General Plan Advisory Committee
General Plan Advisory Committee
Thu, November 17, 2022
Agenda items
Vote records
Discussion summary
Transcript
Meeting summaryAI-generated
General Plan Advisory Committee — November 17, 2022
This was a working session of the General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC), devoted almost entirely to a presentation and discussion on natural resources policy and strategy ideas for Petaluma's General Plan Update (GPU). The session ran slightly past nine o'clock due to the depth of discussion. Spanish-language interpretation was provided live throughout.
Roll Call and Announcements
Staff liaison Christina Paul opened the meeting and noted with regret that GPAC member Delia Diaz had recently relocated out of state and would no longer serve on the committee. A business survey for Petaluma business owners was highlighted, extended through November 23rd, and GPAC members were encouraged to spread the word.
Staff and Project Updates
Staff provided several updates on GPU-related initiatives:
Fairgrounds: City Council directed staff to begin working with the Sonoma-Marin Fair Board to ensure its financial stability and gradually transition property management of the fairgrounds to the city. Future General Plan discussions will address appropriate uses for the site.
Climate Action Plan: Staff have completed a full review of drafts from Green Associates and are revising initial greenhouse gas policy sections before engaging the Climate Action Commission.
Sea Level Rise/Flood Modeling: Work is ongoing with Public Works West and Sherwood Engineers; preliminary flood mapping is expected to be shared with the community in early 2023.
ESAT Report: A community engagement and sentiment analysis report has been delivered to the city and will be posted to the General Plan website.
Housing Element: The Housing Element is currently under review by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). Full feedback is expected by end of January; the city must return a revised draft to HCD by April 1st. Due to tight timelines, the full document will not return to GPAC, but will go to Planning Commission and City Council twice, and public feedback via email is welcome.
Natural Resources: Policy and Strategy Framework Presentation
Consultant Della Acosta of Rincon Consultants led the substantive portion of the meeting, presenting an initial draft framework of goals and strategies for natural resources policy. Ron Baußner of the GPU consultant team provided framing context. The presentation covered the city's legal jurisdiction over natural resources, new state legislative requirements (including Senate Bill 1425 and Assembly Bill 1358), existing conditions findings, and how community and GPAC working group input shaped the draft goals.
The draft framework organized strategies under five high-level goals:
1. Native American Heritage — Partner with tribes for consultation, education, and culturally appropriate resource stewardship.
2. Water Resource Management — Develop a citizen River Keepers program, improve signage along the Petaluma River, and empower landowners to use water-capturing systems.
3. Cohesive Network of Natural Lands — Support open space connectivity, expand urban and food forest canopy, use transfer of development rights (TDR), and improve habitat and trail corridors.
4. Biophilic Landscaping — Promote green walls and roofs, native and drought-tolerant plants, and water-capturing systems for businesses.
5. Interdepartmental Staff Working Group — Create a cross-departmental city staff group to oversee General Plan natural resources policy implementation.
The committee discussed each goal in turn, with facilitated 10-minute discussion blocks. Key themes and concerns raised by GPAC members included:
Trees were repeatedly identified as the single most impactful natural resource tool available, and members (particularly Bill Reinhardt) argued strongly that trees deserved an explicit, dedicated goal — not just incidental mentions. Members also called for a full-time, paid urban forester position.
The Petaluma River was flagged as conspicuously absent from the high-level goals, given its central importance to the city's identity, ecology, and history.
Equity and access to open space and natural resources — including for renters and unhoused residents — were raised as missing dimensions, particularly in the water and biophilic landscaping goals.
Enforcement and oversight were identified as gaps: without staff empowered to regulate, permit, and enforce, the working group risks being ineffective. John (Shrimps) described a recent creek disturbance where no single city department could claim clear oversight or enforcement authority.
Terminology drew comment: "biophilic" was criticized as jargon unfamiliar to most residents; members suggested "urban ecosystem" or plain language alternatives. Susan Kirks (public comment) noted that "natural resources" is an extractive term being phased out by many conservation organizations in favor of "natural environment" or "natural ecosystems."
The Sonoma Valley Wildlife Corridor was shown in the presentation's mapping but the Petaluma-specific wildlife corridor connecting to Marin County was not — an omission flagged by both GPAC member Janice Keator Thompson and public commenter Susan Kirks. Staff asked for help accessing the relevant data.
Transfer of development rights (TDR) was raised as an entirely new concept for Petaluma, not currently referenced in the municipal code, though staff confirmed this is not a barrier to establishing such a program through a code amendment following General Plan adoption.
Food production — member John (Shrimps) and others noted that "food forest" was too narrow a term and that small-scale urban agriculture, backyard food production, and community gardens deserved broader inclusion.
Soil health and underground ecology were mentioned by multiple members (and supported in public comment by Darren Houston) as underrepresented dimensions of open space management.
Regional coordination was a recurring theme: for Native American consultation, wildlife corridors, tree management, and water management, members noted that purely city-level approaches are insufficient.
This session was *not* a binding vote; it was an iterative feedback session to help consultants refine the draft policy framework before producing an administrative draft.
Public Comment on Natural Resources
Public comment was robust. Key themes included:
Darren Houston (general comment and natural resources comment) advocated for integrating the North River Greenway plan, pushed for soil health monitoring using microbiometer technology, and called for a comprehensive urban forestry management plan. He also suggested the tree committee be transitioned into a broader Natural Resources and Urban Ecology commission.
Susie Grady called for stronger language around community food production, community gardens, school gardens, and working landscapes, and noted the city's endorsement of the Sonoma County Food System Alliance's food action plan has not been meaningfully incorporated.
Veronica O supported a dedicated chapter on open space and natural resources, a parks and natural resources department on par with Public Works, stronger requirements for rain gardens and permeable surfaces, and the concept of "rights of nature" as a guiding principle for Petaluma's general plan.
Taryn Obade (protect wild Petaluma) criticized the presentation as generic and not sufficiently Petaluma-specific, noting the absence of the river, old-growth forest, and wetlands from the core goals. She questioned the practicality of green roofs given water scarcity and called for a citizen advisory committee alongside any staff working group.
M. Sullivan urged that biodiversity — not just human enjoyment — be the central framing for open space policy, citing rapid species loss globally. She expressed concern that current plans for the Kelly Creek area do not adequately account for cumulative ecological impacts on sensitive habitats and special-status species, and called for independent wildlife and ecological experts to be included in decision-making.
Bev (protect wild Petaluma) called for greater respect for existing mature trees and natural systems, noting that the Petaluma River has long been treated as a "sewer" and that the previous General Plan's river plan was largely unenforced.
Susan Kirks recommended updating terminology away from "natural resources," criticized the draft framework for feeling disconnected from Petaluma's actual landscape, supported inclusion of land back and reparations language for Native American communities, and offered to share wildlife corridor mapping data for Petaluma that connects to Marin County.
Ann Edminster expressed appreciation for the depth of community expertise represented in the room and expressed support for the comments made by others.
Closing GPAC Comments
Several members offered final reflections. Aaron Chimeleski thanked the facilitation team for improvements in meeting structure that allowed more voices to participate. Roberto Marez asked whether east-west connectivity across Petaluma had been addressed — staff confirmed it is treated across multiple elements (transportation, trails, parks) and will be developed further in the land use alternatives work. Bill Reinhardt requested a future summary of available legislative tools for land conservation and re-wilding, particularly for private lands in sensitive areas like the North River corridor.
Key Takeaways
The natural resources policy framework is still early and iterative. Tonight's discussion was input to a draft that will go through further rounds of GPAC and public review before becoming part of the General Plan administrative draft. GPAC members and the public should expect further opportunities to weigh in.
The Petaluma River and urban tree canopy are widely seen as the most glaring omissions from the draft goals — multiple GPAC members and public commenters called for these to be explicitly named and prioritized at the goal level.
Enforcement, staffing, and accountability are central concerns. Members strongly favor a full-time urban forester and an empowered interdepartmental working group with clear regulatory authority, not just a consultative function.
Equity must be woven throughout. Access to open space, green infrastructure benefits, and food production opportunities for renters, lower-income residents, and unhoused community members were identified as gaps in the current framework.
The Housing Element must be returned to HCD by April 1, 2023. Due to the compressed timeline, GPAC will not formally review the revised document, though public comment remains welcome via email.
AI-generated summary from voice-to-text transcript. Not the official record. Verify important details with the source documents linked above.
What happened at this meeting
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order and the chair welcomed attendees, clarifying whether any phone participants were GPAC members who needed to be unmuted and given appropriate access.
ROLL CALL, LOGISTICS AND MEETING OVERVIEW
Christina Paul, Principal Planner and General Plan project manager, introduced herself and the meeting structure. Roll call was conducted with 18 GPAC members present; notably, Delia Diaz was reported to have moved across the country and is no longer part of the committee. Zoom logistics were explained, including muting/unmuting procedures, caption features, video controls, hand-raising for comments, and technical support contacts. Attendees were reminded that live Spanish interpretation was available and speakers were asked to speak slowly, pause between sentences, and avoid unexplained acronyms to assist translators.
GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT During General Public Comment, the public is invited to make comments on items of public interest that are within the Committee’s subject matter jurisdiction and that are not listed on the current agenda. Public comments are limited to two minutes per person. Depending on the number of persons wishing to address the Committee, time will be allocated in equal shares totaling no more than twenty minutes.
# General Public Comment Summary
During the General Public Comment period, several community members provided feedback on the General Plan's natural resources and open space policies. Darren Houston discussed the riverfront development moratorium and the North River Greenway plan by Friends of the Petaluma River, advocating for microbiometer technology integration and comprehensive urban forest management. Susan Kirks raised concerns about GPAC meeting structure, noting that limited public comment time and late-meeting scheduling restrict input from experienced community members, and requested restructuring to allow more participation in breakout groups. Multiple speakers—including Taryn Obade, Susie Grady, Veronica O, and Susan Kirk—criticized the natural resources presentation as lacking a cohesive, Petaluma-focused approach, and advocated for expanded citizen involvement through combined committees, specific language on community food production, dedicated open space chapters, and wildlife corridor mapping that extends into Marin and North County. Staff responded that the 25-member GPAC was carefully selected from 129 applicants to balance expertise with volunteer constraints, and noted that additional public comment opportunities will be available at upcoming topical workshops.
During the General Public Comment period, several community members provided feedback on the General Plan's natural resources and open space policies. Darren Houston discussed the riverfront development moratorium and the North River Greenway plan by Friends of the Petaluma River, advocating for microbiometer technology integration and comprehensive urban forest management. Susan Kirks raised concerns about GPAC meeting structure, noting that limited public comment time and late-meeting scheduling restrict input from experienced community members, and requested restructuring to allow more participation in breakout groups. Multiple speakers—including Taryn Obade, Susie Grady, Veronica O, and Susan Kirk—criticized the natural resources presentation as lacking a cohesive, Petaluma-focused approach, and advocated for expanded citizen involvement through combined committees, specific language on community food production, dedicated open space chapters, and wildlife corridor mapping that extends into Marin and North County. Staff responded that the 25-member GPAC was carefully selected from 129 applicants to balance expertise with volunteer constraints, and noted that additional public comment opportunities will be available at upcoming topical workshops.
PROJECT AND STAFF UPDATES a. Updates on initiatives related to the GPU b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members
# PROJECT AND STAFF UPDATES
Staff provided updates on multiple General Plan Update initiatives. The housing element is under review by the California Department of Housing and Community Development with feedback expected by end of January, and will proceed to Planning Commission and City Council twice before the April 1st deadline. Climate action planning is underway with consultants developing greenhouse gas policy drafts for Climate Action Commission review, and staff is conducting flood modeling runs to assess floodplain impacts from sea level rise, with preliminary mapping expected in early 2023. When committee member Mary raised concerns about reviewing housing element language, staff clarified that while HCD feedback may require revisions, the full document will not return to GPAC. Staff also encouraged community members to sign up for updates on the city website and promoted the Petaluma General Plan business survey, extended through January 23rd.
Staff provided updates on multiple General Plan Update initiatives. The housing element is under review by the California Department of Housing and Community Development with feedback expected by end of January, and will proceed to Planning Commission and City Council twice before the April 1st deadline. Climate action planning is underway with consultants developing greenhouse gas policy drafts for Climate Action Commission review, and staff is conducting flood modeling runs to assess floodplain impacts from sea level rise, with preliminary mapping expected in early 2023. When committee member Mary raised concerns about reviewing housing element language, staff clarified that while HCD feedback may require revisions, the full document will not return to GPAC. Staff also encouraged community members to sign up for updates on the city website and promoted the Petaluma General Plan business survey, extended through January 23rd.
GENERAL PLAN POLICY AND STRATEGY IDEAS – NATURAL RESOURCES a. Presentation by representatives from Rincon Consultants on the current status of General Plan work related to natural resources, with a focus on policy and strategy ideas in light of GPAC Working Group recommendations b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members c. Public comment d. Discussion between the consultants and GPAC members regarding natural resources policy and strategy ideas
# Summary: General Plan Policy and Strategy Ideas – Natural Resources
During this GPAC meeting, Staff and consultant Della from wincon presented a comprehensive Natural Resources policy framework organized around five high-level goals: honoring Native American heritage through community consultation, implementing integrated water resource management, creating a cohesive network of protected natural lands, using biophilic landscaping to support natural spaces and climate resilience, and establishing an interdepartmental staff working group for policy implementation. The presentation covered state requirements from Senate Bill 1425 and Assembly Bill 1358, existing conditions in Petaluma including Coast Miwok territories and significant biological resources, and implementation strategies ranging from a Citizens River Keepers program to transfer of development rights for open space preservation. Committee members raised substantial concerns about the framework's comprehensiveness, including the need for explicit mention of trees and the Petaluma River, stronger city enforcement and oversight responsibilities beyond volunteer-based solutions, equity considerations for renters and underhoused populations, habitat connectivity and watershed management, and clearer baseline metrics for development standards. Additional suggestions included establishing a dedicated Natural Resources and Urban Ecology Commission, incorporating wildlife corridor data, shifting terminology from "management" to "stewardship," and conducting multiple review stages before finalization to address gaps identified in water, flood resilience, and cumulative habitat impact analyses.
During this GPAC meeting, Staff and consultant Della from wincon presented a comprehensive Natural Resources policy framework organized around five high-level goals: honoring Native American heritage through community consultation, implementing integrated water resource management, creating a cohesive network of protected natural lands, using biophilic landscaping to support natural spaces and climate resilience, and establishing an interdepartmental staff working group for policy implementation. The presentation covered state requirements from Senate Bill 1425 and Assembly Bill 1358, existing conditions in Petaluma including Coast Miwok territories and significant biological resources, and implementation strategies ranging from a Citizens River Keepers program to transfer of development rights for open space preservation. Committee members raised substantial concerns about the framework's comprehensiveness, including the need for explicit mention of trees and the Petaluma River, stronger city enforcement and oversight responsibilities beyond volunteer-based solutions, equity considerations for renters and underhoused populations, habitat connectivity and watershed management, and clearer baseline metrics for development standards. Additional suggestions included establishing a dedicated Natural Resources and Urban Ecology Commission, incorporating wildlife corridor data, shifting terminology from "management" to "stewardship," and conducting multiple review stages before finalization to address gaps identified in water, flood resilience, and cumulative habitat impact analyses.
Agenda items (8)
Procedural (8)
1ProceduralCALL TO ORDER
What happened
The meeting was called to order and the chair welcomed attendees, clarifying whether any phone participants were GPAC members who needed to be unmuted and given appropriate access.2ProceduralROLL CALL, LOGISTICS AND MEETING OVERVIEW
What happened
Christina Paul, Principal Planner and General Plan project manager, introduced herself and the meeting structure. Roll call was conducted with 18 GPAC members present; notably, Delia Diaz was reported to have moved across the country and is no longer part of the committee. Zoom logistics were explained, including muting/unmuting procedures, caption features, video controls, hand-raising for comments, and technical support contacts. Attendees were reminded that live Spanish interpretation was available and speakers were asked to speak slowly, pause between sentences, and avoid unexplained acronyms to assist translators.3ProceduralGENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT During General Public Comment, the public is invited to make comments on items of public interest that are within the Committee’s subject matter jurisdiction and that are not listed on the current agenda. Public comments are limited to two minutes per person. Depending on the number of persons wishing to address the Committee, time will be allocated in equal shares totaling no more than twenty minutes.
What happened
# General Public Comment SummaryDuring the General Public Comment period, several community members provided feedback on the General Plan's natural resources and open space policies. Darren Houston discussed the riverfront development moratorium and the North River Greenway plan by Friends of the Petaluma River, advocating for microbiometer technology integration and comprehensive urban forest management. Susan Kirks raised concerns about GPAC meeting structure, noting that limited public comment time and late-meeting scheduling restrict input from experienced community members, and requested restructuring to allow more participation in breakout groups. Multiple speakers—including Taryn Obade, Susie Grady, Veronica O, and Susan Kirk—criticized the natural resources presentation as lacking a cohesive, Petaluma-focused approach, and advocated for expanded citizen involvement through combined committees, specific language on community food production, dedicated open space chapters, and wildlife corridor mapping that extends into Marin and North County. Staff responded that the 25-member GPAC was carefully selected from 129 applicants to balance expertise with volunteer constraints, and noted that additional public comment opportunities will be available at upcoming topical workshops.
4ProceduralPROJECT AND STAFF UPDATES a. Updates on initiatives related to the GPU b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members
What happened
# PROJECT AND STAFF UPDATESStaff provided updates on multiple General Plan Update initiatives. The housing element is under review by the California Department of Housing and Community Development with feedback expected by end of January, and will proceed to Planning Commission and City Council twice before the April 1st deadline. Climate action planning is underway with consultants developing greenhouse gas policy drafts for Climate Action Commission review, and staff is conducting flood modeling runs to assess floodplain impacts from sea level rise, with preliminary mapping expected in early 2023. When committee member Mary raised concerns about reviewing housing element language, staff clarified that while HCD feedback may require revisions, the full document will not return to GPAC. Staff also encouraged community members to sign up for updates on the city website and promoted the Petaluma General Plan business survey, extended through January 23rd.
5ProceduralGENERAL PLAN POLICY AND STRATEGY IDEAS – NATURAL RESOURCES a. Presentation by representatives from Rincon Consultants on the current status of General Plan work related to natural resources, with a focus on policy and strategy ideas in light of GPAC Working Group recommendations b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members c. Public comment d. Discussion between the consultants and GPAC members regarding natural resources policy and strategy ideas
What happened
# Summary: General Plan Policy and Strategy Ideas – Natural ResourcesDuring this GPAC meeting, Staff and consultant Della from wincon presented a comprehensive Natural Resources policy framework organized around five high-level goals: honoring Native American heritage through community consultation, implementing integrated water resource management, creating a cohesive network of protected natural lands, using biophilic landscaping to support natural spaces and climate resilience, and establishing an interdepartmental staff working group for policy implementation. The presentation covered state requirements from Senate Bill 1425 and Assembly Bill 1358, existing conditions in Petaluma including Coast Miwok territories and significant biological resources, and implementation strategies ranging from a Citizens River Keepers program to transfer of development rights for open space preservation. Committee members raised substantial concerns about the framework's comprehensiveness, including the need for explicit mention of trees and the Petaluma River, stronger city enforcement and oversight responsibilities beyond volunteer-based solutions, equity considerations for renters and underhoused populations, habitat connectivity and watershed management, and clearer baseline metrics for development standards. Additional suggestions included establishing a dedicated Natural Resources and Urban Ecology Commission, incorporating wildlife corridor data, shifting terminology from "management" to "stewardship," and conducting multiple review stages before finalization to address gaps identified in water, flood resilience, and cumulative habitat impact analyses.
6ProceduralCOMMITTEE MEMBER GENERAL COMMENT Open time for thoughts, reflection, and closing comments from GPAC members
What happened
# COMMITTEE MEMBER GENERAL COMMENT SummaryDuring closing remarks, GPAC members emphasized the need for an interdepartmental working group with real empowerment and oversight authority to address natural resources and green infrastructure, with several members including Chris and Mary supporting the hiring of a dedicated full-time position such as an urban forester to manage coordination and enforcement. Multiple members—Aaron, John, Janice, Sierra, and Bill—reflected on how the General Plan should address funding mechanisms, grant programs, state funding, and equity considerations for renters and unhoused community members, while John highlighted that green infrastructure should receive equal planning and oversight value as physical structures. Aaron preferred using the term "indigenous" rather than "Native American," and Roberto raised questions about future coverage of open space connectivity between the East and West sides of town. Staff and Christina thanked GPAC members, community members, and Ramey staff, Della from Rincon, and Daniel for their engagement on the Natural Resources topic, indicating the discussion would continue in future meetings.
7ProceduralWRAP-UP
8ProceduralADJOURN Any member of the public who needs accommodations should email the City Clerk at cityclerk@cityofpetaluma.org or by calling 707-778-4360. The City Clerk will use their best efforts to provide reasonable accommodations to provide as much accessibility as possible while also maintaining public safety in accordance with the City procedure for resolving reasonable accommodation requests.
Verbatim transcript available
91 transcript segments indexed
foreign welcome everyone to the November General plan advisory committee meeting I want to clarify whether or not the person who is on the phone um happens to be a gpac member if you wouldn't mind if you could raise your hand and let us know if if you're on the phone and you're a gpac member please raise your hand and we'll unmute you and um and and give you muting and unmuting status I believe you hit star six to unmute yourself if you're on Zoom um is that right in Star nine to raise your hand I can't remember all the all the number controls but please let us know if you're if you're a gpac member you're on the phone all right David would you mind sharing your screen please and we can get going yes so comments well Debbie does that I will introduce myself I'm Christina Paul principal planner with the city and project manager for the general plan as well as the general plan advisory committee's staff liaison good to see everybody and I see one more gpac member joining us which is great okay and I'm seeing that's perfect thanks David all right so we'll get going with our presentation next slide please first I will turn it over to our translators to let folks know how to listen to our meeting in Spanish Martine please go ahead thank you Christina um Antonio is foreign thank you Martine and Daniel if you could please assign Martine and Maria uh translator and let us know when that is complete we'll get going okay I believe both Martin and Maria are now translators okay thank
you very much and thank you to Martine and Maria very much for being here and translating for us we know that it is it is a big job I am going to do roll call for our gpac members so here we go Dave Alden here thank you Stephanie Blake Phil Boyle here Aaron chimeleski present Delia Diaz Delia I would like to inform folks unfortunately for us has moved across the country and in fact is no longer a part of the gpac we just heard that literally an hour ago we will really miss her and we appreciate her service thus far all right Mary Dooley Sierra Downey present Jesse Feller I know is not going to be able to join us a lot but you always got to think before you do that how am I going to get down Ali Gaylord yes I'm here Yancy Kobo here Roger Leventhal here Ileana Madrigal present Roberto Marez here Chris rebelow here Bill Reinhardt I'm here thank you John shrimps present Joshua Simmons present Janice keator Thompson here and Bill Wilbur I'm here wonderful thank you so much next slide please we will briefly go through the logistics of being on a zoom meeting this is a meeting and not a webinar uh okay gpac members are able to mute and unmute themselves and members of the public as well as gpec members are welcome to use the sub caption feature that has been enabled for folks who need that I can't use these with my hearing aids next slide please I'm going to be muting folks who have a little background noise but gpec members can unmute themselves uh please meet yourself if you if
you're not speaking next slide please video uh gpac members can turn on and off their video that's if you are a panelist next slide please or a co-host if you'd like to see please raise your hand that can either be a button in the participants panel or a reaction in your reactions down at the bottom of the screen it depends on what version of Zoom you have next slide please if you have any technical difficulties please email Daniel Harrison or contact Maria Galvez at these email addresses next slide please I want to remind everybody who is speaking this evening that we are lucky enough to have live interpretation into Spanish um that is for folks who are currently attending the meeting and also is recorded and shared for people who may wish to listen to the meeting later in order to make it possible for these folks to do their jobs please speak reasonably slowly and also just make sure to give a little pause at the end of a slide or a sentence to allow them to catch up also please don't use acronyms if you don't need to or at least explain what the acronyms are next slide please in this meeting after our period of logistics we will have general public comment where the public is welcomed to comment on topics related to the work of the general plan advisory committee that are not on the current agenda we will then have project and staff updates we will have a great discussion led by folks from Rincon Della is here with with us on natural resources and a discussion with gpac
that will also include another opportunity for public comment as well as gpac discussion following that public comment then the gpac is welcome to give us any thoughts not related to the agenda all right onwards Daniel uh I will turn it over to you to facilitate our general public comment okay thank you Christina um so if we do have any members of the public that would like to provide a public comment could you please use the raised hand feature great so um it's like we have one hand raised um Darren Houston so I'm going to share my screen with a three minute timer when the timer starts um Darren the floor will be yours um and um I'll go ahead and ask you to unmute and um just uh stay tuned for the screen share with the timer and your public comment time will begin thank you all Daniel gets his timer organized I just want to introduce him also I apologize that we didn't have a chance to do that uh Daniel is a valued member of our planning team and somebody who you might see at the desk so thank you to him for for being here with us this evening thanks Daniel great um you can all see the timer yes okay lovely uh Darren the floor is yours thank you Daniel thank you Christina I just want to make mention because I know tonight's meeting is going to focus on open space make mention of the couple policies that were put forth the council over the past few months that were kind of pushed into the purview of the general plan most notably the riverfront development moratorium and there
may be discussions on you know the practicability of that but I think the gist or the feeling behind that was to try to protect as much of the remaining Riverfront or or slew front if you will uh that still exists out there that's I think a huge piece of this General plan process for a lot of people that saw that hunted to the general plan and then also uh it would be great to hear about the North River Greenway that Friends of the Petaluma River have put together that beautiful plan I think in conjunction with an ex-council member David Keller a beautiful North River Park and I'm sure it will come up and I just want to make mention of it and that plays into you know that that relationship with the Rainier connector that again was another issue that was kind of pushed to say hey if we're going to make definitive action regarding that Capital project that would be relegated to the general plan so a lot of big open space issues that I think have come up over the past few months have been pushed to this area and you know I think this would be the perfect place to talk about it I'm sure we'll hear some robust discussion about it and I also want to lobby for an integration of the use of a microbiometers and taking objective soil measurements as best we can as part of City process this is something I sent to members of The Parks committee from the last General plan meeting but it's the idea of including or training City staff on some easy to use technology that allowed us to sample
soil just in the course of doing every other piece of kind of Open Space Management or park space management and that would start giving us collections of data that would help identify what our soil ecology looks like in different areas of Petaluma and we'll start seeing that data over time so it's something that I don't hear talked about enough but I think a key thing that could be implemented uh in in City processes and be great to see that mentioned in the general plan as well as of course I always want to advocate for talking about Urban Forest management uh and usually that's relegated to kind of development or private property but it'd be great to hear about that kind of comprehensive plan not only for those use cases which is a lot of what the tree committee covers but also for open space and talking about managing you know our open space ecologies as well as our Urban ecologies but I'm sure we'll hear about that and much more tonight so uh thank you Daniel for the time thank you Darren and I just want to note that we are talking on our agenda about open space and the general plan so if folks would like to comment on something else this is your time but if you would like to talk about open space and the general plan please hold your comments until after the presentation thank you Daniel back to you thank you Christina thank you Darren the next hand reason I saw yes it's supposed to be two minutes per agenda and we just gave three minutes is that something we're doing
now hi Erin yes we have moved it up to three minutes to allow folks to give a little bit more comment that is common with Council um we fell into having two minutes at some point and realized that we actually would like to allow folks a little bit more time thanks for checking on that great thanks for clarifying Christina um the next hand I saw raised was M Sullivan um and if you could please State your full name for the record um and your time will start right I'm going to ask you to unmute and the floor is yours thank you yes good evening I'm not sure if this comment should be held until later or not so I'm just going to go ahead and you guys can let me know um so my request is that as we move forward with our discussion on open space just note that we humans have a tendency to be very species and focus on how it benefits uniquely us but of course I'm so sorry to interrupt this is this is precisely a comment on the agenda no problem thank you we're excited to hear more about your thoughts yep I'll move it to the later thanks okay thank you and um Susan Kirks I'm going to ask you to unmute and the floor is now yours thank you very much thank you Daniel um good evening I will be having comments on your agenda item later I wanted to mention uh the structure of your committee and the way the public is able to interact I think this is something that Mr Richardson has raised previously and I'm glad that you have three minutes for general public comment now but the way that your
committee work has been structured for people like myself who have um rather deep experience here in Petaluma in certain areas that you're focusing on um it's uh it's almost impossible to really give input uh via the structure that you have where you have work different sessions where the committee members speak and members of the public get to listen and then oftentimes very late in your meeting you have comment from the public I'd really like to ask you to understand what it's like to be someone with very deep experience including participating in All Phases of the prior General plan and some of your appointees I mean all of you are political appointees and I'm very pleased for you so I definitely understand that the members the elected council members make appointments of individuals they would like to have work for them on the general plan but I do think that those of us who lead non-profit organizations and have experience that is different and complementary and probably very significant for parts of the general plan that our input be invited and included and I do think that does relate to something about the structure of your meetings I'm not certain how you can make changes so that in say the work groups you can have maybe a little more time or the breakout group sorry you can have a little more time and then allow public input during those those breakout groups because some people on this committee have not actually participated in general plans before and some have
not lived and Petaluma for as many years as many of us have so if I just think all of us uh being included and somehow restructuring your process would be beneficial for the entire pedal in the community so thank you thanks Susan and I can comment on that a little bit this this topic came up very recently in a city council meeting and and Daniel I think everybody's got their hands down so you can unshare if you'd like and the mayor pointed out that the general plan advisory committee was selected out of a group of 129 folks who applied uh to be representatives of the community and we have a particularly large group for that reason with folks with a range of expertise um and we we certainly value public comment but we also want to recognize that the gpac is really a large group that is that is was selected by Council to be represented of the community um and we want to respect their time we had some discussions early on about the length of meeting that folks were comfortable with and folks really reinforce the need for the volunteer life balance and needing to wrap up meetings uh you know before before nine or at nine before nine thirty and so we we want to respect that space for them we do really want you to feel free to comment during the public comment periods you can also reach out via email or to folks who are representative of the working groups on each of the topics that that may be of interest to you so we we're trying to balance um all of those different factors and
we hear you and there are also going to be some other opportunities for even more public comment as we have workshops on each of our different topics so thanks for that comment all right briefly we are going to go into staff updates because I know folks are excited to get into the discussion of open space there was a significant council meeting uh those of you who stayed up through the whole uh the whole the whole several hours of it it was pretty fascinating um city council did provide direction to staff to begin working with the fair board to ensure the ongoing Financial stability of the fair board to help them consider the future of the fair and to gradually transition Property Management of the fairgrounds property from the fair board over to the city um super happy to answer any questions of that about that at another time there's also a lot of information on the city of petaluma.org Fairground site I recently checked in to ask if we could make sure that the resolution that Council passed was posted there for easy access but if anybody wants more information please please do Reach Out next slide please that will of course be something that we begin to talk about as part of the general plan what are the uses the kinds of uses that might be appropriate to that space and we also want to make sure to to honor all of the work that the the citizen Advisory Group put into thinking about that question on the climate action planning front staff have fully reviewed drafts from
Green Associates and are working with them to revise initial drafts on greenhouse gas policies we'll then be moving to engagement with the climate action commission ad hoc groups to talk about that administrative draft and then we will look forward to bringing that forward to the public and to gpac for for their review next slide please we are also working with Public Works West consultants and Sherwood Engineers to think about the next flood modeling runs to think about our flood plain and how that will be impacted by sea level rise and potential climate change and changes in precipitation we are looking forward to discussing preliminary mapping with the community in early 2023 I also really want to celebrate and I saw Veronica oh was here with us this evening that the estat report has been uh sent over to the city we were working on posting that to the general plan website as well as to the city website so we will send out an update when that is complete it was a monster file so we're trying to ensure that folks can can access that but not get not get overwhelmed by the file size so we'll we'll let you know more about that and we're super excited to be going through the ideas in that report with everybody as we go through the general plan next slide please uh we also want to reinforce that the community update is a great place to get information about what's going on around town so please do sign up on the city of petaluma's website next slide please in our process we want
to recognize that right now the housing element is with Housing and Community Development that's a branch of the state government they are reviewing our housing element and we'll be getting full feedback to us at the end of January while they are working on that we are working on that draft climate action planning document that I described earlier as well as these policy Frameworks that you are helping us to begin to shape through these discussion um once the cycle of conversations is over we'll be bringing Frameworks through and land use Alternatives as well and beginning to iterate on those and moving towards a draft general plan next slide please does anybody on the gpac have any questions all right hearing none it's never too late go ahead and raise your hand but for now here none Christina if I can make a brief plug for the Petaluma General plan business survey that uh we there's so many things going on that it's slipped our mind to add a slide for it but uh we extended it one more week uh through the 23rd which is next Wednesday so if you know any business owners I know some of you all are business owners yourself we really want to hear um from you all and from our community members who are business owners to help inform different phases of the general plan planning process so please uh keep an eye out you received that email a couple weeks ago I can resend to gpac members and it's being posted across various channels thanks Debbie thank you so much and that is a really
interesting effort it was spearheaded by the Chamber of Commerce they actually drafted this survey some time ago and now is the right time for us to to put it out we also got some feedback from our uh from our consultant team on what questions would be it would be helpful uh if you're not sure if you're a business owner you can go ahead and fill it out and uh and we we welcome your feedback either way Mary what's your thought hi hi thanks I just wanted to ask a question about the housing element um is there going to be an opportunity to review that language or because it's gone to hcd is that a done deal good question um there was a lengthy public comment period uh after which we presented it to a gpac Planning Commission and City Council made revisions and sent it to hcd they will be giving us their comments and then we are going to have another round of edits we are going to be really compressed in terms of our time frame to get it back to them because we took a fairly long time to deliberate about our draft and so in order to view compliance with HC deadlines which we really don't want to be out of compliance with it has nasty ramifications um we are not planning to bring the whole thing to gpac we also have quite a few other things to talk about but we will be taking it to Planning Commission and city council twice and we'll make sure that everybody has an opportunity to to have a look at the document and send us feedback if they'd like to all right anybody else let's
move this thing what date um the housing element has to be certified by uh yes end of March April 1st no I'm sorry not certified we have to get it back to hcd by April 1st and then they have 60 days to ideally certify it um but many many cities have been um having multiple rounds of review with hcd thank you okay next slide please okay I am going to turn it over to Ron to to get us into the meat of this presentation great thank you Christina David good evening gpac members and members of the public I'm going to do just a little bit of refresher framing for you before introducing Della from Rincon which is a an integral team member on our GPU team and and Mary um if we haven't answered your question by the end of this little introduction um let me know because your your earlier question before the meeting started is very relevant here so um just a refresher where we've come you guys spent a number of months earlier this year in your working groups developing recommendations and those have all been extremely helpful those along with existing conditions work Vision pillars and guiding principles and all informs an initial set of strategy meetings between consultant team members and City staff back during the summer we're now following those with a series of gpac discussions on each topic we touched on four in October you gave us great feedback then that you'd like more time for these topics so tonight we're devoting the entire meeting to one topic that we know is of critical
importance and then in December touching on just two topics environmental justice and historic resources because if these gpac meetings as Christina mentioned earlier it's all part of that uh what she called the ideation process we're still in the process of crafting these policy Frameworks um and so what we're doing is in iterative Cycles putting down some Initial Ideas down on paper talking them through and then refining and revising them and so we've done a lot of work up until now but you're using this meeting with you to share some of the ideas we're thinking about some of the major kind of goal areas strategies to get your feedback check for their alignment with your recommendations um get additional comments questions so that we can further refine that policy framework before we even deliver it to the city as an administrative draft so that's all happening now and gonna bleed into the winter as well in part because we want to take more time for these gpax discussions but also in part because of the work that's ongoing as Christina mentioned earlier with the sea level rise and flood mapping which is really foundational for some of the climate adaptation and land use work so so all that is to come over the coming months um once the administrative draft policy Frameworks are done then the city will be reviewing them and as part of that review um they'll be discussing them with departments we'll then be preparing with your help public drafts and going through quite an
extensive public engagement process um again the purpose of these policy Frameworks is really to begin outlying at a fairly high level goals and major policy areas and in some instances implementation actions um and they that those Frameworks then are really the foundation for that administrative draft general plan next slide please uh so tonight all about natural resources um next slide please David um it's one I thought it'd be helpful to put this slide on the screen again I think we shared it earlier this year and it seemed to resonate well with you it's a way I like to think about um comprehensive planning in a very high level really understanding and thinking about the natural resources and some of the climate and other natural hazards that some extent Define your um you know ecological Foundation as well as some to some extent your development envelope um and it's that that foundation on which you were then applying land use policy to clearly demarcate areas that should be built and for what types of uses relative areas that should be preserved and protected and then on that you layer infrastructure and utilities and then the market um uh builds onto that in terms of housing Business Development Etc and so tonight is all about an aspect of that foundational conservation and Hazards so just a pre brief preview Della again is going to do much of the presentation tonight because she leads the team at wincon who's been working on the natural resources policy ideas um and it
reflecting a bit on last month's meeting we did want to take a bit more time with the presentation to provide a little more context recognizing that a some of the information we're presenting is a recap but it's been a while since you've seen it B not everybody is familiar with some of these topics as others and so we are going to take the time to explain a little bit about the role of city government and natural resource management um how the natural how natural resources resources excuse me are addressed in the current General plan review some of the key findings from the existing conditions work that was done review the elements of the vision pillars and guiding principles that speak to natural resources and finally summarize some of the recommendations from the open space working group all of which as a as context because it informed the policy framework ideas as context for introducing some initial policy and strategy so Dell is gonna provide a fair amount of background information up front probably about 15 minutes worth where they're going to get then get into the policy and strategy ideas and what we're going to do is Dell is going to present on a small chunk of that usually one goal area and then we'll pause for discussion and we'll do that um I think five or six times we'll stop and pause for discussion and try to handle it that way so that we're not overwhelming you with information and then asking you about uh items that we talked about 10-15 minutes ago given
that um the length of the presentation and the wanting to make sure we have enough time for all the discussion we're going to try to probably limit the discussion for about 10 minutes at a time 60 minutes total but we want to make sure we're able to cover each of the goal areas that are included in the current thinking on the policy thing so with Advanced permission I am going to ask people to be concise and precise in their comments um and if you are on the working open space working group we certainly do want to hear from you but we also want to leave space for other gpac members and so I'll try to hold time in each of those 10 5-10 minute blocks for everybody to have a chance to contribute and then just a final note you know in regardless of how some how long we sometimes run these meetings is sometimes people still don't have enough time to share their comments and just reminder that you can always email additional thoughts comments to staff and those will be shared with the consultant team and Incorporated moving forward so with that I'm going to turn it over to Della who's going to provide some of that background context thank you Ron um so like Ron said I'm going to cover a lot of background information to give context and set us all up for the discussion on the policy strategies um so I'm going to do a lot of talking and then I promise we'll get to the good stuff and have that back and forth discussion because I know that's what we all really want to do tonight not
listen to me talk so a lot of this information you have you already know or you've already discussed so I'll make a quick um starting with the roles of city government so let's start set the stage with what the city is responsible for regarding managing natural resources and what the city is not responsible for or is limited in so essentially the city can act through informed land use decision making they can own or control land um that includes public ownership and easements things of that nature regulating the use of land like zoning and Municipal Code requirements managing land that's permitting storm water management publicly owned utilities Partnerships with uh NGO non-governmental organizations and agency partners a lot of the local ones are like the county state and federal agencies Sonoma land trusts Special Districts and then environmental review of projects so the city ensures that sequa is appropriately done for projects when it's required uh the city is limited in its resource management because other agencies landowners and Special Districts oversee things like utilities and water conveyance managing private land or managing Regional and state-owned land and overseeing the regional resources like biological resources water resources air resources that affect the whole area not just Petaluma they do coordinate with those landowners agencies and Special Districts but they don't have sole jurisdiction over them next slide natural resources are covered on under the
general plan in a couple of places the open space element and the conservation element although sometimes these do end up getting combined or reorganized depending on the jurisdictions needs and priorities the state does have some specific requirements for those two elements though no matter how you organize them uh so the open space element has to cover natural resource management the managed protection of resources outdoor recreation public health and safety and Military Support if that's applicable the conservation element has to cover erosion of soils and beaches and chores if that's applicable protection of watersheds and identifying waterways or period habitats and land that can accommodate flood water and groundwater recharge and in the last few years there have been a couple of new requirements that have been added so the newest one this one actually just got passed in September is Senate Bill 1425 which requires that open space elements include policies uh that address access to open space correlated with the environmental justice element or EJ environmental justice policies climate resilience correlated with the safety element and rewilding opportunities correlating with the land use element next slide and assembly for the conservation element assembly Bill 1358 requires that we identify Rivers Creeks streams flood corridors riparian habitats and land that Canada accommodate flood water and groundwater recharge when the housing element is being updated so the
current General plan obviously has natural resources in it it's mostly covered under chapter four the natural environment and chapter 8 Water Resources there's a lot in there but a few highlights are water resources and water quality biological resources and natural resource areas um thank you I also want to note that tonight's discussion will not include a few things because those are going to be covered under different topics different elements and so we're going to talk about those in a different meeting so climate change Parks and Recreation and utilities will be talked about another night so when we started looking at potential strategies we started with a couple of places we looked at the existing General plan I wasn't done yet thank you jump in the gun there um we looked at the existing General plan which I just mentioned we looked at the existing conditions of where things are at now I'm at Aluma and we looked at the input that you all and the rest of the community has already given on the topic um I do want to start by giving some key findings from the existing conditions that let us to developing some of the strategies that we'll discuss there are longer versions of the existing conditions on the website and I believe we've even discussed them before with you so I'm going to go through these fairly quickly but I just want to highlight a few key things that kind of connect the dots to the goals strategies we developed okay now there we go Native American traditional
territories so starting with uh this one to lead into the cultural resources before a European settled in Sonoma County the area was home to the coast B walk and their Village name was how Petaluma got its name there are a lot of amazing biological resources in Petaluma and the surrounding area and some of them are regulated by regional state or federal agencies so not fully under the city's jurisdiction to manage or control but they absolutely still lay down the foundation for planning in the city the wetlands are a significant resource for critical habitat flood management and Water Management and the Sonoma Valley Wildlife border project that area also lies next to Petaluma to the west of the Sonoma Valley those are just a couple of areas I wanted to mention um On a related vein to biological resources Petaluma is uh and its surrounding area have a lot of open space areas related to Natural Resources and I just want to know a few that are managed by outside agencies like the Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park and Helen Putnam Regional Park there's also several conservation easements around the city which are legal agreements to permanently conserve the land in some form thank you and uh we all know the Petaluma river is very important so this is just the data backing that up Regional and state agencies have identified the river and its tributaries as notably important and listed out some of the beneficial uses related to Habitat biological resources and Recreation there
are 13 special status plant and animal species that are historically located in the Petaluma area most notably California red legged frog and California tiger salamander areas along the Petaluma River and its tributaries provide valuable habitat for several of these species as well as grassland and Oak Savannah habitats along the western portion of the city limits and finally for this section at least I just want to note a few of the important plans that the city has related to Natural Resources I'm not going to go into any one of these in detail just kind of acknowledge them and that we did reference each of them When developing the proposed strategies that we'll talk about another major component of coming up with our proposed goals and strategies was looking at what the community told us and what you told us there's been a lot of community and gpec involvement and a big goal of tonight is to make sure that we are staying true to that slide one of the things we looked at was interim consistency with the vision statements pillars and guiding principles there's a lot in the vision sequence and pillars about open space and natural resources which is great so here I've just bolded the parts that really apply to this topic and the goals and strategies that we'll be talking about um I don't think we need to really go through those probably because yeah so going deeper here I've pulled out specific supporting Concepts that we drew from so preserve and enhance petaluma's natural
environment and surrounding open space areas protecting the natural environment preserving petaluma's identity image and sense of place maintain the land outside the urban growth boundary expand Open Spaces ensure the natural and built environment is resilient to Natural hazards ensuring Equitable access advancing Urban Forest management and Native plantings and increasing the Urban Tree canopy and for protect and restore the natural function of the Petaluma River and distributed tributaries while expanding complementary Recreation entertainment and Civic opportunities uh restoring the beauty and natural function of the river maintain and expand setbacks uh provide Wildlife corridors expand connectivity to them across the river Orient development to protect and connect to the river update and implement the river access and enhancement plan um prioritizing infill developments uh honor celebrate and preserve petaluma's Heritage and historic character this one's about the celebrating the early history of Miwok people understanding complete history of people's diversity stories celebrating the river as a centerpiece for the city's equality and Heritage and be a leader in advancing these guiding principles within the reach and so in addition to the vision statements and the pillars we looked a lot at the gpac recommendations related to open space and natural resources and I also just want to really thank you guys for your in-depth and organized input it was super helpful [Music]
so here I we pulled out our understanding of the topic areas and key suggestions this obviously isn't everything it's just big highlights but it helps again set the stage for how we go from existing setting of Petaluma to what we heard from you to the strategies we'll be discussing tonight um so tribal cultural resource preservation acknowledging prior habitats and following their long perspective acknowledge that our lifestyle and values dramatically change the landscape uh ecological resource connectivity create more open space with more access remove unnecessary barriers to Wildlife Mobility Trail connections and habitat connections great infrastructure promoting rainwater harvesting encourage installation and maintenance of green rooftops and water capturing systems next slide protection of wetlands and wildlands working with other agencies to reduce erosion sediment and trash myth leaves and watersheds domestic Landscapes these simple symbiotic with natural landscapes prioritizing native plants protect the Watershed ecosystem biodiversity enhancement degreasing tree canopies updating the tree ordinance encouraging planting of ecologically beneficial plant material select an install plant species that maximize environmental ecological social aesthetic benefits okay so here we are um you've got the background information that led us here and what we considered in coming up with these so now we get to jump in um like Ron said uh we'll talk about each goal and the strategies
under that goal and how we would go about accomplishing these strategies and what we really want to talk about is if we missed anything really critical here if there was something important that we didn't capture from what you told us when we looked at how to best organize and Implement these strategies if there's something more we should think about and of course um keep in mind that we did our best to incorporate all of the input that you gave us and the best practices that we're familiar with the general plan is a very high level document so some of the more nitty-gritty details uh they're really important for us to consider and we'll be making note of those if you have ideas on those like the really detailed implementation stuff will make note of those in a separate space a separate document um but they some some things might be a little too like implementation level for what the general plan is intended for being told to slow down sorry [Music] um so um the general plan is an overarching high level framework that other plans and tools will Nest under and build off of so it's very important that we think about and talk about everything and how the general plan can facilitate them but not all of those kind of in the weeds rubber hits the road ideas will make it into the general plan directly they may get pushed into one of those implementing tools down the line so we want to go into the first set of strategies or let's look at yeah we're going to look at the the kind of
overarching goals so we organize them under um goals and we're going to look at those high-level goals first and each one of these will have a set of strategies underneath them that we'll look at in a minute so just looking at these goals we've got Petaluma honors and protects its Native American Heritage through Community consultation and resource prioritization Petaluma has an integrated and proactive approach to Water Resource Management Petaluma has a cohesive network of healthy protected and productive natural land that facilitates the coexistence of people animals and plants biophilic Landscaping connects and supports natural spaces and mitigates climate impacts and the city's natural resources inter-departmental staff working group effectively protects and supports the natural environment in Petaluma by overseeing General plan policy implementation so these are the the high level goals we're thinking of organizing our strategies under okay go to the next slide it's going to have just a single question did we miss any high level goals are there are there anything that will not fit under there and I'm just going to interject um can we go back to the slide that Della was just looking at it's there's a lot packed into these words so folks can can have a wee look at it and and and we're gonna break each one down individually in a minute this is just kind of the first Stitch First Look is there's something we're obviously missing and as I noted earlier we have six of these
stops for discussion so I'm gonna keep us to five to ten minutes on this one again we're gonna have a chance to talk about each of these five individually and so at this point the big question is any any high level topic issue goal missing Mary please go ahead yeah I'm sorry I I feel like this is a really dense and it's really hard to respond um so quickly and then there's additional time pressure so um that's all I have to say is this is like really a lot and I was on the open uh space in natural resource committee and I'm trying to understand what's missing in this um and it feels like a lot but then there's so many things that were pulled off the table we can't talk about um Parks or open space it almost seems like we can't talk about so I'm I'm just a little stumped could use some uh maybe support on um what we actually can talk about maybe sorry Ron well just to clarify there's no restriction on what you can talk about as it relates to open space well it was simply clarifying earlier is the natural resource policy framework that they're working on is is focus it's not delving heavily Into Climate adaptation parks and storm water and other kind of natural resource management from a more of a utilities perspective doesn't mean we can't talk about those things it just means that's not the focus of their book and then quickly also understand your sense of being overwhelmed Mary again we'll have a chance to talk about each of these five you'll see additional details about
each of them and so don't don't let it stress you out too much the initial question is just you know high level a week how do we hit on all the critical times bill go ahead thank you um I agree with Mary this is a lot to take in and but I get that we'll have more time to think about it um I do think that there were some Concepts that recurring throughout the um the the work that was submitted that I think could be more specifically addressed and just as an example I the one thing that continues to come up and every discussion is trees and you know I think we need one that specifically States the importance of trees they're they're just the one thing in our toolbox that really helps you know meet all these goals and um you know I I'll try not to go on it's I just think we will need a few more specifics and and one in particular would be one that absolutely specifically States the importance of trees um as I'll stop there yeah that's great Bill and there is there's you'll see more about trees in a bit but that's a really good point maybe it needs to be explicit and Nicole so thank you John the um uh this is actually a pretty good uh overview of the big things um if you look just at the key words that throughout we do have uh Amer Native Americans we do have water uh we do have um the connectivity between people animals and plants and we do have the spaces and climate change all in there so it as far as the high level goes um yeah it's going to be in in the details of how these
draw down is in the last uh statement down there and I think we we did push for a national resources department now it's now just an energy departmental staff but the other idea that that's risen up recently at our tree committee meetings was that we need to actually do more than just a habit within our own City we need to have a inner departmental staff that also is interconnected to the both the county and other agencies um and maybe even coordinate with the other cities so that if we have a forest management person that's actually delivering goods and services um and handling our work for several cities all the same time that we can actually coordinate on a regional basis not just work within our own City so I'd like to say see that expanded out to include Regional and interdepartment intergovernmental and non-profits type of statement and not just include the inter departmental staff and we even wanted to go for natural resources could include make sure that also includes all the things that that are above including Teresa's Bill said but that's all I'll leave that at the moment because I'm sure there'll be a lot more in details later on yeah I know thank you John when we get to that fifth goal um let's come back to that point about how that group would collaborate with others thank you Bill uh I'm just um kind of surprised like the importance of trees as a topic that these uh Five Points don't actually mention the river it seems like the river is such a significant
feature as it relates to our community that um it's one topic that could tie a lot of these things together um that's all I have to say great thank you Ali I I'm not sure if this is sort of covered in bullet point three but I'm thinking about um just equal access to natural resources and if that should be called out somewhere or if that's somewhere else where this lives but I just wanted to call that point out that's a great point I'm not yeah let's see let's I'm curious at the end of the night if it hasn't been addressed efficiently let's come back to it thank you and I'm going to suggest since most of the comments are about the detail of each of these that we move ahead and move to the first goal bill is going to share additional detailed information about it and we'll pause again and get your feedback on some of the specific ways in which the goal might be achieved yeah let's take another slide yeah there we go so the first one Petaluma honors and protects its Native American Heritage through Community consultation and resource prioritization so the strategy here is to partner with Native American tribes within the county and provide educational materials and opportunities to engage with Native local Native American Heritage sites in history and consider culturally appropriate and feasible approaches to reparations if you live so I think the way we can do this is let's move to the next one and we might as we have ways to accomplish this here have Native American tribes
guide management of natural and cultural resources of significance to local tribal partners and conduct Native American consultation when new development is proposed and potentially culturally sensitive areas and we might just kind of as needed flip between the two slides so you can go back and forth between the strategies and and how it'll be accomplished John go ahead thanks okay just two concerns just popped into my head for um one is not only for the Native Americans but we also um the whole topic of equity especially environmental justice and Equity uh we're sort of missing to incorporate not just the um the the cultures that were here in the past but the cultures who are living with now that we need to also have appropriate relationships and work with it's always one thing that would I want to be make sure that gets included somewhere in here because I didn't quite see that environmental justice and Equity um uh philosophy included and the other one is we've gone to using the statement reparations in here and I know that's a very hot topic internationally right now because the U.S government and others are essentially say let's create funds and and we can talk about reparations but nobody's going to contribute to it and also when you talk about reparations then that gets into some legal responsibilities uh and and expectations and uh so that's I'm not sure if we want to um It's a Wonderful goal I think we should reach for it and go for it but I think we need to also
just double check um legal responsibilities when we start using that language in here when we say we want to use reparations great thank you sorry Ron go ahead all right now I was going to say you're right that the language and a general plan does uh needs to be carefully crafted considering legal uh implications but yeah excellent points John uh bill go ahead sorry I muted looking at the map it's apparent that this is um a much broader geographically uh topic than just Petaluma and its city limits of which the general plan is addressing and it seems to me that the efforts that we would like to take would be coordinated with other communities within the county but it'd be a county-wide effort not not just a Petaluma effort um I I appreciate that we may have some sensitive um archaeological sites or areas that might need to be handled with care but aside from that I think a lot of this is is kind of beyond our purview frankly that's all yeah thank you Bill yeah you collect coordination collaboration tend to be a dominant theme across many different strategy types um and it and the degree of to which that's required to move on some goals uh is goal specific in any cases as well this is a good example where be pretty heavily coordination cooperation Josh yeah thank you um I just wanted to speak specifically to the uh the the caution uh around wording with reparations um I can appreciate that you know as the documents we need to produce need to be uh worded carefully but I think
that we can get the framing right um and that the the word and the concept of reparations um is something I think is very important that that comes through clear in this document other initial thoughts on the suggested strategies and some of the specific actions that Dola shared Ally I think this is more to a specific action um regarding tribal consultation but I wonder if there could be something mentioned in the um implementation about having kind of a more like a regular coordination with the tribes um as opposed to specifically you know consultation on specific projects maybe some sort of like a working group or something that meets um regularly with City staff to do some of that coordination so that they could have kind of an ongoing regular dialogue instead of just you know reaching out um on specific items I think that's the intent correct me Della was that is that how this is the text is written currently memory serves yeah I wouldn't say that it's we necessarily were suggesting a working group of Pizza on a regular basis but it was certainly intended to be an ongoing dialogue Bill did I see your hand up a minute ago or you know I put it down but I'm going to go ahead and just ask this seems like something that you know as bill has said it's a regional thing that but I think our goals should be aligned with what's in the County General plan did we is I imagine there's nothing in there yet but um anyway I don't know if there's uh even where they are in the County
General Plan update but um I just thought it should be coordinated it seems like it should be we should be part of a greater Regional effort and if it's County I mean the state requiring it is a great thing but uh I think the way to do it is is regional any additional thoughts on this goal related to honoring and protecting Native American Heritage and we're collaborating with local tribes on resource protection okay all right now why don't we move on to the next goal all right so uh this one is petaluman's an integrated and proactive one water approach to Water Resource Management so developing uh citizens River Keepers program to monitor Petaluma river water quality improving signage along the Petaluma River to promote positive stewardship of the river and empowering landowners to employ water capturing systems you go to the next slide we can look at how we would accomplish it so train and Empower citizens to collect water quality samples that could support identification of bacterial contamination that would normally go undetected develop city-sponsored educational programs focused on informing residents about the value of the Petaluma River and strategies for preservation implementing the strategies in the Petaluma River cleanup plan developing a program focused on Partnerships with local landowners to employ infrastructure on private lands that reduce runoff including rainwater catchment systems and roof water harvesting and storage I will note I feel like this is a
topic that probably well could probably end up and is generally entire plans on its own so um yeah there's a lot to this and this relates to some of the comments shared earlier about the prominence of the river in these goals any additional thoughts on that concept or other reactions to these strategies for taking kind of a holistic approach to Water Management why don't we go with Roger first we haven't heard from him yet and then John and Bill yeah I just quick um um there are some Creeks with fish having done a lot of fish work that you actually don't want to necessarily stop the water I'm getting into the creek so I just maybe would caveat at that you know where appropriate or where it doesn't impact the existing resources because technically if some everybody captured every drop that could have a negative uh consequences so interested maybe new watch that one a little bit thank you uh John go ahead okay so uh not only the river but it should be important to mention the word Watershed in this in this plant um when you're talking about the water coming um as a separate issue because what you had in the earlier slide was looked more like a water source versus the river and habitat and this is um uh in your in the stewardship of of water if this was just the hydrology of water coming in and flowing through versus our actual water use I think is is what you're referring to here but this would be the water flowing through our system which is a watershed management um concept
um and the stewardship word is good in there the river Keepers um uh so and uh protecting the River from um uh potential pollution and sedimentation and working and there's a whole area of sediment movement and protecting the River from that along with some um development and time and where it connects with other things such as the the sea level rise and and climate change and that connectivity um and then on the river itself we want to make sure that the um enhancement plan that's made that should almost be completed and it should be almost returned to the rcd right now was mentioned in several of the reports existing conditions and there was no mention here so that needs to be the management of the Watershed in general and then looking at the um the habitat the corridor and habitat is not mentioned in here either just the water itself and the water quality so I'm not sure if that should be included in this section or not or if that's included in other sections that would be natural landscape things but like the river banks where everything's interconnected and interchanging right there which also includes Wildlife corridors because the rivers used as a wildlife Corridor which did not turn up in our in the existing conditions report either so it's like there's a few gaps in here that I'd like to see closed up in interconnections that are mentioned I'll leave it at that yeah John those are great points and actually one of the downsides of taking this initial kind of topic or
element specific approach to Frameworks and I expect that we'll be organizing the actual General plan differently than we were currently organizing these Frameworks as you very accurately point out water touches natural watersheds hydrology City gets involved in terms of storm water and flood management of the Riverway it there's a potable you know water system component to water there's a sea level rise flood climate adaptation Dimension to water there's the connection of the river as a part of an integrated network of wildlife corridors Trail Etc so there's it's a multi-layered you know topic and the downside of this initial approach to a kind of very disciplinary approach to policy Frameworks as we end up touching on it probably in five or six different policy Frameworks and don't haven't yet had a chance to look at it systemically um I'm guessing we very much will and may very well organize the GP very differently much as we talked about last month in Parks about thinking about the public space public rights of way and an interwoven Network part of which is a natural ecosystems Network and Wildlife Corridor maybe think about the you know really tackle the river as a system through the GP as opposed to all these disciplinary or reductionist perspectives so so excellent point Dell any other thoughts on that perspective no I think I I think you hit it right on Ron and I I do I do want to say that habitat is is mentioned a bit later but I think that because again these are
very high level strategies and we're just at the beginning stages of kind of pulling these ideas out um there's a lot to build on here but thank you John that's we're thinking exactly on the same lines just struggling with the current structure of how we're approaching this right at this point in time I'm going to go with Bill because Roger already commented and then to Roger and and Taryn I apologize um we're holding public comment until the public comment period so we'll go through this presentation with these short discussions and then take public comment and the gpac will conclude its discussion thank you um yeah bill then Roger great thanks Ron um I think I think these are all terrific but on a high level view um you know there are some very specific examples in here about um sampling and rainwater catchment and green roofs and things like that which are great ideas but they're sort of micro Solutions and you know I don't have them on the top of my head but we were really thinking about you know evaluating the way we Source the water and how it's delivered and how it's used and the complete cycle of the water and um I just think you know if we're going to have specific examples like you know Green roofs and rainwater harvesting I think we need some big picture actions too or at least some recommendations and it again since it's high level they don't have to be as specific as that but the concept is greater than you know these specific examples I think in the you know
water has become such a scarce and important resource we need to look at the big picture of where we get it how how we use it thanks and Roger did you have an additional comment no I forgot the color my hand okay thank you you think I would have learned by these years I forget to mute myself almost every day um any other gpac comments at this point all jadawa that they know their stuff I was counting on it all right why don't we jump to the next goal area then so everyone I'm saying that Aaron has her hand up oh I'm sorry yeah sorry I know sorry last minute just go ahead in there um I'm just kind of curious um in general about like this goal places like a lot of emphasis on people and private partners and doesn't really say a lot to like city responsibility in this so just kind of wanting to to throw that ball into the court as well and and see other than the the noted like sponsored education programs how we're going to be supporting um our community members so that's not just all on volunteers that's a really interesting point and it's always another challenge GPS faces how much to limit themselves to strict jurisdiction of a of a city and how much to build in extend broader collaborations Community Partnerships that sort of thing Delaney I'm curious what your thoughts are on that specific point is it in the context of these proposed water so is the is yeah so is the is the thought regulation versus you know like encouragement the city the city kind of uh requiring these
things of landowners as opposed to or enforcing certain standards as opposed to just asking people to do them and hoping they they do it is that what you're you're saying Aaron no I think that's like more of those are two separate things I think that if we if we work towards some of these goals uh you know water you know gray water and all those things and people doing stuff on their own properties whether it's levels of enforcement or not I think it's about like how we're going to be supporting the community to get that in place um because I know there are a lot of people who are doing free things they'll come to your house and it's all volunteer non-profits but you know again how are we as a city going to to help out our community members and not just limit to volunteers oh I see okay so funding mechanisms and financing and okay yes yes yes okay so yeah I mean I would need to do a little bit more follow-up on that but there are a lot of Grant programs that we can we can list out that can provide Financial financial support for this sort of thing um and that's that's probably where a lot of it comes from is State funding that can get funneled down to the city that can then get funneled down to homeowners and landowners is where a lot of it comes from or funding that comes down and can then be dedicated to staff positions that can help okay now I see two additional hands John and Bill hey uh whether Jesus came to as Aaron was speaking was that there's uh two things we need to
do one is like um inform and educate and kind of regulate as to what should be happening and the other half of it is enforcement that we're going to oversee things and I think those are two huge things that are not not implied in this that the city has a responsibility for for educating and informing about what is what's the right and wrong way of doing things and also has an enforcement arm and maybe even there might be some programs um there's also financial support type things going on but the enforcement part um as an example I just visited a Creek area where a private uh person went in and tour one of our creeks and cleared it out even though that's on private land but didn't did a halfway job not quite corrected it overdid it a little bit tooking out way too much materials so it's and I'm finding out who's in charge of overseeing what and permitting and regulating and and seeing if things were done right and it was like it was just done basically private contractor came in and just did stuff without permits apparently and so that was so there's a whole issue here of that enforcement and oversight as well as supporting and educating and making things happen and that's again what I'm saying missing in all the documentation so far um is not just a group that's talking about natural resources and connecting natural resources but we need a staff that's fully able to regulate and enforce on these things so I'd like to make sure that's included somewhere thank you John uh Bill
and Janice actually if we don't if you don't mind having go into Janice first and she hasn't spoken yet then come back to you Bill okay that's great I'm actually following up with um what John was saying on enforcement and oversight because you know when you're looking in the river area there are areas that are already a lot of erosion and that they're they've never been enforced and so how is how does that work and how's that going to be incorporated so that doesn't continue thank you and and then Bill sorry but we're gonna go to Sierra then back to you Bill thank you sorry Bill um just wanted to add a quick uh idea to the conversation it's it's not very big or long one but um with this conversation about local landowners and homeowners and you know the things that they could do as part of this um I also just want to bring into the thought process what happens for renters um you know if there's money that goes into these programs that private homeowners benefit from how do renters benefit from that um or like how can those petalumans also um you know add to a program like this or get something back from a program like this um and also folks who don't have homes at all um how are they affected by this and how what does it look like on that front so just wanted to add that um to the thoughts around this excellent now back to you Bill thank you Sarah okay just real quick I thought it might be a good bullet to add about expand to expand our recycled water program that's it I
believe we're touching on that in the utilities section but good point thank you okay any additional thoughts comments on the water related goal okay pretty good on schedule years why don't we go ahead and move to the what I think is the third goal is that right that one yeah this is a big one there's a lot this is a media one there's a lot here so Petaluma has a cohesive network of healthy protected and productive natural lands that facilitates the coexistence of people animals and plants so under this one we've got supporting the connection of Open Spaces Urban separators from conservation easements to create a green belt expanding the urban forest and Food Forest canopy throughout the city and there's a whole variety of ways that can be implemented natural solutions to adapt to heat extremes using transfer development rights to at open space areas and improving habitat and Trail connectivity throughout the city if you go to I think this one actually took two slides for us to break down how to accomplish it so first step is identify optimal locations based on environmental assets such as habitat type for connecting open spaces and conservation easements to create a green bout green belt protect new lands for conservation easements and open space purposes so identify and protect continue to seek new opportunities to conserve open space identify viable Lots including vacant parking and other underdeveloped lots to be used as pocket parts for food forests and tree planting
develop neighborhood-specific and ecologically informed vegetation and Landscaping guidance to support an integrated ecological Network you can go to the third one identify trails and open space networks that can be improved and expanded upon for increased access to Green Space and provide improved connections through the extension of wildlife corridors and studying the visibility feasibility of a voluntary transfer of development rights program to promote infill development and preserve open space areas within the municip code possibly pairing that transfer of development rights with a density bonus incentive for the receiving area this is getting really in the weeds here but and establishing procedures for the permanent preservation of land such as conservation easements on the sending area and we can flip back and forth through those slides as needed if you want to reference one of them because I know there's a there's a lot in this one we could spend an entire evening talking about transfer development right yeah Mary well I think it's really good it's my favorite one so far and you hit everything really well the only uh question I had was on the um second slide uh [Music] it says Identify optimal locations for to create a green belt around the city and um well we we have a partial green belt around the city so I was just one wondering um what is that is that in to replace our our green belt or is it to expand it um correct it's to complete and complete it and expand it
okay very good we've gotten that question now twice this week so maybe we should just say that in this exactly right okay thank you you thank you Mary uh Christine since we haven't heard from you all right I always see your name and it says Christine and so much you know Chris thank you sure um so just a word tweak on that overarching goal um Petaluma has a cohesive network of protected and productive natural lands that facilitates the healthy coexistence so it's more than just coexistence it's like thriving healthy so that is my it's my initial word Smith for the evening I'm sorry John I'm going to Trump you again I don't think we've heard from Dave yet tonight so I'm going to go to Dave and then back to bill then to you John thanks Ron just one quick question I know you say we could talk about the development right transfers all night long but I just recently had reason to look up the phrase development rights in the city documents and find it doesn't appear anywhere in the zoning code or the municipal code so it sounds like this would be an entirely new topic for the city of Petaluma is that a correct interpretation oh that's a that's a big question Della you want to tackle it I have a little experience with this field for transfer of development rights yeah in that context yeah are you asking if the city currently has a program for that I don't believe they do but no I think what he's asking is that because there's no not currently any reference to development rights in
the municipal code is that is that problematic in terms of establishing a TDR program is that correct no thanks Ron yeah I don't believe that is problematic good because my understanding of development rights is kind of a umbrella term for the way you're sometimes able to divorce ownership from development rights from other use rights um it's it gets into the legal side of things um in order to establish a transfer development rights program you need to amend the municipal code in the first place so you would include that is your question Dave the general plan is going to be amending a lot and the generals the city's already thinking about the other required code updates following the general plan adoption let's go to Bill and then back to John I guess I'm I was just um curious in the big picture as we look for more ways to create more open space within our Urban growth boundary while we're trying to create more living space by building a more dense community I I just think it should be clear that there's there's got to be some kind of trade-offs here that were looking at building taller buildings um we talk a lot about infill projects but at the same time we're talking about preserving open space we have I just um we're kind of asking for everything here and I I don't think it's clear that there's there's going to be a lot of give and take to make this uh make this happen excellent point bill that's a lot of that's one major theme of the land use Alternatives work so we'll
be coming back to that because that's really about the relative distribution of built environment vis-a-vis open space and the different types of uses within the built environment so it's an excellent excellent observation and drink on and our land use team or collaborating on that conversation along with the climate adaptation team as well because that's another fact sorry John I'm going to make you wait again filled in John yeah just a quick question I want to make sure we're defining somewhere the definition of food Forest Ella but it would definitely get to find yes it's essentially an urban Forest but with uh with plants that produce edible foods fruits so what was it you know orange trees or cherry or things that can be eaten well I think that that also brings up an interesting question which is really relevant to Petaluma you know the food Force could be the opposite of a food desert but but one of the things that we want to think about is smaller scale food production in the city and how can we allow that so in case folks are wondering that's also something that's on our minds good question Phil John thank you for your patience all right no problem uh yeah so two thoughts the first one was right what what Phil said is about the food Forest because we just saw this letter that came from Susie Grady trying to make sure that uh food production on a small scale either eat from homeowners to co-ops and like uh need to be promoted as much as possible so when anybody's
private land that they can share food with others in any which way possible so Food Forest tends to imply oh apple trees and plum trees and the like versus vegetables and and other things or even chickens so food Force needs to be expanded to uh agricultural uh and larger agricultural concept here so food force is too limiting in its definition as what we want the other idea I had was looking at just land this is looking at just land and how land is is being used and I want to make sure that dispension we're talking about Open Spaces we're really also including viewscapes so when you're driving down the road that there's a huge open space that that is also land but above it is also a physical space a visual space and a airspace and then um and and what Darren brought up about there's a whole soil space Also that needs to be included because we keep thinking of the land as just the surface of the top and we need to really be inclusive include the uh what's below the surface and what's above the surface in our language and our references and the like make sure that's more inclusive of three dimensions not this land of basically two-dimensional space of surface but not to mention walls and roofs which we'll be talking about in just a minute um quickly just to your point about permitted uses that's part of the also the ongoing conversation on the land use policy framework like what uses to permit across a range of zones Ag and food production being one of the major question marks
so thank you my Ally I I just wanted to um jump in because the view the view said or viewscapes is the thing that kind of gets my hackles up in general plans because it can be used really poorly to block like taller buildings and more dense development and is typically used by wealthy people to keep less wealthy people out so I just wanted to bring that context and raise that up things is viewscape addressed in the current the Escape is not in any of our current strategies but I will say it is something that is it may or may not it's not legally required in the general plan but it can be addressed in the general plan and it is uh analyzed as part of the environmental impacts in zika we have not been hearing a lot of people clamoring Ali for a collection of view sheds and use games okay it was just a comment directly to John's comment so I'm glad it's not included thanks any other thoughts on this hacked full of ideas go around a Integrated Network of ecosystems okay seeing None Shall we move on to goal four I think it is okay biophilic Landscaping I think this one's my favorite biophilic Landscaping connects and supports natural spaces and mitigates climate impacts so promote the use of green Walls and roofs prioritize native and drought tolerant vegetation and Landscaping and green infrastructure and promote the use of water capturing systems for businesses the next slide on how we'll accomplish it develop green Walls on City facilities to increase public explode exposure
through Municipal demonstrations create a stormwater fee credit and rebate program for property owners who install green walls or roofs based on the amount of impervious area covered to develop design guidelines for green Walls and roofs to minimize water needs and maximize green infrastructure benefits develop a robust list of native and climate resilient species that are compatible with green Walls and roofs and update the building code standards to allow for water capturing features including water storage containers from water capturing apparatus I have a question devil would that last one include Great Water Systems yeah so actually that's one of the points of that last one is that the the captured water can then be used for grave water usage questions comments on biophilic Landscaping Mary um this one strikes me as kind of not high level it sort of strikes me as getting into something that's um more on the zoning level um green roofs I mean it's actually kind of talking about building design and so I'm I'm not knowledgeable enough to know the how General plans actually cover that that fine grain maybe you could tell me um I mean I yeah it's a fine idea um in fact we designed the first um living roof in city limits so all over it but I just um don't understand how it's a high level item so a general plan will set the kind of framework in place of the of what the zoning code will then uh get more into the details on exactly what will be required so these are sort of
exactly the policies that would go into the general plan and then the zoning code would go into the more specifics of um what the requirements would be to actually do each of those things or what [Music] um what studies would have to be conducted what and what would need to be met things like that so for instance Marion you may very well know this already is you know many current zoning and or building codes would not allow some of the newer Technologies related to gray water capture green roofs green Walls that sort of thing and so to Dallas Point the GP sets the direction and the implementation is the is the code update mm-hmm oh now I got a dilemma filled in Roger than John is this goal a definition or a goal and if and what's the definition of biophilic that is a great question she's looking at the definition of biophilic I'll answer your question about what is a goal so you may have noticed you know um the the format we're using is a goal is like an element of a vision statement it's describing the Preferred Future it's like it's it's describing what you'd like to see in the future Petaluma so in this case you're hoping to see for the Landscaping connect and support right yeah I didn't I didn't mean to I didn't mean to ask what a goal is I meant to ask is this goal a definition because it sounds like a definition for me and I think we should be using words in our goals that are common to the layperson as as much as possible and what if we just say Landscaping um
development my friendly connection Sports yeah nice low point no need to jargonize our general plan thank you that was a very good point if no one here knows what it means I don't think the rest of the Paloma knows what it means I assume that man life life friendly um anyway um good point would you have did you have another thought Phil or was that oh thank you uh Roger then build and John I guess quick quickly maybe following up but what Mary said um if you go to the last slide it talked about a rebate program and a waiver of fees and John talked about hiring more City staff I'm just wondering uh these seem like things that I don't know that's a general plan or a city council to vote on spending people's money like I guess foreign ER fee I guess I'm sure I do um so I have more of a general question about City plans and uh things yeah that's another great kind of General plan common question um typically how it's structured as a goal will describe the future objectives we'll describe fairly quantitative in some cases like ways to measure your progress towards the goal policies will establish that that clear direction for how to achieve the goal and then there's often actions identified none of which are obligatory but but designed to provide clear guidance on what coder should be done but you're absolutely right at the end of the day it's up to council that has the budgetary authority to make her final decisions about what's prioritized what's budgeted for year to year where
staff are putting where they're not so the GP can't control that per se but it can provide guidance and I will note that a lot of the a lot of these sort of uh green infrastructure and sustainability sort of initiatives have like I mentioned before have a lot of State funding that come with them which I'm not going to pretend that's not still just spending other people's money but um it is at least funding from the state that uh can help fund these programs uh bill reinert then Bill Wilbur um I love green Walls and green roofs I have lots of experience with them and I would try and get them into all my projects but I have a problem with this uh goal um it lists some very specific tools but just very few of the tools that we have to reach this goal and I think I don't really and know how to get my head around this at this time but I'm having problems with it just being a general goal but with some very specific advice that I think is incomplete and um and it waits thing I would also say that living walls and living roofs are also the most complicated biophilic tools that we have and most expensive um you know storm water feed credits are great there are a lot of good suggestions here but I think it's a much bigger picture topic to get so specific about you know listing just a few tools so I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say other than that I think we kind of need to repackage this goal um to be more General I guess and um you know figure out what it is the goal I mean
as we're trying to encourage these specific tools you know use the green walls or are we trying to reach the big goal of supporting natural spaces and mitigating climate impacts um you know I'll have to think about that more thank you good observation this is why we bring these initial ideas for conversation thank you I'm actually going to jump now to Roberto we haven't heard from yet Hey Ron uh just add a quick question I'm unmuted right yes okay um I just wanted to see how this goal could be applied almost you know once all the other comments are refined right like the ones that bill mentioned just now uh to some of these new development and high density projects that we've been discussing right so um what what could be some I guess current and uh future actionable steps for some of the the housing elements stuff that we've been discussing and how would this goal tie into that thank you good question um uh do you have a particular aspect of program or policy in the housing in mind is the the densification I mean I I guess it's more of a general comment in the sense of if we're striving for it to be a goal I would uh you know these future projects um be required or at what I guess might fall under the building code but as you know what kind of actionable steps would we take for you know this to actually be implemented and just some projects that have been proposed as a recent um uh that's a big question it could be done in a variety of ways um usually cities will use a
combination of carrots and sticks sometimes established on minimum requirements and then incentives for going above and beyond that approach could be taken this taken in this instance for instance you can have a minimum requirement for on-site you know water or preservation or you could improve the one you already have and then provide incentives for developments that go above and beyond that through a variety of you know different Innovations like those listed on this slide I guess then my uh question would be um what would be the what is the current state and then what would be our Delta to be achieved so I guess the question at the bottom there do we capture the high level strategies I would say I think it's worthwhile capturing our current minimum requirements and what is the Delta that we want to obtain from the school thank you that's a great question I don't know if you have an immediate answer for that Bella Bella just so you know Roberto one thing we're also doing and we haven't been bringing lifting up is identifying initial metrics um for some of the goals as well as uh Target targets for those metrics um so you raise a really interesting point because I think one in the one that VidCon is playing with is related to water quality this might be another candidate if we don't aren't already thinking about it don't let any thoughts on that question yeah I'm scrolling through to see if we had a metric already established for this one um we did not so I think this would
be one that would be we would have to discuss and see what would make sense so sorry we don't have one immediately in mind Roberto but it's a great idea yeah no I'm not asking for one just for it to be considered you know yeah no thank you uh bill walpert then back to Mary thank you John for your patience uh I wanted a second uh what Bill Reinhardt had said about the expense and the complexity of implementing green roots and green Walls especially with existing buildings but I think we could also um do a better job at incorporating the landscape to do similar things like shading our buildings if we um we gave better direction to developers to develop lots that have a proper orientation um so many times I've seen developments where it's really impossible to even add solar panels to a roof much less be able to uh you know plant trees deciduous trees on the south side of a house so that you get shade in the summer and sunlight in the winter these are such basic concepts but you don't see them implemented very often that's all okay thank you Bill and Della I probably did not warn you that there are several Architects and planners on the gpack I know most of them it's fantastic thanks Bill Mary the one question I have in this idea is um if we're encouraging living roofs and I and I see the benefits to that if we're trying to slow down the water and have um kind of reduce the the any kind of um well it's a sort of a storm water management concept but really um we should use the
land for that and we should use our roofs for solar panels um I mean maybe there's areas of land that we would want to use put solar as well like solar Fields but I'm just kind of uncomfortable with this as a an overarching um goal that then drops immediately down into building design um given in just given the importance of solar uh and and getting all electric buildings um that's that to me seems like we're going in two different they're both important but I'm not sure this is the right place to or right wording for this thank you a student conservation um John and then Roberto uh thank you uh first off I I did put together a living roof on a garden shed over to Casa Grande High School if anybody wants to go see one out there that's been in operation for almost 10 years um but um this whole this concept yeah I feel like everyone else is struggling a little bit in the the Deep level details and what what's the actual implication here I think instead of using biophilic Landscaping we really probably use the word Urban ecosystem in its place and um and we're not just talking about natural space because when people talk about natural spaces they're they're talking about these big open Park type things and we just don't want it just in Naturals we want it in the urban spaces as well as our natural spaces and we want to create natural spaces within our Urban spaces so those implications there we also want to make sure that in developments we there's some requirements I think
there's an implication here when folks apply for developments and plans we want to make sure that yeah they're going to be including all these features and yeah these could be features in a climate forward development and have some regulations but this would be a long list of stuff not just what's here but there's stuff that would also include tree mitigations and Replacements soil biota carbon sequestration as well as various aligning structures in the right directions for remote for solar panels or whether there's solar roof shingles down not just solar cells but solar shingles from Tesla that seem to be working really well now including that in roof structures so there's a whole slew of green structures that could be included here in developments so it needs to be a little broader in its high level and then maybe separating out the the Green Landscaping portion from the actual building structures and then we're talking about water storage and Water Systems what happened at McKenna went over there and to see the pond that it's in the back so they're collecting the water not just in a container but a huge Pond area which hopefully also has some release timers on it so the water is only all the water is collected off the entire site from a two to three inch rain can be collected in a pond and I would like to see that included in all um especially in the north northern area of our city where there's flooding potential I'd like to see that there's water capturing ponds included
in all developments north of that Weir that we have above Lynch Creek so that all the rain water is slowed down entirely from any new development that occurs especially in Open Spaces that are currently undeveloped now um so things like that so it's just not um not just containers so we're not talking about or 100 gallons or 500 gallons or a thousand gallons we need to be talking about much larger quantities and then the other slide referred to uh businesses and trying to get it uh get structures and water structures and Rain things into business we need to include homes not just businesses but all development included on that so those are just some of the ideas I want to toss out there thank you John I'm amazing you can say all that without taking your breath thank you um Janice did I see your hand raised you did see my hand raised but I was just agreeing with the last um numerous commenters and then I'm reading about biophilic and it's um it's I'm just not sure how it really totally fits in thank you what we're doing what we're talking about I'm gonna go with Roberto and then the staff member Christina sorry I just wanted to chat but I think a suggestion if for the third bullet then uh I would just maybe reword it given the conversation to something maybe about uh develop design guidelines just for eco-friendly Renovations and maybe something along the lines of for new green buildings um and then you can just have dream walls and roofs as a an example uh that way we just
don't get bugged down in those details but since the focus is just green and eco-friendly in general so are all great suggestions thank you all right I think I'm going to defer to Sierra before Christina actually um just one last idea if we're looking for additional high-level strategies or or top or things for this topic that I don't see represented here I think it's an opportunity for this although maybe this goes somewhere else but I I see that there's an opportunity here to integrate our goal of equity from one of the other slides also into this which I think if we sprinkle it throughout like that would be really strategic um but what I'm thinking is another strategy that we could do is look at what would it look like to create a green jobs um like framework to do a lot of this labor so a lot of the labor around the city facilities or around maybe other you know Greening of our city what would it look like to establish an equity-based or an equitable um framework for building living wage jobs especially that employ people who might come from backgrounds that don't have as many resources um whether that's wealth or any other identity that they have or don't have um so I think that could be like a really good opportunity that we're missing right here thank you Sarah we've now connected natural resources to every other element in the general plan thank you Christina go ahead uh I I'm really enjoying hearing from all of the gpac folks and have been resisting jumping in but I
can't on this particular uh on this particular idea I think biophilia is a really interesting concept and I think that uh maybe one of the ways that we can wrap our heads around it is thinking about ourselves as as you know humans as creatures that evolved in the natural world and thinking about how we can reflect our relationship with the natural world in our city form our cities are ways that we communicate with each other and we communicate our values um and so we can communicate an integration with the natural world by having more plants around us and as well as by having other kinds of elements water sunlight etc etc and and really integrating those into our living environments and um not only does that tend to lend greater Health to folks and I'm sure that we'll get to Health in our upcoming one of our upcoming items but it also uh increases focuses feeling of connection with the natural world and then tendency to adopt conservation Behavior so there's a whole this field field of study called conservation psychology which studies what makes people uh you know want to care for the natural world and having a a rich connection that they live through with the natural environment um even if it's not a fully functional ecosystem even if it's kind of Representative of a ecosystem really has a big impact to folks thank you for sharing that and I'm what part of just the theme I'm hearing is there's a lot of really important and useful Concepts part of the challenge is how best
to organize and present them in the context of a general plan so all these comments are extremely helpful thank you everybody Chris is going to get one more comment we do need to move on but Chris one more comments I just wanted to uh support what Christina just said I've been thinking about when we're talking about natural resources one of the city's greatest natural resources is its people and that you know there's a way to weave people and in the environment and health just as a way of having everybody's included in this and like everybody and along with the natural resources it's wordsmithing it's putting some poetry in the final version but I think uh what she was talking about is important as far as um the spirit of what we're all about thank you sorry I can't help myself when I was a grad student we talked a lot about natural resource management and by definition it was a very anthroper anthropocentric framework right like kind of like pretty self-centered in many respects right so a lot of that's conversation centers around that whole idea is like we maybe take ourselves out of the center for a minute and think about ourselves as one one species within a entire ecosystem and think less about management maybe stewardship code stewardship that sort of thing so anyway great ideas let's move on to the final goal which I know is also going to elicit a lot of comments um so Della take it away all right so then that the city's natural resources interdepartmental staff
working group effectively protects and supports the natural environment and Petaluma by overseeing General plan policy implementation though identified apartments and capacity to contribute to the working group support the working group to effectively carry out University implementation seek and work with Community Partners to refine the roles and responsibilities of the working group how we would accomplish it create a working to create a working group first and foremost that includes City staff from multiple related departments or divisions identify a budget to carry out the roles and responsibilities and develop Community engagement strategies and programs to help the community engage with the new working group and achieve its goals Della before we I'm sure hands are going to go up in a second could you speak to the question raised earlier about whether this the group is envisioned to focus kind of solely on the city or is it designed to collaborate more broadly with the community other jurisdictions Regional entities that sort of thing so the idea is that it would be City staff who is specifically focused on implementing natural resources policy but in order to do that it would naturally require uh coordination with other agencies and organizations so it would definitely be a collaborative group comments questions feedback bill do we have examples of jurisdictions that have done this in the past not that we can't invent the wheel I would personally say in my experience he
would be inventing the wheel there are working groups in other cities but I have not personally experienced I've not personally worked with a city that has one particularly focused on natural resources uh did you have a follow-up okay thank you um bill um I just happened to last weekend went to a conference and I sat in on several a couple of Education sessions specifically were about um urban forestry management plans put together by several cities one being the city of Philadelphia which is a massive you know undertaking but also smaller cities of Cambridge Massachusetts I think um Thousand Oaks has a good one but so it's been done and there's some great case studies and there are people that want to talk about it there's also a National Park Service urban forestry Wing that's really focused on helping people with this sort of thing so I think it's fantastic it's a great goal and um but I want I think the I'm just going to spend two minutes I have to say um the one thing back to the trees you know the most basic and effective tool we have for improving the quality of life it and the natural resources environment is the trees and we need to make sure this is exactly what we need to get every Department to acknowledge that at and including you know Public Works and streets and utilities but police and fire and um building I just want us two examples that really stand out to me I heard a story about the recent relief program at Bond Park where there were a lot of trees
available and there's a lot of opportunity to really improve the neighborhood by putting trees but there were so many reasons what I was told that that we couldn't have trees you know in the parkway along the street where we really needed them or around the Playfield you know it's either they're too dangerous they're too close together all these rules and I think we just have to somehow state that we've got to get away from that and instead of finding reasons why we shouldn't plant trees we need to acknowledge that we need trees everywhere and find ways to put them in find places to put them in and um and I think that this section needs to state that and it needs to change the sort of the Civic culture of our local government where somehow it's ingrained in all departments that yeah trees are good you know we need to not only install them but we need to manage them we need to maintain them so you know I hate to keep beating that that one but um I I want to hear that when I read this uh this section thank you thank you Bill just a quick comment just a thought Della that released all this and I think your comment certainly is true for trees and I think it's true for other other natural resources and other components of city life there are you know based on the way City governments have evolved in their structure there are always things that are missed or are just a little bit of somebody's jurisdiction and a little bit of somebody else's so they defer to each other and then
nothing happens and I think a theme that's emerging from a lot of our Frameworks and this one in particular is trying to address those gaps in the way cities think about the places and people that are ultimately their you know their responsibility and so thank you though for pointing that out and I'm wondering I'm just thinking more and more about how we can use the the GP to to force a reorganization and thought that hopefully then would be followed by some level of reorganization about how County actually operates thank thank you Bill um Janice and Bill Wilburn I just want to I mean totally agree with Bill I happen to live by Bond Park and every time I go there I see all these trees that were planted and I could see what they're going to be in five and ten years and you know it is I think it's the most cost effective way um for the city to accomplish its goals and I just I agree with you Bill trees trees trees um we're talking about creating a a new City Department the natural resource interdepartmental staff is that correct um sorry go ahead no download please yeah this would be a working group so it's not a dedicated Department it would be an inter-departmental working group so rather than a single Department that in to me that sort of creates another silo instead it would be taking people from various departments and having them come together yeah I like that better I don't like the idea of creating more bureaucracy um and I was also kind of thinking about our existing
planning department and our Planning Commission where they are they're trying to implement the ideas of the general plan that we have already so it seems to me that if we can be specific about the vision that we have for our community into the future that we have a lot of the uh wherewithal not that we couldn't use more staff perhaps but we have the the infrastructure to carry that out existing already so that's all I wanted to say thanks uh John then back to Bill reinert um yeah just uh pointing what the bill was saying there the working group I think is a huge step forward and it needs to have some empowerment and there needs to be some uh channeling so that things go through that working group or has to be approved by that working group when it says policy implementation so there's two things there's creating new policies and creating like working conditions or expectations especially in planning and development of plans and the like but there's also the second part which is policy implementation is enforcing and making sure things happen and done correctly which also includes making sure things happen but also big things when things go wrong that there is some implementation of fines and fees and some regulations so that needs to be defined in there what policy information is I would even say policy creation as well as implementation and enforcement so all three things in there and make sure that this is we're in groups as they example I brought up earlier because um when
when this work was done on this Creek there was no single person or Department that would have uh of credit or ability to to have some oversight of what actually happened or what to advise or how to set a fee whatever so it might go to the police for for uh as a first step because it's an ordinance type thing violation that might have been done and so it would go to the police first and the police would have to find out okay is this a Parks thing then it would go down to Public Works and Public Works would say oh this this Creek work was done but our expectations are different from fish and game and then they say oh let's talk to Fish and Game fish game would pass it back to the city so that's that's the problem that we're facing now is is everything it's a hot potato that's being tossed for almost any situation that we're running into now and we need to make sure that there's some empowerment within this group uh for policy establishment implementation um and and oversight of everything so there has to be some flow through otherwise it's just we're just Consulting for for once a month we'll come into off for a half an hour just share ideas and then walk away um so there needs to be a little more meat given to this group other than saying they're just going to meet once in a while that's my comment thanks for further elaborating on the concept in the working group's recommendations uh Bill Reiner okay I thought John was going to hit on this but I think at a minimum there
needs to be a paid uh position of an urban Forester that manages this group and and supports it and um I think I'm not sure which department that that person falls under but I think we should have a full-time paid employee that specifically is charged with managing the urban forest and and the like so a related but a different idea yeah thank you I am thoughtful that we want to retain plenty of time for public comment um oh Mary go ahead our second what Bill said that is something that we discussed a lot with our open space working group and it felt very important to not just have it be a casual Gathering but really an important position right alongside um Public Public Works within Public Works perhaps thank you Taryn I see your hand we're going to go to public comment after this um but first uh Chris well I just want to say I really love this idea of an interden interdent departmental staff working group I think uh I'm looking at like age friendly there are so many different silos in the city so for for future reference I I think I'm going to be coming back to this because I think it's one way to start getting that holistic uh approach that we keep talking about where we're not just you know sticking a finger in a dike here and trying to do something else working at the margins that this is a way uh if we get the right people in place to to start looking at Holistic Solutions for the city so just a thumbs up for right now on this this idea thank you we're going to call it
the Hot Potato working group um Aaron before we went to public comment I just wanted to throw in there um that I wanted to thank you Ron for a significant shift in tonight's facilitation uh it is truly like allowed for more voices to contribute and has helped us to take that small step towards a more collaborative conversation so I want to thank you for that hard work and stick into it thanks Aaron John do you have a comment that's 10 seconds or less yes um what needs to be put in here is not only the working group but the term green infrastructure has value equal to our physical structures our building structures our street structures and our pipes and the like is that the green infrastructure has equal value to the physical structures that we create and make sure that that is part of this oversight group thank you and we're gonna have to do some clear definition of defining of things because green for green infrastructure at this point is used to refer to a whole slew of different things excellent point um I am going to stop us there we'll come back to additional closing gpac discussion but first do want to allow plenty of time for public comment so Daniel if you could help us I see Hands raised already if you can help us with the public comment on agenda items at this point thank you thank you okay thank you Ron and jpeg members so we're gonna continue with the general public comments um I see um some hands raised here um so we'll just go in order um the first public
comment here will be Taryn obade um I'm going to ask you to unmute I'll share my screen with the three minute timer um and when the timer starts the floor is yours thank you hi um I want to start with uh the uh the working group I think we really need to have um a actually a citizen committee what we've really learned through this lovely process and through a lot of the great achievements of the past recent years is that our citizens are amazing subject matter experts and they've got the Leading Edge ideas on a continual basis so if we want this to keep fresh and high value we've got to expand like our tree committee to be our natural resources committee and tree committee combined which we've talked about for months now so I'm a bit surprised to see this sort of you know circumventing of that whole idea by talking about just remaining in staff things are better when staff partners with the public we love that um overall this presentation felt very scattered to me and felt random I feel like we really need to pull together what we've heard so many times throughout this General plan process and that is a holistic petaluma-centric approach we are a wetter shed Valley it's everything it's the water it's the pollution of the water it's the integration and the Confluence and the convergence and the cumulative impacts of everything yeah soil yeah pollution yeah electromagnetic fields yeah the the flooding the trees aren't called out the river isn't called out the forest isn't
called out I feel like the mishmash of like getting into some weeds without really nailing that this is Petaluma and what our resource Treasures are unlike any other City it was pretty much missed here it almost felt like this was a presentation for any other city and pardon me I tend to be very direct I only have a couple minutes here so I can't put a lot of fluff words in so pardon me on that um trees um you talk about Urban forests well are you talking about a tree program what's the metric for that tree canopy are you talking about protecting the old growth forest it's down by the river please think about protecting the old growth forest what about Wetlands didn't hear anything about Wetlands we keep jamming in cement into our Wetlands at the same time that we declare that we're climate friendly because we just spent 70 000 on a new EV it makes no sense and um I don't understand why you'd go through the trouble of planting stuff on a roof when it's just going to dry out don't you think we'll need that purple pipe water for the ground and for vegetable gardens we're struggling with that right now there's no way I'm going to be throwing water up on my roof that just seems to be like a fantasy idea so um I think we really need to pull in more citizen stuff I think we need to go back and read the um natural resources comments that have been provided review the tapes of so many meetings we've had before because I feel like we've missed so much opportunity with tonight and
thank you okay thanks Taryn okay um so moving on um Susie Grady I'm going to ask you to unmute restart the timer and the floor is yours thanks hi there and I'm sorry to say I joined late after my my child asleep so um but um just trying to grasp the gist of what's been said um uh a shortcut for the work that I do is um keyword search of food and um I see in some ways that it's lacking and how the interface between our city as well as how to get our food and how we access our food um and so I think that that that's sometimes implied but not specifically called out and so um I've spoken with a few people and and put in advocacy around how to make Community Food production and opt out um activity in in a number of different Parcels in zoning as opposed to an opt-in activity and that would help our community gardens our school Gardens um Bounty Community farm and a number of other efforts um as well as just um putting some language around working Landscapes and that we need that to happen in our city to connect our future with our heritage of farming um the past and the future together and IT addresses health and equity and a number of other issues so those are just a few points um I have a whole approach as to how that can be done um within state law and code um I also don't see much mention about the the food action plan that the city of Petaluma um endorsed through this Numa County food system Alliance it was endorsed probably four years ago maybe a little longer and um those
12 goals about how to have um a living landscape that includes um agriculture food food production fiber shed Etc um so I my emphasis my focus is on on one small community Farm pretty close to downtown Petaluma that's under a lot of pressure for development housing there's ways that we can balance affordable housing needs as well as open space and urban open space because if if the average person can't access a garden or even places where they can connect with the natural cycles they're not going to have the same values to to to vote to have those things protected up and down in different ways so um that's that's my plug for this evening and I'll continue to plug that wherever and however possible thank you okay thank you Susie um next hand I saw was Veronica o go ahead and unmute and the floor is now yours hi good evening Pat and general plan team thanks so much um I too feel like tonight has been a little a little um maybe well maybe a little bit of a mixed Masala like going from Big Ideas to small and getting in the weeds a little bit um but I just wanted to focus on my my comments are are pretty much um also not big small and medium ideas so I just wanted to talk about um say thank you so much to the open space working group for their summary and I support a dedicated chapter on open space and natural resources I support a parks and natural resources department equal to Public Works and with a focus on on green and blue and nature-based solutions and also landscape
guidelines with Native and Forest planting Forest planting wasn't mentioned but we can do a lot to work with um uh carbon sequestration if we if we focus on Forest type planting um stronger language to require um rain Gardens and biosoils and permeable surfaces for development and adding a soil program as well um looking at how parks and open space how soil is does contribute to many many of our ecological resources and then we have a yes to the Petaluma River Parkway the north North Petaluma River and I'd also like to add another concept that wasn't mentioned and that's the rights of nature um honoring nature and and that it has rights and that our ecosystems including our trees and ocean and our animals and our mountains and everything have rights um and that we we can in Petaluma establish ourselves as an environmental leader as well as a climate leader and to consider keeping the rights of nature as a key principle in our in our general plan and prioritizing projects that require nature-based solution and building standards and things like Wetlands trading looking at that and I love the idea of biophilic City I know the language is is um maybe may not be familiar to people but I really liked what Christina and some of the other people said and I support what what um Miss Grady said about agriculture in our city and how important that is um I think that's about all the time I have except that I'd also like to say that I agree with some of the points that Taryn was also
raising about how important our river is and that we actually have um so many natural resources within our city and we are unique and special thank you great thank you Veronica moving on um to Bev at protect wild Petaluma yeah the floor is now yours thank you I've heard a lot tonight um it's a tremendous subject um but one thing I want to emphasize is that our um we talk as if green and open space is sort of out there but it is actually the plane we are flying on and if we take too many vaults out of the plane it's going to crash and that space that open space that green system is something that we need to respect and it's not just a question of putting a whole bunch of saplings in the ground it's a question of respecting the trees that have been growing for a hundred years or 200 years or 300 years those trees have a kind of wisdom in them that we don't have and they are supporting many many forms of life and not just the trees the grasses and all the animals and the you know are incredible riparian habitat that we have here this city would not exist if it were not for the Petaluma River and yet for a long time the river has been being treated like kind of a sewer and unless we recognize that we are here by by the grace of this green system that we live in we are not going to care for it and we it is going to fail it's pretty good so it's not too strong what somebody else was talking uh so anyway I would I I I ask that we take this really seriously and um and and in the last
General plan there was a river plan and a lot of it has been ignored so unless we have a lot of education and a lot of carrots and a lot of sticks and people who are willing to keep their eye on what's going on and enforce it it's going to come to nothing it will just be like people who buy locks for their doors and then don't use them and then wonder why they got robbed I mean we really need to respect the system that we live in and I guess that's all I have to say thank you thank you Beth um M Sullivan the floor is now yours yes good evening as we move forward with our discussion of open space we know that our humans have a tendency to be very species and to focus uniquely on how open space will benefit us as we expand human encroachment into the natural lands even just for recreation we must do so in line with Governor newsom's 30 by 30 executive order which seeks to protect and enhance our native biodiversity we must prioritize the impact our activities have on the natural world and the species that reside there most people and organizations don't have any clear understanding of what's happening to biodiversity as a result of climate change or why it matters as Jane Goodall says 50 percent of all our mammals have gone extinct in just 40 years and 80 percent of all species are imperiled in many areas we are facing ecological collapse organizations like the Sonoma land trusts and scca are policy-based organizations their focus along with Sonoma County Parks is on preserving
areas for enjoyment exclusively by humans for people to enjoy the Landscapes but the value of riparian corridors like Kelly Creek and the Petaluma River lie in their function as biodiversity hubs for many Native species these species are struggling organizations like open space and Parks and Rec are not Wildlife Specialists their focus is narrow we simply can't afford this narrow Focus any longer for example those in favor of the Kelly Creek Park extension project don't understand the science and aren't listening to The Experts Kelly Creek constitutes exceptionally High value wildlife habitat they're as many as 66 special status species there these are precious and irreplaceable ecological resources that the Housing Development and the park plants would permanently imperil a number of sensitive habitats Kelly Creek the D Street tributary the creek Woodland wetlands and Sikhs and drainages vital to the survival of the species on this site none of the biological analyzes conducted to date take into account the cumulative impacts from humans on this fragile creek site and on species like the California red-legged frog the wildlife here don't stand a chance from the grading and the construction the impacts on wetlands and water quality for example only impacts from the David in Home Project are analyzed in the eir there's nothing that's been analyzed in terms of the Kelly Creek Parks impact and the gross over use of gross overuse of these sensitive lands from human-associated
activity on the public open space due to cars bikes dogs horses cattle Crossings Trails Bridges is an Amphitheater multiple parking lots and restrooms so in addition to engaging park in open space folks let's include Wildlife ecological and Native Plant experts like Dr Smallwood and Sue Kirks on the decision-making team we need a lot more expert balancing currently exists I'd also like to see the city stop allowing developers to do their own eirs that too often end up entirely destroying our natural assets and we must stop Wetlands filling or Wetland credit banking which let's face it is a farce thank you thank you for your comments um Darren I skipped her thank you Daniel on the floor is now yours terrific uh so I just wanted to bring up the last part being mentioned there at the end of the discussion about having a natural resources interdepartmental working group I think that's a great idea with the tree committee at last night's meeting we were discussing you know right now the planning department City staff is working on an updated tree ordinance the tree committee is offering input into that process but we talked about how this is really a part of a bigger urban forestry management plan that there are a couple pieces to that with kind of the ordinance being at the heart and one critical piece is Bill Reinhardt and others said is having a full-time staff arborist and I think another tangible step into making more of a kind of Natural Resources focused throughout staff
and then public committees and commissions would be to eventually transition the tree committee to a natural resource and Urban Ecology commission something of that nature that could let the public have more purview into a lot of these different areas and then you could have ad hocs on trees on River on and I would just love to see that be a a bigger focus a couple specific things I had written down you know I love what people are saying about including more species I love how people are picking up this idea of soil health and promoting soil health I'm a big believer that our underground ecosystems are more complex and ultimately more precious and kind of stochastic and delicate in their assembly so we really need to be cognizant of our underground ecologies I wanted to update one of the goals that was listed specifically says Petaluma has a cohesive network of healthy protected and productive natural lands that facilitates the coexistence of people animals plants and fungi and of course you can go nuts with that but if fungi are another kingdom of organisms that need to be recognized on the level of plant plants and animals it's one of my ecological Heroes Juliana fairchief from Chile says it's flora fauna funga this is kind of the Holy triumvirate of life that we need to take into consideration a Petaluma could be on the Leading Edge if we integrate this kind of thinking into our Frameworks you know even if it's in writing because policy wise we don't deal with fungi and
invisible soil organisms very much at least in our writing and our rhetoric it should be there along those lines I would love to see soil testing implemented very simple tool called the microbiometer All City staff should have a familiarity with this if they're working in fields of parks or open space we should be collecting soil data again even if on a policy level we don't know what to do with that data precisely we do need the data specifically on the microorganisms living in the soil whether they be fungi or bacteria that information doesn't yield a lot about ecological health and I also want to promote a permeable surface standard I would love to see that included and also talk more about our power to rezone Parcels to hold them as open space like Maurer was saying not for human use but just as biodiversity batteries thank you thank you Darren okay moving on to Susan Kirks the floor is now yours thank you um well I only have three minutes so I'm just going to focus on three things uh first we're mentioning natural resources a lot uh resources is an extractive term and many conservation organizations agencies and districts are transitioning and no longer using the term natural resources but changing to terms like natural environment natural ecosystems natural ecology so I I want to suggest that we take a look at that and because this is a general Plan update that's going to be in use for many years we probably want to change our terminology from natural resources uh Ms
Acosta the consultant your name is familiar to me I think you might be from Sonoma County but I know you work for a firm based out of Oakland and when I see what the priorities are I see that there's just not a connection from the Consulting effort to our actual lands and our habitats and our existing green and open spaces and potential ones so when you talk about a green belt around the city um well sure I mean we have a Greenbelt Urban separator on the east side we have uh we have grassland habitat and open space that needs to be conserved on the west side also in North Petaluma and South Petaluma but the idea of a green belt around the city is kind of conceptual and and really doesn't capture the north east south and west areas that should be identified with habitat types and existing open space that can be preserved so I'll say a little bit more about that in a minute also in the Native American section reparations and land back efforts should definitely be included every city that I know of every County every state every nation every every region in our nation are building in these terms and these actions to provide equity and so you definitely should include that and then I want to use my last 30 35 seconds to quickly say that I don't know why the Sonoma Valley Wildlife Corridor is still included that is a corridor that is over in the Sonoma Valley it connects to a large linkage called the Blue Ridge Marin Coast we in Petaluma have our own Wildlife corridors and we
connect to Marin County West County and North County far beyond what the Sonoma Valley Wildlife Corridor does so we need to make changes that's a mapping project that I am working on it's in together Bay area's 110 projects for 30 by 30.
and we just need to do so much more work in this area so I'm happy to share the wildlife corridors because we really need to include that in this effort thank you thank you Susan and our final public comment it looks like we'll be Ann edminster uh and thank you for your patience the floor is now yours thank you well I'm closing and I think I have the least to say but what I want to say is I second that to virtually all of the comments that have been made tonight both by the gpac members and by members of the public I'm honestly completely bowled over by the level of sophistication and expertise we have in this community and so grateful for all the wisdom that has been shared and again I fully support virtually every comment that is made and hope to see it all reflected in our final documents thanks very much thank you Ann um I don't see any more hands raised so I will turn it over to the gpac team and that will close public comment for the evening thank you Daniel and thank you members of the public for your thoughtful as always comments thank you they're always very much appreciated um I recognize it's just after nine o'clock my apologies I allowed some of the discussion to go a bit longer than we had planned um but I do before we close wanna provide one last opportunity for gpac members to share any additional observations on um topic of focus this evening or any other final gpack thoughts before we close Dennis yeah I just want to follow up with Susan Kirks on the snow
Wildlife Corridor and yet the Petaluma Wildlife Corridor was not shown and yet that is a corridor that goes you know is connected with Marin County so why was why was that shown the Sonoma and not the Petaluma Wildlife corridor ah do you have an immediate response to that I'm sorry can you repeat the question the question was about the witch Wildlife Corridor you I think there there was one or there was one or more you featured in the ECR which I think was referenced in one of the slides and then the public comment was about yeah right we showed the Sonoma Wildlife order and and so the question was why why we showed that one and not the the one that was referenced in public comment why aren't you showing the one that's connected with Petaluma specifically the one that was just referenced in Petaluma that Susan Kirks just mentioned we don't have we don't have access to that one so if she would send it to us then we would we'll review it and incorporate it go I mean I've known about this Wildlife order for probably 30 years so I'm just why is that information not available we pull Ours from public from public databases from usually State databases so that's where we got the information from well I mean one of the big push for the Ellis Creek was because of the wildlife Corridor so it ties right into that project which was you know started over 20 years ago and is up and running so that doesn't really make any sense well we'll be great if uh open space working group could help
us access the information that they're referring to because it's it's just it's not normally it's not part of the normal publicly accessible data information but it seems like well we haven't issue please help us with it with that Janice I appreciate it okay I mean it just I just want to clarify it doesn't make any sense when we're looking at a River Park um and we're talking about this is what we've been talking about and yet it's not existent it's non-existent that I'll follow up with this and maybe if you could revise with the River Park Information you're referring to okay yeah thank you uh Aaron and Roberto then build and John um I miss my times to say it earlier sorry about Native American versus indigenous um I'd lean towards saying indigenous please Roberto yeah I was uh reviewing the open space working group summary and I just wanted to make sure if this was going to be covered here because maybe I missed it but I didn't hear anything related to how East and West would physically be kind of connected like the two sides of town uh during the consideration of how we would incorporate open spaces so I'm not sure if it's going to be covered in a different topic as we move forward but just wanted to I was kind of hoping to hear something along the lines of of that of the interconnectability between both sides of town though I think I remember seeing something in the draft can you help me with that I might have missed it too so if it we may not have covered it in the
presentation but that way is it is it integrated into the draft framework you're muted sorry thank you um I do think we covered it again a high level policy level but um as far as more like concrete land use discussion that's something will work out in the Alternatives if that's what you mean and Roberto it's another piece that's touching a whole lot of different elements Transportation obviously right this piece Trails Parks and Rec so yeah it's a it's another theme that comes across many different topics thank you uh bill then John thanks Roberto for bringing that up like that's a a great observation that um somehow in the open space natural resources section it it does need to acknowledge the the streets as the public realm and and open space and the importance of incorporating uh natural resources um that's not what I want to say initially I um I had a question and kind of a request really um one of the Dallas presentation mentioned some new legislation that included the term re-wilding which I love but um it seems so contrary to previous you know all previous you know Inner City Planning efforts um but so it brings up the question to me is uh between that and 30 by 30 and some of the new legislation that's kind of um intended to rewild um Urban lands um if if it's possible for future work in groups you know when we get down to um actual looking at land use planning you know land use designations if we can get sort of a summary of all of these new legislative tools that
can be used as mechanisms to like down zone or private properties you know they're like in the North River there's private properties that we're talking about okay it needs to be redesignated as open space but we need to get our hands on you know or at least a better understanding what are the tools is this something that we can actually do and what you know what does that look like for us moving forward um because I think there's been a lot of talk about that but to me there's big questions I mean we're talking about taking private land and repurposing it for you know different uses so just a request for a summary of the tools that we have at our our disposal thank you and John uh thank you um so as I was reviewing many of the documents especially existing reports I found many of them lacking I'm really hoping that more work will be done and more details will be put into there especially the thing on on several concerns with several of them including like on water and the like um and I'm hoping that we've just basically again just touched this is a huge topic and we've gone around a lot in little different little areas and talked about things and I'm hoping that we are going to be coming back after you get more of a full document written up that we will have another chance to to go over go over one more time um because there's like at least two more stages I'd like to see in reviewing all this work that is getting done uh before it gets finalized in this step so can you tell
us what what other couple more steps that for this particular topic we might be able to access the work and then review it and make changes and improve it um I'll speak to that generally we are you're basically describing the um kind of iterative approach we've been trying to take has moved from General to specific with touch points along the way so um started with the strategy meetings with staff over the summer and now these series of gpac meetings then we use all that to put administrative draft together which will go through City review again and then back to community and so generally that's the iteration the exact timing of it is somewhat TBD because some of the work is still dependent on some of the flooding SLR modeling work that's ongoing um so I'm sorry I can't answer very question very specifically but generally yes that's the intent as to as we get more and more refined we go through rounds of gpac conversation at each stage answer your question okay uh any other additional gpack I want to get on projects I know it's a little after the hour but thank you all for staying later tonight appreciate everybody's enthusiasm for the topic obviously of tremendous Community interest and concern this has all been extremely helpful I'm afraid to look at the number of pages of notes that Michelle has been taking behind the scenes but we do that very intentionally and so we'll be looking at all of that as we think about working on this next draft of this natural environment uh
policy framework Christina any final words thank you gpec members this was a great conversation we look forward to continuing it thank you to the Ramey staff and to Della from Rincon into Daniel who is joining us uh and to the community members who took the time to comment we will talk more soon [Music] have a good evening thanks