline under Laguna Lake Golf Course is 26 acres. It was originally installed in sometime in the late 70s. We don't have the exact date of the installation, but we do know that the installation of those pipes probably has about a 30-year lifespan.

And that's three miles all connected all together, right? All connected all together and always powered for water.

So there's a 30-year lifespan, pressure. a 30-year lifespan on those pipes. If anybody's done the math, we're a little bit out of date for those ones. Uh there's a main line that runs through the property that our staff uh cannot repair on their own. It's a 4-in espresso cement pipe that needs a contract in order to replace those ones. So, if there was ever a mainline break at the golf course, we would basically be shutting down the golf course until we can get that figured out. And we don't have those cost estimates for how much that would cost. Lateral lines are spread out throughout those ones. Those are what power sprinkler systems. Those are powered throughout those ones. Our golf course staff can replace those ones, have replaced those ones many, many times over. Usually, sometimes when they replace one area, something breaks a little bit further down the line that they have to replace. So, they've gotten very diligent and efficient at replacing these things quickly and easily. I wouldn't say easily, but um quickly in order to get it back online so that we are providing the best service to our customers. Um, it takes a while and uh this is probably a really big project that needs to get discussed and in further conversation. So, as Gra mentioned, the pro shop construction is a CIP project as well as a bridge. So, we won't only go into those ones. Uh, we are still currently working with Eoslow for additional tree planting within the course. So, don't have anything set yet, but we will be setting up some additional um opportunities to plant around the driving range, especially along LVR, hopefully to get some a little bit of steps with theirs. Uh the driving stating, as I mentioned before, is a is a big undertaking a project. So, it's about 2,000 square footage of netting that surrounds the driving range area. Um we have to buy specialty ones that's UV treated, high impact netting because there's golf balls hitting it all the time. So it ranges between $1 and $3 per

square foot. So judging from that, if we were to replace the driving net all at one time, it'd be between 20,000 and $60,000 in order to replace. Obviously, we don't have that type of money, so we replace it as a need basis. Um, that does require a lot of labor in installation, cables, clips, tensioning wire, lift equipment, uh, potential structure updates if there's windy picking the right day to install it so it's not windy while they're up there on those lift trucks. So, um, we do it on a case- by case basis. So, right now we are planning on the next couple months to replace some of those nettings that are hanging down there, but um it takes it takes time and energy and working with our um city personnel in order to borrow some of their equipment so that we don't have to pay between $300 and $400 per day for a boom truck and everything else. So, uh usually it takes four to six hours in order to repair some of that those dating areas. So, definitely a lot of time management and seen it done in person. It's it's a big undertaking and you can't be scared of heights when you're up there. So, what we're trying to do with the golf course is create a golf experience. So, not just offer golf, but offer golf amenities that other people in the uh public could be utilized. We've worked with our um partners at Slow Throwers to potentially design an actual course and see what that would look like. uh utilizing not the course itself, but the rounding areas of the course. They usually like different variations around trees, obstacles. So, um whatever we put in there wouldn't essentially affect the course or the course play for the standard golfers. Um it is a popular sport. It's grown in popularity. We see it at our Sin Charmer and Laguna Lake golf course uh park all the time. People are out there. This provides a a different type of amenity for those ones. This would be a year- round use of this course, whereas during the spring

months, if you ever been out to Laguna Lake Park, the grass is probably as tall as me at some parts location. So, um, and it's mowed about once a year from our park maintenance staff in order to get that level down. So, um, we provide essentially a very nice golf disc golf experience for those ones do it, offering tournament um, opportunities for those ones, pushing the tournaments that do take place at Laguna Lake Park or St. Tammer Park to the golf course itself. Um potentially even uh providing some leagues. So this has been a far more um something that's done with other golf courses. Derek um Los Sosus has it right now. So there's a lot of great models out there for those ones. Um back behind the driving range area, there's kind of a big open land. Um there's another opportunity for miniature golf. I don't think there is any miniature golf in the city. Tascadero has one. I think Santa Maria has one. So, there's a good opportunity to invite the community to experience essentially miniature golf at the golf course, get people introduced to the game, get them out there, and potentially create lifetime golfers with those ones. Um, the city of St. Louis Pismo is lacking lighted turf fields. Turf fields in general, but lighted ones as well. There's an opportunity to once the golf course closes, turn that driving range into a a little soccer field that's available for play. We don't have enough practice fields at the in the city fields for soccer, for Friday night lights, for any of those groups that require more lighted turf areas. There's an opportunity to either utilize the turf that's currently there, put down artificial turf, something to do it. Um, the infrastructure is there. We just have to kind of reinforce it with potentially driving rain nets. Um, but just kind of make it a little bit more of a familyfriendly location that's offering more than just golf. So the the purpose of kind of mentioning some of those are um during the uh

master plan and general element um review and discussion and updates from in 2021 uh the consultant plus a lot of our community feedback. Those were some of the topics that were were approached to staff of how do we how do we capture and utilize this amazing property um to get really everything we can out of it. So those those three ideas for example are part of um those discussions uh back in 2021. Um here's just a little segment that's that's listed in there about how we want to like you know not just assess it financially but also um assessing uh the property and what we can do. And it's kind of the reason we are here tonight is to kind of showcase that uh you can do a lot of things. We can maintain still an uh a traditional golf course and then have things on the periphery or at off times that can supplement in both revenue generation but also meet community needs for areas that maybe we can't accommodate at other park locations. So, as we kind of um transition uh the next portion of our uh presentation, we'll f focus a little bit on alternate uses of that property that might not be related to golf or potential a different way of managing golf. Um so, at this time, I'd like to uh reintroduce our assistant city manager, Scott Collins, who's going to talk a little bit about our um opportunities for housing.

Thank you, Greg. Um so I'm going to go through uh slides pretty quickly and thank you for your patience on this comprehensive presentation. Um just looking globally at the uh opportunity for housing on this 26 acre uh parcel. Some things to consider um on the first slide is the zoning. Uh it's a public facility zoned currently and would have to be reszoned to something other than that for housing to occur and there's a process for that of course. Um the next slide please. This shows the deed restricted par part of the the property or the site u kind of the top lefthand corner. Uh that's because we did receive a grant to help facilitate the purchase and um so that is unfortunately depending on how you're looking at it that that would be prime real estate for housing development. It's right on the frontage. Um, but that is deed restricted to be park or recreation use in perpetuity without a lot of un, you know, wrangling with the state to undo that. So, that's just something to bear in mind. Um, next slide, please. All right. Now, we're looking at the infrastructure or the lack thereof. We did we did talk about the infrastructure that supports golf, but that couldn't be converted to support housing. So, we don't have roads. We don't have water sewer that would support housing. um storm water and things like that. Those are just a few of the infrastructure needs that would need to be addressed for for housing to be successful there. Next slide. Um this is just to show um some flood and fire zone considerations. Um, primarily the fire zones aren't problematic other than kind of the the back corner of the property, but we do have u the creek that flows right through the middle of the the site which would present some challenges, erosion, the like. All to say is that would limit the ultimate footprint by

which you could develop on that property. Next slide. And then just u since we've heard in the past, you know, could this be used for affordable housing? I just want to, you know, factor in some things that nonprofit or affordable housing developers would consider. Uh the parcel size and price if this were to be considered for for sale for housing. U affordable housing developers, particularly in our county, typically are able to take down a acre or two at a time. This is 26 acres. It's not something that Haslow or People Self-Help Housing could take down entirely. So you're either looking at just a segment of the overall site and or in partnership with a market rate developer and Haslow or people self-help would do a portion of of of that is affordable. Um in addition to that the infrastructure is a concern or the lack thereof and and then they would also look at the tax credit competitiveness. What what is the surrounding services available? what's kind of the overall demographic in the area, who would be most likely to be served. All those things would factor into a tax credit score. Um, so I did talk to both the executive director for HLO and and people self-help housing today and they certainly said, yeah, there there would be interest. Um, but both of them have probably 10 to 15 year pipeline. So, this certainly would be a much longer term um consideration for for both of those agencies at this time. I think that's it for housing, but um I'm here, Timmy's here, others are here to answer our questions on this if it comes up. Another um opportunity that we were um reviewing is just converting the property into uh a park. We have 26 acres. Uh it's the second largest property uh that the city parks and

wreck has in inventory compared to um uh Laguna Lake Park at 40 acres. Um as you can see some of the factors to consider is we'd have to add some you know pathways like similar to what we have over in Meadow Park for example where it you have some ADA um pathways and some uh um walking paths. There's currently no safety lighting. There's no lighting out in that. So do you have to have some safety lighting? there is some uh navigating the creek area and the bridges and and and whatnot. Um our estimate right now for just doing um operational maintenance uh with staffing and um equipment and all that and and utilities is approximately about a $425 to $450,000 um expenditure to maintain it as as a as a park. Um we'd be uh you know continuing our our um commitment obviously to the open space and creek corridor there the repairarian area and make and ensuring that that's not damaged or impacted by just general use as a park area. Um the irrigation concerns are still going to be there. We still need to kind of address that for um providing irrigation to to the property. Um neighborhood concerns could be for privacy or security knowing that a lot of those fences are open or have passroughs because it's a visual type format. Um it's not a um a street ordering kind of uh property. And then obviously off hours um just maintaining it's a lot of nooks and crannies back in there and we've already got some challenges in other parks but having that that off hours security challenge. Um and then obviously the the programs that we do there would not be occurring um such as supporting all the the school district programs or um community user groups that are related to golf or other those other factors that Devon had kind of mentioned of potential programs. So something to to consider on the on the park conversion. Another uh uh option an uh uh

consideration was to uh go back to an RFP maybe for a a external third party to operate and maintain the course. Uh this was done in 2014 at a December um or December 2nd, 2014 was the last time we proposed or brought this forward to council and at that time it was deemed um not quite ready and to maintain operations um under parks and recreation and for the city to manage the course. Um, I think our concerns as staff and kind of following our blueprint would be are we still able to maintain um the accessible and affordable type programs that a lease would would be needing to do to make a profit and make it sustainable for their their business operation or business plan. Um, how are we making sure that we are continuing to support our community groups that we've have a long-term relationship with and some of the new ones that have been established in the last couple years. Um, and then some deterrence could be the the fact that we don't have a pro shop. we still have irrigation um aging irrigation and then the bridge uh for access on those things. So we just want to bring that forward that those are um potential opportunities but there are some some factors to consider when we when we look at that. Um let's we'll go back. Let's skip we'll move forward. I know we're getting on time. Um one more forward. Yeah. So, in our staff report, we listed um kind of four alternatives to also consider or discuss tonight. And these are just the the top uh the the headlines of those. And we have slides for each one. Um so, we'll kind of go through each one briefly here of um kind of looking for council if you choose to provide direction for staff. Um are the fees currently need to be reassessed? You know, our our last fee study was in 2324 is when it got incorporated. the comparison that Devon showed on the screen were our current um feast uh fee structure, but the 20 2026 um fees of our kind of competitors are comparable.

So there might be some opportunity to review that or um recommend as we move forward with our next user fee study to have a different u maybe philosophical view on resident non-resident or um getting a little where is it finding that delta where we're not outpricing current opportunities for our community but still able to kind of return a little bit more on that uh or reduce that subsidized portion. Um, the other one is, um, oh, there we go. Uh, returning it potentially back to an enterprise fund. And what would that look like as far as what would the cost factors be required to um charge per day or per use uh to kind of get to a an actual enterprise type format? And then our third of the four is to look at um decommissioning the the golf program and going back to that community park which we we highlighted. And the fourth one is to investigate alternative usage. Um and it kind of goes back to to assistant manager Collins uh statement on looking at housing or a blend of something of that nature. So, I want to first thank you for your patience everybody on our our um presentation and the hopefully the the staff report provided enough detail to help uh spur on some good conversation tonight.

Thank you. Yes, it was a lot of information, but it's what we asked for was let's understand what's happening over there at the golf course. I was hoping to get like a football aerial view where you could like just like draw the entire three miles of the irrigation, but that's okay. Um, here. Okay, just change that. I'm sure they have that in the map ready to go for you.

I'm just kidding. No, I it just was such a huge obvious challenge that um just wanted the community community to be able to see that. Um, with that, so what we're going to do is we're going to have some questions from council and then we have about a half hour of public comment. So, we'll do a little break before we get to public comment and then we'll come back to deliberations. So, just as a little view. So, questions, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, thank you so much. What a great presentation. Um, I have to say coming out and doing a tour, you just have the best crew out there doing a really incredible job. Uh, I have kind of a random assortment of questions and actually I'll start with one that kind of gets at that first piece there. Your your awesome crew. I'm curious, and this is kind of a squishy question, but are there other identifiable bottlenecks that limit usage of the course currently beyond the identified infrastructure improvements like the bridge and the pro shop? Meaning, if parks and wreck were given more resources, could it result in higher usage in its current form? I guess really what I'm asking is, does it need more staff in order to run better as is?

Just staff or staff and resources? Staff and resources. Okay. in in the world of parks and recreation, we would never turn down more staff or resources. Um, and I'm sure all my all my partners behind me in the leadership team are probably saying absolutely uh for themselves as well. Um,

we're a small and mighty crew. I think that's parks and recck. That's probably most of our city departments. You know, we we do a lot with with a little and make things happen. Um, we have a very dedicated crew. They're very committed, as you hopefully know. They're here tonight. Um, as far as upgrades, you know, I think we we've been able to um forecast appropriate funding to get the right equipment to make their jobs a little more um efficient. I wouldn't say easier, but efficient. Um, I think the the real area would be course improvements. You know, we don't have cart paths. We have carts, but we don't have cart paths. So, um, during some of those rainier or squishy type days, we don't we might have the course open, but you can't use a golf cart. that limits some of the uh accessibility mobility for certain um age areas or certain populations. So that would be something that I could see as a bottleneck that we could probably expand opportunities by having um dedicated pathways and it also could turn into walking paths for uh non-programmable times or when we have off hours and and conversion the park to kind of be a multi-use. So um squishy question. I like that. Um, we've I'm sure have a very large wish list that we could come up with. You know,

you were talking a little bit about um the enterprise fund option and I was kind of contemplating as you were talking about that that um what would that look like? Would there be have we ever done that in our history? Is there a glide path back to to doing that where there's subsidies that sort of reduce over time? Would it be something where we'd need to make the upfront investment in the big infrastructure projects in order to kind of bring up usage to a level where it could even potentially function as an enterprise fund? I'm just kind of curious how how far down that thought

it was at some bouncing out. I'm in on um let's see uh in the history there was a general or a um enterprise fund model and it was not successful. Um it was probably it's why we've been here a few times over the last dec few decades. Um, so in 2011 it was it was converted to general fund and under parks and recreation as a program to help be subsidized similar to the swim center and Damon Garcia Sports Complex and other programs that we operate. Um, without the right infrastructure attracting enough users, tournaments, special events, um, the comparable courses like Sea Pines, uh, they have an event center, they have people who can rent and and stay there and have a kind of a an experience. They have they host weddings and music events and the restaurant and people can hang out and they drop off their their kids for example at first tea and well then they go get food and drinks and hang out or maybe putt or or chip around and enjoy the environment. Uh we don't have that opportunity at this point. So I think it would be really challenging with the infrastructure and the lack of amenities to expand that to try to get enough revenue to make it fully um non-subsidized and into an enterprise fund. there's really not a realistic path back towards a pure enterprise fund in in its current form.

I think if we had the, you know, irrigation, you know, it's 1964 installation, right? Uh up up upgraded, that would reduce the maintenance time that they spend trying to fix and and monitor that. um having the pro shop or a community center type feel of a pro shop would attract and and provide more uh revenue operation revenue generation then that could help subsidize the the rental portion help subsidize the tea uh fees um to try to keep it in that that sweet spot you know um I would guesstimate if we had to try to move this to enterprise fund we might be charging 30 or 35 to $40 around for 10 holes and there's other courses that would be more uh desired I would say at this point um our location is a huge benefit for what we do uh the community around us of the schools the partnerships that we have um there's a reason they want to come and use that course because it's it's friendly it's open it's it's not intimidating um and I think it's perfect for all those age groups and then we have a great community that's been using it for 50 plus years so I think we we'd still draw but I would be it'd be a challenge

I know you mentioned that there's just been a huge amount of work on the irrigation system and and I saw your team uh working on it when I was out there and uh done a really good job keeping that thing going. Do we have an idea how much of it is original? Is it like a ship of thesis at this point where it's mostly been rebuilt or are we really dealing with one that was in its mostly original form? I'm going to turn that to Deon. It's probably very Frankensteined put together. But

yeah, I was just going to say it's probably very Frankenstein and some bars have probably been Frankenstein more times over. Um there was a a slip fix that was kind of all the rage back in the early 2000s and a lot of the repairs we're doing now we're fixing some of those ones. So um what they've done is they've they understand the system a lot better and how it operates and how they can essentially fix it so that it doesn't affect get affected in the future. So I think that's kind of the benefit of the new technology, new staff, new eyes. um going to some of these conferences and learning some of the new ways to deal with it is they've gotten better at the system and having the longevity of our staff being there. They they have a better understanding of where things might happen or how they might happen. So, um and then with the equipment that we have, it's just it's it's a lot easier and efficient to get those leaks repaired quickly. So, they've gotten just better at maintaining it. And props to our golf supervisor and our maintenance workers. they they've done a really good job of understanding the course and really taking that time and care and energy to make those repairs quickly and efficiently. Um, if you remember drought back from like 2010 to 2015,

that caused a lot of issues because we rely on that rain in order to flush the greens, to flush the TE's. But dealing with the recycled water, the salinity content is a lot higher. So without those ones, we are seeing a lot more burns. We see a lot more repairs. where some of them were trees that needed to be essentially taken out and and replaced. So, um there's just a lot of factors that go into it and having that staff uh experience and education and knowing what the diseases are and how to fix those diseases quickly so that we don't lose a green where 10 years ago that was their issue is we kept trying to catch up. Now we've caught up and we're maintaining as best we can with the resources and the infrastructure that we have.

And forgive me, I didn't ask the next question ahead of time, so you might not have an answer off hand, but I had some fun going through the archives and reading all the new time art new times articles and the TT articles that kind of talked about every time this has come in front of council in the past. And um I saw that uh in the not too distant future or past there was a discussion uh and the council passed alcohol sales out there and I was wondering what happened uh if that just kind of fell off the radar. Oh well we don't have a pro shop. Yeah. Um so so did it.

So yeah we were able to serve um beer and wine as our our license. um when we had a a food truck kind of vendor for a short term, uh they we could have it permitted out there, but they had to have their own license for that, but we were able to get uh the zoning and the code u enforcement for that. So, um when we when we reopened the pro shop, that would be um something we would still pursue. And that is it's a revenue generator, but it's also um it brings people to socialize and and stay longer and then maybe they'll come visit and maybe it's also a destination for non-golfers. Yeah, thank you. And uh just one more. Uh I was curious, you mentioned that there were some off-hour security concerns if it was used as a park versus a golf course, and I was wondering if you could kind of give a little clarity on on why there'd be additional concerns about the security if it's no longer a golf course.

Um right now we have staff there 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. You know, it's like if it's light, they're there, right? Um at the same time, then we turn sprinklers on and it's that's our deterrent. And we also take care of kind of irrigation mostly in the evenings. Um, a lot of our parks, you know, our hours are 5:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. So, we'd have to kind of address that. We have, you know, we have impacts and concerns at Lagouna Lake Park, at Santa Rosa Park, even Meadow Park, which is surrounded by neighborhoods. Um, due to the kind of remote location, there's a lot of nooks and crannies way in the back where whole uh gosh, it would be like three, four, five, six, and sevenish kind of back in there. That would be our main concern. Uh we've got apartment complexes, a church, some some uh multif family and single family houses that back up to that. Um and then the creek pathway, you know. So I think we we've learned some lessons with Bob Jones Trail. We've learned lessons from Santa Rosa Park. Um, and as we design new facilities, we have that in mind of of sightelines and visual when you can drive by and and that. And this is a this is a challenging location and property to I'd be concerned as a as a professional director of parks and recreation to to move forward with something like that.

I actually have one more question. I'm so sorry. The uh parks and recck blueprint. Um it's kind of curious because in there it sort of contemplates a future where maybe there are other things happening in that in that space and um it's kind of a process question I guess but with a blueprint like that um does it typically work that you know sort of lays out this this vision or these may these possibilities and then kind of relies on the the community and the council then to give direction on which of those possibilities and dreams we actually want to pursue and build a budget for. um or does that sort of then drive the budget discussion? Generally,

I think your first part is is pretty deadon. The the philosophy of that blueprint was to have fluidity and flexibility as trends and and things change and our our our community kind of evolves. Um it's identified that uh I believe it's like around if you have a population of 50,000 that a nine you kind of executive golfized golf course is adequate. Right. Um, our swim center, same thing. If you have 50,000 residents, you should have at least an Olympic size swim. California is different. Um, and we have and especially St. Louis Abyispo community, we have a very outdoor focused active population. Uh, as you know, our our open space um, properties accommodate a lot of that. So the the and I don't know if our slide is easily obtainable but in that language it's it's how do you maintain the course acreage and then enhance it is is how we interpret that. At the same time if something else came along and you were going to say oh we could move the course somewhere else. Is that property available to help meet some of those other needs that are lacking in the inventory such as sport fields or at the time dog parks and bike pump tracks were not in existence yet. We were we just move forward with those. So I think that's the fluidity of that to then have council and parks and recck commission and our community provide the feedback. So we have some opportunity. I wouldn't say blank canvas but a way to kind of modify our current canvas. Well,

thanks for answering my scattershot question. No problem there. Appreciate it. Thank you, Council Member Marks. Thank you. Thanks for this indepth presentation and the staff the staff report and all of the exhibits. I really uh you guys did a fantastic job.

Um and I want to say I also appreciate all the public involvement in this in this issue and uh great to see how much uh love there is for the golf course out there. It's uh very moving. Um, but my question is financial. That's my main thing that I'm concerned about. Um, with the pro shop, I have two questions. First of all, what amount is covered by the insurance and what amount would come out of our general fund in terms of the is it $250,000? Correct. We we are estimating that the insurance will they've been reimbursing kind of the the trailer um office trailer right now that's been part of the insurance uh

uh package. Um, we're looking at about a $250,000, you know, payout in a sense for the the repairs. And we've also forecasted, if I'm hopefully speaking correctly, I think our U Brian Nelson's behind me hopefully still um about $250,000 for that's been budgeted to support the insurance um

portion of that. We don't know because we we haven't got to the design portion and we have to go to RFP for that to happen and then we go out to construction. And so when those those quotes come back will really tell us what's going on. But we're the only upgrades were really ADA um related to get it to 2026 because it was 1970s or late60s um uh construction, not expansion or addition. So we're we're looking at returning it to its traditional use or what it was in 2021 um with some minor upgrades for ADA uh you know doors and and entry areas. Um but we don't we don't have a firm number. That's why we couldn't uh provide that in our report is we don't have the quotes um of what the uh design will be once it's uh completed. So we're we're in we're in the middle phase of of the project.

Yeah. So at one time you were saying $500,000 and then later it was $250 and that's because half of it would be coming from the insurance. Is that correct? And half we're gonna we're going to do the phone a friend. Hi thanks for city engineer. Um, so right now we're we're planning to release an RFP for design services. So we won't know the full cost of the repair until we get some estimates from those design consultants. Right now we're thinking the the general fund component of it, the ADA improvements and the the hardscape around the the facility that wasn't a part of the storm related damage would cost the general fund about $250,000. Okay. Yeah.

Thank you. And then my second question uh is actually about um the thought of creating uh a more viable community space. So um is there in terms of the property itself, is there room if you decided you wanted to or the council of the community wanted to make it into um a more viable kind of community space. In other words, bigger than the old pro shop, which I remember fondly. It was a very con cenial place to go. Um, uh, is that a possibility at this at this point or is it just something that we'd have to look at?

Great, that's a great great question. And, um, actually De and I were just chatting about that, uh, yesterday and this morning. Uh, in 2017, there was sort of, um, an interest design. and I don't know if it was an official design of of a community center style format on that property. So expanding the um footprint and changing it and even leveling it out, but using sort of that area where the restroom um the chipping green and the current pro shop is located and expanding that to be an, you know, pro shop office and kind of retail section, but then having a community space that's what I could consider like almost like a teen center, community center, multigenerational center, could be for weddings and stuff. That's what our our comparable courses within the county kind of operate as. And that's that's a good revenue generator. Ex expand the outdoor space. Um have an indoor outdoor kind of feel right in that whole kind of entry footprint when you first are about next to the parking lot. Um is an opportunity. It's it's money. It's uh it's a PL, you know, put it in the CIP plan. Um but that in was also identified in the blueprint during the consultant research that that portion of the city lacks a community space. You know, we have Meadow Park, have a meadow center, we have Lewig Center, we utilize the pool sometimes and that that um facility there as a meeting area, but there's nothing on that side of town currently. Um so that would be an opportunity that we would definitely entertain and and it would be something that could um enhance the experience, but also be revenue generation in the future and meet a a pretty strong need as that area continues to grow with housing and support of uh the schools and other parks uh in that area. Okay. Well, thank you for that. And but if if you went ahead with the RFP for the pro shop uh under the pres present design, could it be added on to later or is it kind of

um

uh I I don't know the infrastructure for the you know plumbing and and and water supply, but um based on the the age of the original structure, I'd be cautious on adding a wing to it. Um, but I think there might be some bones to it that we could utilize at the foundational area, but um, the the footprint around that area, I believe, could accommodate a much larger facility um, based off of where we currently have our our chipping area and our putting area can be incorporated into the facility as well as kind of there's like a viewing area that leads out towards hole one and it's next to the um, the finish point of hole 10. Um, and that's part of the the example designs that we have. um looked at back in 2017 prior to prior to my my era, but it was definitely a discussion that parks and wreck was looking into.

Yeah, I kind of missed that year too. So, um we both missed it. Dang it. Yeah. So, the other question is if we own the bridge, why does it cost $500,000 if we already own the bridge? I will have to defer to my pals in engineering.

Is there is there any way that it could cost less than $500,000? So, we have to demolish the existing bridge and place new abutments um on either side of the creek outside of the limits um and then place the new or really the existing uh CD own bridge that currently resides at the courtyard. We have to haul it to the side, place it and uh pave some new pathways connecting to it. So, there's some demolition work. There's also some construction of the abupments. That's the that's the real cost. um placing new concrete footings on either end of the bridge, drilling um uh f footings and foundations for those um supports um is where the cost comes from primarily.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And and my third uh question I think has already been answered and that is uh ways that the revenue could be increased and you mentioned rate in uh rate increase when we look at our race rate study which is coming up. Um, are there any other ways that um in some way could help uh produce more revenue so that there's less general fund support?

Um, absolutely. And I think, you know, we our our emphasis was when we when we get some of the infrastructure of the pro shop and the bridge uh repairs and actually um completed that expands the opportunity to host tournaments, events. Um increases amount of of play that can occur. Um I think Devon was sharing was it close to 25,000 uh tea times and rounds were were in 2425. Um the capacity we are not even sure what the capacity could be but it could be 30 could be 35,000 rounds u based on um access you know we are closed certain days an example was January of this year we just got our numbers from our our program coordinator uh we were closed for 8 days um that was at 11 or 12% um decrease I say our revenue was was was uh 12% lower than it was January of 2025 when we were only closed for two days

and that's all really rain impacts because it might rain for three days but again we might be closed for six because we don't have access across the pathways. Um those are big hits for us you know um as we increase the driving range capabilities with upgrades that helped kind of supplement some of that um opportunity to host events uh is is key for some of those um revenue generations. We hosted uh some barbecues and some uh Calpali uh group events that were in there and we provided some opportunity to use a driving range for free as a as a as a tidbit, a kind of a teaser to get them involved and hopefully they're going to come out and play golf as well. So, I think expanding our community groups uh use um doing more outreach uh providing a a an environment that people want to continue to come to play um is is a key piece to that. So I think there's opportunity to definitely expand our programming and revenue generation, but we need some infrastructure uh to to attract them and then maintain that.

Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Shoresman. Thank you. Yes, you answered most of my questions in agenda correspondence, but uh just a couple that have come up as we've been uh chatting here. Uh, I haven't looked at the blueprint in a while to be honest, but it seems to me that hasn't Lagouna Lake also been contemplated as a location for a community center type building. Yes. So, this isn't the only location where that

No, and it kind of goes to Vice Mayor um Francis's question on the fluidity like there's there's properties, you know, Meadow Park currently has a small meadow center that has been identified potentially as that footprint can be doubled in size or twotory or something of that nature. So um the purpose of the blueprint was to identify and assess every park area including Santa Rosa and Cshimer for all the opportunities and then give that fluidity for the staff flexibility for the community and the council to kind of identify where we need to move things over there. Uh swim center was also um uh proposed as an opportunity somewhere on that side of town and it could be um at Laguna Lake Park. port fields uh like diamond style baseball, softball, we're lacking in those as a um kind of a destination sports complex. Is that Laguna Lake? Is that somewhere else within the city? So, the blueprint has a lot of those opportunities. It's our job as professional staff to assess that, get feedback from the community, and obviously from parks and rec commission and the council to help direct that. I guess I I asked the question because I don't want it to seem like uh if we move forward with the pro shop improvements now that that there isn't another opportunity potentially on that side of town for a community center if we decide to prioritize that in the future. Just because

we aren't doing it now doesn't mean that opportunity is gone.

And there's also the opportunity where you invest, you know, 500,000 or 250,000 plus hopefully insurance subsidy. Um, and is that a five to 10 year, you know, fix as we go into something else for that property and we make a um some facility rearrangements where the where the driving range is currently to where um the current pro shop is. There's a lot of property that, you know, Devon was outlining where the miniature golf could go or our event space or where we host the September scramble kind of um uh social zone and kind of the the start finish area. there's a lot of potential in that to be looked at, but it would take a a program, a CIP project to kind of assess that and that's that's not two, three years away, right? So, we have to kind of look at the value of what's what's what's funded, what can we get funding now to keep maintain certain certain things, but then is that a band-aid or is that a permanent fix for a 10 to 15 20 year type program or is that a 5 to 10 year thing as we look for the future? So, I think we have some flexibility and um opportunity to assess all that as we kind of move into the next phases of the blueprint. We're five years in and we got 15 more to go. So, we're excited to pursue those.

Thank you. Um I know that you've mentioned it just a little bit in the agenda correspondence, but uh in terms of potential revenue generating opportunities, I know there's at least one member of the audience here today that has um had a wedding there. And so I'm wondering how many of those types of events and if that's something that we've talked about sort of larger social events like that that could be um rented as a

we love those things. Yeah. Like um the September scramble for example is a city managed one. Um you know in Devon's era as a recreation manager for seven plus years now. Um that's kind of his role. We host weddings at Jack House. We've done different special events throughout other parks. same thing could occur. Again, I think C Pines is a great example of a of an opportunity of how they have the supporting uh infrastructure of facilities that can host more weddings. Um I think it needs to be an attraction, right? There's no reason we couldn't put a tent up and do an outdoor style wedding similar to you might see at Abala Avala Beach area, right? As an example. Um, we don't turn those down when they come at us, but we also haven't pro promoted that because we don't we don't have I don't think the venue is an attraction yet. We're close. We're getting there. We've been a lot of time last three years spent um on the on the maintenance and the beautifification of the of the environment. So, I think we're ready to kind of start pursuing those. Um, but it is a challenge when we don't quite have the infrastructure of supporting the the advertising of that kind of venue.

Thank you. Okay, my last question is about the 10th hole. So, um, explain that to me and, uh, would that be I don't I don't know exactly where on the course that 10th hole is, but, it seems like, is that a space? Is that a normal thing to have? I thought that was usually a nine hole.

I'm I'm going to start and I'll I'll pass it on to my colleague. Um, the original course was nine holes. um due to some safety concerns in the back uh probably hole four or five and there's a there's a weird I don't know if we have a probably can't really zoom in too much on a picture but um there's an area where we actually have a the only walking bridge back in the in the kind of far east corner. Um there was a course realignment that needed to occur for safety like balls that were kind of unsafe for neighborhood and and and that. So, if you're looking at probably the uh let's say 5:30 on the clock, that little weird kind of cutout um and say four o'clock, that kind of zone is a narrow path that that the course was realigned on purpose to shorten it. And by shortening it, it o had an opportunity to add a hole.

Okay. So, the over I'll let I'll have Devon take the history from here. uh we basically added some extension on the um left hand side of the of the diagram to make it a 10-hole course.

So it was around hole number three, number four where we were seeing a lot of um Aaron balls hitting different um complexes around the location. So that third hole was added as a little bit of a shorter one. So there wasn't those Aaron balls um hitting those properties. Uh the beauty thing about having um an advanced infrastructure is the ability to realign holes. So the current golf course that we have right now once a new construction in there does not have to be that same hole. So we have met with some consultants. We have internally proposed some ideas of making this a true nine-hole golf course providing it, but it's the infrastructure needs to get fixed before we can do that. um it'd be narrower fairways, it'd be more um so it'd be better overall because less irrigation would be utilized to propose the new course that we're having and it'd be a true nine hole golf course for what we're what we were planning on doing. So, it's a it is an opportunity and it's something that we want to do. But hey, you pay for nine, you get one hole free, right?

It was just a curiosity. So, thank you for thank you for humoring my curiosity. Thank you. I feel like it's the uh when you buy so many cups of coffee, you get one free. So, you know, baker's, right? Baker's.

Well, thank you. You you answered so many questions of mine in um agenda correspondents as well as many of the questions were asked today. So, I will not reask them just for the purpose of looking like I'm asking questions. Um thank you very much for everything that you've shared. I think um there's continual questions when we talk about um feasibility. That's the one thing that with all of these different alternatives, it seems like we need some additional studying done. Um so no matter what is kind of looked forward, it's going to require additional study which costs additional money. Is that correct?

Resources. there's there's time and if I need a consultant, but it depends on on the scope. You know, we're looking at um you know, I think our our three our three items were to present and then really get direction on the current uh uh two projects that we've we want to push forward. Um as far as additional or alternative type format, um you know, the the user fee kind of study would probably be the least impactful, but it would take time and resources and some and some resource. I don't know if it's allocation and funding, but definitely in staff time. Um, and then it'd be based off of what maybe council direction on timing of that would occur. The other other ones are a little more uh heavy lifts in a sense in a way a traditional work program, but

absolutely. Remind me, I know we have a three-year um cycle for user fees. When's our next review of that? I see a financial director Emily Jackson walking up.

Yeah, thank you for the question. Um with adoption of the last user fee study back in 2024, um council adopted a policy to move our the frequency of those user fee studies to every 3 years. And so um we'll be kicking that next effort off here pretty quickly. um largely to be done in 2627 and I expect that um we'll be returning to council um in probably April of next year to give you a draft preview of what those um fee change recommendations would be and looking towards adoption uh potentially in May so that the new fees can go into effect on July 1 and we can get back onto our normal schedule.

Thank you. And if we were looking at timing, I don't know if I should look at city manager, assistant city manager. If we were looking at timing of the other two um potential feasibility studies such as if we were looking at a park, what timing does that look like and where would that fit in a work plan? If we were looking at housing, I mean, we're looking at past the housing elements 28 and loose is past 29, right? I'm happy to jump in on that question. I think um certainly um the housing element update that we do have to do and get adopted in 2028. You know, if this is a potential site, if that's something that we would be open to, then it would be identified through that process. Um but that would be, you know, could be the beginning of it. Just kind of depends on the direction we receive. if we're looking at other reuse options of the site that maybe are um recreation, park, and in nature and a feasibility analysis of all those pieces that's not currently in any of our work plans. And so we would really recommend looking at incorporating that into our next financial plan process, which uh feels like it's going to be here tomorrow because it probably it pretty much is. Uh we typically kick that off in November with a community survey and then uh the forum in January. And so again, it it's tomorrow basically, but we would we would look to have that conversation and then slot it in to start that, fund it, all of those pieces as part of the next financial plan.

Great. Thank you. And um if we were making the pro shop a glorious community center, um we would have to find some funding for that, right? Yeah, absolutely. That is not in our budget at all right now. Correct. We just have that. Just clarifying $50,000 for design on top of whatever we get from the insurance proceeds and that's what's currently budgeted for the pro shop effort. Perfect. Thank you so much. Um I think that was all the clarifying questions I wanted to make sure we had out loud and out in public. And from there, uh, we're going to go ahead and take a break and then we'll come back for our half hour of public comment. 15.

Well, thank you everyone. Um, thank you for the questions from council and thank you for all of the staff answers so far. And at this point, we have, I believe, 27 people in the um, uh, public comment. Oh, even better. Perfect. Um, thank you so much. 12 public comment. All right. So, those who have one minute, you'll be going first, then the two minutes, three minutes, etc. Um, and I will pass it over to city clerk to list off the names.

Okay. Um, the first four speakers all have one minute and I'll call all four of them and you can be ready to speak. Terry Benson, Jeff Hiner, Mary Walton, and Ruth Ols. Hi, thank you. Thank you for all you do. My name is Terry Benson. I am as the PGA golf professional and a first te coach. I've had the pleasure of teaching at Laguna Lake Golf Course for over 20 years. While gosh, I I forgot my glasses. While running first tea program, helping kids build confidence, responsibility, and life skills. Laguna Lake is a safe, supportive environment for many children. This golf course provides safety, mentorship, and positive role models that they may not have had elsewhere. I understand and respect the city's need to address affordable housing. Removing this golf course would permanently eliminate opportunities for the community to belong, grow, and be supported. Laguna Lake Golf Course has quietly shaped lives, strengthened the community for decades. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate you and I appreciate the audience. Thank you, Jeff Hiner, Mary Walton and Ruth Holles Holleshower. Okay, we'll go on to the next ones. You're not speaking, Ruth. Okay. Uh Darren Avert a what?

Uh Jeff Beck and then Amy Zach Zachary Zakaria. I think I think

Hello Council. Thank you very much for giving me the privilege of your time to talk a little bit about uh the golf course and Lagona Lake. Uh my name is Darren Ait. I am a professor at Calpali for the past 31 years and I am a firstte coach that runs programming. I want to express my concern for any other consideration other than a golf course uh to be at this location for our uh for our community. It is golf is a recreational program uh just like the pursuit of anything from volleyball to uh snow skiing, basketball, hiking, walking trails, anything like that. It is the same thing. If you choose to use this as a multi-purpose facility and create another park, I don't know any other park in our community that runs 27,000 people through it in one year. We need to understand what golf does to our community. what we do for our kids because we had our families here and they had all their little signs ready to go, you know, let's save Laguna Lake because it's a community process and our kids and family came because they wanted to say this is a a an area that we need to put funding into in order to make it that much better for our communities to come and and do these types of activities. If you're worried about funding, run some golf tournaments. They make about $20,000 every time you run a quality golf tournament. And we do that through the first TE all the time. We're here to build community. We're here to make sure that our land is being used properly. And one of the big components that I that I really want you to consider and think about is back in the

day when when cities became a mu municipal golf courses were created in the 1890s uh in New York and that was the first public golf course that that was brought about within the city to bring common folk to to play in the game. Lagona Lake is the only public golf course in this city. It is a vital public asset that to leave what we consider the happiest city in the United States um with that option. The other thing I want you to recognize is that our community is in desperate need of affordable housing, but with housing housing becomes need for recreational facilities. It would be very shortsighted to remove the one thing that we need within our community to put another need just in order to go buy spend and do more to recreate a facility that we need. We have the existing blueprint. Let's use it and let's make it better. Thank you.

Thank you,

Jeff. And then Amy and then Mary Sanchez. We are the Laguna. Uh we play Lagona Lake Municipal Golf Course every Tuesday morning for about the last 20 years or more. Um and we we've sent you many emails. There's a lot of words about all the reasons that we should keep Laguna Lake Golf Course. And just because there's been so many words, we're going to sing our message to you. Here we go, guys. Oh, when the sun comes up with all it slow, we meet our friends in the crew to where it's such an asset to our city. Got to help it stay down at you at green hills and fresh blue at school kids for fun at cross country for a run down at Lagona students learn and kids in special Olympics shine. The youth at first and our high schoolers grow so fine down at Lagoon where all folks can play. It's such an asset to our city. Got to make it. We want to keep Lagoon as a beautiful

clean green space. It's where all ages meet to share a healthy and happy place down at Lagoon where all folks can play. It's such an asset to our city. Please make it. It's such an All right, there's our message. That was lovely. Thank you,

Amy. And then Mary Sanchez and Steve Silverstein. Good evening and thank you for all you do and giving me the opportunity to speak. Uh my name is Amy Zacharia and I'm a long-term Samos Abyispo resident. My family and my four sons consider Lagona Lake Golf Course their home away from home. They all had the opportunity, my four sons, to participate in the first tea program at Lagona Lake with the amazing coach Terry Benson, who you heard speak a little earlier. Uh my youngest son, Noah, currently mentors younger golfers with coach Terry at the first TE program on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Noah also practices also with the St. Louis Abyspo High School golf team at the Laguna Lake course. Um, my second son, Adam, had the opportunity to speak years ago to Congress on National Golf Day on behalf of the Laguna Lake Golf Course First TE programs positive impacts and the leadership learning of his um how it impacted his life as well as thousands of other young adults through the game of golf. Uh, the first TE teaches young adults to have respect, integrity, and leadership skills. And our family also believes in community service and our extended family volunteered more than 10 to 12 years on the L Huna Lake driving range in the past. Uh my son Jacob uh mentors underserved youth in Oakland through the first te program because he was inspired by his upbringing here at the Laguna Lake Golf Course. And um I just want to remind you that as you know it's very

affordable, accessible to all ages and the only municipal golf course in the city of San Los a Bispo where families can walk to the course and play a round of golf. The first TE program at Laguna Lake has positively shaped thousands of young lives and encouraged them to be their best versions of themselves through the their character building programs. Uh, Laguna Lake is truly a treasure to families in San Los Abyspo and I would hope that it would remain open for future generations to enjoy and I thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Thank you.

Amy Sanchez, Steve Silverstein, and then Tyler Corey. Is Amy Sanchez here? Okay.

Good evening, Madam Madam Stewart, council members, and the public. Uh, my name is Steve Silverstein. I am not a golfer. I have been to golf courses at least 50 times. I've been to weddings. I've done bicycle riding. I've done hiking. I've gone to rock concerts. I've gone for dinners. I've done gone for bird watching. Myriad activities. Why? Because these were beautiful open spaces and the Lagona Lake Golf Course is one of those. What's at stake here? Well, this is an open place for our community. It's one of the reasons why St. Louis has been rated very highly among all these articles about the best place to live is our use of open spaces. The preservation of the open spaces is your job. You're the only ones that can do it. So, this is nothing to take lightly. Um, when does developed land ever get converted back into open space? Has that ever happened? It maybe has, but I don't recollect it. And it's not likely to happen. Even though in St. Louis itself, there are properties that have been vacant for decades that could be used, but are just not because somebody owns them and they don't care or whatever. So, it just doesn't happen. things don't revert to a natural state. So what's at stake here is our open space versus the needs of developing something. So who's served by a development? Well, the contractors are we do need housing. I'll I'll go along with that. My wife and I tried to buy a house in St. Louis initially and we went to one of the new ones over there behind Target and they said, "Oh, well, this is 980. That's $9.99." I said, 'Well, where's the affordable ones? And guy, well, we had a couple of them, but they're sold.

You know, that was kind of kind of rude, really, but that's the fact of the matter. In St. Louis, we have lowincome housing. We have high income housing. Any housing put in that place would not operate as a medium income housing area. It would have to be one or the other. So, um, we do need housing. There are other places where it could be found. If that land is developed, it will be covered by asphalt and cement and buildings. You will need more sewer. You will need more water. You will need more traffic control. You will need more service from public agencies of all kinds. No matter what the development is. So I thought, well, if I'm going to come up and speak about this, I looked into the past and I saw in the meetings from this me this meeting here that they had a problem with the clubhouse roof leaking in n in 29 and 2010. They didn't fix it 10 years, 15 years, 16 years. It's not fixed. Fix it. Make this place into something we're proud of.

Thank you. and Tyler is our final speaker.

Good evening, Mayor Stewart, city council, city staff, and members of the community. My name is Tyler Quarry, and I'm a resident and a young professional here in the city of Slow, and I'm speaking today on behalf of the Slow Tenants Union. Uh I grew up as a golfer. uh through my middle school years uh when I joined the uh our our team in North County San Diego as a seventh grader, I barely made it on. There were there was just enough space for me and I honestly don't think I would have made it through if uh if they weren't looking for more people to fill spots. Uh but it was an amazing opportunity. Uh I am going to be speaking a little bit uh differently than what we've heard so far and and let me be clear on the at the outset, we know that St. Louis Bispo is in an affordable housing crisis. Renters are being displaced. Families are leaving our community. Our teachers, healthcare workers, and service workers cannot afford to live here. Meanwhile, this 29 acre public asset requires nearly half a million dollars annually in public subsidies and is not adequately serving the marginalized and historically underrepresented members of our community that are at risk or being actually being displaced. Our proposal is straightforward. Retain public ownership of the land. lease the buildable portions to nonprofit affordable housing developers. Require 100% of the units to be permanently affordable with deed restrictions that ensure long-term affordability and convert the remaining accessible acreage into public parkland. This isn't an eitheror choice between housing and open space. We can and must do both to serve our community and meet our housing goals. The tenants union appreciates the a response we received from our official correspondents on this matter and appreciates any opportunity to explore how this property can better serve our community. We understand there are legal considerations around the deed restrictions at this site that will need to be examined as part of any comprehensive feasibility study. That said, we believe this can be remedied and has been done in similar land use circumstances elsewhere in our country.

We also believe that there is an amanable uh group of people in charge in Sacramento that might be open to discussing this further. Public land like this should continue to serve as a public good. Let me be clear. We're not asking the city to make a decision tonight and we are simply asking you to direct staff to study to study this opportunity further. We come to you sometimes and we say we don't want you to study things to death. This is one time where I'm coming and I'm asking you not to study this to death, but to genuinely and and uh and adequately study this possibility. That analysis will address the many underlying questions that need to be better understood um if this is to move forward, especially around the deed restriction and the utilities that would be necessary for this to work. We're ready. We and we stand to work with the city on this. Let's explore what's possible together. Thank you for your time and thank you for listening.

Thank you. That was the last speaker. That's correct.

All right. So, with that, we're back to the council for deliberations. And I just want to say thank you so much to all the people who came and stayed. Uh, I know this was a long meeting. And, um, I also really appreciate, I know we've said it already. I mean, there were pretty close I think to 200 emails. They kept coming as we've been here today in this meeting. So, I don't even know how how many we have. So this is the engagement we have in our community is people who care, people who who want to share what's working, what's not in their lives in this city and I very much appreciate that. Um I think that there's a couple things that have been said. Um it doesn't really matter if we're for or against, but I think we have to know some of the answers. And I think that's why we keep having Groundhog Day of this um topic coming back to the council over and over again. So if it were up to me, only me, just kidding, uh if it were up to me, um I would love to see that bridge moving forward so we can um you know, have this a more accessible place, uh the golf course. And then I would want to see um the pro shop and the concessionire area finished. um so that we can move forward and have people more people come to the golf course. I think there is a point in time that excuse me that even if we were able or desired to change this golf course into housing or something else in the future, we're a ways out. So, let's have people be able to enjoy what we have right here, right now. And I think that's really important. Um, I think that in the future there may be other discussions back to let's close the loop and have it have some answers. What does it cost to um do the park? Because I'm pretty sure if we want to look that way, there's still lighting we have to worry

about. There's still fencing we have to worry about that community members that live around the golf course do not want to pay for. That's not wasn't in their plan. So, we have to think about what that looks like. um is that something that property managers or property owners now have to deal with or something that the city has to deal with? There's a lot of questions. I won't even go down the long line of questions. But I think that's a conversation that we have to look at in the future. Um not in this financial plan, don't worry. Um this is not in our work plan right now. Um we do have a housing element we plan to look at. We do have land use circulation element we plan to look at. Let's answer it. Is this something that we can even do for housing? If we can't, then let's close that loop and stop talking about it. So, I just feel like we should have some answers and I think that would help us have a better conversation in the future. Obviously, that's a far away future at this point. Like I said, I um not in my time, but I do think it's something that we should be looking at as we look at the land of the city. Um so, that's my two cents. this is an approachable, accessible place for the majority of our community to be. Um, and I I I sorry, but I do differ with our public commenter. I actually believe that because this is one of the least um affordable activities and with first tea and other groups, people that are in marginalized groups can enjoy this. This is something that we offer that not many other cities offer. Um, I cannot tell you the amount of I'm sure you can um the amount of kids that would go across the street from Lagona and they would enjoy the golf and the fries. But anyway, and I think that that that is part of it though. was a it was a it was an enjoyable thing to play golf and to enjoy the food and then the parents would come and then families and friends would come and I think that from what we've seen you've already grown um the attendees the people who come to the

golf course as is whether it's the scramble or um weddings in the future or whatever it looks like we also have other opportunities as we continue to grow. So um that's just my two cents on this session is I think that it's great to understand what we have right now, what our challenges are. Um we are doing not just what we can with our resources but like you are all really stretching and doing even more with what we have right now. So I thank you for that. And I am I know that our community continues to thank you because um while there was many many emails, so many of them were so appreciative of the time they spend at um the golf course. So, thank you very much, Council Member Boswell.

Thank you. Um let's see. First, I uh first I want to uh start by thanking again all the public comment. We had uh I think it's a record for my time on council. uh the number of public comment. Uh I read them all. I couldn't respond to all of them. At one point they were coming in faster than I was responding to them. Um but uh I did want to just take a moment to acknowledge uh all of those comments. Uh there was just lots of really interesting stuff to read. People learning to play golf for the first time. Uh having their first date as a golf date. Um uh opportunities to gather and connect with friends. really describing it as a social space, not just a recreational space. Um, of course, a lot of comment about its value as a as an as a piece of the city's open space. Uh, uh, one person wrote it was quote, "An integral part of my children's upbringing. Uh, people describe it as a gym, a treasure, a jewel." Um, there uh was an incredible diversity of users described and from the emails as well. um all ages. A lot of discussion about the affordability of the course, how folks couldn't afford to play otherwise or play other courses. Um and I like one person described it as the people's golf course. Uh interesting. And uh I do want to thank the Lagunatics tonight as well for um people sometimes ask me, "Aren't council meetings boring?" I'm like, "Nope, they are not." Uh so thank you for making it a little less boring tonight. Um, second, I wanted uh I did my visit actually in the summer. I went to the golf course and did a visit. Staff were fantastic. I'm really impressed with the staff. I I definitely came away going um how are they doing all of this? Uh getting all this done at the course. So, we really do have a super team out there. I was uh I was just really struck by how much pride all of you have in your work and what you do

there at the course. Uh that's always great to see from staff. Um you know this is uh as a big public policy question. The kind of things I'm looking at are this issue around cost and revenue. Um uh we're the course does well in terms of cost recovery relative to other we don't do cost recovery for most of our recreation but we do for some aspects of it and it compares well there. Um, I am a little concerned relative to some of the other comparative data we had about the low user base. Um, we don't have data on how many of our 5,000 unique users are uh residents of the city uh versus non-residents. I think that's uh something we should know because when we are talking about subsidizing recreational activities, I don't have an issue with subsidizing recreational activities for our residents, but it's another matter when we're subsidizing for non-residents. So, I think that's an important part of the question, but it's one we would need more data to better understand. We just don't quite have that yet. Um, and you know, uh, we have to, we are subsidizing the course and that subsidy could go somewhere else. Um, I get a lot of email that we don't have enough pickle ball courts. Um, I'm, you know, we we just went through some difficult challenges about deciding how to prioritize uh, improvements to uh, places like Regetti Park. I know there's a lot of interest. people have bent my ear a little about about a need for a second pool in uh the city, a more kind of recreational fun pool. Um and so, you know, we do we are making a choice when we have a golf course and when we keep a golf course running at a subsidy, we're making a choice to put that money into that versus possibly some other area of recreation.

Um, and so I think we need to acknowledge that uh in terms of uh some direction. So, uh I at this point I I the mayor kind of said it. I mean I I just don't see a realistic path forward with u something other than the golf course. Uh I think at least for the time being the golf course is the is the is the correct use. Um if I if I were asked today to convert it to something else, it would be open space. Uh the housing there seems to be a lot of issues there. And plus, it's my understanding that finding pieces of land is not really the holdup to building more affordable housing in the city. It's really raising the capital for construction, new housing. That's where we need the big dollars, not so much on land. So, um, if if I felt like yes, there were a city and there's like literally nowhere to build any affordable housing anymore, maybe we would need to consider that. Um, so at least for the time being, um, and maybe for some future council to decide differently, um, I think continuing with the course is, uh, is what we should do. Now, with that said, in my visit this summer, um, frankly, again, as as much as we're doing with staff, uh, as much as staff is doing out there, I certainly came away feeling like this is not up to San Louis Bispo standards. Uh, if we're going to have a course, let's do it right. Um, and so obviously the main two things there and I know the things staff wants specific direction on are moving forward with the um with the repair of the pro shop. I think we need to do that as fast as we can move on that. Um and then um and then uh it's getting late. What's the second one?

The bridge. Uh yes, the bridge. I love the bridge too. That's the old bridge. It used to be we've used it for several things in the city. It's our old our utility bridge. Um so, uh moving forward that as well. And then the other thing I'll mention is that we we probably need to be doing some work to get ourselves in a position in the next or the next financial plan uh to really understand what we're going to need to do on the recre on the irrigation system. That is going to be probably a pretty significant capital investment at some point. And if we're going to commit to moving forward with the golf course, we're effectively committing to having to do that soon. Soonish. Um so, uh so I'd ask staff to start, uh working a little more on that to get us, u position in the future. Um I do think uh I I do want probably with the fee study uh if we can try to get some data over the next year on resident versus non-resident I think it is fair and appropriate to charge non-resident non-residents a a bit higher fee uh not a lot higher but a little bit higher. Um uh I do also think we need to uh some of the capital improvements that we will do will help us uh capture what is now missing revenue. We're leaving revenue on the table right now uh because we don't have um our facilities operating at 100%. And then I do think we need to look at developing new sources of revenue for the course as well. We need to expand the user base. Um, and here I don't necessarily mean by trying to get more people to play golf. Uh, we could do that. We should do that. Uh, but we should also be looking at um how we can diversify the use of that site for other recreational opportunities. I like some of the ideas I've seen. Won't say any more than that because I think

that's a should be its own sort of public process ultimately. Um, but I do think we ought to look at uh using that space. that struck me when I was out there that there's I mean in my assessment there's quite a bit of space out there that is underutilized and the other thing that really struck me when you're on the site and I mean you can you know this because you know where it is but when you're there it's just so much more evident that across the street is pretty much every middle school student in the city of St. Elizabeth.

And this is at a a a day and age when we are desperate to try to get kids off their devices outside and active. And right there across the street is a perfect place to potentially do that. So when we begin to explore those other potential uses for that site, I think we should lean heavily into the fact that we could school gets out, cross the street, which is another matter we'll talk about one day perhaps the street and crossing that street. But um uh cross the street and have uh some great fun outdoors with your friends. And um uh and the last two pieces of direction I'll get and then uh given I'll stop talking is uh I I see no path to an enterprise fund for this at least not in the short term. Maybe eventually as we develop new revenue sources. So I wouldn't put any time and energy into trying to figure that out. Um and it was mentioned the possibility of rather than us maintaining the course it be possibly turned over to a vendor. I don't think that's a good idea.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Council Member Shoresman.

Hi. Yes. Thanks for going through and checking all the boxes. Uh, Council Member Boswell, I'm going to try and uh hit a bunch of them, too, but I don't know that I'll do as good a job as you just did. Uh, I'm just going to start by saying I'm not a golfer. I've never been a golfer, but I did live on Lagona Lane for a number of years right up against the the middle school. And speaking of accessibility, although I did not, while I lived there attend the golf course or utilize it very much, my husband did. and he would walk across the street with three or four clubs that he bought at Goodwill and he would hit around a golf with his Goodwill golf clubs. And so speaking of accessibility, like there is really it's it's hard to compete with that. And I I just I always remember that and think about um think about how many kids are getting to use that course. And our data is pretty entertaining and interesting. I had no idea. I expected the crowd that uses the golf course to be largely the over 55 crowd and that is not the case at all. And I think it's largely due to what uh some of the work that you and the team have done to try and bring lots of different types of groups of people out to the facility. I also remember when my son was young and doing the September scramble and uh that is a very memorable event for all involved and so I really appreciate the ways that you have tried to bring uh different types of people and and who knows maybe those folks after they've participated in September scramble will come out there and they'll join the first tea or they'll get some clubs at the Goodwill and go out there and try their hand at golf too. So I I really appreciate that. Um, I think there are we haven't really

talked about, but there are uh there are climate action elements of the golf course. I thought one of the emails that we got from a community member talked about how an acre of golf course turf actually removes 80% as much carbon from the atmosphere as 1 acre of rainforest. So, not only is this just a beautiful park uh and peaceful open space, but it's also helping us meet some of our climate action goals. And I think that's important to remember as well. The other thing about trying to consider turning this park space, and it is it is park space. I think we should treat it like park space. It is mostly uh as council member Boswell mentioned, it's generating more revenue than many of our other park facilities, but we should not assume that it's going to be 100% costneutral. I just that's not my philosophy of what a park should be. I think it's great that we are generating as much revenue as we can while still keeping it affordable for people, but my expectation has not been that it be 100% revenue offset. I know some of my colleagues may agree with that, but this is a park and and if it were if we turned it into an open space park space, it would be almost 0% revenue generating. So, uh it's doing better than that right now. I think the lack of a bridge and clubhouse have greatly impacted the ability to to generate revenue. We've seen it. It's the the course has had a hard a hard couple of years. First it was COVID, then it was the clubhouse, then it was the storms, and it just really hasn't had a chance uh since COVID to really reach its full potential, I think. So, I think we need to give it a little bit more time to see what what it can do in in a in a real environment where it's it's had it's got

all its resources intact. And I do think that people will use the course and use the facilities more often if there are if there's an easy way to get across the creek. And if the if the clubhouse is is in good shape and uh and it's a good place to get a bite to eat. Uh the other thing that I can't help but mention if we are talking about converting space to uh housing, which I definitely agree with everybody who said we have a housing issue in this community and we need more housing. I just don't know that this is the space to do it because we also have ambitious goals around how much park space we want to have and how much open space we want to have and we have said uh that we want to have I think it's 10 acres of park space for every thousand residents. Currently, we have only 206 acres uh when we should have about 40 480 if we were going to meet that goal for our 48,000 residents. So, we're already as they say underparked. So, taking 200 taking 26 acres of park space and turning it into housing will housing will only exacerbate uh the problem that we have trying to meet our open space goals. So, as of right now, not saying, you know, never, but I I don't think that this is the right place. Uh, kind of backing up what Council Member Boswell said about where where we should put housing. I don't think it's here. I also agree with him that probably turning this into an enterprise fund is is not our our best option right now or uh trying to find a vendor to run the facility because I think the prices would go up to the point where it wasn't as accessible as it is right now. So I I would kind of think that that's not a great option right now on the resident

versus non-resident fees. I can definitely see in in many circumstances I would be in favor of trying to have a tailored uh structure for for rates. I know we've talked about that with Cimemer Pool and in some situations at Cshimer we are able to charge um residents or we've talked about maybe the possibility of charging non-resident fees to kind of help preserve the spaces at things like swim lessons for for residents. I also think we need to be careful about over complicating our fee structure because then that can get really difficult for the employees that are trying to administer it. And I also worry about asking people for ID just to play a round of golf. So that feels a little intrusive in some ways. Not saying that I'm close to the idea of it. It's just not it wouldn't be my priority. It would be, you know, ease of administration as well as low fees. And if we can figure out how to maybe generate a little bit of extra revenue in some of the programs like we've talked about with cinchmer pool then then maybe that would be an option but just across the board I would keep it I would keep the rate structure structure simple. Uh and I really like the idea of the lighted turf fields. Um some of the other ideas like u disc golf uh are also good ideas. I would be open to what other suggestions and ideas that the that the uh parks and rec staff have for how we can continue to increase the number of users of that great 26 acre property. Uh and maybe we can get some other ideas from the community as well. Uh that would be lowcost uh easy ways that we can continue to use the space uh while meeting some of our other park needs. So, I think for now I'll leave it there, but I really really appreciate all the work that you put in and you've

been gathering a lot of data and it's it's a beautiful spot. We're lucky to have it. It's maybe not something that most uh municipalities have, but um most municipalities don't have a historic Victorian in the center of their downtown either. And we have some special things in this community and uh that's what is part of what makes us special. So, thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you so much. And thanks to my colleagues for everything they've shared so far. I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. There's a lot to get through. You know, I said earlier, this is an incredible amenity. And uh kudos to the staff who to keep this going. I was just truly impressed by the work that they do out there. And obviously, as we've heard from the community through the correspondents and from public comment tonight, this space means so much to the community. Um, also means a lot to my family. You know, we're out at September Scramble every year. Cross country meets. My daughter's one of those kids over across the street at Lagona Middle School. And of course, uh, golf, right? Um, for parks facilities, it's not about cost recovery for me, but it is about trying to make sure that our parks facilities are serving as much of our community as possible. And right now, it feels like we're in a little bit of a a limbo space. When I first came on council, we were at this really low point with usage on the course and that was a lot of variables, things outside of our control that were contributing to that. Um, and I know that that was when the first discussions of bringing this up and talking about this space started to to emerge and we've seen a real rebound and I think that's really due to all of the hard work that you guys have done out there. So, thank you for that. Well, we are still pretty heavily subsidizing the use of the course. And like I said, it's not about cost recovery, but it does cost the taxpayers, you know, about $1,850 per person who plays around out there. And it's special and unusual for a city of our size to run a golf course and and deal with all that associated infrastructure and the resource expense. So, it's important that we have these conversations in public just so everybody can can weigh in and understand, you know, the choices and the trade-offs that we're making. You know, I kept coming back as I've been thinking about the the golf course question. I feels like it's part of a much bigger conversation that I hear in the community a lot about our parks facilities.

Laguna Golf Course seems in some ways kind of suffer from the same fate as the aquatic center and some of other parks facilities where it sort of is limping along. you know, it's supported by this incredible staff who are doing fantastic work with limited resources, but I hear time and time again from my peers, especially those with kids. You know, the pool's not open enough. The golf course doesn't have the bridge. We're sort of just these facilities, I think, um, Council Member Boswell mentioned, they're just not quite up to St. Louis Abyspo's standards. And, um, as Council Member uh, Shoresman mentioned, were kind of just underparked in a lot of ways, just lacking some of these facilities. And so I spent some time digging into budgets from some peer communities that I really admire that have facilities that I enjoy going to and and different states and um just looking at how they fund their parks and wreck and really found that, you know, we're just funding at a level that's just a lot lower than a lot of other places. So, I was kind of curious, you know, if we were hoping and dreaming for the future and trying to envision, you know, how do we best use the spaces that we have, how do we do that? And I was wondering if there's an appetite maybe in our next budget cycle here to do a formal recreation analysis and really think about not just Laguna Golf Course on its own, but really thinking about how do we look at that blueprint and think about the best use of all of the spaces in the city and kind of be a little bit more ambitious in our future purpose. Now, that doesn't mean that we get rid of golf or anything like that. It just means, you know, if there was a future where we had a rec center or an expanded aquatic center, where does that go in the city and how do we use those spaces? Um, or maybe it's just, you know, better funding the spaces that we have so that they're serving the need now. But, you know, to answer that question, we really need to dig in and maybe do a little bit

more research and get a little more data on that so we can maximize the use of the spaces. Um, in the meantime, I think a lot of you have voiced, you know, there's kind of these long-term hopes and dreams, but what are we doing in the short term? And I hear you loud and clear that this golf course isn't going to get used more unless we really put a little bit of that investment in now. And so, I would I would like to see us get that bridge in place because I think regardless of of use, we need to have a way to get back and forth across the creek there. And um you we've got to repair the building that's already there, get that up and running so that we can better use that facility. As to the question of resident versus non-resident fee study, um I I did agree that uh council member Shoresman kind of mentioned some some issues that might emerge with that. So I think we need to move cautiously. Perhaps it's just for lessons and things like that where it's uh the same kind of model we're using at the aquatic center. I loved the kind of outside the box thinking you guys were doing with lighted turf fields and thinking about how to use all of that additional space. Um, that is something I hear from fellow parents all the time. We need more spaces to get out and play ball sports. So, love the idea of being able to use some of those spaces. As to the housing question, um, I do think it's probably smart to kind of close that loop. I think as you mentioned, would you say yeah, close the loop literally. uh just to evaluate, make sure that we're not missing something with that because it doesn't feel like the ideal property and I want us to be thinking outside the box, but you know, the utility issue, the deed restriction doesn't feel like it's it. And then back to the heart of the matter that we're still under parked, right? So, I think that gets at the all of it, but uh we can come back if there's anything that is outstanding. So, thank you.

Thank you. Uh, Council Member Member Marks.

Thank you. Well, I'm I'm happy to say that uh I really agree with um much of what my colleagues are saying. I think uh first of all though, I want to say that I was really impressed with the outpouring of of public support for the for the uh golf course. Um I think uh I agree with the basic you know basic uh concept that we should continue with the course and um uh definitely although I don't want it to cost $500,000 definitely replace the bridge. So, um, in terms of the pro shop, I believe it was called the clubhouse at one point, and I think the clubhouse myself is a better name, like golf club, first of all, but um, also, come on, we're not talking about pros really at the we're talking about amateurs, right? So, you know, it is a community uh, golf course. And um uh the other thing I want to be sure to say is that I really appreciate the thorough uh analysis and all the information about golf. And I was saying to a colleague, man, I'm so glad I don't have to run a golf course. I'm glad you guys do it, but it's it's a it's it's a lot more complex than I ever ever thought it would be. Um I did want to say that um uh there were some wonderful ideas that came in uh from the emails that we received and one of them uh really struck me and that was um from uh the fellow who started the friends of the slow dog parks. Um um I believe it's a maybe even a nonprofit, but I do I do

think and then there were other people saying why why doesn't the council start a communitydriven uh group of people who are supporters for the golf course? I going no it's not up to the council to do that. It's up to the community to do that. So, I would love to see um uh somehow from all of the support that we've experienced that there's some kind of community organization of residents who really get behind it. And if we um you know, following the model of the slow dog park people, um they wanted a skills course for the dogs, right? So, the reason we have one is that they raise money to do that. And so I think there's opportunities there um for uh you know more community for the community support not to just come out when they feel it might be threatened but also to come out and say how do we improve it? We definitely need to improve it. Um, somebody just tonight said to me um that they if there were a decent coffee shop or restaurant uh connected with a golf course, they'd go there instead of spending over $100 every time they go to the nautical bean. And so I was saying, well, the nautical bean has little branches everywhere throughout the whole county. Perhaps there could be a concession here if you have a decent kitchen, right? If you have a pro shop that also includes a decent kitchen, possibly the nautical bean or another kind of coffee shop of, you know, concessionaire would be interested. Maybe not in running the whole clubhouse or the whole pro shop, but the restaurant I think you could actually would be quite a draw. Um, I I would urge you to see if you can

change your computer system to include resident and non-resident information. It wouldn't have to be each time that someone came to play that they'd have to tell you where they lived. It would be one time because then they'd be in the computer system. We got emails from people saying, "Well, I love I live in Losos or I live in Cambria or I live in Kyukas and I love to um on my way to go shopping at Costco, I love to stop off and and play some golf." And so we're paying I don't mind a subsidy of $18.50 50 cents per person if that's what the figure is if they live in the city because we're talking about our general fund. We're talking about our taxpayers money. And so reinvesting it in our taxpayers. I I think that's fine. One email with somebody. Oh, I'm I live in Wyoming, but my mother lives in St. Louis Abyispo. So I love playing at your golf course. It's so affordable. So anyway, I would like to see the going along with what uh council member Boswell was saying, we need the data before we could contemplate changing to a resident non-resident. So if you could change your computer system so that you could at least record that, then when the rate study comes along in April of 2027, we'd have we'd have some data there. I think that it's great that it's refor affordable, but we do need to consider a rate change perhaps just for the adults, just not for the kids, not for the the first tea and all that. Um,

I wanted to also say that I really like all the ideas for um raising revenue that came from staff but also came from the public like the golf course uh the guil sorry the disc golf course the idea of miniature golf I've often thought if you could get um Phyllis Madonna to to decide it would be fantastic Fantastic. Um, uh, the lighted turf, soccer, having a little more game. Also, we had people saying, "I would like to just go walking on the golf course and and feel welcome, feel that I could just go like take a walk around the golf course instead of feeling, oh, oh, I have to pay and I have to play golf. What if I don't play golf, but I just want to walk, you know, hike around in there?" Um the the idea of the community space um uh is something to consider for the future it sounds like. But I do want to say again going back to the clubhouse, make sure you've got lots of outdoor seating and dining uh possibilities because most of the time our weather's pretty good and uh you can accommodate more people, but also we're still aware of CO and a lot of people just for health reasons want to be outdoors. Um let's see. I just want to go back to the enterprise fund idea. It failed in 2011. I I was the mayor at that time and um it just wasn't working. We had a enterprise fund that was always failing and at a certain point the council just decided well let's just be real. it's not working. So, we're going to But at the same time,

there is this requirement that we maximize um the u cost recovery. It's it's very important. So, anyway, I I uh I'm going to stop right there. I do want to say it's it's wonderful to have the open space there. It's a beloved green space. I was very impressed with the environmental care and analysis that when on some golf courses can be really poisonous and it looks like we're doing a good job at at not poisoning Perfumo Creek as it goes into Laguna Lake. So I'm going to stop right there. So thank you.

Thank you. I agree. I remember asking lots about the um process for the um pesticides and how that would work. So that was because as we saw the different types of um turf every different types of uh level of turf and where the different you know sorry my brain at this point uh algae and different parts that were not looking so great and how do they get rid of that with the pesticides or not and so that was really an interesting process. So thank you. I just want to add real quickly I'm a big fan of carrot versus stick. So um I I also really don't really want to ask people for their IDs. I don't think that's um a fantastic idea, but I do think a fantastic idea can be um locals get a discount and I think that's something that we've seen work well in our community. Buyback local um the buy holiday local, you know, there's there's options and so if we are raising our user fees in the future and maybe that's how kind of how we manage that non-resident aspect but not have to actually get into are you a resident and asking for their ID because I do not want to do that. Um, the other part is, um, I love the idea, vice mayor, around let's continue to get ideas from our community. And, um, council member Marks, I asked the same thing. I said, "Hey, is there a Friends of Lagouna Golf Course?" And I hear there's a couple people that kind of are in that, but uh, we haven't quite gotten to the level of fundraising and and, um, providing, you know, I don't know, golf, uh, like our Moo Marilyn Monroe out there. you some get some really big golf um golf balls in each each hole. No, I don't really want that. But I'm just saying what what is the creativity that people could bring? Sorry, I just it's getting punchy. Um right. So, I think there's just, you know, different ideas and what can we do is is hearing that from our community. Um, and I do want to also come back to um, there was a dear person

in our community who passed away and their children got a memorial um, bench for them since I've been on the council and um, you know, not that that's a huge revenue, but it's it's just another loving touch that people who really care and so I think there's ways ways to incorporate that. Lastly, I hear lighted fields again, and I just can't tell you enough how many emails I've received when our public art has gone out in the middle of the street and has lighting and upsets people's houses. So, I just want you to all think about that as we think about uh light pollution and just be careful of that as we as we continue, not to stop it, but just to think about how it affects the homes. So, with that, Vice Mayor,

yeah, thank you so much for your additional comments. Um before we leave this all behind, I did hear a little bit of an appetite and just wanted to kind of confirm that this is what I heard that you know I heard uh Boswell talking about potential aquatic exploration and I heard some community center and I think we kind of achieve uh answering some of these questions by um eventually undertaking a formal recreation analysis and really not just looking at each of our parks in isolation, which is how we tend to do it, but looking at it in the constellation Uh so we understand if we want to leave this in engulf in perpetuity then where does the community center go and um what part of the community served by that and do we need to have multiple facilities to serve them. So um just wanted to check that appetite again to see if we uh obviously are not directing tonight but making sure that this comes up as we get into the budget cycle that we're have hopes and dreams of really looking at this more carefully. Well, I do think that's also part of the conversation of land use and what happens with that. I know it's more in the housing aspect, but again, as someone mentioned, maybe there's a yes and or a both and. So, you know, lots of options that we don't necessarily know right now. Um, as we look at March 3rd talking about budget reductions, um, possible reductions. I want to be very aware of that and not pretend that we don't know that. And so, dreams and hopes, I want to be very careful of that, too. So, not against it, but um definitely see it as a a future discussion. Uh, Council Member Shoresman.

So, we have our blueprint and I would assume, and maybe I'm looking at staff for a question, that at some point at some interval we would as a community look to update that blueprint.

Yeah, thank you. I can address a couple questions. Uh 2019, we did a citywide park assessment. We that was part of the creation of the blueprint. Um citywide survey workshops. It was a large undertaking with consultants involved with that. Um the parks and recck commission did a mini version of that internally uh about about 18 months maybe two years ago. Um and we have some of that data as well. So I think it can be aligned. There's just there's some work efforts to to do that. doesn't mean our current facilities, our current programs. We can add some um customer surveys, some feedback, some open-ended questions, and kind of organically start collecting these things over the next few months to get ready for next year. That won't be quite as impactful as doing something um as undertaking as it was for the actual creation of the blueprint. Um the blueprints, we're five, six years in. Um, it's a 20-year plan. So, uh, I think we'd kind of be cautioned on when do we go back and try to recreate a new version of this or is there a 10-year kind of where are we pulse check kind of situation. I think that's something that we can discuss as we kind of go into the next two to five year of forecasting for park development, program assessments, all the above there. um and the resident non-resident portion. I think we can incorporate some of that as far as feedback through surveys and and participant interaction to kind of get a base and come back at a later meeting to to talk about those two.

Thanks. Thanks, Director Oiki. So, um, to go back to your question about appetite for a more formal, um, today, uh, a more formal evaluation or analysis, today we are here to talk about the golf course. And I would hesitate to, uh, to commit us at this point in the budget cycle to doing another kind of analysis. And but I would welcome you to bring that up in the financial planning process or if our community wants us to do that as part of the financial planning process, then I would think it would be a good time to to do that. Well said, Council Member Shoresman and Ditto. Council member Boswell.

Yeah, maybe I'll just say Ditto. I did I did look at the blueprint. Um, I mean it does have kind of a future section, but my read of the blueprint is largely focused on sort of what we have and how to continue improve and develop enhance what we have as opposed to maybe what's a couple of moonshots that we want to be thinking about. I mean, you know, just you just as a personal example, I think it would be great if we had a pool, another pool in slow that was kind of like the Kpali recreational pool. Like it's a zero entry. It's more of a fun place. It's not so much a lap pool, but you know, that's like 20 years down the road. I don't know when that is. It's it's if you look at our current CIP, it's down the road. But if you don't start talking about it now, you won't get there in 20 years. It'll be another 20 years off when you finally start talking about it. So, you know, there is some value, I think, to periodically stepping back and thinking big and very long term, even beyond the horizon of our typical CIP, and trying to get people talking and conversations going and ideas moving. So, I I'd be interested in that. I But I I do think the financial plan is probably the right time to do that. Yeah.

Thank you, Council Member Marks. Well, I just want to say that it's almost uh 11 o'clock and I am not going to uh bring a motion to extend this meeting beyond 11:00 because um I think we all stop functioning uh around 11:00 and that's why it's in our policies and procedures. So, I'm hoping we can wrap this up. Uh my question for staff is do you need any more information from us or have we have we given you enough? I don't want to extend our meeting any longer as well, but um I feel like we we're comfortable what we're hearing is the the third item was pursuing our current project list of the pro shop clubhouse and um the bridge and working with our colleagues in public works to kind of get that back on on on track and instigate the the next process for those. Um, and then staff have lots of ideas and creation or um, uh, notes from from your feedback that we can kind of start chipping away and getting our our golf staff and interacting with our community members who use it for uh, additional revenue or just um, additional programming ideas. So, we really appreciate all this discussion. It's super valuable for us tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And um, so I is your answer yes or no on the um, council member or vice mayor's question? Oh. The vice mayor's question was about uh uh starting a new analysis and all of that. I I think it'd make a great PhD program for somebody who's doing who's going to graduate school who wants to do an analysis, but no, right now I feel like it's too much to I think it is I think it is a deficit that that really should be filled. But right now, uh, where we are, I I think it's something to just put on the back burner for now.

And to be clear, it's not an advocation for it to be right now, but thinking about, uh, how do how and when do we put that on the menu so that we can be thinking about what our 10 and 20 year plans are for filling some of the gaps that we consistently hear from the community that we have. I appreciate that. Oh, yeah. I want I just I just want to add that um when we update the parks and recreation element, when does that happen? Every 10 years, right? 20 years.

Sorry, it's a 20-year plan, but our parks rec commission is very adamant and on the same page as almost everybody that we've heard tonight on always moving the ball forward and looking for the future. So, they've they've already had these conversations looking at what's the next 5 years, what's the next 10 years. um now that we've got some significant park projects like the dog park in Regetti and the Avalo Ranch um building out, they're now focused on exactly what you're talking about tonight. So I think this is this aligns with their vision and goals. So um a formal element is not for another 15 years, but a amendment and moving that ball forward as the blueprint is just fluid enough to make that happen. Probably you know the next 5 to 10 years is is a good plan.

Perfect. Thank you. And I think you know this this study session is just one of the many examples of ways we do a little brainstorming quite honestly um here at the dis and then in the future is the financial plans and so I I look forward to what that looks like as we continue. I heard amazing interesting ideas about future plans at Lagona um uh lake and just all sorts of I don't mean the dredging I mean like fancy moonshot ideas. So, uh, look forward to hearing how that continues and we'll go from there. So, we do have one more topic to go through today, which is 6A. Um, and that's to intro introduce an ordinance amending our campaign contribution limitations. Um if uh I I I understand that um council marks does not want to continue but I do want to make sure C city clerk do we need that for the timeline of the introduction the ordinance the second reading and the candidates?

Well it all depends on how many people we have pull their candidate papers and start campaigning. Um, however, there's nothing that drives it right now because if you increase it in a later date, someone could always go back and increase their contribution. So, it doesn't stop that part of it. But I think uh deputy city manager and I can get through at least the presentation in fiveish minutes. Um, because y'all know I don't I love to talk. Um, so can we um c can I pass a motion to just at least go to like 11:10, 11:15?

Well, no, let's wait till 11 and see maybe we can do it by 11. Oh, okay. Uh, deputy city manager and city clerk, would you like to give your presentation?

Uh, city manager Thank you. Uh deputy city manager and I were miming at each other but not very well. Um I think that uh we want to make sure that just for everybody's consideration, there's a number of slides providing a bit of kind of context and history. It's that context and history we want to make sure. So we might speedrun through some of these, but we're happy I'm happy to hand it over from there. Does that make sense? Yes. The timeline of the history of the campaign contribution amounts. Okay, that's that. Yeah. Yeah. I no problem that was the line based yeah based on a couple of emails we've received I think it's very important that we at least share that context thank you

for sure we can get through this quickly and I will save our song that we prepared for um another item so we sorry okay yes it's a deal uh so our re uh we can go to the next slide our recommendation is to approve an ordinance amending the municipal code to change the per person contribution limit from 250 to $500. Uh this next slide has a lot of text, but I will just say um this is from this is from the uh political reform act. There's a section of that political reform act known as the Lavine Act uh that governs uh contributions from applicants who have a project pending before a board or commission. As this council is aware, in 2023 SB1 1439 amended that Lavine Act uh and effectively made that applicable to local elected officials, city council members, county board of supervisors, etc. Uh there's a number number of other provisions dealing with the time frame uh during which someone can accept a contribution from a group that is putting forward a project. uh and it effectively stated that it needs to be uh uh no more than 12 months prior to a project coming forward and cannot accept a donation of more than $250 after that. There's also ways in which uh folks are able to uh cure that if that occurs. Uh that is all the baseline level. There's of course been subsequent leg legislation that modifies that, but we did want to cover that uh so that folks were aware. Next slide is that we have a long history of regulating campaign contributions here in the city of St. Louis going back to 1974 when we had a limit of $100. We have subsequently increased it going to $300 in 2014. Uh and then uh again as the council's aware reduced that down to $250 to be consistent with the current state law. that state law has now subsequently changed. And so we're back before you to

recommend yet another modification to again be consistent with state law.

Sorry, we can't hear you. Keep your microphone on. You didn't like me. Thank you.

Sorry. Um so the state law that went into effect in January 1, 2025, um as deputy city manager indicated increased the um cont contribution amount from $250 to $500. I want to note that there was a minor typo in the ordinance. I left in the word decrease from the last time. It should have said increase. It's shown here on the screen how we would change that. And when you make your motion, if you please include that in your motion. The other changes um were pretty minor but actually important. Um it changed participant to not include a participant whose purposes for the provisions in the of their a person is not a participant for the purpose of these provisions if their financial interest in a decision only results resorts from solely increasing membership or in dues. So if they're a lobbyist that you pay dues to that doesn't apply. It's every other one. Um, it also changed the it defined pending and so uh permits are pending for officers. Those are our elected or appointed officials elected officials. Um, it's when an item is pending when it's placed on an agenda or when you it know it will be placed on an agenda. So it just define that a little more clearer. And then for it stopped it changed the agent and the participating parties contributions being combined. So now it's instead of aggregating to 500, it's two separate 500s.

And again, it extended the cure rate. So you originally only had 14 days to cure. Now you have 30 days. and then it expanded some of the exceptions on contracts. And then with that again, the recommendation is to increase the limit from 250 to 500 and to make that change in the ordinance.

Thank you. That was incredibly fast. We've got four minutes to add any questions, public comment, and deliberations. or we may have to have an additional motion. So, any questions for our um staff? Council member Marks. Uh no, since we don't have any com uh public comment, I thought we just moved to Oh, do you want to comment? No.

All right. Since I understand we have no public comment, right? That's correct. that I would like to move the staff recommendation. I think it makes sense because costs have really gone up in terms of campaigning. Thank you, Council Member Boswell. Second. Thank you, Vice Mayor Francis.

Yeah, just a comment that um I'm actually pretty hesitant to to raise this. Uh, I understand that things have gotten a lot more expensive, but I know that there were some points made from a few commentators that they like the lower limits because it kind of encourages us to interact with more of the public and hold more events and I completely understand that. Um, but I also realize the reality of running a campaign is just incredibly expensive these days. So, I will be inclined to support.

Thank you. And that was actually one of my comments is, you know, when this first was $300, uh, stamps were 48, they are now 78 cents. So just, you know, some basic math of cost of can of of um putting out mailers and that type of thing. Um, printing costs. So even shoes for that matter to knock to knock on all those doors, excuse me, and food costs have for sure gone up as we know. So, as we're going out and having our fun donuts or whatever it may be to get people to come out and talk to us, potluck hosts, it all adds up. So, council member Shoresman,

I think it's also worth mentioning that whether you contribute to a campaign or not or whether a resident contributes to a campaign or not, they still vote. And so uh there is that natural incentive to make sure that you as a candidate are listening to everyone who is willing to talk to you. As well as as you point out uh it costs money to make those mailers and walk pieces that you leave behind when you talk to people and everybody generally gets one of those too. So, um, the whole community in some ways benefits from the money that is spent on the, uh, campaign materials. So, I'll be supporting this as well. It just makes sense as well, just based on the change in the law.

Yeah. Thank you. Otherwise, you'd have to um you make decisions of where you'll mail and you just can't give everyone something because you don't have enough money. But I do think that everyone here um is I'm sure our future candidates um will be a answering any questions from emails or phone calls or visits no matter how much you give or do not give to them. So I just want to really encourage that. Uh it was never a question to me that uh wait how many dollars are you going to give me before I talk to you? That's not how it goes. Uh I talk to people who I agree with, I disagree with. Doesn't matter where we live. And so just want to make sure that's very clear is that's important. So thank you so much for that uh quick moment to be able to say our two cents. And uh haha and um city clerk, will you please give roll call?

Council member Marks, yes. Council member Boswell, yes. Council member Shoresman, yes. Vice Mayor Francis, yes. Mayor Stewart, yes. And the motion passes 5-0. Thank you for the lightning round. And we will not do liazison reports and communications. that will be tabled over to our next regular meeting on February 17th at 5:30 right here at the council chambers at city hall. Thank you so much all. Thank you.