General Plan Advisory Committee
General Plan Advisory Committee
Thu, December 15, 2022
Agenda items
Vote records
Discussion summary
Transcript
Meeting summaryAI-generated
General Plan Advisory Committee — December 15, 2022
This was a working session of the General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC), focused primarily on preliminary policy and strategy ideas for Health Equity and Environmental Justice in Petaluma's General Plan Update. No binding votes were taken; the meeting's purpose was to gather GPAC member and public input to guide consultants in drafting formal policy frameworks. Interpretation in Spanish was provided throughout by Maria Galvez and Monica Aparicio.
Project and Staff Updates
Principal Planner Christina Paul provided several updates. The Housing Element has been submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), which has until January 27 to provide comments; the city then has until March 31 to submit an adopted version for certification. Climate action plan greenhouse gas reduction strategies are in draft form and will be circulated for public comment. Floodplain modeling is underway using new software, with public meetings planned for early 2023. Staff noted that land use and rezoning discussions — a topic raised in public comment — will be scheduled in upcoming months as part of the broader General Plan element-by-element process.
Paul also noted that the GPAC has served for nearly two years. Two members — John Schribbs and Janice Cader Thompson — will be leaving to join the City Council in January. Three other members have moved out of the area. The committee will be down five members, with a reappointment process through City Council expected around February 13. Remaining members were asked to affirmatively confirm their continued participation.
General Public Comment
One member of the public, Darren, asked when land use and rezoning discussions — particularly around open space designations along the Petaluma River (referencing the proposed North River Park) — would occur in the General Plan process. Staff responded that land use is a major upcoming topic and will be scheduled in the new year, with floodplain modeling informing those conversations.
Health Equity and Environmental Justice: Policy and Strategy Ideas
Juan Reynoso of Raimi + Associates presented a comprehensive set of preliminary policy and strategy ideas organized under eight goal areas, structured to meet and exceed the requirements of California Senate Bill 1000 (the Planning for Healthy Communities Act), which requires cities adopting two or more General Plan elements to incorporate Environmental Justice (EJ) policies. Petaluma qualifies on both SB 1000 criteria: it is updating multiple elements, and it has identified "Equity Priority Areas" (a term the team is adopting in place of the state's "disadvantaged communities" to use more affirming language). The analysis used finer-grained geographic data and more indicators than the state minimum. The most prevalent burdens in Petaluma's Equity Priority Areas were found to be traffic impacts, highway-related air pollution, and low proximity to high-frequency transit, concentrated particularly in the Northeast/North McDowell Boulevard corridor.
The eight proposed goal areas covered:
Goals 1, 2 & 8 — Equity in Government, Regional Partnerships, and Civic Engagement: Ideas included creating or maintaining a staff equity and inclusion position, requiring equity impact assessments for city decisions, governing-for-racial-equity training for all city staff, reducing documentation barriers to access city services, translating all city-facing documents, exploring a regional public bank (enabled by AB 857), partnering with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (including exploring cultural conservation easements for return of land to indigenous stewardship), developing a promotores (community health worker) program, creating a centralized multilingual online hub for services, expanding youth civic engagement programs, and deliberately recruiting diverse residents to serve on boards and commissions.
Goal 3 — Reducing Air Pollution Exposure: Ideas included distributing portable indoor air filtration units through community partners, updating school HVAC systems, using zoning to limit new sensitive land uses (housing, schools, elder care) near Highway 101, funding publicly owned air quality monitoring stations, developing a Wildfire smoke response action plan, updating truck route maps, establishing a local vehicle idling ordinance, and creating an EV car-sharing program in Equity Priority Areas.
Goal 4 — Equitable Public Services and Facilities: Ideas included establishing resilience hubs during extreme weather events, expanding bus routes with a focus on equity and accessibility, continuing and expanding the SAFE program for mobile crisis response, ending the ticketing of cyclists riding on sidewalks lacking protected bike infrastructure, creating an unarmed traffic enforcement unit, expanding public broadband and Wi-Fi access, and establishing a multicultural arts center.
Goal 5 — Food Access: Ideas included updating the zoning code to allow small-scale urban agriculture (backyard chickens, fruit trees, on-site produce stands), supporting food micro-enterprises through county permitting, creating a community commercial kitchen, adopting a healthy corner store policy, expanding farmers market nutrition assistance programs, encouraging edible landscapes in public spaces, and exploring a fee on sugar-sweetened beverages to fund youth programming.
Goals 6 (Safe and Sanitary Housing) and 7 (Physical Activity) were not discussed in depth due to time, as they overlap substantially with the housing element and upcoming Mobility/Parks and Recreation discussions.
GPAC Member Discussion Highlights
The discussion was wide-ranging. Key themes and additions raised by members included:
Age-friendliness: Member Christine pressed for explicit inclusion of an age-friendly lens throughout the plan, noting Petaluma's existing age-friendly initiative and a draft needs assessment in progress. She emphasized intergenerational programming and accessible information design (e.g., large fonts on digital hubs).
Disability and neurodiversity: Member Joshua Simmons called for training for city staff and first responders on interacting with disabled and neurodiverse residents, and specifically requested language about indoor air quality as it relates to infectious airborne disease.
EV infrastructure equity: Members Jesse Feller and Roberto Mahrez raised the importance of siting EV charging infrastructure in low-income and Equity Priority Areas, given the state's 2035 zero-emission vehicle mandate, and the infrastructure burden electrification will place on residents without garages.
Indoor air quality and gas appliances: Member Aaron Chabluskey raised the issue of gas stoves and non-functioning vents in rental housing as an indoor air quality equity issue. Staff confirmed building electrification policies are being developed through the Climate Action Plan.
McDowell Boulevard pollution: Members Janice Cader Thompson and John Schribbs noted that McDowell Boulevard, designated as part of Highway 116, generates pollution comparable to Highway 101 and is closer to residential areas; truck routing reform was urged.
Tree canopy and freeway buffers: Schribbs noted that freeway widening removed existing vegetation buffers and called for replanting. He also proposed delivery frequency and neighborhood-day-of-week truck consolidation programs to reduce emissions.
Community gardens: Members Bill Wilpert and Schribbs noted that existing community gardens have suffered from inadequate city support and maintenance funding; Schribbs cited a specific garden now overgrown. Wilpert noted that fruit trees are currently on Petaluma's *prohibited* street tree list — a policy worth revisiting.
Cannabis dispensaries: Schribbs raised the lack of a local cannabis dispensary as a health equity and accessibility issue for older residents needing medicinal products. Member Phil Boyle noted the availability of online medicinal cannabis as a partial alternative.
Indigenous food sovereignty: Member Sierra Downey suggested building connections with local indigenous groups around traditional food practices and food sovereignty as part of the food access strategy.
Defining "healthy": Downey cautioned that definitions of healthy food must incorporate diverse cultural perspectives to avoid marginalizing traditional foods. Member Jesse Feller cautioned against overreach in mandating children's diets, noting the complexity of children's sensory needs.
Public Comment on Health Equity and EJ
Three members of the public spoke:
Veronica emphasized that fast food restrictions, freeway vegetation buffers, noise pollution mitigation, and an integrated transportation/bike/pedestrian access strategy are central equity issues. She called for a dedicated staff position at the intersection of equity and transportation.
Darren highlighted inequitable tree canopy distribution — with Equity Priority Areas having the least coverage — and raised concerns about the health and ecological impacts of 5G wireless infrastructure, urging the city to commit to fiber optic broadband as the more equitable and health-protective option. He noted an active AMI infrastructure grant that he said should be redirected from 5G to fiber.
Susie (representing Petaluma Bounty, part of People Services Center) called for the plan to prioritize zoning and code changes — not just programs — to advance food equity. She noted that Petaluma Bounty has been running nutrition incentive programs and food recovery without city financial support or a finalized MOU after five years of effort, and urged the city to examine internal barriers that prevent effective partnerships with community organizations.
Closing Member Comments
Several members offered closing reflections. John Schribbs, departing for City Council, stated that the GPAC's work inspired his decision to run, and identified implementation and prioritization as his primary concern. Roberto Mahrez raised doubts about whether the Area Median Income (AMI) figures used in the analysis accurately reflect residents' real economic conditions, and asked when cost estimates for proposed policies would be developed. Mary Dooley called for attention to habitat and animals as part of equity and open space planning. Christine raised an aspirational question for a future session: if the city could focus on one large Health Equity/EJ project, what should it be?
Staff confirmed that the January meeting will likely focus on Mobility/Transportation, and that the General Plan is anticipated to be materially complete by late 2023.
Key Takeaways
The Health Equity/EJ framework is ambitious and preliminary. The draft policies go well beyond SB 1000 minimums and will be refined based on GPAC and public input before an administrative draft is produced. Members and the public were encouraged to submit additional written comments.
Five GPAC seats will be vacant in January, with a reappointment process expected to conclude around February 13. The January meeting will proceed short-staffed.
Land use and rezoning — the most consequential General Plan function — has not yet been scheduled for GPAC discussion but will be coming in 2023, informed in part by new floodplain modeling work.
Implementation and cost feasibility were repeatedly flagged as critical gaps; staff acknowledged that an implementation plan with timelines and responsible parties will be added as the framework matures.
Community organizations like Petaluma Bounty are already delivering food equity services the plan envisions, but without city support structures — a signal that internal partnership barriers need to be addressed alongside the policy goals themselves.
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
Christina Paul, principal planner and staff liaison, called the meeting to order and welcomed GPAC members. She introduced the interpreters, Maria Galvez and Monica aparicio, who would provide Spanish interpretation for the evening. The meeting was set to discuss General Plan updates and policy strategy ideas around health equity and environmental justice.
ROLL CALL, LOGISTICS AND MEETING OVERVIEW
Christina Paul conducted roll call, confirming attendance of most GPAC members including Phil Boyle, Bill Wilpert, Sierra Downey, Jesse Feller, Ali Gaylord, Yensi Jacobo, Roberto Mahrez, Chris Rebelow, Michael Reinhardt, John Schribs, Joshua Simmons, and Janice Cader Thompson. Dave Alden and Stephanie Blake were noted as absent or not yet present. Christina provided logistics reminders including keeping muted when not speaking, raising hands to speak, using closed captions if needed, and noting that public comment opportunities would be available both in open comment and related to agenda items.
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, moderated by Veronica with staff member Christina and Daniel Harrison receiving comments, several community members raised specific concerns about the General Plan process. Darren questioned the timeline for addressing zoning and land use decisions—the most powerful tools in the planning process—particularly regarding rezoning parcels for open space or park designations like the proposed North River Park, and highlighted disparities in 5G tower placement, advocating for fiber optic alternatives through the city's Ami infrastructure grant instead. Susie from Petaluma Bounty emphasized that the committee should prioritize zoning and code changes to support environmental justice priorities, specifically community gardens and food growing in new high-density housing, while also addressing urban heat islands and flooding concerns. Susie further noted that Petaluma Bounty operates community programs without city funding after a five-year wait for a memorandum of understanding, and recommended the city remove bureaucratic barriers, fund edible landscaping maintenance, and support food recovery efforts required by state law. The meeting also noted that members unable to speak could submit written comments on draft policy ideas related to health equity and environmental justice to city staff for incorporation into the General Plan.
During the general public comment period, moderated by Veronica with staff member Christina and Daniel Harrison receiving comments, several community members raised specific concerns about the General Plan process. Darren questioned the timeline for addressing zoning and land use decisions—the most powerful tools in the planning process—particularly regarding rezoning parcels for open space or park designations like the proposed North River Park, and highlighted disparities in 5G tower placement, advocating for fiber optic alternatives through the city's Ami infrastructure grant instead. Susie from Petaluma Bounty emphasized that the committee should prioritize zoning and code changes to support environmental justice priorities, specifically community gardens and food growing in new high-density housing, while also addressing urban heat islands and flooding concerns. Susie further noted that Petaluma Bounty operates community programs without city funding after a five-year wait for a memorandum of understanding, and recommended the city remove bureaucratic barriers, fund edible landscaping maintenance, and support food recovery efforts required by state law. The meeting also noted that members unable to speak could submit written comments on draft policy ideas related to health equity and environmental justice to city staff for incorporation into the General Plan.
PROJECT AND STAFF UPDATES a. Updates on initiatives related to the GPU b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members
# PROJECT AND STAFF UPDATES SUMMARY
Christina provided comprehensive updates on GPU initiatives, including the General Plan schedule covering land use, climate change, and municipal functions with assignments to be determined in the new year, and reported that Raymond Associates has developed draft greenhouse gas reduction strategies for climate action planning to be shared with GPAC after review by relevant ad hoc groups. She announced significant staffing changes with Janice and John moving to city council in January and three other members relocating, creating five vacancies to be filled through applications due next week with council consideration expected around February 13th, while inviting all current members to affirm their intention to continue through plan adoption. Christina also reported that the housing element is currently under state review with a January 27th deadline for interim comments and a March 31st adoption deadline, requiring expedited processing and approval. Staff emphasized lessons learned from the previous General Plan (2007-2008), which faced implementation challenges due to economic constraints and insufficient staffing resources, noting that the new plan will prioritize implementation feasibility with more frequent evaluation metrics, potentially every 5 years rather than 15-20 year intervals. The GPU schedule includes draft policy frameworks and alternatives to be developed for spring community engagement, with planning proceeding despite the temporary reduction in GPAC membership.
Christina provided comprehensive updates on GPU initiatives, including the General Plan schedule covering land use, climate change, and municipal functions with assignments to be determined in the new year, and reported that Raymond Associates has developed draft greenhouse gas reduction strategies for climate action planning to be shared with GPAC after review by relevant ad hoc groups. She announced significant staffing changes with Janice and John moving to city council in January and three other members relocating, creating five vacancies to be filled through applications due next week with council consideration expected around February 13th, while inviting all current members to affirm their intention to continue through plan adoption. Christina also reported that the housing element is currently under state review with a January 27th deadline for interim comments and a March 31st adoption deadline, requiring expedited processing and approval. Staff emphasized lessons learned from the previous General Plan (2007-2008), which faced implementation challenges due to economic constraints and insufficient staffing resources, noting that the new plan will prioritize implementation feasibility with more frequent evaluation metrics, potentially every 5 years rather than 15-20 year intervals. The GPU schedule includes draft policy frameworks and alternatives to be developed for spring community engagement, with planning proceeding despite the temporary reduction in GPAC membership.
GENERAL PLAN POLICY AND STRATEGY IDEAS – HEALTH EQUITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE a. Presentation by a representative from Raimi + Associates on the current status of General Plan work related to health equity and environmental justice, with a focus on policy and strategy ideas in light of GPAC Working Group recommendations Attachment B GPAC 12152022 Slide Deck b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members c. Public comment d. Discussion between the consultants, City staff, and GPAC members regarding health equity and environmental justice policy and strategy ideas
# Summary: Health Equity and Environmental Justice General Plan Discussion
Juan Reynoso from Raymond Associates presented a comprehensive framework for Health Equity and Environmental Justice policies based on Senate Bill 1000 requirements and community input, structured through multiple presentation cycles organized around eight goal areas including health care access, civic engagement, air quality, food access, and public services equity. Staff outlined that Petaluma's analysis exceeded state minimum requirements by examining over 30 health and environmental indicators (versus the state's required 13) at both census tract and block group levels, identifying eight indicators showing disproportionate burden in "Equity Priority Areas"—a terminology shift from "disadvantaged communities" based on community feedback and state guidance. Key policy proposals included establishing an equity staff position with racial equity training, creating promotores and behavioral health programs, limiting unhealthy food and alcohol establishment concentrations, implementing vehicle emission reductions and EV infrastructure in priority areas, and developing age-friendly and youth engagement initiatives. Committee members raised substantive concerns including updating outdated income and housing data, ensuring multi-generational program design, clarifying implementation responsibilities and funding sources, addressing local pollution hotspots like McDowell Street, and incorporating diverse cultural perspectives in food and environmental planning. Staff committed to refining the equity priority areas map, adding implementation timelines and responsible parties, and addressing data currency and feasibility review in subsequent planning processes.
Juan Reynoso from Raymond Associates presented a comprehensive framework for Health Equity and Environmental Justice policies based on Senate Bill 1000 requirements and community input, structured through multiple presentation cycles organized around eight goal areas including health care access, civic engagement, air quality, food access, and public services equity. Staff outlined that Petaluma's analysis exceeded state minimum requirements by examining over 30 health and environmental indicators (versus the state's required 13) at both census tract and block group levels, identifying eight indicators showing disproportionate burden in "Equity Priority Areas"—a terminology shift from "disadvantaged communities" based on community feedback and state guidance. Key policy proposals included establishing an equity staff position with racial equity training, creating promotores and behavioral health programs, limiting unhealthy food and alcohol establishment concentrations, implementing vehicle emission reductions and EV infrastructure in priority areas, and developing age-friendly and youth engagement initiatives. Committee members raised substantive concerns including updating outdated income and housing data, ensuring multi-generational program design, clarifying implementation responsibilities and funding sources, addressing local pollution hotspots like McDowell Street, and incorporating diverse cultural perspectives in food and environmental planning. Staff committed to refining the equity priority areas map, adding implementation timelines and responsible parties, and addressing data currency and feasibility review in subsequent planning processes.
Agenda items (8)
Procedural (8)
1ProceduralCALL TO ORDER
What happened
Christina Paul, principal planner and staff liaison, called the meeting to order and welcomed GPAC members. She introduced the interpreters, Maria Galvez and Monica aparicio, who would provide Spanish interpretation for the evening. The meeting was set to discuss General Plan updates and policy strategy ideas around health equity and environmental justice.2ProceduralROLL CALL, LOGISTICS AND MEETING OVERVIEW
What happened
Christina Paul conducted roll call, confirming attendance of most GPAC members including Phil Boyle, Bill Wilpert, Sierra Downey, Jesse Feller, Ali Gaylord, Yensi Jacobo, Roberto Mahrez, Chris Rebelow, Michael Reinhardt, John Schribs, Joshua Simmons, and Janice Cader Thompson. Dave Alden and Stephanie Blake were noted as absent or not yet present. Christina provided logistics reminders including keeping muted when not speaking, raising hands to speak, using closed captions if needed, and noting that public comment opportunities would be available both in open comment and related to agenda items.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, moderated by Veronica with staff member Christina and Daniel Harrison receiving comments, several community members raised specific concerns about the General Plan process. Darren questioned the timeline for addressing zoning and land use decisions—the most powerful tools in the planning process—particularly regarding rezoning parcels for open space or park designations like the proposed North River Park, and highlighted disparities in 5G tower placement, advocating for fiber optic alternatives through the city's Ami infrastructure grant instead. Susie from Petaluma Bounty emphasized that the committee should prioritize zoning and code changes to support environmental justice priorities, specifically community gardens and food growing in new high-density housing, while also addressing urban heat islands and flooding concerns. Susie further noted that Petaluma Bounty operates community programs without city funding after a five-year wait for a memorandum of understanding, and recommended the city remove bureaucratic barriers, fund edible landscaping maintenance, and support food recovery efforts required by state law. The meeting also noted that members unable to speak could submit written comments on draft policy ideas related to health equity and environmental justice to city staff for incorporation into the General Plan.
4ProceduralPROJECT AND STAFF UPDATES a. Updates on initiatives related to the GPU b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members
What happened
# PROJECT AND STAFF UPDATES SUMMARYChristina provided comprehensive updates on GPU initiatives, including the General Plan schedule covering land use, climate change, and municipal functions with assignments to be determined in the new year, and reported that Raymond Associates has developed draft greenhouse gas reduction strategies for climate action planning to be shared with GPAC after review by relevant ad hoc groups. She announced significant staffing changes with Janice and John moving to city council in January and three other members relocating, creating five vacancies to be filled through applications due next week with council consideration expected around February 13th, while inviting all current members to affirm their intention to continue through plan adoption. Christina also reported that the housing element is currently under state review with a January 27th deadline for interim comments and a March 31st adoption deadline, requiring expedited processing and approval. Staff emphasized lessons learned from the previous General Plan (2007-2008), which faced implementation challenges due to economic constraints and insufficient staffing resources, noting that the new plan will prioritize implementation feasibility with more frequent evaluation metrics, potentially every 5 years rather than 15-20 year intervals. The GPU schedule includes draft policy frameworks and alternatives to be developed for spring community engagement, with planning proceeding despite the temporary reduction in GPAC membership.
5ProceduralGENERAL PLAN POLICY AND STRATEGY IDEAS – HEALTH EQUITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE a. Presentation by a representative from Raimi + Associates on the current status of General Plan work related to health equity and environmental justice, with a focus on policy and strategy ideas in light of GPAC Working Group recommendations Attachment B GPAC 12152022 Slide Deck b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members c. Public comment d. Discussion between the consultants, City staff, and GPAC members regarding health equity and environmental justice policy and strategy ideas
What happened
# Summary: Health Equity and Environmental Justice General Plan DiscussionJuan Reynoso from Raymond Associates presented a comprehensive framework for Health Equity and Environmental Justice policies based on Senate Bill 1000 requirements and community input, structured through multiple presentation cycles organized around eight goal areas including health care access, civic engagement, air quality, food access, and public services equity. Staff outlined that Petaluma's analysis exceeded state minimum requirements by examining over 30 health and environmental indicators (versus the state's required 13) at both census tract and block group levels, identifying eight indicators showing disproportionate burden in "Equity Priority Areas"—a terminology shift from "disadvantaged communities" based on community feedback and state guidance. Key policy proposals included establishing an equity staff position with racial equity training, creating promotores and behavioral health programs, limiting unhealthy food and alcohol establishment concentrations, implementing vehicle emission reductions and EV infrastructure in priority areas, and developing age-friendly and youth engagement initiatives. Committee members raised substantive concerns including updating outdated income and housing data, ensuring multi-generational program design, clarifying implementation responsibilities and funding sources, addressing local pollution hotspots like McDowell Street, and incorporating diverse cultural perspectives in food and environmental planning. Staff committed to refining the equity priority areas map, adding implementation timelines and responsible parties, and addressing data currency and feasibility review in subsequent planning processes.
6ProceduralCOMMITTEE MEMBER GENERAL COMMENT a. Open time for thoughts, reflection, and closing comments from GPAC members
What happened
# Committee Member General Comments SummaryDuring closing remarks, committee members reflected on the equity and environmental justice proposals presented. Bill and Mary affirmed the discussion on equitable public services, particularly regarding parks and trees as accessible resources and improved park investment, while Juan expressed general agreement with the direction. Sierra noted she was documenting feedback for later submission and advocated for trainings addressing equity through multiple lenses including race and low-income status. Roberto raised concerns about electrification infrastructure, emphasizing that significant engineering work remains before meeting 2030 milestones and that current infrastructure may not adequately support these ambitious goals, while Ed highlighted the broader infrastructure implications of climate action plans for electric vehicle power supply. John thanked the committee for their work and announced he is running for city council, citing the committee's efforts as motivation; he urged prioritizing which initiatives should be accomplished in the next 2-3 years versus 10 years and committing to staff meetings for follow-through. Chris noted the meeting was productive but requested that the aspirational question about large-scale Health Equity and Environmental Justice projects be revisited in a future session due to time constraints.
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
82 transcript segments indexed
ready to start the recording Christina and we are ready to start the recording recording in progress okay so if the gpac members could um show themselves on video that would be wonderful I also see that John schribs is working to make his way in here um and I saw Ileana Ileana are you here I saw her trying to get in yeah I'm here um can you hear me there you go there you are thank you so much all right um gpac members if possible we would love to see your faces um and Bill wilpert is joining wonderful all right let's get going so good evening happy December and end of the year um this is going to be a very interesting meeting and so we're glad to be here having this conversation with you all I am Christina Paul principal planner with the city and staff liaison to the general plan advisory committee and here we are getting going on our meeting I want to seed the floor to our interpreters for a moment who will let folks know how to access our interpretation in Spanish function thank you so our interpreters for this evening are Maria Galvez and Monica aparicio thank you so much to them for being with us here this evening I am going to go through roll call uh Dave Alden I know is out for this evening Stephanie Blake are you here not yet Phil Boyle Bill's here Aaron chabluskey I believe she's going to join a little bit late Mary Dooley Sierra Downey present Jesse Feller Jesse's here I saw Jesse uh Ali Gaylord yensi jacobo here thank you Roger Leventhal lady's not able to join us
Ileana present thank you Roberto mahrez I saw him this evening but Roberto are you with us I think I saw him yeah uh am I not coming through here there you go we can hear you now Chris rebelow here Michael Reinhardt here John schribs how is it Joshua Simmons here and Janice Cader Thompson here and Bill Wilbur I'm here great all right thank you all for being here this evening we will when I'm here now sorry Christina Jesse thank you there you are um all right glad you could all join uh we know it's getting close to the holidays you have a couple of options for joining you can use your devices audio or call in using a cell phone I believe that everybody on this meeting has done this a few times I also want to note that closed caption is available if you would like to utilize that please keep yourself on mute if you're not speaking and remain muted until it's your turn to speak uh gpac members and I believe that also I've seen the non-jpac members being on and off video so folks know how to turn those on and off please raise your hand to speak and I will call on you we will have a couple of opportunities for members of the public to speak both in public comment open public comment and then related to our agenda items if you have any technical difficulties please email our moderator Daniel Harrison at this address or you can email Maria at her address here that is reminding me to pause and I will remind myself and other folks who are speaking to take some breaths between your
sentences so that you can allow the translators to to finish their translation before you move to the next idea reduce the use of acronyms and make sure to explain them if you are using them we will go through this piece of roll call and Logistics follow that with general public comment I will give some brief project and staff updates and then Juan Reynosa who is with us from raymie will give a presentation on some preliminary ideas around policy and strategy ideas on Health Equity and environmental justice then we will have public comment on that topic item a wrap up discussion and an opportunity for gpac members to offer any any thought all right sorry we will now go into general public comment So Daniel I will stop sharing screen if you are a member of the public and would like to comment please raise your hand and you will be given three minutes to make a comment great uh thank you Christina um so we'll begin with general public comment I see one hand raised Darren um so you'll be up first um general public comment is three minutes and what I'm gonna do is I'll go ahead and ask the comments here to unmute themselves share my screen with a timer and uh once um I go ahead and give you the green light then the floor will be worse so Darren I'm going to ask you to unmute yourself share my screen uh terrific thank you Daniel great and Darren you can see my screen the floor is now yours great you know I was just going to make a quick comment in reviewing the timeline from the
past couple of packets I believe shows the timeline for the general plan process where it looks like the next big step is an administrative draft of the plan and then by Spring circulating a public draft of the general plan uh and I just want I and maybe there's something I've missed here a key meeting or something but wonder when the big discussions on land use were going to happen and rezoning you know especially in the context of the last meeting the last General plan meeting where we talked about environment and open space uh really October end November one of the key parts of that conversation I thought was going to be about you know changing land use to open space or Park uh designations for areas along the river for I'm thinking of the North River Park proposed by friends of the Petaluma River because I think that ability to rezone and update land use is one of the most powerful tools that we have and really one of the most powerful functions in the general plan process I mean the pillars and the almost political theory that we get into is all really useful in framing these discussions But ultimately zoning and land use is the meat of of what this process is about in my mind and obviously I may not be qualified to render that decision but that's kind of my take on it so I wondered in that timeline when are some because you know we think about all the different Parcels that need to be addressed uh especially made you know we look at Planning Commission looks at
potential developments there's always a reference to you know relevant parts of the general plan so that requires a lot of kind of digging into specific areas making guidelines visioning what the ideal for certain areas is um like the fairgrounds like in recent memory the the David on property so yeah just thought if anyone could give an update on that process and where some of those discussions could fit in to conversations about natural resource and open space and obviously Health Equity and environmental justice you know what areas need to be rezoned land use needs to be changed to to reach these goals so that's all I had to say thank you great thank you Darren I don't see any more hands raised at the moment um so Christina I'll turn it back over to you great thank you so I'm gonna go into project and staff updates and one of the things I can cover is the schedule for the general plan uh I will just briefly say on the general plan schedule that we are working through each of the elements in each of the major topics that will be covered in the general plan and so land use is certainly going to be one of them as well as climate change Municipal functions many many other topics and so those will be scheduled in upcoming months we haven't yet identified which topic is going to be covered in which gpec meeting but that will be that will be happening in the new year which is going to be a very interesting conversation I want to update everybody on the climate action planning
effort uh our partners with Raymond Associates have developed some draft greenhouse gas reduction strategies and we are working to set aside some time to work with climate action commission ad hoc groups to look at some of those pieces in detail and then we're going to be bringing forward a public draft for folks to review and we'll be sharing that with the gpac so that's something that's ongoing we are also working on floodplain modeling this has been a major concern of the community for many years and so City staff is working with Consultants to figure out we have some new software for floodplain modeling and we're working to figure out which scenarios that the software is capable of our most helpful for planning and anticipate holding a series of meetings with the public in the coming year fairly fairly soon in the year and those conversations will also be really important for our land use conversations so we want to make sure that we allow enough time to to do all of that as part of this process other updates you know you all know I'm sure and are signed up for the community update which comes out every every week and so if there are other happenings in town that you're interested in that's really a great place to look I also want to note that you have all been serving on the gpac for almost two years which has been really uh an Incredible Gift to the community from all of you and we are really grateful for that work um thank you so much we really hope and want to welcome
you all to remain with us through the general plan adoption process we anticipate that the plan will be materially complete by the end towards the end of next year and I don't have as like a schedule with months um but that's the anticipation so you're all very welcome to stay with us through that through that process and we hope that you do um some folks have moved out of town and we want to recognize that Janice and John are moving to city council starting in January and so congratulations to the two of you um we will be doing some reappointments to to fill those positions in the new year I was just today working on reissuing applications they're not quite out yet I'm working on trying to get them out next week so that folks have an opportunity I'm just anticipating allowing the or allowing the applications to be out on the street for about a month so that people really have an opportunity to submit um and then we'll be going through the council pocket process and going to council hopefully probably on the 13th of February but I need to confirm that Jesse please go ahead well I was just curious uh will we would be replacing like Panama's spot too since who had moved and then was it had to step down yeah so we're down five members or we'll be down five members three folks moved including Panama Matt Brown and and Delia um and then John and and Janice are going to council we are giving Council the opportunity or the option to appoint folks who live have a Petaluma address but
live outside of city limits um so we are welcoming them to to consider that as an option the the current Council didn't didn't want to do that but other the the climate action commission for example has a position open for folks who live outside of the city boundaries but with the Petaluma address so that is a possibility that they'll consider that we can't anticipate right now whether or not they will be open to that but we are going to welcome people who are in that position to for the for gpac um so we also want to acknowledge that while we really would love for all the of you to continue to serve we know that life changes in two years is a is a long commitment so if folks do need to step away then I am going to be asking everybody to confirm affirmatively that they would like to stay on um and we will we will respect your choices either way but this is a good this is a good opportunity if you're like um to identify that and then we will find another person to to serve in your role foreign the housing element is with Housing and Community Development at the state level we have asked for interim comments from them and have not received any um they have until the end of January until the 27th of January to get us their comments after that we will be processing their their comments and going to Planning Commission and city council to give updates on comments and then going through for ideally adoption we really have a short time frame so we have until the 31st of March to
have an adopted version to send back to hcd for their consideration for certification and then we will also in that pretty quick turnaround of a couple months after we get their comments be working with our our housing group from gpec one did I miss something uh yes just real quick do you mean to be sharing your slides right now I totally do am I not thank you foreign I thought they looked great I apologize to everybody okay [Music] there was a slide about all of these things um okay so looking into our schedule I went through this a little bit in the beginning of my comments but um we have that draft with hcd of the housing element we'll be doing gpoc appointments and I think it actually will be in February at this point of 2023 uh and then we will be looking at those draft general plan policy Frameworks and Alternatives we're having these conversations with gpac we originally thought we'd be moving a little bit faster but it turns out that these are such Rich topics that we really need to be allowing adequate time to to consider each of them one at a time or two at a time uh and then in the new year we'll be working towards a draft Frameworks for public consumption and then ultimately Draft plans does anybody have any questions all right so I am going to well Christina I got a quick question sorry yeah go ahead Robert uh for your January's meeting uh are we going to be running I guess five people short in terms of the uh for the Forum that's a great question in terms of our
next meeting yeah or we'll John and Janice be able to support just John and Janice will unfortunately not be able to serve as members of the gpac because there will be members of city council um so I think that we will be running five folks short um it would be it would be a shame to to skip that opportunity to engage with everybody so I think that we will probably go ahead with the meeting um you know it's also not possible to get appointments done before that meeting um but if you guys have have big concerns about that then we can we can certainly think about this all right so I'm just going to go back and talk again a little bit about the work that we are and I see that Aaron is here which is great for a minute to come in the work that we're doing right now is to develop policy Frameworks for the major sections of the general plan or the major topics that we will be covering in the general plan it remains to be decided how the general plan is structured and how the chapters or elements are combined or separated but for now we are addressing these major topics as parts of Frameworks the purpose of the Frameworks is to outline proposed General plan policies and goals as well as implementation actions we want to acknowledge that we're not sharing the the full policy Frameworks yet and in fact City staff hasn't seen the administrative draft policy Frameworks in all of the cases where the gpac is considering some of the ideas for the Frameworks the idea being that the gpac
gives feedback and then the Consultants develop those Frameworks for a staff review and then gpac review and also we do plan to as we have with the housing group engage with the gpac working groups on each of the topic areas that are relevant to them to keep the conversation going so that we can be addressing more than one thing more than one topic each month uh so that is the work that we will be doing this evening and then again we'll be working to have public drafts of that and Community engagement in the spring so I'm going to turn this presentation over to Juan who is going to be working through the Health Equity environmental justice policy framework ideas that will lead to an administrative draft of this on this topic great thanks Christina and good evening everyone my name is Juan Reynoso I'm with Raymond Associates I presented to this group last summer and so it's been a while but it's good to see so many of your faces once again I should mention before I start that I am recovering from a cold I was out sick the past couple days so I'm gonna try to keep the energy up but if I get tired towards the end please don't be surprised um let's see yes so uh today's presentation will be as Christina was alluding to very similar to the last months in which we only focus on a single topic today's main Health Equity environmental justice and similar to last month again I'll present uh we'll be presenting some background information that existing from the existing conditions
analysis and also some of the major themes that came from the community input just as a refresher for all gpac members and everyone in attendance but the vast majority of today's conversation will be on those policy and strategy ideas and so again similar to last month uh we'll have a similar structure I'll present for a little bit and then we'll open it up for gpac discussion I'll present again for a little bit and we'll open it up for gpac discussion again and we'll do that for a cycle of four times if uh time permits and we have extra time at the end potentially five times we'll see um really looking forward to robust discussion but at the same time I wanna and I need to make sure to keep the conversation flowing so do try to keep your comments concise and um uh there may not be time to present all your thoughts so as always feel free to send additional comments to staff by email next slide okay so I will start off first by contact Sunny Senate Bill 1000 also known as SB 1000 or the planning for Healthy Communities Act was passed by the state legislature and some signed by Governor Brown in 2016.
SB 1000 requires cities and counties to develop an environmental justice or EJ element or a related set of EJ goals policies and programs that are embedded in all the other elements of the general plan if they meet one of two criteria the first being if they are currently adopting or planning to adopt two or more elements of their General plan and Petaluma meets this first criteria because um once the general plan is adopted it's more than two elements and then the second criteria is if a jurisdiction identifies any disadvantaged communities and this term disadvantaged communities is a very specific term defined by the state as you can see it's quote a low income area that is disproportionately affected by environmental pollution and other hazards that can lead to negative health effects exposure or environmental degradation so again it's an area that is low income and has a high pollution or health burden additionally low income is a very specific term defined by the state it's either an area that has a median household income at or below 80 percent of the statement income or below 80 of the County's area median income and because Sonoma County has such a high overall area median income there are areas within Petaluma that do fall below that threshold to be defined as low income and so this is all presented in the existing conditions analysis and you can find more information there on the website General plant website next slide foreign requires that the the strategy and
policy ideas that we all come up with tonight and we will continue to iterate over the next few months need to meet a few criteria the first being that they need to reduce unique and compounded health risks particularly in disadvantaged communities they need to promote Civic engagement in the public decision making process both during the general plan process and most definitely once the general plan is adopted during the life of the general plan and then also they need to identify and prioritize improvements that address those needs of disadvantaged communities and so from a statutory perspective there are six topics that SB 1000 specifically identifies those are those yellow topics that you see on the right and you'll notice that as we go through tonight's discussion we've organized the ideas based off of this six topic areas just to provide some structure however we know that the gpac has challenged us to be bold and so the draft set of ideas we've structured so far go much above and beyond with sp-1000 requires and and what the state and even the office of the returning General recommend and so some of the ideas we'll be discussing today I'm actually very excited to discuss with you all because it very much is at The Cutting Edge of progressive planning slide sorry as the person who gets to forward the slides I'm gonna pause for just a moment and interrupt and I apologize One um so I just want to recognize that this is a lot of content that we're going to be going through
uh we were able to get the gpac members the copies of these slides ahead of time so we hope that you guys had the opportunity to review some of the ideas in this presentation but I also want to recognize that we will be as a next step with all this material Distributing written copies of this content and going through it again so this is not your only your only opportunity to go through all of this and you know as we're always working to improve our gpac meetings and and provide the right amount of information we really try to include as many ideas as possible in here um so that we're fairly comprehensive and we we hope that that is a helpful way to present this thanks Ron uh Juan for the yes no worries thanks for saying that I do see Aaron's hand up and so can we go ahead and tick yes okay go ahead honestly I just wanted to remind us mine is slower for the poor thank you yes thank you Aaron for that reminder correct good morning all right so before we dive in I just want to make a quick note on terminology and for those of you who did have a chance to review the existing conditions report on this topic from last year you may notice that that report and we use the term identified by the state disadvantaged communities however moving forward based off of the community input that we've received so far as well as some of the evolving guidance from The Office of the Attorney General Eve or tentatively using instead the term Equity priority areas both because we want to uplift the
importance of more than just environmental pollution also more broadly topics related to equity and also because dis Ranch communities as many Duke critique it as a term that has connotatively a negative Framing and so taking on a more connotatively positive framing of equity priority areas and this is a draft term and would love to get input if you all have any thoughts next slide all right so this is the first slide of the existing conditions analysis that I'll be presenting and just as a again reminder it is located on the uh General Plan update website and you can dive into it um if you want in more detail then and so for this Slide the high level takeaway is that certain areas of the city are being recommended as Equity priority areas based on the data that was used and available at the time which was again summer 2021 um we received a lot of stakeholder input leading up to this report and Analysis and so we did make sure that the analysis again went above and beyond SB 1000 state requirements so for example the state only requires that this analysis be done at the census tract level which is a geographical layer of analysis used by the U.S Census Bureau Instead This analysis was done at both the census tract and the block group level which means it's a more fine-grain level of analysis it's smaller areas it's more detailed Additionally the state only requires that 13 pollution burden indicators be assessed for this analysis we analyzed over 30 health and environmental
indicators so again we went above and beyond uh minimum state requirements however like all quantitative analyzes and it's important to Grant truth to data we've received lots of input on this map both from you all the gpac as well as from a lot of other stakeholders and so for example like better taking into account where people live or where they don't live in other types of comments like that and so um we'll make sure to update this map in the coming months particularly because since we've done this analysis A lot of the data sources that we used for this have since released more updated data for example the U.S Census Bureau account virus screen the healthy places index and so in the coming months prior to putting together that final or putting together the public draft we do plan on updating and refining this map both with the feedback you all have provided and also with the most recently available data uh just uh I do see Chris Jesse's hand up Christine do we wanna yeah um and if if you all don't mind usually what we do is we do questions at the end and I know that Juan is going to be breaking this up so unless there's kind of a technical issue Jesse is it okay for you to hold your question until we have a break point and I'm sorry I can't see everybody's face so oh yeah that's fine I gave you a thumbs up totally okay thank you thank you great sorry about that all right and so just again another quick summary of the existing conditions analysis of those over 30
indicators that were analyzed petaluma's Equity priority areas only um or above established levels of disproportion for an end for eight of them those are the eight that you see on the left those um for those eight rows and by seeing the rows of the chart you can see that the three most prevalent are the three that show that showed up the most were traffic impacts Highway related air pollution and then low proximity to high frequency Transit which are actually all themes that have come up in the community feedback and uh that we've been receiving over the past couple of years and then also so those align and then also if you look at the columns you can get a sense of which areas are more a burden than others and you can see that attract 1506.09 which is otherwise in the city's Northeast and North McDowell Boulevard areas of areas is more particularly burden than others yes thank you Christina all right yes thank you uh right so the existing conditions analysis towards the end also did a review of the city's existing General plan for Health Equity and environmental justice and I think one important thing to note that although the number 1000 was passed only five or so years ago Mario went into effect five or so years ago um after the city's last journal plan the city's current General plan actually does have a lot of topics that fall a lot of pieces that fall within the SB 1000 topic areas which is what this slide is trying to get at and so essentially the city isn't
necessarily starting from scratch when it comes to at least minimally fulfilling SB 1000 there were already a lot of great ideas there from the prior existing General plan that many of which will be carried over will be improved and iterated upon in the coming months okay and then on a similar note uh over the past couple of years the CD has had a variety of equity promoting initiatives or some of these programs High the gpac is well familiar with it has discussed in depth such as tenants rights issues or the climate action framework and so those ideas will similarly be incorporated as well correct all right so now we're going to just real quickly refreshing you all on some of the uh Community direction that we've received related to Health Equity environmental justice so from the general plan's vision statement um there were a lot of pieces under we are carrying and connected we invest in each other we relish our spirited distinctive neighborhoods where we live work and play and we are for thinking leaders these are all topics we all have discussed before that are related to Health Equity Jay and then from I think the next one's pillars guiding pillars General plan Peddlers yes uh Equity Justice and demographic changes the city commits to advancing social and economic Justice to create an inclusive and Equitable City issues around participatory decision making that the government be open and transparent and reflect the perspective of petaluma's diverse population and then
also topics related to climate action resilience and sustainability particularly when it comes to readying communities for various climate-fueled events such as Wildfire days Wildfire smoke days drought extreme heat days Etc right and then the guiding principles to promote social and economic Justice to address structural social and economic inequities and racism sharing Health and Wellness um creating a welcoming affordable accessible and agent family City Primal prioritizing cycling walking those forms of transportation that promote physical activity those are all definitely related to Health Equity and EJ which we'll be discussing tonight and then uh additionally we wanted to uplift some of the work that the equity and intersectional Justice gpac working group has already developed some of the ideas and so for example working with Sonoma County's Equity office so coordinating with the county related to community engagement strategic occasions hiring and engagement coordinator um making a robust plant more uh authentically engaged with underserved communities and creating more connections to promote that engagement uh there are some ideas around promoting language access um taking a stronger approach to bringing in diverse voices into the into government processes expanding transit services and establishing greater landlord oversight and so these are all ideas and topics that are distributed throughout the ideas and topics we'll be discussing tonight and then finally just
high level some Community input themes we've been receiving throughout the process relate Health Equity and EJ are particularly around expanding Urban agriculture related but distinct uh is expanding Equitable access to trees and natural Open Spaces improving language access and expanding transit services both of those overlap with the gpac working groups input very closely expanding Mental Health Services meaningfully engaging with the Coast miwa Community and then and finally supporting residents with adapting to climate impacts so again you'll be seeing some things um similar to these uh in the draft policy and strategy ideas all right so before we dive in this is uh we want to take a pause and see if there's any questions or comments for gpac members before we dive into that meat of the discussion thanks Ron so if anybody has any questions please go ahead and raise your hand I know Jesse you had a question did we did we answer it oh yeah I was just this is a geeky data question but um did you use you mentioned Cal adapt and the CDC places data and you did you combine to create kind of your own EJ index and if so what other data sets just I know that's a geeky question but I love geeky I love those data yeah so uh we used the main one was the American Community survey from the U.S Census Bureau on virus screen so that one's from Cal EPA yeah there was the healthy places index which is uh not a government um created one that's a more it's created by a non-profit called the
Public Health Alliance of Southern California we use data from the CDC social vulnerability index we also use data yes from oh gosh I'm forgetting that the cdc's life places and yeah the one you just mentioned that has the life expectancy by census tract data yeah and then there was a couple others that are escaping the answer cool it's me thanks so one all of that is in the existing conditions report right all the sources are in there okay even more geekiness is available okay CCAC your hand up I want to recognize that you're that you're here but right now we're going through one's presentation and we're going to have an opportunity for public comment in just a little bit [Music] right gpac members I don't see any more questions so I'm going to hand it back over to to one all right so now we're gonna get into the fun stuff the policy and strategy ideas and and I inserted this into one's presentation [Laughter] oh yes I'm sorry thank you one for um helping me out with that I don't know why it's escaping me today it's okay everyone see my screen the holidays are near yes you see your screen okay uh yes thank you Christina for inserting the slide and yes very important caveat and that all the ideas that are presented so far in the slide deck and we'll be talking about are very much preliminary they are fresh off the press and so for those of you that are here tonight you're getting some of the first um looks at and opportunities to provide input on some of these draft ideas
that have been developed so far all right great and so um there are so these are the eight proposed goal areas as you may remember from last month's natural resources conversation there is a there's goal areas and then there's policies and then there's actions and so these are the eight high-level goal areas um you'll notice that goes three through eight match exactly in the same order as the SB 1000 goal air topic areas that I showed earlier so reduce exposure to pollution particularly air pollution Equitable access to public services and Facilities healthy eating access to food access safe and sanitary housing physical activity and then finally Civic engagement you'll notice that goals one and two are additional and the first being Equity embedding Equity into government practices and then goal two being around working in partnership with all the various agencies and stakeholders within the region uh to advance equity and reduce Health disparities because it's challenging for a single jurisdiction to advance Equity when there are so many other structural determinants of Health that make a difference and and impact life expectancy and other health outcomes and so working in partnership with all the various Regional and uh state agencies is important all right [Music] right I already said this thing yeah it goes three through eight are the SB 1000 required topic areas and then um but for tonight's conversation we will be focusing more on goals one through five and goal eight
goals uh goal six has a lot of overlap with the housing element discussion and so in order to prioritize our time tonight we um we likely will make make it to discuss it's in the slide deck and you all can look at it but we likely won't make it to safe and Sante housing we might have an opportunity to discuss active Lifestyles and physical activity but if we don't it's okay because there's a significant overlap with the mobility in the Parks and Rec element discussions uh that you all uh well haven't had yet I I believe will be having um and then uh I should mention that tonight we'll be uh taking in goals one two and eight as a set together because they're all related to equity um Civic engagement and government very similar topics and so we'll do goal one two and eight together discuss have a broader discussion then three discuss or discuss Etc uh great so before we dive into the specific policies and actions I wanted to emphasize that just a couple questions to keep in mind as you um as we walk through these slides first being what are your thoughts on the proposed policies and actions and is there anything you would like to add okay all right so goal one um first one being Petaluma is a leader in incorporating Equity considerations into government practices and so for this school area there are four policies one being around internal organizational capacity to advance racial and social Equity second being around institutionalizing Equity the third being around enhancing
accessibility to city services resources and processes and the final the fourth being around just the distribution of resources and Investments making sure that that's done so some of the draft ideas for each of these specific policies are so that first policy 1.1 around internal capacity one idea that we've and again some of some of these ideas have come from Community input some of these ideas have come from gpac discussion some of these have come organically from the city and Consulting team uh based off of the input and some of the ideas are creating a staff or maintaining a staff position related to equity and uh and inclusion to make sure that there's accountability and ongoing a monitoring of equity related outcomes creating a governing for racial Equity training that all City staff from all departments would take part in on a regular basis and then joining some sort of national network government Alliance operationality institutionalizing Equity the main floor format the most jurisdictions do that at the moment around creating a standard tool which is known as as an equity impact assessment to measuring decisions that are done within the city or that may have policy implications next slide 1.3 is around enhancing accessibility and so we've received a lot of community input around this particular policy area and so some of the ideas we've come up with so far is around doing an evaluation of the literacy level of existing public-facing City documents and permits
translation is important but if the documents are still at a very high reading level translation may not be helpful and so first taking an assessment of what's the what's the literacy level of some of our public-facing documents particularly permits and other things that resonance may come across minimizing the documentation required to access some city services so maybe for those city services that require like driver's license pieces at least several types finding ways to try to reduce some barriers but still ensure uh accessibility translating All City documents for applying to City programs and services and then finally offering interpretation services for residence so those are very clearly ideas that others have uplifted then the last I uh policy area within the school is around Distributing Investments equitably so developing Community benefits agreement program for major development projects and this is one that is also sort of hot off surprises a newer idea within General plants but exploring establishing a regional public Bank recently there is a state law California Assembly boil 857 that is allowing jurisdictions to create a pilot program for this and I know there's interest in other jurisdictions in the Sonoma County the region that are looking into this potentially Petaluma could join on one of these pilot projects um okay uh we still have two more goal errors to go before we break out for discussion so um uh a few more minutes all right so goal two is around so
now that we the city has improved or sought to improve Equity internally within their body as a government goal to again is all about those Partnerships at a regional level Partnerships with local stakeholders seeking to push Equity at beyond the confines of the government as an institution itself so these goals these policies are around for example uh collaborating with the Federated Indians of Brad and Rancheria the broader Coast meanwhile community working with a lot of the local Health uh what the county of Sonoma and other uh jurisdictions around Regional Health Equity priorities um partnering with the local Health Care Systems and institutions to again address Health disparities and finally enhancing accessibility to Health and Social Services so some of the more specific ideas for these are so for in working with local tribal and Indigenous governments exploring the return of city-owned parcels of land to indigenous stewardship and this can be done through a land use perspective through cultural conservation easements a variety of jurisdictions have recently explored this Avenue cultural conservation easements for that return of land and and then another idea is around developing public education materials on the history of colonization in Sonoma County and particularly petaluma's um kind of from a historical perspective the role and the history within Petaluma uh there's a variety of ideas around working with the county health department the county health department
has a lot of epidemiologists and so they can help to see with collecting and evaluating data related to key Health metrics and then also on developing recreational programs particularly related to reducing stress and mental health symptoms which again is something that has uh was elevated a lot through the community input process next slide a few other ideas when it comes to working with Health Care Systems particularly like Petaluma Health Center Kaiser Etc is working uh with those local Health Care Systems to ensure that residents within the city that are on Medi-Cal that are on Medicare that they're able that they know of that they're able to access existing reimbursement programs for non-emergency medical transportation and so there are opportunities for like those Paratransit services to pick people up from their homes and take them to their medical appointments but many people don't know that those programs exist um related to Mental Health Services a large issue within Public Health right now is that there's simply not enough providers for behavioral health programs and so one way to address that is for the city to help create like a local pipeline of students entering behavioral health programs to then become Behavioral Health Specialists within the city and the region and that's the idea behind working with local community colleges and others to create a behavioral health certificate program and then working closely with the Healthcare Systems to ensure that their
facilities are able to weather Future Extreme weather events and there's a variety of ideas related to that and then finally related to health disparities and partnering with Community organizations on establishing a promotores program which is sort of like community health workers who help residents navigate all these various programs and services but in a cultural and linguistically competent way a lot of local counties Public Health departments and community-based organizations have adopted the promoter's model and so this is an opportunity for the city to help promote this as an approach to ensuring greater understanding access to the existing services that already are are out there and finally creating a centralized and multilingual online hub for all of these services and again this addresses some of the community input around language access and ensuring that government is more transparent and easy to uh access all right so the last goal we're going to go through before we have a very extensive conversation around equity and government is around um as related to Civic engagement so again a related idea but still kind of distinct and so there's two main policy areas here one around enhancing Equitable engagement and then the second more specifically among uh youth enhancing sort of Engagement among Youth and Petaluma so for that first policy area uh one idea is and I I believe this was elevated by a Community member was around convening and annual Outreach meeting of
all the various stakeholders within Petaluma whether it's their communities organizations faith-based institutions radio stations or others to for the city to provide all these stakeholders with updates on the various Services programs and other resources available and so they can then spread the news to those to people on their networks to their members so that more people are aware of again the existing services that are already out there the second idea uh is around ensuring that the city's boards and commissions reflect the rich diversity of Petaluma and so very deliberately conducting Outreach uh to equity priority areas so that the boards and commissions are reflective of that diversity and then finally something that the city is doing already but the ongoing locating Community meetings Equity priority areas and at times that are competing from community members all right last slide before our break uh and Hanson youth Civic engagement so um this the city has already had a youth commission for several years so this idea is more on doing some ongoing learning and evaluation maybe some uh long-term surveys of participants who who are part of the youth commission may be following them all on afterwards or those who are as well as those who are currently participating get a sense of how the commission can improve over time piloting a summer used internship program within all the various City departments particularly with Focus recruitment of low income Youth and youth of
color to address opportunity gaps to government and finally working attention with the school district to expand Civics education so that there's more interest among local youth around participating in election days or voter registration drives or other efforts to ensure that there's increased Civic engagement among younger people in Petaluma all right so that was a lot of content hopefully you all saved it stayed in there with me and so again like what are your thoughts on what I just presented is there anything that you would like to add and Christina will be going back to uh we'll be moving slides around so if you want us to scroll to a particular slide please feel free and I do see Christine's hang up and I know there's a few other hands before that so uh but Christine uh feel free to go for it great thanks so um I kind of need to jump around a lot I think that something that's missing is um age friendly uh there is an age friendly initiative here in Petaluma the city council made a commitment back in 2020 to have Petaluma become an age-friendly Community it can tell you the current status of the effort is that there's a draft age friendly needs assessment report that's being circulated we are hoping those of us who are involved in it are hoping to be able to put together an action plan with more stakeholder input sometime in the spring so I'm hoping that whatever comes out of that action plan can show up in the general plan so uh I think you know there's a sheet with
petaluma's Equity initiatives I think age friendly needs to be added to that um I'm just gonna pop around the last slide that talked about uh increasing teen involvement which I'm totally in favor of I think it also uh there needs to be uh the inclusion of older adults as well in those efforts um I can send you uh lots of information if you want research that shows that older adults and younger people both Thrive when they have opportunities to interact with each other so the projects around Civic engagement elections almost everything I think there should be a really really big push for intergenerational activities um also as far as a disadvantaged neighborhoods uh I think there needs to be language in there that shows that uh air pollution uh is tied to Shorter life spans and that those disadvantaged neighborhoods um have a lot of older residents that's where the mobile home parks are that's where a lot of senior apartments are that's also where a lot of young kids live so you know my my 32nd elevator pitch for age friendly is that age-friendly communities are great places to grow up and grow open so even though they're focused more on older adults because in our age-obsessed culture older adults tend to get marginalized ageism affects all ages and young kids are part of a major part of that pollution problem so I want to I want to include that in there let me go through my notes uh today's topics I know we're not going to get to safe and sanitary housing and shelter that's
definitely an age friendly um issue when we did our age friendly survey back in the midst the depths of the pandemic um the top issue for older adults is they're really worried about being able to have housing that they can that's safe and that they can afford to live in also opportunities to have active Lifestyles that's age friendly all over the place so when we get to Parks and Recreation I'll probably have something to say along that too um let me see if there's anything else to add oh and one of the policy uh things about creating that information Hub which I think is a great idea um that needs to be done in a way where it's going to be easy for people to use it's going to be you know the simple things like having a big enough font you know so that older people can read it that's Equity that's like a total Equity issue so I'm making a plug a plug for that to be included um I guess the major thing is just that the like I say I'm all in favor of increasing uh the youth commission and the activities of the youth commission and serving the teens in this community uh we need to change the uh we need to acknowledge that older adults are a resource not a burden and that there's a valuable resource in this community that's not being engaged and I want to point out that recently some great folks from the senior advisory committee started a listening bench project which has gotten a lot of local press it's really great and the people who put us together have been getting phone
calls from older adults who want to volunteer for that because they they want something to do they want to get involved in their community and they're not really sure how to do that so um big push for uh providing opportunities for older adults to get involved in many different levels getting that information out there and really recognizing older adults and young people as as a resource in the community and I probably have something else to say but that's it for the moment great thank you Christine lots of great ideas there and yes feel free to send over the information about intergenerational activities related to Civic engagement yeah and Chris just to add to that one let's get in touch and just make sure that we have I think I feel like maybe Chris we had the age-friendly survey data but I just want to make sure that that Juan has that and then if and then that you guys have might be great to look at too thank you Roberto what's on your mind all right bear with me so there's two things I was looking at that and it's probably more of a go back from the first pause not necessarily the policy pause but I do want to bring a comment uh and related to kind of the current events since we last saw the socioeconomic report I mean I can't remember which month it was um but I'm looking at the report and looking at where the Ami landed which I think we stated 74 000 and then in the associate economic report we broke it down into the uh kind of like the bar charts in terms of
percentages and I think we need to add more margin uh in terms of whatever the current number is due to what's been happening with just you know the change inflation you name it but the our thresholds for the 74 000 kind of lies between where we measured it from 75 to 99 so if we can find the the truth there so we could because what you'll see is that 60 probably lie in low income and Petaluma from this chart but that's depending on where you draw the line right and then add margin and the reason I bring that up is because I was also reviewing the uh how many quality and housing tenure graphs and housing costs um they stopped at 2019 and I'm willing to bet that the 10-year charts which were already declining historically probably declined over the last two years so maybe pulling some recent uh MLS data on cells that are trying to grab an API from Redfin or reach out to them or Zillow or you name it I think we can reflect more on what's currently going on and it would pay more of a realistic picture of how to frame the plan for you know the next few years of how we want to achieve so I just wanted a couple of those two things the uh income uh the housing tenure and the cost I think will give us a better representation if we look at just two data changes so just wanted to share that great thank you great ideas yes um I I didn't mention this earlier but the reason we're waiting to update the map the data that you're referring to Roberto until the spring is at the U.S census
bureaus sends or releases their annual data around March April and so we want to make sure to include the years for when the pandemic is really starting to have an impact inflation will be harder to look into because there's usually about a one to two year delay related to census data but if once we use that most recent data they'll be releasing around March and April and next year we'll really start to be able to see the impact from the pandemic on income median household income within the city so um yes and also but also taking into account like you were mentioning housing tenure related to that is yeah because I mean I would just say if I was to sit on a board or something to review this those would be the three things I would look at what was posted a year ago and the shift that happened due to current events and how we're going to address it just throwing that out there so great thank you though yes thank you all right uh Josh yeah thank you um first of all I have to say I'm I'm a little bowled over at uh the breadth of what we've covered it's it's it's pretty great and genuinely there's there's so much thought and Care put into this it's clear how much Community inputs come into this um I wanted to briefly underscore uh Chris's input um the any work that makes Petaluma more age-friendly also often has a side effect of making it more friendly for people with disabilities uh particularly when there's accessibility issues involved um I wanted to note that I didn't I see uh
lots of considerations for people with disabilities in various uh Corners where I'd expect to see it which is really great I think maybe that's it doesn't feel like a prominent lens but it is showing up um so I just want to keep that in mind as a something going forward um more specifically under goal three uh when we talk about indoor air quality in particular I'm seeing a lot of reference to pollutants from uh you know maybe from Cars outside or from Wildfire smoke which is is really good I think especially in light of the pandemic and this particularly brutal uh season we're having here with flu and RSV as well I I would add uh I think it'd be important to factor in some sort of language speaking to indoor air quality in terms of air purification uh with an eye towards I mean infectious disease plainly but I think that's all I've got thank you great guess we haven't got into goal three but that is definitely an ad that is not yet in goal three so thank you thank you Josh uh let's see John yeah thank you um yeah I'd like to just follow up with what jaw said about the the breadth of how much is desired and the vision is pretty large and wide and then I'm trying to think of okay so if that's our vision where we want to go how are we going to do that there's what's the words called partnering uh engaging stakeholders and the like and then I'm getting ideas how who is going to do that how are they going to do that and then once they have that how are they going to bring it
forward to the city and then how does the city actually respond to that so I'm now trying to put on my city counselor out a little bit and say okay well where is this going and how do we respond to this down the road here so I would like to somehow I know this is a vision document that we're creating but I'd like to see some some possibilities of more actions and hows and and what's um and whose included in everything and I think one of the proposals might be oh we do need to continue with an equity group of a commission a committee of some sort we need to work better with the non-profits here in town that already do a lot of this work between the churches and not and other non-profits that are doing all these things and somehow coordinate and bring those folks together somehow and funnel a system build a system so that they can funnel the information and gather it and bring it to the city staff because I don't think we can solve it by saying oh City staff do this city staff do that because our city staff just doesn't have the time really to do all this engagement and doing things I know we're trying to do the best we can now um so just thinking in those terms of of who and what and how um these things are going to come out not just a vision of what we want uh that's where things tend to break down um and then just another idea I tossed out I've heard from someone else who has a possibility of combining both the um an older age group meetings with the youth commission and
then if we combine the senior center um and and the older uh folks with the younger folks in one group as a coordinated thing as a possibility uh just to be thinking about that um as Chris was saying okay if we combine the two and bring them together that maybe more can be done than each of them working alone whereas the youth could actually help the older folks do things and the other four can help guide the younger folks if they were in the same group working together so I just want to toss that idea um what I've heard um and so I'll just leave it to others to continue on here thank you yes John that's a great the first point and I I should mention I mean Ron from Raymond Associates isn't here but I know that at some point later on in the process we will be adding uh essentially tables that show timelines so like the when the responsible City responsible parties sometimes it's a city Department in our office sometimes it's in partnership with various other organizations or stakeholders and so those those type of questions that you were elevating will be elevated uh later on in the process of course Christina uh City staff still haven't had an opportunity to review this and so they have to provide their own lens around like okay who can who would actually be able to do this and or whose job would it be to implement yeah that's right and I'll just add that an implementation plan is a major part of this and thinking about how the city as an organization can be working to
implement this plan as a major part of the general plan because we don't want to do all of this thinking and then have it just be a plan on a shelf or have it be a plan that we can't Implement one thing that's top of mind is the last General plan was adopted in 2007 2008 um and fairly immediately there was an economic downturn and so it was not possible to implement a lot of the policies in the general plan particularly around Staffing that's one of the things that comes up a lot um so we need to think about implementation we need to think about the feasibility we need to think about flexibility so those are some things that we'll be looking into and considering and then also what makes sense from a plan evaluation plan implementation evaluation perspective how often do we check in on metrics that we can use to help us understand the success of the implementation of the plan and do we look at updating particular elements on a semi-regular or on a regular basis that's more frequent than once every 20 years or once every 15 years you know do we look at elements every five years we have to look at the housing element every eight years so so what makes sense from that perspective is definitely some something that blue will be looking at great all right Aaron not much to really add to it um I am really like hopeful on some of the things that were listed and uh like the great Community impact that looks like it would have um so in contributing to things that might come help us to
get to you know make these things actually happen um I'll try and make sure that we have connections with organizations like that I'm a part of North Bay organizing project um specifically like targeting like our latinx student Congress I'll talk with our lead staff on that and see where they're at in and trying to bring that in so that we can see what Petaluma uh youth are doing and in addition to a couple other things that we do like deep democracy work so hearing from our other community members um we have a new executive director um and so I think that we'll be able to coordinate a little bit more than we might have been in a little bit ago so I'm looking at that as hopeful in the next few months to to do so so thank you for all of this information this is this is really good thank you great thank you Aaron any before we move on any other thoughts on those goals one two and eight related to equity in governments Civic engagement Equity Partnerships all right so I will I will launch the sideshow again um I want to do a quick time check we have a little bit more than an hour left in our meeting um so we're going to be marching along um but please do keep those questions in mind um and know that if there's if there's a a chunk that's related to Parks and Rec or um or housing that we don't get to that that we we're not going to skip it forever I'm going to share my screen now [Music] all right so now we're moving on to air pollution and so the this goal is about reducing
exposure to air pollution also from Wildfire smoke uh as well and so there's two policy ideas under this school area the first around minimizing resonance exposure and so a lot of that is around like indoor air quality as I believe Josh was referring to earlier and then the second is around um reducing reducing actual emissions um particularly from transportation slide so the ideas related to minimizing resonance exposure again apologies for the small text because there's a lot of a lot in here so the first idea is around working with all these various Community Partners to providing portable indoor air filtration units essentially those uh those air filters that you can buy at the store the city would purchase them and then work with a variety of other community-based organizations and stakeholders who have close engagement with residents of Distributing them and exploring funding opportunities uh through the air quality management District carb and others currently there is a program through the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to provide these type of filtration units however it's um there's a lot of criteria and limitations so this is seeking to expand the pool of people within Petaluma who would be eligible next ideas around working with the public school district to update their HVAC systems a lot uh some of the schools may have already done this as a result of covid but just ensuring that the filtration systems are up to date and maintained and to the latest
levels of standards uh there is an idea around updating the zoning code to limit the sighting of new sensitive land uses so think about like residential housing schools parks and child care facilities elder care facilities near Highway 101 which is the main source of vehicle-related air pollution and Petaluma and then finally updating the zoning code to limit the sighting of new industrial facilities near any of those type of existing sensitive land use so this is more of a land use discussion and this type of conversation could continue during the land use discussion all right so that's around reducing exposure so this is more around reducing the amount oh wait sorry there's a couple more ideas around reducing resonance exposure uh funding air quality monitors within the the city this is a data issue for those of you who are interested in data Petaluma does not have its own air quality monitoring station there's a lot of private homeowners who have purple hair or some other type of private form of monitoring their own air quality but if that resident moves then we lose that station if that Resident decides no longer to pay for the service then we lose that station so then from a long-term perspective it's not a reliable source of air quality data you want to have publicly funded ongoing air quality monitoring stations and then finally developing working with regional agencies to develop some sort of action plan for Wildfire smoke days not necessarily Wildfire days um uh and
advocating so that Equity priority areas and Loan households are supported and and being able to respond to that emergency situation all right so then on reducing vehicle-related emissions um our ideas around making sure that the truck routes map is up to date and minimizes to the extent possible exposure for sensitive land uses advancing strategies that reduce Regional Independence on Motor Vehicles that's an idea we've received a lot of community input on establishing a local ordinance that exceeds the state vehicle idling restriction so sometimes when delivery vehicles make deliveries to let's say a grocery store they um ensuring that they turn off the truck when they're making these deliveries for example and establishing an electric vehicle car sharing program in equity priority areas that is available for low-income households to be able to use and get around the city so with that we're gonna take another pause and have a discussion around reducing air pollution and minimizing exposure I see janus's hand up yeah I just want to talk about you know you keep talking about the freeway and yet I I know that McDowell is is probably more of a pollutant than the freeway or if not equal and then back in um McDowell was designated part of a one Highway 116 Route and yet you have all this housing McDowell so I don't know why that was that it doesn't hold but I just want to point out that um McDowell is at least equal to um to the to the highway with pollution and and yet it's a
lot closer to the homes and so and then we have to talk about noise pollution also it's not just you know air well that's part of the air pollution so just want to bring up those points and we do need a truck route system and get a lot of the truck routes off McDowell get them onto the freeway because they're they're actually going from North South McDowell all the way up to the north and it needs to be addressed thanks great thank you uh let's see this John okay just like to uh reference my upbringing down in Los Angeles um where I grew up from the 60s 70s and 80s down there and it just got worse and worse in the air pollution and finally with the vehicle uh changes in the laws and regulations um by the time I left in the 80s I could see the mountains maybe three or four days out of the Year this smog was so thick and so bad and by um and then but I've been going back after that um a lot of it got cleaned up over time uh because of the changes in the in the state laws and regulations so the car pollution um especially in the valley coming up here North that's one of the reasons I came up here is there's a lot less smog and air air pollution compared to a lot of other parts of California so actually we're in pretty good shape compared to a lot of parts of California on that um but around the freeway one of the things I did learn when I was um down there UC Riverside and toured the air quality back in the 70s a lot research was done as to how do the plants along the freeway
impact the air pollution to the households and businesses right next to the freeway and so the research that we were told even back then it was well known that there's a lot of plants and trees and shrubs in the highway department if you look at some of the major stuff that they're using here one of the reasons they're using redwood trees and uh Oleanders and a few other shrubs is that they're actually really good at air cleaning um better than other plants and that we've lost a huge amount of that with the recent expansion of the freeway so we really need to put in a plug for within this for the air pollution for or the tree canopy providing lots of air pollution benefits and to support that and maybe helping out replanting that whole cord or if it means the businesses in backyards right along the freeway is where we got to put things so I'd like to make sure that skits included in there and then the other thing on the uh what was mentioned about medell and I agree with with Janice that that McDowell the truck route that's coming in there and maybe even down south there's a few business Parks uh like UPS down on down there they're ruining the roads and the trucks from UPS coming out there streaming out then we've got Amazon trucks coming from Sonoma so and going more and more since retail that's coming in by by individual trucks and delivering so a couple things to to work on that two suggestions might be can we add a a taxes basically a city tax or a fee to when a large
wheeled vehicles or number of Wheels shows up on McDowell that's ripping up the road basically and causing the pollution as per delivery points can we actually charge them five dollars for every spot they stop at or do something like that is there a fines or fees that we can add in there so that the trucks actually pay for um what the cost of the both the roadway and the air and then the other idea is um if if Amazon is and other folks are using all these trucks they just saw there are a lot of rental trucks being used by by Amazon right now to fill the Christmas gift thing um one of the neighborhoods that I heard from the cool cities blocks went to a neighborhood day of the week delivery system and so okay so our neighborhood we will receive all Amazon deliveries and all truck deliveries like that individualized on Wednesday or just Thursdays or twice a week for if it's a high high demand type area for that so getting all of our citizens citizens to agree with that working with Amazon and other companies that are doing that and with the other trucking company and UPS so that our deliveries are better designed for that distribution system that were that was growing and growing and shifting so let's make sure we work with and make that happen uh that distribution chain for the trucks for the air pollution on that and then the other thing I want to bring up is um I don't know if we're getting to water pollution at all but I just went on a creek cleanup um and the amount of
stuff that we were pulling out of the Creeks over by um right there by the freeway this is right where the Washington Creek goes under the freeway we were there at large camps and a huge amount of stuff had been dumped into Waters which we're seeing with with the homeless so there's a tie-in with um homelessness along with the pollution that that's going on next to where the camps are going um and hopefully that I'm not sure if that's part of this the pollution they're talking about or is just air pollution but but that's another area we really need to work on and maybe creating some more of those setbacks along the river so I'll leave that to others at this point thank you for giving me this time great thank you John lots of great ideas um I see a lot of hands up so I'm going to just pass it on to Jesse I think that's important here is thinking about the the long-term regulatory change that will happen with vehicles to John's point about how La changed in the past we're going to see you know with the California air resources board passing 100 zero emission vehicle sales by 2035 like our general plan is going to last until for another for 20 years um and not to say that it localized air pollution along the 101 Corridor is not an issue but it may it's just something for us to think about the impact that EVS are going to have both for commercial Trucking and as well as personal vehicles so um in tandem with addressing localized air pollution on 101 I think we also really need
to take a big Focus on where EV infrastructure is going to go in these priority zone areas making sure that Petaluma has a really strong plan for locating and citing those those EV Chargers in locations for low and moderate income and EJ communities so I'm not a I don't think technology is like a fantasy it's not going to solve all of our problems but just something for us to make sure do we think about as we look at like the transition of electric train electrified Transportation yeah yes great idea all right Aaron uh yeah so it's great to have these like out Outer ones you know cars and smoke wildfires um but I'd like to credit Carrie if you get to mentioning like we need to also consider air quality issues for inside the home for those who have like gas stove tops um and I feel like this is really intersectional also with like housing Justice in general and you know renter tenants rights um often there's like you know vents above the stove that either don't exist or don't work um and you can attribute a lot of that stuff to you know renters landlords not fixing it for their um those houses so um just as a another plug for what we can deal for air quality indoor and out thank you um I actually have a follow-up question on Aaron's uh which is a great one has has the gpac at all discussed the topic of electrification of buildings in terms of Chris oh yeah is that a yes Christina in terms of like removing gas stoves from future buildings foreign we're doing a climate action
and adaptation plan and so um as as part of the general plan so gpac hasn't gone into it in a lot of detail but uh we have a whole set of policies that we're working on for building electrification for new and existing buildings and how to support that process how to make it Equitable how would it work um yeah so a code enforcement part on gastos and Rental buildings may live in the salmon or may live in the cap so TBD on that piece maybe okay uh let's see uh Josh yeah thank you since I uh was a little out of order this last time I'll get really brief just want to underscore I really would love to see you know coveted transmissible respiratory Airborne diseases you know some some kind of language along those lines specifically called out in in this okay sounds good thank you and uh Janice uh yes go ahead it's just a question on the electrification so if if a developer is bringing a project today they are not required to do electrification correct we have an all-electric code so so um for residential buildings they're required to be to be all electric what about what about commercial buildings commercial I'm not a hundred percent sure that that varies City by City And I confess that I can't I don't have a memorize but we do have an all electric code I can I can work on following up on that okay that would be great thank you all right not seeing any other hands Let's uh bring the slides back up we're gonna pivot over to the remix public services and Facilities and so I
apologize but although Juan is super fascinating with all of the details on all thinking that's gone into all of the everything we're gonna have to like skim a little bit but if you have questions he has answers to everything all right so this next goal area has a lot in it and so again I won't go into too much depth but essentially the idea from Senate Bill 1000 perspective is that there's equitable distribution of a city's public facilities and as a result public services and so there's a lot of different ideas in here all of these have really and typically this particular topic area is very much determined by a each jurisdictions Community input and so you'll notice that the ideas that we've listed so far here climate change transit services Community safety Multicultural Arts programming those are all ideas that have been uplifted from the community input process and so if you feel like there's a particular idea within this bucket of kind of miscellaneous bucket of public facilities and services that needs to be uplifted as a separate policy area please do Elevate that and so just real quickly I'll I won't go I won't touch on all the specific action ideas uh next slide so for like climate adaptation uh one of the ideas is around establishing centralized resilience hubs during extreme weather days which I know has been discussed as part of the cap process transit services was a big topic of community input so there's a variety of ideas around expanding work the bus routes
and ensuring they provide convenient Services particularly for folks with disabilities or to equity priority areas slide [Music] um there's a variety of days around Community safety some of which the city has already started around continuing the safe program in regards to Emergency mobile crisis response uh we are proposing would love to give people's ideas on uh ending the practicing practice of ticketing bicyclists who ride on city sidewalks if that particular Street segment doesn't have separated or protected bikeways um this is a newer idea within planning and just generally with City governance but the creation of a new traffic enforcement unit of unarmed staff uh supporting you Youth and Young adults and just Justice involved populations in general with diverse diversion and re-entry next slide uh some ideas around digital infrastructure and expanding access to high-speed broadband service and expanding the supply of public Wi-Fi locations and then this is an idea that came directly from a community uh input process by establishing a multicultural Arts Center of some sort to promote different types of Arts culture and recreation programs so with that we're going to again have another period of discussion what is missing what what are your thoughts what do you like I'm sorry that I had to ask one to speed up if you want us to go back I will definitely go back and I also encourage those of you who haven't yet participated to provide input as well I am taking note of who
hasn't who hasn't participated so if you don't by the end I'm gonna start calling out people so um I see Christine's hand up foreign oh you're on mute there you go sorry um just briefly as far as the Multicultural uh Center totally agree with it I would say um Multicultural and multi-generational arts programs our community programs to include multi-generational ideas in it and also as far as that when you under I think it's 4.3 Community safety it would be great to put something in there about uh having uh either police or the safe team people being trained to deal with citizens who have dementia because that's a that's a major issue so they need to be included as well that's it all right great ideas uh let's say Roberto I just wanted to kind of rope in the topic a little bit of electrification uh I think if we should probably think about you know if all these cars there are going to be electrified what kind of services are going to provide given that some of these new developments not everyone's gonna have a garage or a place to go charge so I think that somewhere in this policy or something should be highly considered um especially if it is kind of the way things are going so something to think about how we're going to provide that kind of service to all these vehicles that number one uh probably won't have access to that you know and would have to go remotely somewhere else right thank you all right uh John yeah um I recently went to the council meeting where the fire and
the police gave a like a big long report going into the City councils and in there they they highlighted many things about the safe program actually expanding and doing a great job and expected to expand more uh but one thing I also notice is that the fire department there's um a lot of folks going out with large vehicles for what should be just medical situations and that something like 75 of their calls are medical not fire and so we need to maybe shift gears and maybe suggest that um as they build whatever new fire department structures get built down the road or more space gets expanded that we actually to develop a um a larger team of small emergency vehicles so I've seen them like even the electric small cars that are that have already been recommended for a modification for this particular purpose for both uh police City police rounds and also for medical rounds if for emergency Personnel to follow up are the ambulance would go out and instead of a big fire truck one or two of these smaller Vehicles would go out with all the medical supplies as as a possibility so I've seen those ideas being proposed um which didn't quite come up because those those Concepts aren't quite in our fire department yet but maybe we can propose that as an idea uh for them to think about um and so I just want to uh let you know that there um with the fire department and police may be shifting and building and doing things there may be a lot of things happening and it may be related to the
fairgrounds coming in um so there's some a lot of things that could be happening in this area for the servicing for the the folks here in Petaluma to make it a lot more efficient so I thought I'd just let let folks know that some of this I've seen this starting to happen thank you great thank you John all right trying to bring in more voices into the conversation uh let's see Bill Bill or Mary any thoughts or ideas on Equitable public services and Facilities when we talk about parks and trees and the things that are free and open to all people and how we actually invest in our Parks instead of how they are in current conditions that they are now so so far so good everything I've heard yeah I I concur thank you Juan um nothing to add this is great great input from everyone just listening at this point all right okay uh Sierra any thoughts uh no similarly I'm really liking what I'm reading I'm really also uh liking what I'm hearing from my peers here so I don't feel like I have that much to add I am taking a few notes that I'll probably put into an email to you later it's just easier for my brain to think that way um I guess at at this point one thing I could add although maybe this could have been added another slide I'm still trying to figure out where everything goes um but I I think a lot earlier there was talk of trainings for like looking at um equity in terms of a lens of race a lens of low income and things like that and I'd love to see maybe I don't know if this is a
spot for it but language about having trainings for City staff for fire departments for police for you know all these people who need it around how to interact with um disabled residents and specifically neurodiverse residents um because oftentimes a lot of these calls you know maybe for safe teams um it's not just mental health it's also neurodiversity which is different ways of communication and that might lead to problems that you know aren't even problems um that with training that communication Could Happen seamlessly so that could be something to add that's a great idea I hadn't thought of that thank you for that contribution all right say no other hands let's move on to the last topic I want to make sure to get uh sneak into tonight's conversation related to food access so um we've received a lot of community input on this particular goal area as well and so you'll see some ideas that maybe you all have discussed before or you've heard residents discuss and so uh the four policy areas the first being around Urban food production and encouraging finding different ways to strengthen the local economy related to food Urban food Urban food production uh second goal area around reducing food insecurity so it's a little bit different from the actual production of food and supporting businesses this is more about supporting residents particularly low-income residents the third is around limiting uh the establishment of or maybe the existing places of unhealthy Foods or
alcoholic beverages and then finally promoting this healthy eating habit so this is more about nutrition education slide so on that Urban food production this first idea is one that we've pulled directly from input we've received from Community stakeholders and so it's around updating the zoning code to allow small-scale Urban Agriculture and so this could this could include um on on-site agriculture stands so if a particular resident has a community garden in the backyard the front yard they can have temporary on-site Urban agriculture stands for example and there's a variety of uh I guess branches within Urban agriculture as you can see there food Gardens backyard chickens fruit trees Etc um a second idea of working with the County's Health Services Department to support Innovative food micro Enterprises the the County food um uh permit is a important gateway to being able for uh micro uh micro micro business owners to be able to establish their own food business and so working with the county to help those uh those just starting out their business to be able to kick-start and have maybe home kitchen operations or mobile food facilities a third idea that we have and I believe this came from uh the blue zones process is around a creating a community commercial kitchen facility to serve as a learning lab and then finally also for the blue zones process adopting a healthy corner store policy so this is kind of like um sometimes they're known as corner store and makeovers or
essentially promoting healthy produce within existing stores next slide reducing food insecurity so this is about expanding farmers markets and encouraging them to uh take up all the variety of nutrition assistance programs they exist not just CalFresh EBT but also senior Farmers Market nutrition benefits with Benefits Etc uh continuing to work with various stakeholders to divert food waste and donate extra food to shelters food banks and others um related to the idea that I think Mary you were getting at but encouraging edible landscapes in our cities parks and public spaces and then this last one is nutrition education so it's a lot of those promoting healthy eating habits whether in the schools or at the city level so for example ensuring that anytime their the city provides food at event that they also provide a healthy food option as well and this is uh this last one is an idea that only recently has become legal again in California because of a lawsuit that was filed again against the sake of her there's a long history behind this but essentially there's uh now a legal Avenue once again for the city to put a fee on sugar swinging Beverages and using those fee dollars to support like many other jurisdictions in the state who got in before a certain preemption loan was put in place around funding Youth Development programs like Child Care healthy eating programming Etc so now we're going to take another discussion hearian and see what ideas people have around food access
and food production all right Aaron the intricate parts of this are definitely not my expertise at all but I just I want to highlight some of some of our like local groups that are doing stuff uh like unavita you know getting food to to that Community specifically talking about you know low-income residents this is that's key so um just trying to figure out who the key players are already doing this you know and how a team up and and support them because they already have these networks going as well so Larry um I was thinking about the small um AG uh production in in town um like like at at home um Farms I don't know if that's what was intended um I was thinking about cannabis in town and it would be I think it's currently that's restricted but I would like to maintain that um I don't know if there's some way to address that um the comment on the food facility ideas with uh in-house kitchens [Music] that if that proves to be a dead end which knowing Sonoma County Health it probably will be the idea that was the second idea that was mentioned the food facility was a commercial kitchen that could be um basically a place for all sorts of startups to use it'd be like one larger maybe multiple commissary kitchens um because that is definitely the problem with food trucks they have to have a commissary kitchen and they have to um and that have to pass health and it could be quite cost prohibitive to do that so if you're a startup and you have a place maybe it's a shared commissary
kitchen that's an excellent way for small startups to to get get going um yeah I totally encourage edible Landscapes I was thinking about in Costa Rica you don't really you can be homeless and you can Thrive because everywhere you turn it's there's food to eat and water to drink and um then uh last uh we didn't talk about this but just because you were mentioning the healthy foods and um even talking about putting restrictions on unhealthy food establishments um what about all these um places where you can buy Vape um all I just I call them Vape centers I know that's not the right word but my brain is not working but um there seems to be uh just sort of everywhere you turn another on every block um so if we're going to limit alcohol we might want to think about something extremely addictive that is really terrible for Youth and their targeting youth those are my thoughts great contribution Mary and thank you I just realized I did not cover the limiting alcohol and unhealthy Foods slide um that's okay uh if if there's not interested in showing that up that's fine but yes there were a variety of ideas around updating the zoning code to limit the prevalence of or over concentration of convenience stores for example that might be selling Vape or smoking products limiting and prohibiting the over concentration of alcoholic beverage establishments which is a term defined in the city's zoning code and also um uh limiting the um well uh first defining liquor stores and wine shops
they're currently not defined in the city's municipal code and then again similarly limiting the cons the concentration and over prevalence of if I'm not mistaken um the liquor stores the the first section's kind of been de facto in a way based off of input from the police department to various um uh conditional and use reviews uh in the past and so this is more about just like making it a little bit more um explicit in the general plan in regards to again that over concentration of places that provide or sell um alcohol as our primary uh Focus but having more explicit consideration to smoking products and vaping yes that is something that other jurisdictions have definitely elevated and we can Elevate here as well update the zoning code to Define convenience stores do you mean alcohol beverage stores or convenience stores that might be selling unhealthy food so yes convenience stores can be different from liquor stores so sometimes um yes Convenience Stores May sell both Alcohol Tobacco and unhealthy Foods liquor stores typically only are focused on liquor stores so it's more about just different jurisdictions to find them slightly distinctly if there's an interest we can do that but if um uh if we want to bundle them up all under the umbrella term of uh convenience stores or liquor stores we can go down that path too it's really up to over these next few months in terms of the process I thought that Mary's idea about smoke shops was a was an interesting one I know that um a
similar idea has come up around stores that sell guns okay let's see uh I think Roberto San Jose yeah I just wanted to make a suggestion on 5.1 d [Music] um I I like the phrase that is used to separate in the adopt a healthy corner store policy uh where it says decrease unhealthy food advertising and adjust floor plans to encourage healthier eating choices I almost feel like that could be its own like separate sub bullet um just because it could be immediately actionable in the way stores might stock food or you know how you look at the eye level and all that stuff could just you know I I think it's an easy win um but just the advertising in general can drive a lot of people's decisions alone so I wanted to highlight that and then uh on 5.4 I know we talk about expanding educational programs for children um for the Petaluma City schools and I'll admit I'm not really familiar with what kids are eating but maybe some implementation um in terms of what options they're allowed to eat whether it's at the high school or what they'll have I guess access to buy so that's all I have great thank you Bill hey there say 5.1 a I would just like to add um provide and manage facilities for Community Gardens at um Surplus public lands we've had we have Community Gardens throughout the city but there are Management's kind of left to um you know private nonprofits and and the participants but it would be great if we had a program you know that was better supported I think there's a lot of
benefits there that's it thank you okay great uh let's see uh John hey just to follow up on what Bill just said on the um Community Gardens uh I was asked to go out and look at a couple of them because some some of them have declined over time they didn't have the adequate support from the city they were left to folks the folks one person one person gave up and didn't happen but there needs to be um there's a Tara Linda uh Garden that just completely needs to be revamped right now that that was put in and is now overrun with a Bermuda grass so um so yeah so bills those are we need better support for for smaller Community Based Gardens all throughout the town um another one I went to a lunch down in Novato where it was a culinary arts school for the disadvantaged and folks coming out of um whatever systems or Services uh that might be their state or county level uh but they were coming in and getting trained to cook and serve food in the restaurant that's actually was built in and we had a luncheon there in Novato so it has a nice model that seems to be a working and well-run model uh that I heard that that is a lot of different places so could we have one here and could we put it with the fairgrounds where we put the farmers market in there could we also create a a culinary art school there uh serving not only that the disadvantaged but also have the opportunity to learn retraining a training center so can we create a situation like that then on the sugar that that raises all
sorts of issues and questions if we're going to somehow tax sugar of some sorts back back to when this country were first started okay um uh stuff was being thrown overboard on ships um but if you're going to tax the sugar in drinks let's say the dice that you have with the kids but then then you're really going to have to hit deterior because turns out your lattes at your Starbucks has even more sugar than a soft drink so um and then if you're going to shift over from from the dietary of sugar substitutes are they really any healthier than than sugar itself so um yeah so that's that's a huge can of worms if you're going to open that up but I do know that the schools now restrict sugar drinks in the schools entirely so the schools already have adopted that policy of actually restricting they kicked them all off off campus and then just to bring up another idea for the upper cannabis uh if we're looking at food and products um there is I recently visited a cannabis store outlet up in Sebastopol um and we do not have a dispensary here in town that's been brought up before um getting two or three dispensaries in town I know there's a lot of folks in in the older age group a lot of my friends could really use a local store rather than driving up to Sebastopol or some other place to get the products they need for their health a lot of is health and medical issues like that so I don't know if that would go in this section here under food or would go into something else but uh to
bring that idea forward so those are the ideas I want to just raise at this time thank you all right uh let's see Sierra thank you um yeah I totally agree with a lot of what I'm hearing and I just wanted to raise um the idea of with all of this talk of promoting like healthy eating habits and specifically requiring this is for 5.4 B requiring healthy food and beverage options at City events um which of course I love but I I want to bring forward the uh idea reminder I don't know um necessity that uh uh whoever is defining the word healthy I don't know if it's like maybe a um a group of City staff or or maybe there's like a um a group of petalumens who do this I don't know but whoever is defining healthy I want to uh encourage them to think about um bringing on as many diverse voices there as possible so that traditionally you know back in the day I feel that a lot of um culturally different foods were maligned as unhealthy um but you know that's just not the case so I think if we have um a board or a body of people who are defining what healthy means in this in terms of these uh beverage and food options at City events I think that'll be a great opportunity to really bring a lot of different foods to the table um and then another idea that I was just um came to mind just now um when we're talking about like partnering with groups around the city and I think Aaron brought up like um food Justice groups and and um folks like that another group that it would be really I think
awesome to um build a communication with and build a bridge of support with in this particular instance would be uh local indigenous groups who are working on indigenous food sovereignty like what is the food specific to the Petaluma area that was grown here for centuries and centuries and centuries what would it look like if we could provide um I don't know like Avenues of education on that or you know what would that look like for moving forward with building food sovereignty that is localized to Petaluma using maybe not using some not the right word but honoring uh the food that has traditionally been grown here great ideas thank you let's see uh Jesse but given that I'm maybe the only one here with kids um or I'm not sure married you have little kids in Petaluma City School eating lunches um I I I'm just cute I just want to caution the like overreach of being mandating what families can feed their kids there's a lot of kids with like very specific sensitivities to certain foods um John they give kids cocoa milk every single day so I don't really know where that sugar drink thing came from but definitely not true um so I just I just want to be cautious that we're not overreaching here um kids some Toddlers and kindergarteners and second graders will only eat like four things and parents are just grateful that they're eating anything at all so um also if we think about not I'm worried about zoning some of this language like within certain feet if we're thinking about like
mixed use at the fairgrounds for instance or anywhere um they're probably going to be within a thousand feet of like Parks or open space or a playground so I I'm not quite sure how I feel about all this but um I will process it and read more and think about it that's a great point do others feel similarly in terms of uh some of these policies again if you feel uh hesitant around some of these ideas these are the types of discussions to have um oh I forgot I forgot to raise my hand oh Janice first go ahead oh I'm just going to give put my dental hygiene hat on and it's really the carbonation in the sodas that cause Decay and it's so it's not necessarily you know other drinks so I just want to point out carbonation has a as an effect okay thank you Mary oh I I actually really appreciate the points that Jesse raised my kids are grown up but hey you know you never forget those picky eaters and they don't disappear with a generation that's permanent um I I think uh mandating what people feed their kids is really not right but maybe what we want to think about in terms of healthy establishments for our town um there's been um a lot of history with pushing back against um chains and uh wanting to have more mom and pop type stores or independent ly owned um food establishments and and maybe we have enough um fast food and um and chain type food stores that I personally don't consider healthy um but they are affordable for people so you want to be careful there but you know it's like
looking ahead do we're not encouraging I don't see us encouraging like a whole other line of um like Washington Boulevard looks you know with Kentucky Fried Chicken and Wendy's and Taco Bell and now my kids actually love Taco Bell at about midnight I don't but um so I yeah I think it's right we need to be careful about what we're telling people to eat that's really kind of crossing a line in my mind um maybe that's just getting a little too heavy-handed all right any other thoughts on food access particularly from folks who have been writing their voices on this conversation see uh Indiana do you have any thoughts on this conversation around food let's see or yensi or Jesse um this is Yancey um iliana's Wi-Fi is is out right now so she got bumped off the meeting um and um I really appreciate everyone else's comments I love the idea about just the having the edible Landscapes and having those kind of public spaces be more widely available along with strengthening existing Community Gardens and I think this also touches upon um what we were talking about earlier like maybe intergenerational knowledge sharing having those spaces be a place where folks not only learn about healthy foods have access to healthy foods but um come together to make those spaces viable great thank you and apologies Justin you did you did provide dear if I forgot to Market um yes uh Roberto sorry one more uh I was just thinking about uh the edible Landscapes um and I'm just kind of thinking that we
could also consider if they're not really taken for what they are like people aren't really eating the food if it will attract like rodents and the nearby people that live around that area might have some kind of issue there so just something to keep in the back of your mind is how will they be maintained if you know if there's excess food or it's just being not utilized as we envision it so okay great all right just a couple more comments till uh Phil and then bill yeah just just a couple of comments on you know formula retail I've worked in jurisdictions or associated with jurisdictions that try to limit formula retail which is another way to say you know fast food um I think it's a good idea I know some jurisdictions have limited it to prohibited it in their downtowns but allow it you know on the outsides and so I can see some validity in that um also I wonder if is Petaluma going to continue or does do we prohibit drive-throughs at this point in Paloma it doesn't existing General plan yeah yeah okay I just wonder we're going to continue that and then tax on sodas I know certain jurisdictions have been that I guess I think it'd be kind of a cost-benefit analysis you know how much effort and time does it take to to implement that and could we could we throw could we throw money towards education or some other way to to help to solve the solve the problem or encourage encourage that and medicinal marijuana um I I'm all for local retail and not online shopping but I wonder um
I'm in favor of medicinal marijuana being accessible to folks um I'm not a super fan of recreational cannabis um and I'm wondering can John or many others can one adequately get what they need medicinally and medicinal cannabis through online shopping and so you don't have to drive to katati I think that's the nearest spot instead of driving to Qatari you can go on your keyboard and get your medicinal cannabis that's all I got great thank you and Bill I just want to throw out a fun fact and kind of piggybacking on what Roberto said um if you look at our current list of approved Street trees uh fruit trees are in the prohibited column so um at this point this is where we're coming from we're not allowed to grow fruit trees in within the right of way and I think there are good reasons for that but maybe we should get past those and figure out how to make it workable for the community that's it thanks right all right this was a very robust discussion thank you for everyone for your ideas so we're gonna now continue uh we unfortunately are running out of time so we will not be doing safe and sanitary housing today or physical activity so um Christina feel free to jump uh jump along in the slides but I do encourage jpac members if you have any specific thoughts on any of these uh draft ideas these really first cut ideas please feel free to send those over to City staff and so Christina you can keep uh moving forward in the slides I think um we're supposed to be hitting on public
comments as of like 13 minutes ago it's sure yes so I'm I'm going through the slides but as you guys can see um all of these ideas are here just because we're not going through them in detail doesn't mean that they're going anywhere you all have access to the PowerPoint and so if you have any thoughts that you aren't able to to get to tonight please do send them over and we uh we will incorporate them um so we're going to skip over goal six and then also goal seven just for now and and some of the ideas in goal six are in the housing element or could in fact be integrated into the housing element uh that we're still that we're currently working on and goal seven has a lot of overlap with mobility and Parks and Rec [Music] okay so we are going to go into public comment there will be more opportunities for gpec members to give overarching thoughts um so for right now I'm going to turn it over to Daniel Harrison for a public comment great thank you Christina um so this opens up public comment um if any members of the public too uh wish to speak please utilize the raise scan feature yeah it looks like we have a hand raised let me get the timer set up and Susie I don't know if you are here great I knew that your hand was up earlier okay so we'll start with Veronica oh um let me share my screen here sorry one moment hey product I'm going to ask you to unmute and the floor is now yours hi good evening gpac and staff and Community um I just wanted to go through a few thoughts um I
think having access to healthy food is one of the hugest things that we could be working on um and prohibiting fast food um we already have a lot of fast food in Petaluma I don't think having more is going to contribute to our goals both in terms of climate and um and and equity and also um giving people other options that are that are better for for overall quality of life um in terms of Highway pollution um the EPA talks about you know they have they've done a bunch of studies on properly disguising I mean um you know properly um vegetating um the freeway areas and the walls and I know that there have been a bunch of walls that have just been put up and and Greenery hasn't been planned for any of those so um I know that they're planning on replacing some of the trees but we've got to put into our plans that um whatever we do in terms of taking down trees and putting up walls that noise pollution is is a real problem for those neighborhoods um and and also the air quality so something has to be done about that um the other thing is the 15-minute neighborhood idea is basically having access to resources to everything you need and bike on on bike or foot so um to me the transformation of our transportation um both in terms of um the transit and bike and ped have to be included together I don't think they can be separated out they were not mentioned today and um I think that having access to safe green and um streets that are available for people who are on foot and and bike is
is what should be our hugest priority in this town both in terms of equity and and climate so I just like to put forth that um Staffing um you know a person in the transportation area whether it's our public work um you know really focusing on how how we're going to merge Equity with transportation and access and connectivity in our town um so I'm not I think um food and transportation are really important in nexuses that we need to look at noise pollution as well I think where you live if you live near a busy street you're exposed to all of that and it's the quality of life can be degraded without some measures that are taken um what else um it's just about um out of time with that comment okay okay I'm sorry I'm I'm done thank you so much for listening great okay thank you Veronica um so we'll now move to uh Darren uh you're now asked to unmute and the floor is yours thanks Daniel and it looks like item seven may have covered this but it's kind of building on Veronica's comment that concept of living streets shaded green streets a massive equity and environmental health issue we talked about a lot of times uh all different committees have Street trees better coverage of tree canopy how many uh good effects that has and we've actually seen Raymond Associates present maps of tree canopy where some of the most economically underserved areas of our city don't have sufficient tree canopies so I think that's one big issue to look into and going along with that Equitable access to
open space and green spaces not only for economic uh different economic groups but also folks with different Mobility levels and things like that another big issue I wanted to bring up is the idea and it was on one of the slides when we talked about public Wi-Fi it was the last item on that slide talked about electromagnetic frequencies and it even said something on that slide about assessing the various levels of EMF frequencies especially because they're usually sent centralized in the most economically and just culturally underserved areas of a city I think that's definitely the case in Petaluma it's an issue I brought up a lot on technology advisory committee and its city council that our city is kind of at a big Crossroads where we can decide whether we're committing to last mile delivery of broadband service which is a fancy term for how people get high-speed internet and we can either commit to doing Wireless which is usually cellular technology most recently 5G technology or we can commit to fiber optic technology with internet service being increasingly seen as a human right to me it seems like fiber is the no-brainer to make sure people have access also because it while it's contentious I definitely think there's enough evidence that proliferation of 5G technology does have potential human health effects and definitely ecological health effects and a lot of those towers and frequencies will be centralized in the poorer and areas of our town I mean we saw on the west
side where they attempted to put something on the creamery and people were up in arms because this is kind of the wealthy white part of the city on the west side of town and that 5G was shut down near Trader Joe's not a massive 5G Tower so those frequencies are going to be centralized in areas of the most underserved communities whereas we have an opportunity to commit to fiber optic which would provide high-speed internet in a way that doesn't have any deleterious health effects and right now there's an Ami infrastructure grant our Public Works has where they're planning to put 5G receivers on all water meters in the city and we should be exploring options to use Fiber instead which would also run fiber to all homes and buildings thanks great thank you Darren and um now uh Susie um the floor is now yours thank you um first just want to say uh a process point that there seems to be a lot of focus on programs to achieve Equity instead of potentially coding and Zone issues so just a request to ask organizations what zoning and code issues are there and that need to be addressed through the general plan um and from my perspective running Petaluma Bounty is part of petalum of people Services Center allowing people to grow food is a number one concern as it relates to environmental justice some of what you've offered addresses that but also requiring open space or community garden type [Music] uh built into new housing especially high density housing and then another consideration
is maintenance a lot of people like to build different uh things but if we don't consider the maintenance that needs to go into it then um they will be defunct in a couple of years so uh related to environmental justice there was only a focus on air quality but I think it needs to be expanded to consider Urban heat Islands air quality and housing that floods regularly um the the possibility of water rationing which we have experienced here in the city and and what the hierarchy of need is there as it relates to people growing their own food or doing this things they need to survive or be healthy as opposed to um potentially green Lawns or other things um open space and high density housing places and as an organization that has sustained and pays for the liability insurance on Community Gardens with having no financial support from the city and waiting now five years and and running to get a working mou I think the city needs to also step back and and see what are the blocks and restrictions and where are the hands tied within the city agencies that keep organizations from being able to do the effective work they have been trying to do um similar with the farmers markets uh Petaluma Bounty actually runs nutrition incentive program it's not through the county um so the concepts of concept of charging sugar attack to provide maintenance of edible landscaping Community Gardens potentially funding nutrition incentives promoting or having encode a local food purchasing preference
as well as potentially funding food recovery efforts which is part of SB 1383 which the city of Petaluma will have to be part of so Petaluma bounty's doing a lot of these things on behalf of this city and I see in this presentation that the city kind of claims part of those so uh would love to be part of the fact finding thanks thank you for your comment and I don't see any more hands raised so with that we'll go ahead and close public comments and I'll turn it back over to Christina thank you everyone thank you members of public for giving us your ideas this is essentially the end of our meeting if there are any gpac members who want to give any final thoughts on the agenda item or other items that may be arising for you this is the opportunity so please go ahead and raise your hands um and I just want to while we get into this really sank one for that for taking us through all of that material I'm sure that we'll hear your voice again but um that was a lot of really great content thank you all right John please go ahead yeah I just want to uh thank this group for the amount of work that everyone has done it's been a wonderful time spent with you I was hoping I could stay with you guys and keep going but uh this my actions here what I've learned and what this group does and your efforts and your thoughts and ideas that is what actually convinced me to run for city council so I'm I'm going to be running basically to implement what you guys are doing so I want to make sure
that that this follows through and comes about um my biggest concern is is implementation I've said that a couple times uh brilliant very big huge ideas that we are generating and as a model City for it for a lot of other cities to follow in the direction we're going in and I want to be able to follow it all up but somehow and so I just want to at some point are you meeting with Christina and some of the other staff is can we can we do this how are we going to get it done and and how which are we going to prioritize so that's the challenge I would put out to all of you is what's blow hanging fruit what are we going to prioritize and do first in the next two or three years compared to the next 10 years and make all that happen and I and I look forward to really serving this city and and your efforts here um over the next four years so so thank you for everything you're doing thanks John thank you for all of your time and dedication to the gpac work um all right Roberto as you see that uh just three comments I from one thing that came up today the discussion of electrification I think we should or maybe find a way how to include it on how my affects some of our decisions I didn't really think much of it until you know the whole comments about the cars and infrastructure and all that started happening and I'm just going to say that engineering wise there's a lot of work to be done before we hit the 2030 Milestone and if you just think about what it currently exists and the
changes required to meet that and how it's going to affect everybody I think that alone is an important topic uh the second one um is more of a question uh and I was thinking about all these plans and as we get into the policy uh I wonder and this is my familiarity me not being familiar with how you know drafting policy works is when will we start seeing some of the costs to these ideas and where that money might come from and the last thing I just want to say because I I was looking through the appendix and one thing that really bugs me is is the uh the Ami the average medium income I think it's wrong for many reasons um in terms of what's driving our decision and maybe if I need to go and do some Grassroots with some people who are mid-carrier around my age group and you know for them to kind of speak out to how this income and you know is kind of being dispersed I I just completely disagree with what it states that people can afford in reality so just wanted to leave that out there um so I think the definition of what it drives for it to be considerable income and affordability is not accurate so that will be it it's Roberta okay uh Mary um good points Roberto um I also appreciated what Darren was saying about fiber optics and I did note that in the policy about um placing these Wi-Fi Towers in certain locations and there's got to be a way to find a areas that don't have housing nearby um and and that seems like the right way to go uh but I really think the fiber optic
thing is is worth um exploring further and then just two minor comments um about the uh building uh Health interior uh indoor pollution um this is a simple thing but all buildings should have operable windows so there was policy about looking at multi-family housing that's existing and how to improve it and um there was a comment as specific as double pane windows and I thought well let's just make sure that all the windows can open yes the HEPA filters are good and important but you got to get fresh air into all these buildings simple simple thing um not to take for granted and um we talked a lot about um this was all about social equity and I don't know if this is appropriate but I just kept thinking what about animals and habitat you know we always talk about people um now I'm on the open space working group and natural resources so maybe it's covered there but um the voiceless is what I'm also I'm the other voiceless which are animals and the habitat that we are um altering every time we build something or put in a new pathway and should have some consideration thank you thanks Mary um there's going to be so much content for us all to be going through I was Ed and Roberto with the with the climate action plan there's so much there's so many engineering topics we're going to talk about and how are we going to get power to all those electric cars that's my thought of the week um so yeah there are big infrastructure implications of some of this work uh sorry for my ad hoc
comments uh Chris please go ahead sure so I know we're out of time my brain is fried I'm sorry that we did not get a chance to get to this one question if you could choose one large aspirational Health Equity and environmental justice project for the city to focus on what would it be so if we could address this question later or maybe have a session that would that would focus on you know pick pick this area pick other areas but but really have time where we could we could do some aspirational stuff I totally agree that we also need to do stuff that's realistic but I think there's always kernels that can be done from the aspirational so just a cheery way to end the meeting I guess but hopefully we'll have a chance to discuss this stuff in the future okay all right yes so so much to so much to think about all right well so thank you all um we will follow up with our schedule for the New Year soon we will be having our January meeting um I don't quite know yet what exactly the focus of that will be I think that we're going to be walking through uh well transportation is coming up so Mobility might be might be one of those topics that's coming up but I'm afraid I don't have the list in front of me um but that you know there's there's ever more to to dig into so thank you so much good evening thanks to our translators and to Juan and to Daniel and all the gpac members and members of the public who came this evening and to PCA for keeping us public happy Holidays happy holidays