City Council
City Council
lun, 3 de octubre de 2022
Puntos de agenda
Registros de votación
Resumen del debate
Transcripción
RESUMEN DE REUNIÓNGenerado por IA
Concejo Municipal de Petaluma — 3 de octubre de 2022
Esta fue una reunión ordinaria del Concejo Municipal que se extendió pasadas las 11 p.m. (requiriendo una moción para prorrogar la sesión), y abarcó dos proclamaciones, una actualización sobre seguridad vial, varios puntos del calendario de consentimiento, la adjudicación de un importante contrato de construcción vial, nombramientos para la Comisión Juvenil y un extenso taller sobre el elemento de vivienda.
Proclamaciones
Semana de Prevención de Incendios (9 al 15 de octubre de 2022)
La Alcaldesa Barrett leyó una proclamación en reconocimiento de la Semana de Prevención de Incendios bajo el tema 2022 "Fire Won't Wait, Plan Your Escape." La Jefa de Bomberos Jessica Power la aceptó en nombre del Departamento de Bomberos de Petaluma, señalando que el 15 de octubre, bomberos y el Boy Scout Troop 9 instalarían detectores de humo y monóxido de carbono en más de 35 hogares de residentes adultos mayores y de bajos ingresos, financiados por la Petaluma Firefighters Foundation. El nuevo gerente de emergencias de la ciudad también impartiría un seminario de preparación en parques de casas móviles para personas mayores ese mismo día.
Mes de Concientización sobre la Violencia Doméstica (octubre de 2022)
La Alcaldesa Barrett leyó una proclamación reconociendo octubre como el Mes de Concientización sobre la Violencia Doméstica. Madeleine Keegan O'Connell, directora ejecutiva de YWCA Sonoma County, la aceptó de manera virtual, señalando un aumento del 46% en las llamadas a su línea de crisis disponible las 24 horas en 2021 en comparación con 2020, lo cual atribuyó en parte a la pandemia. Invitó al público a su recaudación de fondos anual "Why I Run" en Spring Lake en Santa Rosa.
Actualización sobre el Programa Piloto de Glorieta de Tráfico en Bassett y Upham Streets
El Ingeniero de Tráfico Senior Ken Eisenstadt presentó los resultados de una glorieta de tráfico piloto instalada en abril de 2022 en Bassett y Upham Streets. Antes de la instalación, el 10% de los más de 3,000 vehículos encuestados superaba el límite de velocidad aplicable; después, esa cifra bajó a aproximadamente el 4%. La velocidad máxima registrada antes era de 63 mph; tras la instalación, ningún vehículo superó las 50 mph. Los resultados de la encuesta mostraron que el 76% de los encuestados consideró que la glorieta redujo la velocidad del tráfico, y poco más de la mitad la apoyó, aunque alrededor del 48% opinó que era menos segura — percepción que Eisenstadt atribuyó a la falta de familiaridad con el funcionamiento de las glorietas y no a un peligro real.
Los comentarios públicos fueron mayoritariamente favorables. Nick Edwards, residente de Bassett Street, habló en persona elogiando el impacto de la instalación en la seguridad del vecindario y la calidad de vida, destacando la reducción de exceso de velocidad y conducción imprudente. Allison Stark, también residente del área, indicó que el exhibicionismo, las carreras ilegales y los "donuts" habían cesado por completo desde la instalación. Otro residente expresó preocupación por el exceso de velocidad en Sonoma Mountain Parkway y manifestó interés en una solución similar para esa zona.
El personal recomendó hacer la instalación semipermanente, con un diseño estandarizado que permita una implementación más ágil en otras intersecciones (incluidas dos ubicaciones en el Fifth Street Bike Boulevard). Los miembros del Concejo mostraron entusiasmo; el Concejal Barnacle preguntó si el proceso podría acelerarse para otros vecindarios. Eisenstadt confirmó que se estaba desarrollando un diseño estandarizado. El Concejal McDowell señaló que, incluso con las mejoras, las velocidades máximas seguían rondando las 50 mph y preguntó sobre los procesos de implementación más amplia. No se realizó ninguna votación formal; este fue un punto de presentación.
Calendario de Consentimiento
Los siguientes puntos se aprobaron por unanimidad sin debate (propuesta de Barnacle, secundada por Post-Kása):
Actas revisadas de la reunión del Concejo Municipal/PCDSA del 19 de septiembre de 2022
Resolución que establece la clasificación y el rango salarial para un nuevo puesto de Gerente de Servicios Técnicos de Policía
El Concejal Barnacle retiró brevemente el punto de agenda tentativa para preguntar sobre el próximo taller del Crosstown Connector. El personal confirmó que la reunión ofrecería actualizaciones sobre todos los proyectos de conexión y solicitaría la orientación del Concejo en materia de priorización, pero no implicaría una votación vinculante.
Votación: 7–0, unánime
North McDowell Boulevard Complete Streets Project — Adjudicación de Contrato
Este fue el punto de acción más sustancial de la noche. El Director de Obras Públicas Christopher Bolt y el Ingeniero de Tráfico Senior Ken Eisenstadt, junto con el consultor David Parisi de Parisi Transportation Consulting, presentaron una recomendación para adjudicar un contrato de pavimentación y calles completas por $12 millones a Team Ghilotti, Inc. El proyecto abarca 1.75 millas de North McDowell Boulevard desde Sunrise Parkway hasta Old Redwood Highway, y atiende un pavimento gravemente deteriorado (nunca diseñado para la carga actual de camiones), numerosas brechas en las aceras y problemas significativos de seguridad — se registraron más de 130 colisiones con lesionados entre 2016 y 2020, casi una cada tres días.
Las características principales del diseño incluyen: reducción del ancho de los carriles de tráfico (de 11–13 pies a 10.5 pies), carriles de bicicleta con amortiguador en aproximadamente la mitad del corredor y carriles de bicicleta estándar en la otra mitad, nuevos cruces peatonales incluyendo isletas de refugio "Z-crossing" en mitad de cuadra que permiten a los peatones cruzar una dirección del tráfico a la vez, paradas de autobús mejoradas, sincronización coordinada de semáforos Green Wave para fomentar velocidades más bajas, y pavimento reciclado en el lugar.
El debate sobre la conversión de cinco a tres carriles dominó la discusión. Varios miembros de la comunidad y algunos concejales expresaron su apoyo a reducir la vía de cinco a tres carriles para crear carriles de bicicleta protegidos. El consultor Parisi explicó que el umbral para una conversión de carriles exitosa es típicamente de 750–875 vehículos por hora por dirección con bajo volumen de camiones. North McDowell registra actualmente entre 950 y 1,100 vehículos por hora por dirección con hasta un 9% de vehículos pesados — muy por encima de los umbrales seguros. Parisi señaló que intentar la conversión ahora sería "profesionalmente irresponsable," aunque indicó que la posibilidad podría revisarse en el futuro si los volúmenes de tráfico disminuyen.
La Concejala Fisher expresó su frustración porque el proyecto no cumple con las metas de clima, Vision Zero o transporte activo de la ciudad, calificándolo de "una oportunidad perdida de $12 millones." Ella y otros señalaron que carriles de bicicleta desprotegidos de 5 pies junto a camiones que circulan a 40 mph no atraerán a ciclistas cotidianos. El Concejal Barnacle manifestó frustración por el hecho de que los concejales estuvieran viendo los planos solo en la etapa de adjudicación y no en una fase anterior del proceso de diseño. También planteó serias preocupaciones de seguridad sobre los cruces peatonales en mitad de cuadra sin semáforo a velocidades de 40 mph, citando un impactante video de la cámara del tablero de un autobús. El personal y el consultor reconocieron esto y se comprometieron a explorar el uso de balizas híbridas activas (señales luminosas de cruce en rojo) integradas en el sistema Green Wave.
Varios concejales también plantearon inquietudes sobre el barrido de calles en los carriles de bicicleta, la plantación de árboles que no estaba incluida en el alcance del contrato, y la necesidad de monitorear el tráfico después de la construcción.
Tras una sustancial discusión, el Concejo aprobó el contrato con la instrucción adicional de que el personal regrese en aproximadamente cuatro meses — mientras la construcción esté en curso pero antes de la demarcación final — con opciones de órdenes de cambio que podrían modificar la demarcación de carriles, incluyendo potencialmente protección adicional para los carriles de bicicleta.
Votación: 7–0, unánime (propuesta de King, secundada por Healey)
Nombramientos para la Comisión Juvenil
La Secretaria Municipal Kendall Sawyer facilitó los nombramientos para la Comisión Juvenil. La comisión contaba con 25 puestos juveniles disponibles; solo se recibieron seis solicitudes. La Comisión Juvenil había recomendado previamente a los cuatro solicitantes juveniles originales; dos solicitantes juveniles adicionales aplicaron después de esa reunión, y el personal recomendó nombrar a los seis. Para el único puesto vacante de miembro adulto, dos candidatos compitieron: Jenny Belway y Joy (apellido no claro en la transcripción). El Concejo votó mediante llamada nominal, con seis de los siete miembros seleccionando a Jenny Belway (Post-Kása votó por el otro candidato).
Votación: 7–0 unánime para nombrar a todos los miembros según la lista (propuesta de King, secundada por McDowell); Jenny Belway seleccionada para el puesto adulto número 6 con votación de 6–1.
Borrador del Elemento de Vivienda del 6.° Ciclo — Presentación, Discusión y Retroalimentación
La Planificadora Principal de Políticas Christina Paul y la consultora Veronica Tam de Raimi + Associates presentaron el borrador público del Elemento de Vivienda del 6.° Ciclo, que ha estado abierto a comentarios públicos desde el 29 de agosto. La Asignación Regional de Necesidades de Vivienda de la ciudad (RHNA/Arena) es de 1,910 unidades en distintas categorías de ingresos. El personal informó que la ciudad cuenta con capacidad de zonificación existente suficiente para cumplir con la RHNA sin necesidad de rezonificación, lo que habría desencadenado una revisión ambiental más extensa.
Las actualizaciones clave desde el borrador de julio incluyeron: la eliminación de varios sitios adyacentes a zonas de inundación, la incorporación de Washington Place Shopping Center y una pequeña parcela de propiedad municipal en 307 Petaluma Boulevard South, y supuestos de asequibilidad revisados que desplazaron la combinación de unidades hacia más unidades de bajos ingresos. El borrador actual muestra un margen del 22% para unidades de bajos ingresos (por encima del mínimo requerido) y márgenes más altos para ingresos moderados y superiores al moderado.
La retroalimentación y orientación del Concejo incluyeron:
Eliminar los sitios de oportunidad 08, 09 y 10 (sitios cercanos a áreas ambientalmente sensibles): apoyado por los Concejales Fisher, Healey, King y Barrett.
Eliminar 307 Petaluma Boulevard South (el antiguo sitio del Casa Grande Motel, posible ubicación futura de una estación de bomberos): Los Concejales Healey y King argumentaron que era prematuro designar este sitio para vivienda dado que los estudios sobre las instalaciones de la estación de bomberos aún están en curso. El personal señaló que eliminarlo tiene un impacto menor en el conteo de unidades dado los márgenes existentes.
Agregar East Washington Commons (un proyecto de vivienda asequible adquirido recientemente): El personal reconoció que fue una omisión y será corregida.
Preocupaciones sobre la metodología de asequibilidad: El Concejal Healey cuestionó el supuesto de que los sitios con más de 80 unidades y sin un desarrollador conocido lograrían un 40% de unidades de ingresos muy bajos/bajos, calificándolo potencialmente como "pensamiento mágico." El personal indicó que esto era consistente con la práctica aceptada por HCD.
Centros comerciales: El Concejal Healey señaló que el inquilino principal del Golden Eagle Shopping Center, Grocery Outlet, tiene opciones de arrendamiento plurianuales que comienzan el próximo año, lo que plantea preguntas prácticas sobre la viabilidad. El personal reconoció que el inventario refleja la capacidad de zonificación, no el desarrollo garantizado.
Tarifas de impacto: El Concejal Barnacle solicitó un estudio de caso económico sencillo que analice el costo de oportunidad de las tarifas actuales (pérdida de impuesto predial e ingresos por impuesto a las ventas derivada de retrasos en el desarrollo). El personal acordó intentar este análisis.
AB 2011 (ley estatal recientemente promulgada que agiliza la vivienda en sitios comerciales y minoristas): El personal proporcionó un resumen; el Concejo instruyó al personal a analizar las implicaciones para el elemento de vivienda.
Programas de vivienda justa, cubierta arbórea, compromisos de tránsito, incentivos para unidades más pequeñas y estándares de superficies permeables también fueron planteados por varios concejales y miembros del público.
Entre los comentarios públicos destacados, Eileen Morse instó al Concejo a no descartar los terrenos de la feria como posible sitio de vivienda asequible, y Callum Weeks de Generation Housing elogió el cumplimiento legal del borrador y abogó por tarifas de impacto basadas en metraje cuadrado bajo AB 602.
El personal consolidará todos los comentarios, enviará un borrador al Departamento de Vivienda y Desarrollo Comunitario del estado (HCD) para una revisión de 90 días, y posteriormente regresará a la Comisión de Planificación y al Concejo Municipal para su adopción en febrero o marzo de 2023.
*No se realizó ninguna votación vinculante; este fue un punto de taller.*
Puntos clave
Contrato de North McDowell adjudicado: La ciudad aprobó un contrato de reconstrucción vial por $12 millones con Team Ghilotti. Si bien el proyecto representa mejoras significativas en seguridad, los concejales y residentes expresaron serias preocupaciones de que los carriles de bicicleta desprotegidos junto al tráfico de camiones a alta velocidad no lograrán un cambio modal significativo. El personal regresará con opciones de órdenes de cambio en la demarcación antes de que se apliquen las marcas finales de carriles.
La glorieta de tráfico en Bassett y Upham está funcionando: Las infracciones por exceso de velocidad bajaron del 10% al 4% de los vehículos, y la ciudad avanza hacia una instalación semipermanente con planes de estandarizar el diseño para una implementación más ágil en otras ubicaciones de la ciudad.
El elemento de vivienda avanza hacia la presentación ante HCD: El borrador del Elemento de Vivienda del 6.° Ciclo está encaminado para su adopción en febrero/marzo de 2023. El Concejo ordenó la eliminación de tres sitios ambientalmente sensibles y la parcela del posible sitio de estación de bomberos, y señaló preocupaciones sobre la metodología de asequibilidad y la viabilidad de los centros comerciales.
Comisión Juvenil constituida: Los seis solicitantes juveniles y un miembro adulto (Jenny Belway) fueron nombrados, aunque 19 puestos juveniles permanecen vacantes — la ciudad está realizando activamente un proceso de reclutamiento.
Preocupaciones sobre el proceso planteadas: Tanto el Concejal Barnacle (en relación con el proyecto de North McDowell) como varios comentaristas del elemento de vivienda destacaron que los funcionarios electos y el público están viendo decisiones importantes de diseño solo en el momento de la aprobación final, con escasa oportunidad previa de incidir en los resultados.
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Qué ocurrió en esta reunión
Semana de Prevención de Incendios (9-15 de octubre de 2022)
# Fire Prevention Week (October 9-15, 2022) Summary
Mayor Teresa Barrett proclaimed Fire Prevention Week, during which Fire Marshal Jessica Power and her team—including Team Chief Jeff Shock, Fire Inspector Joe Garcia, and newest inspector Amy Segee—presented on fire prevention and home safety, highlighting that 2,580 people died in US home fires in 2020, with 74% of fire deaths occurring in homes. The presentation stressed the critical importance of working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, knowing alarm sounds, and practicing home fire escape plans twice yearly, while also emphasizing evacuation planning for both structure and wildland fires given Sonoma County's fire experience. To support these efforts, the Petaluma Fire Department announced a partnership with Rebuilding Together Petaluma and Scouts Troop 9 to install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in over 35 homes of senior and low-income residents on October 15th, with the department's non-profit Foundation donating alarms for distribution. Additionally, the city's new emergency manager will conduct an emergency preparedness seminar for residents of senior mobile home parks to further strengthen community preparedness.
Mayor Teresa Barrett proclaimed Fire Prevention Week, during which Fire Marshal Jessica Power and her team—including Team Chief Jeff Shock, Fire Inspector Joe Garcia, and newest inspector Amy Segee—presented on fire prevention and home safety, highlighting that 2,580 people died in US home fires in 2020, with 74% of fire deaths occurring in homes. The presentation stressed the critical importance of working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, knowing alarm sounds, and practicing home fire escape plans twice yearly, while also emphasizing evacuation planning for both structure and wildland fires given Sonoma County's fire experience. To support these efforts, the Petaluma Fire Department announced a partnership with Rebuilding Together Petaluma and Scouts Troop 9 to install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in over 35 homes of senior and low-income residents on October 15th, with the department's non-profit Foundation donating alarms for distribution. Additionally, the city's new emergency manager will conduct an emergency preparedness seminar for residents of senior mobile home parks to further strengthen community preparedness.
Mes de Concientización sobre la Violencia Doméstica (octubre)
The City Council proclaimed October 2022 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, recognizing that domestic violence affects one in four families locally. Madeleine Keegan O'Connell, CEO of YWCA Sonoma County, spoke virtually on behalf of the organization, highlighting that they operate the only 24/7 domestic violence crisis hotline and confidential safe house shelter in Sonoma County. She reported a 46% increase in crisis hotline calls in 2021 compared to 2020 and invited community members to participate in their second annual fun run/walk at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa to raise funds for services supporting domestic violence survivors.
Actualización sobre el Programa Piloto de Glorietas de Tráfico en Bassett y Upham Streets
# Summary: Update on the Pilot Traffic Circle Program at Bassett and Upham Streets
Staff, led by Senior Traffic Engineer Ken Ikes, presented an update on the pilot traffic circle program implemented in April 2022 at Bassett and Upham Streets in response to speeding concerns identified through the Slow Streets initiative, where over 300 of 3,000 surveyed vehicles exceeded the 25 mph speed limit. Data demonstrated the program's effectiveness, with enforceable speed violations decreasing from 10 cases to approximately 4% of surveyed vehicles and maximum speeds reduced from 63 mph to below 50 mph, while 76% of survey respondents reported the circle slows traffic. Community support was mixed regarding perceived safety (just over half approved, 41% did not), with staff attributing concerns to a learning curve about traffic circle operations and committing to improved education and signage. Public commenters, including Bassett Street resident Nick Edwards and Sonoma Mountain Parkway resident Allison Stark, strongly supported the project, noting it eliminated dangerous driving behavior and increased pedestrian and cyclist activity. Staff recommended making the installation semi-permanent with community-led beautification through planters and committed to developing standardized designs to expedite implementation in other neighborhoods, with Council Member Barnacle expressing enthusiasm for citywide expansion.
Staff, led by Senior Traffic Engineer Ken Ikes, presented an update on the pilot traffic circle program implemented in April 2022 at Bassett and Upham Streets in response to speeding concerns identified through the Slow Streets initiative, where over 300 of 3,000 surveyed vehicles exceeded the 25 mph speed limit. Data demonstrated the program's effectiveness, with enforceable speed violations decreasing from 10 cases to approximately 4% of surveyed vehicles and maximum speeds reduced from 63 mph to below 50 mph, while 76% of survey respondents reported the circle slows traffic. Community support was mixed regarding perceived safety (just over half approved, 41% did not), with staff attributing concerns to a learning curve about traffic circle operations and committing to improved education and signage. Public commenters, including Bassett Street resident Nick Edwards and Sonoma Mountain Parkway resident Allison Stark, strongly supported the project, noting it eliminated dangerous driving behavior and increased pedestrian and cyclist activity. Staff recommended making the installation semi-permanent with community-led beautification through planters and committed to developing standardized designs to expedite implementation in other neighborhoods, with Council Member Barnacle expressing enthusiasm for citywide expansion.
Agenda Provisional para las Sesiones Ordinarias del City Council/PCDSA del 10 de octubre de 2022 y el 17 de octubre de 2022
Council Member Barnacle pulled Item 5 (Tentative Agenda) to ask questions about the Crosstown Connector and Coff Field projects. Barnacle sought clarification on what outcome the city was hoping to achieve, noting that during goals and priorities discussions, there was a proposal to split out the Crosstown Connector and move forward with just the Coff Field. Staff clarified that the item would involve updating project status on costs and locations, and obtaining Council direction on prioritization of projects. Barnacle and another Council Member confirmed that while no direct action would be taken on the agenda item itself, the prioritization direction given would guide staff's work and capital improvement budget decisions. No public comment was received on the consent calendar items.
Resolución que Autoriza la Adjudicación del Contrato para el North McDowell Boulevard Complete Streets Project C16102147 a Team Ghilotti, Inc., que Rechaza la Protesta de Licitación de Ghilotti Construction Company, Inc. y que Inicia Conversaciones con Propietarios para Adquirir Servidumbres – TRASLADADO DEL CALENDARIO DE CONSENTIMIENTO A ASUNTOS PARA CONSIDERACIÓN 9/29/2022
# Summary: Resolution Authorizing the Award of Contract for the North McDowell Boulevard Complete Streets Project
Public Works Director Christopher Bolt and consultant David Parisi presented the North McDowell Boulevard Complete Streets Project, a $12 million complete streets initiative addressing over 130 injury collisions since 2016 on this critical arterial corridor experiencing heavy truck and bus traffic and failed pavement conditions. The project, developed through extensive community engagement over 18 months including multiple workshops with 60+ participants, incorporates traffic calming measures (narrower lanes, Green Wave signal technology, mid-block Z-crossings), protective bikeways, sidewalk improvements, enhanced bus facilities, approximately 100 new trees, and recycled materials, while spanning the full corridor from Sunrise Parkway to Old Redwood Highway within the constrained 64-77 foot right-of-way. Traffic analysis showed peak volumes of 1,000-1,200 vehicles per direction (exceeding thresholds for lane conversion) and up to 9% heavy vehicle traffic, leading staff to recommend against a five-to-three lane conversion but to monitor traffic over time for future opportunities. Following Council concerns about pedestrian safety at crosswalks, bike lane adequacy, and striping design decisions, Councilmember Healey proposed an amendment to award the contract as bid while directing staff to study striping modifications and return to Council with potential change orders within four months before final construction work begins. The Council unanimously approved the motion to award the contract to Team Gelati Incorporated with this amendment, with expected construction start later in 2023 and completion anticipated for late summer to fall 2023.
Public Works Director Christopher Bolt and consultant David Parisi presented the North McDowell Boulevard Complete Streets Project, a $12 million complete streets initiative addressing over 130 injury collisions since 2016 on this critical arterial corridor experiencing heavy truck and bus traffic and failed pavement conditions. The project, developed through extensive community engagement over 18 months including multiple workshops with 60+ participants, incorporates traffic calming measures (narrower lanes, Green Wave signal technology, mid-block Z-crossings), protective bikeways, sidewalk improvements, enhanced bus facilities, approximately 100 new trees, and recycled materials, while spanning the full corridor from Sunrise Parkway to Old Redwood Highway within the constrained 64-77 foot right-of-way. Traffic analysis showed peak volumes of 1,000-1,200 vehicles per direction (exceeding thresholds for lane conversion) and up to 9% heavy vehicle traffic, leading staff to recommend against a five-to-three lane conversion but to monitor traffic over time for future opportunities. Following Council concerns about pedestrian safety at crosswalks, bike lane adequacy, and striping design decisions, Councilmember Healey proposed an amendment to award the contract as bid while directing staff to study striping modifications and return to Council with potential change orders within four months before final construction work begins. The Council unanimously approved the motion to award the contract to Team Gelati Incorporated with this amendment, with expected construction start later in 2023 and completion anticipated for late summer to fall 2023.
Puntos de agenda (9)
Procedural (2)
1ProceduralSemana de Prevención de Incendios (9-15 de octubre de 2022)
Qué ocurrió
# Fire Prevention Week (October 9-15, 2022) SummaryMayor Teresa Barrett proclaimed Fire Prevention Week, during which Fire Marshal Jessica Power and her team—including Team Chief Jeff Shock, Fire Inspector Joe Garcia, and newest inspector Amy Segee—presented on fire prevention and home safety, highlighting that 2,580 people died in US home fires in 2020, with 74% of fire deaths occurring in homes. The presentation stressed the critical importance of working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, knowing alarm sounds, and practicing home fire escape plans twice yearly, while also emphasizing evacuation planning for both structure and wildland fires given Sonoma County's fire experience. To support these efforts, the Petaluma Fire Department announced a partnership with Rebuilding Together Petaluma and Scouts Troop 9 to install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in over 35 homes of senior and low-income residents on October 15th, with the department's non-profit Foundation donating alarms for distribution. Additionally, the city's new emergency manager will conduct an emergency preparedness seminar for residents of senior mobile home parks to further strengthen community preparedness.
2ProceduralMes de Concientización sobre la Violencia Doméstica (octubre)
Qué ocurrió
The City Council proclaimed October 2022 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, recognizing that domestic violence affects one in four families locally. Madeleine Keegan O'Connell, CEO of YWCA Sonoma County, spoke virtually on behalf of the organization, highlighting that they operate the only 24/7 domestic violence crisis hotline and confidential safe house shelter in Sonoma County. She reported a 46% increase in crisis hotline calls in 2021 compared to 2020 and invited community members to participate in their second annual fun run/walk at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa to raise funds for services supporting domestic violence survivors.General Business
3General BusinessActualización sobre el Programa Piloto de Glorietas de Tráfico en Bassett y Upham Streets
Qué ocurrió
# Summary: Update on the Pilot Traffic Circle Program at Bassett and Upham StreetsStaff, led by Senior Traffic Engineer Ken Ikes, presented an update on the pilot traffic circle program implemented in April 2022 at Bassett and Upham Streets in response to speeding concerns identified through the Slow Streets initiative, where over 300 of 3,000 surveyed vehicles exceeded the 25 mph speed limit. Data demonstrated the program's effectiveness, with enforceable speed violations decreasing from 10 cases to approximately 4% of surveyed vehicles and maximum speeds reduced from 63 mph to below 50 mph, while 76% of survey respondents reported the circle slows traffic. Community support was mixed regarding perceived safety (just over half approved, 41% did not), with staff attributing concerns to a learning curve about traffic circle operations and committing to improved education and signage. Public commenters, including Bassett Street resident Nick Edwards and Sonoma Mountain Parkway resident Allison Stark, strongly supported the project, noting it eliminated dangerous driving behavior and increased pedestrian and cyclist activity. Staff recommended making the installation semi-permanent with community-led beautification through planters and committed to developing standardized designs to expedite implementation in other neighborhoods, with Council Member Barnacle expressing enthusiasm for citywide expansion.
Consent Calendar
4Consent CalendarActas de la Sesión Ordinaria del City Council/PCDSA del 19 de septiembre de 2022 – REVISADAS 10/3/2022
5Consent CalendarAgenda Provisional para las Sesiones Ordinarias del City Council/PCDSA del 10 de octubre de 2022 y el 17 de octubre de 2022
Qué ocurrió
Council Member Barnacle pulled Item 5 (Tentative Agenda) to ask questions about the Crosstown Connector and Coff Field projects. Barnacle sought clarification on what outcome the city was hoping to achieve, noting that during goals and priorities discussions, there was a proposal to split out the Crosstown Connector and move forward with just the Coff Field. Staff clarified that the item would involve updating project status on costs and locations, and obtaining Council direction on prioritization of projects. Barnacle and another Council Member confirmed that while no direct action would be taken on the agenda item itself, the prioritization direction given would guide staff's work and capital improvement budget decisions. No public comment was received on the consent calendar items.6Consent CalendarResolución que Enmienda el Plan de Clasificación y Compensación mediante el Establecimiento de la Clasificación y Rango Salarial de Police Technical Services Manager y que Autoriza la Asignación de un Puesto de Police Technical Services Manager
Public Hearing
7Public HearingResolución que Autoriza la Adjudicación del Contrato para el North McDowell Boulevard Complete Streets Project C16102147 a Team Ghilotti, Inc., que Rechaza la Protesta de Licitación de Ghilotti Construction Company, Inc. y que Inicia Conversaciones con Propietarios para Adquirir Servidumbres – TRASLADADO DEL CALENDARIO DE CONSENTIMIENTO A ASUNTOS PARA CONSIDERACIÓN 9/29/2022
Qué ocurrió
# Summary: Resolution Authorizing the Award of Contract for the North McDowell Boulevard Complete Streets ProjectPublic Works Director Christopher Bolt and consultant David Parisi presented the North McDowell Boulevard Complete Streets Project, a $12 million complete streets initiative addressing over 130 injury collisions since 2016 on this critical arterial corridor experiencing heavy truck and bus traffic and failed pavement conditions. The project, developed through extensive community engagement over 18 months including multiple workshops with 60+ participants, incorporates traffic calming measures (narrower lanes, Green Wave signal technology, mid-block Z-crossings), protective bikeways, sidewalk improvements, enhanced bus facilities, approximately 100 new trees, and recycled materials, while spanning the full corridor from Sunrise Parkway to Old Redwood Highway within the constrained 64-77 foot right-of-way. Traffic analysis showed peak volumes of 1,000-1,200 vehicles per direction (exceeding thresholds for lane conversion) and up to 9% heavy vehicle traffic, leading staff to recommend against a five-to-three lane conversion but to monitor traffic over time for future opportunities. Following Council concerns about pedestrian safety at crosswalks, bike lane adequacy, and striping design decisions, Councilmember Healey proposed an amendment to award the contract as bid while directing staff to study striping modifications and return to Council with potential change orders within four months before final construction work begins. The Council unanimously approved the motion to award the contract to Team Gelati Incorporated with this amendment, with expected construction start later in 2023 and completion anticipated for late summer to fall 2023.
8Public HearingResolución que Nombra Miembros para la Youth Commission
Qué ocurrió
City Clerk Kendall Sawyer presented the Resolution Appointing Members to the Youth Commission, reporting six youth applications (four initially recommended by the youth commission on September 13th, plus two additional applicants) and two adult applications for vacant positions. Sawyer recommended appointing all six youth applicants and noted that 25 youth seats remain available to encourage continued community applications. With no Council questions or public opposition, the six youth members were appointed by consensus without formal voting. A roll call vote was then conducted for the single remaining adult seat between Jenny Belway and Joy, with Jenny Belway receiving unanimous support from all council members (Barrett, Barnacle, Fisher, Ely, King, and McDonnell). The motion to appoint all members passed unanimously.9Public HearingPresentación, Discusión y Retroalimentación sobre el Borrador del Elemento de Vivienda del 6.º Ciclo
Qué ocurrió
# Summary: Presentation, Discussion, and Feedback on Draft 6th Cycle Housing ElementPrincipal Policy Planner Christina Paul presented the public draft of the 6th Cycle Housing Element, which has been available for review since August 29th and must comply with state statutory requirements for certification by the Department of Housing and Community Development. The element demonstrates adequate zoning capacity to meet the city's Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) through infill development, city-owned parcels, shopping center conversions, and accessory dwelling units, with a revised 45% low-income buffer based on more conservative capacity calculations shifting from higher-income to lower-income unit assumptions. Six key housing goals include providing housing choices, removing development constraints, facilitating affordable housing through inclusionary housing and linkage fees, preserving existing housing, addressing special needs populations, and promoting equal access, supported by new programs such as shopping center parking lot conversion initiatives and fair housing protections. Council members raised concerns about affordable housing financing mechanisms, the realism of achieving 70% affordability on market-rate sites with only 15% inclusionary requirements, environmental sensitivities and VMT impacts of certain parcels, and whether site owners have genuine development interest. Staff received over 200 individual comments from the Planning Commission, general plan advisory committee, community members, and five letters from community organizations, with feedback ranging from support for housing to concerns about traffic, water supply, floodplains, and environmental impacts, all of which will be considered as the element is refined before submission to HCD.
Votos adicionales registrados en actas
Approve consent calendar
aye 7
Barnacleaye
Barrettaye
Fisheraye
Healeyaye
Kingaye
McDonnellaye
Postaye
Award contract for North McDowell Boulevard Complete Streets Project to Team Gelati, rejecting bid protest
aye 7
Barnacleaye
Barrettaye
Fisheraye
Healeyaye
Kingaye
McDonnellaye
Postaye
Appoint members to the Youth Commission
aye 7
Barnacleaye
Barrettaye
Fisheraye
Healeyaye
Kingaye
McDonnellaye
Postaye
Extend meeting past 11:00 PM
aye 1
voice voteaye
Transcripción literal disponible
156 segmentos de transcripción indexados
gracias well the mayor for the record the live stream just came on we are Live on YouTube oh thank you very much so now we're covered on all our platforms so we had a little bit of technical difficulty which accounts for our late start so with that thank you um to Maria and uh we will ask the clerk to do the Roll Call foreign [Music] uh sorry for the interruption is the simultaneous interpretation enabled hey Maria this is Aaron I'm hi Aaron we have our virtual modulator working on it I'm gonna check in with her right now thank you okay so should we take another little break until you hear back from the monitor um yes uh I can do it in 10 seconds okay we're gonna uh just suspend this for a few minutes if people can be patient with us and Maria you should be able to translate now [Music] thank you for staying with us on this okay so uh we will all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance foreign [Music] now we'll have a planned moment of silence thank you so um agenda changes and deletions to the current agenda I do not believe there are any plan for this agenda we have two proclamations uh this uh for this evening and uh the first one is on fire prevention week and that will be received by our fire marshal Jessica power her Entourage and it will be presented by Brian barnacle so a fire prevention week October 9th through 15th 2022.
whereas fire is a serious public safety's concern both locally and nationally and homes are where people are at the greatest risk of experiencing a fire and whereas the city of Petaluma California and Petaluma First Responders are committed to ensuring the Safety and Security of all those living in and visiting our city through prevention and education and whereas homes Home Fires killed 2 580 people in the United States in 2020 according to the National Fire Protection Association and fire departments in the United States responded to 356 500 Home Fires and whereas 74 percent of all fire deaths occurred in the home and whereas smoke alarms sense smoke will before you can and will alert you even when asleep to Danger when you may have as little as two minutes to escape safely and whereas this evening Petaluma residents need to make sure that their smoke and carbon monoxide alarms need the needs of all their family members including those with sensory or physical disabilities and whereas Petaluma residents can find more information about smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and how to test them at the city's website in the fire department section on home safety and whereas Petaluma residents who have also planned and practiced a home Fire Escape Plan are more prepared and will therefore be more likely to survive a fire and whereas the 2022 fire prevention theme fire Won't Wait Plan your Escape effectively serves to remind us it is important to have an escape plan for you and your
family now therefore be a result that I Teresa Barrett mayor of Petaluma do hereby Proclaim October 9th through 15th 2022 as Fire Prevention Week throughout this community I urge all the people of Petaluma to ensure that they have working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms know the sounds of the alarms develop a home fire safe Escape Plan and all members of the household all members of the household and practice it twice a year and to participate in many public safety activities and efforts of fire and Emergency Services during fire prevention month 2022.
[Music] Council okay Madam mayor council and our community thank you for recognizing fire prevention week and the dedicated Petaluma fire department staff that work in the fire prevention Bureau and our operations Crews with me tonight is our team Chief Jeff shock virtually our Administrative Assistant Allison Cressy fire inspector Joe Garcia and our newest edition fire inspect inspector Amy segee and our station one firefighters each day we work to ensure our community is safe and when we do our job successfully you don't hear about it in the news this year's theme fire Won't Wait Plan your Escape Works to educate you and your family on the need to have an Escape Plan unfortunately as we've learned so intensely here in Sonoma County having an escape plan doesn't just mean from our homes in case of a structure fire but for Wildland fires as well we employ everyone to know when to evacuate and have a meeting place for you and your family that everyone knows if you and your family need help with this please reach out to our outstanding staff and to showcase the importance of evacuation planning the Petaluma fire department has once again teamed up with Rebuilding Together Petaluma and the Scouts troop 9 of Petaluma on Saturday October 15th as part of the Rebuilding Together Petaluma work day Petaluma firefighters including our fire chief along with Scouts from Troop 9 we'll be installing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in over 35 homes of senior and low income residents the
Petaluma firefighters non-profit Foundation has purchased the alarms and have donated them to this project additionally that same day the city's new emergency manager will be conducting an emergency preparedness seminar for residents of several senior mobile home parks in Petaluma thanks for your support and again thank you for taking an active role in our family and communities preparedness because if it's predictable it's preventable thank you does anyone else from your team want to speak nope okay well thank you all for everything you do in keeping Petaluma a safe place to live thank you [Music] our second Proclamation this evening is on domestic violence awareness and um is Madeleine Keegan O'Connell here to accept it too okay um I'm going to read it anyhow and um then we will send it to her um excuse me she's actually in um in the zoom room hopefully yes oh good okay so yes so I will read it and then Madeline can come uh speak virtually and then we will send it to her via the mail so thank you for that domestic violence Awareness Month October 2022 whereas Petaluma recognizes that domestic violence affects one in four families in our local community and that the crime of domestic violence violates an individual's privacy dignity and Security based on the systemic use of emotional physical sexual psychological and economic control or abuse and whereas the YWCA Sonoma County is a community-based not-for-profit organization affiliated with the YWCA USA YWCA Sonoma County
embodies its mission to empower educate and advocate for domestic violence survivors and their children who find they are unsafe in their own homes YWCA Sonoma County operates our communities only confidential safe housing House Shelter the only 24 7 domestic violence crisis hotline the only therapeutic preschool serving one of our most vulnerable populations children aged three to five years old in short and long-term trauma and Ford therapy sessions services and whereas domestic violence is a serious crime that affects people of all Races Sexes ages sexual orientation and income levels stopping the cycle of vicious criminal assaults in the home requires a coordinated effort between the criminal justice system and the agencies that provide services to victims primarily reliant on the strong resolve and immense courage of survivors and whereas only an informed Community effort will put an end to the cycle of domestic violence members of our community are encouraged to participate in ywca's scheduled events and programs to support their mission to eliminate domestic violence in Sonoma County through awareness education and empowerment now therefore be it resolved that I Teresa mayor of Petaluma along with the members of the Petaluma city council to hereby Proclaim October 2022 in Petaluma as domestic violence Awareness Month and now we will hear from um Madeleine Keegan O'Connell from the YWCA Sonoma County good evening honorable mayor and members of the city council this is
Madeleine Keegan O'Connell joining you virtually I am the Chief Executive Officer of YWCA and on behalf of our board of directors staff volunteers and especially the clients of YWCA Sonoma County thank you so much for honoring October as domestic violence awareness month with your Proclamation as it was stated we were established in 1975 we operate the only 24 7 DB crisis hotline and it is still the most direct path to support local families in need our confidential Safe House Shelter is also the only one in Sonoma County we provide that for families seeking Refuge from harm an astounding 46 percent increase in calls to our crisis hotline occurred in 2021 as compared to 2020.
and equally of note and often attributed to the pandemic is the increased complexity and severity of the Situation's callers are sharing with our team safety planning and strategies to ensure relief are at the Forefront of every call we receive and YWCA is vital and singular role in our community has never been more evident locally in Petaluma and thanks to the generosity of Hansel Auto Center you'll see our messaging on the digital board during the month of October and I'm here to remind everyone that we've been supporting local families since 1975 and we will continue to be here for Sonoma County families in need as long as you need us to be coming up in just three weeks we'll be having our second annual why I run fun run walk and we're asking members of the community to register to raise funds for YWCA and enjoy a beautiful afternoon with us at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa information on that can be found on our website very easy to remember it's YWCA SC that stands for Sonoma County DOT o r g thank you so much for your kind attention to my comments this evening and thank you and and the YWCA of Sonoma County for all that you are doing in our community with that we're going on to a presentation and this is the update on the pilot traffic circle program at Bassam Bassett and Upham streets and Ken Ike's dad's senior traffic engineer will make this report thank you very much mayor Barrett council members members of the public I'd like to give you an update on the up at Upham and
Bassett traffic circle post quick build update next sorry Ken to confirm would you like me to share the presentation please okay somebody in the chamber can just let me know when you're able to see that we're seeing it now okay thank you thank you so we started this this project back in April and um why did we do it we're going to talk about that what we did what we heard and then what's next on it next so why we did it at Appleman Basset well one of the things that came out of slow streets was just the wealth of of need that I heard from you know residents on causing traffic in their streets and this this was sort of uh this neighborhood group had some really had good cohesiveness and the data supported it so we looked at um the traffic data for specific to Bassett and we found that this 25 mile an hour zone out of the 3000 cars surveyed it had over 300 were traveling at speeds that were at in an above an enforceable limit so that's five miles an hour above 25 so 30 miles an hour and plus and we had a top speed clocked at 63 miles an hour this location is is next near near Parks it's got um near schools and and it's just I think if we want to be able to enjoy our community more we ought to be able to to walk to our parks and kids ought to be able to walk to their schools so next please so why would we have a traffic circle we looked at other tools um chicanes speed humps um but this a four-way stock you know but this traffic circle is a very elegant tool to have in the
public right-of-way it needs the right setting it needs the right geometry it needs to me you know the manual for uniform traffic control devices mutcd but it's been showing the Federal Highway Administration identifies it as a tool for calming traffic as a safety measure the institute for transportation of Engineers uses it as a traffic calming measure and then the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety has this in their status report and recommends it lower emissions stopping a car is kind of an archaic way of managing traffic it's needed there's definitely situations where the the you go through a warrant process a four-way stop as a needed safety measure but there's other locations and I believe this is one of them where a traffic circle is is the proper measure it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30 percent that's a proven steady next please so we looked at the community feedback we had a we had a good neighborhood group um which in in my line of work is a gold mine anytime you can get cohesiveness in the public realm you've really latched on to something um and so we looked at you know putting in a a quick build pilot program and just see how it goes let's try it so we did that back in April next slide please um we put it in we got the website up and going we got the survey going we engaged uh Public Safety and I really appreciate the help from the police department from fire to bring a truck out we sketched out the the circle we put in cones we brought out
um the truck that would likely you know could respond in this area let's try it out before we start putting any paint on the ground um as I mentioned we created the survey that went up onto the web page we shared this information Community update social media posts and we also had signs in the area so we collected Data before and we collected data after next please so what did we hear well um the concerns about the higher speeds in the area that seemed to diminish is what we heard there seemed to be General support for the traffic calming improvements in the neighborhood and then there was a need for improved walkability and safety and I'll just say change is difficult and doing it in the public right-of-way is doubly difficult and none of us like change but I think that you know as we move to you know a more walkable bikeable Transit friendly future that I I feel like we've charted for the city this is a tool that we could use next please so perceptions what did we actually get it get out of the survey well drivers perceptions of safety we had roughly half so it was more safe half said it was less safe than there was a smattering of unsure but austrian's perception of safety roughly the same percentages next please and then we looked at does it Blow traffic this is key this is the key part of it because yes it seems to 76 reported that it does 16 said no and again there's a handful of unsure and then the the survey respondent uh opinions a little over half had yes they like
it and you know 41 said no in a smattering of the unsure so next please so some of the comments that um we received and looked at and and the action towards addressing those public comments was concern over how to navigate it's kind of a it's it's we've got you know we have we have roundabouts we have we don't have any of the real small traffic circles like this but they're out there there's definitely other communities that that have these uh implemented and so we feel like through signage education and communication um we can go ahead and and get people understanding what what we're doing here with this um suggestions uh to change they included the approach traffic control so we would remove right now it's a two-way stop we would remove the stop signs it would be a full yield condition add signs and again provide education and then in the long term suggestions to improve the intersection add curb ramps and and crosswalks so um all of that are are a means to move move this project forward next please so the data that we collected and this is sort of the key this is the the the the the the the the the kernel the the key part of this whole project here is we found that before out of the 3000 plus cars surveyed in 2019 10 had enforceable speed violations the survey that we did this last month showed that that had come down to roughly four percent the stock the top feed previously 63 we didn't have any top speed above above 50.
then the typical rate of speed or what's also referred to as the 85th percentile speed which is the speed 85 percent of the cars go at or below it stayed the same so again we're calming traffic we're taking away the outliers next please so what's next um you know the this we would make this a semi-permanent condition here and we'd explore options for putting in planters and and beautifying the area Santa Rosa has done a really good job with that and if you look to the on the uh the right picture there that's that's from Santa Rosa and um they've done they've done a really good job and in beautifying it and addressing there's various utility pertinences that are in the in the center of that roadway that have to be designed for but that's not a that's not a big big issue so um we feel like we can head towards that but my recommendation is to do a semi-permanent we can get that the the design is underway we can get that installed in the first part of 2023 early on so um with that um I appreciate your your consideration of this project and uh what we're moving ahead with thank you thank you very much and I'll just see if there's any comment from anybody on the council council member Fisher yeah my comment would be um that we should landscape it um we have enough Paving in our city already and the question I guess of staff is that if we did landscaping would the city install that and maintain it or would we ask the community to do that um my my feeling on something like this and
I've I've talked to it in an informal way with the neighborhood group is that it it would be a community um LED item unfortunately with the 48 plus parks that the city has I think it's it's a bit of a challenge to maintain those and um I I think that it's something the community needs to participate in the city would definitely you know Foster that partnership and work in Partnership but I think that you know the ongoing work of it um I think there's a good sort of community um you know benefit there and and ownership of that beautification [Music] council member King thank you um I had a question on the polling I noted that roughly 48 of the people that you asked uh in the follow-up felt that it was less safe um did you get any um feedback on why those folks reached that opinion I think it's um it's just a the general lack of the understanding of how these work and um it's you know the the US has tried this back in the the 20s uh they're called rotaries and the the um one of the problems that they had early on is that you had to to give way to the person on the right and that does not work in this condition because if you're traveling in the circle you've got to give way to the person on the right that's entering it and that's not that's not how we want you know want this the operational consideration of how this would work so I think there's just a little bit of a learning curve on it but um you know we've got full mutcd design requirements of this it's been installed in
numerous places and there's there's like I say a communication and education process that needs to to to move forward on it thank you councilmember McDowell thank you um uh it looks like it's effective at taking the speeds down a little bit off the Peaks but 50 is still high and and um you know all around town everyone's number one concern in their neighborhood is speeding on their street um so my question is did this demonstration give us a process where we can expedite this in the next case do we know how to shorten the time from Neighbors complaining and advocating for this to actually getting a demonstration not a finished work but a demonstration out here in place for should someone contact you or how will how will other neighborhoods uh achieve this yeah so certainly you can contact me um we uh on the on the Fifth Street Bike Boulevard this is this is we're looking at implementing that on the Fifth Street Bike Boulevard we have a couple of intersections there where we think it would be appropriate the geometrics fit it so what I'm moving forward with is basically a standardized design that would go into the city's standard booklet and for you know given given diagonal widths of intersections that we could go ahead and have a set um you know implementation of a traffic circle and and you know we don't have to go start all the way back again at a pilot and I definitely recognize the need of you know moving these things forward in a more efficient um and and consistent
fashion so great thanks thank you very much for your presentation Ken uh you might want to stick around because I think there's someone who wanted to speak during general public comment on this item um in case there's a question there that you could answer quickly so with that we will move on to General Public comment and I'll ask the city clerk if she's received any comments prior to tonight's meeting Madam mayor yes we received one general public comment prior to the meeting which is posted online with the agenda packet thank you very much and I have four people who want to speak in general public comment so I'd like to ask the moderator to see if there's anyone in the zoom who would like to speak on general to general public comment thank you madam mayor foreign second clock for general public comment members of the public attending in person should bring their speaker cards to the clerk's desk if they have not already done so members of the public attending online or by phone should raise their virtual hand or press star nine if participating by phone and Madame mayor we have two members of the public brother Andres virtually so that's a total of six um so three minutes so it's three minutes per person for general public comment and we'll start with the people who are in the chamber in fracca will be the first person to speak followed by Darren rakerson and if you can wait till that goes on or does she have to turn that on okay no on the over here do I hold it the whole
time no you don't hold it you just push it good evening Madame man Council city council thank you for um allowing me to speak I came here to speak about this meeting on Sonoma Mountain Parkway and it is turning into a Raceway I live right on Sonoma Mountain Parkway in Cato Farms I have informed that Petaluma Police several times on that and I actually like that um idea of the um circle on Rainier I'm right by where the Rainier traffic light intersection is and and Sonoma Mountain Parkway and I think that could be fabulous idea over there too I'm really concerned we've had several accidents there and the speeding and the roughing of the loud pipes is super scary when you live there so I'm pretty sure I'm speaking for many other people and not just myself thank you so much Darren Rick [Music] thank you mayor and council members just had three items for this evening the first of which was I would again love to see an evolution of the tree committee turn into an open space and Natural Resources Commission I'm not sure if that kind of evolution will be something agendized as city council or if that would come forth from a tree committee resolution or letter but I would love to see some how to get that on the table I also wanted to follow up on a permeable surface standard I know one of the agendized items this evening is going to be about complete streets and as we think about redoing infrastructure and of course private developments you know when the Planning Commission asks
Developers for more permeable more surface it would be terrific to have some kind of reference material available in the form of a permeable surface standard with all the appropriate consultations of scientists and City staff and then finally I wanted to see if there was any updates on a connector Workshop I believe believe that was slated here in October there's been a lot of information going around about the Rainier connector I know as of August 5th during the community estat meeting it was reported that the Caufield connector was 20 completed in its planning stage and I think this would definitely be a great time to have that kind of public Workshop or discussion about the the status of connectors here in Petaluma thank you thank you Catherine burkowski my name is Catherine Broski I live at the Lewis Villa Mobile Home Park at 1821 Lake Mohave the argyle Witnesses right with me uh has pictures showing that the police department is not doing a professional job they're allowing people to be Speedy in that moment Park parking on the far Lanes at pear on Perry Lane and park it illegally and blocking the far Lanes inside the mobile home park a cup story spawn and also too the pillow Transit is not doing a professional job they're stopping their buses earlier than they're supposed than they're supposed to and also too you try walking 1.5 miles back home where the buses are stopped like one o'clock in the afternoon you try it this is a pillow Transit they're not doing
professional job and yesterday there was the 33 is supposed to run to 5 PM it stopped before 9 A.M that's that is not a professional job at all and also too you're you're allowing these people to be the police the program doesn't care if it costs people's lives when they're blocking the far Lanes illegally and a cup starting to respond and I got pictures and I sent the pictures to my attorney he has pictures three biggest parked on the far Lane all day all afternoon all night all weekends and holidays and he has pictures of proof the police department here is not doing a professional job at all and then on top of that I want to mention too you gave these uh people that do the presentation more than 20 minutes to speak when you get the public three minutes only that's not right thank you Nick Edwards thank you can you hear me good uh so I'm here um my name is Nick Edwards I live on Bassett Street two blocks up from the new installation I'm here to just speak in vigorous uh defense and support of this new installation it's been a terrific uh change in addition to our neighborhood and a big thank you to Ken and Ken's team for listening to our community and the community feedback that he referred to and actually taking it and taking it firsthand and responding to it and making changes to our community it's uh it makes me proud to be a Petaluma and live here that Ken and his team and the council is so responsive to what's going on um you know we've lived here for you know several
years and I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old now and uh we we absolutely love it beautiful neighborhood full of kids full of life we constantly are traveling across the street to this place to City Hall Park to hang out where the soccer games are and the other activities but it can be there's a small subset of traffic that was dangerously Reckless it's only a small subset it's 10 of cars for those that 10 is is dangerous it's Reckless and it made our community feel unsafe and made it feel less neighborhoodly and uh that's where it was and now with the installation we've seen a noticeable and major positive change for the for the better is it perfect no absolutely not to some of the points before some traffic is still slightly too high in some some places but it's a major move in the right direction that we are like in vigorous uh supportive and I hope that the council not only approves the second stage of this project uh uses this as a template for uh for the rest of the city to help make our neighborhood more neighborhoodly more walkable safer for kids safer for families um safer for bikes safer for all sorts of Transportation while at the same time not inconveniencing cars that can still easily go through much less inconvenient can say a four-way stop sign um with a question before around whether or not the neighborhood would maintain this particular uh you know permanent installation I think it's a absolute yes from this this neighborhood group I can say even if it
was me and my family doing it personally which wouldn't be the case we would absolutely do that uh with support the city so we appreciate the council support and we hope this becomes a permanent installation and we hope this can be a model for the rest of the city uh to make Petaluma a safer and better place thank you thank you very much much and with that we will close general public comment and move to council comment about America yes oh I'm sorry I'm sorry I forgot the virtual people yes that's the second time I'm sorry about that we'll be fine thank you um the first speaker that we have join us virtually is Paul G followed by Allison Stark Paul and Allah you speak you gotta mute yourself and begin good evening council members we are real people speaking virtually and I want to share tonight with comments from two very uh accomplished gentlemen Dr David E Martin from prosecutenow.io and Mr James rogusky from prevent genocide2030.org first David Martin's executive summary for litigation of pandemic crimes this is a brief summary of the felonious actions of a criminal organization and its flagrant attempt to extort and obtain control over the global population it is sought to do so by creating patented bioweapons marketed as novel verizes and immunizations the facts detailed in this summary are part of the public record and are identified herein as primary source material the purpose is to dissolve the protective anonymity of the parties involved expose who they are in
detail the specific crimes they've committed for commercial gain and political power we intend to prosecute these participants for those crimes to obtain Justice and to achieve monetary relief for the millions who have been injured and have died at their hands this incalculable Injustice is the result of the criminal malfeasance of the individuals and organizations who forced the implementation of their experiment in a syringe upon the world we stand for protect and defend Humanity you are brothers and sisters fellow citizens of the Earth the forensic path and recorded documentary history detailed in this summary has never been about public health rather it was and has always been an organized crime racket to coerce The public's adoption of a novel technology that has never been shown to be safe nor effective under the definitions of the FDA the Federal Trade commission's deceptive Medical Practice standard or under any other statutory criteria it is long past time to hold these criminals accountable for the following crimes domestic and international terrorism deceptive medical practices reckless endangerment and homicide racketeering and antitrust collusion next James roguski spoke to the World Health Organization on September 28 2022 in a video address the first step to address the future pandemics on an international basis would be to acknowledge the ongoing attempted genocide of the human population that is happening right now under the guise of the response to the
covid-19 pandemic as directed by the World Health Organization the experimental and toxic gene therapy injections that have been masquerading as covid-19 vaccines are causing a Slaughter of proportions unlike anything the world has seen the who it's 95 194 memorizations and nearly 400 relevant stakeholders are either blind to this catastrophe or they're complicit and it's cover-up the first step to dealing with this genocide is for police agencies around the world to immediately seize the assets records factories and stockpiles of all the corporations organizations and government agencies that are involved we do not need a pandemic treaty we do not need amendments to the international Health regulations we need to rid the world of those who profit from pandemics we need arrests trials and Punishment of the criminals involved in this this time your time has expired the next speaker that we have is Allison Stark Allison I'll now allow you to speak you can mute yourself and begin thank you so much for that first of all I would like to commend Ken istat for his extreme professionalism through dealing with not only our neighborhoods but also the many professionals that have assisted from the fire department to the police department and onwards we have been so impressed with his hard work and with him helping to make our neighborhood safer I live two houses away from the installation and I can say unilaterally that it has made a huge difference in our neighborhood feeling safe and
many other points as well which they've already covered but one specifically that I would like to call out is that we were having a high amount of exhibitionism going on Donuts drag racing you name it that has stopped this is a huge problem in many neighborhood communities and this traffic circle has completely eliminated that from happening I'd also like to point out that there have been more kids walking and biking up to the high school as well as skateboarding and using the park as well this was not the case before even before covid-19 facet did not feel straight safe for many of these people and I on more than one occasion had you personally escort children across the city the street as they were fearful of Crossing on their own because of those unsafe cards I'd like to also mention that one thing that this study could not take into account was the number of stop signs uh the number of times the stock sign at Baker was completely disregarded because of the high speeds on Bassett I personally witnessed many people going well over 60 miles an hour as noted on this traffic study and by the time they would get to the baker's stop sign they wouldn't see it and they would continue on towards Fair we are so incredibly lucky that this traffic circle has also added an additional amount of awareness to our streets to our stop signs for our children for our pets and for the people that would like to be able to use the park at City Hall and access Helen Putnam on bicycles with that
being said I've also seen more bikes on Bassett Street specifically mountain bikers making their way up to Helen Putnam and more I we cannot thank you enough Ken I would just like to say that please please please continue to roll this out in Petaluma and any obstacle city council that you are able to remove in the future You're simply going to be improving all of our quality of lives and our neighborhood values thanks so much that was the last hand raised during the time thank you for that okay um with that we will close General Public Council comment and I'll start with councilwoman Fisher thank you very much um three things to report on last week I had a funding for climate ad hoc meeting the regional climate protection authority where we talked about the steering committee structure for the funding measure that we're going out for next year and the role of environmental justice in that um today I had a meeting with the future Transit adult group of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority where we talked about um the phase that we're in the integration of the transit providers there are three Transit providers there was a study done and we're integrating those providers and so we're going out for the next phase is a um of funding to see where those routes overlap and what we can do to make the user experience more seamless and then I learned in that meeting today that Wednesday we're offering free Transit throughout the county in a response to Clean Air Day which I
didn't know about um so not getting a little place so everyone know that on Wednesday we have free Transit throughout the county um and I just want to comment on our new agenda packet and how that's rolling out and just how much I appreciate the ease of use of that agenda packet it's really been fabulous thank you thank you very much council member barnacle thank you madam mayor um I didn't speak during the presentation because um I wanted to hear from the people in the audience that were experiencing it but um that's exactly what I want to hear with quick builds and that's why the squeaky wheel should get the grease because when the ski could get wheel gets the Grease We Make happy happy residents and then the happy residents make other neighborhoods jealous and they want to come and when we try and force things on people we face opposition and I'll say that the biggest barrier to changing our community to be more pedestrian friendly is public opposition and public concern of change so when we have neighbors like that that have organized we absolutely should be responding to them because that's exactly what we want um hearing that my Wonder is uh if we put traffic circles at Baker and at post would we stop seeing speeds get up to 50 miles an hour because having I lived at the corner of Baker Basset was actually there when the first petition was going through and people blow that all the time all the time and stop signs are fun for uh for you know they're a good sign but they
don't actually stop people who want to um who want to blow through you don't do that with a traffic circle um and I'd love to see that grow um I want to see neighborhoods that are organizing and that are asking for these things get um faster service um and so I'm really excited to hear that you're going to make a tick here Ken um say that he's going to try and standardize the design so that we can do this more um yeah so my one liaison appointment was from Parks and Rec we had two um two items uh one was the deck that's going to be hopefully going in in Putnam Plaza over top of the grass to make that more of like a flexible pedestrian-oriented space um and it's gonna it's being put together with a ten thousand dollar Grant I believe from creative Sonoma um and uh with volunteer support from Rebuilding Together it's just awesome to see the the community coming together I know um Cindy Gilliland who is putting that um really the Visionary behind it has been working on it for a couple of years so it's awesome to see it moving forward the second one was reliefs um tree planting plans for um for coming up here in the next couple months it's 300 trees at six Parks so about 50 trees give or take um at Glenbrook Bond UKC Sunrise Sports Complex in Southgate so I'm really excited to see that moving forward and it just um I love getting the good news from relief so thank you thank you council member Healey um thank you just uh briefly um the council did receive an email that I asked the
clerk to circulate um regarding next steps on Potter Valley um that's likely to move very slowly as most things do in the water world and I will keep you apprised as to what happens thank you thank you vice mayor post the case thank you madam mayor I had a meeting of the Continuum of Care Group where we had an update from our strategic planning consultant which is home base regarding Uh current current schedule to have this consultant work done by December and at the same time our our local subcommittee our our Continuum of Care subcommittee on strategic planning is meeting with Andrew Henning who's working for the county now as well on to come up with a overall Continuum of Care strategic plan which uh is is satisfactory and in line with the individual strategic plans of the different jurisdictions including Petaluma thank you that's all thank you councilmember McDonnell thank you the Planning Commission did not meet between our last meeting and now the let's see The Pedestrian and bicycle advisory committee was intended to but they had to reschedule a meeting on October 5th so if everyone was if someone felt they missed it it's this week um the there's a couple highlights there one of them is uh that smart has bid the next piece of their bike path their mop that comes into Petaluma extending from pay rent to Lakeville and we're anxious to see them start work on that and hopefully add in that last 500 feet that'll get us into Brewsters and Water Street uh in in addition to
that they're planning to open up the under the freeway piece the contract for the freeway is ahead of schedule and hopefully they will have a bike path ribbon cutting independent of all that freeway where the bike path deserves its own ribbon cutting and um that I had the opportunity to attend the neighborhood Gathering out on Rainier for all our uh active streets near and I think several other Council people did too it was a ice cream social but it gave feedback but one of the nice things to recognize from the neighborhood is that they proposed Alternatives that met City goals Concepts rather than just asking the city to go away so I think that kind of collaboration is another effort that will make good ground on regarding active Transportation improvements and then lastly and differently I received notice from blink charging Network that they're charging network is going to be down for the weekend October 7th uh and it's it's maintenance its overall change system but you know several of our chargers here in town are blink Network and so they will work if you have a blink car but they will not work if you have any other aggregate electronic charging cards just thought I'd bring that up for people to know tonight thank you thank you putting the public service and your announcements um council member King thank you um the youth commission did not meet since our last meeting pending the appointment of the youth Commissioners which is on tonight's agenda and Sonoma clean power
hasn't met since but we are meeting Thursday for the first time live it'll be a hybrid meeting and it's also the first time uh we'll be meeting in the brand new headquarters up in Santa Rosa so I'll be reporting back on what that looks like I did have a question for council member Barnacle on the tree planting you mentioned it was on at a sports complex is that Community Sports field over the new the new complex yeah I believe so okay thank you and I I will also make comment on the presentation I you know in reading through it I was very surprised that people you know there was a 50 roughly 50 50 less safe more safe it strikes me that um can uh eisenstadt hit it probably on the head as that changes uh sometimes um difficult to absorb and I think that uh uh it's hard to believe that that that traffic circle is um making anything less safe in that area I think if if anything it's making it substantially safer so I look forward to seeing the completion of that project sometime in the future thank you thank you and I would just like to announce the last uh Mayors and council member meetings for Sonoma County uh and this really only pertains to the Petaluma city council members will be on October 13th that it will be a virtual meeting and uh we they need to be sure we have a quorum because we are trying to change the operating rules uh going forward for the uh for the future so I hope that council members will be able to attend that meeting so with that I will ask our city manager
for her comments thank you mayor uh good evening we're happy to announce that the dredging of our turning Basin began this morning at 7 00 a.m and it is scheduled to go through October 18th and the impacts will include the D Street bridge will be closed to traffic on weekdays and will reopen on the weekends um and the closure um begins 7 A.M on Monday through uh 7 A.M or yeah 7 A.M on Friday all traffic is routed to East Washington or to Highway 101 and we're looking forward to installing new turning Basin docks once the stretching is done with that won't occur until 2023.
and also wanted to let Mr recusa know that your timing is pretty impeccable we we have our Crosstown connector scheduled next week at 6 pm thank you very much for that okay and so now we are going to move on to the consent calendar and uh council member Barnacle wanted to pull item five yeah I wanted to pull the tentative agenda item or at least ask a few questions about it um so when we did our goals and priorities I was proposing that we split out the crosstown connectors and just move forward with the coff field what is the outcome of this like what is the like what are we hoping to get out of this I guess because it's not clear from the tentative agenda and and I know we talked about this the goals and priorities but I'll I'll um I'll I'll repeat that we talked about uh updating all of the status on cost and um where the where each of the proposed projects are and to get Council Direction on prioritization got you um so there's no action involved in it we can't have any action nothing to do or not do something anything like that well the prioritization will provide action on behalf of staff and what we work on and puts in the capital Improvement budget and okay yeah um thanks if I can jump onto that I think that it will allow us an opportunity to give direction to staff toward what action we're looking for great that's helpful thank you thank you um any other comments okay I will ask our clerk if she's received any public comment on the consent calendar items Madame mayor
no comments received on the consent calendar thank you I do not have any public comment on any of the consent calendar items I will ask the moderator to see if there's anybody in the virtual audience who would like to speak to this thank you madam mayor at this point if there's anyone joining us um virtually I would like to speak on the consent Calendar please raise your virtual hand or press star 9.
Madame mayor we do not have any hands raised thank you so we will have a close public comment on the consent calendar item I'll bring it back to the council for a motion account but I'll move the consent calendar thank you vice mayor the second dimension so we have a motion by uh Barnacles second by post okay can we get a roll call vote from the clerk Barrett yes Barnacle yes Fisher yes Ely yes King yes McDonnell yes okay yes motion passes unanimously thank you so with that we're on to public hearings and matters for consideration and this is item number seven resolution authorizing the award of contract for the North McDowell Boulevard complete streets project c16102 147 to team gelati Incorporated rejecting gelati Construction Company incorporate its bid protest and to commence discussion with property owners acquire easements and this was moved to the consent calendar and we will hear from our Public Works director Christopher Bolt very much Madam mayor and council members it's a pleasure tonight to present to you a recommendation for Award of this Construction contract for North McDowell Boulevard as we know this is a critical and compelling project in our community the failed pavement is very problematic and we all know that North McDowell has some pretty heavy and significant traffic volumes the nature of the traffic is also interesting in the sense that we have very heavy truck and bus traffic because of the Commerce in that area and being a main arterial in our
community so that presented some huge challenges for us so the design has been very complex there have been many constraints we've had to consider and we've done some deep thinking and Analysis over more than two years uh nearly three years we've been working on this project so it's uh it's it's been a very challenging project for us so it has some key elements like limited right away we definitely want to make safety improvements on the project and we're trying to balance accommodating pedestrians and improving all active transportation components and so forth on the project as well as improving Transit access One Last Thing Before We Begin is that our public input process has been very important to us and it's been ongoing for some time as you'll see in the presentation we had a workshop back in January we received some great input and we culminated uh with after the bids um a another informational meeting just last week which was very helpful to us and people can still provide input To Us by going to the project website which we'll highlight in the close of the presentation so with no further Ado I'll turn it over to our senior traffic engineer can I extend thank you very much Christopher mayor Barrett council members in public to be able to talk to you about North McDowell because I've definitely been living this project over the last two years so um uh next slide please so a little bit a little bit about you know the the this agenda tonight we're going to give project
overview and what we've done with regard to listening and to the public and inputting that information and we're doing it now as we go through the the contract award process the progress that we've made since our January workshop and then we just recently had another Community Workshop talk a little bit about final design we have David Parisi here for that next steps and then q a next slide please so with regard to the uh project scope and the goals the next slide please safety is is the number one element in working in the public right-of-way it's um so important the the picture on the right there is from the local Road Safety plan lrsp that came out and it's a heat map of the injury collisions so since 2016 to 2020 they've had over 130 injury collisions that's significant the pavement structure it was never really had the full design for traffic loading and particularly the the truck loading that we have here now and it's failed and the residents at Petaluma Estates they hear the trucks they feel them so we want to make that pavement structure improve it so that you don't have that and that we can go look into the future and then when we're done improving the pavement structure what can we put on the surface with the the markings and the signage and the paint to improve it what can we do for pedestrians what what can we do for cyclists and how can we help Transit Riders so looking at active Transportation there was there's a numerous sidewalk gaps and I've seen people come
out of Petaluma States um in their electric wheelchair trying rolling down the gutter pan of North McDowell down to South Point of seeing people get off at the transit stop by the U.S Postal Service and walk in the roadway to get to the health clinic so um the transit facilities we can definitely make improvements here and we're coordinating with the transit facility to improve the bus stops um increase their size and then provide for safe pedestrian Crossing reducing congestion while slowing traffic there's there's really innovative ways this whole Corridor is going to be looked at for that work and David is going to be talking to that and facilitating the Commerce this this is an arterial in the city that has significant truck traffic it serves the businesses uh that provide us with services that provide you know the the Petaluma economy um with you know the needed needed revenue and the needed employment we want to make sure we find ways to facilitate that and then the action we take towards climate the climate goals what can we do in the project uh to facilitate that uh talked a little bit about you know signalization and then also the type of reconstruction that we're doing that's recycling all the material in place with that I'd like to introduce David Parisi who's a um a very gifted traffic engineer and works with a a good team of planners and and Traffic Engineers in the Bay Area and has done a number of innovative projects around the Bay Area so with that David thank
you uh thank you Ken and good evening mayor City Council Members as kid mentioned my name is David Parisi I'm a civil engineer and a traffic engineer I'm a principal with Parisi Transportation Consulting we're North Bay marine-based firm that's been in existence for over 20 years we also have a Berkeley Office and it's really a pleasure to work with your city staff and with just the community on this project and to present this project tonight and uh there are a lot of goals and I think we're fulfilling many of them if not all of them with this project next slide please Jen what I want to talk about or to start out with is really some of the Outreach that's occurred and um those are all the Outreach is summarize in the next slide it includes um a number of events that have occurred over the last year and a half and Beyond as Christopher mentioned these include a couple meetings with your bpac including one which was a uh multi-hour page Turner of the of all the plans uh going in depth of that there's been a couple uh Citywide Community workshops uh both of these were notified in English and Spanish and in the artist newspaper neighborhood workshops at Petaluma Estates uh tree committee presentation ongoing input that number 60 plus is over 70 now that have signed up for information we continually have been receiving General comments from the public and suggestions and great ideas and then last Wednesday we culminated in a another Community information session about the
project and and continued to receive some great input that we're responding to and incorporated into the project next slide please um as I mentioned a couple well-attended Community workshops one nine months ago with almost 60 participants and at that Workshop we really wanted to dive deep about what is working what's more importantly not working along North McDowell and get feedback on ideas and possibilities uh just last week we continued with a workshop with the public many of the same participants were at that meeting and we discussed the project and is currently defined and and some additional opportunities as I mentioned before all these these have been well advertised and they've both been posted with recordings the project website and as well as the project designs have been posted to the project website so people have been able to take a look at the plans including the striping plans which are probably the easiest to interpret by the community next slide please so at the first meeting and um again nine months ago and ever since we've heard a lot uh from various users uh including people who drive along the corridor um biggest concern has been oh my gosh the pavement is uh deteriorated improving that payment is is a big priority obviously there's a lot of trucks on this street and sometimes there's up to nine percent heavy Vehicles creating problems for that pavement to help them degrade the pavement but also um you know making it not quite so safe because of how
close they can be to other traffic and some of the wider lanes and the speeds that they're traveling uh we certainly heard about the support for uh traffic calming and a lot of those things are integrated into this project and the need to improve signing and markings on the quarter actually next slide shows some check marks on these items that we're able to accommodate with the project and then the yellow I'm sorry the orange check mark uh about reducing North McDowell from five to three lanes we'll talk more about that in some of the issues that we see would arise uh if such a configuration was um taken on at this time next slide please foreign a lot from cyclists along the quarter I'm just going to jump right to the next slide that also shows a bunch of check marks and what you'll see here [Music] um is yes cycling along uh this 40 mile an hour Street feels unsafe and unpleasant there's discontinuous bike Lanes there's narrow bike Lanes there's is support for water bike Lanes which would be accommodated as part of the project and those bikers will be able to connect to a larger bike Network there is support for multi-use path which is going to be looked at as an ancillary project and certainly improving the conditions that the railroad crossing is imperative and city will be working with smart to make sure that happens obviously there's been support for separated bike Lanes or we would call protective bike Lanes um there's some possibility in certain section sections for
that but continuously throughout the uh entire quarter that will be very challenging and I'm going to talk more about that momentarily as well next slide please uh pedestrians uh we know there's lots of pedestrians to walk along and across the quarter and the next slide we'll show you a bunch of check marks of things we we're able to accommodate here by pushing uh traffic further away from the sidewalks um and make people feel more comfortable um and have to uh take in less less noise and air pollution obviously there's a lot of sidewalk gaps that are going to be filled as part of the project as I mentioned before we are looking at that smart Crossing and what more could be done working with smart at that point um crosswalks across the street uh particularly where there's big gaps where there's no crosswalks we've provided we've determined there's some opportunities for median islands that use a very Innovative treatment which I'll talk about in a moment and of course fixing tripping hazards across along the existing existing crosswalks along the sidewalk is very important and will be taken care of as part of the project and then finally transit public transit and other users here's some you know thought bubbles that we've heard from folks and if you hit the next slide there Jen as part of the project bus shelters will be improved planting more canopies will be undertaken as a supplemental project obviously we've spent a lot of time designing the project to really encourage
the shift to healthy Transportation modes as much as practical with better design encouraging active transportation and of course improvements will be made as I mentioned to support that Smart Station okay next slide as I mentioned we're still listening last Wednesday we had a well-attended community Workshop where we presented the plans that were going out to bid and we got some additional feedback that we think is really important to hear um and they're listed right here these five elements and I'll go through each of these real quick first with Street lighting and certainly the city's top priority is to address any outages that are occurring on the corridor and maintenance issues and to explore the possibility of a pedestrian level Lighting on segments or along the entire corridor I've already mentioned the smart track crossing particularly for the pedestino bicycle connections across those tracks that come across at quite an angle left turns out from the post office we're evaluating a potential time of day left turn restrictions to see when um when left turns it could be allowed or what times would make a lot of sense when there may be the most safe left turning turns coming out of Petaluma Estates we're also looking into additional ways to effectively address this issue by providing additional signing striping and other cues and then finally the project home key Transit service adjustments so project home key is just North of old red uh we're working with Transit staff
to explore uh the potential for service changes that could address uh some additional Transit service enhancements next slide please we got um quite a bit of feedback about looking at a potential conversion of the roadway the roadway North McDowell is generally five lanes for the one and three quarter mile segment and um we got a lot of feedback about well why don't we look at taking out one traffic lane in each Direction and do what's called a five to three lane conversion and by doing so there could potentially be the room to provide uh separated or protected bike Lanes it's a little bit of background on a five to three lane conversions and um my firm we do we do a lot of these five to three or four to three lane conversions and we've been very successful we do know that the conversions are often acceptable when you have about 15 up to about 20 000 average daily cars a day when you get above that level they can become very challenging there's just a lot of traffic but actually more important is not the daily traffic numbers but what you're seeing during the peak hours and the maximum road diets can typically a I should say Lane conversions with three lanes can accommodate is about 750 to 875 cars per hour per Direction so that's the maximum thresholds that we uh have seen have experienced in the research shows also typically you want to see light truck volumes because each truck can behave as if there are two three or four vehicles so that really adds a lot to the operation
operations Along on arterial such a Turf McDowell and also you can see successful uh Lane conversions when you have a low left turn volumes particularly at the intersections because intersections often really Rule and kind of dictate what you can do on streets so some facts about North McDowell today um the one to three quarter mile segment uh in the question tonight is between it carries between 20 and 25 000 uh cars a day depending on where on the section uh we're looking we have seen from uh traffic counts that were taken uh pre-covered traffic volumes of a thousand to twelve hundred vehicles per hour per Direction along the streets these volumes are well above the maximum thresholds that we are uh you know that that research shows and the you know successful roadway transitions can accommodate and maybe just as important there's very heavy vehicles that use North McDowell at different times of the day up to nine percent of the vehicles um can be heavy uh Vehicles including semi-trailers and we also know that there are several intersections that carry very high left turn volumes for instance Corona or old red and these are these can be problematic when we're trying to do a five to three lane conversion next slide please we did some modeling uh with traffic operations models that we run in our shop and you can see just a some photo simulations to the right here the top shows what we'd expect southbound approaching uh Corona North McDowell with five Lanes in the bottom
larger photo if there was a three-lane segment and these are again based on current traffic levels today and we would expect if there was a conversion under today's volumes that substantial traffic congestion would result and in turn we'd probably see a lot of driver frustration uh traffic diversion on streets uh such as Maria cut through traffic occurring as well and there's a possibility that there'd be some increased safety issues on other streets as well and with backups and queuing occurring such as shown on this graphic here um and we believe there'd be the potential for impact impacts emergency responsiveness along the North McDowell corridor um as I mentioned before I love doing uh these roadway conversions uh we're constantly working on complete Street projects where we're doing this to create active transportation systems for for all users uh particularly I love doing these when they make sense but to me it would be professionally irresponsible to take one on on North McDowell with the type traffic volumes and left Turners and truck numbers that we're seeing today and it could create some liabilities for the city of Petaluma so our recommendation is to monitor traffic conditions and volumes over time consider future opportunities for converting segments of North North McDowell or along the street entirely at some point in time after all the project is a Paving project mostly and uh you know it wouldn't take a lot over time to make some some modifications if they
make sense down the line and in the meantime what we are proposing are some high visibility bikeways and some additional treatments can be considered which I'll get to and a roadway that we can successfully through design and operation slow vehicular speeds next slide please the project is recommending narrower traffic lanes that are out there today which can vary the lanes today very anywhere between 12 I mean sorry 11 and 13 feet we are recommending generally about 10 and a half foot Lanes which will allow us to provide some protective bikeways in some areas in other areas it's class two bike Lanes we are also um going to redo the signal timing there is going to be new signal interconnect under the streak connecting all the signals they can talk better to each other and this will allow us to implement what's called Green Wave coordinated traffic signals so that we can influence travel speeds through signal coordination to try to encourage a specific speed in each Direction along the street um and there's the speeds that we're going to be aiming for will be lower than what the speed limits are today we're also designing we've also designed this project to pedestrian Crossings in mid-block locations using what are called staggered Z Crossings so pedestrian crosses one stream of traffic at a time goes to the center Island as shown in the bottom photo here turns walks in the direction of traffic so they're facing traffic protected by the median Island they can lock eyes with an
oncoming car push a button at the rrfb rectangular rapid Flash and then cross the other stream of traffic so it creates about a five times increase in opportunities for crossing the street and um provides a much safer processing over time additional trees can create a canopy which can occur slower speeds and we're certainly I definitely recommend designating this roadway when it's time has what's called a safety corridor to lower the travel speed by another five miles an hour over what we would see in what's called an engineering and traffic survey and you'll be able to do this in the next year or two um so it's something that should be considered next slide please so the corners of one and the three-quarters mile um it does vary in width in some places by retaining five Lanes we can provide what's called a buffered bike lane and that's shown in the upper right here um so about half of the half the quarter can provide buffered bike Lanes the other half class two with a six inch wide stripe separating bikes from cars and trucks um taking that one step further by providing some types of Ballers showing the bottom photo here these are called Green k71 posts is the the jargon but they can provide a physical barrier along the corridor um as I mentioned it the width along much of the street does make a challenging to implement separated bike bikeways we have integrated as part of the plan a lot of really Innovative bicycle treatments with green treatments the buffer bike lanes and
um really uh really identifying really as well as possible the conflict areas and we would recommend um you know considerate consideration of the k-71 posts along half of the half the quarter so that's something that could be discussed tonight next slide please right so since the January Workshop um next slide I'm just going to go right into the bigger version of the same image as I mentioned before Chief survey has been performed the initial design was actually completed last March has put out the bid in May um as uh it's been discussed in staff report heard some issues with that but now we're ready to award the project and that's the discussion uh topic for tonight next slide foreign a little bit further into some of the final design considerations and um let's jump right to the next slide there Jen excellent Ken mentioned many of the goals for the project and they do include incorporating active transportation and safety enhancements so we're looking again at sidewalk Gap closures noon enhanced and high visibility crosswalks bike lane enhancements including buffer bike Lanes I showed you a fun little image of a Green Wave implementation but this is serious this is something we can do with the technology that's being incorporated as part of the project in the new single timing considerations Transit accents enhancements will be provided and of course bavender pretty much which is the bulk of the project uh will bring the cost of project around 12 million dollars next slide
just to kind of give a snapshot of some some of the treatments in different areas I'm going to share with you some existing conditions and then propose conditions at two locations One near Ross Street and then um later near the smart Crossing so next slide please so this is what McDowell looks like today today you can see the uh patches in the pavement and the faded faded uh pavement striping the lack of uh crosswalks across the street in fact the lack of sidewalk on the South Side as well the next image shows you um what the project will look like when it's finished and I'll start at the very top right and kind of go counterclockwise here so as I mentioned before the project will include narrower traffic Lanes which will definitely improve safety by slowing traffic down uh conflict warning striping where there are bike Lanes at the new crosswalks yield markings to really reduce the potential for what I call multiple threats uh get for people to stop further back this image on the very left is showing the Refuge island with a staggered mid-block Crossing again forcing folks to across one stream of traffic at a time face traffic and then cross the other side great safety enhancement for pedestrians on the south side of the street you can see the sidewalk Gap closure project here the sidewalks will be designed in compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act so those are just some of the enhancements as part of this show image next slide shows a cross section so you're
looking down the street and this really shows the new um Lane widths that are proposed as I mentioned before language today vary between about 11 and 13 feet typically Center left turn lanes are supposed to be 13 feet wide so we've shaved that down to 11 feet to try to find some extra space particularly for the bicycle facility and then drive Lanes from 11 to 12 foot typicals to a 10 and a half feet Lanes which are really needed because of the buses and the trucks out of this Corridor we wouldn't feel comfortable going lower than that next slide please and here are some images of some of the treatments I was just describing next slide excellent so now we're going to go a little further to the South near the smart Crossing this is where the roadway is just slightly different um than the previous location next slide and here you can see many of the same elements before you got some of the old pavement markings and Bots dots out here again lack of uh cross scenes and and high visibility treatments um but this is the area where it's a little bit wider we actually have a few more feet along North McDowell here next slide so we're able to do many of the same things that I showed you on the other segment plus there's enough room to provide buffers between the Bikeway and the traffic Lanes as shown both in the Northbound and southbound directions a couple other things I wanted to highlight here would be again new curb ramps sidewalk fixes again in compliance with Ada and some of the
conflict sounds uh morning markets excellent thank you next slide um and here is that cross-section of various only slightly from the previous one and that we have about four more feed so we're able to provide um some buffered some buffers between the traffic lane and the Bikeway next slide please again there's a blurry photo sorry about that on the left of a buffered bicycle lane in this case it doesn't show uh those k71 posts that I mentioned could be a potential consideration next slide the project was designed to achieve the city's climate goals as I mentioned previously it will implement the Green Wave technology to reduce vehicle idling queuing delays and thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions uh approximately 100 new trees will be planted as part of a supplemental project over time we hope that those get big enough to provide a nice nice canopy the existing pavement materials will be recycled and reincorporated into new Railway base and the technology today is very impressive that allows you allows this to be done it's been fun to work on these types of projects low carbon concrete approvable Pavements uh are being looked at to be implemented in some the uh some locations existing curves and sidewalks will be reused where they where they possibly can in other locations where they don't meet Ada and they need to be grounded uh out they will be um fixed and of course LED lighting will be implemented as part of the project next slide please excellent um with that I'm
going to turn it back to Ken we'll talk about some of the next steps to the project thank you very much David um so one of the things I should have mentioned at the beginning is when I've I've got um um we started this project uh back in in late uh 2021 and started Gathering all the different information and getting ready to go into the public realm and listening to you know the concerns talking to the utility companies there's a lot of different variables that have gone into the project that we've had to find ways of mitigating and and including into the design so next slide please so that that planning started as I said you know 2021 2022 um we've got shallow Utilities in places that needed a special structural section we looked at ways of putting that pavement structural section in there we've got right-of-way issues where easements needed need to be acquired and that's one of the elements here of this Council resolution before the council that so we can move forward with acquiring those access easements um we've got actual um wits um the the curved curve is 64 to 77.
um we're trying to fit everything within that and then we have the budget and the budget is has been modified um but we're doing as much as we can with you know the bare minimum money that we have here and trying to get all the different you know elements in there whether it's active Transportation Transit um vehicular traffic truck traffic in there so right now we're we're poised to go into construction um you know with with approval of the council and uh we would hope to to get started you know at the end of this year and um next slide please so looking at um what is the project include and what is before you we have the full Corridor Sunrise Parkway to Old Redwood Highway in this in this project and we've pulled out one additive alternative number four where we still need to acquire the easement but we would do that through a change order process on it but essentially we have we have covered the full project length putting in the closing the sidewalk gaps uh improving the signalization and making making the improvements to the pavement structure so that's before you um interesting I I have a lot of people talk to me about North McDowell they'll be talking to me about a traffic circle or it might be the pothole but usually the conversational end and when are you going to fix North McDowell and I get that a lot so um you know I'm hoping that this project will move forward and I appreciate your consideration with that I'd like to turn it over to Christopher for the closing
thank you thank you next slide please yes thank you David and thank you Ken um our next steps obviously are involved the recommendation approval this evening if approved we have learned that uh contractor is hopefully able to start here yet this year um we will immediately have a pre-construction meeting to talk about schedule next steps and so forth but they are eager to start our completion is expected in uh summer late summer and possibly into fall of 2023 we'll do all we can to expedite construction it is complicated with phasing to be worked out so that access can be maintained to to all stakeholders and and businesses and so forth along the corridor during the the project and I just want to reassure everyone that we will continue to seek Outreach and input on the project in fact given the the scope and scale of this project we are intending to hold regular informational meetings much like Wednesdays to to just give updates on schedule progress with the project and so forth so we think that'll be very valuable and a great way to stay connected with with all concerned parties on the project next slide please foreign so to stay informed we want to share with the community that there are many ways to to stay up to date on this project and on the project website um I myself have signed up for inputs uh excuse me updates on the project you can put your your phone number and your email in and we will make sure to let you know um as as the project moves along about what's
happening next slide please so with that um again I just want to point you to our website and then as we close and go to discussion questions and answers I would like to just say a couple things foremost I want to reassure everyone that we have talked internally at Great length about the need to continue monitoring traffic after the construction project and closely watching what happens with the average daily traffic counts so with that I want to point out and re-emphasize the importance of something that that may be missed if if not you know tuned into it and that is the Green Wave technology um as that's implemented as the new traffic signals are implemented we plan to put up signage that will educate and help share with the the community what's happening with the signals kind of a go slow to get through kind of messaging so to be very uh hopefully very helpful for folks um once you experience it and I have the the I've seen it and felt it before but ironically just this weekend I was in San Francisco and was driving on Franklin and I was in a green wave and I noticed cars flying by me and they were getting up I had a couple three blocks and you know in San Francisco you can see the hills well they were hitting the Reds meanwhile we were just going slow and steady through green green green and so it trains drivers to to go not only the speed limit but a little slower so our hope is to tune it so that drivers learn uh go slow to to get through kind of thing and lastly with
the Green Wave technology is the importance of setting up gaps for some of these problems and challenges yesterday morning I was walking with the resident and learning all about some of the the challenges near Petaluma Estates and we had a great conversation saw firsthand what what the concerns are that have been shared and I'm very hopeful that the the Green Wave technology will help us set up those gaps in traffic uh slow the speeds but also have gaps for safety and access so lastly I just want to say that this contract approves the Reconstruction of the structure of the road and gets us new pavement in the future as we monitor ADT see how the Green Wave technology Works something very Innovative that we hope will be meaningful for us here in our community we can re-evaluate you know the viability as David alluded to reevaluate the viability of the five to three conversion if ADT does in fact decline to the to the guidelines that experts recommend and this would just simply involve striping changes and it can be actually Incorporated in a pavement preservation maintenance activity thank you next slide please do we have any more slides or was this the last this is the informational slide for how to get a contact for more Nation I thought we might have had a q a slide but I don't think there's anything substantial on it so with that I'll I'll turn it back to you madam mayor thank you thank you very much I will ask [Music] Fisher thank you very much I have a number of
questions um I asked in a question to staff today about the various traffic counts and can you tell me what the 2021 traffic couns were David I'll defer to you uh and or Kent sure I'm happy to take that on we have um accounts that go back all the way to 20 2007 we have 2019 which were pre pre-covered accounts so 21 counts showed a reduction in traffic about 10 to 15 percent less than we saw in 2019 and those counts were 20 to 2019 accounts were focused on the peak hour counts as I was describing earlier at specific intersections and and so for 2021 then what were the average daily and what were the I mean how do those compare with whether or not we could go to a five five to three roadway yeah that's a great question so the 2021 again also looking at the peak hour which is actually more important than the daily counts for a road diet or a fight or three lane conversion in this case uh the 2019 uh the 2021 as I mentioned before were uh about 15 to 20 percent less than the 2019 uh pre-covered numbers and we're seeing the 2021 numbers coming back to the 29.
you give me the actual number and not percentage because I don't have the other numbers so I can't do that calculation yeah I can I can do that at a couple locations they vary along the corridor so we are seeing volumes at about let's see old red Northbound about a thousand cars approaching old red in the um PM peak hour about 10 1050 southbound approaching Corona Corona for example that's what we're seeing 2021 right yeah is that the only count you have is just Redwood uh no we have other locations too um can you give me an average yes the average is about um Northbound of southbound during the Peaks anywhere between about 950 and 1100 vehicles per hour per Direction and remind me again what the recommendations were for going from a five to three what the maximum numbers were yes with with low truck volumes it would be about from 750 to 875.
with low truck but we also have a very high truck volumes along the quarter heavy vehicles [Music] great um and can you tell me um what kind of mode shift do you anticipate with the new design and the bike Lanes being a five feet and non-puffered in places uh that's a good question um we have not done an estimate of what we think the most shifts uh will be because we're not exactly sure how long the trip links are along this quarter uh at this date at this point in time but certainly would be um interesting to monitor over time but I I don't know maybe Ken you have an idea on that one overall we just we don't have a number for that yeah I you know predicting what people are going to do to get on their bikes and and how that's going to happen and it's not um it's not data that we have it currently it'd be great to have that and understand all the different employers and who might ride their bikes but it's um you know it's not something that's readily available and and um you know analyzed with I do want to sort of augment this question with the new camera technology that's going in on the corridor it allows us to to actually do traffic counts so these you know peak hour traffic uh counts that that David's giving you uh council member Fisher is is a we will be getting that information as we move forward with you know the installation of these signal improvements so that'll be a real benefit and we can see if we can start making that you know that that mode shift on it well just
on a gut level if you have traffic of an average of 40 miles an hour and no buffered bike lane and five feet to ride your bicycle next to a truck do you anticipate that we're really going to have any mode shift [Music] I yeah I am [Music] you know I yeah I was going to say Ken what's important is um we're gonna we're trying to achieve uh speed reduction through a number of means right um narrowing the lanes achieving the Green Wave signal technology and then using some of the possibilities of ab43 which will allow the city if the city chooses to identify North Med Dallas's safety corridor which you can do for 20 of your roadways in the next two years of reducing the speed limit by another five miles an hour so um we are trying to accommodate you know traffic coming along a major arterial through a number of means and I agree with you that the speed reduction is important to achieve particularly more cycling along the roadway keep in mind two two segments totally in half the length of the project area would have buffered bike lanes and um the city is the public works is considering the possibility of installing raised those raised barriers so half of it though there just isn't the room if you keep it as five Lanes to do more than uh five five and a half foot wide bike lane so and I'll just add one more thing um we have been talking internally about the prospect of of using differential Lane widths perhaps the the bicycle lane the the lane traveled Lane next to the bicycle
Lanes could be narrower and and perhaps we go to 11 feet on on the the one closest to the two-way left turn lane to facilitate and encourage trucks and buses to be more Center centered in their travels and uh and so forth so we just need to model and study the impacts of that um to see what happens so the average speed upon completion of all this is still going to be about 40 miles an hour you anticipate given all the data we have I won't say that I think uh with the three the three things we're talking about narrower Lanes Green Wave technology and speed directions through um you know safety corridor um I think we should be achieving for for less than that and I think we should be trying to get this roadway down I'll just say it at some point to post it at 30 miles an hour but there's we you know we got to implement several several things at once for overtime in the next couple years foreign [Music] I'm just not seeing how that's going to happen um so um but I'll stop there um and the other you said that ADT would probably decline what makes you think that it would do that I did say ADT in my comments my decline or we would just monitor what would happen in the future I think um just to Echo uh what David's talking about the peak hours really the governing factor with what we can do um with design so the peak hours really need to be monitored in tandem with average daily average daily traffic David and Ken do you want to add to that can I ask how to pick our um differs from
the rest of the day like are we parking for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as opposed to the a good part of the day that's a good question that the two peak hours have very similar traffic levels um and not just a peak hour it's like two to three hours in the afternoon retain those levels of traffic and about one to one and a half hour in the morning has that level of traffic there is a slight Peak during the the noon time in after school period that doesn't quite get to the same Peak levels as we see during the PM but is also at the at the threshold of just beyond what we'd see for a lane conversion so um yeah the numbers are it kills me to be honest with you because we do so much so much of this work but these numbers are just current levels are just too high one last question was about the tree canopy you talked about how the treat canopy would really slow traffic down as well and that we're anticipating putting in 100 trees but yet that's not part of this contract and not on these plans well the trees will be installed we just want to partner with our local entity relief uh to make that happen so um I also just wanted to point out with relative to the last question that land use uh you know that was set many many years ago and that that governs our traffic patterns in the area so uh we're trying to make change today and and still make it fit with with the the way our community was designed and built in years past yeah and I really want us to look to the Future more um
in terms of how we design our streets because I just don't think we're going to get the mode shift to 70 that we need to meet our climate goals it's just not going to happen with this street design and so it's a 12 million dollar missed opportunity and I understand the real need to balance the existing traffic counts and the traffic that we have on that street but I I don't know that that's what we want to be planning for um so and I don't know that really you know their focus is really um not on the streets in terms of where they're planting trees and that's not what their grants are for so I don't know why that's not part of our scope and not part of this project yeah and the city responsibility yeah if I could if I could um chime in here so you know with with the city's arborist um who have walked the corridor twice with and and looked at all the trees and the impact that putting a sidewalk you know will have we looked at places where we could narrow the sidewalk where we can move the sidewalk away from the tree um and we've reduced the structural section so we don't have to go as deep in places to install the sidewalk so it was it was a big concern when we went in front of the tree commission I wanted to be able to you know give you know some presentation that had you know some thoughtful thinking and and preserving as many of the trees and um I feel like you know we've kind of balanced that we want people to walk safely but we want them to do it underneath trees and I I
totally totally get that so I I asked the arborist to work with the um you know our our base plans and even though it's not part of the contract documents identify where we could put in trees and we had over 100 locations that trees could go in at the point in time when you know that that measure is appropriate we're out of the drought condition and we've got the ability to do that so that was that was very much something that wasn't you know a flipping thought but was very much part of the design process I really want to I want to emphasize that because I feel I don't want to I don't want to be taking trees out and we're we're being super careful is you know the contractor we make sure that the specifications show they're not going to go in there with a backhoe and just rip away they've got to go in and and if they get Roots larger than two inches diameter they've got to have an arborist there and the city will have their arborists and we're going to look at it and we're going to cut it if it's appropriate it doesn't destabilize the tree or create an unhealthy condition so um that's that is something that I I very much take to heart and and we're trying to balance a lot this is the commercial arterial in Petaluma and you know I I want bikes and you know I want bicyclists people riding bikes safely on it I want people walking safely on it I want people taking Transit but you know we we can't just say trucks go away people stop driving right now it's it's a it's a process but
if we get the base pavement structure in we can come back later and and adjust things and we should be doing that you know on a regular basis that's pavement preservation we can change things um you know as as we we properly shift in our Behavior but I'm not sure we can do it right out of the gate with this thank you thank you Ken I would just like to add that uh I want to assure Council that we are in fact looking to the Future um I think exceptional engineering this is something we talk a great deal about in Fall it's an art as much as it is a science so as as Ken and David have alluded to we have to balance Myriad constraints existing conditions existing land uses existing right away utilities and so forth safety issues and balance those with vision so we're trying our best and I've seen the deep thought that that our team has has invoked on this project the lengthy debates and discussions uh the modeling analysis and so forth to do everything we possibly could to to implement what we all care about we want Safe Streets we we want uh complete streets traffic calming implemented and so forth so we're doing what we feasibly and professionally and responsibly can today and we are pledging to continue to do also the responsible thing in monitoring how the traffic behaves and what we can possibly do in the future as Ken was just alluding to with with uh possibly uh re-striping it or exploring something in the future once we know what the future holds I think I'm done with my
questions thank you thank you um council member King yeah I just have two for the moment um there was uh some extensive discussion about obtaining easements in the staff report in a locations could you just give us a sense of the timing on that if you can I realized yeah I appreciation but yeah so I'm working closely with um the the land Assessor and the professionals involved in acquiring those easements and tomorrow assuming that Council approves this project we will be sending Letters Out for eight on eight of the parcels and um so that work is is all teed up based on the outcome of tonight and um the timeline on that is there's um Eric Eric damley is is a professional with this and has all the the the the details of it but it's it's got to go through two two two reviews and we've targeted the council dates for that and so we're looking at you know roughly uh uh a 45 plus day period to get that in there but we're thinking should be before the end of the year at this point okay and my my second question relates to there's mentions of change orders relating to um among other things providing some kind of separated protection for the bike Lanes do we do we would we be looking at the same funding sources as in the staff report the three major sources measure you uh Street Maintenance and traffic mitigation impact fees for that as well or are there other sources yeah I can jump in on that one though feel free to supplement Ken but yes that's exactly the case primarily it's the
alternative for that we're not able to award this evening because the city needs to own lands as it Awards contracts but our hope is to actually change order in all those elements and they would fit within the categories recommended in the staff report okay thank you Council councilman barnacle thank you about our mayor just a few questions um appreciate the assessment of the collisions that have happened on this street um was there any common types of collisions and if so what are we doing uh specifically to um preemptively address those I'll start out and um I think David may have some background on it but you know speed was was a a primary contributor as it is in many many collisions and it was definitely a key part on this and the hot spot is Corona um definitely had a and and and two degree Old Redwood Highway um so and that's kind of where you'd expect it it's at you know at the at the intersections so okay um and then was there any difference in directional trips so North First South um in terms of trip counts um um I I cannot I can answer that again looking at the uh the peak hour accounts we're seeing us just a slightly higher count in uh in the southbound uh Direction than the Northbound during during the uh pm and then it kind of flip-flops a little bit in the morning but generally this similar numbers it's it's almost marginal in their difference to be honest so generally generally the same okay yeah just a comment that numbers in the staff report really a lot
help more helpful so that we don't have to ask in here 15 and sure you know General this and um it really doesn't allow us to to feel good um so um on one of the the images that was shown there was a three foot landscape median between the bicycle lane and the sidewalk and I noted that in that same image there was no buffers for the bike Lanes I'm wondering why we're giving three feet for some random Landscaping when and not um trying to use that for uh offering bike Lanes foreign that that's an existing median that's there um the bike lane has got a he's got uh no less than a two foot buffer and um the bike lane itself is five to six feet in width it varies the entire Corridor widths vary like I say it goes from 64 feet to 77 feet and um there's different some places we have you know wider median islands that are in there so Barnacle is looking at there was uh can we just put the image up and I can just sort of ask the questions Jen um can you put up slide number 25 .
[Music] of the Powerball yeah not of the plans but foreign is titled uh there it is that's the one yeah yeah that's the one so on the other on the other image it was five foot bike Lanes with two foot buffers and so if my math serves me right if we took away that three foot and we made them five foot bike Lanes we'd have four feet left over and we could do five foot bike Lanes with two foot buffers is what that's what went through my head and I'm wondering um why we why we're not trying to do that well that that's yeah that's moving the curb and gutter and changing the you know the surface drainage and and that's uh that could be done that's a different project and and you know not within the the confines of the budget that we have here was it assessed I'm sorry say again council member was that was that considered I guess we're spending 12 million dollars and um I'm just wondering if it was even uh looked at I when I started the project I I was looking at at all the different options but this is I mean when you get into moving you know curb and gutter and and um you know the right-of-way issues that that's a different project and that wasn't the project you know when I when I began this um the budget we had was much much less and I've been very appreciative um with with um you know the the ability to actually put the money in to actually do the needed work on the pavement structure if we want to go to a more extensive treatment that could certainly be considered and that's
kind of that's out of my you know decision process but um that's a that's a different project yeah I'll just add and I wasn't here as your director then but I'll just add that um based on experience uh and David and Ken jump in if we were to take out the curbs do that widening we would be adding Millions to this project to put that in perspective plus there would definitely be some you know climate uh impacts with with all the additional construction work but we have you know worked hard to try to salvage and reuse all elements of the project and so salvaging any good concrete curb and gutter and so forth and sidewalks has been part of that initiative so it it it is it's expensive and it could be done but we might be looking at something approaching 18 to 20 million maybe more and again I wasn't here early in the project when the feasibility study was was done so yeah thank you um so the other uh thought that I have the Green Wave um excited to see that um the the Z sidewalks I'm wondering if we can install um like some sort of Green Green Wave lights that stop uh the cars or would stop them if they were going fast um so just some background on that uh probably the most horrific video I've seen is a bus uh dash cam where the bus stops in the slow lane woman crosses the street and car in the fast lane doesn't stop on Snow Mountain Parkway and the woman got thrown about 35 feet she's lucky to be alive she's a local business owner and that's exactly what we're doing here I also
know from sitting in closed session that um we've uh dealt with lawsuits from people suing us over um having to uh two lanes with uh with a flashing light and um I just I I feel like with um with not having cross blocks as a liability but having these crosswalks is also a liability with cars going 40 miles an hour and um like I'm just saying it right now that we're putting ourselves a liability just by putting the crosswalks in um and if we could put some sort of like a stoplight at the crosswalk that stops that people from you know set it at 25.
I'll set it at 20 because that's the that's the speed limit that people don't die when they get hit um and lines with our vision zero can we put some lights in there that actually stop cars um preemptively for pedestrians instead of just stopping them when they get to intersections because I don't think that it's going to make a bit of a difference between whatever it is Commercial Drive and Corona people are still going to go 45 miles an hour 50 miles an hour if they want to foreign so is that possible I guess that's my question that was a question like can you use the Green Wave technology at the sidewalk at the cross box to slow people down um like in an actual an interval that would actually slow people down we we could definitely look at a stop condition for The Crossings we we did not um you know we're implementing our fb's on that uh right now but that is definitely something that that could be considered um and and um you know I I think I think that that's it's something that we're looking at for the smart Crossing actually and and um it's a little more complex down there because of the the rail Crossing but yeah I don't I don't see that that's something that that um you know we we couldn't couldn't implement it seems like it's just a different style of light instead of you know flashing yellow it's you know I'll add something to that it's an interesting idea we've um designed staggered Crossings and a couple Place owners Sir Francis Drake one on Third Street in San
Rafael with what are called active hybrid beacons so they're actually red lights as you're mentioning council member yeah right and they're implemented uh to work with a coordinated system RF is you know everything's the same except the system would have mast arms um it would be quite a bit more expensive and we'd have to look into that um but it could be integrated as part of a smart wave system and it could be beneficial in that regards uh we're definitely talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars more in costs but it's something if the city uh so decided we'll probably take a look at well I mean we're spending 12 million dollars and someone's going to get hit or or worse with this um crosswalks I'll just jump in and say yes we will look at that okay thank you thank you um I appreciate that um foreign that is all of my questions at this point okay um councilmember McDonnell thank you just follow up on that so just confirming all crosswalks will have those flashing beacons on them yeah correct thank you and then um do we have any um speed indicators on on on the project where you know it says your speed is this we will I actually think that's a good idea and and um I think implementing we're we're looking at that on D Street and I think it's you know the studies say various things David may know more about the current you know the current sort of the current thinking of it but I to me they seem to have some effectiveness thank you so then the other question would be um
going back earlier in your report you were mentioning that you were working on certain bus amenities are all the bus amenities included in this contract you're not still working on design I'll uh answer that one we have a uh as far as bus stops is that what you're asking about like the actual shelter structures and so forth well I meant Road Improvement but I'll I'll run that to whatever you want to talk about okay well we have a supplementary grant that uh actually we're we're planning to to run that project in tandem with this so our hope is to synchronize so that they those would be completed as this project comes to completion as well um good that's it and thank you um and then uh I thought I heard you mentioned recycled water when you were discussing trees did that come up or is that my imagination our goal for irrigating new trees yes would be to use uh recycled water source do we have um do we have that piping available to us no it wouldn't be through piping uh at least not yet although we could explore that but uh really like a water wagon type of thing uh using using a truck would might be necessary um and then um the city's project ends and counts on Smart having a project do we have any timing commitment from smart as to when that Gap gets closed I have been banging on their door and um the last that I'd heard I mean it is that it was definitely 2023 but I couldn't get him to commit on a month um so I'm still banging on the door and next call will be Bill Gamlin
but um yeah they um okay we're hard to get these synchronized we see the value and the importance yeah yeah then my other concern for bicyclists is um that Lanes don't often seem to be swept and I'm wondering since this is a commercial District not a residential district is there a regular pattern I know residential gets what does this get swept with frequency I um I think that um one of the things that I I've been doing a little bit of research on is different ways of sweeping with electronic with you know electric street sweepers and they've got I think the fact technology has definitely come around for doing that and so we're looking at that and I'm sending out information to our Ops and Christopher on on that um on those devices because I think we're going to need to be looking at doing that into the future uh this this is definitely a need it's one of the observations that I had throughout the community as I walk and explore it but I'll defer to Patrick Carter who has his hand up and handles our Recology a street sweeping contract thank you Christopher uh yeah just to jump in here uh Recology does the street sweeping throughout all the cities and that includes the commercial areas as well um they've been having some backlog some staff shortages in the past few months but they're rapidly getting back up to speed and they've assured me that they will be doing their regular sweet sweeping schedule which I believe is is weekly going into the future starting uh November 1st
yeah thank you Patrick and I'll just add that one thing we are exploring and this is what Ken was alluding to is the need for a smaller narrower street sweeper whether Recology can get one and use it or whether we purchase one and run it projects like Rainier and also uh just bike lane cleaning needs to happen frequently uh being a cyclist myself the debris is problematic so it's very important safety and and I will just add that I've seen Recology use sweepers in bike lanes and other locations where it's a two-person operation one person's out there with a blower blowing the leaves into the the traffic lane and the squeakers just sweeps them up so I know it's it's definitely a possibility with their existing equipment but we can explore multiple options on that I think I'm just represented the um the feedback from The Pedestrian bicycle advisory committee where that comment you know one of the inhibitions to using a bike is the debris in the lanes so I'm glad you're also on that um and and then I'd love to see that maybe this is wrong time and place but um a metric for achievement on that uh you know because you know there is there is a contract to do it but the question is is how effective it's being done um thank you those are my questions okay thank you I think that's oh council member Haley I'm sorry yeah I was just going to jump on the last conversation you know I walk around town an awful lot and um I I'm less of the glass half full uh viewpoint on street sweeping and
arterials there are arterials that have not been swept in years um the the street sweeping in in residential neighborhoods is you know lovely but ineffective because people don't move their cars like they do in San Francisco so um and maybe they do to the commercial districts but the arterials are uh a mess and I brought this to staff's attention in the past and it hasn't been addressed and it needs to be addressed because this is a problem um all around the community and it's it's it's something that just needs to be dealt with and it's not being dealt with thank you foreign thank you we hear you and and we we agree I'll personally uh work with Patrick to look into this thank you okay thank you very much and um and we're going to go now to uh public comment um so I will ask the clerk if she's received any comments uh on this item prior to tonight's meeting Madame mayor yes we received four public comments on this item prior to the meeting which are posted online with the agenda packet okay and so I'm going to take a public comment from uh people in the room now and then I will ask the moderator to ask if there's anybody on uh in the virtual audience to uh speak afterward so I have two speakers and the first one is Eric sternberger hi it's a pleasure to appear before the council I'm Eric sternberger I am the attorney for team gelati I'm really here just on the abundance of caution um and and echo my support for the staff report which is very thorough and comprehensive but
here is an abundance of caution because there's so as the subject of a bid protest and um I really have nothing to add that the staff report did not already say and uh but if uh if that were to arise again I'd like to have an opportunity to be heard thank you thank you very much and um Joe Moreira [Music] you didn't even cancel uh Joe marrera um general manager for team July here in Atlanta and I just want to let you folks know that we are very excited about being part of this project and would love to get started if possible this year um and so just want to let you know that we ready ready to go thank you okay thank you and so now I'll ask our moderator to see if there's anybody in the virtual audience who'd like to speak on this item thank you madam mayor at this point if there's anyone I'm in a virtual audience I'd like to speak on this item please raise your hand or hit star nine the first speaker that we have is Shakti Kennedy followed by Susan Kirks shocked young and that allow you to speak you can meet yourself and begin hello can you hear me yes we can isn't a comment about the contract issue but can you tell us about any permeable surfaces being used in the project services that let through water to the tree roots which will help them survive longer if we want more walking and biking we need more tree covered root boxes and paved Services don't make healthy trees so is the city developing a permeable surface standard to help with projects like this and what a new
tree ordinance help to save more trees already along this Corridor and improve our planting techniques for new trees for projects like this my feeling is if you don't want the East Side to be anywhere USA you're going to want to plant more trees thank you foreign [Music] followed by John tribbs Susan I'll now allow you to speak you're going to meet yourself and begin thank you um well I'd like to make a few comments you know I've just been driving on McDowell especially in North McDonnell for so long and the pavement is so horrible and I mean this has just been for years and years and years and years and I think that the staff is really eager to have you approve what's being brought to you tonight I just um you know I had said it before in the most recent review it's it's disappointing and it's 2022 we're looking at 20 30 just eight years from now and there are two comments to make tonight one is the bike lanes are just ridiculous I mean it's not going to be safe for any bicyclist to ride on North on McDowell Boulevard and um I just think we really could do better in that regard and I'm going to be talking more about something I've been talking about which is a micro transit system particularly serving our three districts in East Petaluma Central Petaluma and then of course our other districts as well that we really should have been thinking about long ago but is certainly timely and many cities are implementing micro transit to serve their residents service paid for by the
city providing jobs using some of our miseryu funds getting traffic off the streets and that is a you know that's something we really should have already been thinking about and planning this project but we're not and again the bike lanes are just it's just useless I mean we're asking is I think council member barnicle described uh the situation very well um it you just it they're not safe and this doesn't support um people on bicyclists but I will say that after admitting in the New Years finally getting curbs and sidewalks especially near the mobile home parks and Corona that will be a plus although I still see the Corona area that intersection has been very problematic and not completely planned so that's my comment thank you foreign [Music] speak you kind of mute yourself and begin hey thank you I have um because I ride my bike and uh I'm looking forward to actually having I buy claims uh on the street and I have seen people have walk around and wheelchairs try to get around poles and things so this is tremendous improvement over what we currently have that's great um what I'm looking at because I'm on the general plan of looking at the future we're looking at Corona that the bridge will eventually need a seismic upgrading it'll be expanded we'll be putting in sidewalks and and bike paths there also and then with the Smart Train we're gonna have lots of construction going on in that corner that's right there and then we're even talking about the possibility that oh we
might need to if anywhere in the city for urban growth boundary push out it'll be right there behind the post office to help support the Smart Train and put in affordable housing in that location many thousands of people so we're talking about 5 000 people baby eventually being housed near this corner and I want to make sure that the corona which I didn't quite see in the diagrams I want to make sure that the corona intersection and the sidewalks that are being planned and developed are going to be able to accommodate because I can see Corona Road right now if you go I can't even bike on Corona Road it's way too dangerous the the car speeds and the narrow Lanes there we need to change Corona Road as well as well as Eli because that's another parallel road that is that goes from the Petaluma High Petaluma uh road all the way Redwood all the way through to Corona and so I've have cars passing me at 40 50 miles an hour on that road with what less than six inches of room so it can be dangerous so I want to make sure that we have planned in and looking toward the future 20 30 years that the corona intersection and is is ready to go for the future so that we have the sidewalks maybe are ready to expand out for to accommodate the the bike pass for the apartments that are going to go in large population going in and then eventually that that we also look at the Corona Road maybe expanding that out it's County Road at the moment maybe turning into a city road that all has to be
brought in as well down the road I want to make sure that's in the plans and ideas and Concepts uh as we're working on this project so Corona intersection is really important and hopefully I can see oh you tell a little bit more about how you're working on on that particular intersection what that might look like thank you and Madame mayor that's her last uh hand raised thank you with that we'll close public comment on this item and bring it back to the council for comments and um a motion in one side or another start on this side anybody okay let's start with Council uh member Fisher well I can start and I really want to um excuse me I want to appreciate the complexity of this project and everything that staff has had to balance but you know the fact that it doesn't meet our climate goals it doesn't meet our vision zero goals it doesn't meet our active Transportation goals and it's you know it's it's an important Road day for the last mile we have you know hundreds of residents right on McDowell right on the street and we're still saying it's okay to have 40 mile an hour truck traffic right next to your front door and that noise and so I'm really disappointed that we actually didn't get to see this months ago or maybe even a year ago when it was in process that this is the first we've we've seen um even this extended plans um and we haven't seen the full plans and um so that's really disappointing to me that we weren't able to weigh in on this earlier um because I really do
feel as though we are planning for the traffic we have today and not the traffic that we want to see in five years and 10 years and what we anticipate to be our our mode shift and this is not going to get us any cyclist on the street we're not going to have any mode shift it's simply you might get the daring ones that are willing to go on this street next to a truck going 40 miles an hour but um you're not going to get Mom and the kids you're not going to get them going to the grocery store um and those are the ones we need uh in order to meet our goals um so I'll leave it at that foreign yeah I I suppose I will just be very as brief as I can in seconding uh um what several other folks have said including uh um council member Fisher which I keep coming back to the fact that in most of these projects you know I end up uh thinking about a line I've read several times which is that um if you want people to mode shift to bikes you have to make it easier to get where they want to go on the bike than buy their car and I've seen some creative uh uh um approaches to that I really appreciate all the work the staff has done on this I think it is an incredibly complex situation and and we can argue about uh trees if you will versus bike Lanes or protected bike Lanes but in any case I have the concern that that Belinda Fisher has which is that if uh if we don't make it any easier for the bikes that the traffic pattern will don't change the number of people on bikes won't change and we
just won't get to the Future thanks [Music] thank you I'm excited to see this project start I know uh it's it's bad badly badly needed it provides tremendous improvements uh it does miss the complete Mark um but I noticed as I go all up and down McDowell on my bike the bike network is a hodgepodge of different types of uh attempts at making bike safety especially we notice a lot of off Street uh and uh and I think that that would have been nice here to widen the sidewalk out so it matched the southern section so that we had separated things um you know inherently when uh when a bike is in a road there's a risk factor and I don't know if we can ever get over the fact that it's still a risk factor but um you know I think we can talk about other projects in that we're attempting where we are hitting the Mark um I know we've just gotten through the scta the um and on to MTC funding for Caulfield which will give us separate rated by claims by reducing that down I would love to see the marketing start sooner for the public on that cross-sections come to council so we can talk about that so we don't find ourselves in you know kind of with a bid and yet not you know a happy place on it so I would like to see coffee be demonstrated here to show that we are doing some things right and um then I also want to note that there's been proposals to um change the way truck traffic works on 101 to push more of it to North Old Redwood Highway uh it can cause the chance Gary Thompson plan and uh
and what would happen is that middle Gap that's heavily residential isn't get as much traffic the North End we're talking about now north of Corona is industrial and it does get heavy truck traffic but I think there's a section in the middle The Sweet Spot in the middle past Friedman past Rainier all the way to Corona where it's mostly residential and and could benefit from a road diet and you know we have data you know we can look at that that's not what's on the table today but I think that that's an opportunity that we could still look at um but uh all in all this is just you know we're behind um so far far in our Paving and um we're making improvements here I do bicycle this I will vouch for the fact that it's risky to be in this section um I know for um myself and and others we use the alternative Street rather than stay when you get past the fire station you can turn onto a behind the road that's parallel up to um the North End for some distance I'd like to see us work on making a connectivity that provides a bike route that's not McDowell or that sidewalk on McDowell thank you thank you councilmember King just thank you madam mayor um this is a a long awaited project it obviously is one of the more major um Road and pedestrian bike lane projects we've had in quite some time in both in terms of cost and complexity I'm prepared to support the staff recommendation here and um you know with the representation that this is a work in progress and that the bike Lanes uh need
to be improved but I am looking toward looking at this um not only is an improvement in the pavement which um Ken you're not the only one who's been hearing about that I'm sure um many of us have um uh for many many years but it's a substantial pedestrian Improvement um which is in an area where very little um ability to walk between some of those businesses some of which are not just raw industrial where you have vehicles coming and going but places like the breweries and and others where people may Park and then walk and need some safety with respect to to their foot traffic which they do not have today by and large because of the way it was built in the 19 you pick your decade but it was a while ago um so uh with that I'm prepared to move the item with the representative representation from staff that this is a work in progress but I do have a question do we need to take a separate vote rejecting the bid protest and I believe we do but um I'm not 100 sure that would be a question for uh the City attorney I'd be happy to address that Council if you'd like me to at this time yes please jump in that's that's baked into the resolution so a separate photo is not needed if the council is going to support the staff recommendation and there's substantial evidence supporting the conclusions finding that the team gelati bid is the lowest responsive bid and the protest likes Merit in the in the resolution but if there are more specific questions on behalf of You Justin I don't I that
was it uh so I'll move the item okay thank you um council member I'm sorry uh Healy thank you so I will uh second uh councilmember King's motion um I do support this um I I recognize um that there are a lot of compromises that had to be made here and but at the same time this is a vast improvement over what we have out there now in terms of pavement conditions and pedestrian bicycle safety and and I I really appreciate the fact that staff is trying to do the best job it can with a minimum expenditure of of funds because this is not the only Street in town that needs to be redone we have a lengthy list but I would also in in in in the interest of time I would just say that the one thing that hasn't been said here at the end is that I very much do want to take up staff on the and the consultant on the proposal to exercise our discretion uh once this is done and lower the speed limit to 35.
um and and I think that would be a huge safety Improvement and um I I think that would be a big benefit and and on a similar note you know related to note I have to say that I've been very pleased to see um increased motorcycle Patrols in town over the last month or two it's it's really been noticeable There's real traffic enforcement um and I think a lot of people have gotten lazy and think that that's just not something that's happening anymore and you need to re-educate folks and I think that re-education is happening right now and and that's something that can roll forward into a project like this so when we put up 35 mile an hour speed limits we're going to get people to pay attention to that and and I also like the idea of putting the the radar speed limits the speed the speed um signs out there too so anyway that's all I have thank you thank you councilmember barnacle yeah um great on public Outreach I think I counted seven events to get input from the public and yet we're spending 12 million dollars and um I'm here at the end of the line and I haven't been consulted once I haven't seen the plans and that to me is like the definition of a rubber stamp and that that feels um maybe in council's past you didn't have people who were so like like gung-ho on making streets safer on bike Lanes on things like that um and there wasn't um we didn't want to have as much uh Hands-On things you know like I I've gotten frustrated over the slurry ceiling and not um and not coupling
striping with slurry ceiling these are things that um like I wanted I want to be heard on and I've been hurt exactly zero times and we spent um a good deal of Staff time and taxpayer money engaging the public and um the people that represent them and make the decisions are here to vote Yes or no and that just doesn't feel like good process um I want to get this done um I want to support the project um the process really is frustrating to me though because um because I also want to um be good at governing because I want to be good at trying to make an impact and um I don't know like I hear Chris you know our Public Works directors say that we're going to look into um the Green Wave technology at the at the crosswalks um but I don't know what the outcome is going to be about that and I don't know what the criteria is going to be to determine if we're going to do it I don't know who's going to make that decision and those are political decisions and I sent everybody on the council here the video that I referenced earlier be careful if you watch it you know make sure that you uh you know if you've had traumatic experiences probably don't watch it um but I can tell you like that's what I'm concerned about and um and I uh it is a huge Improvement I let it let him march to raise awareness about the last lack of sidewalks on this I am I am the most excited person probably in this room about adding sidewalks there um this is it's just the process here is just really frustrating for me
um and uh you know I would before we stripe it before we you know determine what those signals are I'd like to have an opportunity to make a political decision I'm a politician I'm elected and I want to make decisions on behalf of people and that's what people elected me to do not just come up here and vote Yes or No to actually represent them and I'm not right now I'm just voting yes or no and that's really frustrating on the 12 million dollar project um so thank you council member Fisher thank you for allowing me another bite of the Apple um I do want to support this um I know it needs to be done and there's a proposal by the Safe Streets Coalition folks that came in earlier today several people suggested that we go ahead and do the paving and then we look at doing some quick builds and you know what would happen if we actually put in um protected bike lanes and did narrow the roadway down from five to three if we talk about you know why don't we start there and then get rid of it if it doesn't work as opposed to putting in the striping for cars and trucks and eliminating it for cyclists you know why don't we do the opposite if if we can change the striping around for cyclists and eventually if the trips go down which they probably won't you know why don't we try that and see if it works and so that's what I'd like to propose we do um and maybe it's not the vote here but um you know go ahead and go forward with the project get the paving done and then when it comes to
striping let's reassess because it's not going to be for another year until that happens and you know let's get let's let's have more time to think about it and how traffic would be modeled and where it would go um in terms of diversion because there really is no place to divert to right we have Maria Drive and that's it you know there's the streets don't go through in that area of town so um thank you thank you council member Barnacle maybe that's a question to staff actually um can we get started with the paving and um do some more studies on different Alternatives and actually look at the different things because we want to get this baby going we want to see we want to get you guys to work we want to get your people to work um we also I want to do everything I can to slow down traffic on that Corridor I want to hear New Alternatives I want to you know like I want to share more ideas I want more more opportunity to weigh in on this really important project so okay so let me let me um I haven't weighed in yet and also I would like to actually ask the City attorney that it sounds to me like there's a a new proposal if not yet a motion um although we do have a motion and a second on the floor about um bifurcating for lack of a better word uh this project so that we're actually performing the work that desperately needs to be done in on North McDowell of pavement improvements and sidewalk improvements that um but yeah there is uh the way this is being presented it does have
this alternative for that um you know adds other things later and I I'm hearing that there's interest in you know reconsidering some of what are are basically striping decisions not not the paving decisions um and I'm just wondering about whether or not making that more flexible is something that we can do tonight or uh or how if you would like to weigh in on that um thank you madam mayor I think I'll I'll start if I may and and ask I think we'll need some some specific follow-up from from Ken and perhaps a consultant on David so oh it's before the council tonight um because of the of the public contract code bidding requirements and and the ones in our own Charter and municipal code is uh whether or not the council approves awarding the project as it's been bid as you've heard and is discussed in the staff report um there are mechanisms within that structure um that we do anticipate using and and sometimes we use them when we don't anticipate that's what we have them to um to um to have have changes be done to issue change orders to the project they can be subtractive or additive um but once we award the contract um you know apart from change orders um the contractor owns the schedule subject to the Milestones that have been sent forth in the working days that are awarded in the contract they have a right if they can to to complete the work to the Quality that's needed um early on under the under the law that applies um and and if and if and if delays are introduced in the
schedule that but for the city's involvement with those um wouldn't have existed then then there's potential for claims um and and the contractor seeking recovery for the cost impacts of those so the question that's kind of the framework um so I think the question for staff is you know what some folks some on the council maybe others in the public are looking at as striping changes you know striping is an integral part of the design because that addresses Lane widths addresses placement of bike lanes and pedestrian ways so I'm not sure if that's if that's an option um I'm not sure but it would be an option and I don't know if you can help address that kin and I think Chris's hand is up I think he's ready great thank you sorry about that and I can't see that so um okay is uh Christopher do you have your hand up I do yes thank you please jump in yeah thank you so I I certainly don't want to uh cross with legal issues um Eric you you were definitely the expert on that so I'll just offer the technical perspective and uh you know Canon and David can jump in to to assist but technically we can study and work uh on further evaluation of the striping plans and and maybe do additional modeling and and report back to council with that and so forth I also wanted to say that uh for council member barnacle's question I'm committed to bringing back a report on the the crosswalk the Green Wave technology idea I think these are valuable points and and we're we're raring to go to study this
and find the best solution for our community um we deserve the best possible solutions uh that fit within all these constraints that we're considering tonight so um I also want to just point out that we are researching both microtransit and micro Mobility options through the community that will potentially and hopefully help reduce traffic pressures on on arterials like McDowell uh Jared Zahn if he might like to address that but I'll just say one last thing and that the corona improvements are being considered on multiple fronts with the Smart Station coming uh you know under construction here potentially next year and coming online in 2024 I believe is the tentative plan uh we definitely want to have further discussions with smart to make sure our project integrates and plays while it's at but the intersection itself just heard feedback yesterday myself walking with a resident about moving the Stop Bar back so that there's better visibility that's a great suggestion we're going to incorporate that and make sure that what we do is appropriate for maximum safety there and then the bridge over 101 it's a caltransomes facility but we're embarking on a study having just received a grant from smart to to study active Transportation Crossing safety on that bridge along with McKenzie and potentially Washington if we can get that into the scope so there's just a lot happening on multiple fronts there thank you okay thank you on that um and I'm not seeing Jared put his hand up so uh
we'll either bring it back to the council council member Healey so so uh thank you so just thinking out loud here um and and this is a question for for staff um no one in particular um but what if we were to approve the staff recommendation tonight but with direction that staff look at the res striping issues and and Associated issues um especially further after the um we we have a better idea if the right-of-way is going to be obtained that we're seeking um to support bid option four um and and bring that back to us say four months from now while the construction is underway but before the final work is being done and and I have to imagine that the striping wouldn't be in place then the council doesn't usually get involved in change orders but this may be the exception to the rule would that be something that might possibly work in this situation Chris stop me if I'm wrong but um I believe that we absolutely can do this and in a lot of other jurisdictions they do bring plans and specs before Council so we want to make sure that we start doing that on some of the larger projects we just haven't had these larger projects so thank you so I I would I would put it out to the council and to the maker of the motion if there would be a a friendly amendment to to direct staff to come back with possible change orders four months from now um in this uh that'll be fine with me I think um if if we have the um The Leverage or the authority to do that it seems to make sense in this
instance I would say yes to that then I would second that and let's see if that gets any support okay well um I just want to weigh in on this I think this is really uh well it's unfortunate um but it is just how life evolves um you know this has been in the planning for quite a while and and we've had staff changes we've had and we've had a lot of changes going on and we have you know um we are looking at trying to get a desperately under [Music] um under quality road that is overly used up to standards and but we also want to make it safe the number that threw itself at me when I was reading the staff report was 132 of actual physical injury accidents on this in in a year I mean that's one every other week I mean that is absolutely unacceptable and I don't really see how what we're proposing addresses that um to to council member um Barnacles um caution about uh crosswalks for pedestrians that are not signalized um you know I was just on on the crosswalk at um Keller and Washington the other day um and and really had to stop every lane in order to to proceed safely and with that a car was going from uh east to west and I was traveling from south to North uh and just flew right by me you know but I could actually see him coming uh but you know it is uh it is very dangerous and 40 miles an hour is just not going to allow any kind of um you know leeway for anybody uh so I you know I'm I really am torn because I know that road needs the work on it and I really want to see that
work get done but I'm not really happy with how the work gets finalized that includes pedestrians and and non-motorized vehicles so um I I think Mr healy's um amendment is good but I'm not sure it goes far enough I think that if staff is uh and I know we've had to do this on a shoestring budget I I totally understand that we're asking for a whole lot uh with not very much you know we don't want we don't have as much to spend but I think we should be looking into some of our traffic mitigation funds and transferring them to this project because this is a project that involves a lot of of the travel in our city and and is is a serious uh contributor to the amount of injuries that we're having in our community so just in terms of making our city safe I really think it's worth diverting funds from you know some uh some of the the other uh little packets that it is in uh and and I would like to see that come back uh or be thought of as a funding source for any of the upgrades that we may need to use that may involve having to change some of the existing sidewalks in order to make these kind of barriers there to protect people so that that's my comment on that I don't know if council member barnacle a question for either Christopher or Peggy or Eric can we approve the paving and not the striping can we just straight like strike the striping from the current contract I would just like to suggest uh if the Project's approved we're committed to to reevaluating the striping and
bringing that back um perhaps at that check-in we won't need to make it change a little work done for some time okay I think we could include that in the change order that council member Healey would suggested that that that and I think that I see are you um director saying that that's possible so um if that gives you a comfort level for that it does thank you so all right so um any other comments before we take a vote okay uh so can we get a roll call vote uh does the City attorney want to weigh in on something I saw you there uh Madam mayor I think you're ready to proceed I just you know we change orders are very flexible but it's a question of the of the cost impact and and you know what what's feasible in terms of the project its confines timetable [Music] um Etc and those are those are staff questions that they've done a tremendous amount of work on to try to look at the variables and clearly the councils identified things understandably that they they want to have looked at further and um I don't know if staff have done that already or or what's going to be possible but um we have very great flexibility with change orders um it's just a question of sort of timing impacts and cost impacts but for purposes of tonight the option is to to the award the contract as it was bid or not and I oh I guess I should also say that there's the option of um the council's not required to award beyond the base bid so that's that's another option of the council but I believe there was an
amendment to the motion that change orders come back to the council that's that's fine that's fine um because there's discretion about whether they assume in the first place and the council can certainly give that that direction but that still leaves the the um the structure of what was bid on intact and that's that's what I was just trying to be clear is necessary to do if the count if the contract's going to be awarded tonight okay thank you thank you so with that I will ask our uh city clerk if she will please do a roll call vote Barrett yes Barnacle yes Fisher yes Healey yes King yes McDonnell yes that's okay yes motion passes unanimously okay thank you and thanks for a good discussion here at the Deus so um now we're going to move on to uh item number eight which is a resolution appointing members to the youth commission and our city clerk Kendall Sawyer will lead this thank you Madame mayor council um so at the time of the annual recruitment in June and at your most recent council meeting when you did additional appointments we had received fewer applications than seats available for adult member positions on the youth Commission we've kept that recruitment open for applicants to apply for the vacant seat and we have received two applications from adult applicants um so tonight I will facilitate a vote After we receive public comment Additionally the enabling legislation for the Youth commission requires youth applications to be considered by the youth commission
members prior and then a recommendation to be made for the city council to make the appointments um for youth applications were submitted to the youth commission prior to their meeting on September 13th and at that meeting the commission unanimously recommended the city council appoint all four youth members since that last meeting of the youth commission two additional youth applicants have applied a staff is recommending the city council appoint all six youth member applicants tonight I know there's a desire to fill the committee the Commission in order to increase participation uh finally I'll just add there are 25 seats available on the youth commission for youth members again we've received six applications total so we are encouraging youth in our community to continue to apply the applications are available on the city website and we'll continue to be brought to the youth commission and Council for consideration and appointment as we receive those with that I will pause for Council questions and public comment before I facilitate the vote for the adult member seat thank you very much I don't see any uh comment from anybody on the council I have no public comment uh from anybody who is here at City Hall I will ask our moderator to see if there's anybody in the virtual audience who would like to speak to this item came out of Mayor at this point if there's anyone in the public virtual public audience I would like to speak on a youth commission item please raise your hand
we're calling you um the first speaker that we have is Susan Kirks Susan onala you speak you can unmute and be in foreign I actually do not have a comment so thank you [Music] Adam mayor that's the only hand we are very scared thank you very much with that I will close public comment on this item and I'll share this screen which has the names of the applicants can you confirm that you can see my PowerPoint I can see your PowerPoint okay so here are the names of the six youth commission members again there are 25 seats available so I don't believe we need to go through a voting process as long as there's no opposition to appointing these six members and I would like to facilitate a vote though for the adult member seat okay um go ahead okay so there's two adults for um one seat correct there are two applicants Jenny and joy who both applied for the one remaining adult member seat on the commission and uh when you're okay with it I will go through a roll call vote to see who each council member would like to vote for and that that sounds fine okay Barrett Jenny bilway Barnacle no way Fisher going Ely uh Beltway King Jenny belway McDonnell bellway post okay no way [Music] all right it looks like unanimous support for Jenny belway so I have on the screen here just to be clear to everyone all of the appointments that will be made based on the resolution attached to the staff report tonight so I'll ask again for a motion to appoint all of these members to the youth Commission so
moved second motion by King and a second by McDonnell okay [Music] Barrett yes Barnacle yes Fisher yes Ely yes King yes McDonnell yes that was okay yes motion passes unanimously thank you thank you very much for that and with that we're moving on to the presentation discussion and feedback on the draft six cycle housing element and this will be principal policy planner Christina Paul good evening mayor and council members it is a pleasure to be with here with you this evening talking about the housing element I am going to share my screen we are here with you to discuss the public draft of the housing element which has been out for public review for a little bit over 30 days since August 29th I want to note that with us on folks who have been most involved in the planning process include Heather Hines interim community development director and also Veronica Tam who is on our team with Raymond Associates helping us with the general plan I am going to be going briefly through the general plan context a little bit of background on the housing element the site's inventory process programs Community input that we have heard today and then the schedule for the housing element out of respect for the the later hour I'm going to be moving fairly quickly please do feel free to flag me down the mid presentation if that's acceptable or I'm very willing to answer questions at the end of the presentation we are developing the housing element as part of the general plan we have been doing
this concurrently with the general plan we are currently in between the visioning and Alternatives phase with the general plan as a whole and have been focusing over the last few months on forwarding this housing element in order to comply with State statutes for when we need to return the housing element and have it certified by the Department of Housing and Community Development at the state and we have also been focusing on developing the climate action plan the housing element is a statutory requirement and we are required to update it about every eight years that means that depending on how long you think a general plan is is valid for good for useful for you could have two or three housing elements within the time frame of the general plan so some of the topics that we will touch on as part of the housing element will be elaborated as part of the general planning process that we will still be in the process of these pieces are the major building blocks of the housing element the two that I will be focused on are the goals and the programs and also the site inventory but this is the first time that we have come to council with the full housing element that includes each of these pieces the slide highlights community housing priorities that we have heard throughout the general plan process we have been asking the community about housing priorities and to receive General input throughout the general plan process so that's been a couple of years at this point and you'll see
we have a focus on affordable housing Equity insole development and community community character as well as carbon neutrality these priorities made their way into the general plan Vision pillars and principles you can see here the focus on housing Equity balance and diversity of housing types for the housing element engagement for the housing element specifically we went to gpac the Planning Commission and had a housing Workshop beginning in March of this year we Then followed up with meetings with the Planning Commission and city council to present the preliminary site inventory and housing programs and then after we published the housing the public draft of the housing element we have been reviewing that with the Planning Commission the general plan advisory committee and then also in a public Workshop as well as making the full draft element available online and having a feedback form available for folks to give us very targeted feedback as well as generalized feedback on each of the pieces of the housing element now this was widely publicized and we sent emails out to particular groups that we know are focused on housing throughout we have also been working with the general plan advisory committee housing working group the housing site inventory is uh is built in a response to our Regional Housing needs allocation of 1910 units split across these various income brackets the city is required to demonstrate the capacity for and uh and Regulatory underpinnings for each of
these units but the city is ultimately not a developer and is reliant on the development industry to construct and plan and fully plan for these housing units foreign it is important to note that I won't go through the whole analogy here but all of the sites in the housing element are currently zoned for housing but not all sites that are currently zoned for housing in the city are included in the inventory of the housing element this is a particular note because when we began the housing element process we were unsure as to whether or not we would need to do some rezoning or whether or not we would have adequate capacity to accommodate each of the units that we have been allocated under Rena given our existing zoning we found that we do indeed have the capacity to accommodate Arena given existing zoning and so importantly this housing element does not propose changing any of that zoning which would trigger a much more significant environmental analysis and SQL response when we began to look at the site inventory we looked first at the projects that we could credit to account towards our Arena allocation that includes a projection of the number of accessory dwelling units that can be built in the city given past Trends as well as approved or pipeline projects that includes projects that are formally in the development pipeline whether or not they are fully entitled at this time and that is a shifting Target and so you will see how we've been responding to those shifts in a
few slides after we essentially looked at Arena and then which how many units we could expect reasonably expect to see in the next eight years we then looked at other opportunity sites that includes vacant sites parking lots or underutilized sites across the city including some that were identified in the fifth cycle after that we ident evaluated in analyze these sites for feasibility and for appropriateness given Community priorities around flooding and and slope construction and Wildfire avoidance for example and then we calculated our build out potential and have been working on reviewing and revising that draft over the course of the last few months it is worth noting that in some cases when we identify a site that was also identified in the fifth cycle if a site is identified in a in the current so the cycle that we are currently developing the sixth cycle and it was also identified in the fifth cycle and then a project comes forward with at least 20 percent affordable units and is identified for affordable units in this uh cycle I'm sorry there are quite a few ifs and thens in there but I hope that this slide helps make that more clear then in that case the project can come forward with a request for ministerial review and Reliance on objective design standards and the smart code this increases certainty and this is as a result of maybe 1397.
just we would like to describe one of the ways that we worked to avoid sensitive areas in identifying the preliminary housing sites inventory if you look at this slide here the fifth cycle sites from the last housing element are those that were identified in red the orange sites are those that were that are identified in the Current public draft and the blue sites are pipeline sites you can see that we did not identify several sites that for example have portions that are within the floodplain and worked to really draw back from that we did get additional comment on these sites in particular that I'll go into in a little bit more detail and we looked at at drawing back even further it is important for us to have a buffer and so we need to identify between 15 and 30 percent more capacity across the city for housing that's identified in the housing element again not necessarily the zoning um that will allow us a buffer so if projects don't develop as they are estimated to in the site's inventory then we will still have adequate capacity to fully accommodate our Arena and so we need to identify slightly more sites than is required by Arena one topic that has come up quite a bit in this process are ideas about potential annexation potential expansions of the urban growth boundary Etc and we did not consider sites that were outside of the city limits um in this in this process for the housing elements specifically because that would trigger a significantly more analysis and we're
we actually are not allowed to do that given hcd's requirements that we have current control and Zoning over the parcels that are in the states inventory however as part of the general plan we anticipate and look forward to the conversation with the community endless leadership about the the appropriateness or desirability of looking at these issues in more in more depth yeah when we came forward with the draft site inventory in June and July we came to Council in July of this year we got these overarching themed comments one piece of the direction that was particularly impactful was to enjoy avoid High VMT sites and also to prioritize shopping center sites to avoid over-identifying sites so that would lead to a significa a buffer that was more than we are required to have and also to look at city-owned properties as well as as these other topics that you can see some of which all of which we will be taking up as part of the general plan process even if they have not triggered a change in the in the site inventory from that time to now this is the draft site inventory that we presented in July in response to comments from Council we removed these sites that are circled here from the site inventory and found that we still had adequate capacity to meet Rina and we also added these two sites that includes Washington Place Shopping Center as well as a smallish parcel owned by the city of Petaluma at 307 Petaluma Boulevard so this is then the draft sites inventory that we brought
forward as part of the public draft that is now out for review you can see that we are focusing on infill development as well as city-owned Parcels with this site on Petaluma Boulevard and then focusing on the shot interest in shopping centers that is not only present with the city but as a regional and Statewide interest we also looked at our capacity calculations we were very conservative in the previous drafts that we brought forward and we were relying quite heavily on the inclusionary housing regulations that the city has and thinking about having those uh having market rate units fund more affordable units than is required by hcd we went back to the drawing board and thought a little bit more about our about our buffer and about our assumptions and took up for particular sites and you can see a little bit more about the the methodology here and we're very happy to go into it in more detail if that is helpful but we assumed that there could be more sites more affordable units on slightly more sites than in our previous calculations this then changed our our buffer and shifted our assumptions from more higher income units towards more lower income units and this here is a a summary of the differences between the site's inventory that we brought forward in July and what is in the public draft it is helpful to note at this point and perhaps later as well that removing some of these sites from some drafts of the site inventory means that we may have some flexibility to if
hcd is it essentially won't let a site code go through in our site inventory we could potentially re-identify a site that has been put aside as part of one of these rounds of iteration if that is necessary it can be helpful to have some flexibility there this is the prior total units that you can see by income group from July you can see we have 23 percent buffer for low income and 3 800 total units with the shifts that I just described between that and the public draft we have a significantly higher low income buffer and about 400 fewer units in total and there's going to be another change to that as part of this process we got a an application for the Oyster Cove project and we moved this project um so that it's more of a pipeline project and you can see that we changed the counts there and that's reflected in the tables that I am that I'm about to show we also had requests from the general plan advisory committee the Planning Commission and from the public to look at removing sites 0809 and 010 so it we looked we did an analysis of the impacts of that move and found that removing those sites from the inventory would result in a total reduction of 161 units and a reduction of the buffer from 45 percent over on low income units to 22 and a reduction of moderate income from 109 over to 77 percent and this is a comparison of the impact of what would happen before we removed those sites and what would happen after and I realized this is a little difficult to see so here it is a
little bit larger you can see that the buffer for low income units has been reduced to 22 percent and then we have a slightly larger buffer for those moderate and communities again because of the market because of the econ the economics of affordable housing development uh some affordable housing is financed through the development of market rate housing and so it is often the case that more market rate housing gets built to to help to help fund some of that affordable housing this results in a minimum minimal minimum low-income unit buffer it is possible again that the council may wish to bring back some sites if this methodology is found problematic by hcd but it is it is a possibility of council would like to pursue this pursue this route I do want to say that the inclusion again of these Parcels in the housing element site inventory does not impact the potential development of these sites they will still be as they are now zoned for potential Housing Development again we will continue these conversations as part of the general plan I'm going to hand it over to Veronica Tam now she is going to quickly go through the draft housing program the high level themes and then we'll talk about how this has changed since we brought this tool to you in July planting programs to facilitate uh Improvement in development of housing the housing element has six goals we need to provide for housing and particularly choices make sure that there are a variety of housing types available to
your residents we need to remove developmental constraints particularly relating to governmental constraints uh the city needs to also facilitate affordable housing given that market basically handles uh the upper income the above model income people the lower income and modern income households need affordable housing and assistance we also need to preserve housing that you currently have and not only the quality but also the affordability of it we also need to address the special needs of individuals or families that may have uh different housing needs and last but not least spare housing we must promote equal access to housing inside regarding a variety of housing choices and other housing availability there's been a lot of new changes to state law the most important ones are definitely providing adequate sites for the arena and monitoring no net loss and that's the reason why Christina mentioned about the buffer why they need to have extra housing replacement housing accessory drawing units these are Studio state laws that requires special attention next slide development development constraints uh that's a legal application of the housing element to make sure that you mitigate governmental constraints like development standards policies rules and regulations so there are programs in the housing element that uh particularly point to it's only called amendments that would address those constraints one thing we do also want to mention is that uh because we are including
some shopping centers in the sites inventory there are um there are maybe special strategies that we need to devise in order to convert some of the shopping center areas into housing of excuse development next slide um facilitating affordable housing in the city of Petaluma is currently doing a lot of that already inclusionary housing linkage fee housing but we are also looking at um housing that may be naturally um affordable how do we make um housing that's affordable not just for lower income households but also for the moderate and middle middle income households next slide preserving housing that's important one thing we talked about uh you currently have some rent stabilization components in your programs but we also want to look at how to preserve the historic homes with historic value but also allows them to make use of it economically maybe convert to smaller homes and also providing Rehabilitation assistance to people who may need that uh to improve the housing quality next slide uh special needs groups um by law the housing element laws provide um defines the elderly the disabled large households a female header households Farm Workers homeless those are being considered as special needs a population in your region we are also looking at Farm Workers as well as people who worked in the hospitality industry those people may need some special attention because they have more difficulty finding affordable housing next slide um one of the key changes to state law this
round of the housing element is fair housing looking at housing for the provision of housing with the lens of equity so providing fair housing programs and particularly uh this anti-displacement tenant protection those are important focus of the state right now next slide while the overall housing element has 29 programs there are a lot of them that are like considered minimum requirement of the housing element these are the ones that we have identified on this particular slide uh 14 of them a lot of them are the ones that I highlighted earlier addressing constraints providing for sites for affordable housing adjusting special needs and fair housing each side and actually with that I'll pass it back to Christina thank you so much Veronica so when we brought this forward for discussion in July we got the following feedback uh that it was important for us to consider supporting a range of unit sizes consider parking ratios Adu development and particularly partnership with the Napa Sonoma edu Center a focus on fees and and revisiting the fees um 15-minute neighborhoods I'm skipping a little bit uh focused on support from on affordable housing rather than necessarily market rate housing Transit oriented development prevention of housing speculation thoughts about updating our zoning code and thought about environmental considerations in response to these comments again all of these themes are themes that will come with us as we move forward in our general plan process when you
look specifically at the public draft we developed program nine which is targeted at that Shopping Center parking lot conversion question how if parking lots are going to convert into housing will we ensure that that development has a positive Urban Design and knits in with the fabric of the city so we have a new program focused on that and then in response to the high priority of looking at fees to incentivize and disincentivize preferred types of Housing and then to update zoning we reflected those priorities by in the housing element itself noting that those two pieces of work will be completed in 2024 directly following the the expected completion of the general plan um and that other programs will be completed in 2025.
we also noted the many programs that are currently underway so that folks can understand that a little bit better the housing element public draft has been out since again August of 20 uh August 29th and we will be accepting feedback through through today it was possible to give feedback through this survey and again we had multiple opportunities for folks to come and talk with us about this process and the product we got over 200 individual comments from Planning Commission the general plan advisory committee and community members on specific sites and programs we have logged all of this in an exhaustive database so that we can reference particular comments to particular pieces of the housing element draft we also got more than five letters it wasn't possible to keep updating the PowerPoint but we got letters from quite a few Community organizations as well as private folks on the housing element that we will also be considering as staff gives notes to our Consultants which will then go in draft form in the housing element to hcd there was a spectrum of thoughts that folks expressed as part of the feedback anything from building more housing to concerns over traffic thoughts about climate thoughts on shopping centers Etc and each of these things we will be reflecting on as we give notes to to the team uh we got as of the 30th we got 23 community members giving responses through the form and then also letters and and the presentations gave us more insights again folks asked
us to revisit the sites 08 through 010 to look at affordable housing near Transit and resources a lot of concern around drought conditions and water supply traffic lots of various thoughts on shopping centers concerns around development on the floodplain and potential sea level rise uh desires to continue these conversations as part of the general plan and then some back and forth around High VMT sites folks were pretty interested in impacting the VMT landscape In the City by by increasing transit headways or shortening transit headways to uh to make more more areas lower VMT we we're heartened to see quite a few very positive notes in our letters from Community organizations one that stood out in particular was we commend staff for putting together one of the more comprehensive drafts we have seen and appreciate all of the work that has been undertaken so far it appears that broad public Outreach efforts have been made and that was from quite a large group of community organizations with various interests we also got a letter from the Adu Center appreciating their mention in our housing element and some feedback on what we could do to further our work around adus and then you can see these other comments here we also in general got several other recommendations including supporting having transportation policies support lower income folks ensuring compliance with hced guidance to ensure quick certification facilitating housing construction Adu development ensuring
affordability moving away from predominant single-family zoning and updating parking regulations I will summarize the schedule so that we're all clear on that moving forward um through late August and then September we had this public draft open for review for slightly more than the required 30 days looking forward into October we will take the feedback that we received tonight and have received over the course of the last month and consolidate comments on the element to give to our Consulting team we will then turn a draft housing element over to hcd for their commentary they have 90 days to provide us with a formal letter but we hope that they will be working with us throughout that period to talk about concerns and potential edits to the housing element after that we will make some more revisions and bring a further draft to Planning Commission and city council for review and potential adoption in February or March of next year and that final draft will go to hcd for review for potential certification that is my presentation we welcome your your questions well thank you very much and we have a couple of hands vice mayor posaque and then council member Healey without doing that um I had a few questions uh the people's Village being in the pipeline I was wondering you know maybe I've just forgotten but I thought there were people living there before mid-june I suspect it's there because it wasn't full and or everything wasn't done is there can I get it some more information
on that I think maybe I can answer that they actually just received their final certificate of occupancy on all those units I believe um so since that happened after July 1 of this year and those units will actually go towards arena for the next cycle thank you second is that in terms of The Shopping Center's Plaza north and south 016 and 017.
um I uh you know there's the comment is made in a place or two that um the places the the opportunity sites were chosen as places that have had some interest or have some uh idea of being used in the next eight years and um I'm just concerned as to whether that is the case because I had talked to the owners of those uh of those shopping centers when Kmart first closed and it seemed like uh it couldn't be further down their list and I wondered if that makes it important to not leave them there that's all so I I will say that we have talked with many shopping center owners not all shopping center owners um about about that potential all of the shopping centers have zoning that currently would allow um residential development um with it without any change to it so they do show the capacity now you know the the site inventory is a demonstration of capacity that's why you have buffers um so that if things don't everything doesn't happen as exactly as you um demonstrate it you've got you've got some buffer there I would also say that you know as we're finishing going through the general plan maybe there will be other areas that you know designation or um density increases or additional sites that maybe we come online um through that General plan process and there would be the opportunity to then amend the housing element if so desired after the general plan is completed thank you um another item is the um I think it look a prediction or a hope for having a thousand inclusionary
units as part of our satisfaction of the Arena requirement and one thing that that I wish was in there somewhere is that to me that that means that 15 percent that we're going to have 6 000 units of market rate housing to to get a thousand units of inclusionary uh housing and I know there's some ways that could increase without that but um I guess I guess I haven't talked to anyone who wants 6 000 units of market rate housing and and uh I wonder if I could learn a little bit more about that thought process yes there are multiple ways to get affordable housing finance and we have assumed that there's a use of of several of those ways including some that will come through inclusionary projects as well as some that will be higher proportions of affordable units up to 100 the state is really working to set up Frameworks to help the the finances behind more affordable projects by setting up density bonuses or ministerial review Etc so we really may see that Dynamic shifting that that was my initial thought Heather did you have something of Veronica anything to add well I would I would add also that uh you know staff has been working very uh hard with our affordable housing partners and we have a number of 100 affordable projects that have been approved are under construction or we're just hearing they were successful with their financing um you know so we are starting this cycle this next cycle out with a number of projects already in the pipeline that are 100 affordable um so
that that's a positive um and staff is committed to continuing to work closely with those Partnerships um and you know figuring out new and the best ways to get those get those affordable units um I your point that our inclusionary housing is 15 and if you looked at it strictly through that lens yes it's a lot it's a lot of um above above Market or at Market above moderate at Market um to get a approximately a thousand of the lower income but we are confident and have a number of pipeline projects already listed that are 100 affordable um so there's not a lot of good about inclusionary housing at lower percentages you know and not everything be strictly uh affordable or or above above moderate um one last question in terms of the quote that what you presented from the legal aid letter about um uh that they they thought you know we had one of the best um housing elements they've seen um and that letter the way I read it went on to offer some recommendations for improvement that I'll probably oversimplify by saying that they thought there should be more detail about some comments I'm wondering I I also see I think another side to that that if we don't say exactly what we're going to do it allows us more flexibility from a menu of items you see they were saying some places where we had given a menu of four or five things we might do to increase our affordable housing that we should pick one or two that we're going to assure the world that we will do but but again that may that
may also reduce our flexibility any comments about that yes we have been seeing scenes such as Calistoga they recently got a letter for their housing element that hit on just that point really wanting to see more we will do X then we will consider doing some variety of things um so yes we will look at the recommendations for for more specificity and uh certain interpretations of hcd Guidance with our team and talk with Veronica whose hand I see up around how to parse that out and what best practices are Veronica what do you what do you think about that uh yeah I I think it's very difficult in the sense that um Petaluma wants to be more aggressive or more Progressive in in choosing your path in the future but we don't necessarily um want to bind you in a particular option when you don't have the time yet to explore what different options are and what are the benefits of whether the pros and cons what we could do when we comes back and you know from comments to hcd it's not necessarily commit to which one you will do but to commit to you will pick one that you're not going to study all these options and decide oh we're not going to do anything you want to study these options and you will do something and in order to address the the issues that these options are intended to address so I think that's what we have tried before and in other communities because I think um especially a lot of these things are new you want to spend the time you want um you know as previously in the
public hearings and all that's called public comments residents want to have the opportunity to comment on it and we want to respect that and give them that opportunity to do it thank you um yeah thanks a lot that's all all my questions and I really do think it's a great plan thanks thank you council member Haley followed by council member McDonnell thank you so um I do think um there's a lot to be um commended in this um this draft um and um there's been improvements since the last time we saw it and with that said I'm going to focus on the parts that I find more problematic um and these comments questions all kind of fall under the heading of ground truthing um and so I'll start with um the new o23 parcel um 307 Federal Boulevard South which came under City ownership 15 years ago um and was gifted but to the city by the developer of the South Gate subdivision at the city's request because that had been identified as as the optimal uh replacement fire station one site and that's where the Casa Grande Motel was for for many years um I believe and the city manager can possibly update us on this that the fire department is in the middle of a major study of where their facilities need to be not just fire station one in the future and Council gave us direction as one of our goals that the new fire station one be shovel ready by the time um we're getting ready to do the next uh round of uh Bonds on measure U and and I I have not heard that 307 Petaluma Boulevard South is no longer
part of the mix I expect it very much is and and I think it would be premature at this point to list it is available for housing it may be if you know if if some other site gets gets selected that that site would become available down the road but we don't know that yet and I think it would be very foolhardy for us to uh to list that site as available for housing at this time Madam city manager yes thank you councilmember Healey and I'm going to ask staff um I don't know how it's currently zoned but I think it might be Zone T5 and I think that is why staff added that to the list um you know with fire decides that we need it then we can and pull that off I think that's I think it adds the 14 units and we'd still be within our buffer but I'm going to ask Christina or Heather to weigh in on that yes we were asked by Council in the last round to look at city-owned parcels and there have been several that have been identified as as potentials for housing this is the one that is currently zoned that could allow housing and so it is in there as an option it does not of course require that it be developed as housing the city could elect Sue do other things with it okay well I appreciate that but I think leaving it in the list does create an expectation in the community and sends a message so I would prefer to take it out at this time and if we um decide not to use it for um a fire station um it can be added you know in an amendment later on or as as part of the next Arena cycle um
but I would not support um having that parcel included at this time because quite frankly it's not obvious to me where else that fire station is going to go it may not be ideal or previous fire chief certainly thought it wasn't big enough but if you start looking at Alternatives um there aren't a lot of better ones and it may just be that that's the one that ends up getting used so I again I think that sends the wrong message to the community to to include 307 Boulevard South at this time moving on [Music] um I I asked some questions and and it's on page six of the staff report that and there's only a handful of parcels where this applies apparently but for sites for the capacity of greater than the 80 units um and no known developer interest of 40 percent very low low income and thirty percent moderate income assumption is applied so that's 70 percent of the units where we really don't have any ability to require more than 15 percent and I you know I get that hcd may have allowed some jurisdictions in the Los Angeles region to have done something like that but I really need to know more about why they did that because it seems to me like magical thinking and I really don't want to over promise affordable housing and then under deliver because oh gee we just found out we can't do it where there's no way for us to to actually deliver units in that proportion so I would love it if there was but I'm not seeing any any specific policy recommendations on how we can actually
achieve that here so again ground truth thing I don't want to over promise and under deliver and and with respect to those three Parcels um I I I'm worried about that and then and then lastly along similar lines I'd ask some questions um So within the the shopping center category several of them are are on parking lots but um notably the golden eagle is not a parking lot facility because as I think we discussed last time we don't want to just put apartments in the parking lot and freeze the rest of that 70s strip mall in place um and but but there are other constraints other than just zoning that the need to be looked at and so um I actually made a call this morning to see what I could find out about the um uh contractual constraints on the property and what I was what it was able to find was just with respect to the uh the anchor tenant which of course is Grocery Outlet and what I was told is that they actually have four or five-year lease extension options beginning April of next year um and you know if if and I don't think staff has made that kind of Outreach you know it might be nice to know about what the situation is with other tenants there because I think the community's vision has been to revitalize to totally redevelop that site along the lines of um the Theater District not just add more stuff in the middle of the parking lot um and and so again you know I'd hate to be sending something to hcd saying well the zoning is great it works but there are some really
practical showstoppers that are not are going to prevent that from happening um so I I just think there there's no more um more work that needs to be done before I'd have a comfort level supporting supporting that so those are my comments here again overall I think it's great and I I'm sorry to nitpick on the stuff that I find problematic but this is moving in the right direction thank you thank you councilmember McDonnell followed by council member barnacle thank you very much um yeah I have to Echo that that I mean this is a dense document with lots of uh really great policy and goal in it um but I too get kind of hung up on on maybe numbers um and whether that table for how much very low and low we're presenting it doesn't have the buffer it should have or the projects that maybe should have I'd like to see um the project on Washington that uh has now been bought by an affordable housing complex be added in there that'll help our buffer um right here across the street from the library there and um then um I'd like to see uh Village East city-owned property uh in included in uh likely it will be moderate with some smattering of lows so it doesn't help that dramatically with the very low which is really our problem but it will help some and and neither of those will put any market rate in so that's also good um and then [Music] at planning um commission I will say there was discussion about uh uh the parcel at quarry at the roundabout there that Burbank now has um funding to
go ahead with that non-profit fully affordable property and and it'll be an outlier sort of in that area you couldn't pass a VMT uh to get a development in and several have collapsed for that just that reason even though they had 30 affordable in their project um but planning Commissioners then said well aren't we trying to make a more robust transit system and isn't the boulevard the natural place especially as it goes by ppsc and all the services that are there when do we decide so this comes a question I guess when do we decide that we declare a commitment to Transit and that allows sites to be put in as opportunity or you know since we don't know that we'll get there on transit do we just not add sites and suffer the low buffer of affordable you know do we want to increase increase the buffer and and show commitment to Affordable and show commitment to improved Transit um so I I would like to view it from that perspective thank you come out of Mayor are we doing comment right now or is it just are we this is comment we're only giving direction okay so we will open public comments I have a I have one sort of big question and that's can Eric I asked you this uh earlier today I and then asked you earlier in the month what is like can you give me the the high level on AB 2011 and what that means for um for housing have we have we looked at all um what the implications might be for housing and Petaluma with that well we I'd be happy to respond council member barnacle and Madam
Mary and Council um that was just just enacted on the 28th and um I did thanks for giving me a heads up and I did go through it today um basically what it provides are two secret amongst some really complicated repetitions of two sections in the planning law depending on other bills that may or may not be signed um what it really does is provide two streamlined as of right fast tracks for two kinds of housing projects that both of which need to be on Parcels where office retail and parking are permitted as a right without a cup um the the first sort of Fast Track which is under government code section 65912.110 is for 100 affordable units and um and that 100 is except for manager units it must be multi-family um they can't be within 500 feet of a freeway um and then there's some some pretty tight time frames within which um inconsistencies with objective development standards would need to be identified or there's a deemed approved or deemed consistent like feature um and the other the other fast track again for Parcels where office [Music] um retail and parking is permitted as a right without a cup um and for those they need to front on at least 50 feet fronting on what's defined as a commercial corridor um and that is defined as a highway and not a freeway with at least 70 feet and no more than 50 feet and with um those eligible projects need to be less than 20 acres um there there's restrictions um for persons that don't qualify that sites to section six five nine one
three point four which is basically things like Wetlands um seismic zones hive fire hazard zones um things like that um and let's see here [Music] um and I think those are the main there's some exceptions um that prohibit projects qualifying for the fast tracking where they would um to proceed they would have to demolish existing or previously existing housing um so what so that that's what the bill provides as relevant to I think your question um what that means in terms of the housing plan the the housing element we've not had time to discuss or even digest since it's so recently enacted I think I think you know what it clearly one thing it clearly could mean is that um if owners of parcels that are zoned that way um want to proceed that way it gives them an expedited track and and some incentive oh by the way there's a lot of prevailing wage requirements baked into both versions um that that the city would have to monitor but mostly our requirement for the property owners to develop um anyway I think these are clearly intended to be and may work as an incentive for for property owners that own eligible property and you already heard some comments from council members that you know they may not be so inclined um in Petaluma um some of the current owners and that's that's up to them but I don't know staff have have had a chance to Noodle that um and have more thoughts about that but that that's what the law provides anyways as part of that discussion nothing to add
specifically Eric thank you and I and I'm happy to if you have more specific questions council member I could do my best for them no um my my comment on that will be to just factor that like I'd like to really understand what that means for this housing element and that as we move forward so um please do dive into that one further initial thought is that kind of in keeping with staff already said it may not mean much if if it's already the case that those Parcels can be developed for housing if the owners so choose it's you know this is a further incentive that made make that more attractive but okay I'm just like uh like a memo or some sort of a some something that addresses it um uh so one thing that wasn't addressed that I asked about is the opportunity cost of impact fees um and just fees in general um like how many how much have we not uh collected in fees from Haystack just I would just like a sample project of like Haystack and just like how much would we expect the property taxes and the sales tax um to go up um and how much have we versus like would we collected fees from that project I'd just like to see like a simple economics because I just have this feeling that like the Lost revenue from years of it not actually going through would mean that we could waive all the fees and probably be fine but I'd like to see some analysis of that can can someone in the future iteration can we commit to like actually providing just a sample uh case study of like haystack we
could do that if that's Council direction to do it it's a be kind of speculative one consideration too is um [Music] that kind of a waiver would would make the work prevailing wage work and and if and it might be exempt if it's there are some kinds of um affordable housing that that are exempt from prevailing wages so it's no impact if that's the case um but it also has the effect potentially of defunding improvements that we're relying on the revenue um and it's it it's it's a little bit complicated it may you know it may be hard to do that before the studies are updated following the um following the general Plan update which will probably be will be a natural consequence of the general time updated a new capital I'm not trying to update any fees structures Eric I'm just trying to get a sense um like all the fee stuff in here um it says by December of 2024 there's other things by 23 I'm trying to understand relative priority of like what we're talking about here and I need a sample I need it I need some analysis done on that I'm trying to enact policy with it I'm just trying to understand better councilmember I'm sorry but when you say in here our team I'm not sure I'm just not clear on I'm trying to understand the opportunity cost of our fees right right now that land's sitting there vacant with the low property tax the people that would be living there are not spending money in our downtown supporting our local businesses and I want to understand how much revenue we
haven't collected from property tax and sales taxes um potentially because of our fees okay so I'm that's I I it's hard for me to um I think we have to that's certainly not an out not an analysis I could do although I considered the development fees to be a specialty practice at Perry of mine um in part because I think it's a number intensive exercise and my skills don't run that way but um but we could we could check with I don't know if there's anybody on staff in planning who what we are able to do is to run the draft impact fee sheet which I've we probably have done um we we would have done that and and already had that discussion so what I'm what our development impact fees would be the estimate based on what was presented as part of that discretionary review I can't remember 187 units and 20 000 of retailer you know there's some there's going to be some assumptions there but um what I'm not what I would would have to see if what I'm less able to know quickly is what the property tax would be with that if if it that had been developed or the sales tax increase in sales tax revenue right that's that's what I was getting that's more difficult um but definitely the development impact fees yeah I guess I just like we can use a you know we have a per capita sales tax right now can we just apply the per capita sales tax to the number of people that would be living in there to get to a like some sales tax that would be generated by having 187 units of of housing there perhaps I
mean I think and and that's what I was getting into I think it's the the opportunity cost part of it that's the difficult part the closest I don't know the what maybe analogous is is some of the analysis that happens for fiscal and economic impact analyzes for certain large retail uses where they their the goal the requirement under the council's policy is is for analysis to be done as to whether it's a net positive or negative impact on on the city's economy and and I think that involves some of these factors like expected revenues in terms of City revenues to the general fund so um but that was not done for haystack that was not of a size that triggered that type of analysis right I'm not like I I don't need it to be detailed I'm just thinking like there's back of the envelope things that if I had access to the data that you all have access to that I would probably do it you know I'm not looking for anything really like whiz-bang here I just want to understand like how many years does a vacant lot sitting there with an approved project um like take before we could literally have waived all of the fees and council member Barnacle I would also add that there are costs associated with those units once they are up and running so there is you know there is the sales tax benefit and property tax but there's also service impacts so there's a cost agreement I just would like to understand that better because like not getting answers from it doesn't make me feel like we really
understand that and that's like if we're thinking about prioritizing the housing element like I need to understand like the economics of of impact fees we can definitely get get the impact fee yes that's that's pretty straightforward um I think I'm sorry to interrupt I think that we could find a study on the relative impacts of residential development whether that tends to be in that positive diversity or a net okay it may also be possible for Corey for example to provide some you know rough estimates based on you know a project you know estimated project of you know what what Finance is seeing in terms of property and sales tax but it won't we're not trying to I mean it's a very interesting and I think potentially important question we're not trying to be resistant council member what we're trying to show is when you really do that analysis the negatives and the positives are a little complicated in terms of what what really Nets out um but I'm sure Corey would be able to Ballpark some of those sort of basic anticipatable or estimable Revenue parts [Music] um I'll Focus my the right and my comments on impact fees um the uh I think there's an opportunity for more on negative impact fees potentially for um uh projects that don't go to the top of the density and actually charging them for displacing the impacts to elsewhere in the community I also think that there's a pretty strong Nexus between parking and we should be able to establish some pretty large impact fees for um
like dollar per uh per space sure that we don't over build parking the way we have and then the one that's not in the list of bullets I appreciate all of those being in there is the location one um I'd love to see something tied to walk score just recognizing that there's a lot less impact of people are living in a walkable community um with that I'll just I'll stop thank you um head council member Fisher followed by council member King thank you so much I'd like to start by saying that I would like to remove those opportunities sites eight nine and ten from our housing element a few questions that I had just going through one general question which sites are the ReUse sites are those the ones that are asterisks Mrs yes okay um and then what's the status of our pre-approved Adu plans I know it's been in the works for quite some time excellent question I will try to not go on about that for too long um but the the short answer is that we are directly partnering with the Napa Sonoma County Adu Center they have a library of pre-approved plans that they have assembled and we are going to be supporting that work in making those plans they're pre-reviewed so there's a little bit of of detail in there um their their plan reviewed but there's still some work that folks have to do to submit a plan in terms of a site plan review and Foundation plans but the plans are are substantially available so we are working to support their work in providing not only that but also direct property
owner assistance in terms of feasibility analysis materials for talking to cities and materials for cities to provide to to Property Owners to facilitate Adu development and all um you know in all possible ways that we can they're very thorough it's a pleasure to work with them and then how do you determine which neighborhoods have the capacity for adus actually the the uh the only way that we can arrive at a an estimate for hcd is to look at our past Adu production and then project that forward and however it's likely to be a slight underestimation because of the newer regulations around adus that allow them to be built in many more areas of the cities where for example Peds would not have allowed them previously so we made a conservative estimate based on previous production thank you and following up on Dennis's comments about this program 11 inclusionary housing the way I read it this is just our 15 inclusionary Housing section right that it wouldn't be anything else and and I also questioned those a thousand affordable housing units 400 and very low income when our inclusionary housing ordinance doesn't include very low income just low and moderate no our inclusionary does include very low for rentals rentals are split between very low and low are for sale are split between low and moderate thank you for the clarification I didn't realize we had a difference um anything else uh the program 17 um housing rehab uh we said by 2025 we want a funding for decarbonization of
housing for low income I would suggest that with the IRA funding coming down for those kind of fixtures that we might want to make that sooner so we can take advantage of that funding as it comes um and then quick question about program 18 the preservation of at-risk housing you they said there was one project that we have that's not owned by a non-profit of our eight housing developments do you know which one that is Karen are you able to take that question um I mean I ask if that's jokes would that be Vintage Oaks which is a Real Estate Investment Trust USA properties into Chateau thank you I see that Karen is off mute Karen do you recall that specific project um I I would need to look into the details of it I'm sorry I'm calling in for the meeting tonight and I don't have my my full screen and files in front of me that I can follow up on that we can follow up on that okay my apologies council member Fisher Okay thank you and then two other quick things um program 28 again updating our website um about the fair housing programs that we have we said that would be December of next year and again is there if it's just a website update that could be done fairly quickly I wonder if we really want to put that off particularly with our recent enactment of the tenant protections and so on um and the last thing is been under program 29 uh including those um just clouds depiction uh that we just passed um to update this section that's it thank you and councilmember Fisher we are
actually working on fair housing information um under the whole tenant protection package so I believe that's going to be updated a lot sooner than next year I think that was just a we're trying to spread things out but I think that's going up a lot sooner thank you councilmember King thank you madam mayor um and thank you for the report very detailed and I think it's getting closer to the final final uh report I do have a couple of comments and some feedback um I also had a question about ab211 but I think some of it was answered um what my feedback would be with respect to that is that it appears that that some of the properties that were identified as potential sites might fit into ab211 but you have another six months to kind of take a look and see if there are some other sites that that might kind of fit into that category and I recognize the loss only a couple weeks old so between now and the final uh perhaps um uh that could be taken another look at um and I agree with council member Healey's comment about removing the property that is potentially the new West Side Fire Station uh the El Casa Grande Hotel Site from this because I think um representing that that is housing um is not necessarily the case depending on where where the direction goes as to where the location of the new Fire Station might be so those are two comments there um I don't think you included it but I would be very reluctant to include any properties outside the current Urban growth manager I don't
think there's community support for that um uh even though there might be some Temptation in certain areas but you know it's something I support personally and I don't know if there's community support for it so I would refer I would my feedback is to refrain from that um and I do have a couple comments I know we pulled several properties including the vartner property from from what's being reported to the state and I know those properties you know it doesn't preclude development but I just you know my comment that they don't comply with the VMT that one is the council has some discretion with respect to that as does the Planning Commission and two um if we're going to include the Burbank housing which is in the same neighborhood um uh it doesn't make a lot of sense to inherently exclude those but if you want to keep them as a buffer that's fine with me but I just wanted to make that comment and I'd also comment that with the changes from Petaluma Boulevard South um the basically the the new the new road construction and all the road die with The Pedestrian and bike improvements as well um I think we're going to see some uh it'll be slow but we'll see some changes to Petaluma Boulevard and South that probably put any housing out there in a much better place with respect to Transit and I would point out that there is a bus station right near there too actually on each side of the road so um that would be my comment on that and I do this is something just out of of all the
data that was in there one of the things that struck me as something that probably should be tracked on a more regular basis and that is the commuting pattern numbers uh both in you know the the twenty thousand or so that leave in the twenty thousand or so um that come in that come in uh and whether you know those patterns are have been proved over time and what to the degree we can determine what has improved them it really probably has less directly to do with the the report that's being submitted but it certainly has something to do with um you know traffic issues in town Economic Development and I think it's important for for um the city to have that information um and my last question is within the report there was a reference to incentives and requirements for smaller units smaller square footage units both for single family homes and and apartments uh and one of the incentives listed was fee reductions um uh are are you aware of any other incentives uh that are used elsewhere in California to try to convince developers that um Apartments like Studios and and if they're going to build any single family housing if they make it smaller uh exist because I I think you've heard probably from the council I know you've heard from me that that you know that is of interest and um the question is you know we can set a policy for it but we have to still have it come come before us so um I'm not aware of I mean perhaps you are of of whether other incentives for that type of
construction are out there that we can implement so that's my feedback if you think couple questions council member King the one other incentive for like smaller units would also be parking um right now uh you know a 600 square foot house and a 4 000 square foot house has the same parking requirement so that theoretically could be another incentive is is around fees is around parking some of those requirements okay and we've had a number we've had you I think you've had feedback from the mechanical with respect to that all right if uh if I guess if any other city or municipality starts coming up with other incentives I think that would be good information to have um you know it doesn't seem to be working as well as I would have liked uh you know over the years so and I think um you know if we have other incentive options we should be taking a look thank you thank you so um before we go to uh public comment um I would just like to say the difference that you asked about why would we allow Burbank but not the other project for a bank by right uh because it's a hundred percent uh affordable we'll have that right no I'm not asking why we're we're not making any judgments on what's going to be built I'm talking about including it in a potential list of sites for housing I mean we're including shopping centers where you know where I think we're more hopeful and pragmatic about that I mean I'm I'm more hopeful about it but uh you know so far I haven't seen anything come forward but
my point is not you know whether they have the you know by right but it's the location and why would we you know include that in in something that can get past BMT and I and it is by right but yes and VMT is something we're working at at trying to address and and it is a problem and it um councilmember McDonnell brought it up when he was saying making a commit we should make a commitment to transportation and which comes first making that commitment or building the housing well we've seen how building housing without the commitment has worked out for all the people on the east side with no Rainier across town over uh Crossing so uh I think we should be very careful about that but when it is a hundred percent affordable we we as a jurisdiction don't have the right to say no to that because that is where we've been preempted by state law so you know we should take control of what we can take control of so with that I will um ask our city clerk if she's received any comments prior to the meeting on this item Madame mayor yes we received eight public comments prior to the meeting which are posted online with the agenda packet thank you and um I will I have two comments cards for people here in the council and uh after we hear from them we will go to people who are in the virtual audience and um hopefully well and then we'll have to extend the meeting time so the first speaker is Darren rakison we're going to open public comment on this item [Music] uh thank you and just in
reviewing this kind of document it's tough to know where the housing element ends the general plan begins you know what's appropriate an arena inventory kind of valuation exercise versus what's a wish list so with that being said I might be towing a line but two major things that I think are expressed in the values of this document that I think kind of bleed into housing policy uh the first of which being other than car transportation and I say that very generally I love the idea of having it something in here an item in here focusing on Transit and maybe that's calling out like the transit master plan I think that's kind of akin to what we're doing with the water master plan that's something that's already going to happen and putting that as a priority item because if we really focus on Transit infrastructure maybe that does open up new sites as part of our valuation without violating it or as part of our inventory without violating BMT I would also love to see in there a focus on pet and bike in infrastructure Street trees you know I'm thinking back to that estat presentation we had and I think some of those principles really are valuable things the the community wants and again maybe this is outside the scope of this Arena process but I think it would be really good to have those principles in there if this is something more broad than strictly validating our inventory choices the other thing that I think is not in here but is expressed in the values is this idea of
environment and natural resources now again this may be more of a wish list item but if there was something in there something on the books talking about identifying sensitive receptor sites identifying current parcel zone for housing that may be potentially environmentally significant I'm thinking sites by the river but this could apply to other Parcels I think having something like that in there now I don't know what form that would take and of course we're having to prioritize against you know I think it's 14 required items programs listed here but I would love to see something like that on the books because I think it aligns with values and I think it's something that that we can do obviously that goes along with you know the sites 9 10 and 8 I say 0908 because that's my order of preference starting with that Cinnabar property I would love to see those kept off I think that's a great step that staff has made in responding to public Outreach but also Planning Commission and other committees that have reviewed this and then just a final thought about affordable fees you know in talking with some folks about this element we threw out some things like could we potentially double our in lieu of fees could we see much more aggressive cutting of fees you know if people scale past that 15 affordable could we really turn the dial on these fees aggressively or at least more aggressively and would that help us achieve higher affordable numbers and kind of a realistic sense because I
think the the 45 percent right now with no developer interest that that calculation is a little tough but maybe there are some things we can do to really help us hit that number just using thank you very much Eileen Morse good evening Madam mayor and City Council Members thank you for being here so late and thank you also to all the city employees for being here so late really appreciate it I really like all the very inclusive language in this in this draft you know there you know we talk about dignity and inclusion and opportunity and diversity and affordability and so I know that everyone in this room wants to bring those words to life and at the same time we really do have to acknowledge that we have failed for more than a decade to meet our affordable housing goals and it wasn't always that way in Petaluma in fact we took a lot of pride in the fact that we were one of the only cities in the Bay Area to meet our housing goals and the last housing element calls out the reason why they said we had robust local subsidies and so much of that was from the Redevelopment agency rip but a lot of it was from also from donation of land so I was um bummed when I saw the inventory and there was only one city-owned property on it and now it looks like there may be none um so I think you know that's the only thing we know is that it's expensive to build affordable housing and I read the report and you know looked at the partners the potential Partners the potential funding and there
were a lot of Maze and mites the only thing we know is that we do have land and we have the fairgrounds and so you know I'm I'm watching the citizen committee prepare to suggest to you that you build no land on the fairgrounds and I think I want to ask if you decide to do that can you lay out to us with specifics how are we going to make affordable housing a reality in this city because so many people so many of your constituents are struggling and so you know I know that much of this work is is is required by the state you have to provide this inventory but my hope is that it's going to be something that we can really use and make come to fruition so I urge you to look at the fairgrounds because I think it's the most basic [Music] you know it's next to Transit and shopping and schools everything we say we want in affordable housing so again thank you for this discussion appreciate it thank you and before we go to the virtual audience I would need a motion to go beyond 11 o'clock a motion to extend it okay we have a motion by McDonnell and a second by post okay and with that um is there any opposition no okay so we're going to extend past 11 and I will ask our moderator to check with the virtual um audience thank you madam mayor at this point if there's anyone in the virtual audience that would like to provide comment I'm on our draft housing element please raise your virtual hand or press star nine first video we have is s Kirks followed by Dwayne uh seasonal Nala you speak
you cannot mute and begin thank you um I'd like to First say that I don't think you've had a break this evening and maybe I missed it because during the course of your meeting I've been to the grocery store listened to all of your discussion on my cell phone and fed and watered my horses and then my internet went out when Council number Barnacle started to give his comments so I miss some but I think you probably should have had a break long before now um I attended all of the housing element commissioning committee workshops and meetings and um I would like to say that environmental considerations that were mentioned are very important and this document should have identified properties where environmental sensitivity exists that would have been completely possible including the potential for open space conservation the some of the parcels in North Petaluma along excuse me pendulum Boulevard North were completely inappropriate to include and of course the staff received quite a bit of feedback about that but those Parcels should never have been put into this housing element and they are Parcels on the west side of Petaluma Boulevard North we really must protect West Petaluma and North Petaluma for the environmental benefits that we have there's a lot of advocacy about the river the North River I of course understand that because that's the area of my one of my nonprofits focus in addition to West Petaluma for over 20 years but we have land area that also must be considered
that's just not necessarily River so this could well have been done and I'm very disappointed that it that it is not because it's a proactive way of addressing how we are going to fit our housing element into our environment another point is about the urban growth boundary area that so many people keep mentioning extending over near the corona station because the Brody subdivision was so poorly planned and constructed there there really cannot be any more take of land around that Urban growth boundary the rural area the character there is very much impacted by by the prior planning so my I strongly oppose any kind of discussion about extending the urban growth boundary there and um lastly I just would like to think that we're moving in a Direction Where We have both ground truthing and we're going to have an effective housing element three city-owned properties that could be identified for housing or the name fire station police station and City Hall to move the complex to the fairgrounds thank you the next speaker that we have is Dwayne I'll now um allow you to speak economy yourself NBN foreign good evening um I want to first thank you for your discussion on floodway properties and whether or not that should be included in your um the arena that obviously it doesn't do any good to build uh housing for um the lower third income people in the floodway second of all I'd like to um mentioned that Petaluma is not the cause of the housing affordability problem now you don't
control the the income tax rate on speculation and you don't control the the interest rate on building uh structures which is the main um government uh control over housing Construction [Music] I would like to suggest that the the arena methodology is required by the state is defective it covers statistics on income and affordability but the place where we should really be looking in all communities should be looking to build housing is is for the people who work at that Community we should look at the thousands of people per day enter our community we should figure out which group which housing would most appeal to that particular group and to build housing for them um that's what they that's what the arena number should be directed as is the correct analysis of where people need actually need housing that they don't have to drive 50 miles a day and uh one uh one last uh Point um I would mention to both to um Mr King and the previous speaker that the citizens of Petaluma twice voted to have an urban expansion area around the corona station they voted it's clearly in the in the ballot uh initiative and if we don't if we continue to have only the Brody and the danco around our Corona station you could very well effectively kill smart I mean if we don't start planning right now and I don't necessarily mean in this document but in in general if we don't start planning to build a pedestrian-oriented community both downtown and at Corona we are going to effectively eliminate the
the voters uh enthusiasm for smart we went from 76 in favor of smart on the east side and then because of the games being played with uh with the design of and the parking um we ended up with uh placing a parking lot only on East Petaluma and not planning for a community we ended up going to less than 50 percent support for Smart in the last election thank you [Music] the next feature that we have is Talon followed by Shakti tell them all now you speak you kind of mute yourself and begin good evening uh mayor Barrett uh vice mayor posa Kay council members and staff this is Callum weeks policy director of generation housing I'll keep my remarks brief as the hour is incredibly late I'm sure everyone wants to get home um I I just really want to encourage um you know as as kind of one of the top line things that you guys should be pursuing and we're certainly advancing into other jurisdictions is whether as well is is really actually coming to alignment with the spirit of ab602 and really looking to switch to a square footage assessment when it comes to impact fees I think this very much aligns um with you know kind of the direction that I think council member Barnacle was headed in but don't let me quote you on that I do appreciate the conversation around pulling back uh the impact fees that is one of the principal things that we've been working on and really trying to advocate for um you know from a policy standpoint it could be a really effective tool to help spur those
desperately needed affordable units so we will certainly continue um having those conversations with you all and if you want to have some sort of uh separate conversation uh feel free to send me an email I'd be I'd be happy to chat but um in the meantime I just like to thank uh everyone for for their participation in this this housing element I I can honestly say I really tried to find a violation of state law and I I didn't I didn't find one so so I do tip my hat um uh to to all of you so very well done and thank you and I look forward to working more with you on this a wonderful evening foreign hello we can hear you okay um yeah I don't support the expanding of the urban growth boundary and I want programs included in the element about Transit projects bike and pet infrastructure and identifying environmentally sensitive parcels that's all I have to say thanks thank you and with that we'll close public comment on this item and we'll bring it back to council to see if there is any further Direction um I did hear um the the asking of removal of four different Parcels 8 9 10 and 307 Petaluma Boulevard South um I know it wasn't it was just one or two people who mentioned that but um unless other people are opposed to those uh police say so at this time but um if there's any other direction to staff or do people feel they've already given their Direction now first I support that and then um additionally we had a lot of tremendous uh public participation that we kind of haven't
acknowledged from count from Council level but um a lot of it was right on and well crafted and I'm hoping staff is considering all of that as well a particularly uh uh in edmondson's uh contribution and then uh the efforts on Ada so we'd like to have a positive statement on those thanks thank you anybody else want to speak up at this time okay um does Staff feel that they oh I see Heather as their hand up thank you madam mayor so thank you for following up on those sites um one other thing I guess I'd like to confirm um whether there's any direction but there was a concern raised about the methodology that we used for sites um I think it was 80 units or more we were following acceptable practice with um hcd and there was a concern by at least one council member and just I didn't hear a majority um so would love some kind of maybe a polar feedback on that and then there was a couple things I just wanted to follow up on um I think following up on council member McDonnell's comments we will look at adding in the East Washington Commons parcel that was just an Omission so we had kind of already caught that it was on there and then it wasn't on there so that um we'll look at that the village yeast is actually not zoned I do not believe that zone for residential right now so that's why we didn't have that one in there um and then there was a number of comments about from members of the public about city-owned property um and the reason those aren't on there specifically is because
they are most of the city-owned parcels are not designated and zoned to allow residential um in currently we do have a policy in there and I'm not recalling the policy number off the top of my head but about looking at um either rezoning those or changing um housing as a potentially allowable use in that Civic facility zoning District so we did through the programs kind of acknowledge that there are some of those parcels and we'll want to look at those as future affordable housing sites so thank you for those questions I would just say and and I'll ask council members to um uh separate themselves from this uh uh this view uh except for the uh statement that was made questioning the methodology I I did hear several of the council members say that they were very impressed with the quality of this housing element and and pointed out the um you know to to comments from people who made public comment about that as well and we just heard one actually from um the column weeks from generation housing that um you know I I think there was General agreement on your assumptions uh and those of us who've been following the general plan uh group and the all the discussion that's happened there you know understand the underpinnings that have been going on uh and the invaluable work work that that group has has done so um unless other council members wanted to separate themselves from that idea I think I think that this housing element is on the right track um and there's just you know the
the small things that people have issues about so anybody else want to add in anything go ahead I just I'm not clear I mean you you again mentioned withdrawing sites eight nine and ten and I just want to go on down in support of that as well if if anyone's looking for more all right anybody else so um thank you again a lot of work a lot of hours and we look forward to seeing how it evolves so thank you thank you and with that that is the end of our business today and thank you Council for a good meeting and we're adjourned [Music]