City Council August 5, 2025

City Council Meeting Summary

Time	Item	Item Summary	Motion Summary	Comment Summary
00:00:00	None: None	The meeting of August 5, 2025, is being held in the council chambers at 420 Little Street, Sausalito, California. The meeting is broadcast live on Zoom, the city's website, and cable TV channel 27.	No Motion	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral
00:00:18	I: CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL - 4:00 PM	Mayor Hollweg called the special meeting of the Sausalito City Council to order at 4:00 PM on August 5, 2025. The city clerk then proceeded to call the roll, with Councilmembers Blalstein and Hoffman present, along with Vice Mayor Woodside.	No Motion	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral
00:00:40	II: CLOSED SESSION - 4:00 PM	The council will be entering closed session to discuss items C1 through C4. C1 concerns conference with real property negotiator regarding 750 Bridgeway, Sausalito, with Verizon Wireless as the negotiating party. C2 also concerns conference with real property negotiator regarding 300 Spencer Avenue, with Verizon Wireless as the negotiating party. C3 concerns conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation and significant exposure to litigation, one case. C4 concerns conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation and initiation of litigation, pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 D4, one case. Councilmember Kim recused herself from items C1 and C2 due to her firm's representation of Verizon and her proximity to 300 Spencer (00:01:29). Councilmember Sobieski recused himself from one recurring item due to his assessment of its financial impact presenting a potential conflict of interest (00:01:43).	No Motion	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral
00:02:07	III: RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION - 5:00 PM	The meeting reconvened to open session at 5:00 PM. The City Clerk called the roll, and all councilmembers were present. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. Mayor Hollweg stated that there were no closed session announcements. A motion to approve the agenda was made and seconded. The motion carried 5-0. There were no special presentations or mayor's announcements.	Motion to approve the agenda, seconded, and passed 5-0. (00:03:03)	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral
00:03:20	2: COMMUNICATIONS - 5:02 PM	This item is a period for the City Council to hear from citizens on matters within the city's jurisdiction that are not on the agenda. The City Clerk stated there was one online speaker. Sandra Bushmaker spoke regarding the enforcement of the short-term rental ban in Sausalito. She noted that despite the ban, there are still many short-term rentals available on platforms like Airbnb and requested that enforcement be stepped up (00:03:49).	No Motion	1 Total: 0 In Favor 1 Against 0 Neutral
00:03:49 Sandra Bushmaker was Against: She is against short-term rentals and requests increased enforcement of the existing ban due to the continued presence of rentals on platforms like Airbnb.
00:04:29	3: CONSENT CALENDAR - 5:15 PM	The council is considering the consent calendar, which includes items considered routine and non-controversial. The items are: 3A, approval of meeting minutes from July 1st and 15th, 2025; 3B, consideration of transmitting a letter regarding SB 79; 3C, receiving and filing a letter from Marin County mayors; 3D, second reading and adoption of ordinance number 06-2025 regarding the Marin electric bicycle safety pilot program; 3E, adopting a resolution authorizing the city manager to award a construction contract for the Bridgeway safety project; 3F, adopting a resolution approving an encroachment agreement for improvements at 1755 Bridgeway; and 3G, adopting a resolution approving the Sausalito Police Association Memorandum of Understanding and updated pay schedules. Councilmember Hoffman requested to remove item 3B for further discussion (00:06:14). The item will be discussed later as Item 5C.	Motion to adopt the consent calendar with the exception of item 3B (00:06:40).	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral
00:06:45	4.A: Appeal of Planning Commission Resolution No. 2025-18 approving a Design Review Permit, a Variance, three Conditional Use Permits, a Minor Use Permit, a Sign Permit, and a Certificate of Appropriateness for Joint Hotel and Restaurant use at 715 Bridgew	This agenda item concerns the appeal of Planning Commission Resolution No. 2025-18, which approved a series of permits for a joint hotel and restaurant at 715 Bridgeway. Matthew Mandich, Senior Planner, presented the project details, including the building's history, the proposed adaptive reuse, and the various permits required. He emphasized that all legal noticing requirements were met and outlined the changes made to the project since the previous appeal, including compliance with floor area ratio (FAR) and redesign of the rear deck. The project requires a design review permit, a variance, three conditional use permits (hotel, alcohol sales, parking waiver), a minor use permit for outdoor dining, and a sign permit. The grounds for the appeal by Sharon Kahn, were also presented. The applicant and staff responded to the appeal, addressing concerns about the variance, parking waiver, and consistency with the general plan. The discussion involved questions from councilmembers regarding the concierge's availability to the public, the definition of 'hotel use' including the rooftop deck and spa, maximum occupancy, and the welcome ambassador's training. Councilmember Hoffman raised questions about the maximum occupancy numbers for residential patio and the numbers of occupant per lodging unit. The applicant clarified aspects of the project and operation (00:54:33). The architect clarified that the lodging occupant limits where set in accordance with building and fire codes (00:59:11).	Councilmember Sobieski made a motion to deny the appeal and approve the project as adjusted by the city attorney, which included changes to the hotel use conditions to define areas of the project as spa and amenity areas, set max occupancy for those areas, the outdoor catering rule, and to include the bus stop bench location on excelsior lane (02:25:28). The motion was seconded, but then Councilmember Hoffman made an alternative motion that was not based on ordinance 1044. The alternative motion failed (02:26:37). The original motion passed 4-1 (02:35:03).	16 Total: 10 In Favor 5 Against 1 Neutral
01:10:27 Matthew Stewart was In Favor: Expressed strong support for the project, urging the council to approve it and stop wasting time. He downplayed concerns about noise and emphasized the economic benefits to the town, criticizing those who were stalling the project. 01:11:42 Carolyn Revelle was In Favor: Supported the project as an extraordinary opportunity for Sausalito, highlighting its well-designed, adaptive reuse of an historic building, its conformance to standards, and its reinforcement of downtown enhancements. She believed the applicant was responsive to neighbors' concerns and that noise issues could be addressed by the noise ordinance. 01:13:08 Bob Mitchell was Against: Opposed the project, particularly the rooftop amenity, viewing it as an outdoor party venue and nightclub that would negatively impact nearby residents. He stated it was a violation of the zoning code and unnecessary. He suggested the area be enclosed to mitigate noise and disturbance. 01:15:19 Sandy Strawbridge was Against: Expressed concern about noise impacting her ability to enjoy her balcony and viewed the hotel rooms as an event space rather than a boutique hotel. She supported the restaurant but opposed the shared outdoor space. 01:16:23 Beth Swerke was In Favor: Expressed strong support for the project, believing it would be a fantastic addition to downtown and bring much-needed economic activity. She attested to the positive experience of the Pocket in Carmel and its respectful integration into the community, suggesting the same could be achieved in Sausalito. 01:18:22 John Diamante was Against: Criticized the project as a fantasy and expressed concerns about the removal of bus stop benches and the noise from the outdoor area, impacting the tranquility of Excelsior Lane. He stated the building wouldn't be accessible for drop offs or deliveries and the hotel rooms would be poorly ventilated, requiring additional, noisy air conditioning. 01:20:44 Gail Schell was In Favor: Expressed support for the project, appreciating the accommodations made by the owner and the unanimous approval by the Planning Commission. She highlighted the positive comments from the mayor of Carmel and the lack of reason to believe the hotel would lead to disruption. 01:22:07 Jody Moore was In Favor: Expressed support for the project, emphasizing the need for revitalization and welcoming spaces in Sausalito. 01:22:47 Eric Lieb was Against: Stated support in theory, but not without community respect. He believed the Planning Commission was one-sided. He disagreed with statements comparing Hotel Sausalito and the proposed hotel. Felt the developer hadn't engaged the local community, despite claiming that he did. 01:24:52 Bonnie McGregor was In Favor: Expressed support for the project, believing it would attract responsible clients who would contribute to the town's economy beyond typical tourist spending. She expressed confidence that the issues would be taken into account. 01:30:39 David Lay was Neutral: Expressed concern for the removal of benches at the bus stop. He noted the bus stop and benches were important to him. 01:31:23 Adrian Britton was In Favor: Supported the project, drawing on historical context of partying and a personal history. He believed the town needs revitalization and that protecting vacant lots is not conducive to a thriving community. He praised Mill Valley's revised parking ordinance. He thought that most of Sausalito should be supportive. 01:33:44 Joel Carr was In Favor: Urged the council to approve the project, stating that Sausalito is at risk of becoming a laughingstock due to difficulty in approving projects. The appeals were outlandish, and there was plenty of fodder to whack down a lawsuit. The appeals should be rejected. 01:35:52 Jack Burrows was In Favor: Expressed concern about creating an anti-business climate in Sausalito, with financial and aesthetic needs being held hostage by a small, vocal, and litigious group of residents. Having visited the pocket, they saw no issues with neighboring businesses. 01:40:33 Safiya Collier was In Favor: Expressed the project needed to be approved and the appeal needed to be denied. The local historic district needs someone to invest to revitalize the buildings, and these short delays are not working for the town. 01:40:34 Linda Deifer was Against: Urged the Council to reject the second floor proposal and revisit ordinance 1044 to return affordable housing options to the historic district. The 30-day tenancy should be approved, but with setbacks, management, parking, and noise mitigation.
02:35:39	5.A: Adopt A Resolution Calling a Special Election and Submitting to The Qualified Voters of the City of Sausalito an Ordinance to Amending the City Zoning Map In City Commercial Districts to Adopt Housing Overlay Zoning Consistent with the Housing Element	Item 5A concerns adopting a resolution to call a special election for voters to decide on amending the city zoning map in commercial districts to align with the housing element. Brandon Phipps presented the item, noting the city's obligation to rezone to meet the state-mandated regional housing needs allocation (724 units). He highlights the robust public outreach, which included surveys, meetings, and digital engagement, and the community's priorities (local control, historic character, parking, and school uses). The city has amended its approach based on community feedback, selecting 12 commercial sites for rezoning. Failure to pass these measures could result in the state overriding local zoning and significant fines. The election is scheduled for November 4, 2025, with a state-imposed deadline of January 30, 2026, to complete the rezoning program. Councilmember Hoffman expressed concern about the concentration of units on the north end of town. Councilmember Blaustein noted that, while there would be disagreement about the units, not passing the measure could cause the city to lose local control. She added that the units are mostly in the Marinship and that opening these sites diversifies the housing in the city. Vice Mayor asked if the commitment to submit to the voters amendments was necessary to put the housing element into effect, and if HCD had approved the housing element throughout the process. The motion was made to adopt the resolution and to clarify that the ordinance was only modifying ordinance 1022 with the 12 sites. Councilmembers spoke about concerns about local control, the balance of housing in different parts of town, and financial costs of compliance. (03:11:14) Karen Hollweg made a motion to adopt the resolution. (03:05:41) It was seconded by Alice Merrill.	Motion to adopt a resolution calling a special election and submitting an ordinance to amend the city zoning map in commercial districts to adopt housing overlay zoning, with a clarification on Ordinance 1022. (03:11:14)	8 Total: 2 In Favor 3 Against 3 Neutral
02:47:21 Babette McDougall was Against: Expressed strong disapproval of the process, alleging a lack of public information and conflation of arguments. She criticizes the council for not representing the will of their constituents and a lack of transparency. 02:49:28 David Lay was In Favor: Expressed support for both measures, favoring the development of housing and bike paths along the rocky bank near the old railroad track. 02:50:51 Vicki Nichols was Neutral: Raised concerns about the short notice given to review the language and suggests the ballot initiative should focus on whether to remove existing ordinances rather than emphasizing compliance issues. 02:52:13 Jack Burroughs was Against: Criticized the short notice and the idea of taking open space away from MLK Park, arguing it's a dereliction of duty given the area's tax revenue and existing housing allowance. 02:54:23 Safiya Collier was In Favor: Stated the language has been before the Planning Commission and Council, supports the housing element as well thought out, targeting underperforming commercial properties with willing developers, emphasizing local control despite state pressures. 02:56:17 Sandra Bushmaker was Neutral: Expressed concerns about the late timing but supports the measure. She suggests that the ballot language should explicitly state that it modifies Ordinance 1022 to resonate with voters familiar with that ordinance. 02:57:55 Lorna Newland was Neutral: Mentioned she is a tenant and could not attend the meeting and asked to get a recap. 02:59:24 Alice Merrill was Against: Wished for more advance notice and expressed concern about the lack of public awareness beyond the agenda, questioning the effectiveness of city outreach efforts.
03:47:48	5.B): Adopt a Resolution of the City Council of the City of Sausalito, Submitting to the Qualified Voters of the City of Sausalito an Ordinance Amending the City Zoning Map to Authorize Development of Housing on Martin Luther King Jr. Property, to be Voted	The City Council discussed the resolution to submit an ordinance to voters regarding housing development on the Martin Luther King Jr. property. The ordinance aims to amend the zoning map to allow housing, with a maximum of 50 dwelling units and a 32-foot height limit, with a preference for senior housing. Staff explained that the ballot measure constrains the city as a project applicant (03:49:33). Councilmember Hollweg clarified that the measure protects the city from potential density bonuses (03:49:49), and confirmed the maximum unit and height limits (03:50:47). Councilmember Hoffman questioned the necessity of the project given the city's housing element buffer (03:52:20), but staff explained that it addresses low-income housing needs and is part of the city's approved housing element strategy. Councilmember Sobieski raised concerns about density bonuses potentially leading to taller buildings or more units and stressed the importance of preventing builder's remedy (04:00:02). Staff and the City Attorney confirmed that the ballot measure, if passed, would constrain the city to the stated limits and rezoning is needed to prevent builders remedy (04:00:32). There was discussion about the housing element, rezoning, and compliance with state housing law, and about how this measure is structured and senior housing defined (04:09:49). Concerns were raised about the concentration of affordable housing in the north side of town. The council wants to retain local control of this project (04:08:48).	Councilmember Hollweg made a motion to approve the resolution as proposed by staff (04:45:37), with an amendment to the language regarding existing height limits. Councilmember Sobieski seconded the motion. (04:45:59) The motion passed with Councilmembers Blaustein and Hoffman voting no. (05:05:53)	17 Total: 2 In Favor 8 Against 7 Neutral
04:13:58 Burton Drobnis was Against: Mr. Drobnis expressed concerns about the HCD's calculations and the impact of the proposed housing on the north end of Sausalito. He also urged the council to pursue Harbor Drive as an alternative location. 04:16:05 Unknown was Against: The speaker questioned the consistency of concerns about both developers exceeding unit limits and failing to meet them, suggesting that MLK is needed. They argued against building on public parks and expressed skepticism about the accuracy of the proposed site plans. 04:18:14 Aaron was Against: Aaron, a resident near MLK, urged the council not to adopt the resolution, arguing it would overturn ordinance 1128 and negatively impact the park and safety due to wildfire danger and traffic. They suggested finding equitable housing locations throughout Sausalito. 04:20:40 Bob Hayes was Against: Mr. Hayes, an architect, opposed placing low-income housing at the MLK site, citing the loss of recreational use and circulation problems. He suggested exploring other locations for affordable housing. 04:22:55 Michael Rex was In Favor: Mr. Rex, a local businessman and architect, recommended including a mix of unit types and occupants in the ballot language, such as first responders and marine workers. He also suggested a mix of housing sizes and values, including studios and two-bedroom units. 04:24:53 David Lay was Against: Mr. Lay suggested an alternative location for housing, from the bike path to the street, citing the failed attempts to build safety and fire facilities at the MLK site in the past. 04:26:10 Babette McDougall was Neutral: Ms. McDougall criticized the council for not acknowledging the housing crisis and the influence of the MTC. She urged the council to consider the limits of growth and the various environmental and security issues facing Sausalito. 04:28:24 Stacy Nemo was Against: Ms. Nemo expressed concern about the concentration of state-mandated housing in the north side of town. She questioned the city's persistence with the MLK plan, even with the overage of units. She says building affordable is not feasible at the MLK site. 04:29:46 Adrian Britton was Neutral: Adrian expressed that the project could be good but questioned whether it would pass. Mentioned there were many other sites but residents tend to come out and fight it. Hoped the new housing element would do better. 04:31:17 Alice Merrill was Neutral: Alice expressed not having a particular opinion but did see the flyer. Is in favor of low income and different types of people but feels Sausalito is fancy fancy and expensive and wishes things were easier. 04:32:19 Unknown was Neutral: The speaker hates SB 9. Concerned about what will happen but glad design is not set and recommends if the tennis courts were brought forward and housing between Alima and Coloma it would be better. 04:33:18 Unknown was In Favor: Speaker is in favor of the project. Appreciates the preference for seniors. This will give opportunity to free up more housing for families. 04:35:36 Jordan Dodds was Neutral: Jordan is supportive but wanted to see a better process with design and urban planning. Concerned about the economics, the economics of the deal with the developer, if it's a short term rental, how can it provide better design for the city. 04:37:42 Sandra Bushmaker was Neutral: Sandra feels Sacramento is the enemy and they are dividing the cities. They do have this large buffer and need to explore that more. Questions prefering the legal issues in having ballot language. 04:40:38 Unknown was Against: The speaker is very familiar with Ordinance 1128. Feels if its not stated correctly then the parking and traffic for such small areas like this won't work at a housing count of 50 and up. 04:42:43 Pete Schmidt was Against: Pete questions who will be interested in a partnership and what kind of builders would be interested. Concerned about who would be affordable and where the funding is going to come from. Just does not feel like a good idea and wants to encourage the long term effects of this. 05:03:09 Lorna Newland was Neutral: Lorna is a 33 year resident and small business. Had to leave and got back in. Read the 2015 Certificates of Park Participation (CPP) that this was voter approved providing that future rents were to be paid for park upgrades and parks. Feels like its going to be an issue for renters and the parks.
05:06:14	6: CITY MANAGER REPORTS, COUNCILMEMBER REPORTS, CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS, OTHER COUNCIL BUSINESS - 8:00 PM	The meeting is experiencing technical difficulties with managing Zoom controls for public comments. Staff is trying to resolve the issue to allow people to speak. Someone is assisting with letting people in and out of the Zoom meeting, but is having trouble logging in to control the meeting effectively (05:06:41). There's confusion about who has their hand raised to speak, and the staff is working to manage the queue.	No Motion	1 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 1 Neutral
05:06:49 Jack Burrows was Neutral: Jack Burrows indicates he has a comment and asks to be allowed to speak, but is told to put his hand down (05:06:50).
05:07:16	3.B: Consider Whether to Transmit Letter Agreeing to Remove Opposition to SB 79 if Author Will Add Exemption for 12 California Historic Districts	The council considered whether to transmit a letter agreeing to remove opposition to SB 79 if the author adds an exemption for 12 California Historic Districts. The item was continued to the next meeting due to the late hour. Public comment was opened.	No Motion	2 Total: 0 In Favor 1 Against 1 Neutral
05:07:52 Sandra Bushmaker was Against: Sandra Bushmaker expressed her delight at the council's desire to maintain local control, but stated that not opposing SB 79 would mean losing local control. She supports the historic district exemption but believes it should stand on its own merits without removing opposition to SB 79. She urges the council to consider the broad consequences of SB 79, extending beyond the ferry landing to bus stops and other areas, potentially stripping the city of its decision-making power. She also mentioned Susan Kirsch's and Amy Kalash's letters posted on the agenda. 05:09:10 Sophia Collier was Unknown: Sophia Collier was called to speak but did not respond.
05:09:57	6A: City Manager Information for Council	City Manager Chris Zapata provided updates on two key areas. First, he addressed the sewer debt retirement, stating that $5.2 million of debt was eliminated, saving approximately $1.9 million in interest (05:10:08). A staff report with details was included in the council packet. Second, he discussed emergency response, specifically focusing on the Spencer Fire Station. He stated the council approved a Veritas study of facilities and authorized $300,000 in the capital improvement program to prepare the Spencer Firehouse for potential use by the Southern Moran County Fire District (05:10:08). He assured that the city is working to get the fire station ready to potentially be leased to the fire district for fire protection services.	No Motion	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral
05:11:40	6B: City Attorney Information for Council	City Attorney Karen Hollweg introduced the item, opening the floor for any information from City Attorney Sergio. (05:11:40)	No Motion	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral
05:11:46	6C: Councilmember Committee Reports	Councilmember Hollweg reported on the TAM meeting, noting a presentation on MASCOT (Marin and Sonoma Consolidated Transit Plan) and discussions about using Measure AA funds. Some routes may be eliminated and consolidated, impacting Sausalito, including the Spencer Avenue bus pad. A hearing on Golden Gate Transit is scheduled for August 21st to discuss this. Hollweg plans to write to Director Mulligan and welcomes council support. TAM representatives will be at the Sausalito farmers market on August 24th to engage with the public on this issue (05:12:39). Additionally, Hollweg alerted the council to Jazz by the Bay on August 15th (05:13:18). Councilmember Hoffman mentioned the annual City Pack event and noted that Senator Mike McGuire and Nancy Hall Bennett will be at Jazz by the Bay. (05:13:25) Hoffman also mentioned Congressman Huffman's annual clean pack event at Spinnaker and Congressman Gary Mendes' SHIPS Act event sometime toward the end of August (05:14:04). Hollweg is an alternate commissioner for BCDC and mentioned they will be considering whether to continue with the bike lane pilot project along the Richardson Bay Bridge at their meeting on Thursday (05:14:54).	No Motion	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral
05:15:19	6D: Appointments (if any)	Mayor Hollweg appointed an ad hoc committee consisting of herself and the Vice Mayor to continue work on the ballot measures moving forward (05:15:22). She clarified that while she had to recuse herself from voting on the MLK item, she is able to campaign for or against it and is starting a campaign committee (05:15:47). She agreed to include another councilmember in the ad hoc committee (05:16:06).	No Motion	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral
05:16:22	6E: Future Agenda Items	Karen Hollweg added a report on the status of the enforcement efforts for short-term rentals to the future agenda items list (05:16:22). Janelle Hoffman requested to reinstate second-floor residential housing in Ordinance 1044 in the Central Commercial District and local (05:16:43). She also wants to explore ways to encourage and ramp up the inclusionary housing program (05:17:13), and a forensic audit or a report on the mayor's study regarding that. Karen Hollweg mentioned that a report on the study should be available in September (05:17:31) and that the ordinance was asked to be brought up again (05:17:37).	No Motion	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral
05:17:47	6F: Minutes from Boards, Commissions, and Committees	Karen Hollweg notes the presence of minutes from the Disaster Preparedness Committee. She mentions that the committee is short three members due to resignations and requests the City Clerk to run an ad to recruit new members for interviews in September. She asks if formal resignation letters were received.	No Motion	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral
05:18:19	6H: Public Comment on Items 6A-6C and 6E-6G: limited to 2 minutes/person	This agenda item was for public comment on items 6A-6C and 6E-6G. Karen Hollweg mentioned receiving a note from the police chief about needing three members on a committee. There were comments on future agenda items, the housing element, SB 79, and general council performance.	No Motion	3 Total: 1 In Favor 1 Against 1 Neutral
05:18:41 Babette McDougall was Against: Babette McDougall criticized the council for not addressing citizens' concerns, particularly regarding the housing element, and accused them of losing the confidence of the people. She highlighted the disconnect between the council's priorities and the community's concerns, urging them to work together and avoid alienating constituents. 05:20:57 Safiya was Neutral: Safiya provided an update on efforts to amend SB 79 to exempt the historic district, noting progress in building alliances with preservation groups and seeking to preserve the district through amendment language. She acknowledged the council's potential opposition to SB 79 to preserve home rule but expressed a continued commitment to working for the amendment. 05:22:35 Lorna Newland was In Favor: Lorna Newland thanked the council, appreciated Ian's presentation, and agreed with Sandra Bushmaker's comments on SB 79. She questioned the logic of increasing population density in an already overcrowded and hilly town and acknowledged the council's hard work and dedication.
05:23:40	7: ADJOURNMENT	The meeting was adjourned by Karen Hollweg at 10:36 PM. She announced the next meeting would be September 2nd and wished everyone a good break.	No Motion	0 Total: 0 In Favor 0 Against 0 Neutral

City Council Meeting Transcript

Adrian Brinton

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City Council July 22, 2025

Positive People for Sausalito

contact@positivepeopleforsausalito.com

Time	Speaker	Text
00:00:00.03	Unknown	This meeting of August 5, 2025 is being held in council chambers at 420 Little Street, Sausalito, California. It's also being broadcast live on Zoom and on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. Thank you.
00:00:18.26	Karen Hollweg	Thank you city clerk I will call to order the special meeting of the city of Sausalito City Council at 4 o'clock p.m. on Tuesday August 5 2025. Would you please call the roll.
00:00:30.74	Unknown	Council member Blalstein.
00:00:32.06	Karen Hollweg	Here.
00:00:33.26	Unknown	Councilmember Hoffman.
00:00:34.61	Karen Hollweg	Here.
00:00:35.35	Unknown	Councilmember Sobieski, Vice Mayor Woodside. Here. And Mayor Cox.
00:00:40.16	Karen Hollweg	Here. We will start off with closed session. We have items C1 through C4.
00:00:47.21	Karen Hollweg	C1 is conference with real property negotiator.
00:00:51.97	Karen Hollweg	The property is 750 Bridgeway.
00:00:54.28	Karen Hollweg	Sausalito.
00:00:56.39	Karen Hollweg	The negotiating party is Verizon Wireless.
00:00:58.86	Karen Hollweg	C2 is conference with real property negotiator. The address is 300 Spencer Avenue and the negotiating party is Verizon Wireless. C3 is conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, significant exposure to litigation, one case. And C4 is conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, initiation of litigation,
00:01:20.84	Karen Hollweg	Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 D4,
00:01:24.86	Karen Hollweg	one case.
00:01:26.45	Karen Hollweg	Is there any...
00:01:28.14	Karen Hollweg	Oh.
00:01:28.88	Karen Hollweg	Yes.
00:01:29.30	Karen Hollweg	Madam Mayor, I just I have to recuse myself from items C1 and C2 as the firm that I've done work for represents Verizon and also my proximity to 300 Spencer so both C1 and C2. Thank you.
00:01:41.92	Sobieski	And one of those items, a
00:01:43.71	Sobieski	is recurring and I recuse myself because
00:01:47.03	Sobieski	of my assessment of its financial impact presents a potential conflict of interest.
00:01:53.01	Karen Hollweg	Thank you. Is there any public comment on closed session items?
00:01:56.48	Unknown	See you then.
00:01:57.46	Karen Hollweg	With that, we will adjourn to closed session. We will resume this meeting at 5 p.m. Thank you.
00:02:07.20	Karen Hollweg	Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the Sausalito City Council meeting for Tuesday, August 5 2025. It is 5pm we are returning from closed session, and I will ask the city clerk to call the roll.
00:02:25.93	Unknown	Councilmember Blaustein.
00:02:27.35	Karen Hollweg	Here.
00:02:27.67	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you.
00:02:29.24	Unknown	Councilmember Hoffman.
00:02:31.31	Janelle Hoffman	here now.
00:02:32.94	Unknown	Councilmember Sobieski.
00:02:35.16	Unknown	Vice Mayor Woodside. Here. And Mayor Cox. Here.
00:02:36.44	Paul Mowry	here.
00:02:42.77	Karen Hollweg	we're going to have the Pledge of Allegiance.
00:02:47.35	Babette McDougall	Thank you.
00:02:47.38	Karen Hollweg	I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.
00:02:51.92	Unknown	Thank you.
00:02:51.94	Unknown	Thank you.
00:02:51.95	Unknown	And.
00:02:52.10	Unknown	to the Republic.
00:02:52.80	Unknown	Thank you.
00:02:52.81	Karen Hollweg	For which it stands, one thing.
00:02:54.82	Jody Moore	of it.
00:02:55.03	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
00:02:55.06	Jody Moore	under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
00:03:03.16	Karen Hollweg	There are no closed session announcements. I will ask for a motion approving our agenda.
00:03:09.20	Karen Hollweg	So moved.
00:03:10.06	Unknown	Second.
00:03:11.14	Karen Hollweg	All in favor? Aye. That motion carries 5-0. There are no special presentations or mayor's announcements this evening, so we will move
00:03:20.10	Karen Hollweg	Promptly on to communications. This is the time for the city council to hear from citizens regarding matters within the jurisdiction of the city council that are not on the agenda, except in very limited situations. State law precludes the council from taking action on or engaging in discussions concerning items that are not on the agenda. I have no speaker cards for communications.
00:03:41.75	Karen Hollweg	Anything online?
00:03:41.85	Unknown	and
00:03:43.66	Unknown	uh... yes we do have uh... senator bushmaker
00:03:45.78	Karen Hollweg	Okay?
00:03:46.04	Sandra Bushmaker	Okay.
00:03:46.24	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
00:03:47.20	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
00:03:47.22	Sandra Bushmaker	Welcome, Sandra.
00:03:49.36	Sandra Bushmaker	Thank you very much. Good evening, counsel. I have a question about enforcement of our short-term rentals ban in Sausalito and what has happened with that. It seems that it's been off the radar. And if you check...
00:04:03.44	Sandra Bushmaker	Airbnb and other short-term rentals, you'll see that there are plenty of them available in Sausalito. And given the fact that we had a very resounding populace against this and the council voted against short-term rentals in our community, I would like to see the enforcement stepped up. Thank you.
00:04:24.94	Karen Hollweg	Anything further? City clerk, any further communications?
00:04:29.25	Unknown	See you then.
00:04:30.22	Karen Hollweg	All right, we will close communications and move on to the consent calendar.
00:04:35.23	Karen Hollweg	Karen Hollweg, Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non controversial require no discussion are expected to have. Karen Hollweg, Council support and may be enacted by the Council in one more motion in the form listed below we have items three a through three G on our consent calendar three a is approve the meeting minutes of July one and July 15 2025.
00:04:40.85	Safiya	Yeah.
00:04:40.97	Lorna Newland	you
00:04:56.37	Karen Hollweg	3B, consider whether to transmit letter agreeing to remove opposition to SB 79 if author will add exemption for 12 California historic districts. 3C, receive and file Marin voice letter from Marin County mayors entitled Marin must stand for human dignity, not fear.
00:05:13.64	Karen Hollweg	3D second reading and adoption of ordinance number 06-2025 of the City Council of the City of Sausalito enacting chapter 15.14 Marin electric bicycle safety pilot program of title 15 vehicles and traffic of the Sausalito municipal code.
00:05:31.22	Karen Hollweg	3 E adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to award construction contract for the bridgeway safety project Napa street to Johnson street to gelati brothers in an amount of 1,342
00:05:43.69	Karen Hollweg	$1,750.50.
00:05:48.45	Karen Hollweg	3F, adopt a resolution approving an encroachment agreement for improvements in the Bridgeway Boulevard and Filbert Avenue public rights of way at 1755 Bridgeway.
00:05:58.42	Karen Hollweg	3G, adopt a resolution approving the Sausalito Police Association Memorandum of Understanding and approve the updated publicly available pay schedules.
00:06:09.95	Karen Hollweg	Any questions from council members?
00:06:12.46	Karen Hollweg	Councilmember Hoffman.
00:06:14.00	Karen Hollweg	May I like to remove item 3B for further discussion? Okay. Item 3B will become item 5C.
00:06:25.46	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
00:06:27.18	Karen Hollweg	All right. So I will now open it up to public comment on items 3A and 3C through 3G. I have no speaker card.
00:06:35.51	Unknown	See you then.
00:06:36.80	Karen Hollweg	All right, I will close public comment and entertain a motion.
00:06:40.15	Unknown	I would move adoption of the consent calendar with the exception of 3B.
00:06:45.67	Karen Hollweg	Second. All in favor? Aye. That motion carries five zero. We'll now move on to public hearing items. The first of which is the appeal of a planning commission resolution number 2025-18, approving a design review permit, a variance, three conditional use permits, a minor use permit, a signed permit,
00:07:06.95	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
00:07:07.00	Karen Hollweg	and a Certificate of Appropriateness for Joint Hotel and Restaurant Use at 715 Bridgeway. And I'll welcome Matthew Mandich, our Senior Planner.
00:07:17.16	Matthew Mandich	Good evening, Council Members. Just waiting for the presentation to be loaded.
00:07:22.36	Unknown	And a quick announcement, Mayor. We do have overflow room down at the Edgewater room. We have the Zoom. So if anybody, if we start getting full, we'll send somebody down there and help people out.
00:07:36.08	Karen Hollweg	Thank you, city clerk.
00:07:39.71	Matthew Mandich	All right, we're good to go. All right, good evening council members. Yes, before you today, we have the appeal of the 715 Bridgeway project. Next slide, please.
00:07:50.98	Matthew Mandich	So I just wanted to make this clear from the outset that legal noticing has been done and requirements of 1082 have been met. Notices were mailed to all neighbors in the 300-foot radius of the project site 10 days in advance. The site was also posted 10-day advance. Notices were also hand-delivered to neighbors in the Del Monte apartments due to some previous complaints that the post office wasn't getting there with the notices. So I personally hand- those myself, did that as well for the planning commission hearing. Notices were also sent to the Marine Municipal Water District, Southern Marin Fire District, and PG&E, as well as placed in the Marin IJ. So we are fully covered on our notices. Thank you. Absolutely. Next slide, please. So location, 715 Bridgeway, the old Wells Fargo building. I'm sure many of you know it located in the corner of Bridgeway and Excelsior Lanes. So you can see here it's in the heart of our downtown Central Commercial District across from Vineyard Del Mar Park, our new pedestrian Tracy Way, parking lot one, the ferry landing and a number of other shops and restaurants here, as well as two other hotels, Hotel Sausalito and in above tides. Next slide, please.
00:08:28.86	Unknown	Thank you.
00:08:29.03	Babette McDougall	Thank you.
00:08:29.56	Unknown	Thank you.
00:08:59.63	Matthew Mandich	So a little bit about the building's history. It's built in 1924, designed by H.H. Winter for the Bank of Sausalito, designed to resemble the grand banking temples that were very popular at this time, but on a smaller scale. It's a contributor to the Sausalito-Downown Historic District on the local and state historic register, and it's eligible for the national register with a listing code of 2D. The structure remains largely unaltered. It's very well preserved, especially on the facades facing Bridgeway and Excelsior Lane. It became the American Trust and Savings Bank after it was the Bank of Sausalito before eventually becoming Wells Fargo, which is served as until July 12, 2023. The building was then purchased by its current owner, Kent Ibsen, in 2024.
00:09:44.01	Matthew Mandich	Next slide, please.
00:09:45.98	Matthew Mandich	So the project proposal before you today is a adaptive reuse of an existing historic resource. The ground floor will be for fine dining restaurant and bar with capacity for 105 guests inside and 16 outside. Uh, construction of a second floor inside the building will be for three boutique hotel rooms. Um, and the existing construction in the rear yard will be removed to create space for new patio decks, fire pit, hot tub lounge area, which will serve as a guest amenities area.
00:10:13.55	Matthew Mandich	This is all within the existing imposing perimeter retaining walls on the site, which coincide with the property lines for the exterior will have some new signage new lighting. Some general upgrades and some flower boxes, repainting and refurbishment of the structure all defining characteristics will be reserved preserved and rehabilitated next slide please.
00:10:36.59	Matthew Mandich	So as council is aware, this project has had a number of approvals and appeals, which we'll just walk through briefly here. On December 11, 2024, the Planning Commission approved the application before you today, approving design review permit, variance to condition use permits, a minor use permit, a signed permit, and a certificate of appropriateness. At this hearing, the commission found that the proposed project was designed appropriately and will not result in substantial adverse impact on the historic resource or the historic district.
00:11:07.79	Matthew Mandich	The Commission also at this hearing found that the project was in conformance with the required Secretary of Interior Standards 1 through 10, and that the project was which was recommended for approval by the Historic Preservation Commission on a 5-0 vote warranted a certificate of appropriateness. The Commission found that the proposed project is in conformance with all required findings in the Sassolio Municipal Code for the permits requested. And they approved resolution 2024-24 unanimously on a 5-0 vote.
00:11:39.96	Matthew Mandich	The project was then appealed by the neighbor Sharon Kahn of Excelsior Lane, and it was heard in front of the council earlier this year. However, at that hearing, it was remanded back to the Planning Commission for further evaluation.
00:11:51.65	Matthew Mandich	Next slide, please.
00:11:55.18	Matthew Mandich	In the interim, the applicant and staff have worked together to improve the project and make the necessary changes required for renewed approval. In this time, a zoning ordinance amendment was passed by the council that allows for some commercial uses in the Central Commercial Zoning District above the first floor to go forward in special circumstances. And this project qualifies for that exception. There's also been a redesign of the back rear deck area to address some concerns, both of neighbors, as well as to address any concerns that the project was not compliant with floor area. It isn't.
00:12:27.56	Matthew Mandich	Now very much fully compliant with this new design, the application for a conditional use permit and additional previously there were two approved now there was three. This is for a waiver of parking requirements that was submitted in this interim period and the also as I discussed the rear deck was designed which does affect the setback for the variance over all the findings for that variance remain valid.
00:12:47.37	Matthew Mandich	On July 11, 2025, the Planning Commission approved this application again for 715 Bridgeway, approving a design review permit, a variance, three conditional use permits this time, a minor use permit, and a signed permit, as well as the Certificate of Appropriateness. The project was then appealed again, and we are here before you today with the project up for appeal. It is my understanding that the project will be for the Council for a de novo review and approval. Because of this, I will be walking through each one of the permits briefly, but I want to touch on all of them so we're all fully aware of what's being approved today.
00:13:21.64	Unknown	Next slide, please.
00:13:23.20	Matthew Mandich	So a number of planning permits are required for this project. First and foremost, a design review permit for the addition of 1,013 square feet of floor area, a variance to demolish and remodel existing legal non-conforming structures in the rear setback, conditional use permit for a hotel transient lodging use in the Central Commercial Zoning District, another conditional use permit for the sale of alcoholic beverages in that district, and a conditional use permit for the waiving of parking requirements for historic structure in the historic district. There is also a minor use permit for outdoor sidewalk dining sign permit for new business signage and a certificate of appropriateness that was previously recommended for approval by the store preservation commission and officially approved by the planning commission.
00:14:04.73	Unknown	Next slide, please.
00:14:06.72	Matthew Mandich	So design review permit before you today. These are the floor plans here, the first and second floor. You'll see this is bridgeway right here, entrance to the restaurant, full bar, back of house. On the same bridgeway frontage, there is an entrance that will lead hotel guests up to the second floor right here. There's also access to the restaurant. As you head up these stairs, you'll come out into a foyer here. This will be the bathrooms for the restaurant as well as access to the elevator. And then through these doors, you'll be able to access the guest amenity area in the back here. This is for registered guests. And then, as discussed previously, there will be a second floor built inside this very large space that exists currently to facilitate three hotel rooms, which will be one, two, three, that all three back out onto the back amenity space. Next slide, please.
00:14:55.81	Matthew Mandich	Here is that rear deck reconfiguration that we were speaking of. So in the previous iteration of the project, there was a staircase that led to a platform. Hotel guests had to exit onto Excelsior Lane and reenter through the public right-of-way to get onto this viewing deck, which pretty much took up this whole area. The project has been thoughtfully redesigned to shrink this deck down to about 50% of its original size. And all of the access now is contained within the perimeter retaining walls, all within the parcel. So no exiting onto Excelsior Lane and reentering will be required. The only exit comes off of this small patio here, and that is an emergency exit access to Excelsior Lane. So you could see here the smaller size deck primarily contained in the northern corner of the site. And we'll see some renderings of that later.
00:15:41.03	Unknown	Next slide, please.
00:15:42.87	Matthew Mandich	So, yes, the floor area, fully compliant. This deck redesign that we saw here, there was some concern about whether or not the interpretation of this area as an inner court was valid. Any of those concerns have now completely vanished with this redesign. We have a fully compliant FAR project here. The addition of this square footage over 1,000 square feet is entirely within the envelope of the existing building. In fact, the only square footage in the rear area that is occurring is being removed. So currently the site's built all the way up to the back retaining wall. This is all existing square footage. Some of that square footage is now being removed in favor of patio space and open air space. And then the first floor will remain larger the same, except for the addition of an elevator.
00:16:24.03	Unknown	later.
00:16:24.25	Matthew Mandich	Thank you.
00:16:24.35	Unknown	Yeah.
00:16:24.57	Unknown	Thank you.
00:16:24.60	Matthew Mandich	Thank you.
00:16:24.75	Unknown	Next slide, please.
00:16:26.70	Matthew Mandich	So setback variance is required to remodel the existing legal non-conforming structure in the rear yard setback. This building was built in 1924, so it has no setbacks. It's built all the way up to the property lines on all sides. It's entirely contained within very large existing retaining walls, which are about two feet thick. And those retaining walls are necessary to hold up the hillside. It's a very unique situation that we have here. It's a registered historic building and resource, which kind of limits the use and constructing that's available to the site. It must be preserved and meet the SOI standards, Secretary of Interior standards. So it's hard to achieve adaptive reuse without a variance in this case. The parcel is also substandard. Parcels in the CC district are required to be 5,000 square feet. This is less than that, as you can see, but also limits the existing area for the buildings use. It's not injurious to any surrounding parcels it's abutted by a public right of way on two sides bridgeway and excelsior lane. Get back up to a vacant substandard parcel at the rear and has a commercial business on the north side.
00:17:26.94	Unknown	Next slide, please.
00:17:28.81	Matthew Mandich	So here's a rendering of that deck I was discussing earlier. So you can see here's the entrance from the staircase up to the guest amenity area. Previously, there was access up the stairs onto the deck. That's since been eliminated. This is only an emergency access point. Staircase comes up to this platform here, leads guests up to another platform before reaching the viewing deck in the northern corner here. So that is probably the most significant redesign that has occurred on the project since you last saw it.
00:17:56.66	Matthew Mandich	Next slide, please.
00:17:59.10	Matthew Mandich	This is just a section of a very similar image there. Again, staircase up, door to the bathrooms, door leading out to the guest amenity area here. With the hot tub, you can see stairs going up to that same platform, another platform, and stairs up to the viewing deck here.
00:18:14.80	Matthew Mandich	Next slide, please.
00:18:16.67	Matthew Mandich	Again, this is just another section in the other way now. Bridgeway right here, outdoor dining here, entrance to dining area and bar down here, hotel rooms in this area, and the rear guest amenity areas through here this time in section, looking at a different angle there.
00:18:33.39	Matthew Mandich	That is the gate leading to Excelsior. Next slide, please.
00:18:37.76	Matthew Mandich	So a number of use permits are also required for this project. It's a conditional use permit for the hotel use in the Central Commercial Zoning District. This is allowed on the second floor pursuant to SMC 1044190 DA, which provides exceptions to residential requirements for qualifying projects. This project does require for that does qualify for that exception. The ordinance amendment was approved by the City Council on May 20th, and it went into effect on June 20th.
00:19:03.57	Matthew Mandich	Um, there's also a conditional use required for the sale of beer and alcohol in the central commercial, uh, zoning district, as well as a conditional use permit for the parking waiver, um, which can be given if their preservation of a historic structure in the historic district. Um, I'd like to note too here that all of the hotels in our CC district, um, rent spaces from the city as they cannot support the required parking in the area. Um, none of them have the parking ratio required for the number of rooms they have. It's a historic district and very difficult to facilitate that. But luckily, we do have a number of city-owned parking lots in the near vicinity.
00:19:38.43	Matthew Mandich	Um, minor use permit is also required for outdoor dining on sidewalks. This is a particularly wide sidewalk here. It's about 12 feet. Um, and the outdoor dining will be for 16 people.
00:19:48.07	Matthew Mandich	And that space path to travel is typically 48 inches. However, the planning commission required it to be five feet. So they up that by one foot. Next slide, please.
00:19:59.17	Matthew Mandich	So just to highlight some of the approved outdoor dining we have in the vicinity here, here's our project site, 715 Bridgeway. We have Cultivar, which will be opening soon. Copita here, Lappert's Ice Cream, Napa Valley Burger, a number of other businesses and restaurants, public space here, Pedestrian Way, Parking Lot 1, Ferry Landing, and two other hotels. So, you know, right in the center of a lot of our economic and dining and hotel activity.
00:20:24.87	Unknown	Next slide, please.
00:20:26.86	Matthew Mandich	Here's just a highlight of how the outdoor dining will be configured. Three tables on the left of the entrance, one on the right, and this path of travel being extended to five feet. Next slide, please.
00:20:38.69	Matthew Mandich	Uh, another permit required for this project is the sign permit. As you can see here, the signage being proposed is very similar to the existing signage on the building replicates the sign program almost exactly switching out some projecting signs for wall. Sines and wall signs for projecting signs, but the square footage of the total sign area is almost identical to the previous sign program. Um, so it's very similar overall. Next slide, please.
00:21:03.68	Matthew Mandich	Just a little details on the proposed signage. These wall sides will have some illumination to them. It'll be very light, very elegant. And there'll be a LED strip placed below the crown molding recessed in that will also give some soft lighting to the top of the building here where it says in the pocket.
00:21:21.74	Matthew Mandich	Next slide, please.
00:21:23.58	Matthew Mandich	Finally, a certificate of appropriateness is required. As you can see here, the building has a number of defining features, which I'll point out. The decorative frieze, terracotta medallions, Corinthian column capitals, copper grillwork and sashes, and Romanesque arch windows. All these features will remain intact. They'll be preserved, restored, and maintained.
00:21:45.92	Matthew Mandich	Next slide, please.
00:21:47.57	Matthew Mandich	So that was all the permits required for the project. All of those were approved by the Planning Commission twice on 5-0 votes. Appeal was again submitted to the last approval by Breckes Law on behalf of Sharon Kahn, the owner of 10 and 14 Excelsior Lane. The grounds for appeal are laid out here. They state that the project is barred by the general plan, that the conditions of approval attached to the project are inadequate, and that the project does not qualify for a parking waiver CEP nor does it qualify for a variance. Next slide, please.
00:22:19.18	Matthew Mandich	So I'd just like to take this time to briefly provide a response to that appeal. This variance was not issued in error, as the appellant asserts. All findings can be made and were made by the Planning Commission on two occasions and appear in your resolution, the draft resolution for your adoption today. There are special circumstances that exist on this site. To begin with, as discussed, it's a stub standard lot for the district. It has an existing historic building, legal non-conformities a lot of things that are hard to work with which is why variance is required the existing retaining walls it's worth noting here these very large retaining walls all are within the property and within the setback itself and they need to be maintained for the health and safety of both the properties and the property above it
00:23:01.45	Matthew Mandich	Um, granting the variance is not injurious to adjacent properties as discussed. There's a vacant lot in the back of this right here, um, right of way in the, on the left and the right side and a commercial space on the north. Um, there have also been conditions of approval attached to this project that, uh, condition the outdoor space and what can be done there and time limits and occupancy and all of that. So that's all part of this next slide, please.
00:23:26.31	Matthew Mandich	Just want to highlight that situation I was pointing out previously. So here's the project site. Once the existing construction is removed, you'll have a drop from the top of the retaining wall down to the guest amenity area of about 35 feet. It backs up to a vacant parcel, which is right here. It's its own separate parcel. It's currently used as kind of an outdoor backspace for 14, has a bit of a basketball court and some some vegetation. It's about a 45 foot lot and it slopes down towards the site. And then you have the con property here at 14 with the deck in question above here, which is about 20 feet off the ground. So from kind of a hot tub level up to that deck is a rather significant distance.
00:24:06.44	Unknown	Next slide, please.
00:24:07.15	Matthew Mandich	Thank you.
00:24:08.99	Matthew Mandich	Yeah, and just highlighting that again from the street perspective, there's the deck highlighted in red here. Here's the slope down to the back of that retaining wall right there.
00:24:17.46	Unknown	Next slide, please.
00:24:19.57	Matthew Mandich	Also, we had a number of concerns about noise and the variance from the Del Monte apartments next door. Just like to highlight that right here. That is the building. Here's our project site. When I went and hand-delivered the notices, I was able to take a couple photos from the Del Monte apartments, specifically in this area here. As you can see from the down level here, you're really just looking kind of up at the bottom of the staircase and really don't see much of the building at all. So this is half of the apartment building down here. The level up here, which is this level right there at this window, as you can see here and here, looks directly at the retaining wall on Excelsior Lane. However, all the improvements for the deck and the staircases will all be hidden behind that retaining wall.
00:24:57.81	Unknown	Next slide, please.
00:24:59.91	Matthew Mandich	Um,
00:25:01.27	Matthew Mandich	The other issue with the project that the appellant states was that it didn't qualify for a parking waiver CUP. However, it does qualify as a waiver is allowed when parking requirements for a new or expanded use proposed allows preservation of a historic structure, which this is in the downtown historic district, which we're in, and does not require substantial alterations. All the square footage that we talked about, which the appellant is saying is a substantial alteration alteration will all be interior there's only removal of square footage in the back area, none of the defining characteristics of the building will be altered or removed as only repaint and maintenance level repairs will be performed.
00:25:39.99	Matthew Mandich	The project conforms to the Secretary of Interior Standards for the treatment of historic properties with guidelines for rehabilitating historic buildings. Certificate of Appropriateness was recommended for approval by the Historic Preservation.
00:25:53.27	Matthew Mandich	Vasion commission then approved by the planning planning commission on two occasions. And again, the fact that there's not adequate parking all hotels in the downtown area rent spaces from the city for their guests and employees. And I imagine this would do the same next slide, please.
00:26:06.15	Unknown	Thank you.
00:26:08.02	Matthew Mandich	Um, finally, uh, the appellant asserts that the project and hotel use is not consistent with the general plan. However, it is just like to highlight some pieces here while we do have some pieces of our general plan that do point to the possible nuisances that could be created by hotel, especially when paired with a restaurant. Um, there's a second statement that hotels can have a minimal impact on nearby residential areas with good location management and adequate parking. It goes on to say that hotels bed and breakfast uses should be located in the downtown central historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical historical and compatible with the character of the existing structures in the downtown. So first of all, the hotel use is in an ideal location in the Central Commercial District in the historic downtown. It's of small scale and compatible with the surrounding structure. It's also adjacent to three other large hotels, including Hotel Sausalito and Above Tides and Casa Madrona.
00:27:06.19	Matthew Mandich	The owner has a proof of concept and proven management skills. He's made this project work in Carmel, has a 24-hour accessible concierge for the project, and will be really giving a bespoke experience to every one of the guests that comes here. There's also ample parking in the vicinity with the city-owned lots. So I think this addresses all the issues of how...
00:27:26.20	Matthew Mandich	Powerhouse can have a minimal impact with good location, good management, and adequate parking.
00:27:30.46	Unknown	Next slide, please.
00:27:33.02	Matthew Mandich	Finally, there's been a number of special conditions of approval that have been attached to this project. One of those is that a hotel concierge or welcome ambassador will be on site during the operating hours of the restaurant to assist hotel guests.
00:27:45.91	Matthew Mandich	This concierge or welcome ambassador shall be available for contact by hotel guests 24 hours a day for any issues that arise outside of the restaurant's operating hours. 24-hour management is not a requirement of the municipal code or the general plan, and it's not typically seen with small boutique hotels or limited service hotels like this one. Hotel Sausalito, which is across the street, has 16 keys, as well as Gables Inn up the street on princess, 13 keys. Neither of those have 24 hours staff manning the front desk at three, four Ram in the morning. Uh, but staff again, at those places is also reachable by phone or email at all hours, which is a pretty standard practice for these smaller hotels. Um,
00:28:15.07	Unknown	THE MORE PEOPLE ARE
00:28:24.20	Matthew Mandich	Also, I'd like to point out that even though Casa Madrona does have more management, they also abut a residential area. And Gables Inn as well abuts residential area. So it's not a foreign concept to have a hotel that runs right up against residential zoning district.
00:28:38.60	Matthew Mandich	There's also no record of registered code complaints for existing hotel uses in Sausalito. It's not really a culture we have here, and there's nothing really on file saying other hotel uses, especially those next residential districts have ever run in any issues. Use of the hotel common area and amenity areas, including those elevated decks, must be limited to registered guests and guests of guests with key card access and use of the hotel common area, amenity area, including those decks will be prohibited after 10pm and before 7am. We also have a number of enforcement mechanisms, including first of all, the concierge will be available 24 hours a day for any complaints, the Sassabito Police Department, our code enforcement officer, and the general noise ordinance that covers the zone. So, next slide please.
00:29:08.72	Unknown	AM.
00:29:08.97	Unknown	Thank you.
00:29:26.54	Matthew Mandich	All right, that brings us to the recommendation. So with that, staff recommends the City Council adopt a resolution denying the appeal and upholding the Planning Commission's decision to approve this project for a new joint hotel and restaurant use in the historic building at 715 Bridgeway.
00:29:41.88	Matthew Mandich	The proposed project is designed appropriately, will not result in a substantial adverse impact on the historic resource or the historic district. The proposed project is in conformance with all the required findings in the Sausalito Municipal Code for the permits requested. The Planning Commission and HPC have previously approved this project unanimously. The proposed use fills a very difficult vacant space in the heart of our downtown Central Commercial District. The proposed use is also a boon for economic development and vitality with sales tax and TOT tax that can come from it. And of course, the approval is subject to the conditions of approval included on the draft resolution, as well as any added by the council this evening. That concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.
00:30:22.84	Karen Hollweg	I had a couple of questions.
00:30:23.98	Matthew Mandich	Absolutely.
00:30:25.52	Karen Hollweg	Thank you for that great and thorough presentation and for all the work you've invested in this, including hand delivering
00:30:31.96	Karen Hollweg	notices to be sure that everyone was aware of this hearing.
00:30:35.49	Karen Hollweg	um,
00:30:36.71	Karen Hollweg	You mentioned in a prior slide that the concierge is available to
00:30:42.01	Karen Hollweg	the guests.
00:30:43.42	Karen Hollweg	the 24 hour concierge. You also mentioned in the subsequent slide that a, you know,
00:30:48.42	Karen Hollweg	something that complainants could rely on is the concierge. But it's not clear that the concierge is reachable by the general public if they have a complaint. So...
00:30:59.47	Karen Hollweg	is the concierge
00:31:01.28	Karen Hollweg	available only to hotel guests as indicated in your prior slide, or will, because the code enforcement officer is not available at night, the police are not in the station, you have to, it goes to the 911 dispatch. So will the concierge be available to the general public if there are complaints?
00:31:22.89	Matthew Mandich	Thank you for the question, Mayor. Yes, they will be. This is the same model that is operating Carmel currently. The hotel concierge is available to anyone that needs to contact them for any kind of complaint. So sorry if I misspoke on that previously, but, you know, the idea of the concierge, too, is also to educate hotel guests when they get here about what the rules are, what they can and can't do, the hours of operation for the rear areas, all that, all those things. So that's something that they'll be doing. And they're really on, on hand to serve the guests and provide, you know, the bespoke experience that they're after, but they will also be available to anyone that has any complaints about noise.
00:32:00.56	Karen Hollweg	Throughout the...
00:32:04.19	Karen Hollweg	permits that could the conditional use permit findings and the other findings, it makes reference to a proposed hotel and restaurant use. I'm not sure that encompasses the rooftop deck and spa use. And so I'm wondering if it would be smart to include in these various
00:32:26.93	Karen Hollweg	permits reference to the spa use on the rooftop deck, because that's not necessarily a hotel or restaurant use.
00:32:35.94	Matthew Mandich	So the back area is designed to be guest amenities for the hotel. So they are connected to the hotel, just like a hotel would have a swimming pool or a bocce court or something like that. So they are part of the hotel use.
00:32:49.34	Karen Hollweg	So the issue is, you know, one of the several of the pieces of correspondence we received pointed out that the rooftop deck and spa is now approved to allow guests and guests of guests, which means it is not strictly a hotel use.
00:33:07.25	Matthew Mandich	Well, that was a condition that was added by the planning commission. I, I don't believe that there's any kind of condition that would prohibit somebody staying at a hotel from having a friend come visit them in a hotel.
00:33:20.44	Karen Hollweg	But again, I'm wondering if a guest using the spa is a hotel use.
00:33:25.57	Matthew Mandich	If a guest is using a spa as a hotel use, I would say that it is, yes.
00:33:25.62	Karen Hollweg	Oh.
00:33:25.89	Unknown	Thank you.
00:33:25.91	Karen Hollweg	Yeah.
00:33:25.96	Unknown	Thank you.
00:33:25.98	Karen Hollweg	do
00:33:26.11	Unknown	Thank you.
00:33:29.57	Karen Hollweg	I guess I'm going to recommend, I'll save that for my comments. Okay. So, um,
00:33:33.27	Matthew Mandich	Okay.
00:33:35.18	Karen Hollweg	And then...
00:33:36.34	Karen Hollweg	This letter also made reference to a maximum occupancy of 70 people. That seems a lot. So what is the established maximum occupancy for the, when you have three hotel guests, how would you possibly have 70 people occupying the rooftop deck and spa?
00:33:54.60	Matthew Mandich	That's a max for fire, I believe. Occumency, I don't believe
00:33:59.07	Karen Hollweg	Has the hotel established a maximum occupancy for the rooftop, deck, and spa?
00:34:05.30	Matthew Mandich	THE FAMILY IS
00:34:05.33	Karen Hollweg	THE FAMILY.
00:34:05.47	Matthew Mandich	I believe we've established a maximum occupancy, but that's certainly something that the council could condition this evening.
00:34:10.68	Unknown	Thank you.
00:34:10.72	Karen Hollweg	Okay.
00:34:10.97	Unknown	Thank you.
00:34:17.14	Karen Hollweg	because one of the conditions of approval says
00:34:20.10	Karen Hollweg	that the
00:34:21.50	Karen Hollweg	Permitted use so condition of approval H under the.
00:34:25.72	Karen Hollweg	Uh,
00:34:27.02	Karen Hollweg	parking waiver says that the proposed hotel and restaurant use
00:34:33.39	Karen Hollweg	will not materially adverse affect nearby properties or their permitted uses, as the use of newly created outdoor spaces will be governed by hours of use and occupancy limits.
00:34:43.66	Unknown	Mm-hmm.
00:34:44.08	Karen Hollweg	And so I think it is important to establish an occupancy limit for that outdoor space. And what are the hours of use that are being conditioned for the outdoor space?
00:34:54.83	Matthew Mandich	From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
00:34:59.67	Karen Hollweg	Okay, those were my questions. Thank you so much.
00:35:01.51	Matthew Mandich	Thank you, Mayor.
00:35:04.99	Karen Hollweg	Yes, some of mine are somewhat follow-up. So I wanted to ask specifically about the welcome ambassador. Great that that's going to be...
00:35:16.26	Karen Hollweg	position, and I understand from your comments that this is something that already exists within the protocols in Carmel. Could you just talk a little bit, and maybe this is a question for the owner, but what kind of training or expectations the welcome ambassador will have beyond just the bespoke, I mean, I understand the bespoke experience idea, but I would love to get a sense of will they come and meet with city staff so they're aware of
00:35:37.08	Karen Hollweg	our code requirements, that kind of thing.
00:35:39.88	Matthew Mandich	Yeah, I mean, that's going to be a question that's better for the applicant. But I do know that the woman, I believe her name is Jane, that's been running the pocket in Carmel is actually going to be moving here and running this hotel. So she has quite a bit of experience under her belt and has worked on this concept in Carmel for several years already. So I'll leave the applicant to provide maybe more on the background and all that. I don't know her whole resume, but I do know that she has a lot of experience in this type of thing.
00:36:05.30	Karen Hollweg	Then I wanted to follow up on some of the
00:36:07.96	Karen Hollweg	essentially our past history with downtown hotels, because I know, for example, for a fact that the Madrona sometimes rents out the penthouse specifically for parties. And you stated that we haven't received any complaints from neighbors about any of those types of events.
00:36:23.45	Matthew Mandich	Through our code, we have no code complaints on file. I don't know if somebody has called the police or called the hotel. There's been no code enforcement complaints that we have in files on hotels that we were able to dig up.
00:36:34.05	Karen Hollweg	Okay. And did you communicate just, or this might be a question for the owner as well, but with the other hotels about their processes to make sure that this was in line with what they've been doing as well? I know you mentioned the Gables and Hotel Sausalito.
00:36:46.52	Matthew Mandich	Yeah, I did a little bit of research on that for sure. I called some of the hotels around town, looked on their webpages, checked out what they have stated there. So made some phone calls to reception. So I...
00:36:57.15	Matthew Mandich	You know, got the information that I received from those hotels.
00:36:59.99	Karen Hollweg	Okay, great. Thanks. I just wanted to follow up on that.
00:37:06.05	Karen Hollweg	Yes, Councilmember Hoffman, thank you.
00:37:09.12	Janelle Hoffman	I think, you know, we could go back. I think it was, I can't remember when we had a short-term rental discussion, but we had numerous complaints about unmanaged short-term rentals and parties and unmanaged events when we were going through that discussion. So there were issues with unmanaged houses and parties. That's why we did not approve short-term rentals in Sausalito, even though we had a very...
00:37:37.99	Janelle Hoffman	pilot program that I thought was going to actually be a good program, but ultimately we did not pass that. Anyway, I had some questions about about the some of the units and the rooms. And so if you could go to, I think it's page six of the plans.
00:37:57.04	Janelle Hoffman	If you have that up, I don't know if you can bring that up. I can share my screen if that's easier for you.
00:38:03.34	Janelle Hoffman	but it's,
00:38:04.62	Janelle Hoffman	I think it's the attachment, I believe, on the agenda.
00:38:06.81	Matthew Mandich	and I believe it's been the
00:38:08.62	Janelle Hoffman	I think it's attachment 13 or something. Yeah. I think it's page six and there's a white chart.
00:38:11.34	Matthew Mandich	Yeah, towards N.
00:38:17.60	Janelle Hoffman	And it gives out, it shows the lodging units. And that's kind of what I'm gonna ask you some questions about.
00:38:44.70	Janelle Hoffman	Have you got that? I think it's page six of the plans. And that's going to be attachment.
00:38:53.51	Janelle Hoffman	It's almost the last attachment. Hold on a second. I can tell you exactly which one.
00:38:57.45	Matthew Mandich	I believe the plans are up on the screen, council member.
00:39:00.34	Janelle Hoffman	Oh yeah, great, thank you.
00:39:01.35	Janelle Hoffman	It's not that page. It's going to be the next page, I think.
00:39:10.82	Janelle Hoffman	attachment, it's gonna be page six, go back one.
00:39:16.24	Janelle Hoffman	No, you went too far. Are you on six? Oh, there it is. See that box?
00:39:23.48	Janelle Hoffman	Gosh, you're not going to be able to see that. Okay. So, well, you probably know this backwards and forwards, Matthew. So let's just say, so there's three lodging units, 201, 202, and 203. And so I'm just going to read across the unit, lodging unit 201 is area square footage of 969 square feet. And it gives an occupant number of five so that can house five people.
00:39:54.93	Janelle Hoffman	And
00:39:55.45	Matthew Mandich	W those are including the pullout bed numbers, I believe.
00:39:58.88	Janelle Hoffman	However they're cramming them in there, it says five. And lodging unit number 202 has 424 square feet, and that has an occupant number of three. And lodging unit number 203 has 731 square feet, and that has a lodging unit 5.
00:40:21.81	Janelle Hoffman	number of occupants of four,
00:40:23.91	Janelle Hoffman	And 201, going back up to the top, 201 is a two bedroom, two bath unit. Lodging unit 202 is essentially a studio. And lodging unit 203 is a one bedroom, one bath. Is that your understanding of these units?
00:40:37.79	Unknown	Correct.
00:40:38.86	Janelle Hoffman	and
00:40:39.72	Janelle Hoffman	And so in the lodging unit, the one bedroom, one bath, essentially the studio is a lock off and you can either have that as a separate unit or you can combine that. And those are the three units.
00:40:50.47	Unknown	Correct.
00:40:50.94	Janelle Hoffman	And so the other interesting thing on this chart that I found interesting, and I think this is what some of the residents were finding interesting, is that the number of occupants total
00:41:01.93	Janelle Hoffman	for the residential patio, if you go down that chart, it says 47.
00:41:08.41	Janelle Hoffman	And the patio cumulative for number of occupants, it gives a number of 59. And so maybe that's what people are relying upon when they're talking about the number of occupants for the patio cumulative for the outdoor areas. Do you think maybe that's what people are saying?
00:41:26.80	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you.
00:41:26.82	Matthew Mandich	Yep. Potentially. Sure. Those are the fire requirement occupant numbers, max limits. Yeah.
00:41:27.25	Janelle Hoffman	potentially.
00:41:31.96	Janelle Hoffman	Karen Hollweg, And so is that where is that where people are getting maybe they're adding those number of the lodging i'm just asking I don't know maybe somebody else who's going to present is getting that 70 number.
00:41:44.97	Matthew Mandich	I don't know where those numbers are coming. If they're coming from public comment, I mean, I couldn't tell you.
00:41:49.66	Janelle Hoffman	Is that in it? So maybe when we're talking about guests of guests or something, we're talking about those numbers. But when I'm looking at number of occupants, principally, I think we're going to be relying on the number of occupants that we're looking at under the units, the lodging units, the max number, which I'm getting like is 12, if you add up the max number of occupants for the units there. And so the other questions I had were,
00:42:20.88	Janelle Hoffman	Were there, is there any thought or access of guests, restaurant guests having access to the that upper area where the hotel guests are going to be?
00:42:34.45	Matthew Mandich	That's not how it's intended to be. No, there's a,
00:42:37.25	Matthew Mandich	a wall there. It's a glass wall that when you walk up, you'll be able to look into the amenity area as you're going to the bathroom, but you'll need key card access to get in there.
00:42:45.50	Janelle Hoffman	So the restroom area for the downstairs restaurant is going to be downstairs?
00:42:49.33	Matthew Mandich	No, upstairs.
00:42:50.04	Janelle Hoffman	Upstairs. So, okay. So the restaurant area is upstairs, but they're not going to be able to go.
00:42:54.33	Matthew Mandich	Yeah, the restrooms up there's restrooms where the restrooms are located. There are restrooms there now. So that's where the current restrooms in the building are. So they're going to repurpose that same space, the plumbing area, all that. So, yeah, you'll have an elevator and a staircase to access. And there's a small foyer up there that will provide access to the restrooms. And then kind of a glass wall with two doors that would open into the amenity area.
00:43:00.67	Janelle Hoffman	Okay.
00:43:15.39	Matthew Mandich	Okay.
00:43:16.81	Matthew Mandich	Okay.
00:43:29.21	Janelle Hoffman	I think that's all I have right now. Thank you.
00:43:30.86	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
00:43:30.88	Janelle Hoffman	Right?
00:43:30.90	Karen Hollweg	All right. Any other questions? All right. I'm going to open it up to public comment in just a moment. But first, I do want to inquire whether there were any ex parte communications by council members.
00:43:41.92	Karen Hollweg	I'm seeing no.
00:43:43.32	Karen Hollweg	No, no, I mean, no.
00:43:44.01	Janelle Hoffman	No.
00:43:46.10	Janelle Hoffman	I had one conversation with a neighbor and I had, it was one,
00:43:55.74	Janelle Hoffman	to less than a minute call with the architect for the project clay, but we did not have a substantive conversation. It was just a
00:44:06.32	Janelle Hoffman	You have my phone number if you have any comments.
00:44:08.92	Karen Hollweg	Okay. All right. With that, I'll open it up to public comment. I have no speaker cards.
00:44:13.61	Unknown	Should we say that we're opening a public hearing?
00:44:15.90	Karen Hollweg	Sure.
00:44:16.56	Karen Hollweg	Yes. So.
00:44:18.94	Karen Hollweg	Well, no, sorry, I'm not going to take public comment yet I'm completely out of order here. I've done city council questions I'm next going to have an presentation from the appellant.
00:44:28.51	Matthew Stewart	Thank you, council members.
00:44:28.76	Karen Hollweg	Council members. I'll take the speaker cards when you're
00:44:33.32	Elizabeth Breckes	Thank you.
00:44:35.16	Elizabeth Breckes	Thank you.
00:44:36.93	Elizabeth Breckes	Thank you.
00:44:37.47	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
00:44:37.49	Elizabeth Breckes	Hello.
00:44:37.52	Karen Hollweg	Hello, welcome.
00:44:38.78	Elizabeth Breckes	Thank you very much. Elizabeth Breckes, Breckes Law Partners, and I represent
00:44:43.27	Elizabeth Breckes	Sharon Khan, who's the appellant here.
00:44:45.53	Elizabeth Breckes	And thank you for your time.
00:44:48.64	Elizabeth Breckes	Uh,
00:44:49.97	Elizabeth Breckes	You know, I take issue with the description of this project being fully compliant. It isn't fully compliant and
00:44:59.71	Elizabeth Breckes	the first thing you should look at is the general plan compliance. Here is the general plan language.
00:45:06.71	Elizabeth Breckes	First floor uses should be retail, commercial, with general office and residential uses on the upper floors of buildings in this area. So there was a residential use requirement.
00:45:20.52	Elizabeth Breckes	And
00:45:23.15	Elizabeth Breckes	And the purpose of that, and it says this in the general plan, is the policies have been designed to minimize the impacts of intensely used commercial areas to the surrounding neighborhoods.
00:45:33.97	Elizabeth Breckes	And that's exactly that's express language. And that's a purpose designed to prevent exactly what we're doing here, which is encroaching into residential areas to say this project had a zero setback.
00:45:45.16	Elizabeth Breckes	that the existing building does is not really to describe what the zero setback is. It's an enclosed use of this space. And what we're doing is having a very intensely, you know, used area, the only outdoor amenity for this hotel use. And it looks attractive. I'm sure it's going to be a fun spot. And I'm sure it's going to be actively used. And so it is really concentrating a commercial use into that area.
00:46:15.66	Elizabeth Breckes	The city then amended their ordinance, and I do just want to say I think that was the wrong thing to do. We were here previously. We said that this project did not comply with a particular ordinance. We were told we were wrong.
00:46:30.77	Elizabeth Breckes	And then whether the city did
00:46:33.42	Elizabeth Breckes	it went and amended the ordinance, which it said could not be interpreted as we urged.
00:46:38.16	Elizabeth Breckes	And I just want to point out, I mean, you can do that. You did that.
00:46:43.64	Elizabeth Breckes	You shouldn't have done that.
00:46:45.06	Elizabeth Breckes	It's now inconsistent with your general plan. And that history is going to be very much, I think, scrutinized by a court if this were challenged, if this is a challenge.
00:46:54.98	Elizabeth Breckes	So I think that's problematic for the city.
00:46:58.31	Elizabeth Breckes	Additionally, that ordinance has its own problems, as we have described to the city previously.
00:47:06.63	Elizabeth Breckes	The housing element compliance. This project violates your housing element because it,
00:47:13.82	Elizabeth Breckes	your housing element specifically relied on residential uses in the downtown.
00:47:18.86	Elizabeth Breckes	And you guys had some discussion when you were modifying that about, well, we really aren't even getting residential uses in the downtown.
00:47:26.66	Elizabeth Breckes	One of the things I found very interesting in the staff report is the discussion about the Gables Inn Hotel. I did, as staff did, and looked online at Gables Inn and the other hotel site, and I didn't see any of the support they state for a...
00:47:40.80	Elizabeth Breckes	you know, concierge type of Airbnb type of check-in process. But I did see that they bought a commercial building in the CC district. And in 2017, the staff report allowed, proposed and it was adopted, that they added two hotel units to that. And maybe the reason the city doesn't have as much housing in the downtown area is because staff doesn't know the rules, because that was a flagrant violation of the rules in 2017 and the ordinance that the city just changed.
00:48:15.02	Elizabeth Breckes	um so both is housing element and the general plan require denial of the um cup for hotel use additionally the general plan states that there must be adequate management and adequate parking and no management for you know uh
00:48:34.95	Elizabeth Breckes	most of the time,
00:48:38.33	Elizabeth Breckes	And no parking is not adequate management or adequate parking. So again,
00:48:44.94	Elizabeth Breckes	I really question that. In addition, I don't know why any hotel wouldn't come to you and say, why are we leasing the city space? And I can...
00:48:46.76	Unknown	I think that's a good question.
00:48:53.50	Elizabeth Breckes	foresee the city having to give up that revenue.
00:48:56.13	Elizabeth Breckes	for those hotels that are
00:48:58.86	Elizabeth Breckes	paying you for what you're giving away for free.
00:49:02.69	Elizabeth Breckes	There are three conditions that the city talked about in December of 24 when we were here, 24 hour on site management registered guests hotels seven to 10. And now the applicant saying no 24 hour management guests of guests. And I do want to remind you that Mayor Cox that you were in support of 24 hour management previously and I hope that you will continue to be in support of that.
00:49:29.74	Elizabeth Breckes	The limit that we cited was from the fire code on the plans that talked about 78 people. That's where that came from. There will be no one on site to police when this place gets the most rowdy.
00:49:40.54	Elizabeth Breckes	when the hot tub is completely occupied, when the party deck is accessible and people wanna be up there.
00:49:46.23	Elizabeth Breckes	And that's when the noise ordinance is supposed to be the remedy. And it isn't because people are going to call the police. And, you know, the police is going to maybe get out there and maybe tell them to be quiet. And that's just what the neighbors are going to have to put up with. And I bet if any of you.
00:50:02.06	Elizabeth Breckes	any of you.
00:50:02.94	Elizabeth Breckes	had this kind of a project next door to your home,
00:50:06.33	Elizabeth Breckes	I really don't think that you would stand for it.
00:50:10.51	Elizabeth Breckes	So I think it's really kind of unkind to call out this appellant whose property is impacted. And I want to take issue with the idea that we have a vacant lot so we can just do whatever we want next to the vacant lot. The vacant lot is subject to development. The impact will be subject to, you know, be adversely affected. And the city should just not say, well, we don't protect vacant lots, which is what staff was proposing.
00:50:37.03	Elizabeth Breckes	Um,
00:50:39.25	Elizabeth Breckes	And again, I do want to remind you that the applicant themselves said that this would be a great site for a bachelorette type party.
00:50:46.07	Elizabeth Breckes	So we can expect that we will not have the same kind of use that we would if it was a neighbor to neighbor where you kind of have to live with the person.
00:50:56.03	Elizabeth Breckes	uh, saying it was a zero setback. I just want to, um, highlight that, um,
00:51:03.28	Elizabeth Breckes	You know, we wouldn't be here if the zero setback was going to be continued, but it was internal use. That wouldn't be an issue, obviously.
00:51:13.07	Elizabeth Breckes	Um,
00:51:14.84	Elizabeth Breckes	So then the other thing I want to talk about is the variance. It's a high standard. I'm sure many of you are familiar with this. We've got lawyers on the council. Many of you have served on planning commission. So I understand you know that. But it's literally that the actual enforcement of this
00:51:33.57	Elizabeth Breckes	Can't be met. It's too big of a hardship.
00:51:36.63	Elizabeth Breckes	Well, number one, if that party deck was not there, the applicant's project would still have plenty of outdoor amenity space. So you cannot make that finding.
00:51:46.72	Elizabeth Breckes	And you have to make a finding it's not injurious to neighbors. And telling the neighbors, hey, we got a sound ordinance, you can just rely on that, is not taking into account the fact that they will have to be triggering that. And they are the ones that are going to be calling up the city when that whatever maximum occupancy you put on it, hopefully it's not 78 and just limit it by the fire code. But they're the ones that are going to have to police this for you.
00:52:12.27	Elizabeth Breckes	because the planning controls that are being proposed here are not adequate.
00:52:19.14	Elizabeth Breckes	I just want to say I don't think that this project has been really well vetted. I know that you guys want it. Frankly, I want it. I love seeing new restaurants come into Marin County.
00:52:32.33	Elizabeth Breckes	But I just don't think it's being properly vetted. And unfortunately, I think the city is tripping over itself.
00:52:39.34	Elizabeth Breckes	to approve. And in the process, it's tripping over itself. If you really wanted this project, you would make it
00:52:45.83	Elizabeth Breckes	so that it's not subject to appeal. And as it presently exists, it is subject to appeal.
00:52:51.84	Elizabeth Breckes	And it can be appealed and my clients are actually committed to appealing it. So I think that if
00:52:56.66	Elizabeth Breckes	the city wanted this project really badly, then the city should say to the applicant who's been...
00:53:02.96	Elizabeth Breckes	Hold no limits.
00:53:04.72	Elizabeth Breckes	You know, conditions imposed. He doesn't want to follow him. The city just says, sure, we'll get into that.
00:53:11.16	Elizabeth Breckes	So unfortunately, we don't have any kind of olive branch
00:53:14.87	Elizabeth Breckes	We've had several discussions with the applicant through counsel to try and get there.
00:53:22.03	Elizabeth Breckes	And they just have no incentive because they've been told that they can do whatever they want. You're dying to have the project and you're going to give it to them even without any conditions. So there's been no motivation to meet us halfway.
00:53:33.94	Elizabeth Breckes	With that, I'll leave you to it. I ask that you really consider the occupancy limits. 78 is way too much.
00:53:42.63	Elizabeth Breckes	um guests of guests is an unlimited number
00:53:46.70	Elizabeth Breckes	and
00:53:48.47	Elizabeth Breckes	the city should have a way that the neighbors can look down and say, okay, that's over. And if it was 14, if that was the occupancy, then it would be really easy for neighbors to say, you know, look, there's more than 14 people, but once you get to 20,
00:54:05.41	Elizabeth Breckes	or more.
00:54:06.44	Elizabeth Breckes	it becomes very difficult.
00:54:08.25	Elizabeth Breckes	And I think this is going to be a problem.
00:54:10.64	Elizabeth Breckes	And I hope the city will reconsider.
00:54:13.06	Elizabeth Breckes	Thank you very much.
00:54:14.75	Elizabeth Breckes	Thank you.
00:54:15.27	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
00:54:16.43	Karen Hollweg	We'll now invite the
00:54:21.06	Karen Hollweg	applicant to make a presentation.
00:54:32.60	Unknown	Yeah.
00:54:33.71	Kent Ibsen	Good evening. It's nice to be back in front of you this evening. Like to start with some of the occupancy things. We don't have 78 people that are going to be up there. That's just that was something through the fire code. And I'm more than happy to have our architect who is here this evening speak to that, that we've never come up with that number.
00:54:55.41	Kent Ibsen	I have no problems with having some sort of occupancy limit. We have not broached that. There's...
00:55:05.96	Kent Ibsen	If you have the two bedrooms with two couples in them and there's a couch, and if there's two people in there, that's six. Six.
00:55:13.18	Kent Ibsen	studio, if you have
00:55:15.11	Kent Ibsen	husband and wife and two kids, that's four, that's 10.
00:55:18.74	Kent Ibsen	And in the same thing in the one bedroom, the other, you're at 14 people. The.
00:55:23.88	Kent Ibsen	you know, a reasonable number. So I would, I would ask this question to me, it just seems
00:55:30.68	Kent Ibsen	outrageous and absolute lunacy. I want to ask.
00:55:35.44	Kent Ibsen	all of you, have you ever gone to a hotel?
00:55:39.86	Kent Ibsen	and not been allowed to have a guest.
00:55:46.22	Karen Hollweg	We can't answer you. You just have to do this.
00:55:46.60	Kent Ibsen	I mean,
00:55:48.18	Kent Ibsen	Okay, no, I think you did.
00:55:50.34	Kent Ibsen	You know, it's just silly. I mean, if you're sitting there in that space and you're over to see your grandkids and your kids, you're like, hey, come on over, have a glass of wine. I'm sorry you have to stay downstairs. No one is allowed in here. It's just unheard of. So guest of guests is that that's not something zany. That's just what happens in hotels. So, you know, if, if, if you, if there's a reasonable number, I don't have a problem with it. I own the property. I own the pocket. I own. what happens in hotels. So, you know, if, if, if you, if there's a reasonable number, I don't have a problem with it. I own the property. I own the pocket. I own in the pocket. I have absolutely zero interest in having these crazy things that they're indicating. And also
00:56:28.58	Kent Ibsen	The deck we're talking about, the sky deck.
00:56:31.82	Kent Ibsen	First of all, that's the roof. I measured it the other night when I was here. It's 11 feet below the wall. This is exactly what you're looking at. This is the people on the wall.
00:56:41.73	Kent Ibsen	the sky deck. The sky deck
00:56:43.89	Kent Ibsen	It's roughly 275 square feet.
00:56:46.27	Kent Ibsen	So this absolute crazed rave lunacy up there is just, it's all just for shock value. Then the hot tub that they're referring to that they continue to want to place on top of this Bayview deck isn't there. It's another 25 feet down.
00:57:02.38	Kent Ibsen	which is 35 feet below the wall.
00:57:06.77	Kent Ibsen	Yet if I was their neighbor,
00:57:08.61	Kent Ibsen	We'd have a good neighbor fence and there'd be a six foot high fence and I can have as big a hot tub as I want right up against the fence line and goof off all I want. It's just, it's like what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander here. And it just, it's, some of it just seems inappropriate. And also the fact that we have not reached out an olive branch, again, completely inaccurate. Yeah.
00:57:29.57	Kent Ibsen	We started off by sending letters out and we met them on their property. And the very first person I met was the cons attorney. And it went on from there and there and there.
00:57:40.18	Kent Ibsen	The process has been dragging down the road. I start my first conversation with Matthew on this was in September of 2023.
00:57:49.01	Kent Ibsen	So I surely do not feel like I've been the recipient of any kind of prep preferential treatment. I have done this in multiple cities and even in another state.
00:58:00.64	Kent Ibsen	It's been arduous. I'm not going to lie. It's been incredibly difficult, but it's a process worth pursuing because I think the project is so extraordinary. So I'm going to...
00:58:12.60	Kent Ibsen	leave some of my time to see if there's any other people that want to talk to me or ask questions or, and this is our, our, that clubberman, you can talk about the occupancy.
00:58:22.37	Karen Hollweg	So-
00:58:22.78	Unknown	Thank you.
00:58:22.79	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
00:58:24.02	Karen Hollweg	City Clerk, will you pause the clock? So this is not a back and forth. We will hear public comment. You can reserve some of your time to respond to public comment. So right now you have six minutes left.
00:58:36.22	Karen Hollweg	If you want to reserve some of the time and not have your architect use all of that time, the appellant had roughly a minute left. Yeah, he's not too late.
00:58:43.72	Kent Ibsen	Yeah, he's not too long-winded.
00:58:46.15	Karen Hollweg	If we ask you questions, that won't go against your time.
00:58:49.81	Karen Hollweg	If you want to address questions that come up during public comment, you can reserve some of your time to do that. But there won't be a dialogue between you and members of the public.
00:58:58.25	Kent Ibsen	Oh yeah, that's, that's fine. Do you want to address, so you can keep my clock ticking and he'll just address the occupancy thing and then we'll be done.
00:59:07.43	Clay Haberman	Thank you.
00:59:07.78	Unknown	Okay.
00:59:08.62	Unknown	Great.
00:59:10.90	Unknown	uh,
00:59:11.26	Clay Haberman	Good evening. I'm Clay Haberman, Johnson Lyman Architects, the architect for the project. I just wanted to clarify that the sheet that everyone was looking at and those occupant loads, that is a code analysis sheet that's required by the building department and the fire department to ensure that we are showing a safe environment. So it's really meant to calculate exit widths, number of exits, widths of corridors, that kind of thing. And it's strictly based on a square footage calculation.
00:59:42.36	Clay Haberman	You know, the the the apartment there are the the hotel rooms is a residential use, according to the the building code at 200 square feet per person and the the the the patio.
00:59:57.95	Clay Haberman	They make us call it an assembly use, which is 15 square feet per person. That's just what I have to design for. It doesn't mean there's that many people there.
01:00:08.36	Clay Haberman	So.
01:00:09.19	Clay Haberman	Thank you.
01:00:09.37	Karen Hollweg	Maybe.
01:00:10.10	Karen Hollweg	Okay, so city clerk, will you turn off the clock?
01:00:14.77	Karen Hollweg	Okay, I do have some questions of the applicant, and I know there are some questions of the appellant as well. So could you return?
01:00:22.01	Karen Hollweg	So I would like to know what the hours of operation are for the
01:00:27.97	Karen Hollweg	deck and spa.
01:00:30.43	Karen Hollweg	And I would also like to know the maximum. I am going to recommend that we
01:00:35.19	Karen Hollweg	adopt a as a condition of approval, a maximum occupancy.
01:00:39.45	Karen Hollweg	of the for 275 square feet that's not a hugely large space so i am going to recommend that i'd like to hear from you what you would like that number to be so you don't have to answer me right this second we're going to hear a public comment but before
01:00:53.72	Karen Hollweg	Before we deliberate, I am going to recommend that we adopt
01:00:58.53	Karen Hollweg	hours of operation for the deck and rooftop spa and, uh, hours and, um, a maximum occupancy for that area.
01:01:07.27	Kent Ibsen	Okay. I believe the hour or the hours of occupancy for the outside amenity area and the deck have already that's in that's conditioned already.
01:01:15.47	Karen Hollweg	I missed it. Can you just tell me what it is?
01:01:17.40	Kent Ibsen	I'm going to need some help from...
01:01:20.52	Kent Ibsen	Thank you.
01:01:20.55	Karen Hollweg	So 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Matthew answered that question when I asked it before. Yeah.
01:01:20.62	Kent Ibsen	So 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
01:01:25.13	Karen Hollweg	And then will you think about what a reasonable maximum occupancy is? Sure. If you want to say it now, it might affect some of the public comment. If you want to wait till after public comment, that's fine with me, too.
01:01:27.08	Kent Ibsen	Sure.
01:01:28.64	Kent Ibsen	Sure.
01:01:29.78	Kent Ibsen	Sure.
01:01:36.14	Kent Ibsen	I maybe I just think about it for a second. I didn't have it.
01:01:38.07	Karen Hollweg	Sure.
01:01:41.02	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:01:41.07	Karen Hollweg	Great. Anybody else have questions? Yes. Yeah. I had touched on this with Matt, but I would love to hear from you a little bit about your experience with the concierge, the 24 hour concierge in Carmel, since you've done that before, just so we can understand how you,
01:01:53.63	Karen Hollweg	interact with residents and also about the person you're planning to hire.
01:01:55.57	Kent Ibsen	the person you're talking about.
01:01:56.85	Kent Ibsen	Okay, so the way this works, this welcome ambassador and concierge service is when you book your room in the pocket or in Sausalito, you're immediately provided with a welcome letter, how everything is going to work when you come to site. We even have some different rules and things that are included in that welcome packet so they understand. We have a limit of how many people can be there.
01:02:26.97	Kent Ibsen	One of the reasons we always have this welcome ambassador and take them into their space with the people in their party is to make sure that when they said that there's going to be two people there staying in the studio, that it's not, you know, eight people from San Francisco State. And so we have someone that walks them in. These are the amount of people here. Obviously, cameras will be all over the property in the public areas for us to watch. Now, when someone, when they're coming in to our properties, they will have the welcome ambassadors cell number. They will text the welcome ambassador 15 minutes before they arrive. When they get to the parking lot, she will come out and greet them. It is Jane. Jane is moving up here. She's done it for five years in, um, in,
01:03:18.39	Kent Ibsen	Carmel and she's just magnificent.
01:03:21.63	Kent Ibsen	She will take them upstairs, sit down, walk them through the amenities, explain all of the rules of the property, how late the restaurants open, when they can get food, and also provide her with her. It's not her personal cell, it's her cell for the company. And the cons had asked if that could be put on the website. I'm not opposed to that.
01:03:46.67	Kent Ibsen	so that's that's not a problem it's not a secret and we don't want any problems we haven't had any noise problems we've been doing this for 20 since 2020 in carmel but we too
01:03:59.01	Kent Ibsen	don't want those types of issues. So she then, whenever there's a question, anything like booking, booking a boat ride, you know, a wine trip, anything, Jane handles that for them. And if it's not Jane, it's the other person that works for Jane. If it's Jane's day off. So, and just to,
01:04:18.74	Kent Ibsen	toot her horn a little bit. Um, we have been doing this in Carmel since 2020. We have over 500 separate bookings. Um, we have a, um, star rating of 4.985.
01:04:37.38	Kent Ibsen	That's like really good.
01:04:39.63	Kent Ibsen	That's like over 500 fives and two fours. So this is not pie in the sky. This is something that works. We create relationships with our guests. Currently in Carmel, there's a guy that stayed. He brought a corporation down. He was there for a week and he just liked it so much. He's down there this weekend with his wife. And that's what we have. It's not, we're not.
01:05:03.67	Kent Ibsen	We're not Holiday Inn Express. It's a very, very curated experience. So...
01:05:10.02	Kent Ibsen	That's how that process works with the welcome ambassador. I shared this with the planning commission. We've had very few
01:05:16.97	Kent Ibsen	calls um after 10 o'clock in the evening um one was they could they couldn't turn off the golf simulator so the the screen was on all night long and there was a switch there that they just couldn't find someone couldn't turn off uh the sonos music system which it was was inside it was really simple a simple fix and then um the third one was um
01:05:42.25	Kent Ibsen	Something to do.
01:05:43.99	Kent Ibsen	with either the AC or the shower.
01:05:47.87	Kent Ibsen	Simple, basic things that we're able to either address immediately or first thing the next morning.
01:05:54.57	Kent Ibsen	That's how that works.
01:05:55.65	Karen Hollweg	So I have a couple of follow-up questions. So, and as someone who's worked in hospitality, I appreciate that you also wouldn't want, you know, a party on your property. And I'm wondering, since you mentioned that you sent a letter with rules, et cetera,
01:06:08.02	Elizabeth Breckes	Would you...
01:06:08.10	Karen Hollweg	Would you be open to including in their language that says X number of guests and this is not a location for, or, you know, we prohibit parties or similar order of just to be clear that there's something to enforce? Absolutely.
01:06:20.15	Kent Ibsen	Absolutely. So what, like,
01:06:22.48	Kent Ibsen	I can, what I can take is our pro our property in Carmel. It's a pretty big house and it's split it split into two spaces. It's 3,400 square feet. We allow 10 guests because there's five either king or queen bedrooms. We've had people reach out and say, Hey, can we have kids? Can we have some people over like another 10 people for cocktails? Cause we're all eating at the pocket restaurant this evening. The response is you're more than welcome to have someone come over and have these cocktails 10 people that's all it's allowed to stay in that place tonight and we will be the restaurant is we have people at the restaurant from eight in the morning usually till around midnight and it's like that we we limit it and we have had people want veryners and things. It's like, boy, I'd love to do it. Just can't. The property is too valuable and too important. This is the amount of people that can come. I actually recommend my friend's hotel. It's like, go down there. He's got 16 rooms. I just, you can't have that many people here. So that's, that's, that's how that works. And as with regard to outside,
01:07:25.46	Kent Ibsen	There's nothing, I don't see anything wrong with having a baby shower. And so if three ladies are sitting there and they bring over seven other ladies and they have a baby shower outside in their courtyard for 10 people.
01:07:37.19	Kent Ibsen	That's what you do at hotels, but we don't have anything or any facilities there for huge parties. It's just not that type of place.
01:07:47.39	Karen Hollweg	Okay, great. But that's something you'd be willing to put into the language of your welcome letter with regards to occupancy and number of guests in part. So it's a concern.
01:07:51.77	Kent Ibsen	Sure.
01:07:53.69	Kent Ibsen	It protects me too.
01:07:56.44	Karen Hollweg	Okay, great. Thank you.
01:07:58.33	Karen Hollweg	Okay, I think that's it for now.
01:08:01.28	Karen Hollweg	Any other questions?
01:08:02.35	Karen Hollweg	All right. We do have questions for the applicant. Thank you. Sorry for the appellant.
01:08:13.01	Safiya	Yes.
01:08:16.34	Safiya	Thank you.
01:08:16.35	Karen Hollweg	Oh, you don't. Oh, sorry.
01:08:17.79	Safiya	Thank you.
01:08:17.92	Safiya	Thank you.
01:08:17.94	Karen Hollweg	Apologies, no question.
01:08:19.04	Sobieski	questions.
01:08:19.39	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:08:19.51	Karen Hollweg	Okay.
01:08:20.94	Karen Hollweg	Oh, go ahead.
01:08:22.01	Sobieski	I mean, you know, on the city council, we have a lot of other matters we take on, and this is a de novo hearing as part of the appeal. But this issue has been heard twice by a body that focuses just on planning issues, on code issues, on variances, on CPS, and all the issue that we are getting, kind of drinking from the fire hose here tonight. And twice that commission made up of a variety of different residents with a variety of different backgrounds unanimously approved this project. Why do you think they did that?
01:08:51.94	Elizabeth Breckes	They got the law wrong. They got the facts wrong and they got the law wrong. And when you get garbage in in a staff report, you get garbage out. And I see it all the time. This project has been framed for you erroneously. And you should know that because you had to change your ordinances after you were told by your staff that you don't have that problem. You also got told there's no need for a parking waiver. So it came up approved and we pointed out correctly that it didn't need a parking waiver. So the history of the world, You also got told there's no need for a parking waiver. So it came up approved and we pointed out correctly that it didn't need a parking waiver. So the history that you're describing that should be on your mind is the fact that mistakes have been made by staff, by the applicant. I'm not just following it on staff. I mean, an applicant is supposed to apply for the right application. So if the applicant studies the project and realizes they need a parking waiver, they're supposed to apply for that.
01:09:42.08	Elizabeth Breckes	So I just, I don't think it should be, hey, the appellant is so unreasonable. It really should be that the house is not in order.
01:09:51.32	Elizabeth Breckes	And part of that is the applicant inviting it. But obviously, if you look at the history of this project, there have been errors and there continue to be errors. And tonight, if you prove it,
01:10:01.84	Elizabeth Breckes	That will be an error.
01:10:04.00	Unknown	All right. Thank you.
01:10:07.07	Karen Hollweg	All right, I'm going to now open it up to public comment. First up, I have Matthew Stewart, followed by Carolyn Revell, and then Bob Mitchell.
01:10:22.75	Karen Hollweg	Yes, everybody will have two minutes. The clock is right up here on the screen so you can see.
01:10:27.10	Matthew Stewart	Look, okay, my name is Matthew Stewart. I live in Sausalito and I work here.
01:10:33.92	Matthew Stewart	I've never done this before. It's nice to be here in front of you all. Um,
01:10:37.77	Matthew Stewart	This is crazy. Let's approve this project and stop wasting everyone's time. This is absolutely ridiculous. Look, no one likes loud noises, right? Just call the cops and make a complaint. I don't get it. Why are we here? It just doesn't make any sense to me.
01:10:55.79	Matthew Stewart	We need to approve this project for the greater good of Sausalito. There's so many amazing things that the tax money from this project could benefit for the town. And to the people that are stalling this, like shame on you. Honestly, shame on you. Like there's a whole city here that could benefit from this and respectfully use your money to soundproof your fucking house.
01:11:17.99	Matthew Stewart	Sorry. Thanks.
01:11:23.09	Karen Hollweg	All right, Carolyn Revelle. Sorry, yeah, Carolyn Revelle, then Bob Mitchell.
01:11:28.31	Karen Hollweg	then Sandy Strawbridge, hopefully I don't have to say out loud to please refrain from cursing during your public comment.
01:11:37.72	Karen Hollweg	You're not going to hear that from me. I'm Carolyn.
01:11:40.03	Carolyn Revelle	Revealed.
01:11:42.13	Carolyn Revelle	Bye.
01:11:42.36	Carolyn Revelle	I'm an urban planner with old-fashioned words. Yeah.
01:11:46.31	Carolyn Revelle	The conversion of this Wells Fargo building to a restaurant and boutique hotel is an extraordinary opportunity for Sausalito.
01:11:53.06	Carolyn Revelle	It's a well-designed, adaptive reuse of an historic building
01:11:56.76	Carolyn Revelle	which will enliven our central business district.
01:11:59.61	Carolyn Revelle	As you've heard, it meets the Secretary of Interior Standards, the Sausalito historic guidelines, it received the
01:12:05.01	Carolyn Revelle	preliminary certificate of appropriateness and final
01:12:07.84	Carolyn Revelle	approval from the Planning Commission.
01:12:10.60	Carolyn Revelle	It will reinforce the enhancements for the downtown at our Ferry Plaza and those that are being pursued by the business district.
01:12:17.82	Carolyn Revelle	it will generate
01:12:19.12	Carolyn Revelle	hotel tax and sales tax.
01:12:21.63	Carolyn Revelle	The applicant, as you have heard, is a well-regarded developer with a proven track record for a similar project in Carmel.
01:12:28.67	Carolyn Revelle	I believe he has been very responsive to the concerns of abutting neighbors
01:12:32.80	Carolyn Revelle	with access to
01:12:33.88	Carolyn Revelle	providing access changes and reductions in the size of the roof deck, as well as providing the on-call ambassador that he's just been describing.
01:12:41.86	Carolyn Revelle	Noise concerns can be addressed by the noise ordinance.
01:12:44.97	Carolyn Revelle	I believe the staff has responded to the planning issues released in the appeal and have made a convincing case for the appeals denial.
01:12:51.20	Carolyn Revelle	and I urge the council to deny the appeal
01:12:53.88	Carolyn Revelle	and uphold the Planning Commission's decision to approve this excellent project. Thank you very much.
01:12:59.36	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:13:00.76	Karen Hollweg	Bob Mitchell.
01:13:02.50	Karen Hollweg	then Sandy Strawbridge, then Beth's work.
01:13:08.81	Bob Mitchell	Hi, I'm Bob Mitchell. I did what you're doing for eight years, 30 years ago. I was mayor during Sausalito Centennial, 1993. Not a lot has changed since then.
01:13:24.05	Bob Mitchell	in particular applicants trying to ache out all they can for their project.
01:13:29.70	Bob Mitchell	But the rule against intensifying preexisting unpermitted uses hasn't changed.
01:13:35.38	Bob Mitchell	This applicant wants to change an unused rooftop into an outdoor party venue and nightclub
01:13:40.81	Bob Mitchell	with amplified sound, outdoor party venue,
01:13:45.36	Bob Mitchell	TVs, piped-in amplified music, hot tubs, kitchen area, alcohol, all to the detriment of the many neighbors.
01:13:53.48	Bob Mitchell	living around the property.
01:13:55.07	Bob Mitchell	including the appellant,
01:13:56.77	Bob Mitchell	The residents of 28 apartments at 120 bulkly.
01:14:00.27	Bob Mitchell	the residents of the Del Monte Apartments
01:14:03.19	Bob Mitchell	and the Presbyterian Church.
01:14:05.26	Bob Mitchell	It's a violation of our zoning code,
01:14:07.86	Bob Mitchell	and it's entirely unnecessary.
01:14:11.79	Bob Mitchell	If the applicant feels he needs a party venue, all he has to do is enclose it.
01:14:17.87	Bob Mitchell	and his hotel guests can party on all they want
01:14:21.51	Bob Mitchell	without affecting the neighbors.
01:14:23.45	Bob Mitchell	Yes, and closing the rear deck.
01:14:25.54	Bob Mitchell	would also be a violation of the code as written, but if approved by variance or ordinance revision,
01:14:31.42	Bob Mitchell	it would protect the neighbors from unrestricted amplified noise of the applicants unmanaged and unregulated party venue
01:14:39.28	Bob Mitchell	with the bar amplified music
01:14:41.85	Bob Mitchell	television, hot tub, alcohol, and whatever other attractions can be squeezed in.
01:14:48.60	Bob Mitchell	and it would be usable when it is cold outside.
01:14:51.73	Bob Mitchell	And when it is raining,
01:14:55.02	Bob Mitchell	benefiting the applicant
01:14:56.54	Bob Mitchell	You have a rare opportunity here to give both the applicant and the appellant
01:15:01.15	Bob Mitchell	part of what each wants.
01:15:03.85	Bob Mitchell	It's an almost Salm-esque
01:15:06.16	Bob Mitchell	Solomon-esque
01:15:08.41	Bob Mitchell	happening.
01:15:09.89	Bob Mitchell	Thank you. Any questions?
01:15:13.27	Karen Hollweg	Sandy Strawbridge, then Beth Swerk, then John Diamante.
01:15:19.04	Sandy Strawbridge	Hi, I'm Sandy Strawbridge. I've never done this before either. I live at 30 Excelsior Lane at the top of the lane.
01:15:26.41	Sandy Strawbridge	I
01:15:27.69	Sandy Strawbridge	My concern is noise, and it isn't noise after 10 p.m. I don't care if I have to call the cops after 10 p.m.
01:15:34.72	Sandy Strawbridge	I'm worried that my balcony, which I like to keep open when I dine, when I watch television, that I will have to close that door from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. on many nights because this, we keep referring to it as a boutique hotel. It's not. It's an event space. It is a high, expensive rooms,
01:15:56.42	Sandy Strawbridge	with a joint, a joined outdoor space, not like any hotel, other hotel rooms with balconies in this town. So it's an event space. It's going to open up onto our neighborhood and it's going to be an interruption. Otherwise the restaurant, great. Love to have the restaurant. Just make them regular hotel rooms with regular balconies.
01:16:15.62	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:16:18.02	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:16:18.98	Karen Hollweg	Beth Swerke, then John Diamante, then Gail Schell.
01:16:23.26	Beth Swerke	Hello, Beth Swerke, 10-year resident. I'm here to express my strong support of the approval of this project.
01:16:30.01	Beth Swerke	Um, I,
01:16:31.18	Beth Swerke	been hearing all of the concerns and all of the pros at the planning commission meetings and city council. And a lot of it is about noise and bus benches being moved and the sound of
01:16:42.25	Beth Swerke	I am concerned that we're going to have a lot more empty storefronts and I'm concerned that our town is going to whittle away. We need to be filling these places with the appropriate people who are going to be doing amazing things for our town.
01:16:56.61	Beth Swerke	There's no doubt that this project would be a fantastic addition to our downtown area. The new hotel and restaurant would bring much needed economic activity to our community.
01:17:05.86	Beth Swerke	A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of going to the Pocket in Carmel. I brought my out-of-town friends. We loved it so much, we went twice. It's such a charming place that caters to both local and tourists. It will no doubt bring in tourists and our surrounding communities and neighbors to Salcedo, which will also represent the heart of ours and also bring in other economic investments throughout the town. Coincidentally, when I arrived at the house that I was staying at in Carmel, it was literally next door to the pocket, like 10 feet, not 100. I was there for multiple nights over a busy tourist weekend. I can personally attest that the pocket team and the guests were respectful, quiet neighbors. I never heard a peep from the restaurant, from the hotel. When you walk by, it feels like a home. The lighting is subtle. The sound is subtle. It is perfectly blended to the community. And it's what we need here in this town. I didn't even know they had hot tubs or fireplaces. And they want to be here. While dining there, I had the opportunity to meet the team that would be here. Jane, they're amazing. We would be lucky to have them here. The developers have clearly considered the impact on the nearby residents. They've been very thoughtful. I want to thank them for their patience and assure them that most of the community supports and celebrates what they're doing. And we can't have to wait to have your Brussels sprouts and martini with you.
01:18:23.84	Beth Swerke	Thank you.
01:18:24.55	Beth Swerke	Thank you.
01:18:24.97	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:18:25.68	Beth Swerke	Thank you.
01:18:25.69	Karen Hollweg	John Diamante, Gail Schell, and then Jody Moore.
01:18:30.30	John Diamante	John Diamant, good evening.
01:18:31.77	John Diamante	This project is a fantasy of the developer
01:18:35.73	John Diamante	and the architect, and nowhere better illustrated than wishing away the bus stop benches of the town's primary southbound bus stop.
01:18:43.66	John Diamante	Those benches will be vigorously defended. And if they're retained, there goes the right-hand side outdoor dining unit.
01:18:54.01	John Diamante	The noise issue is paramount, and that is not going to go away. I'm a resident, a neighbor, and you can look forward to vigorous defense of the century-old tranquility character of Excelsior Lane.
01:19:08.54	John Diamante	The co-author of this fantasy,
01:19:10.43	John Diamante	is Matthew and the planning department.
01:19:12.55	John Diamante	for three, now four meetings.
01:19:15.03	John Diamante	They have an entirety
01:19:17.14	John Diamante	wished away seven to eight issues of public life and safety, public convenience and necessity, and others. Some of this is rehearsed in fine in three pages of my five-page letter to the Planning Commission, which started this.
01:19:35.54	John Diamante	Carmel is not relevant, nothing about it.
01:19:40.15	John Diamante	Outstandingly so because this building is not accessible by vehicles for restaurant supply, restaurant maintenance, for Uber, Lyft, taxi, what have you, drop off, pick up that will impact the two five minute green zones, which are absolute necessities for medical, grocery supply, other necessities for the Del Monte residents and others.
01:20:08.24	John Diamante	You can only get to this place by foot. The rooms
01:20:12.80	John Diamante	dark, narrow, will have no fresh air exposure unless the architecture is radically altered by the plan, which means air conditioning, which means additional noise. So I think when you either remand this project or recommend a continuation of the hearing, that you look for a business plan for the hotel and the restaurant, and you'll see a lot of this illustrated in fine. Thanks so much.
01:20:38.97	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:20:39.38	John Diamante	Thank you.
01:20:39.43	Karen Hollweg	And.
01:20:39.48	Gail Schell	Thank you.
01:20:40.10	Karen Hollweg	Gail Schell, then Jody Moore, then Eric Gleib.
01:20:44.98	Gail Schell	Hi, Councilor, I'm Gail Schell. It's nice to see you and thank you for listening to us. We appreciate the fact that you do take into account.
01:20:51.37	Gail Schell	what residents think.
01:20:52.67	Gail Schell	So my feeling on this is that I think it's a fantastic project. I've been following it for a long time now.
01:20:59.07	Gail Schell	I really appreciate the accommodations that the owner has made.
01:21:03.90	Gail Schell	Um,
01:21:05.11	Gail Schell	I also appreciate the fact that twice the Planning Commission has unanimously moved this thing forward.
01:21:10.68	Gail Schell	And I put a lot of stock in that.
01:21:13.51	Gail Schell	The other thing I put a lot of stock in is the fact that the mayor of Carmel has spoken very favorably on behalf of this owner.
01:21:20.60	Gail Schell	This is somebody who has actually had
01:21:23.20	Gail Schell	had a project in their town, dealt with the kinds of issues that we're worrying about occurring here.
01:21:28.72	Gail Schell	and has a very favorable feeling about how it's been handled. And that just means a lot to me. I think it's a little...
01:21:37.06	Gail Schell	Um,
01:21:38.19	Gail Schell	unreasonable to expect that only louts would come to Sausalito to take advantage of a place like this. My family loves going to little boutique places like this and renting a place. And I think, you know,
01:21:51.89	Gail Schell	I think most people going for this type of property are going to fall into that category. So I encourage you to...
01:21:58.64	Gail Schell	to move it forward. Thank you.
01:22:00.75	Unknown	Thank you.
01:22:00.85	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:22:02.28	Karen Hollweg	Jody Moore, then Eric Lieb, then Bonnie McGregor.
01:22:07.11	Jody Moore	Hello. I am just wanting to add my voice to the resounding chorus of positive people saying, let's do this. Our beloved town needs this. We need revitalization. We need open, you know, places that are open and welcoming and
01:22:25.33	Jody Moore	energetic, so forth and so on. So I know you've heard lots of arguments for pro, a few for con, but I'm hoping that the pros went out. Thank you.
01:22:36.07	Jody Moore	Thank you.
01:22:41.33	Karen Hollweg	Eric Lieb, then Bonnie McGregor, then Paul Mowry.
01:22:47.68	Eric Lieb	Thank you. I've lived next to the property right next door for 15 years. And a question came up earlier about why the Planning Commission approved this. And I want to speak to my personal experience of the Planning Commission meeting of July 9th. Like that night, the room was filled with neighbors who were simply standing up for their rights. But a lot of us were made to feel like we were somehow in the wrong.
01:22:55.57	Unknown	you know,
01:23:11.10	Eric Lieb	The Planning Commission, the developer, they presented arguments that were either one-sided or, in my opinion, inaccurate.
01:23:17.29	Eric Lieb	For example, the Commission and tonight gave the example of the, you know, how neither the Gables Inn nor the Hotel Sausalito have on-site 24-hour management.
01:23:27.15	Eric Lieb	Yes, but those hotels also don't have a large common area that directly abuts residential properties that could host bachelorette parties or other parties that have been mentioned tonight.
01:23:38.82	Eric Lieb	Another one was, you know, the commissioner commented how to live next to the cruising club.
01:23:43.38	Eric Lieb	and they have to deal with the noise it creates. So yes, but the cruising club was there when they moved in. It's not like it just floated in one day and then they suddenly had to deal with how it changed the character of the neighborhood.
01:23:55.30	Eric Lieb	like this development will for us. And at that point,
01:24:00.78	Eric Lieb	At that presentation, the developer said then and said now,
01:24:04.27	Eric Lieb	They'd sent letters to everyone in the neighborhood.
01:24:06.69	Eric Lieb	I live next door. I did not get a letter. I haven't been reached out once. Neighbor even called them out at that meeting. And then the commissioner proceeded to chide us, like the citizens of the town, the neighbors, like children, no one cursed.
01:24:21.69	Eric Lieb	They were just simply standing up for their rights.
01:24:24.03	Eric Lieb	And
01:24:24.73	Eric Lieb	you know,
01:24:25.92	Eric Lieb	they reacted that night in the way anyone who has been denied a voice. And the thing is on a philosophical level, I support this development.
01:24:33.23	Eric Lieb	My father who couldn't be here tonight has been a commercial real estate developer for over 70 years. Like he's done deals far bigger than this, but
01:24:37.72	Unknown	He's done 10 years.
01:24:40.33	Eric Lieb	He always respected the community first. So thank you for your time.
01:24:43.57	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:24:44.99	Karen Hollweg	Bonnie McGregor.
01:24:46.27	Karen Hollweg	Paul Mowry, Alice Merrill.
01:24:50.17	Karen Hollweg	Good evening.
01:24:50.41	Bonnie McGregor	Welcome.
01:24:50.44	Karen Hollweg	I'm not going to be a little bit.
01:24:50.85	Karen Hollweg	and counsel
01:24:52.69	Bonnie McGregor	And for the records, I have been a resident in Sausalito now, pushing 45 years, three different stints. I seem to must like this place. And I like getting involved with what's going on in my city, whether I happen to own property at that moment or not. I am a resident, and I'm here to be very much in favor of moving this project forward, which has been approved twice by the Planning Commission.
01:25:16.84	Bonnie McGregor	the type of clients that I believe will be bringing, bring the kind of business we'll bring into the city is not the party stoppers of 25 or 30 year olds.
01:25:27.45	Bonnie McGregor	And I believe that we once went through a situation with the Altamira where everybody was scared to death that it's going to be full of Hollywood types who are going to be hell raisers all over town all the time.
01:25:39.72	Bonnie McGregor	That has not happened at the Altamira and I don't see it happening here.
01:25:43.92	Bonnie McGregor	The kind of clients that are going to be coming in here are ones that I think will probably be adding business to Gene Hiller's and all restaurants around town and start buying some art other than ice creams and T-shirts. That ought to help our revenue coming in quite a bit. So I could go on and on and on, and I won't, and I'm very much in favor of this. And you all have read my letter, which is in the minutes. I hope you deny this late appeal. Thank you.
01:26:10.61	Unknown	Thank you.
01:26:12.79	Unknown	Paul Mowry.
01:26:15.54	Unknown	Alice Merrill.
01:26:18.34	Unknown	David Lay.
01:26:20.81	Paul Mowry	Hi, I share the concerns about the operations raised by my neighbors. And please remember Eric Leib's comments that the project cannot be equitably compared to other hotels in the area without outdoor spaces. Mainly, I want to say I'm an ordained minister in a mainline denomination in the 21st century. Religiosity has dropped like 50 percent in the past several decades i know so many pastors who are desperate to get anybody into church any way they can and there's a lot of soul selling and sacrificing that people go through because they want the bodies in there and i just have to say that now we're seeing this process with the planning commission, it looks like a desperate church willing to sell itself down the river in order to get something that's going to save its life. It's what I hear just from a lot of people, my neighbors here, who say that, you know, if we don't get this, Sausalito is just going to be destroyed. I don't feel it's like that. I think that the applicant is going to have a wildly successful venture. I haven't heard one person on any side of this issue who hasn't said this shouldn't go through. I have heard people say there should be reasonable accommodations. The Planning Commission seems to have a kind of desperate idea that no request is too high. Changing zoning regulations, whatever it takes. I think that it's okay for the city to put reasonable expectations on the plan, reasonable expectations about supervision, reasonable expectations about hours of operation. And I don't know why we can't
01:28:23.73	Karen Hollweg	Thank you, Pastor.
01:28:23.81	Paul Mowry	Thank you. That's a nail biter.
01:28:25.94	Paul Mowry	All right.
01:28:26.43	Karen Hollweg	Thank you, Pastor Paul. Alice Merrill, David Lay, Adrian Britton.
01:28:32.70	Alice Merrill	Well, good evening.
01:28:34.78	Alice Merrill	So as Bonnie said, she's been a how many 56 year resident? Well, I've been a 79 year resident here with bits and spurts.
01:28:45.58	Alice Merrill	But basically, I have.
01:28:47.82	Alice Merrill	Okay, so what I am worried, sad about, worried about,
01:28:55.79	Alice Merrill	a little bit frustrated about is that rules were changed.
01:29:01.69	Alice Merrill	requirements have been changed.
01:29:04.39	Alice Merrill	to make this possible. So at one point we have only residential up above and all of a sudden in some city council meeting, it was really fast, which is what happens all the time. It comes in, you decide, you talk about it. How do we know about it? And then it's passed. So you've changed the rules.
01:29:24.29	Alice Merrill	for this, clearly for this.
01:29:27.31	Alice Merrill	What are you going to change the rules for again?
01:29:30.18	Alice Merrill	Um,
01:29:32.24	Alice Merrill	Very frustrating.
01:29:33.94	Alice Merrill	This is, you know, this for commercial upstairs instead of residential.
01:29:39.55	Alice Merrill	We need housing, right? Isn't that what we're working on these days?
01:29:44.40	Alice Merrill	um
01:29:45.62	Alice Merrill	And then
01:29:46.53	Alice Merrill	You know, the Carmel thing.
01:29:49.50	Alice Merrill	The Carmel is a beautiful town. It's a wonderful place. And it's been a place where Sausalito is known about forever. And...
01:29:59.02	Alice Merrill	it's always been a little bit compared
01:30:02.11	Alice Merrill	Saucedo was always perfectly glad not to be Carmel.
01:30:06.27	Alice Merrill	I'm not saying that this makes it Carmel. I'm just saying that just because it's Carmel...
01:30:12.64	Alice Merrill	Doesn't mean it's perfect.
01:30:15.27	Alice Merrill	um,
01:30:16.45	Alice Merrill	We are who we are and not Carmel.
01:30:20.23	Alice Merrill	And
01:30:21.87	Alice Merrill	I think that's all I have to say. I wish that...
01:30:26.10	Alice Merrill	You all...
01:30:28.48	Alice Merrill	would...
01:30:30.93	Alice Merrill	would keep an even keel. I don't know.
01:30:34.66	Alice Merrill	frustrated.
01:30:35.03	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:30:35.33	Alice Merrill	Thank you.
01:30:35.59	Karen Hollweg	Bye.
01:30:35.89	Alice Merrill	Thank you.
01:30:35.98	Karen Hollweg	you
01:30:36.48	Alice Merrill	Thank you.
01:30:36.52	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:30:37.27	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:30:37.39	Karen Hollweg	Thank you, David Lay.
01:30:39.92	David Lay	Yes, thank you very much. One of the things that our government needs to guard is bus stops. And that's one of the busiest in town. It's visitors, and it needs to be guarded. And you have to guard it.
01:30:58.98	David Lay	Across the street and down the way is the Trieste. And I sit in at one of their tables to wait for the bus. I've done that over and over and over again. Nobody's bothered me. And then I had lunch there.
01:31:10.33	David Lay	And now nobody bothers me anymore.
01:31:12.51	David Lay	or never did actually. Thank you very much.
01:31:15.55	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:31:16.56	Karen Hollweg	Adrienne Brinton
01:31:23.85	Adrian Britton	I thank you very much for taking my comments. Sorry, I'm just trying to get my notes. I heard a comment, you know, somebody mentioned that not a lot has changed in Sausalito. And I don't know about that. I think it's changed a lot, actually. I think when my mom was here in the 60s, I think,
01:31:39.93	Adrian Britton	They used to party. They used to party like crazy. She was a hippie. She partied downtown. She partied in Vina Del Mar Park to the point where they fenced off the park.
01:31:48.50	Adrian Britton	They made a lot of noise. They partied in houses. They partied in parks.
01:31:54.04	Adrian Britton	You know, I think my grandfather actually worked at the Altamira. He was the maitre d' there. And I can tell you that place knew how to party. They had weddings, they had bachelor parties, they had the rich and famous, they had actors, they had martinis, and they had an enormous deck right above the place we're talking about now for many, many years.
01:32:16.38	Adrian Britton	You know, I think that the comment that the appellant made speaks a lot to what the problem is. You know, she said, we've got to protect the vacant lots.
01:32:28.78	Adrian Britton	I mean, let that sink in for a minute.
01:32:31.37	Adrian Britton	If we're protecting the vacant lots, who's eating at the restaurants? You know, who's coming to our town if our interest is protecting the vacant lots? I vehemently disagree with that. I think we need to bring life back to town. I think this is something that can start to do that. Every decision we make either takes us a little bit further or it moves us back a little bit. Let's take that little step further. Because the way we kill the town is to keep taking steps back, keep taking steps back. And we're, quite quite frankly really good at that uh the last thing if i've got time i want to touch on the parking mill valley changed their parking requirements they don't require new businesses under a certain size to have parking requirements they said we have the parking we have we have the buildings we have nothing is likely to significantly change let's not burden these businesses going through the theatrics of saying, those are my two spots there and that one space there. And I've got this little space behind my building because that's a little silly and that's not how it works.
01:33:25.52	Adrian Britton	Thank you.
01:33:26.43	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:33:27.31	Karen Hollweg	Those are all my speaker cards. City clerk.
01:33:30.02	Unknown	Joel Carr.
01:33:31.58	Karen Hollweg	Welcome, Joel. We got your correspondence.
01:33:38.27	Unknown	going to mute yourself.
01:33:42.01	Unknown	Yeah.
01:33:42.04	Joel Carr	Can you hear me?
01:33:42.55	Joel Carr	Thank you.
01:33:43.35	Unknown	Yeah.
01:33:43.42	Joel Carr	Yes.
01:33:43.64	Joel Carr	Yes.
01:33:44.47	Joel Carr	Okay, thank you. Thank you, counsel. I imagine that you all might know that we are swiftly becoming the laughingstock of the entire Bay Area. There was a huge story in the SF Chronicle last week and the Marin IJ the week before. As the hardest place in the region to do any kind of projects and the most contrary residents who make it impossible to do reasonable projects. We need a paradigm change. If we as a town cannot get sensible projects approved, we are more than failing. We are allowing all naysayers unfettered power over our town.
01:34:20.66	Joel Carr	Please deny the appeal and approve this project. The fact that the Planning Commission and you all allow these appeals to even be heard rather than dismissed out of hand also empowers the contrary population who want nothing to change at all.
01:34:34.81	Joel Carr	Every one of these agonizing details like we have heard tonight are simply outlandish.
01:34:39.90	Joel Carr	We know that an important focus of any city government is to avoid lawsuits that can be costly and time consuming. However, that fear inhibits all the government agencies from allowing these appeals to be simply rejected, which is within their power.
01:34:57.62	Joel Carr	But even if there were a lawsuit, there is abundant evidence of community engagement, thoughtful compromises by owners, and previously unanimous determinations by planning, nearly unanimous by counsel, which all give the fodder necessary to whack down the suit easily. Without the courage to dismiss appeals that become increasingly unrealistic will result in them being endless and result in nothing. The people who want that will simply endlessly appeal every decision because they don't want anything. If that happens, it will indeed be nothing that we end up with. They will continue to whittle down the project agonizing piece by agonizing piece. Truly, I feel that it will be a huge mistake for our town and everyone in it to allow...
01:35:44.69	Unknown	All right. Thank you, Joel. Next speaker is Rebecca Singer.
01:35:45.24	Jack Burrows	THANK YOU.
01:35:45.29	Joel Carr	Speaker.
01:35:52.16	Jack Burrows	Jennifer L. hi I first I wanted to commend Matthew for that excellent presentation, I really appreciated how thorough and informative it was I it made it very clear how much staff work has gone into this fantastic project.
01:36:04.67	Jack Burrows	I am extremely concerned that we are creating an anti-business climate in Sausalito. It seems that every time someone wants to open a business here, the financial and aesthetic needs of our town are being held hostage by a small but loud group of litigious residents.
01:36:18.67	Jack Burrows	We're being offered a proven successful business venture by an experienced hotelier and restaurateur who is not just willing, but eager to bring new life to one of the most beautiful historic buildings in the downtown district.
01:36:30.70	Jack Burrows	He has bent over backward to accommodate every single curveball that has been thrown at him and is still eager to build a business here.
01:36:37.69	Jack Burrows	If that doesn't evince his commitment to its success, I don't know what does.
01:36:42.08	Jack Burrows	I've been fortunate enough to be a guest at the pocket restaurant in Carmel on multiple occasions. Hi, Jane.
01:36:47.65	Jack Burrows	And I can tell you I have never once so much as heard or laid eyes on a single hotel guest during my visits. So I can attest from personal experience that these appellants' noise complaints are frankly much ado about nothing.
01:37:00.07	Jack Burrows	Please deny this absurd appeal and approve this beautiful project for our town.
01:37:05.85	Unknown	Thank you.
01:37:06.73	Unknown	Next speaker is Jordan Dodds.
01:37:10.90	Safiya	Good.
01:37:11.03	Karen Hollweg	Good evening. Welcome.
01:37:14.38	Jordan Dodds	Hey, how's it going? Everyone hear me all right?
01:37:15.42	Unknown	How's it going?
01:37:15.66	Unknown	Everyone hear me?
01:37:17.21	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:37:17.23	Unknown	Yes, thank you.
01:37:18.32	Jordan Dodds	Well, hey, thanks for having me.
01:37:18.76	Unknown	Hey.
01:37:20.98	Jordan Dodds	PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ens
01:37:25.09	Jordan Dodds	Thank you to the planning commission. I know it's gone through that a few times and, you know, thanks to the process. I feel like, uh, this is why we have this. So, um, good. And then lastly, I want to thank the entrepreneur. I, this is the first time I've kind of jumped into this, uh, subject. I just got updates and heard it was moving along.
01:37:41.34	Jordan Dodds	But just hearing him speak and I don't know you, but
01:37:45.48	Jordan Dodds	I just want to say I respect the creativity in this project.
01:37:48.23	Jordan Dodds	If you don't know, I think it's very difficult to run a restaurant.
01:37:53.24	Jordan Dodds	the idea to bring a hotel in to kind of boost the chances of success in this venture to me is
01:37:59.90	Jordan Dodds	with margins as thin as they are in restaurants i think it's such a creative way like i looked at that wells far well it was fargo building before so just because i was curious i didn't have a plan but
01:38:08.88	Jordan Dodds	You know, it takes a lot of work. That's an old, really beautiful building and
01:38:12.86	Jordan Dodds	Um, with the revitalization, revitalization coming downtown, the P bid, I was just excited to hear about this project.
01:38:20.19	Jordan Dodds	Um,
01:38:20.97	Jordan Dodds	I don't have much more to say than other than this is, you know, in my opinion, the things that are moving the city in the right way and just want to think again. Like I heard someone say, like, the rules are changing and
01:38:30.82	Jordan Dodds	man, that made me excited to hear because
01:38:33.22	Jordan Dodds	It would be really difficult to live in a town where like the rules didn't change and adapt to the evolution of humans and progress. So.
01:38:40.44	Jordan Dodds	Thank you. That's all I got to say.
01:38:42.31	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:38:43.51	Karen Hollweg	City Clerk.
01:38:44.56	Jordan Dodds	Linda.
01:38:44.91	Unknown	Thank you.
01:38:44.98	Unknown	Okay.
01:38:44.99	Jordan Dodds	Deifer?
01:38:45.15	Jordan Dodds	Yeah.
01:38:45.23	Unknown	Thank you.
01:38:46.75	Karen Hollweg	Welcome Linda.
01:38:49.69	Karen Hollweg	Hello, can everyone hear me?
01:38:51.49	Karen Hollweg	Yes, thank you.
01:38:52.72	Linda Deifer	Okay, thank you.
01:38:54.36	Linda Deifer	I urge you to support the appeal and reject the current second floor proposal for the
01:39:00.93	Linda Deifer	The Pocket Agenda, Item 4A.
01:39:04.76	Linda Deifer	It's my understanding that changes were made to Ordinance 1044
01:39:10.04	Linda Deifer	that initially required residential housing on the second floor of our historic district
01:39:15.15	Linda Deifer	and it included an affordable housing formula
01:39:19.15	Linda Deifer	And I'm just so concerned about losing
01:39:22.27	Linda Deifer	affordable housing in our historic district
01:39:25.36	Linda Deifer	And I'm also concerned about the
01:39:29.43	Linda Deifer	peace and quiet and quality of life of long-term neighbors nearby.
01:39:35.98	Linda Deifer	I urge the Council to consider tenancy at 30 days. There should be setbacks, management oversight, parking, noise mitigation,
01:39:45.20	Linda Deifer	And that's just to name a few.
01:39:47.77	Linda Deifer	Most of all, I'm really concerned that as well, that if this moves forward with this second floor residential or rather,
01:39:57.07	Linda Deifer	looks like a short term
01:39:59.36	Linda Deifer	rental short-term
01:40:01.79	Linda Deifer	Uh,
01:40:02.81	Linda Deifer	rental to me
01:40:04.86	Linda Deifer	that we will start losing affordable housing in the historic district. So I also urge the Council to revisit the changes that were made to Ordinance 1044.
01:40:15.43	Linda Deifer	put that back on the agenda for broader transparency.
01:40:19.12	Linda Deifer	and a bit more thoughtful research regarding potential ramifications to Sausalito. Thank you.
01:40:25.93	Unknown	Thank you.
01:40:26.94	Unknown	and Sophia Collier.
01:40:30.84	Linda Deifer	We'll be right back.
01:40:30.89	Safiya	Welcome, Sophia.
01:40:33.52	Safiya	Hi there, it's Sophia Collier, and I wanted to support the project and urge to deny the appeal.
01:40:40.77	Safiya	that I did a long project with a group of people about our historic district. And one of the things that really impressed me was the fact that we need people who are going to invest in our district to revitalize the beautiful buildings and retain them in the form that they are.
01:40:54.66	Unknown	that they are.
01:40:55.86	Safiya	and that we need to have this kind of project. So I urge the council to
01:41:00.59	Safiya	evaluate any particulars that they want to add, like affirming the hours of operation, reasonable occupancy,
01:41:08.72	Safiya	and then clear the way to proceed with this project. I think that these kinds of long
01:41:15.37	Safiya	drawn out processes can be difficult for someone trying to start a hotel like this. And this is a project that we really need here in Sausalito. It will be a great addition to our community. Thank you.
01:41:26.88	Karen Hollweg	and the other side.
01:41:26.98	Karen Hollweg	Thank you so much.
01:41:28.28	Unknown	No further public speakers.
01:41:30.19	Karen Hollweg	All right, I'm going to close public comment. The appellant had roughly a minute left, and the applicant had roughly five minutes left. So appellant, did you have any further comment?
01:41:49.62	Elizabeth Breckes	Yes, thank you.
01:41:51.58	Elizabeth Breckes	Can you speak into the mic? I want to thank you. I want to follow up on a couple of comments that were made by council members. Council member Blossett and had the idea that the nobody should be on the letter, the contract letter that goes out. I would suggest that it should be on the website.
01:41:52.36	Safiya	Can you speak in?
01:41:52.97	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:42:09.44	Elizabeth Breckes	um regarding um occupancy limits this is obviously not my first request but uh i do ask that the council consider a minimum occupancy and below 20 certainly uh
01:42:23.98	Elizabeth Breckes	And if the intent is not to throw parties, there should be no catering up there.
01:42:30.01	Elizabeth Breckes	And, um,
01:42:31.81	Elizabeth Breckes	And that should be a condition of approval because
01:42:35.09	Elizabeth Breckes	what you hear is the applicant saying, trust me,
01:42:38.53	Elizabeth Breckes	This is not my intent. This is not my intent.
01:42:41.38	Elizabeth Breckes	But,
01:42:42.17	Elizabeth Breckes	The problem is,
01:42:43.51	Elizabeth Breckes	This conditional use permit
01:42:45.36	Elizabeth Breckes	will go with the property.
01:42:47.15	Elizabeth Breckes	So it doesn't matter if he sells to somebody with different plans. So again, that would be my request. Thank you. All right, thank you. And I'll invite the applicant
01:42:57.97	Karen Hollweg	Back up.
01:43:06.37	Karen Hollweg	So you have roughly five minutes left. But before that, I do want to ask if you have an answer to my question. So you heard the appellant recommend that you have a maximum occupancy on the deck of 20. What is your suggestion?
01:43:22.94	Kent Ibsen	Well, I feel like we, if there's 14, I have no problems limiting the, the actual people in the residence, like we do in Carmel to 10, cause that's what we can adequately sleep in the, in the actual, um,
01:43:35.62	Kent Ibsen	lofts upstairs, 14. That's what we can, that's what we can sleep. No more than 14 can
01:43:41.37	Kent Ibsen	sleep on property.
01:43:43.53	Unknown	That's how I do it.
01:43:43.75	Kent Ibsen	then.
01:43:43.77	Unknown	then
01:43:44.12	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:43:44.14	Kent Ibsen	again.
01:43:44.14	Unknown	again.
01:43:44.21	Karen Hollweg	guests.
01:43:44.59	Kent Ibsen	That's the hotel guests. Then in total, if each of them have one guest 28.
01:43:50.35	Kent Ibsen	I mean, it seems reasonable.
01:43:53.45	Karen Hollweg	Okay. And then you heard, um,
01:43:56.68	Karen Hollweg	a
01:43:57.67	Karen Hollweg	a suggestion that you don't have catering on the roof deck. Do you intend to allow catering on the roof deck?
01:44:03.95	Kent Ibsen	I own a restaurant right below it. I'm,
01:44:07.61	Karen Hollweg	So do you intend to have people eating outside of your restaurant? Do you intend to?
01:44:11.49	Kent Ibsen	Well, it would be like room service.
01:44:13.82	Kent Ibsen	Correct. It would, I mean, we would, if you're a guest, if you're a guest upstairs and you want me to bring you a bone in. I don't know if you can tell me.
01:44:19.48	Karen Hollweg	I don't know if your hotel has room service. Does your hotel have room service?
01:44:22.80	Kent Ibsen	I will be happy to bring them food.
01:44:26.87	Karen Hollweg	Okay.
01:44:28.74	Karen Hollweg	Um,
01:44:30.83	Karen Hollweg	Okay, and then you have five minutes left.
01:44:32.94	Kent Ibsen	No, if you have any questions of me, that's fine. I don't really have anything else to add.
01:44:37.80	Karen Hollweg	Just to acknowledge the question regarding putting the policies that you would have on the welcome letter somewhere on the website. I'm perfectly fine with that.
01:44:43.49	Kent Ibsen	I I'm perfectly fine with that.
01:44:44.96	Unknown	Thank you.
01:44:44.99	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:44:45.11	Karen Hollweg	Okay, great.
01:44:46.85	Janelle Hoffman	I have a follow up question, Ian, and I just want to clarify that. So I think the concern is that there's going to be events, that it's an event space, an outdoor event space upstairs. And if you're, we're putting the maximum occupancy at 28,000.
01:45:02.05	Janelle Hoffman	outdoor, you know, 28 guests outdoor that there's going to be up to an event of out of an outdoor event at 28 people with food and with catering from your restaurant, admittedly, but and that's what I think the mayor's question was that, and so.
01:45:19.67	Janelle Hoffman	how would we perhaps
01:45:23.53	Janelle Hoffman	put some comfort or wording maybe in the permit that would address that.
01:45:30.22	Kent Ibsen	Yeah, I I'm fine with, I understand. I understand what you're saying. Um,
01:45:30.92	Janelle Hoffman	You understand why I'm-
01:45:34.94	Kent Ibsen	I think that in reality, I'm not going to run this place as the way it was proposed by others. But I think in quite all honesty, it's very hard to police. It's all inside these massive retaining walls. But 14 people, that could be, you know, or 28 people, it could uh, you know, four tables of seven down on the courtyard, 35 feet below the wall. And I don't think that that's unreasonable. If we're, you know, doing a small Napa Valley wine event, if we have wine vendors, there's things, it's just like, that's, that's what you do at hotels. I have no problems capping it at 28 because, you know, can it accommodate more? Probably. Yeah.
01:46:21.23	Kent Ibsen	But.
01:46:22.76	Kent Ibsen	It's not really what we do. We don't do a lot of that. And typically, if there is an event of size, it happens in the restaurant.
01:46:31.82	Kent Ibsen	They either buy out the restaurant or they buy out a section of the restaurant. It they go downstairs. So.
01:46:38.07	Janelle Hoffman	So I think that's what the neighbors are concerned about, that the upstairs courtyard area is meant to be and might be an event space. And that's what the fear is, that the commercial activity downstairs is moving up to the second level.
01:46:56.33	Kent Ibsen	Now, and I appreciate the concern and I, and I, I get it. It's just.
01:46:56.89	Janelle Hoffman	And I appreciate it.
01:47:01.48	Kent Ibsen	What kind of limitations do we put on this? Because this is in a form, in a way, are the neighbors, you know, telling me how to operate and run a successful enterprise. And so I'm okay with language. I just don't want it so constrictive that...
01:47:19.51	Kent Ibsen	that I can't run the business that we created. And as I said, from the very start with the cons, with their council, I'm, I'm very flexible. We can do whatever you would like to do, as long as it doesn't impair the vision of this project or the economic viability of the project. So, and I feel like we have, we have stripped it down to that. I mean, that's where we're at. So
01:47:45.37	Kent Ibsen	If 28 people, you know, but I should be able, we have a very successful restaurant in Carmel. We should be able to take food up to our guests. And I don't know what wordsmithing you do to...
01:47:59.54	Kent Ibsen	to allow us to do that, but also give them comfort. And if we can do that, I'm comfortable with it. I just don't.
01:48:06.36	Kent Ibsen	want to leave this meeting handcuffed from a business perspective. Um, because the one person that did call in, um,
01:48:16.85	Kent Ibsen	it's not the easiest business. It's all I've done since I was nine years old. But so, you know,
01:48:24.38	Kent Ibsen	If someone wants, if a couple want to share a halibut and a bone-in ribeye and a bottle of Krug, I want to be able to bring it up to them.
01:48:32.92	Janelle Hoffman	I don't think anybody's concerned about that. What they're concerned about is some sort of event that would involve something beyond that.
01:48:42.81	Kent Ibsen	Well, we do a lot of self-policing at our own properties. There's things that we just don't allow. And again, I...
01:48:49.59	Kent Ibsen	This is me asking them to trust me, which is that's a huge leap. So and I get that. But for instance, you know, bachelor parties, we don't do bachelorette parties. We don't do.
01:49:03.67	Kent Ibsen	You know, baby showers. Yeah, we do them.
01:49:08.29	Kent Ibsen	We've even done some very small second and third weddings that are just like people coming out and they're going to have 10 or 12 people and they want a private place for dinner. We do that on their patios and on their decks. We manage that internally. And that's a big ask, obviously. But I just don't know how you put that into words and conditions to where I wind up getting handcuffed.
01:49:36.05	Karen Hollweg	Anything further?
01:49:37.70	Karen Hollweg	All right. Thank you.
01:49:37.85	Unknown	Thank you. Thank you.
01:49:38.77	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:49:38.78	Unknown	Thank you.
01:49:38.80	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:49:38.83	Unknown	Thank you.
01:49:38.87	Karen Hollweg	you
01:49:39.02	Karen Hollweg	I do want to ask a planner senior planner mandate a question. So we had a couple of comments about the bus stop. So I did notice that you did cite the outdoor dining issue.
01:49:55.42	Karen Hollweg	Fairly close to the existing bus stop. So I use that bus stop. Many people use that bus stop. What is the plan to preserve the bus stop?
01:50:04.18	Matthew Mandich	Um, the bus stop will be in that location. The benches are going to be removed to accommodate outdoor dining. That was discussed at the HPC hearing back in October, 2024, um,
01:50:16.84	Matthew Mandich	The Historic Preservation Commission was fine with that.
01:50:20.63	Karen Hollweg	I'm not fine with that. So I, you know, I was on crutches and a cane for months, and I relied on those benches. So we installed those benches to accommodate our aging population. So is there an alternative to removing that bench?
01:50:39.90	Matthew Mandich	I do not believe the street frontage would allow for a five-foot passable and the...
01:50:46.60	Matthew Mandich	the outdoor dining in front of the benches. I just don't know if that's feasible.
01:50:49.56	Karen Hollweg	Is there another place to put the bench in close proximity to that?
01:50:53.34	Matthew Mandich	Well, there is a public right of way right there, um, on Excelsior.
01:50:58.35	Matthew Mandich	This is not something
01:51:00.93	Karen Hollweg	Okay, I'm please, please don't.
01:51:03.07	Matthew Mandich	Can't we get some decorum?
01:51:04.24	Karen Hollweg	calling out.
01:51:05.79	Karen Hollweg	Okay, if you continue to call out, I'm going to ask you to leave.
01:51:08.66	Karen Hollweg	So you've had your chance at public comment. I'm addressing your concern.
01:51:13.57	Karen Hollweg	Okay.
01:51:15.11	Brandon Phipps	If I may, Mayor.
01:51:16.40	Karen Hollweg	Yes, thank you. Assistant City Manager, Phipps.
01:51:21.08	Brandon Phipps	Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Staff has discussed this issue with Kevin McGowan, Department Works Director, and we understand that there may be a little bit of a rejiggering and a redesign that we need to evaluate. I consider this an important aspect of ensuring that this project complement the context and, you know, not in any way impact members of the public who want to access public transit. This is something that's important to us. So I'm committed to working with Kevin to finding an optimal space to reposition this bus stop seating. Yeah, that's so that's my commitment of staff.
01:51:56.28	Karen Hollweg	All right. Thank you. Yeah, go ahead, Councilmember Hoffman. What is the...
01:52:01.39	Karen Hollweg	Oh, what?
01:52:02.88	Matthew Mandich	I would the applicant as soon as they
01:52:04.53	Kent Ibsen	I did have one thing to add about the benches at the HPC. It was, there was a late, a lady that it was a part of the organization that donated the benches to that space. And she asked if she could have them and back. And I said, that's fine. So, um,
01:52:20.41	Kent Ibsen	We're not getting rid of them. We've donated them back to-
01:52:23.36	Karen Hollweg	I object to losing the use of the benches. We have elderly residents who rely on public transportation. And I have been myself in that situation with six different surgeries over the years. And so I don't know what other council members say, but I'm asking for a solution to not to allow you to have your outdoor dining, but not lose the benches. But I'm not going to debate this with you, sir.
01:52:27.53	Kent Ibsen	and we,
01:52:50.75	Kent Ibsen	No, no, no, we're not, we're not debating. I was just letting you know that, that, that someone from the HBC. I just wanted to ask your question about that.
01:52:55.18	Sobieski	Thank you.
01:52:55.21	Sobieski	H is the...
01:52:56.57	Karen Hollweg	Let him finish his response, and then you can answer him.
01:52:59.66	Karen Hollweg	Yes.
01:53:00.12	Kent Ibsen	Someone from the HPC had asked about that. I understand.
01:53:02.47	Karen Hollweg	I understand.
01:53:02.87	Kent Ibsen	And I, and I've said, you can take them and put them wherever you'd like. So I just wanted you to know where they were.
01:53:06.65	Karen Hollweg	I just.
01:53:08.30	Kent Ibsen	they weren't just going away.
01:53:09.91	Karen Hollweg	But the opportunity to use a bench
01:53:13.53	Karen Hollweg	where there is a bus stop is going away unless we do something about it. I am bound and determined to do something about it.
01:53:20.35	Karen Hollweg	So go ahead. Um,
01:53:22.68	Karen Hollweg	Councilmember
01:53:23.63	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:53:23.69	Sobieski	It sounds like our assistant sitting manager with the DPW head is looking at
01:53:25.16	Karen Hollweg	So, yeah.
01:53:26.07	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:53:29.31	Sobieski	that issue. So I appreciate the proactiveness on that. But I just had a question for you.
01:53:29.47	Karen Hollweg	Yeah.
01:53:34.80	Sobieski	that one table that we're talking about, it's one table outside
01:53:38.76	Sobieski	with the bus stop if there was no solution and it was impossible to find a location
01:53:45.78	Sobieski	to move that bench in close proximity to the bus stop.
01:53:50.57	Sobieski	is losing that one table.
01:53:52.58	Sobieski	A deal killer?
01:53:53.56	Kent Ibsen	No, it's not a deal killer. And also there's a potential to reconfigure the, the, the dining where maybe. Cause we have to, we have to, um, corral the guests for ABC laws. So we can do a really like a thin planter.
01:54:06.61	Sandra Bushmaker	Sure.
01:54:06.96	Unknown	Thank you.
01:54:09.76	Kent Ibsen	almost like what's that
01:54:12.85	Kent Ibsen	the barrel house out on their patio looking out. So if you can imagine a planter right in front of that, and then we could put the bench in front of that. I mean, it gets choked out. We have seven feet to play with right now. So you put the bench in there, it's going to get to six feet.
01:54:26.30	Kent Ibsen	feet, but there can be a reconfiguration of the space to try to accommodate.
01:54:31.94	Karen Hollweg	Thank you for your flexibility. Appreciate that. And thank you, Assistant City Manager. So I am going to recommend we have that as a condition of approval. All right. I have no further questions. Any other questions from Council Members? All right. With that, I'm going to close the public hearing and bring it up here for a motion and City Council discussion.
01:54:54.48	Karen Hollweg	Each city council member will have three minutes on a rotating basis.
01:55:03.81	Sobieski	Well, I guess I'll start. I think, you know, the world always involves compromise. Times do change. Downtown was really bustling in an early area that I didn't get the privilege to be part of. Anyone who walks around can see the vacant storefronts.
01:55:23.17	Sobieski	The reality is that we have a community interest in having a vital town, not just for the quality of life, but also because of our tax revenue that's generated. Uh.
01:55:34.88	Sobieski	I'll point out that if three people, if three cars park in our city parking lots and pay for a day of parking, admittedly every day, servicing this hotel,
01:55:44.97	Sobieski	you
01:55:45.36	Sobieski	we get an amount of money for each one of those cars. That's an equivalent amount of revenue to Sausalito as if Sausalito got sales tax from two and a half million dollars of sales.
01:55:57.17	Sobieski	Because we get 1.5% of the sales tax ourselves. So the $37,000 that would be generated by day-long parking by hotel guests paying in our lots is a substantial amount of money just right there, not even including the revenue from hotel tax or from restaurants. But this is also a way of doing this in a way that saves a historic building and repurposes it for...
01:56:21.25	Sobieski	the future. It will elevate the quality of our town.
01:56:25.82	Sobieski	I think the noise fears of Mr. Mitchell and Ms. Conn and the other residents are real. I don't think they're making that up. I think they're real fears. I just don't honestly think that they, I think they are fearing the worst case scenario.
01:56:43.46	Sobieski	And I...
01:56:46.30	Sobieski	And I...
01:56:47.27	Sobieski	I think that they, I really would ask them like if,
01:56:51.63	Sobieski	If the consequence of having it be quiet was that the town was dead, would that be a trade-off you'd really want to make?
01:56:58.53	Sobieski	We all in our lives as neighbors here in town,
01:57:02.97	Sobieski	give up a little bit to get something back. And so what my hope would be is that we would all adopt an ethos of that and that
01:57:09.40	Sobieski	Everyone would remember when they gave up something a little bit or even overcame a fear of theirs and ask their neighbor to do the same, because that's how we would come together to build new things.
01:57:19.47	Sobieski	Yes.
01:57:19.76	Sobieski	and have a new era that was as vital and unique as the 60s were to Sausalito, which were different than the 40s here, and different than 20s, and different than when we were farming community.
01:57:30.64	Sobieski	Uh, it's not whether we like change or not. It's how we best manage change.
01:57:36.36	Sobieski	The planning commission that all they do is pay attention to this. And they voted unanimously twice to approve this project. My ask of my neighbors is to reach out to...
01:57:46.20	Sobieski	the developer and to reestablish the good rapport that may have existed at the outset. Don't sue the project, cooperate with it.
01:57:54.67	Sobieski	Build goodwill. I support the idea of limiting the occupancy to 28 and reaffirming the residency requirement and ensuring that there be a place proximate to the bus stop for seating, and if not, lose that one table.
01:58:10.45	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:58:12.34	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
01:58:12.36	Karen Hollweg	Who's next?
01:58:14.28	Karen Hollweg	I can go because we want to go in order. Great. Yeah. Thank you very much. And thank you to everyone who has been involved in this project for the many months that these conversations have been ongoing. And I really appreciate the amount of public engagement and public feedback that we received, numerous letters and lots of people showing up.
01:58:32.98	Karen Hollweg	And that that shows that there's a genuine excitement, interest and as well concerned. So I just want to say to the nearby neighbors who have expressed concern about
01:58:43.59	Karen Hollweg	the location and the potential for noise, you know, we, those, those are,
01:58:47.76	Karen Hollweg	heard and we are, I think that based on what Ken has said tonight about changing the rules.
01:58:53.85	Karen Hollweg	related to limiting the occupancy, about including specific guidelines on the website and in letters, and also having someone available 24 hours a day. To me, as someone who's worked in hospitality, it's really clear to me that
01:59:05.53	Karen Hollweg	He is concerned about the noise as well as about the well-being of the property as a whole and about keeping the property safe.
01:59:12.60	Karen Hollweg	intact and if there was a wild party it would definitely limit
01:59:16.97	Karen Hollweg	and increase costs.
01:59:19.00	Karen Hollweg	But I do think that those things should be taken into consideration.
01:59:22.15	Karen Hollweg	and be a condition as mentioned. And the occupancy limit is an important piece of that.
01:59:27.64	Karen Hollweg	and
01:59:28.28	Karen Hollweg	And I think that this should be an ongoing conversation in terms of making sure that neighbors are heard and can weigh in if there are issues, if they haven't heard back from a code enforcement officer for some reason. And every time we have a project, it's part of our role from the dais to make sure that we are addressing and listening to...
01:59:46.81	Karen Hollweg	to.
01:59:47.09	Karen Hollweg	neighbors concerns and then we have to make a decision about
01:59:50.10	Karen Hollweg	the change to the town or the overall
01:59:53.81	Karen Hollweg	Um,
01:59:54.82	Karen Hollweg	shape of the town as a whole. And so while there are concerns, I think there's also a lot of excitement and a lot of opportunity around what this property will bring to our downtown. And also it's a unique opportunity to maintain the footprint of a historic building. I think that there are a lot of developers who would come in and do whatever they could to change the way the historic building works. And that's actually the opposite of what's been done here. The footprint is going to be essentially exactly the same. So that allows us to have a continuous historic district while adding a restaurant and three hotel rooms. So it's a
02:00:27.49	Karen Hollweg	It's a great way for us to have, in many ways, the best of both worlds for people who are concerned about change and don't necessarily want to see it as much and for people who are excited to have more economic opportunity downtown. So I would welcome the...
02:00:40.49	Karen Hollweg	the
02:00:41.92	Karen Hollweg	the conditions for approval that council member cox has addressed and brought up and i would again continue dialogue to make sure that there is an opportunity for neighbors to
02:00:50.85	Karen Hollweg	Continue conversation so that if something comes up,
02:00:53.48	Karen Hollweg	You know, they have access to the concierge, but at this stage in the project, I think that given how involved everyone has been and how much work the hotel developer has done as well as city staff, I'm ready to deny the appeal and approve the project. Thank you.
02:01:12.19	Karen Hollweg	Vice Mayor.
02:01:13.06	Karen Hollweg	I'm not sure.
02:01:13.16	Unknown	Yeah.
02:01:13.19	Unknown	Um,
02:01:13.61	Unknown	I agree with what's just been said and with the conditions that have been suggested. I think they're good ones. The one I struggle with, and I can't find a way to condition it, how do you protect against excessive noise? We have a noise ordinance. We have ability, perhaps, to enforce it late at night. I've had situations myself in different locations where I've lived, very near hotels or very near places where there are wild parties, to have to ask people to be quiet. And if that doesn't work, I call the police. It doesn't always work, and I'm very sympathetic with that. However, this is the downtown. This is the commercial district. And as one who slept in Beanie Del Mar Park, probably in 1968, I can tell you, I did inhale, but...
02:01:59.60	Unknown	But no, I'm serious. How do you control these things? The solution then was to put a fence around being a Del Mar Park.
02:02:07.97	Unknown	I think we've come a long way since then. Now, there may be problems in the future that hopefully the neighbors can work out with the owner of this establishment. I'm optimistic. He knows what he's doing. He doesn't want people who are seeking to rent rooms there to have excessive noise either. It works both ways. So I'm prepared to deny the appeal. I'll make one last comment. I heard a couple of comments that I didn't like hearing. I heard a swear word I didn't like hearing. I heard the concept that there was garbage in and garbage out. It wasn't garbage. We had a very fine staff work.
02:02:47.05	Unknown	When it first came to this body, we saw some issues that we sent back to the planning commission to try to remedy with another full blown hearing. I think they did a good job. Did they meet everyone's concern very hard to do. I think they've done their best and I'm prepared to deny the appeal and hopefully this whole thing.
02:03:04.80	Unknown	can go forward.
02:03:06.02	Unknown	and we can bring people together to solve the remaining problems that are sure to occur from time to time. Thank you.
02:03:12.60	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you. Councilmember Hoffman.
02:03:14.28	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you.
02:03:14.98	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you.
02:03:15.26	Janelle Hoffman	So one of the things that was distressing was the first time this came to the council and that the level of negative discourse was already ramped up between the two factions, or if you want to call it that, when it came the first time. And there were people that were already attacking
02:03:39.70	Janelle Hoffman	each other when it came up to the council. And so the level of discourse between residents had already reached a fever pitch, which was distressing, I think.
02:03:54.41	Janelle Hoffman	because
02:03:55.56	Janelle Hoffman	We want people to listen to each other when they eat.
02:03:58.48	Janelle Hoffman	even at the planning commission level.
02:04:00.59	Janelle Hoffman	and listen to the concerns of your neighbors. And that hadn't happened. That wasn't the dynamic when it came to us the first time. And it wasn't that dynamic, unfortunately, I think amongst some of us here today. And so I think, you know, when we listen to our neighbors and their valid concerns about noise, these are actual concerns that bear merit. The change in the use of this building
02:04:28.67	Janelle Hoffman	is new and essentially what is happening is
02:04:32.77	Janelle Hoffman	is that the commercial use on bridgeway is being elevated
02:04:37.83	Janelle Hoffman	up a story and so the commercial use is being elevated from the ground level which everybody knows along bridgeway and it's being elevated up to the second floor level with an open air and so that is causing concern amongst the neighbors on that second level into the open air up into the street and up as it goes up that to that level to the del monte and to miss con Khan and the other people who live up there because they came and talked to us about that. That's it's fair to air those concerns in this hearing. This is a public hearing and it's fair for us to sit up here and accept that and it's fair for other people who appear at these hearings to accept that and to listen to that in a reasoned way and to assimilate that into your understanding.
02:05:29.06	Janelle Hoffman	um we all i don't think anybody would look at this project and say this isn't a fantastic project for sausalito and god bless somebody who wants to come and try to save this beautiful building for sausalito no doubt it is a challenge um the puzzle of trying to work this thing out and so i think we all aesthetically agree with that and nobody i don't think has come to us and said that this is a horrible project and that we don't like it. And so we're all sort of trying to figure out how to move forward on this. The issue, the big issue, the problem that I'm struggling with is the ordinance change. And the ordinance change that changed these units on the second floor from the
02:06:11.10	Janelle Hoffman	residential to commercial.
02:06:13.14	Janelle Hoffman	Not only these units, but all the second floor units. And I have more comments, but I'll
02:06:19.18	Unknown	All right.
02:06:22.34	Karen Hollweg	I don't think I'll get all mine in three minutes either, but I will start off by saying, I understand the noise concerns. I moved here in my early twenties and we had Sarky's discotheque and we had Houlihan's and we had the no name. And when the no name closed, people looked for house parties. And so it was definitely a livelier town back in the eighties.
02:06:50.42	Karen Hollweg	than it is now. And so that's why I've been asking some questions and seeking conditions of approval to
02:06:57.44	Karen Hollweg	address some of those concerns.
02:07:01.32	Karen Hollweg	So, um,
02:07:03.38	Karen Hollweg	I will say that up here, I think each of us tries to do the right thing for the right reason. We are not selling ourselves down the river.
02:07:13.45	Karen Hollweg	We have I've had no communications with the applicant other than to say hello at our last hearing.
02:07:18.94	Karen Hollweg	And I personally refuse to be influenced by the promise of an appeal. That is just, you know, that's like me coming in and saying, I'm going to vote this way no matter what. So we're going to do the right thing for the right reason from this dais.
02:07:34.36	Karen Hollweg	I appreciate the appellant pointing out the flaws in the initial application because we had an opportunity to address and correct any potential defects in the initial application, I believe.
02:07:47.88	Karen Hollweg	that the project has been bettered by the opportunity to go back, retool,
02:07:53.35	Karen Hollweg	and come back and address some of the challenges.
02:07:57.13	Karen Hollweg	I want to.
02:07:58.39	Karen Hollweg	be very respectful of the fact that this project has been pending since September of 2023. It takes an awful lot of work to conceive the manner in which you can renovate an historic building and be respectful of it, which is one thing that the general plan does require. And so I'm very grateful for that effort by the applicant.
02:08:24.46	Karen Hollweg	In my opinion, we did not change rules specifically for this project. The ordinance that everyone is referring to was an inclusionary ordinance that I helped to draft back in 2010 as part of our housing element. And data reveals after two full hearings that that inclusionary ordinance was actually impeding housing. And so we voted by a 4-1 vote after two hearings on it, two staff reports to adopt that ordinance. But it applies to all of Sausalito, not to just this specific project.
02:08:36.78	Unknown	and the
02:09:02.21	Karen Hollweg	I am going to enunciate conditions of approval in connection with the
02:09:09.03	Karen Hollweg	resolution to have a maximum occupancy of the roof deck and spa of 28.
02:09:21.23	Karen Hollweg	to include in the welcome letter a prohibition and on the website
02:09:27.85	Karen Hollweg	Okay, I'll continue.
02:09:30.85	Karen Hollweg	It's not a motion. So I'll come back. Do you have more?
02:09:36.45	Karen Hollweg	I've got my notes. I'm fine.
02:09:38.88	Karen Hollweg	Do you have more?
02:09:42.53	Karen Hollweg	Okay. All right. I'll take my second three minutes now if that's the pleasure of the council. Okay. I have more. Okay. Sure. Go ahead. And then I'll address. Yeah.
02:09:45.72	Janelle Hoffman	Pleasure of the council. Okay.
02:09:52.96	Janelle Hoffman	So I'll finish my comments. So the ordinance change had two aspects to it. One was that it essentially relieved the
02:10:02.68	Janelle Hoffman	requirement for second floor residential throughout the Central Commercial District, which applies to this project.
02:10:08.16	Janelle Hoffman	And it also really changed the
02:10:11.82	Janelle Hoffman	the calculation for inclusionary housing requirement
02:10:15.05	Janelle Hoffman	which would have required at least one of these units be affordable. And so this project with the three units that it has, one of those units would have required to be inclusionary housing, which would have been affordable, which probably, which would have been the studio unit.
02:10:31.06	Janelle Hoffman	And the other two would have been family housing units. So it would have been a one bedroom apartment and a two bedroom apartment.
02:10:36.63	Janelle Hoffman	So by changing the second floor residential requirement in the Central Commercial District, we've now lost three
02:10:44.26	Janelle Hoffman	the requirement for these to be three residential housing units. Now,
02:10:48.86	Janelle Hoffman	We all know that the economics of this project probably would have required us
02:10:54.25	Janelle Hoffman	to do something different and come up with some kind of variance, which is why when it came to us, we tried to work out some sort of agreement or some sort of
02:11:02.92	Janelle Hoffman	method by which we could get this project through as a hotel.
02:11:08.61	Janelle Hoffman	I think the council would have been supported of that or some sort of method by which, um,
02:11:14.33	Janelle Hoffman	to get this done.
02:11:15.68	Janelle Hoffman	But what came back was a wholesale change in the entire
02:11:19.14	Janelle Hoffman	commercial district.
02:11:20.98	Janelle Hoffman	And,
02:11:21.80	Janelle Hoffman	and and also the recalculation of the inclusionary housing project across all of the five commercial districts, so one project tremendous change throughout Sausalito with regard to our inclusionary housing project.
02:11:38.73	Janelle Hoffman	And...
02:11:39.52	Janelle Hoffman	second floor residential
02:11:41.04	Janelle Hoffman	in the Central Commercial District. So no fault, by the way, of the project sponsors. And I'm sure had no...
02:11:55.28	Janelle Hoffman	you know, not foreseeable by them. So I'm just saying that this was a byproduct of this project.
02:12:01.81	Janelle Hoffman	I would hope that our council would go back and revisit this again, especially the loss of residential in the Central Commercial District.
02:12:11.79	Janelle Hoffman	Um, I, uh,
02:12:14.52	Janelle Hoffman	I will support this project, but I will make a motion later that we revisit
02:12:21.59	Janelle Hoffman	the amendment, revisit the
02:12:25.17	Janelle Hoffman	potential amendments to 1044 to restore residential in the Central Commercial District, especially given our conversations later on this evening.
02:12:36.51	Karen Hollweg	Can I ask a question?
02:12:37.32	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:12:37.42	Janelle Hoffman	Go ahead.
02:12:37.61	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:12:37.67	Unknown	Thank you.
02:12:37.98	Karen Hollweg	Director, or I guess Deputy City Manager Phipps, did we, we received a couple of applications for this location, correct, or initial letters of interest?
02:12:48.35	Brandon Phipps	Well, during the sale process, we did speak with a few folks who were interested.
02:12:53.50	Karen Hollweg	And were any of them interested in building housing?
02:12:56.47	Brandon Phipps	Out of the folks that I met with, I recall no discussions about residential development at that property. And part of the reason for that, I imagine, is the cost prohibitive nature of building new housing units in a historic structure.
02:13:11.88	Karen Hollweg	Which is exactly why we changed the ordinance in the first place.
02:13:14.44	Karen Hollweg	What?
02:13:14.75	Brandon Phipps	That was one of the reasons for doing so, for allowing exceptions in order to maintain historic resources in the historic downtown. Yes.
02:13:25.06	Karen Hollweg	Thank you. I just wanted to clarify.
02:13:26.05	Brandon Phipps	All right.
02:13:26.07	Karen Hollweg	Okay.
02:13:26.63	Rudin	And may or may I address some issues that have been raised during discussion as well as
02:13:31.37	Rudin	during the course of the hearing about
02:13:33.77	Rudin	the provisions of the prior ordinance as opposed to the current ordinance.
02:13:38.83	Karen Hollweg	Thank you, the attorney, please.
02:13:39.13	Rudin	Thank you.
02:13:40.77	Rudin	Yeah, so...
02:13:42.22	Rudin	Prior to Ordinance 05-2025 being adopted by the Council, the Municipal Code had a provision authorizing the Planning Commission to waive
02:13:51.65	Rudin	the requirements for a second story residential. That language used to read, a waiver of specific requirements in this section pursuant to SMC 1044-010E shall only be considered in the following two instances.
02:14:05.44	Rudin	To allow for an exception to subsection of this section, which requires that all uses above the first
02:14:11.52	Rudin	street or ground level of all existing and new structures shall be residential to allow for upper level commercial uses, period. So there was an opportunity for the Planning Commission to waive that requirement.
02:14:23.51	Rudin	That section went on to read the expansion of existing businesses within the same or adjacent site
02:14:29.42	Rudin	or the allowance of small commercial uses up to a maximum of 1,000 feet per parcel may be special situations considered by the Planning Commission when evaluating an exception.
02:14:39.46	Rudin	to subsection B1 of this section. So that was a non-exhaustive list.
02:14:44.34	Rudin	One of the things that Ordinance 05-2025 did was actually make it an exhaustive list and limit the circumstances in which the Planning Commission could impose that waiver.
02:14:54.51	Rudin	of the residential requirements. There's been discussion about the ordinance violating the provisions of the general plan.
02:15:02.77	Rudin	I don't think that is the case. And that is because the general plan says that we must allow
02:15:08.45	Rudin	residential construction in our Central Commercial District.
02:15:12.25	Rudin	our city code still allows it.
02:15:14.32	Rudin	residential construction is at the option and at the desire of the developer. And one of the things that the ordinance did was to allow development of small residential
02:15:25.39	Rudin	projects without imposing the requirements of including at least a minimum of one inclusionary unit, which potentially would not have been required for this project, even under the old ordinance, because all residential construction requirements could have been waived under that prior provision and language.
02:15:40.07	Karen Hollweg	I'm sorry. Wait, I'm going to let the city attorney finish his comment, and then you can ask questions.
02:15:45.04	Janelle Hoffman	I thought he was done.
02:15:45.24	Rudin	Yeah, I'm finished. Thank you.
02:15:47.25	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:15:47.26	Janelle Hoffman	Okay.
02:15:47.53	Rudin	Okay.
02:15:47.79	Janelle Hoffman	Sorry, so city attorney, so are you saying that under the prior code or existing code, prior and current existing code, we could have done a waiver without changing our ordinance?
02:15:59.75	Rudin	I think arguably, yes. The prior code did have a number of issues. I don't think that the prior language was the best in practice. And I had made recommendations to the city council to review and revisit making those changes. The changes did come before the council, which ultimately adopted them.
02:16:18.89	Janelle Hoffman	So we didn't have to change our code in order to approve this project.
02:16:23.16	Rudin	I would say for the purposes of today's discussion, no.
02:16:26.60	Rudin	you did not have to change your code, and so the code changes were not strictly necessary for the council to approve it.
02:16:32.73	Rudin	That being said...
02:16:32.79	Janelle Hoffman	That being said,
02:16:34.16	Janelle Hoffman	Was that information ever passed, provided to the city council?
02:16:38.12	Rudin	Yes, it was provided as part of a confidential memorandum.
02:16:38.60	Janelle Hoffman	It was good.
02:16:42.41	Rudin	I'd imagine how to
02:16:43.07	Karen Hollweg	I'm not going to have you talk about confidential memorandums, city attorney. However, it was absolutely discussed during the first hearing.
02:16:53.25	Janelle Hoffman	And then our hearing was suspended.
02:17:00.60	Karen Hollweg	Councilmember, do you have a question? Your comments, you've had your comments, so any other questions?
02:17:01.41	Janelle Hoffman	question.
02:17:12.89	Janelle Hoffman	I'm a bit perplexed. I'm a bit perplexed at this moment because my understanding was the code was changed specifically for this project because that was required.
02:17:30.50	Janelle Hoffman	under our code, that the only option that we had was to change our code to legally
02:17:38.84	Janelle Hoffman	approve this project but now you're telling me that at some point the council was informed
02:17:43.67	Janelle Hoffman	that we were not required to change our code in order to approve this project.
02:17:49.42	Karen Hollweg	Councilmember, I'm going to again caution you against discussing
02:17:53.52	Karen Hollweg	in public.
02:17:54.67	Karen Hollweg	discussions with the city attorney that weren't held publicly so please confine your comments to discussions that were held publicly. Okay, I will remind you that in the that it was residents who stood up during the hearing on the ordinance who said we were changing it for this project, but that was not what the staff report said and that was not certainly my understanding of why we were. I asked.
02:18:01.54	Unknown	publicly.
02:18:01.98	Unknown	I will remember.
02:18:16.51	Janelle Hoffman	I asked that question of the city attorney at one of the public hearings that we had.
02:18:21.77	Janelle Hoffman	And I think it was in the May hearing.
02:18:24.25	Rudin	I will say that we...
02:18:24.83	Janelle Hoffman	I will say that
02:18:25.65	Janelle Hoffman	My first hearing.
02:18:26.85	Rudin	I will say that in response to the city council direction and remand to the
02:18:31.98	Rudin	Planning Commission.
02:18:33.35	Rudin	because the council did remand this matter back to the planning commission with direction to staff to review.
02:18:38.31	Rudin	the existing ordinance in light of some of the arguments raised by the appellant.
02:18:42.14	Unknown	We did review it.
02:18:42.16	Rudin	We did review.
02:18:43.44	Unknown	Yeah.
02:18:44.10	Rudin	this entire code section,
02:18:46.39	Rudin	And there were a number of changes, some of them
02:18:49.83	Rudin	you know, that were caused by study of the project, but many of which were not necessarily related.
02:18:55.17	Rudin	And I will just comment at this point that,
02:18:59.01	Rudin	Um,
02:19:01.02	Rudin	While I think that the council plausibly could have approved the project under the prior ordinance, I think that.
02:19:08.26	Rudin	It was important for municipal code language to be changed to ensure that
02:19:13.54	Rudin	the laws of the city were sufficiently clear and followed
02:19:17.85	Rudin	what I believed to be intent of the existing code language as it existed prior to 05.2025.
02:19:26.81	Unknown	Okay, thank you for that.
02:19:27.08	Rudin	Thank you.
02:19:27.26	Rudin	Substantively, the one major issue was, of course, the affordable housing requirement, which we did review
02:19:34.17	Rudin	Um,
02:19:35.18	Rudin	And the council decided to substantively modify.
02:19:39.70	Karen Hollweg	Okay.
02:19:40.61	Karen Hollweg	I'm going to move on.
02:19:43.95	Karen Hollweg	um,
02:19:44.83	Karen Hollweg	I was enunciating conditions of approval for a motion if someone ends up making the motion.
02:19:51.21	Karen Hollweg	the
02:19:53.79	Karen Hollweg	Maximum occupancy of the deck and spa is 28. Catering will be performed by
02:20:02.92	Karen Hollweg	the pocket and not outside caterers. The welcome letter and the website will
02:20:10.41	Karen Hollweg	contain instructions prohibiting parties
02:20:16.17	Karen Hollweg	The.
02:20:19.41	Karen Hollweg	And the we've already so there will be a 24 hour concierge on site from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. during the week and 12 midnight on.
02:20:34.36	Karen Hollweg	Saturday.
02:20:39.50	Karen Hollweg	Okay, those are my conditions of approval. Did anyone record one that I haven't mentioned?
02:20:45.24	Karen Hollweg	Senior Planner Mandich.
02:20:47.32	Matthew Mandich	Excuse me, Mayor. I'm sorry to interrupt, but you mentioned an on-site 24-hour welcome. No.
02:20:52.35	Karen Hollweg	No, I said a on site 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. and 12 midnight on Saturdays. That's what the staff report said.
02:21:00.63	Matthew Mandich	For on site, yeah. For on site.
02:21:01.33	Karen Hollweg	Yeah.
02:21:01.53	Karen Hollweg	For honest.
02:21:03.00	Karen Hollweg	24 hour availability.
02:21:05.26	Karen Hollweg	and that the contact information for the 24-hour concierge will be on the website
02:21:13.22	Karen Hollweg	so that a resident concerned about noise or any other issue will be able to contact the 24-hour concierge.
02:21:20.29	Matthew Mandich	Understood. That will be in there.
02:21:21.96	Sobieski	So the on-site is till 10 p.m. on weekdays? 11 p.m. on weekdays. 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Saturday.
02:21:25.93	Karen Hollweg	11 p.m. on weekdays.
02:21:28.83	Matthew Mandich	Correct. For the hours of the restaurant. That's during the hours of restaurant operation. Yes.
02:21:28.93	Sobieski	Thank you.
02:21:28.98	Sobieski	Correct.
02:21:29.32	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:21:31.80	Sobieski	But I'm...
02:21:31.92	Rudin	Great.
02:21:32.59	Sobieski	Yes. It's reaffirming it.
02:21:33.62	Matthew Mandich	Thank you.
02:21:33.64	Sobieski	Thank you.
02:21:33.67	Matthew Mandich	Thank you.
02:21:33.84	Sobieski	Thank you.
02:21:33.93	Matthew Mandich	Right.
02:21:34.01	Sobieski	All right.
02:21:34.03	Rudin	All right.
02:21:34.06	Matthew Mandich	Okay, just wanted to click.
02:21:35.02	Rudin	Mayor, if you may indulge me here,
02:21:37.98	Rudin	We have existing conditions of approval that are set forth as attachment two to the resolution proposed for adoption this evening.
02:21:46.89	Rudin	If I can read some changes into the record and perhaps you can indicate whether they meet your
02:21:53.52	Rudin	suggested conditions. We have a condition.
02:21:56.83	Karen Hollweg	One moment, city attorney, before you do that, I also would like to change all of the conditions of approval to reference the...
02:22:05.50	Karen Hollweg	Spa as well as the hotel and restaurant. So I see the assistance city man. Are you coming to speak?
02:22:19.91	Brandon Phipps	I just had one other comment based on the previous discussions as related to the region of the outdoor dining plan in order to allow pedestrian seating access to support the approximate bus stop. If council wishes to add a condition in that respect, we would support that.
02:22:39.94	Karen Hollweg	So I was going to give direction to staff on that, but I'm happy to enunciate it as a condition. So have you got that one in mind, city attorney?
02:22:46.46	Rudin	I do. I have some proposed language. So with regards to the...
02:22:49.56	Karen Hollweg	Wait, so my question did not get answered about the spa. I want to say...
02:22:55.37	Karen Hollweg	Hotel, restaurant, and spa, or restaurant, hotel, and spa.
02:22:59.42	Rudin	So we have a different conditional use permit for the restaurant. We have a conditional use permit for the hotel use, where the council is making findings in attachment one. So we can indicate that those findings are being made for the hotel use, including amenities and spa.
02:23:16.81	Karen Hollweg	Yeah, so, and I'd like to do that. There's also findings for the parking waiver conditional use permit that make reference to the hotel and restaurant use permit.
02:23:25.44	Karen Hollweg	Anyway, wherever we mention hotel and restaurant, I would like to add spa and amenities where appropriate. Okay.
02:23:34.65	Rudin	Yeah, certainly we can make those changes to the resolution. I don't think we would need to modify the minor use permit findings or the signed permit findings to make that happening or the certificate of appropriateness findings.
02:23:47.86	Rudin	Um,
02:23:48.98	Rudin	So we have on attachment two existing conditions of approval.
02:23:53.94	Rudin	for hotel use, there is a requirement that
02:23:57.55	Rudin	The current condition reads a hotel concierge or welcome ambassador shall be on site during operating hours of the restaurant to assist hotel guests. This concierge or welcome ambassador shall be available for contact by hotel guests.
02:24:10.06	Rudin	and the public would be the addition there.
02:24:13.57	Unknown	Yes.
02:24:13.78	Rudin	24 hours a day for any issues that arise outside of the restaurant's operating hours.
02:24:18.86	Rudin	for hotel use condition number three.
02:24:22.64	Rudin	We have an existing condition that says use of the hotel common air
02:24:26.24	Rudin	Common area slash amenity area, including elevator decks, will be prohibited from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m. And use of these spaces must comply with the city's noise ordinances set forth in SMC 1216.
02:24:38.59	Rudin	I would recommend that you add
02:24:41.22	Rudin	Total occupancy of elevated decks and spa shall not exceed 28 persons and outside catering shall not be allowed.
02:24:47.85	Rudin	And then for outdoor dining, we have condition six. Outdoor dining use will be restricted for a total of 16 seats for outdoor dining on the sidewalk adjacent to 715 Bridgeway. The applicant shall always maintain a minimum of five foot clearance of the sidewalk for pedestrian flow and access. I would recommend that we add to that the 16 seats allowed under the minor use permit is contingent on the relocation.
02:25:12.41	Rudin	of the existing benches to a location proximate to the adjacent bus stop and the ability to maintain the five foot clearance.
02:25:20.52	Unknown	That's fine with me.
02:25:21.60	Unknown	Good with everyone else.
02:25:22.03	Sobieski	Oh.
02:25:22.52	Sobieski	Mayor?
02:25:23.26	Unknown	Yeah.
02:25:23.33	Sobieski	With those modifications on...
02:25:25.98	Sobieski	Thank you.
02:25:26.25	Sobieski	the legal paperwork.
02:25:28.66	Sobieski	Can I make a motion to deny the appeal and approve the project as adjusted or?
02:25:33.62	Karen Hollweg	Yeah, will you read the recommended motion?
02:25:36.20	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:25:36.22	Sobieski	So unless you give it to me.
02:25:40.03	Sobieski	The recommended motion with the adjustments that the city attorney just read into the record.
02:25:45.72	Sobieski	Is that the city council adopt a resolution, which is an attachment one finding the project exempt from sequa denying the appeal and upholding the planning Commission's decision. Project ID to zero to four dash zero zero one four seven for a new joint hotel and restaurant use in the historic building at 715 bridgeway APN zero 65 dash zero 71 dash 34.
02:26:09.14	Janelle Hoffman	Is there a second?
02:26:10.64	Unknown	Second.
02:26:11.33	Janelle Hoffman	Mayor, I'd like to make an alternate motion.
02:26:13.90	Unknown	Sure.
02:26:14.80	Janelle Hoffman	I'd like to make an alternate motion, an identical motion, but my alternate motion is that we not rely on Ordinance 10.44, but that the motion be made on the variance that the approval be made on the variance as outlined by the city attorney.
02:26:33.48	Janelle Hoffman	Is there a second to that motion?
02:26:34.83	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:26:37.59	Karen Hollweg	All right, that motion fails for a lack of a second. I am going to finish making my comments.
02:26:42.47	Karen Hollweg	that address the, in part, will address some of the issues raised by the appellant. I want to be sure that our record is clear in addressing those. So the city attorney already addressed the general plan argument. There was also an argument that did not comply, that this project does not comply with our housing element.
02:27:04.37	Karen Hollweg	Um,
02:27:06.74	Karen Hollweg	I disagree because our housing element, the policy LU4, says first floor uses should be retail commercial with general office and residential uses on this upper floor. It doesn't say they must in all instances or for every project. And we have other existing uses in the Central Commercial District as outlined by Senior Planner Mandich where that is not the case.
02:27:30.67	Karen Hollweg	In addition,
02:27:32.32	Karen Hollweg	In the CC zoning,
02:27:35.22	Karen Hollweg	District residential conversion is permitted with a minor use permit. This suggests to me that the housing element acknowledges that a non-residential use is allowed on the second floor.
02:27:47.35	Karen Hollweg	Further, the zoning code does not mandate that all new construction on the second floor include residential units and so therefore I'm, I am not convinced that this project is inconsistent with our housing element.
02:28:01.48	Karen Hollweg	but,
02:28:04.18	Karen Hollweg	Karen Hollweg, In addition, if this if the second floor use was residential as requested by the appellant the full time residents name at who our neighbors would still.
02:28:18.20	Karen Hollweg	have potential consequences from that residential use because residents would still be allowed to use that outdoor space. It could include two fire pits, a hot tub and a patio.
02:28:28.26	Karen Hollweg	Both residents and visitors are constrained by our applicable noise limits, whether they are hotel users or permanent residents. And so if permanent residents were there, there would be no management required. I am convinced that the 24-hour concierge, the limitation on the number of guests, the limitation on the hours for the outside patio are all protections to assure that there's no adverse impact, no cognizable or significant adverse impact to the neighbors by this project.
02:29:04.93	Karen Hollweg	And then the last thing I wanted to address was the setback.
02:29:08.52	Karen Hollweg	um,
02:29:10.40	Karen Hollweg	As a planning commissioner for eight years, I acknowledge that we rarely grant variances, but where there is a reason to do so, we have done so historically. And in this case, there are colorable grounds for the setback based on the topography, the existing excavation, and most importantly, the efforts to preserve the existing historic structure. I believe those justify the granting of a variance. All of this is laid out in our findings and in our
02:29:46.71	Karen Hollweg	conditions of approval, I just wanted to
02:29:48.87	Karen Hollweg	Um,
02:29:49.53	Karen Hollweg	personally address them.
02:29:52.09	Karen Hollweg	I'm going to continue unless anyone else has. I just have a couple of other comments.
02:29:54.05	Bonnie McGregor	have a couple of
02:29:57.58	Karen Hollweg	I will say that I was largely involved in putting together our housing element. This site was not one of the sites designated for our housing element. We did not depend on this site or second floor residential at this site as a part of our 724 unit housing element.
02:30:20.50	Karen Hollweg	um,
02:30:22.87	Karen Hollweg	And then as for parking, so many of our residents do rely on our parking. Many of our downtown businesses are not able to
02:30:31.75	Karen Hollweg	provide the requisite parking outlined in the zoning ordinance, but they do provide it by purchasing parking from the city and by making parking available to their guests. And, you know, many of our restaurants rely on lots one, lot two, lot three, lot four. And so I'm also convinced that we have met our requirements for the parking. And then as for noise and enjoyment and consternation of the neighbors, I'm very sensitive to your concerns.
02:31:06.14	Karen Hollweg	Bob Mitchell is right. You know, we did close Vigno del Mar Park at one point because of its uses. I'm happy that we were able to reopen it. But if the 24-hour concierge is not an adequate remedy, we can revisit this project at any time through our code enforcement. When code enforcement is unable to achieve a solution, they bring it back to us. We had that happen just a few months ago, where code enforcement brought to us an issue that had been unable to be resolved through fines and other code enforcement efforts. So we do have that mechanism. And that's obviously also over and above the calling of the police. So those were my substantive comments on the project. Thank you for indulging me.
02:31:56.48	Sobieski	Maybe, Mayor, I might just add something. Well, first, I want to acknowledge my friend Jill. I would be happy to support a future agenda item on 1044, which I know you care about. I thought we talked about it already at a meeting. I didn't support.
02:32:12.38	Sobieski	the motion, but I'm happy to talk about it more. I obviously have a different point of view about the benefits of that for adding housing. But I think in-
02:32:19.82	Sobieski	in fairness in the future, if that's something we want to bring back
02:32:22.97	Sobieski	about the many things we need to bring back. I would support that. But I kind of wanted just to really turn to my neighbors who are
02:32:30.09	Sobieski	disaffected and who bothered to show up and are worried about the noise. Again, I mean, what I say, I really hear you.
02:32:36.00	Sobieski	And I get it. I get that you're afraid about
02:32:39.07	Sobieski	a scenario that you think is
02:32:41.32	Sobieski	plausible. I called it worst case.
02:32:43.24	Sobieski	But that's not to dismiss it. I think you're worried that this actually might end up happening.
02:32:47.69	Sobieski	uh,
02:32:52.45	Sobieski	The reality is that the best way, as I think a lot of us have talked about at this point, because Kent is going to be your neighbor, is at this moment there's a choice. I know we've gotten a multi-page letter from Ms. Berkus with the structure for what could be claims in a lawsuit against the developer. But this is a chance to maybe not go down that route, but instead reach out and create some bonds of neighborliness. I know suing each other is a bit of the Sausalito way,
02:33:21.31	Sobieski	And I don't mean to get on the horse about this, but I see it in my own neighbors where I live.
02:33:26.39	Sobieski	is.
02:33:27.01	Sobieski	to go to the mat, to the boxing ring right away.
02:33:30.88	Sobieski	So we've done a bunch of rounds for two years on this.
02:33:33.82	Sobieski	My call to you, my ask of you, Pastor Paul,
02:33:37.04	Sobieski	I'm Susan of Eric.
02:33:38.67	Sobieski	of Mr. Mitchell, of Ms. Khan, is to maybe give neighborliness a chance to see if that's actually the best mechanism to attend to the very concern you care about, which is noise and management.
02:33:48.78	Sobieski	because a lot could be done with goodwill and
02:33:52.11	Sobieski	engagement that no amount of laws could possibly prevent. So,
02:33:57.56	Sobieski	If at this point with the appeal denied, you engage with your neighbor and try to make the best of it, then there might be a lot of goodwill that is reciprocated that pays off. Pursuing a legal approach will have its own course, but it misses the opportunity for that. When you find the run of options to reach out and expect goodwill is not to really give up much. So it's just a suggestion that I offer here from the dais in my role as trying to be of service.
02:34:29.99	Sobieski	So those are my two cents.
02:34:32.27	Karen Hollweg	Thank you. Okay, with that, I'm going to call the question. City Clerk.
02:34:32.42	Sobieski	THANK YOU.
02:34:38.11	Unknown	Councilmember Blaustein.
02:34:40.52	Janelle Hoffman	Yes.
02:34:40.79	Unknown	Councilmember Hoffman.
02:34:43.69	Janelle Hoffman	I'm voting no because this should be approved on a variance and not on an ordinance change that does away with second floor residential in the entire district, just to be clear. I think it's a great project, but I'm voting no for that reason.
02:34:57.73	Unknown	Councilmember Sobieski. Yes. Vice Mayor Woodside. Yes.
02:35:02.32	Unknown	Mayor Cox.
02:35:03.22	Karen Hollweg	Yes, that motion carries for one.
02:35:05.80	Karen Hollweg	All right. Thank you, everybody.
02:35:08.11	Unknown	Yeah.
02:35:08.85	Unknown	Thank you.
02:35:09.97	Unknown	We're going to take a quick break.
02:35:39.94	Karen Hollweg	on to business item 5a, which is adopt a
02:35:45.24	Karen Hollweg	A resolution calling a special election and submitting to the qualified voters of the city of Sausalito and ordinance to amend the city zoning map in city commercial districts to adopt housing overlay zoning consistent with the housing element. To be voted upon at the special municipal election to be held November for 2025 i'll welcome Sergio Rudin our city attorney.
02:36:07.75	Brandon Phipps	And I will be presenting on this mayor. This mayor.
02:36:10.13	Karen Hollweg	Sorry, the staff report says Sergio.
02:36:12.84	Brandon Phipps	I understand.
02:36:13.43	Karen Hollweg	I apologize.
02:36:13.79	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
02:36:13.82	Brandon Phipps	Totally appreciate it.
02:36:14.77	Rudin	And I would like to introduce and hand over the presentation to our assistant city manager.
02:36:20.34	Brandon Phipps	Attorney Rudin, thank you very much.
02:36:22.90	Brandon Phipps	And good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, staff, members of the public. Happy to be joining you this evening, as always, this time to introduce item 5A. It's quite a wordy title. I think the mayor read it out just fine, so I will not reread it, but it has to do with the implementation of the Housing Elements Program or rezoning. This presentation also encapsulates the narrative and contains content for item 5B. Just want to note that out front, which pertains to council's adoption of a resolution calling a special election for the rezoning of a portion of the city-owned martin luther king jr property located
02:36:56.57	Karen Hollweg	This is not Martin Luther King.
02:36:58.36	Brandon Phipps	I agree. This presentation encapsulates the narrative and contains content in connection with both item 5A and item 5B. I can skip the item 5B items if that's best. I have to recuse myself.
02:37:05.17	Karen Hollweg	Okay.
02:37:07.18	Karen Hollweg	Yeah, I have to recuse myself from item 5B, Assistant City Manager, and so please confine this presentation to 5A. Very good.
02:37:15.70	Brandon Phipps	Very good. There's a singular presentation attached to both of the items. So I'll just skip over the content that is not relevant to this item.
02:37:22.76	Brandon Phipps	Both these measures together represent what you see here on the first slide, the Sausalito Commercial District Local Control Measure and the Sausalito MLK Local Control Measure. Let's stick here for a moment. As council is aware, the city adopted its certified amended 2023-2031 housing element on May 27, 2025. Congratulations, council and community, for this accomplishment. Within the housing element, the city's committed itself to a certain rezoning strategy to address the city's regional housing needs allocation of 724 units, which was developed and imposed by the State Department of Housing and Community Development and assigned by ABAG. That's the Association of Bay Area Governments. Now, I will note just for the record, the city did appeal its RENA allocation following receipts of these numbers in 2021. However, unfortunately, that appeal to ABAG was denied. That rezoning strategy is detailed in program four in the city's housing element and the state imposed deadline for the city to implement its program of rezoning as stipulated in the housing element is January 30th, 2026. Next slide, please.
02:38:31.35	Brandon Phipps	With respect to Program 4 in the city's housing element, two categories of parcels must be approved by voters to be rezoned before the aforementioned January 30th deadline. Category 1 is 12 specified sites in the city's commercial districts, which are impacted by Ordinance 1022, which we also know it as the Fair Traffic Initiative.
02:38:53.97	Brandon Phipps	The second category is a limited portion of the city on Martin Luther King Jr. property, which is impacted by Ordinance 28 and which I will not be discussing until we get to Item 5B. Council's action this evening, if approved, will bring these items to the community via a special election and allow the community to vote on both of these future measures. And to call out the underlying text here, passage of both these measures is necessary for the city to complete its program of rezoning as stated in the city's amended housing element, as well as to maintain the city's ongoing compliance with state housing element law. And I'll touch on this later in the presentation. Next slide, please.
02:39:34.11	Brandon Phipps	As part of the rezoning process, both prior to and following the city's adoption of the amended housing element, the city enacted a robust public outreach program, which beginning in January of this year, consisted of a multi-pronged approach containing all the things you see here. Mailing of surveys to residents, both phone and text surveys, a variety of in-person meetings. And I'll just thank very much at least one tenant of the Bus Barn property for the meeting that we had together, as well as digital outreach. And thank you very much again for the community, for all your participation and feedback thus far. Next slide, please. As part of this effort, we received a lot of community feedback, which we are extremely grateful for. And thank you specifically to the 765 residents who have provided their feedback to date. Based on the received responses, we received a lot of community feedback, which again, we're very grateful for. And in looking through these priorities, right, the city's really been able to hone in on what the community really sees as some of their core priorities, some of which are shown here, including protecting local control over Sausalito's zoning and land uses, preserving Sausalito's historic community character, and maintaining park parking and school uses. Once again, thank you for all of your feedback.
02:41:01.04	Brandon Phipps	Next slide, please.
02:41:02.56	Brandon Phipps	And the city's taken this feedback very seriously. As you can see here, based on feedback received, the city's amended its approach to the housing element rezoning program to ensure that these expressed priorities are addressed and maintained. As related to the commercial properties, the city has selected a number of sites, only 12, to be impacted and has only rezoned portions of those sites where appropriate, as you can see here, specifically in connection with Site 301, Site 303, and Site 402 in the city's housing element. And let's skip over the next couple of slides.
02:41:41.43	Brandon Phipps	Stop there, please. Thank you very much.
02:41:45.52	Brandon Phipps	Okay, as related to item, excuse me, let's go, I'm sorry, out of order, let's go back to.
02:41:53.57	Brandon Phipps	Thank you very much. As related to item 5A on this evening's agenda, this slide shows a summary of the sites impacted by ordinance 1022 in the city's housing element rezoning program, amendments to which must be approved by voters. As discussed, only 12 sites are identified to be rezoned, and three of the 12 sites will only have a portion of their total areas rezoned here. The title of the measure to support this ballot item is the Sausalito Commercial District Local Control Measure. Next slide, please.
02:42:26.71	Brandon Phipps	Here's a more detailed summary of the impacted sites, as well as a focus area map, or focus area maps in this case, showing where each of the impacted sites locate in the city. Now let's skip the next two slides, please, city clerk. Okay.
02:42:41.54	Brandon Phipps	Okay, let's stop there. So back to what I touched on on slide three, that the passage of both these measures is necessary in order for the city to complete the program of rezoning set forth in the city's amended housing element and to maintain the city's ongoing compliance with state housing element law. What happens if these measures are not placed or if they're not adopted by the voters? Next slide, please.
02:43:08.09	Brandon Phipps	If either of these things occur, the city will no longer be in compliance with state housing element law and could face significant challenges as related to the loss of local control, as well as hefty fines from the state.
02:43:13.24	Unknown	Bye.
02:43:23.27	Brandon Phipps	Specifically, without these measures, state law could override the existing city height limits and zoning restrictions for residential neighborhoods, and developers would be allowed to build at those levels, likely levels that are not to be in harmony with the city's character. Additionally, without these measures, the city could face fines of $100,000 per month, which could rise as high as 600,000 per month. And these fines would represent, of course, a significant financial burden to the city and could result in cuts to essential city services. Next slide, please.
02:43:59.20	Brandon Phipps	Having said that, here's a summary of key dates and milestones that the city must adhere to in order to implement its program of rezoning and to maintain compliance with housing element law. First, that's where we find ourselves now, and council this evening has the opportunity to vote to place measures on a ballot this evening. If placed, city staff would work to submit these items to the county by the deadline of August 8 to provide the county with the content materials they need to support the ballot measures. and again if placed the salsa items to the county by the deadline of August 8th to provide the county with the content materials they need to support the ballot measures. And again, if placed, the Sausalito election will occur on November 4th. This is the date the voters will decide whether to adopt the changes. Finally, January 30th, 2026, that is our state-imposed deadline for City of Sausalito to complete its program of rezoning. All items associated with the rezoning must be accomplished and finalized by this date to ensure the city's ongoing compliance with housing element law. Next slide, please. Okay, on to the staff recommendation. For item 5A, in order for the city to meet its state-imposed deadlines and to maintain ongoing compliance with state housing element law, staff recommend the following that the council adopt a resolution calling a special election and submitting to the qualified voters of the city an ordinance amending the city's zoning map in the city commercial districts to adopt housing overlay zoning consistent with the housing element and to be voted on at the special municipal election to be held on November 4, 2025. And that does it for this portion of the presentation. Let's go a couple slides forward, please, city clerk. Very good.
02:45:17.77	Unknown	Yeah.
02:45:35.12	Unknown	Thank you for the opportunity. I'm happy to answer any questions.
02:45:39.29	Unknown	Questions? I have a couple quick questions up front. When the first version of the housing element was adopted in January of 2023, it was later approved by the state, and it contained, in effect, a commitment on the part of the city to submit to the voters amendments as necessary to put that housing element into effect. Is that correct? Correct. So we, as we now stand, we have an obligation to put measures behind.
02:46:15.03	Brandon Phipps	before the voters? Absolutely, Vice Mayor. Thank you for the question. We had that obligation in 2023 when we adopted our initial housing element, and we have that obligation still in our amended housing element. That's also been certified by the state.
02:46:28.38	Unknown	Okay, and then with respect to throughout this period, once the state HCD, Housing and Community Development, once they approved our housing element, it has been continuously approved since then, including the amended, correct? Correct.
02:46:44.68	Brandon Phipps	The state has supported and certified our amended housing element.
02:46:48.12	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
02:46:48.14	Unknown	Okay, thank you. That's all I have for now.
02:46:50.84	Karen Hollweg	Other questions of staff? All right, seeing none, I'm gonna open it up to public comment.
02:46:57.23	Karen Hollweg	I have no speaker cards.
02:47:03.86	Karen Hollweg	Babette McDougall.
02:47:21.04	Babette McDougall	I clearly live among giants.
02:47:23.64	Babette McDougall	Thank you for recognizing me, Babette McDougall, Sausalito resident.
02:47:27.71	Babette McDougall	So I tendered a rather strongly worded letter today for the public record. I don't know if it's on the public record. Why do I use such strong language? It's because
02:47:38.51	Babette McDougall	We are at that moment of inflection in our community, and I'm so happy to hear
02:47:43.69	Babette McDougall	Brandon Phipps note that, you know what, these deadlines that are quickly approaching, you've been facing these deadlines for years, and yet you've done very little to inform the public.
02:47:53.98	Babette McDougall	And I'm upset about it.
02:47:56.35	Babette McDougall	I'm from the Nancy Pelosi school. And I believe that when you need to take a punch for the children, you throw that punch and you throw it correctly. And that is why the language is what it is. It's terse and it's direct and it's right to the point.
02:48:10.45	Babette McDougall	And the fact that you're missing the point is very upsetting.
02:48:14.81	Babette McDougall	very upsetting. This is a conflation of arguments, this item on the agenda, a conflation of arguments, just like the last item on the agenda, the public hearing.
02:48:25.51	Babette McDougall	One thing should have nothing to do with the other. Now, is this an example of gross incompetence because you lack experience, certain of you?
02:48:33.91	Babette McDougall	Or is this because you're just so overworked because of your experience that you don't have time to keep your eye on the bottom line? One way or the other, you are not representing the will of your constituents. You have special interests. You've made that clear.
02:48:46.87	Babette McDougall	The idea that you don't daylight so much of what's going on, this lack of transparency, is frankly becoming exhausting. And I say going forward, you come through me.
02:48:57.30	Babette McDougall	And that's where I stand. And from now on, my language will not soften.
02:49:01.47	Babette McDougall	It will just get more strident.
02:49:03.88	Babette McDougall	because we have a crisis on our hands that you refuse to acknowledge.
02:49:08.42	Babette McDougall	We do not need to conflate these arguments in order to move forward in a proactive way. If we want to lose local control, let's just follow the lead you're trying to establish now. Thank you.
02:49:22.75	Babette McDougall	David.
02:49:22.97	Unknown	mid-layer.
02:49:28.81	David Lay	Yeah, I've been poking around here for a lot in this room since 92. I'm in favor of both of these. I don't want to get people in the town divided over what we do, but I tend to think long-term, and so you'll hear more and more about this from me, but basically it's going to be develop that whole rocky bank that bottoms out at the old railroad track and tops out at the level of the road we have. Move the real bicycle lane down where it belongs and make it much better on both ends and right through and make houses two or three or maybe sometimes four that have a storage place for bicycles and so forth, have a living space, and have an upper floor bedroom, and it's all below the street level and the walkway of Bridgeway.
02:50:32.41	David Lay	and then develop that bike path for people that don't own a car and people that don't make a lot of money and tend to work on all that stuff that's right out in front of them except for the containers. Thank you very much.
02:50:45.62	Unknown	Thank you. Vicki Nichols.
02:50:51.68	Vicki Nichols	Good evening, Mayor Cox and council members. I'm going to be a little less fiery than Ms. McDougall, but I'm a little bit curious about process. We've now gotten three days to look at this language. I think the language
02:51:07.78	Vicki Nichols	We've had a long time to talk about this, and no language has been shown at all about these votes. We've talked about it since 2023. So I think what I'm seeing now, if I didn't have any history in this town, I would be hearing, oh my god, if you don't vote yes for this, we're going to be out of compliance. I think what you need to do, like most ballot initiatives do, when there's an ordinance that says
02:51:32.36	Vicki Nichols	this ordinance does this or this or this, you then say, shall this be removed?
02:51:37.39	Vicki Nichols	rather than hammering that we're going to be totally screwed up on our housing element
02:51:42.49	Vicki Nichols	I'm all for housing. I'm very proud of Sassolito being the first one in the county to have an approved housing element, but I hope there's some discussion about this language. This is really three days with nothing that we could have looked at before, and you're obligated tonight to do something to get it on the thing, and I don't think that was fair.
02:52:01.54	Vicki Nichols	Thank you.
02:52:01.86	Vicki Nichols	Thank you.
02:52:01.90	Unknown	Thank you.
02:52:01.91	Vicki Nichols	Thank you.
02:52:02.69	Unknown	Thank you. City Clerk.
02:52:07.61	Unknown	We have Jack Burroughs.
02:52:10.96	Safiya	Welcome, Jack.
02:52:13.08	Jack Burroughs	Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to listen to me.
02:52:19.23	Jack Burroughs	I would like to say I appreciated Miss McDougal's fiery nature, but also the even-headedness of the last speaker.
02:52:29.30	Jack Burroughs	you know,
02:52:31.49	Jack Burroughs	Giving such short notice is like a noose.
02:52:36.83	Jack Burroughs	right, that you're showing to someone.
02:52:40.83	Jack Burroughs	And
02:52:41.84	Jack Burroughs	the idea that our city that has so much potential
02:52:45.97	Jack Burroughs	Right?
02:52:48.76	Jack Burroughs	natural beauty about it would
02:52:51.81	Jack Burroughs	Consider taking open space away
02:52:55.46	Jack Burroughs	When there is a surplus in our housing element,
02:52:59.91	Jack Burroughs	meaning open space away from MLK Park.
02:53:03.67	Jack Burroughs	when it could be so much more than it is with, you know,
02:53:07.81	Jack Burroughs	The fact that it's the second
02:53:10.73	Jack Burroughs	largest producing tax revenue generating space in the city.
02:53:15.66	Jack Burroughs	and giving the residents of this area
02:53:20.14	Jack Burroughs	when there's already a
02:53:21.97	Jack Burroughs	Thank you.
02:53:22.51	Jack Burroughs	you know, a projected 50%, you know,
02:53:28.41	Jack Burroughs	Allowance for the city housing element in this direct area.
02:53:35.38	Jack Burroughs	giving us three days to review language and giving us three days to come up to a response to it
02:53:44.68	Jack Burroughs	is a dereliction of duty, in my opinion.
02:53:49.07	Jack Burroughs	So I would just like to say,
02:53:51.65	Jack Burroughs	We moved here.
02:53:53.00	Jack Burroughs	four years ago for the open space, for the quiet enjoyment. And MLK Park is the one place in Sausalito that I have found in my four years of living here that has a, you know,
02:54:05.72	Jack Burroughs	a confluence of multi-generational living.
02:54:08.68	Jack Burroughs	from our seniors who play pickleball to everyone else who enjoys the park. So thank you.
02:54:15.63	Karen Hollweg	Thank you so much.
02:54:16.96	Karen Hollweg	City Clerk.
02:54:17.75	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:54:17.79	Unknown	Thank you.
02:54:17.82	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:54:17.84	Unknown	So Faya Collier.
02:54:20.73	Karen Hollweg	What?
02:54:20.78	Safiya	Welcome back, Sophia.
02:54:23.02	Safiya	Hi there, Sophia Collier. And I wanted just to mention in response to something that I just heard previously is that actually this language and versions of it have been before both the Planning Commission, I think, at the first part of this year,
02:54:39.59	Safiya	and then also before the council,
02:54:41.70	Safiya	Because I know that at Save Our Sausalito, we actually
02:54:45.14	Safiya	reviewed this language very carefully and actually provided comments.
02:54:48.75	Safiya	So one of the challenges I think for citizens is the fact that these
02:54:53.92	Safiya	procedures just go on for long periods of time and it's very difficult at times to
02:54:59.81	Safiya	keep up with them
02:55:01.60	Safiya	But we do need to try to do that. And I do know that for a fact that these language has been out there
02:55:08.62	Safiya	That said, I want to support
02:55:11.87	Safiya	the language because I
02:55:13.95	Safiya	I feel that in these, this particular iteration of the housing element is very well thought through.
02:55:20.23	Safiya	We've identified underperforming commercial properties where there is potential
02:55:26.35	Safiya	And we have found
02:55:28.58	Safiya	people willing people that would like to develop
02:55:31.45	Safiya	And we've put together a nice set of 12
02:55:34.76	Safiya	So certainly we wish that we didn't have to do this. We're framing this in terms of local control. Unfortunately, it's local control.
02:55:42.53	Safiya	under a sword.
02:55:44.26	Safiya	from the state, but we are trying to do the best we can. And I want to thank
02:55:49.67	Safiya	the staff
02:55:52.44	Safiya	our now assistant manager, Brandon Fitz, and our council who has taken a lot of leadership in doing this and I support
02:56:01.45	Safiya	this going forward and I appreciate the opportunity to comment this evening.
02:56:07.44	Unknown	Thank you.
02:56:07.46	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:56:07.48	Unknown	Thank you so much.
02:56:08.15	Karen Hollweg	Yes.
02:56:08.30	Karen Hollweg	you
02:56:08.78	Karen Hollweg	City Clerk.
02:56:09.94	Unknown	Sandra Bushmaker?
02:56:12.56	Karen Hollweg	Welcome back, Sandra.
02:56:13.96	Sandra Bushmaker	Thank you. Good to see you again.
02:56:14.21	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:56:17.01	Sandra Bushmaker	We have known about the requirement for these ballot measures
02:56:21.21	Sandra Bushmaker	since during the housing element, before the housing element was even approved in January of 2023,
02:56:28.45	Sandra Bushmaker	I too have some issues with this being jammed up to the deadline. And I think it would have been better if we'd had a little more time in order to discuss this publicly.
02:56:40.10	Sandra Bushmaker	Having said that,
02:56:41.50	Sandra Bushmaker	I would like to see this language with regard to 1022, which applies to the opportunity sites on the North Bridgeway corridor.
02:56:53.09	Sandra Bushmaker	that there be language in the ballot measure itself that says we are modifying
02:56:59.69	Sandra Bushmaker	Ordinance 1022
02:57:02.37	Sandra Bushmaker	In the following way. In other words, there are enough of us around when 1022 was passed and remember the groundswell of support in the community that
02:57:13.75	Sandra Bushmaker	1022 is an identifying
02:57:17.36	Sandra Bushmaker	moniker, if you will.
02:57:19.43	Sandra Bushmaker	to this ballot measure and we'll ring some bells for some of the voters.
02:57:25.66	Sandra Bushmaker	So once again, I'm sorry that we didn't have more time to discuss this. We have known for
02:57:31.85	Sandra Bushmaker	over two years that we were going to have to do ballot measures
02:57:35.75	Sandra Bushmaker	particularly for the North Bridgeway
02:57:38.30	Sandra Bushmaker	uh,
02:57:39.65	Sandra Bushmaker	opportunity sites.
02:57:41.17	Sandra Bushmaker	Thank you.
02:57:42.38	Sandra Bushmaker	Thank you. City Clerk.
02:57:43.46	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:57:44.39	Unknown	And Lorna Newland.
02:57:46.35	Karen Hollweg	Welcome Lorna.
02:57:48.83	Karen Hollweg	Lorna, you know this is only on the Bridgeway corridor. The MLK is a separate item.
02:57:55.34	Lorna Newland	Yes, I do. But this has something to do with what...
02:57:56.35	Karen Hollweg	Okay.
02:57:59.71	Lorna Newland	I guess, Assistant City Manager now, Brandon Kripsett.
02:58:04.20	Lorna Newland	Okay. He mentioned, I,
02:58:04.77	Unknown	Welcome.
02:58:07.07	Lorna Newland	Um,
02:58:08.45	Lorna Newland	And if you want me to stop, let me know. But I've been a tenant for...
02:58:12.81	Lorna Newland	Almost 20 years at the MLK buildings. It's my livelihood.
02:58:18.02	Lorna Newland	And I received a notice about the meeting and Brandon said that one person came to it.
02:58:28.13	Lorna Newland	I replied to Noheli Gonzalez and copied Chris Apata, Steven Woodside, Brandon Phipps, that I was out of town working and I couldn't attend. And I asked to get a recap of the meeting from city leadership or a phone call to discuss my concerns and I did not get one. So I have no idea really what transpired at the meeting, but Brandon, that's why I wasn't there. And I think anyway.
02:58:54.74	Lorna Newland	That's all I wanted to say about that issue. Thank you.
02:58:57.73	Karen Hollweg	Thank you, Lorna. I will ask the city manager to have someone from staff reach out to you.
02:59:02.99	Karen Hollweg	I did not know you were not able to attend that meeting that does pertain to the MLK site, which is our next item. But thank you for.
02:59:10.50	Karen Hollweg	letting us hear your concerns.
02:59:12.59	Karen Hollweg	City Clerk no further public speakers.
02:59:14.52	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
02:59:14.55	Karen Hollweg	All right, I'm going to call Alice Merrill. And that's my last speaker card.
02:59:24.66	Alice Merrill	Thank you very much. All I want to say is I wish that we had more ways to know about this stuff before the three days of the agenda. It's just every time. What happened to city meetings? What happened to them?
02:59:44.51	Alice Merrill	The housing element is pretty big.
02:59:46.63	Alice Merrill	what happened to city meetings. People don't come to these meetings.
02:59:51.32	Alice Merrill	People don't look at the agenda.
02:59:54.75	Alice Merrill	There's other ways to get people. And I don't know that I got any of the things that...
03:00:00.91	Alice Merrill	Brandon talked about any of those four things that were up there.
03:00:07.08	Alice Merrill	If I got them, they weren't obvious. That's for sure. Thank you.
03:00:11.24	Karen Hollweg	Thank you. All right. I'm going to close public comment and bring it up here for a motion and discussion.
03:00:21.97	Karen Hollweg	I'm going to start off.
03:00:23.66	Karen Hollweg	So, you know, we've heard a lot of criticism. We've heard that there are special interests and that there's a crisis on our hands and a loss of local control. That could not be further from the case. So...
03:00:36.58	Karen Hollweg	We do the right thing for the right reason. We are not influenced by special interests.
03:00:42.76	Karen Hollweg	.
03:00:43.43	Karen Hollweg	There is no crisis on our hands other than an edict from HCD that we identify 724 units of housing in a town that is two miles from Stem to Stern. As the assistant city manager mentioned, we objected to the numbers at the time. We are continuing to object. You know, we have residents, including Bert Drobniss, who is continuing to object to our legislators. So we are pursuing a political remedy. We are providing feedback to HC, to the auditor, to the state auditor regarding the RENA process that identifies the number of units that will be built in each city. So we have not abandoned our efforts. And at the same time, we have to comply with the laws that are handed down.
03:01:34.50	Karen Hollweg	We have had numerous hearings on our housing element in 2023 2024 and 2025 one of our most strident objectors has attended most of those meetings, unlike some of the other commenters this evening.
03:01:51.17	Karen Hollweg	So, um,
03:01:53.14	Karen Hollweg	There were surveys. There were mailers. I received the mailer. I participated in the survey. There were announcements in the currents. So as Sophia Collier pointed out, this has been, this language is not being circulated for the first time tonight. This is the first time tonight that we will vote on this language. We delayed the vote on this language so that we could engage in the survey and the mailers and gauge the public. We have, you know, a survey in the last week alone that was responded to by over 300 residents. And so we have very carefully engaged in an informational campaign to make our residents aware of these actions. And as the. carefully engaged in an informational campaign to make our residents aware of these actions. And as the Assistant City Manager mentioned, we knew when we adopted our housing element in 2023 that we would have to bring these ballot initiatives to
03:02:54.60	Karen Hollweg	the voters. We hoped to do it sooner, but we had to undertake an EIR, an environmental impact report for our revised housing element. That took longer than expected. We then got
03:03:09.35	Karen Hollweg	Numerous comments, hundreds of comments to our draft EIR and our draft housing element that we then addressed in our revised housing element that took time. And so...
03:03:22.16	Karen Hollweg	We only just adopted our housing element a couple of months ago, and now here we are with the required ballot initiatives.
03:03:31.44	Karen Hollweg	Who would like to go next? Vice Mayor.
03:03:33.58	Unknown	I'm just going to add one additional fact, and that is that in the resolution that is before us, specifically 1022, ordinance number 1022, is called out. It's not like we're hiding the ball here. This is a very complicated matter. We are under duress. We are under state law. I would say everyone on the dais and probably everyone in town didn't like to have to spend millions of dollars to do as much as we had to do. However, having said that, I think we have to acknowledge that in this state, in this country, there is a housing crisis. And how we go about addressing it and yet keeping intact that which makes Sausalito special, that's the challenge. And so I just wanted to add that as I see this, these are 12 sites that have to be sent to the voters for their approval for rezoning. And if they don't approve, well, we'll be in trouble. But it's the voters who will have the final say on these 12 sites. There are other sites that we have already at least given first reading approval, and upon completion of the election, we'll be able to address those others. That's the bulk of the sites, and they're spread throughout the town. So this is a complicated—I know it's frustrating for everybody, including myself, to keep having to revisit pieces of this in a piecemeal fashion. It's really no one's fault. In particular, it's just the way this is happening, not just in our city, but all over. So having said that, I will be in support of this language, but happy to hear from my colleagues.
03:05:14.45	Karen Hollweg	So I'm going to go ahead and make a motion that the City Council adopt a resolution calling a special election and submitting to the qualified voters of the city of Sausalito an ordinance amending the city zoning map in city commercial districts to adopt housing overlay zoning consistent with the housing element to be voted upon at the special municipal election to be held on November for 2025.
03:05:38.63	Karen Hollweg	I'm going to take more comments. I just need a second.
03:05:40.89	Unknown	Thanks.
03:05:41.02	Alice Merrill	Second.
03:05:41.77	Karen Hollweg	And then I would like to give direction to staff that as a part of the language that goes in the ballot itself, we include the clarification that we are only modifying Ordinance 1022 in this small way with these 12 sites, that we are not abandoning Ordinance 1022.
03:06:01.86	Karen Hollweg	Oh.
03:06:02.79	Karen Hollweg	City Attorney.
03:06:04.11	Rudin	Yeah, so I will say that
03:06:06.57	Rudin	So what you are placing on the ballot is exhibit A to the resolution that is in your agenda packet. So there is already language there that says notwithstanding ordinance 1022 or any city ordinance the contrary, the following housing opportunity overlay zones affecting the following 12 sites are adopted.
03:06:25.17	Rudin	And so there is the table. So that is literally the only change that is being made.
03:06:29.83	Rudin	as well as association.
03:06:29.84	Karen Hollweg	Okay, then I'd like it to be, we're going to have a city website on both of these. So I'd like it to be on the city website to clarify.
03:06:37.62	Karen Hollweg	because there is concern.
03:06:39.31	Karen Hollweg	and people are not reading the entirety of a four page resolution.
03:06:43.51	Karen Hollweg	that we are only
03:06:46.18	Karen Hollweg	removing these 12 sites from
03:06:50.31	Karen Hollweg	Ordinance 1022.
03:06:52.66	Karen Hollweg	That's my proposed direction to staff.
03:06:55.75	Karen Hollweg	And with that, I'll turn it over to Councilmember Hoffman for her comments.
03:07:00.40	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you. So with regard to this particular...
03:07:05.77	Janelle Hoffman	this particular ordinance. And in my preparation last night, I was looking through
03:07:12.54	Janelle Hoffman	the adopted amended housing element and looking through the maps as you work your way through the amendments to the housing element from 2023 forward. And I was struck by the migration of units north. And when you look at the map as it exists today, and it's on the website, and it's the May of 2025 map, that's the most current map, it is striking the way that the units have moved north. And when I did my math last night of the units and the sites, and particularly the sites that are subject to this ordinance, of the 923 units that are part of our housing element, So we have a requirement of 724, but our total number of units are 923, and that gives us what we call a buffer of 199 extra units. 450 of those units are north of Nevada Street. And so they have become clustered, I believe, on the north end of town. And so that does cause me some concern. And called out in the staff report on page four is, as required by state law, the city has ensured that the sites identified for rezoning are not concentrated in any particular location and are spread throughout the city.
03:08:37.84	Janelle Hoffman	And so I think as we move through this housing element, and particularly as we look at this ordinance of 1022, and as it goes to the voters, this is something that is something of particular concern, and specifically of particular concern to those on the north end of town. And as you look at the map, it's clearly weighted in that area. So so i have a concern about this ordinance and i have a concern about the way that this housing element has evolved and i have to say it wasn't evident to me in this quite way until i was actually preparing for this hearing last night so So I want to call that out because this is our public hearing on this issue. The other issue I think we need to talk about, because we have such a short timeline,
03:09:34.66	Janelle Hoffman	in
03:09:36.72	Janelle Hoffman	in addressing this to
03:09:39.53	Janelle Hoffman	the, um,
03:09:41.27	Janelle Hoffman	County.
03:09:42.61	Janelle Hoffman	and we have such a timeline, we don't have really much time to pivot, right? So when we talked about this two years ago or 18 months ago, it was, okay, what do we do?
03:09:52.78	Janelle Hoffman	if one of these ordinances doesn't pass. And we had some strategies. I don't think we have any strategies anymore. At least we haven't talked about them in a while. So that's something...
03:10:01.88	Janelle Hoffman	I'd be interested in hearing and being briefed on.
03:10:06.57	Karen Hollweg	Who would like to go next?
03:10:10.40	Karen Hollweg	Councilmember Blaustein, thank you.
03:10:14.06	Karen Hollweg	Sure. I think it's been a long road to get to this point and there has been significant public comment and significant number of meetings to respond to the demand that we received from the state, the weather.
03:10:27.88	Karen Hollweg	whether or not everyone on this dais wanted to see says,
03:10:31.51	Karen Hollweg	724 new units potentially in Sausalito, the repercussions of saying no to that would be much greater in terms of a loss of local control. And in fact, that's the name of the ballot measure that's before you. It's the Sausalito Local Control Ordinance, because the reason that we are moving forward with this ordinance is to do all that we can in the face of these statewide mandates to maintain local control. But I don't want to just focus on that point. I really want to circle back to the fact that while we do have 923 units in this housing element, everyone on this dais had an opportunity to bring up comments with regards to where sites were located. And there was pushback, actually, from decreasing density on the south side of the town at that time. i from the dais was trying as much as possible as someone who is generally quite pro-housing to see as many sites spread throughout town as possible um and you know we ended up with the sites that we have and we have as a council approved the
03:11:30.89	Karen Hollweg	And as you saw from the beautiful logo that our deputy city manager put together with a giant sign across it that says not approved. That's what happens if we don't move forward and if we can't come to consensus before the voters on these measures as as we've said.
03:11:46.76	Karen Hollweg	many times from the dais as well, there are a lot of people who will be
03:11:50.70	Karen Hollweg	unhappy and a lot of people who will be
03:11:53.42	Karen Hollweg	Dr. Amy Quinton, M.D.: Discontent with the addition of all of these housing units, but we are in a place where we have to add units and the reason we're adopting these measures. Dr. Amy Quinton, M.D.: In the way that we are is to maintain what local control we can and so well, there is, of course.
03:12:09.77	Karen Hollweg	Sarah Silver, consideration for how we're going to spread out the units, the adoptions of these measures allow us to ensure that we still. Sarah Silver, control the housing goes because if we had done things differently, we likely would have lost that right and I won't address mlk specifically until we reach. Sarah Silver, That property discussion, but I have comments and remarks with regards to that as well, but I did want to focus on the units that are in consideration here, because I think what hasn't been said is that those units are mostly the ones that are in the marine ship.
03:12:34.68	Karen Hollweg	And we know that we saw significant feedback and pushback to putting any housing whatsoever in the marinship. And we are where we are because we were able to get some sites within this area of town that has never seen housing be included. So this is a first step in diversifying where our housing is in our town. And this measure in particular is focused on diversifying and opening up new sites so that we can meet our state mandates and that we can do so effectively. So I'm hopeful that we will be able to work with the community to gain the support we need for this ballot measure and to see sites in locations where we haven't seen them before, and that we can all work together whether we embrace and are excited about the addition of these units or not, what our shared future looks like so that we can do this effectively.
03:13:18.93	Karen Hollweg	Can I just add one comment to that? So I do want to point out that the sites that are the subject of this resolution, many of them are office properties that are not fully occupied. And so there is a desire by the owners to transform those office spaces into residential housing. A key example where some of the most units are located is at 1 and 3 Harbor Drive. Those buildings are not fully occupied. That property is being sold, and part of the staff report shows that part of the property where residential housing will replace the existing office spaces, which are largely vacant. And so that's really a shrewd and strategic move by
03:14:09.60	Karen Hollweg	leadership because we already have people coming and going in droves to that site. There's already parking there. There's already access there. There's already circulation around there. And so we've really tried to position
03:14:23.83	Karen Hollweg	high-density development in those areas that can accommodate it through circulation, through parking,
03:14:29.50	Karen Hollweg	through access and egress and other factors. So this was not done not thoughtfully. This was actually very thoughtfully put together. We've reached out to the property owners to identify those property owners in the Marinship who would like to develop. Dan Morgan, 1 and 3 Harbor Drive. Michael Rex has designed a beautiful development on the FedEx site that is a part of this resolution. And so we're trying to identify sites that actually will be built and actually will provide additional housing
03:15:06.25	Karen Hollweg	in Sausalito.
03:15:07.97	Karen Hollweg	Councilmember Sobieski, thank you.
03:15:12.17	Sobieski	Yeah, my only ad, I guess, maybe is...
03:15:13.12	Karen Hollweg	I've,
03:15:15.26	Sobieski	Thank you.
03:15:15.31	Sobieski	uh
03:15:18.99	Sobieski	Well, on the previous item, I may mention that you can't stop change. It's not whether you're in favor of change or opposed to change, but change is thrust upon us. We all age, things change, and it's about how we manage change. And this is a case where we had a legal obligation to identify a certain number of units. So the question is, as a community, how did we respond to that insistence? And this falls really short of my ideal. I'll make more comments on the MLK matter.
03:15:47.66	Sobieski	along these lines, but it bears repeating. Actually, one of my first votes in January of 2021 was against the housing consultant and this process, because I feel as I predicted then it would be divisive to the community
03:16:01.25	Sobieski	because all we were doing was picking sites. We weren't picking designs. And the mayor's comment about the beautiful design of Michael Rex really.
03:16:08.91	Sobieski	is something I want to keep beating the drum about, because I believe that we all are largely have a presumption as residents that design is easy and we all kind of know it and we could all kind of do it on the back of a handkerchief. But in point of fact, urban planners and experts can actually create solutions we never thought were possible and we didn't know we would love until we actually saw them.
03:16:32.53	Sobieski	But designers cost money. And my proposal back in January of 2021 to actually take some of the money we were paying lawyers in the housing element process and instead spend it on designers and urban planners to come up with renderings and ideas for how housing could not be viewed as a negative, as I think a lot of people see it, but as a positive, would mean that suddenly the feeling wouldn't be where can we impose this burden, north or south of Nevada Street, but instead, how do we make it really work
03:17:02.57	Sobieski	for our community.
03:17:03.95	Sobieski	Did we live up to that dream of mine? No.
03:17:07.36	Sobieski	But as good as that could be, this situation could be a lot worse. We could have a not approved housing element, and we could be facing builder's remedy. We could not pass these measures here tonight and put them on the ballot, and then we would fall out of compliance with HCD and face the builder's remedy, which means things of wild scope and really bad design could be built. And so I'm supportive of this place, not because I'm thrilled by it. In fact, it kind of makes me a little, I'm a little allergic to it, but because
03:17:39.86	Sobieski	this is the choice we actually have, and we have to make choices among the options we have. When I think about how much is north of Nevada Street, I would love an integrated design for more housing south of Nevada Street, but where? When we talked about having housing here at City Hall, there was huge opposition. Up at the Spencer Fire Station, lots of opposition. And I don't hear any specific ideas of where housing should go somewhere else. And the absence of specific alternatives is just problem identification without problem solution.
03:18:09.78	Sobieski	Thank you, Mayor.
03:18:11.66	Karen Hollweg	Thank you. Other comments?
03:18:13.02	Janelle Hoffman	you
03:18:14.98	Janelle Hoffman	Yes. Here's an idea for housing. Here's a great idea. Here's maintaining housing in the Central Commercial District on the second floor. And another idea for housing is having a program for inclusionary housing throughout our Central Commercial District and our other districts. instead of pushing housing where nobody wants it? How about we incentivizing housing where you've talked about it, where we can partner with people and developers to have it where we might be able to have designs that we want. And so I don't agree with removing housing and protections for housing where we created housing insecurity. that's going in exactly the opposite direction where we should be going especially when we're trying to shoehorn housing into the middle of a park which is our next we created housing insecurity that's going in exactly the opposite direction where we should be going, especially when we're trying to shoehorn housing into the middle of a park, which is our next discussion. Um, when we're removing, uh, housing across a complete district in the central commercial district and pushing it into other parts of Sausalito, I completely disagree with that approach.
03:19:19.36	Unknown	Thank you.
03:19:19.38	Janelle Hoffman	Yeah.
03:19:19.44	Unknown	Thank you.
03:19:19.48	Unknown	Yeah.
03:19:19.51	Unknown	I have to say something.
03:19:19.65	Unknown	I have.
03:19:24.24	Unknown	Four members of this council approved the housing element in 2023.
03:19:31.09	Unknown	EIRs were done. Then in May of this year, we made some changes to the housing element.
03:19:38.97	Unknown	We approved those changes. We went back and did environmental analysis.
03:19:44.69	Unknown	It's approved by HCD. To suggest at this hour that we have a better idea is just – it's outrageous.
03:19:55.67	Janelle Hoffman	I'll respond to that. I was a no vote in May for this very reason that at the late date, we're undermining our housing element because we're eroding
03:20:04.23	Janelle Hoffman	existing housing in the Central Commercial District.
03:20:07.49	Janelle Hoffman	And we changed designations in that same district to opportunity sites, large opportunity sites. We changed them from opportunity sites to inventory sites. So we were eroded. If you look at the map, and I saw it last night, we changed numbers and numbers.
03:20:27.81	Janelle Hoffman	on our housing element that we approved in 2023 that's why our map
03:20:33.68	Janelle Hoffman	changed and evolved over time.
03:20:36.88	Janelle Hoffman	to
03:20:38.99	Janelle Hoffman	a concentration of housing on the north end of town and that's why i read that section of the staff report
03:20:45.78	Janelle Hoffman	we're getting dangerously close. I think we're probably there where we're concentrating housing
03:20:51.25	Janelle Hoffman	with our housing element in one certain area of town, and that's the north end of town. And so anyway...
03:21:01.88	Karen Hollweg	Yeah, we made those changes in response to numerous comments from residents. We had a packed chambers where residents were concerned about the Altamira, about the 605 Bridgeway, about Princess Street, about our historic district, and about not losing the character of our historic district. So we did make some refinements to our housing element in response to those concerns and in response to some outsized project applications that we received under our initial housing element. So yes, we pivoted and we refined our housing element to try to spread out the impacts throughout town. I will say I live on the north side of town. I live right above MLK, and I embrace these revisions. I embrace taking existing empty infrastructure and turning it into residences for those who need them.
03:22:00.31	Janelle Hoffman	And maybe, and to respond to that, and maybe that wasn't fair. And maybe the legal analysis when we were doing those changes wasn't correct. And maybe we should have had a legal briefing, a correct legal briefing to say,
03:22:15.70	Janelle Hoffman	you can't concentrate all of the impacts in one part of town. Maybe that's not fair. And maybe we're getting dangerously close to violating state law, where you're pushing all the negative impacts into one neighborhood or one part of town. I don't remember us ever receiving,
03:22:34.89	Janelle Hoffman	that legal briefing from our team
03:22:37.57	Janelle Hoffman	And when we were having that conversation,
03:22:40.16	Janelle Hoffman	And,
03:22:41.08	Janelle Hoffman	We were having a lot, you're absolutely right. We were having a lot of pushback from those residents in that part of town. And you know,
03:22:51.09	Janelle Hoffman	Sometimes it's a tough decision. And maybe we should have said we can give on some things on this, but we can't give
03:23:01.03	Janelle Hoffman	everything on this.
03:23:02.78	Janelle Hoffman	And
03:23:03.44	Janelle Hoffman	that should have been maybe part of the conversation. I completely agree. I think that with regard to repurposing or if we have landlords that want to come in and have an empty office building and it's not gonna negatively impact industrial areas or working waterfront areas, great. I think that some of the things that we've done, that's good hard work that we did there.
03:23:28.28	Janelle Hoffman	But
03:23:29.70	Janelle Hoffman	when I look at the map and when I look at the state law is called out in the staff report.
03:23:34.22	Janelle Hoffman	I think we're getting close to that. When I see half of our housing element now units are concentrated in one part of town,
03:23:41.48	Janelle Hoffman	I think that's a problem. I think we're getting dangerously close to violating that law and that's a problem that I'm seeing when I was giving a hard look at the map.
03:23:49.11	Karen Hollweg	All right, it would be great if you could have done your homework sooner and provided these comments sooner. Okay. Because this was circulated to the council in advance of this meeting. I will say we have a housing element certified by HCD. If HCD thought we were over-concentrating, and by the way, HCD received comments from all of the people concerned about an over-concentration of housing units in the North...
03:24:14.67	Karen Hollweg	side of town. So we have a certified housing element. We voted unanimously on the allocation of sites, making some of those changes that I enunciated earlier. So at this point, I'm going to call the question.
03:24:31.99	Karen Hollweg	City Clerk, please call roll. Council Member Blaston.
03:24:37.08	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
03:24:37.12	Sandy Strawbridge	Yeah.
03:24:37.17	Unknown	Yeah.
03:24:37.25	Sandy Strawbridge	to the next episode.
03:24:37.34	Unknown	Thank you.
03:24:38.33	Unknown	Councilmember Hoffman.
03:24:40.46	Unknown	Yeah.
03:24:40.56	Karen Hollweg	us.
03:24:40.75	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you.
03:24:41.94	Unknown	Councilmember Sobieski. Yes.
03:24:43.97	Unknown	Thank you.
03:24:44.12	Unknown	Vice Mayor Woodside. Yes.
03:24:45.89	Unknown	Eric Kock.
03:24:46.42	Karen Hollweg	Yes. All right. That motion carries 5-0.
03:24:50.70	Karen Hollweg	We're now gonna move on to
03:24:53.50	Karen Hollweg	Item 5B.
03:24:56.76	Karen Hollweg	adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Sausalito submitting to the qualified voters of the City of Sausalito an ordinance
03:25:03.20	Karen Hollweg	amending the city's owning map to authorize development of housing on Martin Luther King Jr. property to be voted upon at the special municipal election to be held November 4, 2025.
03:25:13.08	Karen Hollweg	Before I welcome Assistant City Manager Brandon
03:25:17.35	Karen Hollweg	Karen Hollweg, Phipps i'm going to pass the gavel to my colleague Vice mayor woodside because I live in close proximity to this proposed housing site i'm going to recuse myself from this discussion i'm not going to make public comment on this matter.
03:25:36.23	Karen Hollweg	And I'm simply going to retire to the conference room if you'll let me know when I can return. That would be great.
03:25:44.13	Unknown	We'll do our best. Thank you.
03:25:49.71	Unknown	Okay, a few seconds.
03:25:54.81	Unknown	OK, we are about to have a presentation from similar to the last presentation. OK, we need a chocolate.
03:26:03.36	Unknown	We'll resume in just a few minutes.
03:32:20.08	Unknown	Mr. Clerk, are we ready to go?
03:32:23.22	Unknown	Yes, we've been ready. OK, so Assistant City Manager Phipps, can you present with a real focus now on MLK?
03:32:35.83	Unknown	Absolutely.
03:32:37.18	Brandon Phipps	Thank you very much, Vice Mayor, for the opportunity. So I'll just focus on, right, item 5B. That encapsulates the narrative and contains content for this item, which pertains to Council's adoption of a resolution calling a special election for the rezoning of a portion.
03:32:54.90	Brandon Phipps	of the city on Martin Luther King Jr. property located at 100 Ebtide Avenue. I'd request that we go to slide three, please.
03:33:16.16	Unknown	Thank you.
03:33:25.07	Brandon Phipps	There it is. And while we get a full screen,
03:33:27.89	Brandon Phipps	Oops.
03:33:28.85	Brandon Phipps	Oops.
03:33:33.24	Brandon Phipps	Slide three, please.
03:33:41.74	Unknown	Yeah.
03:34:22.06	Unknown	That's perfect.
03:34:24.20	Unknown	So just for the record, we are on item 5B, which is a proposal to recommendation to adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Sausalito, submitting to the voters of the City of Sausalito an ordinance amending the city's zoning map to authorize development of housing on Martin Luther King Jr. property to be voted upon at the special
03:34:46.03	Brandon Phipps	election in November. Very good. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So as discussed in the previous presentation, two categories of parcels must be approved by voters to be rezoned before the aforementioned January 30th, 2026 state deadline. We've already dealt with Category 1. That was Item 5A. Now we're moving on to Category 2, which is a limited portion of the city-owned Martin Luther King Jr. property, which is impacted by Ordinance 1128. And council's action this evening, if approved, will bring this item to the community via a special election and allow the community to vote on this measure. To call out the underlying text, as I did in the previous item, passage of this measure pertaining to the MLK item is necessary for the city to complete its program of rezoning, as stated in the city's amended housing element, as well as to maintain the city's ongoing compliance with state housing element law. And I'll touch on that a bit further in this presentation. If we could go to slide six, please, city clerk. We have been through this. Very good. So the city has taken the feedback that we've received from the community very seriously. Right. You saw in previous slide, we received over 760 public comments. And those comments have impacted the ways in which council has chosen to implement program four in its housing element. As you can see here, based on the feedback received, yeah, we've amended our approach based on this public comment.
03:36:15.32	Brandon Phipps	Specifically, as related to the MLK site, the portion of the impacted site has been reduced to only a two-acre portion of the entire property, which is approximately 17 acres. The allowed density has also been reduced to a maximum of 50 units, subject to a 32-foot height limit. And the city has committed to maintaining the existing dog park, recreational facilities, and school uses on site. Okay.
03:36:42.30	Brandon Phipps	Finally, council has expressed a preference for affordable senior housing and has already directed that staff work towards this kind of development on the portion of the property identified. Next slide, please. And let's go forward. One more, one more.
03:36:59.99	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
03:37:00.04	Brandon Phipps	Very good.
03:37:01.56	Brandon Phipps	.
03:37:01.81	Brandon Phipps	As related to this item, item 5B, this slide provides a summary of the one site impacted by Ordinance 1128 in the Housing Element Rezoning Program. As discussed, that's the MLK Jr. property, also known as Site 84 in the city's housing element amendments to which must be approved by the voters. And again, this kind of reiterates some of the things I just went over. Two-acre portion, no more than 50 housing units, subject to a 32-foot height limit, as stated in the ballot question. Moreover, we'll be retaining an existing dog park, park recreational, and school uses, and we will develop the site with a preference for affordable senior housing. The title of the measure to support this ballot item is the Sausalito MLK local control measure. Next slide, please. Here's a more detailed map of the portion of the MLK site that is impacted, as well as certain site attributes, and some of the specifics we've already discussed, which have been amended and reduced, partly based on the robust community feedback we've received, particularly related to the reduced development area, the reduced densities, the reduced heights, and a preference for affordable senior housing. Next slide, please. Let's just go over this again. The importance of ensuring that these measures pass. What happens if these measures are not placed by council and or are not adopted by the voters? Next slide, please.
03:38:25.90	Brandon Phipps	So again, we will not be in compliance with state housing element law, and we could face significant challenges as it related to loss of local control and hefty fines. I think that I don't need to go through that again. Let's move forward. Summary of the key dates and milestones. We touched on this as well. Tonight, we're going to vote to submit the item to the county. We'll have a few days to submit the item to the county. We will hold the election. And assuming all goes well with the election, we will meet our state-imposed deadline. Next slide, please.
03:38:59.83	Brandon Phipps	Next slide, please.
03:39:01.96	Brandon Phipps	Okay.
03:39:02.85	Brandon Phipps	In order for the city to meet its state-imposed deadlines and to maintain ongoing compliance, staff recommend the city council adopt a resolution submitting to the qualified voters an ordinance submitting the city zoning map to authorize development of housing on the MLK Jr. property to be voted upon at the special municipal election to be held on November 4, 2025. And I have a very small follow-on recommendation. Staff recommend a minor modification to the ballot measure question as presented in the resolution. Specifically, staff recommend changing the words subject to a 32-foot height limit to maintaining building height limits. And I'd just like to make the statement, the existing current height limit that applies to the MLK property is 32 feet. The height limit will not change.
03:39:49.46	Brandon Phipps	as a result of this ballot measure being submitted and the vote on the measure. Next slide, please.
03:39:55.93	Brandon Phipps	And that does it for my presentation. Thank you again for the opportunity, Vice Mayor and Council. And I'm here to answer any questions.
03:40:03.72	Unknown	Similarly, with respect to the matter just before this, we have included in our housing element. In effect, an agreement and now a requirement that we submit this to the voters.
03:40:18.45	Brandon Phipps	Absolutely. And, you know, I did I did leave out a portion of the presentation that I think that we should get to. And that's to give Mr. Michael Rex an opportunity to summarize some of the visualizations and some of the concepts that staff have collaborated with Mr. Rex on to to provide some concepts for the community to consider and to show the kinds of the development that the city is considering. So I'll turn it over to Mr. Rex.
03:40:48.69	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
03:40:48.71	Unknown	Good evening.
03:40:49.79	Unknown	Identify yourself.
03:40:50.82	Unknown	Thank you.
03:40:50.87	Michael Rex	Thank you.
03:40:50.91	Michael Rex	Hello, I'm Michael Rex, local architect, and I offer my services to the city, not to design the visualization in your packet, but to collect.
03:41:01.92	Michael Rex	I collaborate with architect Jerome Christensen, who's from San Francisco, because I thought we wanted to ensure that we wanted to demonstrate that you could put 50 units there and preserve the character of the neighborhood and not block water views. And so I collaborated with Jerome Christensen in putting the visualization that you see in the packet together. And just yesterday, some questions were raised to me about what I collaborated on, and I wanted to touch upon those briefly.
03:41:42.14	Michael Rex	First of all, the ballot measure is not approving this design.
03:41:46.12	Michael Rex	It's just simply showing if the ballot measure passed, it is possible to put 50 units there in a way that's compatible with the neighborhood and not block water views from uphill neighbors. A specific design would still have to be created.
03:42:02.98	Michael Rex	And, um,
03:42:03.96	Michael Rex	There is a discrepancy between the visualization. You see it calls out a 27-foot-high roof ridge, not a 32-foot. So this ballot measure would allow going up a little bit. But we don't have a definitive survey. We have some rough survey data that we work from, but we need a more specific survey. And also, there should be some little wiggle room in a specific design and not get locked into this one because this was only studied in a very short time. So that's why there's a discrepancy to give the city a little wiggle room.
03:42:42.58	Michael Rex	And also, um,
03:42:44.17	Michael Rex	There's concern about the view sync that you see in the packet. If you flip to...
03:42:49.28	Michael Rex	The views sync really quickly. Um,
03:42:53.06	Michael Rex	There's a photo. Keep going, please. A photo taken of you saying study. There you go, right there. Right there. Pretty hard to see. I don't know if this guy works.
03:43:13.33	Unknown	We're just playing more. They're telling us how...
03:43:16.81	Unknown	Yep.
03:43:16.96	Unknown	I think it's a bus bar.
03:43:17.01	Unknown	that's it.
03:43:21.35	Michael Rex	Thank you.
03:43:21.97	Michael Rex	Thank you.
03:43:21.99	Unknown	Bye.
03:43:22.90	Michael Rex	Thank you.
03:43:23.07	Unknown	There you go.
03:43:23.30	Michael Rex	Thank you.
03:43:23.78	Michael Rex	Thank you.
03:43:23.81	Adrian Britton	Thank you.
03:43:24.43	Unknown	Thank you.
03:43:24.60	Michael Rex	Thank you.
03:43:24.67	Adrian Britton	Thank you.
03:43:33.73	Michael Rex	No.
03:43:35.50	Michael Rex	Sorry. The view sink is taken from that particular image. While the view sink is looking directly from the houses across the street, uphill, that photo right there, it almost looks like because of that perspective of that view sink study is taken so high, it makes the proposed housing look the same height as the bus barn. I think it's just how that perspective is interpreted. but what is very clear, and I can show you, if you go to the photo taken from the house across the street, there's a photograph.
03:44:09.62	Michael Rex	Not in ViewSync. It would go...
03:44:14.45	Michael Rex	It's a photograph.
03:44:20.71	Michael Rex	I have to, there's not that many slides. There's only one photograph.
03:44:30.84	Michael Rex	No. Well, it's in the packet.
03:44:34.84	Michael Rex	I'll just explain it.
03:44:36.34	Michael Rex	The tennis court has a fence around it.
03:44:39.24	Michael Rex	That fence is 10 feet high.
03:44:42.62	Michael Rex	The top of that fence is 22 feet high above the parking lot where the buildings would be built.
03:44:47.75	Michael Rex	The bus barn is 15 feet high.
03:44:52.67	Michael Rex	The 27 foot height of what's proposed is just five feet higher than the fence. There's no way that would be blocking views from the houses across street and we know that we visited some of the neighbors. So, um,
03:45:05.40	Michael Rex	even without view sink, we're clear that you could build up to 32 feet high and still not block views. But the important thing is,
03:45:13.51	Michael Rex	Um,
03:45:14.29	Michael Rex	There's a lot of concern about density bonuses.
03:45:17.08	Michael Rex	This is such a unique site because the city owns property.
03:45:20.09	Michael Rex	So the city can...
03:45:21.83	Michael Rex	joint venture.
03:45:23.32	Michael Rex	with a developer, they could select who that developer is
03:45:26.61	Michael Rex	and they could be a co-applicant.
03:45:28.25	Michael Rex	They can actually control the design.
03:45:30.61	Michael Rex	And the city can choose not to apply for a density bonus. In fact, you can even put up story polls. The law doesn't prohibit story polls. It just doesn't necessarily require them.
03:45:43.75	Michael Rex	And so a specific sign will be tested. Also, if you adopt the proposed objective design development standards, it'll prohibit significant water view blockage. So when we get to a specific design, there's lots of ways to address these concerns.
03:45:58.79	Michael Rex	Thank you.
03:46:00.70	Unknown	Okay questions for the assistant city manager.
03:46:05.03	Karen Hollweg	I have some questions for Director Phipps.
03:46:09.44	Karen Hollweg	Are you going to end these?
03:46:12.12	Karen Hollweg	Okay, great.
03:46:13.62	Karen Hollweg	All right. We received significant correspondence asking specifically or addressing specifically the concern with regards to what a developer would or would not be able to do on the site and to what extent we would be able to maintain control of what the design would look like in the context of specific state laws. So could you speak to that and also figure out, well, I'll start with that and we can go from there.
03:46:39.19	Brandon Phipps	Yeah, extremely important question for us to cover and understand tonight. So thank you very much, council member, for posing that. I'll just, I'll kind of answer it with respect to the bookends that the city has placed on itself and in the ballot measure question in order to ensure that the community and the city understand the concept that the city is wishing to see and support on that site. Number one is the zoning. We are zoning that area, that two-acre portion, to H29, which allows for a maximum of 29 units per acre to locate on that site. We also have bookends-
03:47:16.95	Karen Hollweg	Sorry, is that with the density bonus?
03:47:19.39	Brandon Phipps	That is not with density bonus. Secondly, the city has backed into development standards, 32 foot height limit. We are preserving the existing 32 foot height limit that currently applies to the public institutional district. Number three, I think I spoke about, right, the limiting of the size to two acres. That ensures that we're retaining our park, dog park, school uses and recreational facilities on site. So that's bookend number one, the rezoning.
03:47:48.75	Brandon Phipps	Bookend number two is the ballot question itself. What did we put in that ballot question that is objective and very specific? Maximum of 50 dwelling units. That actually undercuts what the city could develop on that site in the H-29 zone. That's 29 units per acre. If you do the quick math, that's 58. So the city's already undercutting what it could be.
03:48:12.64	Brandon Phipps	do by committing itself to 50 units and again thank you for all the public comment
03:48:17.03	Brandon Phipps	that has supported that city's decision.
03:48:19.86	Brandon Phipps	Um,
03:48:21.05	Brandon Phipps	The other is the height limit. I think that that's also called out in the ballot language. And I will turn it over to city attorney Rudin if he has any additional comments.
03:48:31.10	Rudin	Yeah, so importantly, the ordinance that is being placed on the ballot would require the development on the site be limited...
03:48:40.05	Rudin	to no more than 50 units. And that's not a density standard, that's a max unit count standard.
03:48:46.38	Rudin	Additionally, it would be subject to the 32 foot height limit that already exists in the zone.
03:48:52.67	Rudin	Um,
03:48:53.75	Rudin	So the issue with density bonus law and this ballot initiative in particular is while the city as regulator, uh, when it's approving designs, uh,
03:49:04.65	Rudin	when it's approving land use permits and entitlements, it can't deny a project that requests a density bonus that qualifies for it.
03:49:12.80	Rudin	Um, you know, it has to comport with state laws regarding, you know, exceptions to density limits, um,
03:49:20.08	Rudin	under density bonus law. But the ballot measure doesn't just regulate
03:49:25.05	Rudin	the city as regulator. In fact, it doesn't.
03:49:28.07	Rudin	It primarily regulates the city as
03:49:32.04	Rudin	As project applicant so.
03:49:35.58	Rudin	While the city probably couldn't deny some other project on this site if it was owned by somebody else proposing a density bonus,
03:49:43.36	Rudin	this ballot measure would constrain the city from proposing such a project in the first instance.
03:49:49.98	Karen Hollweg	So to follow up on that, what you're saying is because of the language in this ballot measure and the way that it's written, we are essentially protecting ourselves from the potential for a density bonus as the owners of this property.
03:50:02.48	Rudin	Yes.
03:50:02.97	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
03:50:03.21	Brandon Phipps	Very well put.
03:50:04.02	Karen Hollweg	So the maximum is indeed 50 units on this property should this ballot measure pass.
03:50:09.18	Brandon Phipps	Indeed.
03:50:09.60	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
03:50:09.67	Karen Hollweg	And just for exploratory purposes, if it didn't pass and someone else happened to apply on the site, that wouldn't be the case, right?
03:50:18.44	Brandon Phipps	The city, as an owner of the property, and city attorney Rudin, I'll give it to you.
03:50:19.46	Rudin	But nobody...
03:50:25.09	Rudin	Yeah, somebody else can't, somebody other than the property owner can apply for entitlements. So that wouldn't be possible. And sale of this property would require significant additional process and public
03:50:39.40	Rudin	participation, input, etc.
03:50:42.85	Rudin	Yeah, that wouldn't happen by dint of
03:50:46.00	Rudin	this measure not passing or passing.
03:50:47.40	Karen Hollweg	Even if we partner with the developer, which we would likely need to do, they would be subject to this maximum 50 unit, maximum 32 height limit standard.
03:50:56.08	Rudin	Yes.
03:50:56.72	Karen Hollweg	Correct.
03:50:57.19	Karen Hollweg	It's different from projects, for example, like the one that we saw in Mill Valley, where the proposed unit measure did incur a density bonus, and it ended up being something that we had.
03:51:07.81	Karen Hollweg	Something like 70 units.
03:51:09.49	Karen Hollweg	I'm sure you're not familiar with the specific project. I'm referring to some correspondence that we received around a similar project. So I just want to make sure that we are clear, that the public is clear on what differentiates this ballot measure from a project of that nature.
03:51:22.81	Rudin	Yeah, I'm not familiar with the project you're referring to, but I would assume that it was property that was owned by the developer where the developer was applying as property.
03:51:30.84	Rudin	Applicant.
03:51:31.78	Rudin	Yeah.
03:51:32.22	Karen Hollweg	Yep. Okay.
03:51:33.39	Karen Hollweg	Great. I just wanted to clarify those points and to really ensure
03:51:36.59	Karen Hollweg	that the language that we and also on the uses we were noting as well that we prefer senior housing in the ballot measure.
03:51:45.13	Rudin	Yeah, and that's in line with the city council discussion and direction.
03:51:48.52	Karen Hollweg	Okay, great.
03:51:48.58	Rudin	Okay.
03:51:50.70	Unknown	Other questions?
03:51:54.90	Unknown	Remember, Hoffman.
03:51:55.95	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you. So other than, let me ask you this.
03:52:02.45	Janelle Hoffman	I'm,
03:52:04.79	Janelle Hoffman	What is unique about this property under our housing elements? So we've got 50 units, right?
03:52:13.77	Janelle Hoffman	We're only required to have 724, and we're delivering 200 over.
03:52:20.75	Janelle Hoffman	Right, so even with my limited math skills, we're well within that, we're well within the buffer with this 50 units, right? So the questions I've been posed to me as well, we're, it's extra. So why are we going to the bother of
03:52:40.65	Janelle Hoffman	plumping, you know, plopping, right. This has come up again and again. So great. Great question.
03:52:45.26	Brandon Phipps	Great question. It's the magic. Great question. I think the magic is don't look at the total buffer. Look at the buffer that we have in our low income categories.
03:52:55.74	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
03:52:55.75	Unknown	Right.
03:52:56.08	Brandon Phipps	One, I think you asked, what's special about this site? It's city-owned, which means the city gets to choose its own adventure with respect to how this site is developed. And the city's, again, instituted some bookends as to what that adventure is going to look like. 32 feet, 50 units, 2 acres, preference for affordable senior housing, maintaining dog park, park, recreational, and school uses. We also have the opportunity to partner with a developer who's going to do a 100% affordable project. And that I think is more feasible for a city to accomplish on a property that they own because they can negotiate with the developer as to what the lease leaseback price might be, essentially as to what the terms of the agreement are going to end up being. So that would be my answer.
03:53:04.72	Unknown	how
03:53:46.28	Brandon Phipps	I'm not sure if a city attorney has additional comments.
03:53:48.71	Janelle Hoffman	I would be with you if we didn't also have the corporation yard, site 75.
03:53:54.46	Brandon Phipps	Unfortunately, that's a functioning corporation yard.
03:53:57.21	Janelle Hoffman	Yeah, but we've committed to having that, and we own that too, and we've committed to developing that, and we could also do the same things on that side. And we intend.
03:54:09.11	Brandon Phipps	And we intend to do that.
03:54:10.46	Janelle Hoffman	And we wouldn't have to rezone that site.
03:54:14.76	Brandon Phipps	That site is being rezoned. However, that site is not one of these sites impacted by these ordinances. We'll go for the voters.
03:54:22.15	Rudin	Right.
03:54:23.81	Rudin	I think it's important to understand that the city's Reno total number of 724 isn't really how Reno works.
03:54:31.47	Rudin	Rina is broken out by
03:54:34.12	Rudin	by income category that the city has to meet. So there's 200 extremely
03:54:39.49	Rudin	or sorry, there's 200 very low units. There's 115 low in units, 114 moderate.
03:54:45.98	Janelle Hoffman	Got it. And 50 units and 35 of those units at the site 84, which is MLK site, 35 of those are very low.
03:54:54.40	Janelle Hoffman	and 15 are low, this is the only site where 100% is affordable. So all of the affordable sites, in fact, this is the only site in all of the housing element that is 100% affordable.
03:55:00.90	Unknown	Yes.
03:55:09.93	Janelle Hoffman	So we're forcing 100% affordable. This is the only site that's 100% affordable that's being forced into this MLK park.
03:55:18.18	Janelle Hoffman	So, which is interesting.
03:55:20.76	Janelle Hoffman	Well, it's one of the...
03:55:20.86	Rudin	It's one of the few sites where a 100% affordable housing project was determined to be feasible by the city.
03:55:27.31	Janelle Hoffman	Well,
03:55:28.07	Janelle Hoffman	or the corporation yard or some other sites.
03:55:30.97	Janelle Hoffman	So what I'm struggling with is I got a couple of issues. One is.
03:55:35.93	Unknown	Excuse me, can you please confine to questions at this point so we can then hear from the public and we can discuss later.
03:55:41.09	Janelle Hoffman	and we can just
03:55:42.56	Janelle Hoffman	Yeah, I'm getting there. The issue I have is if we're below the buffer –
03:55:44.45	Unknown	Okay.
03:55:49.52	Janelle Hoffman	And we've gotten lots of emails. We've had people questioning this every step of the way. Like, why are we forcing a project in the middle of a park? You know, we've talked about a lot of it.
03:56:03.83	Unknown	Please, please ask questions at this time. Okay. There's public anxious. We've got a lot of public speakers. We'd like to hear from you. Okay, you're right.
03:56:07.05	Janelle Hoffman	Okay.
03:56:10.64	Janelle Hoffman	Okay, you're right. Okay, sorry. So I'm just, I'm struggling with
03:56:15.60	Janelle Hoffman	if we're within the buffer and we can apportion units as we will across the sites. I mean, if we want to, if we want to, I think council member, so we actually use the term squeeze the balloon. We can apportion them as we want to throughout our chart on affordability. I mean, we could, we've got 700 and something other sites.
03:56:38.72	Unknown	Thanks.
03:56:38.83	Unknown	Is there a question, please?
03:56:39.97	Janelle Hoffman	Yeah. Why can't we do that?
03:56:42.47	Rudin	I will answer that. So one of the reasons why the city has a buffer is the state known at loss law.
03:56:49.98	Rudin	And that means that the No Lenten Lost Law requires that you maintain
03:56:54.20	Rudin	adequate capacity to meet the arena throughout the eight-year cycle period.
03:56:58.52	Rudin	So as you get projects that are proposed to the city...
03:57:02.79	Rudin	which are on private property,
03:57:04.81	Rudin	those developers can propose
03:57:07.56	Rudin	projects at a range of densities.
03:57:09.94	Rudin	They can even propose projects that are not as dense as we necessarily thought would occur in the housing element.
03:57:16.78	Rudin	And when that happens, there is a shortfall. There's fewer units built than the housing element anticipated.
03:57:22.26	Rudin	The Housing Accountability Act says you cannot deny that project.
03:57:25.96	Rudin	in most circumstances.
03:57:27.76	Rudin	So if
03:57:28.86	Rudin	You have a buffer there so that if you get developers who want to build smaller projects than you may have anticipated in your planning.
03:57:35.88	Rudin	that you are not
03:57:38.06	Rudin	required
03:57:39.20	Rudin	to find new sites.
03:57:41.47	Rudin	Because if you do fall below the capacity,
03:57:44.98	Rudin	And this is what the buffer is for so you don't fall below area capacity.
03:57:49.55	Rudin	If you fall below your capacity during any part of the planning cycle, you have to upzone and identify new sites during that eight-year period before you adopt your next housing element.
03:57:59.81	Rudin	So that is the purpose of the buffer.
03:58:02.61	Janelle Hoffman	Yes.
03:58:03.52	Janelle Hoffman	Agreed.
03:58:03.88	Rudin	And additionally, we probably would not have received certification from HCD without
03:58:09.16	Rudin	some form of buffer.
03:58:11.23	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you. And so of the 923 units that we currently have, and if we for some reason lose these 50 units, and we go down to 873 units, and you're saying that you're somewhat not confident that we wouldn't be able to apportion those other 50 units to the 873 units that we have, and for some reason we would
03:58:33.05	Janelle Hoffman	not be compliant.
03:58:34.70	Rudin	I think that that would be
03:58:37.69	Rudin	Potentially, yes. We don't know what would happen. Additionally, this is a site where we have identified the potential for 100% affordable project. So again, keep in mind that you'd be having to find more very low and low income units.
03:58:51.77	Rudin	particularly on sites where they're not publicly owned and they would not necessarily be getting any sort of subsidy. It's harder for private developers to build deeply affordable units than it would be on publicly subsidized sites.
03:59:05.00	Rudin	Additionally, this is included in the city's program of rezoning as part of its
03:59:11.44	Rudin	adopted housing elements. So
03:59:13.57	Rudin	This was part of the overall strategy that the city proposed to HCD and that HCD approved to ensure that the city met its renewal.
03:59:22.12	Unknown	More questions?
03:59:26.93	Unknown	questions.
03:59:27.03	Sobieski	question.
03:59:27.19	Unknown	question.
03:59:27.25	Sobieski	Thank you.
03:59:27.35	Unknown	Thank you.
03:59:27.84	Sobieski	Yeah, thank you. Thank you.
03:59:28.69	Unknown	Thank you.
03:59:33.48	Sobieski	PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ensign PB, David Ens
03:59:45.02	Eric Lieb	Yes.
03:59:54.58	Sobieski	An approved housing element.
03:59:57.90	Sobieski	of which a constituent part is this MLK site.
04:00:02.44	Sobieski	And it's approved, meaning that we are avoiding builder's remedy, which would let anyone build anything anywhere.
04:00:09.81	Sobieski	And if we...
04:00:10.71	Sobieski	get builders remedy than anyone can build anything anywhere. But as long as we
04:00:14.91	Sobieski	Rezone these sites.
04:00:17.98	Sobieski	Because we have an approved housing element, we prevent builder's remedy. Is that correct?
04:00:24.97	Sobieski	I've.
04:00:24.98	Brandon Phipps	I think that's a very fair assessment. Yes, City Attorney Rudin.
04:00:32.16	Rudin	Yes, it is necessary for the city to maintain compliance with housing element law during the entirety of the planning cycle in order to avoid builder's remedy.
04:00:41.56	Rudin	Part of that does require the city to complete its entire program of rezoning, including
04:00:47.34	Rudin	rezoning of all of the sites that we've identified prior to January 30th, 2026.
04:00:53.43	Brandon Phipps	So we adopted a document. In that document, we said we would do something. That's program four. That's our rezoning program. Now we have to do that thing that we said we would do, which is the rezoning program. So that is what's before council tonight. We are just implementing what we've already agreed to do.
04:00:53.54	Rudin	So we had done.
04:00:58.43	Adrian Britton	Thank you.
04:01:05.50	Sobieski	Yeah.
04:01:13.55	Sobieski	And we're up against a deadline because to get this done by January, it has to be on the ballot in November. And we have until Friday to approve the language. Correct.
04:01:23.25	Sobieski	So ripping off of my account, my colleague, Councilmember Blaustein's inquiry, we got several letters from people who are concerned because they see the way these density bonuses are used by private developers to take a project that's approved for 40 units and actually build 80. And that's approved for 30 feet and actually built something that's 80 feet. So I just want to ask you both directly.
04:01:46.00	Sobieski	This is a city on property.
04:01:48.13	Sobieski	If this ballot is put on the ballot and it's passed by the voters,
04:01:53.58	Sobieski	Is there a scheme without voter approval or without voter approval?
04:01:59.05	Sobieski	where the city could be compelled to allow something taller than 32 feet
04:02:03.70	Sobieski	or more than 50 feet, more than 50 units to be built on that piece of property.
04:02:08.34	Brandon Phipps	I'm happy to answer first. And I'm not aware of any mechanism that would even allow that to occur.
04:02:15.48	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
04:02:15.57	Sobieski	City Attorney?
04:02:15.97	Brandon Phipps	Okay.
04:02:16.46	Rudin	Yeah, I believe that the city council would need to go back to the voters and have a different ballot measure passed.
04:02:23.48	Sobieski	Okay.
04:02:24.14	Sobieski	Mm-hmm.
04:02:24.86	Sobieski	So with that as a constraint that we really are talking about 50 units and 32 feet, I'm interested that you actually have some views view sync stuff that you did. View sync was developed by volunteers, right? If I understand correctly. Correct. But this architect, Jerome Christensen, was he paid by the city? Yes. Where did the money come from?
04:02:45.97	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
04:02:46.02	Sobieski	general fund. Okay. I mean, but just city manager authority, I presume, because we didn't approve it. All right. So he helped do some design that helped look at these views and generate those renderings that we saw. And so that's where the staff came up with the belief that with this 32 foot high limit, we would have the view impacts that we see.
04:02:49.45	Brandon Phipps	Yeah.
04:02:49.75	Unknown	Thank you.
04:03:05.87	Sobieski	that are displayed in the presentation we just saw. Is that right?
04:03:09.41	Brandon Phipps	I would say it's more than a belief. I think, you know, understanding that the view sync analysis is an accurate portrayal, that that's an objective, an objectively true statement. The concept that's being presented will not result in any significant impacts to views.
04:03:22.98	Sobieski	Okay, so now I have a theoretical question for you. If we go ahead and we put this on the ballot and it's passed by the voters, I believe, is it true that the housing element that we can enter a process to amend our housing element, ask for it to be modified for the HCD?
04:03:36.72	Brandon Phipps	We just did that, actually.
04:03:38.74	Sobieski	You can do it again next year.
04:03:41.39	Sobieski	if we so chose
04:03:42.71	Sobieski	IN THE CITY.
04:03:42.83	Brandon Phipps	theory
04:03:43.70	Sobieski	All right, so it's not excluded that if there were other sites, say an empty field adjacent to Bridgeway that has nothing on it, and we did not want to build low housing at MLK, even though it's authorized, that we could initiate a process to amend the housing element to build housing there instead.
04:04:03.35	Sobieski	It would have be its own process. It would have to go, but that's theoretically within the realm of possibility.
04:04:09.30	Brandon Phipps	In theory, not without risk to the city, I think. What would the risk be? Not non-compliance with our housing element.
04:04:16.64	Sobieski	We'd be proceeding to build housing, but I just...
04:04:19.02	Brandon Phipps	Okay. Well, in that context, in theory, yes.
04:04:22.19	Brandon Phipps	Okay.
04:04:22.47	Rudin	Yeah, so I would comment on on this. You know, we have both the corporation yard and the
04:04:30.68	Rudin	Um,
04:04:31.65	Rudin	MLK property, which are city owned inventory sites in the housing element, and they are both slated or identified as
04:04:38.72	Rudin	holding 100% affordable housing projects.
04:04:41.65	Rudin	Um,
04:04:44.52	Rudin	While theoretically, I think amending the housing element to substitute sites is definitely legal. Practically, it would have significant challenges in terms of
04:04:56.59	Rudin	getting
04:04:57.65	Rudin	HCD review and approval. It is quite time consuming as this council is aware.
04:05:03.81	Rudin	And additionally,
04:05:06.48	Rudin	with regards to meeting the
04:05:09.48	Rudin	affordable,
04:05:11.18	Rudin	The affordability that is proposed on these two sites, if we were to substitute others, I would not be surprised if HCD
04:05:19.62	Rudin	you know,
04:05:20.47	Rudin	if we were...
04:05:21.70	Rudin	anticipating that the affordability was going to be met by private development without subsidy from the city, the HCD would request a number of additional sites rather than just one.
04:05:31.70	Sobieski	Understood. Thank you.
04:05:32.93	Sobieski	I learned today something, and I just want to ask you again to confirm it. It's taken us four years to get to this point. 2021 is when it started, and it's 2025. Yeah.
04:05:44.78	Sobieski	And that's for the current housing cycle. The next housing cycle, I understand, needs to start in 2031. And if it takes four years to do that one as well, that means we need to start on the next RENA number, not this 7024, but the next number in 2027. That is two years from now.
04:06:01.86	Brandon Phipps	Yes, really appreciate that comment. I think that we're, we may be on the same page here, or at least going in a similar direction that it may be prudent for the city to begin drafting its seventh cycle housing element tomorrow, you know, or very soon. So
04:06:18.95	Sobieski	And then the last thing I learned that was shocking to me is that we've been talking about MLK being important because it's low income. Is that right? Is that the term? Low income housing? And now in the next seventh cycle, there are going to be two new categories introduced.
04:06:34.12	Brandon Phipps	That's correct.
04:06:34.83	Sobieski	Right.
04:06:35.10	Sobieski	low.
04:06:35.44	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
04:06:35.74	Brandon Phipps	Yeah, I think it's extremely low and acutely low.
04:06:38.00	Sobieski	Thank you.
04:06:38.02	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
04:06:38.04	Sobieski	Extremely low and acutely low will be two new categories of housing that will be introduced for the seventh element that need to be planned for.
04:06:47.02	Sobieski	Thank you very much for that.
04:06:49.01	Sobieski	you know, profoundly important information.
04:06:51.20	Unknown	um,
04:06:53.23	Unknown	Member Blossett, you have another question?
04:06:54.76	Karen Hollweg	a couple of follow-up questions, just because there seems to be a lot of, first, how many sites, how many units did we have at the corporation yard?
04:07:05.12	Brandon Phipps	I'm not scoped to speak to that. We are scoped to discuss item 84.
04:07:09.48	Karen Hollweg	Right. Sorry. Okay. Then I'll bring up a more. And if you can't answer these, maybe, maybe, um,
04:07:16.16	Karen Hollweg	our architect in residence will be able to help. But typically the average cost per unit to build in Sausalito is probably around at least $1.2 million roughly.
04:07:28.90	Karen Hollweg	Right? I mean, are you aware of the economies of scale associated with, like based on what you've seen from development applications? Absolutely.
04:07:34.32	Brandon Phipps	Absolutely. What I will not put a specific number on record, but what I can say is it's very high.
04:07:40.29	Karen Hollweg	So it's safe to say in order to subsidize or in order to find a partner for a 100% affordable project, it would require probably at least about 40 units.
04:07:52.37	Brandon Phipps	Yes, there are certainly economies of scale in connection with, you know, development at density. And as previously mentioned as well, it's very important for the city to be a partner on this as it really lends itself to making these higher density affordable projects more financially feasible.
04:08:08.03	Karen Hollweg	Because just because we've identified another site where we would potentially like to put a fewer number of units, it doesn't mean that we'll be able to get a partner if it doesn't become financially feasible on some level for them.
04:08:19.39	Brandon Phipps	That's correct.
04:08:19.90	Karen Hollweg	And you've seen instances in your career where perhaps a city might want to develop a site, but they were unable to find a partner because of the size of the site.
04:08:29.04	Brandon Phipps	This happens all the time and it can be frustrating for cities. So we're trying to position ourselves in the best way possible to ensure that development does occur on this site.
04:08:38.39	Karen Hollweg	So the reason that we went with the number of units and wrote the language the way we did was to ensure that we would maintain local control while having some sort of financial feasibility to get a partner.
04:08:48.15	Brandon Phipps	Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you, Councilmember. We want to maintain our local control. We want to maintain our parks and school uses and recreational facilities. But, you know, back to why we're here in the first place, we're also here to deliver affordable housing to the community and address our state housing crisis. So all of those things together are why this is before you this evening.
04:08:58.78	Chris Zapata	Thank you.
04:08:58.83	Unknown	Thank you.
04:08:58.84	Chris Zapata	Thank you.
04:09:10.18	Karen Hollweg	And to be clear, just for just to explore it, right? If we did remove the site right now, what would happen?
04:09:18.50	Brandon Phipps	Well, I have a slide that describes that the city could face loss of local control. The city could face hefty fines of $100,000 a month, which could increase up to $600,000 per month. And we would be subject to state imposed development standards as opposed to our own local development standards that we've worked hard on to ensure that we can maintain our community context.
04:09:37.12	Burton Drobnis	Opposed?
04:09:44.09	Karen Hollweg	Thank you. I appreciate it.
04:09:45.77	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
04:09:45.81	Unknown	Thank you.
04:09:45.92	Brandon Phipps	you can see.
04:09:45.98	Unknown	Thank you.
04:09:46.03	Brandon Phipps	Councilmember.
04:09:46.48	Unknown	Thank you.
04:09:46.70	Brandon Phipps	Thank you.
04:09:46.72	Unknown	I have one question and then do you have others?
04:09:49.50	Unknown	Okay, just quickly, we have expressed a preference for affordable senior housing, and that's indeed how this ballot measure is structured, in part. Do you understand that affordable senior housing is typically defined as housing that is no more than, let's say, about 30% of income? Is that the standard that you're familiar with? So, for example, a senior on Social Security with maybe $2.
04:10:20.11	Unknown	$2,000 income per month would pay $600 a month. Are you familiar with that standard?
04:10:28.84	Unknown	No.
04:10:30.78	Unknown	I see some hands in the audience, but I thought you might be familiar.
04:10:32.92	Brandon Phipps	I thought you'd be.
04:10:34.19	Brandon Phipps	I am familiar, but out of caution in stating something on record that is inaccurate, I'm not going to attempt to regurgitate.
04:10:38.80	Unknown	I'm not sure.
04:10:42.68	Unknown	Okay, thank you.
04:10:44.31	Unknown	Remember hopping.
04:10:45.53	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you. So I saw the slide and I heard you reiterate the, you know, the horror story, the worst case scenario. But perhaps a city attorney could articulate why we might be subject to those, even though we would be within our RENA number.
04:11:00.82	Janelle Hoffman	So I don't think I'm clear on that because if we're within our arena number and we could reapportion those 50 units amongst the other 823 sites that were still well over the arena, 100 over arena number, I'm not sure why we would fall into,
04:11:18.91	Janelle Hoffman	category.
04:11:20.68	Rudin	So the reason why is that this is one of the sites the city included in its identified program of rezoning.
04:11:26.94	Rudin	And so if we don't complete the entire program of rezoning, it could be argued that we have failed to meet one of the statutory requirements and therefore not in compliance with housing element law.
04:11:37.84	Rudin	Josh Triplett, Now we could
04:11:40.81	Rudin	As previously mentioned,
04:11:43.21	Rudin	If the site doesn't pass, then we can amend our housing element to include a substitute site.
04:11:48.79	Rudin	or sites as may be needed. But there will be a period of time potentially where we are outside.
04:11:55.86	Rudin	and outside of compliance with state housing element law until we
04:11:59.47	Rudin	do so.
04:12:00.72	Janelle Hoffman	So,
04:12:01.42	Janelle Hoffman	If it doesn't, let's say we didn't pass the...
04:12:05.48	Janelle Hoffman	Let's say we put it on the ballot or we decide tonight not to go forward and put it on the ballot or –
04:12:11.41	Janelle Hoffman	it doesn't pass the ballot in November, then we would, presumably after tonight, hopefully we're not on November 4th,
04:12:20.92	Janelle Hoffman	presumably between now and November, we would come up with a plan. If either of the measures don't pass, we have a plan B, I would guess that we would do this, but we would have a pivot ready and available and present to HCD for a plan. But this, I would think with site 84 is fairly simple, that we have plenty of other sites and that we're still within our arena.
04:12:48.82	Janelle Hoffman	I would guess HCD would have a hard time saying that you're non-compliant and that you're open to Builder's Remedy when you still meet your Reno requirements. So I don't think.
04:13:01.96	Janelle Hoffman	Well, I suppose we do then have to give direction after we do the motion to have alternatives ready and available prior to November 4th of 2025. Okay, thank you.
04:13:16.64	Unknown	Okay, if there are no more questions, we'll be hearing from you.
04:13:19.56	Unknown	The public I have 10 speaker cards up here if there's anybody who hasn't filled one of these out who is here and wants to speak, please. Submit a card to the clerk oh they're more coming and what i'm going to do is read the first three and then continue in that vein so when you hear your name called first you're to come right up and the other two should be ready to come up first speaker is Burton dropness welcome second and before you start next will be adriana.
04:13:20.61	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you.
04:13:47.91	Unknown	Thank you.
04:13:48.42	Unknown	you
04:13:48.84	Unknown	Did I get that right? Is she present?
04:13:53.38	Unknown	I'm sorry, OK. And third is Aaron Nathan.
04:13:58.63	Unknown	the
04:13:58.68	Unknown	.
04:13:58.71	Burton Drobnis	Good evening. I'm Burton Drobnis, and my wife, Barbie, and I have lived in the north end of Sausalito at the Anchorage for 42 years. So I'm very familiar.
04:13:58.76	Unknown	Good evening.
04:14:07.86	Burton Drobnis	with that end of town first, I want to digress for a moment.
04:14:11.17	Burton Drobnis	I had a one-on-one meeting with Assemblyman Conley specifically talking
04:14:16.31	Burton Drobnis	about
04:14:17.33	Burton Drobnis	Sausalito's housing element. And in this meeting...
04:14:21.00	Burton Drobnis	Assemblyman Conley told me that HCD has admitted that they made a mistake.
04:14:26.12	Burton Drobnis	The mistake was they included
04:14:28.33	Burton Drobnis	parcels that were underwater,
04:14:30.15	Burton Drobnis	that they included part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in calculating our numbers.
04:14:36.51	Burton Drobnis	I believe that one of the reasons we are here right now is because of your failure.
04:14:42.77	Burton Drobnis	to force HGD to recalculate our number.
04:14:47.57	Burton Drobnis	and get it down.
04:14:49.56	Burton Drobnis	They made a mistake. Why haven't they corrected it?
04:14:52.56	Burton Drobnis	As far as the Martin Luther King School goes,
04:14:55.97	Burton Drobnis	when you were talking about
04:14:57.47	Burton Drobnis	The Wells Fargo building, you want to talk about
04:15:00.39	Burton Drobnis	uh, uh, uh, inconvenience. Think about the inconvenience of 50 units in a highly density, high density area of North Sausalito, noise pollution, light pollution, car pollution, everything else that goes along with that.
04:15:17.25	Burton Drobnis	If you've ever driven down my end of town on Sunday when the soccer games are on, when there are tennis lessons being done and everything else, you can't drive down the street. Two cars, an emergency vehicle cannot. I'm in favor of affordable housing. I'm in favor of meeting what we have to meet. Pass the measure and remove Martin Luther King from our housing element and take other places that may not be in the housing element. Harbor Drive.
04:15:47.98	Burton Drobnis	put that in there and preserve our end of town from all this development. Thank you very much.
04:15:55.71	Burton Drobnis	Thank you.
04:15:56.97	Unknown	Brianna?
04:16:00.48	Unknown	followed by Aaron Nathan, followed by Bob Hayes.
04:16:05.63	Unknown	Good evening, city council.
04:16:08.19	Unknown	I, it's something
04:16:10.69	Unknown	struck me as Mr. Phipps was making his presentation. We're worried that developers are going to get their
04:16:20.24	Unknown	bonuses and build more than the number of units we have calculated. But we're also worried that developers won't build as much as the
04:16:33.10	Unknown	number we've given to
04:16:35.89	Unknown	to the state. And therefore we're going to need MLK to fill the gap.
04:16:42.23	Unknown	I mean, those two ideas don't...
04:16:44.86	Unknown	don't really
04:16:46.32	Unknown	Connect. Let me say also that I'm of the mind that we need to find some other place in Sausalito, whether it's, I think, empty office buildings is a great idea, rather than putting it on a public park that's heavily used and enjoyed by the community and,
04:17:10.46	Unknown	I also want to say that if you look at those plans that I just looked at before coming to this meeting, they're not really true.
04:17:19.27	Unknown	because
04:17:20.74	Unknown	There are, for example, and we didn't look at that slide, but it's an overhead of the existing buildings and parking. And there are 10 spots on the eastern side of the parking lot. That is true.
04:17:35.25	Unknown	But in the new version where we have the housing and everything added, all of a sudden those 10 spaces, instead of being diagonal, they're, what do you call it? Whatever, not just pull in parking.
04:17:50.12	Unknown	Thank you.
04:17:50.14	Unknown	parallel.
04:17:50.31	Unknown	No, they're perpendicular to the, to the, all of a sudden it's 24 spaces and they are visually much smaller, like only golf carts could park there. Okay. So I would look at those plans with a critical eye. Thank you.
04:18:07.30	Unknown	Thank you.
04:18:10.99	Unknown	Thank you.
04:18:11.03	Aaron	Aaron?
04:18:14.18	Aaron	Good evening, council members. My name is Aaron. I live directly across the street from MLK at 607 Coloma. And I urge you to not adopt the resolution that will effectively overturn ordinance 1128. This protects our parks. It protects access to our parks. And I believe that a lot of the communication that's been given is misleading and actually invalid, mainly because, sure, while the dog park may still be there, the school may be there, there's no way to get there. There's no way to actually use those facilities. And so we're actually effectively neutering the ability for our parks to actually perform the functions that they're designed for.
04:18:36.69	Unknown	He's,
04:18:55.36	Aaron	Furthermore, the MLK site is in the highest wildfire danger zone that has already required two emergency evacuations in the last five years. So we are creating an area that today, as was mentioned earlier on a Sunday, we love all of our soccer players playing, but it becomes incredibly difficult to even navigate. We will have an area that with this housing will be like that seven days a week. And I believe that this creates a life safety issue. As a parent of two young children, this creates a very, it's the same reason that we moved here, will now basically be following us from San Francisco. It's impossible to have a safe place to live and raise a family.
04:19:36.77	Aaron	The last piece is that two times the affordable units are being pushed into the northern end of Sausalito. And I appreciate Council Member Hoffman for bringing this up because it is completely and totally against the principles of what the housing element is trying to accomplish. And I believe that we need to really not waste time in passing this 1128, doing this all on November 4th, and instead use this time to find equitable places to put housing on both sides of Sausalito. So I urge you, use this time for productive exercise and not perfunctory ballot measures that will not pass. Thank you.
04:20:16.54	Unknown	Thank you.
04:20:18.22	Unknown	Bob Hayes, followed by Michael Rex. I assume Michael Rex will be speaking as a member of the public.
04:20:24.09	David Lay	Did David Lay get in there?
04:20:26.35	David Lay	Uh,
04:20:26.53	Unknown	THE FEDERAL.
04:20:26.74	David Lay	Thank you.
04:20:27.92	Unknown	David, I think you're in here somewhere, but, um,
04:20:33.33	Unknown	Yeah, not yet.
04:20:35.11	Bob Hayes	How do I turn? Is it on?
04:20:36.52	Unknown	you
04:20:36.56	Bob Hayes	you
04:20:36.59	Unknown	Yes, it is.
04:20:37.23	Bob Hayes	but you may have to listen.
04:20:37.27	Unknown	You may have to.
04:20:37.82	Unknown	Lift it up.
04:20:38.03	Bob Hayes	up.
04:20:38.92	Bob Hayes	Sorry.
04:20:40.61	Bob Hayes	Bob Hayes, My name is Bob Hayes and I'm an architect in town. I've lived in town for 40 years. I live near the MLK site. I think that, you know, we're really kind of losing some sight here about recreational use. I do. I design affordable housing.
04:20:58.90	Bob Hayes	As a business, I do it. I insert it into jurisdictions all the time. But I think to take away this recreation use and put low-income housing in that spot is really wrong-minded. We'll never get it back. We'll never get that use back in a location that is highly used. that site, and you go there on the weekends, it's, yeah, it's busy, but it's a good busy. You know, people have a good time there and they recreate, and that's a very important need
04:21:40.09	Bob Hayes	of citizens of this city and other cities. So I think it's a big mistake to put it there, number one.
04:21:50.00	Bob Hayes	There's other places we could put it, I firmly believe. Now, you did do some big changes relative to, you know, my last comments from the last meeting that we had on this. And I have to say that, you know, going from 80 units down to 50 units is something. But when you look at where that is, it cuts that site in half. And now you have something here, something here, something here. Circulation is wiped out in that site. I mean, to take that center portion of the site and use it solely for this housing project is a huge mistake. And I know we're getting into the weeds of the design here.
04:22:35.85	Bob Hayes	Honestly, I think that we're kind of we're getting to the point where the language is going to be a problem. You know, thank you. What we're trying to do here. Thank you.
04:22:46.73	Unknown	Thank you.
04:22:48.84	Unknown	Thank you. Michael Rex followed by David Lay.
04:22:55.39	Michael Rex	Thank you. Yes, I'm speaking as a local businessman and architect, and I want to focus on the ballot language. The intent of my comments is to help improve the chance of the measure passing.
04:23:11.94	Michael Rex	And I would like to recommend that we include a type of unit types and a mix of occupants. I agree that giving preference to seniors is wise, but 100% seniors is not serving all the needs of our community. I would recommend that we talk about maybe 80% seniors, 10% of the units be for first responders, primarily police, because the firemen can stay in the firehouse. And then maybe 10% for marine workers or instructors of our marine schools.
04:23:52.17	Michael Rex	or even students in our maritime schools. The other thing is a mix of housing values and households. The visualization, because of the time constraint, shows all the identical units, all one bedroom. Any housing advocate, and I'm one of them, affordable housing advocate, knows that you want a mix of housing sizes and values. There should be some studios when we get to a real design, and there should be a couple, some two bedrooms so families can stay. And I think it's socially helpful, healthy and more equitable. I didn't see in the ballot language the preference for seniors. Did I miss it?
04:24:36.03	Michael Rex	Thank you.
04:24:36.05	Unknown	It is.
04:24:36.13	Michael Rex	It is.
04:24:36.30	Michael Rex	Thank you.
04:24:36.94	Michael Rex	It is in there.
04:24:38.61	Michael Rex	Uh,
04:24:39.37	Michael Rex	I'd love to see a confirmation of that.
04:24:42.71	Michael Rex	If you could check, please.
04:24:44.18	Michael Rex	But those are my recommendations. Thank you.
04:24:47.18	Unknown	Thank you. David Lay, you're next, followed by Babette McDougall. Is Babette still here?
04:24:53.46	David Lay	Oh, thank you very much. I think if you try to do this MLK trip, you're going to lose.
04:25:01.02	David Lay	And just look back at what happened around,
04:25:04.38	David Lay	25 years ago, 2000, when we tried to build safety building down there, didn't work.
04:25:09.86	David Lay	Firehouse down there didn't work.
04:25:11.81	David Lay	Voters didn't want to do that.
04:25:15.45	David Lay	I think that what I'm suggesting from the bike path down here to the street up here, there's this.
04:25:23.94	David Lay	And it's all between the bike path and the sidewalk.
04:25:27.43	David Lay	and it's all open except for one office building, which can stay. It doesn't bother anything.
04:25:32.76	David Lay	And it's all more, well, not all.
04:25:35.74	David Lay	Most of that is above 32 feet on the sidewalk.
04:25:40.17	David Lay	There's room to do that without interfering with a lot of these other opinions. And it puts people where they can get transportation, where there's a work right in front of them. And, um,
04:25:51.78	David Lay	It holds a lot of possibility for the long-range future of no car and so on. Thank you very much.
04:25:57.62	Unknown	Thank you very much. Bebek McDougal followed by Stacey Nemo.
04:26:10.23	Babette McDougall	Thank you very much for recognizing me, Mr. Vice.
04:26:13.74	Babette McDougall	Mayor. So obviously the MLK side is a very controversial subject and it's the perfect opportunity to remind ourselves about the value of that thing called good trouble.
04:26:26.41	Babette McDougall	And it's times like this where making good trouble actually matters.
04:26:31.19	Babette McDougall	So, Good Trouble, are your constituents speaking candidly to you about where we see the successes, which you, of course, enjoy listening to? Who wouldn't? I would.
04:26:40.58	Babette McDougall	But we also have to be reminded of our failures. Even I get called out for being a little too
04:26:46.37	Babette McDougall	over the edge sometimes. It happened at least once tonight.
04:26:50.61	Babette McDougall	I don't mind because that's what a vigorous dialogue and debate is all about. Small d democracy is about giving and taking ideas. It's not about stroking each other's egos.
04:27:03.72	Babette McDougall	It's about the reality of public policy.
04:27:07.50	Babette McDougall	So with that said, I just want to say you're not doing us any favors by continuing to compartmentalize and pretend like we only have to cross one footstep at a time.
04:27:17.59	Babette McDougall	Because we do have a crisis on our hands, and I don't know why you refuse to acknowledge it, but we do have the MTC, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, driving the housing element, as well as the transient-oriented communities thing. So we have a crush of development coming at us that you're not even daylighting.
04:27:37.15	Babette McDougall	to the constituents,
04:27:38.75	Babette McDougall	And to say that we have no crisis, I think, is a rather...
04:27:42.15	Babette McDougall	Unusual statement from you as our leaders, to say the least.
04:27:46.08	Babette McDougall	We have to appreciate the limits of growth. And we live in a place where we must be mindful of the limits of growth.
04:27:53.75	Babette McDougall	We have geology issues.
04:27:56.44	Babette McDougall	Soil that loves to get muddy and slide down and take the houses with it. We've got sea level rise issues. We've got fire issues. We've got seismic issues.
04:28:06.02	Babette McDougall	We've even got security issues, for crying out loud. We've got every issue. So please, think it through.
04:28:11.52	Unknown	Thank you. Stacy Nemo followed by Jennifer Nemo. And just to confirm, Mr. Rex asked whether prioritizing Sausalito's seniors was in the measure, and it is.
04:28:24.33	Stacy Nemo	Thank you. Most of this state mandated housing in Sausalito has been concentrated in the north side of town, as you have mentioned before in this group, near Marin City, continuing a long and troubling trend of relegating lower income housing there. You have a choice now and a chance now to make one small, but very meaningful change by making one less site in this area.
04:28:44.80	Stacy Nemo	proposing housing in a public park is particularly concerning and it's surprising that the council persists with this plan, even though we're over the needed number of units and that city staff has previously suggested options for relocating the units away from MLK this is still possible. Although Michael Rex has done an effective and actually quite a good job in integrating housing there will be very difficult to find a builder that can afford to build this housing, even with city support.
04:29:11.80	Stacy Nemo	If the city is unable to build and a company like Pacific West has already said that they can, it seems very likely that HCD will find that city to be obstructing its own housing element. While we appreciate the city's optimism at the MLK site, it seems like an unnecessary and high-risk move I encourage you to avoid. Thanks.
04:29:30.72	Unknown	Thank you.
04:29:31.87	Unknown	Jennifer Nemo followed by Adrienne Britton.
04:29:35.58	Unknown	You're going to pass. Okay. Thank you. Adrian Britton followed by Alice Merrill. And the last card I have is Jan Johnson.
04:29:46.97	Adrian Britton	Adrian Brinton, thank you for taking my comment. I'll try to keep it short. You know, this could be a pretty good project. We need this senior housing. And the renderings actually look pretty good and the density looks pretty good. But I worry, is it going to pass? You know, it's a really heavy lift. Telling people that they should vote for this to avoid builder's remedy is just not a very motivating message. And, you know, losing the public space, it's not ideal. Living next to a pickleball court, it's not ideal. You know, lots of ideas coming out that people have about other sites. You know, most of them tried, most of them with their own groups of residents who live nearby, who came out to fight against them. And, you know, the empty lots won. So we kept protecting the vacant lots. And now we have the choices that we have in front of us. So it's unfortunate. I hope we stopped doing that. You know, nervous and excited to hear we're going to have to start our new housing element so soon, but that gives us another opportunity to hopefully go back and maybe do it better and actually look at how to integrate this housing. 700 units seems like a lot. If you really start looking at our town with more of a design focus, I have no doubt that we can find places to put them where they'll enhance the quality of life here. We just haven't chosen to do that. We've chosen to stick numbers on a spreadsheet and fight and throw eggs at each other to try to get our sites on or off. So anyway, look forward to starting this process again in a few years. Thanks.
04:30:30.49	Unknown	And,
04:30:45.22	Unknown	maybe
04:31:11.14	Unknown	Thank you.
04:31:11.43	Adrian Britton	Thank you.
04:31:11.48	Unknown	Bye.
04:31:11.58	Adrian Britton	Thank you.
04:31:11.60	Unknown	Alice Merrill, followed by Jan Johnson, and another card was handed to me, Sybil Boutilier.
04:31:17.69	Unknown	Thank you.
04:31:17.71	Alice Merrill	Hello. To start with, I want to apologize that I did see the flyer. I did see the flyer. I got it.
04:31:17.79	Unknown	Hello. My speaker.
04:31:27.61	Alice Merrill	It didn't speak to me at all. So I apologize for not responding. The other two things I did not get, I did not get a text, and I did not get whatever the other email from the city.
04:31:40.99	Alice Merrill	So, um,
04:31:43.20	Alice Merrill	What a mess.
04:31:45.45	Alice Merrill	I don't have an opinion about, I want low income. I want the kinds of things that was it Michael who said about the different kinds of people that can get into that.
04:31:56.67	Alice Merrill	places and the problem with the rest of Sausalito a lot of it is that everybody wants fancy fancy fancy and um expensive expensive and I don't know how to solve that but
04:32:09.77	Alice Merrill	I'm...
04:32:11.01	Alice Merrill	I wish that it were easier. Thank you.
04:32:16.08	Unknown	Thank you.
04:32:17.75	Unknown	Jan Johnson.
04:32:19.28	Unknown	Hi, thank you. I hate SB 79. God help us all. I don't know what's going to happen with this. If it does pass, it is only a block from the 33 units of Rotary Singer housing that's already there on...
04:32:36.12	Unknown	Thank you.
04:32:36.51	Unknown	Olima
04:32:38.15	Unknown	If I'm glad the design isn't set, because it would seem to me that if you bring the
04:32:44.38	Unknown	the tennis courts forward to be next to the park area and put the housing between Olima and Coloma. You'll preserve more of a park-like setting, and it won't be so chopped up. I know that's in the weeds for future, but who knows what's going to happen with this vote. Thank you.
04:33:04.42	Unknown	Thank you. Sybil, I think your last speaker card or any other speaker cards?
04:33:10.94	Unknown	Okay?
04:33:17.62	Unknown	Thank you guys.
04:33:18.46	Unknown	Thank you, Vice Mayor and Council Members. I'm totally in support of this project. And I appreciate very much that the proposed ballot measure language does give preference of priority to seniors, of which among our current voters in Sausalito, 3,140 right now on a voter rolls are between the ages of 55 and 104.
04:33:18.50	Unknown	Thank you.
04:33:55.12	Unknown	So as you can see, that's a large percentage of our population here. So where do all these people live? Some of them are living in big family homes where the rest of the family has...
04:34:08.24	Unknown	started their own homes and giving people a place to move to
04:34:13.65	Unknown	in their community, which is so important in such an engaged community as we have here,
04:34:21.41	Unknown	gives the opportunity to free up more housing for families. So just to put that aside.
04:34:29.83	Unknown	The very low housing here in South Salido, which goes by jurisdiction by jurisdiction,
04:34:38.33	Unknown	is 30% to 50% of the average income of the city of Sausalito, which in 2023 was $141,000. So the 30% you're thinking of is for HUD housing, and that's for federally supported HUD housing. So this is a different calculation. And that's very low. And the low income, which is the other category, we have about 100 and some...
04:35:08.00	Unknown	We have 200 in the lower category.
04:35:10.92	Unknown	about 100 and some in this category is 50 to 80%. So those are considered affordable housing in the town of Sausalito. I just wanna say that.
04:35:23.29	Unknown	This is a great opportunity for creative. Thank you.
04:35:26.56	Unknown	Thank you very much. Members, speakers online.
04:35:31.05	Unknown	Jordan Dodds.
04:35:36.84	Jordan Dodds	Hey, good evening again. Everybody can hear me all right?
04:35:39.64	Jordan Dodds	So I just want to say I know this is hard and I agree with Councilmember Sobieski with this would have been better done with design and urban planners but like it's passed so here we are and so.
04:35:48.97	Jordan Dodds	I think just listening to all the comments here, my first kind of thought is on the economics of this. I haven't heard much about kind of the structure, the deal with developer. Are we leasing the land to developer? Will they be condo or the leases? If it's senior housing, is it designated long-term care? Is this like assisted care? Is this just short-term rental for
04:36:06.89	Jordan Dodds	seniors to go into. I'm just kind of curious. Hasn't been a lot spoken to kind of again, the proposed build out.
04:36:12.61	Jordan Dodds	And then kind of secondly, I'm just, I'm really curious. It feels like we're everything we've kind of been delivered as like, this is it or,
04:36:20.34	Jordan Dodds	Builder's Remedy. And it feels a little bit threatening versus like, what are the options? So...
04:36:25.88	Jordan Dodds	When I see the housing map now and I see the north part of South City are taking 48% like as a resident there, I understand that there's a lot more land.
04:36:33.98	Jordan Dodds	I'm just like, I hear Merrick Cox, and I know she's not in there, but the empty office buildings, and I have to say, like, they're not all empty.
04:36:40.34	Jordan Dodds	The business I own is in one that's on there that's 100% occupied.
04:36:44.56	Jordan Dodds	And I just, I'm very curious as far as like rezoning and the Marin ship. And I look at that map and pretty much nothing south of Harbor is even designated. Instead it's just shipping containers and dust.
04:36:57.50	Jordan Dodds	and recycling
04:36:59.29	Jordan Dodds	And I'm curious why that wasn't even like how we get to a place where the landowners themselves are allowed to like, I guess when I heard about the, you know, the proponent of building, I was like, oh, I imagine one of the landowners would do assisted living for seniors to sell their homes, move there and have a long term option and viability to stay in Sausalito without displacing a public park.
04:37:20.38	Jordan Dodds	So I'm not looking at my clock, but
04:37:22.78	Jordan Dodds	I guess my like ask of the city council is like use this feedback and like from the citizens, not as like fear of the punishment from the state, but as a motivator to like Ian said is like, how can we build a better design city. Thank you.
04:37:35.98	Unknown	Thank you, Jordan.
04:37:39.20	Unknown	Next speaker is Sandra Bushmaker.
04:37:39.33	Unknown	Thank you.
04:37:39.37	Jordan Dodds	There's a lot.
04:37:39.50	Unknown	Thank you.
04:37:42.98	Sandra Bushmaker	Hi again. The real enemy here is Sacramento and its draconian housing laws.
04:37:48.77	Sandra Bushmaker	And it is dividing cities all over up and down California.
04:37:52.90	Sandra Bushmaker	And I'm really happy to hear this council talk so much about retaining local control, because I'm going to discuss this with you on the next agenda item.
04:38:01.51	Sandra Bushmaker	But anyway, I wanted to bring up
04:38:03.87	Sandra Bushmaker	the concept that the state housing crisis that we hear over and over was declared by the legislature. It has since been challenged.
04:38:13.17	Sandra Bushmaker	Because...
04:38:14.06	Sandra Bushmaker	Because it was based on inaccurate population counts. And that came from our Department of Treasury in California.
04:38:20.65	Sandra Bushmaker	So the question before us tonight is, what do we put on the ballot?
04:38:24.41	Sandra Bushmaker	Somehow I didn't speak clearly when we were talking about 1022.
04:38:28.79	Sandra Bushmaker	Um,
04:38:30.16	Sandra Bushmaker	In the ballot question itself,
04:38:33.38	Sandra Bushmaker	I believe we should have language that this is a modification of
04:38:38.40	Sandra Bushmaker	ordinance 1128, which by the way was
04:38:42.70	Sandra Bushmaker	put in place in 1997 when I was running for city council, the first time.
04:38:47.51	Sandra Bushmaker	and was successful.
04:38:49.35	Sandra Bushmaker	But it was a big issue because people wanted their part.
04:38:53.97	Sandra Bushmaker	And this was the main issue behind 1128. So I certainly understand the resistance to putting in housing in our park area. And we do have this large buffer. I would like to explore that more.
04:39:06.22	Sandra Bushmaker	And
04:39:08.05	Sandra Bushmaker	The, the.
04:39:11.86	Sandra Bushmaker	issue of whether we can
04:39:14.44	Sandra Bushmaker	prefer senior housing, I think, raises some legal issues, which I think needs a little more of a legal dive on it from our city attorney. I don't know that we can do that in a ballot measure. It needs to be looked at. But in any event, I do share
04:39:29.31	Sandra Bushmaker	The discussion about all of the affordable housing being shoved into the north end of town. I don't think that's fair to our town. It's not fair to the residents on the north end of town. And I think that it needs to be distributed throughout town, which is what our
04:39:43.75	Sandra Bushmaker	Jenna
04:39:45.80	Unknown	All right, next speaker is Pete Schmidt.
04:39:56.14	Unknown	Eight.
04:39:58.03	Unknown	He's on mute.
04:40:04.21	Unknown	All right, we'll go with John Gavin.
04:40:12.71	Unknown	John, if you can please unmute.
04:40:18.43	Unknown	Um, I, uh, All right.
04:40:20.47	Unknown	Hi, I'm here.
04:40:22.89	Unknown	Close.
04:40:25.38	Unknown	Hello, are you Pete or John?
04:40:28.12	Unknown	Hi, this is John Gavin.
04:40:30.55	Unknown	Thank you.
04:40:30.95	Unknown	Thank you.
04:40:30.97	Unknown	to, uh,
04:40:31.06	Unknown	We have a lot of people.
04:40:31.26	Unknown	you can hear.
04:40:31.56	Unknown	you.
04:40:31.83	Unknown	Thank you.
04:40:32.30	Unknown	Okay, great.
04:40:33.45	Unknown	Thanks for having this hearing today.
04:40:37.69	Unknown	I'm not.
04:40:38.21	Unknown	It's been a frustrating process, I think, on all sides. I just want to read a little bit about 1128 for those that aren't too familiar with it.
04:40:46.49	Unknown	No part of Martin Luther King property shall be used for purposes other than park and recreation purposes without approval provided. However, that the land area of the said property currently devoted to commercial purposes may continue in such use on temporary basis without voter approval.
04:41:04.58	Unknown	There shall be no increase in the land area of said site.
04:41:08.20	Unknown	on the floor area situated thereon, which is devoted to commercial use.
04:41:14.54	Unknown	I just want to call out that on the title and summary. I think it's very important that it mentions one 100% affordable housing so voters know that what they are voting for. Also, then it should mention that this is Martin Luther King Jr. Park that we're talking about.
04:41:32.67	Unknown	and not being cute and calling it a property or a city asset or something of that nature. We all know that this is an area that is heavily used. You can go there any weekend, as I already said, and parking is not just utilized in the parking spaces, but also along Alema Street, along Butte Street, along Coloma as well. So it's heavily utilized. So any type of housing count of 50 and above
04:42:03.70	Unknown	is going to vastly put a negative impact along the neighborhoods regarding parking and traffic. If you're doing 100% affordable housing, you're not going to be able to do a parking garage underneath. And if you go above, you're going to go above the limit on the housing, on the height that you're saying is only going to be 30 plus feet. So I think this is just...
04:42:26.95	Unknown	You're under the gun, I understand, but I think it's just kind of a poorly thought out to put it on a ballot measure. And I think we should revisit maybe the entirety of
04:42:38.26	Unknown	Um, next speaker is Pete Schmidt.
04:42:43.12	Pete Schmidt	Hi, can you hear me now?
04:42:44.49	Unknown	We can hear you.
04:42:45.92	Pete Schmidt	Great, thank you, council members. And I just wanted to say that I agree with what I was hearing from Jordan Dodds and Sandra Bushmaker earlier. In particular, Jordan was talking about the economics of this.
04:42:56.67	Pete Schmidt	Um, I just have a hard time understanding how this would, uh,
04:43:00.82	Pete Schmidt	I'm just curious what this would look like for the city of Sausalito moving forward in the future. I'm curious what kind of builders would be interested in a partnership.
04:43:10.69	Pete Schmidt	How would we afford to pay for the project? Would we have to get a loan? If we did so, would we even generate enough to maintain the facilities?
04:43:19.84	Pete Schmidt	Thank you.
04:43:19.96	Pete Schmidt	Is this a business that the city's already in the city? I'm not actually sure if we have other units that we rent as low income or
04:43:28.02	Pete Schmidt	especially if it's long-term low-income housing. I really love the idea of senior housing, especially the idea that Jordan Dodds is talking about. And I think this is a bigger issue for the state of California.
04:43:40.04	Pete Schmidt	We have this huge concern about a lack of housing, but we also have an older population that is probably ready to downsize, but because of their wealth locked up in their home, because Prop 13 allows that to happen, that the Chronicle's covered, things like that, it's just a tough situation to be in.
04:43:57.50	Pete Schmidt	And I know you're in a tough situation to be in, but I just would encourage you to
04:44:02.41	Pete Schmidt	just consider the maintenance of this facility, the long-term costs of this idea, the field itself that was just redone,
04:44:09.72	Pete Schmidt	It's already got cracked asphalt. The path's a lot narrower than people thought it was going to be. The drinking fountains don't work. The baseball diamond that our kids use, it doesn't get weeded.
04:44:19.63	Pete Schmidt	So I just, the field's getting mowed by an independent contractor. It's not...
04:44:25.65	Pete Schmidt	You know, we don't have an electric motor. Maybe we do now, but we didn't during the earlier season.
04:44:30.56	Pete Schmidt	It just doesn't seem like it's a good idea.
04:44:32.97	Pete Schmidt	Thank you.
04:44:33.18	Pete Schmidt	So thanks for your time.
04:44:35.56	Unknown	Thank you. No further public speakers.
04:44:39.34	Unknown	Okay, let's bring it back for discussion and hopefully a decision without a lot of discussion. We've heard a lot from all of you. I think if I can just lead off by saying I think this language goes as far as we can to constrain or put guardrails on what could be built on the site. and the language is quite clear about prioritizing senior housing, affordable housing, and maintaining the existing recreational park and school uses. One suggestion that the staff made was to change the language from a specific height limit to existing height limits. That's the staff recommendation. We've also heard other thoughts from the public. So I want to bring you back for comments, suggestions, and preferably a motion, and then a second, and then we can discuss it and move.
04:45:37.98	Karen Hollweg	Karen Hollweg, I would accept staff's recommendation, because I think it's critical that the height limit it's clear that it stays where it is, but I would i'm happy to make a motion approving the resolution as proposed by staff. Karen Hollweg, With the addition or the change to language and then I have some comments that i'll just put the motion.
04:45:57.01	Unknown	Is there a second to that motion?
04:45:59.58	Unknown	There's a second motion, a second, and discussion.
04:46:04.56	Unknown	Would you like to lead off since you make the motion?
04:46:08.23	Unknown	Uh...
04:46:11.34	Unknown	Can I?
04:46:12.55	Unknown	You may have a second, yes.
04:46:15.07	Unknown	the seconder.
04:46:15.64	Sobieski	I mean, if people are not a year to go, I was gonna wait a little bit,
04:46:20.15	Sobieski	I hate building in the parks. I don't want to build our parks. Our parks are a public resource.
04:46:24.47	Sobieski	It's the last place in the world I wanted to build.
04:46:26.92	Sobieski	if we build anything there to be a community center or a saltwater pool or more services for people,
04:46:32.57	Sobieski	People need a place to live indeed, but we have a lot of places in Sausalito where we can live. It frustrates me to no end.
04:46:43.00	Sobieski	I want to be able to share my screen. Can you give me authority to share my screen or can you turn off that please?
04:46:50.40	Sobieski	So I joined the city council in 2021. This is where David Lay is talking about. This is right behind the Bay Model. This is up there as Bridgeway. Here's an empty field. You can put buildings there.
04:47:05.58	Sobieski	You can put buildings there. You can put low income housing there. You wouldn't have to put it in a park.
04:47:10.72	Sobieski	Here's another example.
04:47:13.12	Sobieski	How about this spot?
04:47:16.71	Sobieski	This is an empty field.
04:47:18.59	Sobieski	It happens to be right next to a park.
04:47:20.97	Sobieski	Here are some empty buildings.
04:47:22.74	Sobieski	This site was actually in our original housing element, but three votes took it out. At the end of the day, we have a democracy, and this, you're appearing here tonight, my friends, my neighbors, is too late. We've been at this for four years, and there were a lot of votes. There were a lot of public votes, and it was super obscure, I grant you. I could barely keep up with what was going on, frankly. but this site was originally in our housing element this empty field which by the way used to be a neighborhood called pine I could barely keep up with what was going on, frankly. But this site was originally in our housing element, this empty field, which by the way, used to be a neighborhood called Pine Hill.
04:47:53.72	Sobieski	uh you could build a building up against this hill that would not block anyone's view it could provide
04:48:00.13	Sobieski	a meaningful plurality, if not a majority, of all the units we needed in our housing element.
04:48:05.51	Sobieski	When you think of housing that's coming next to you, think about the fact that the process took away
04:48:12.72	Sobieski	from our housing element, a site like this, that could have been where a lot of housing could have been.
04:48:20.06	Sobieski	If you go down this street towards the FedEx building, which thankfully was added at the 11th hour, you have this nice dry storage yard, again, against the hillside.
04:48:28.52	Sobieski	I'll just point out again, we're going to be building in a public park and we're not building in this spot. Something is wrong with the process. And I see some nodding heads, but it is too late to change. I'm going to have to vote for this because if I don't vote to put it on the ballot, here's what's going to happen.
04:48:41.93	Sobieski	it will potentially make us drop out of compliance with our state housing law, which means that we would get a builder's remedy
04:48:49.59	Sobieski	which means anyone can build anything anywhere. It's a disaster. So I'm sorry, I can see some exasperation.
04:48:56.11	Sobieski	It is indeed too late.
04:48:58.13	Sobieski	It's too late for this, but it's not too late for the particulars of whether to build an MLK park. First off,
04:49:03.85	Sobieski	We'll see what the voters do at the ballot box. We have to plan for the fact that they may not pass it.
04:49:09.99	Sobieski	Right. So I would.
04:49:11.88	Sobieski	I propose we immediately start a process of doing
04:49:15.80	Sobieski	the thing that was rejected in january of 2021 and with my colleague we were the only two votes to hire an urban planner in may of 2023
04:49:24.78	Sobieski	If I can just finish the thought or I'll come back. We have this three minute time limit, but I have the other half of this.
04:49:29.28	Karen Hollweg	I was the second vote for the urban planner and I have since asked a number of times that we agendize a further master plan to consider how we might look at the larger, bigger picture. And I share the frustrations as it may.
04:49:42.97	Karen Hollweg	mentioned by Councilmember Sobieski, because he and I voted in favor of essentially almost every site as proposed so that there would be a fair mix of housing across the community. We hear your concerns, and we did indeed vote for a housing element with that sort of footprint, and we didn't have enough votes. And so we are where we are at this point, and we are, and what I am excited about is an opportunity to offer more housing for our seniors and to offer potentially more housing for our city workers. And I'm someone who has very much advocated for housing because I believe in what it can achieve to further grow and improve our community. But, you know, I hear you. I hear your frustrations about the park. And I'm sorry that we are where we are, but we are where we are. And moving forward with this initiative means that we will have the opportunity to not make the same mistake again. So I would hope that going forward, we would take a different approach to how we address the housing element, because there's been a lot of frustration from a number of members of the community about the way that it turned out. We did approve a housing element and we are, I think four or five years into this process at this stage. And we can start again with these conversations. And I would also hope again, that the voters have an opportunity, this is not the end of the line. So if the voters don't approve this, then the voters don't approve this, but we as a city have a responsibility to put forward this ballot measure. And so we're gonna, I would have met, I would hope that we would have the support from the dais to do that, but that also,
04:51:12.34	Karen Hollweg	when we move forward in conversation about what our housing footprint looks like for the next 5, 10, and 20 years, we take a more future-minded perspective and do bring on a consultant so that we can have a master plan. And I appreciate that Councilmember Sobieski brought up all of those facts tonight and I appreciate so much all of your public comment and engagement and really it means so much to hear from all of you and you bring up some very valid points with regards to the way our housing footprint looks across our city.
04:51:39.07	Unknown	Merhoffman.
04:51:40.12	Janelle Hoffman	Oh, sure. Thanks. And you can leave that site up. So the background on this site, this is the Carla Berg site, by the way, who donated heavily to both Councilmember Blaustein's campaign and Councilmember Sobieski's first campaign and Vice Mayor Woodside's campaigns. And so this site was heavily discussed during the original, I think the original housing element advisory committee. And Mr. Berg and his family is very interested in turning this into a housing element site and building, as we've discussed many times up here at the dais, as he likes to say, a senior living facility. And many times we've had seniors in here advocating for that. And so we took it off the site plan because it's sandwiched between two working waterfront areas, and it's sandwiched between the Corporation, sorry, not the Corporation Yard, the Corps of Engineers Boat Crushing Yard, which has has high toxicity levels, is not particularly well suited for ongoing residential. It's okay if you're a shipyard worker and you take proper precautions, but it's not particularly well suited for under OSHA requirements for 24-hour living areas. On the other side is active working waterfront areas on the other side of the fence line. So on both sides of his fence line, he has working waterfront areas. And so for those reasons, because we wanted to preserve the working waterfront on both sides, we did not think that, well, the council and the Housing Element Advisory Committee agreed that because of the industrial nature and the proximity of his grandfathered but nonconforming office space, it was not particularly amenable for housing. And so that's why his office building was not listed not listed as a housing element site and so it's been a council member sobieski and council member blaustein have repeatedly tried to get this back on as a housing element site and advocates for this to be a senior living facility but I stand by the notion that places in such close proximity to a working waterfront area is not particularly well suited for that because of the high toxicity levels and what I know to be increased risk for development of cancer and other other bad things that would come from 24-hour residential in those types of areas would not be a well or a good thing for a city to zone for housing or residential based on increased certainly risk for developing disease and also liability from.
04:52:47.02	Sandy Strawbridge	because, like,
04:54:44.83	Sobieski	So I'd like to chime in on that. I appreciate the comments.
04:54:47.85	Sobieski	You can decide for yourself how close this is to the working waterfront. You can see the empty parking lot. You can see the building.
04:54:54.01	Sobieski	You can see the hillside.
04:54:55.68	Sobieski	uh as we walk down this street and look at this empty land just bear in mind that we're going to be building in our public parks instead of in a place like this so i just have to point out that we actually did have residents here briefly here in marinship park and they made the same claim when the homeless encampment was in marinship park that the ground was toxic they in fact made that claim in front of a federal judge and the city of sausalito spent money doing and toxality studies of the soil in Marinship Park and found that it was perfectly fine. They, in fact, made that claim in front of a federal judge. And the city of Sausalito spent money doing taxolity studies of the soil in Marin Ship Park and found that it was perfectly fine. It was fine enough that the judge dismissed that claim and allowed the homeless encampment to remain in that location.
04:55:32.48	Sobieski	I'm not going to belabor the point. I think my colleague made it clear. What you have here today, my neighbors, is this is a result of elections and politics. And this is the issue at hand.
04:55:43.99	Unknown	And,
04:55:44.19	Sobieski	We are where we are. In 2021 in January, I voted against the housing element consultant, which we paid more than a million dollars for. We had a lower bidder that was $280,000. And my proposal then was let's take half of that savings. So $700,000, take half of it and spend it on an urban designer and urban planner to figure out a way to solve the problem.
04:56:06.25	Sobieski	thing that we do care about is we want to preserve the working waterfront
04:56:09.96	Sobieski	But let's find places to put housing in empty lots like this that don't impact our parks, that don't disrupt our historic neighborhoods, that don't disrupt our other neighborhoods. I was the only vote for that.
04:56:20.09	Sobieski	So a few years later, we've got this.
04:56:20.17	Rudin	And
04:56:20.86	Rudin	If we could focus on the proposed agenda item before you would.
04:56:25.17	Sobieski	No.
04:56:25.30	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you.
04:56:25.34	Sobieski	out there.
04:56:25.91	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you.
04:56:26.31	Sobieski	No, thank you.
04:56:26.77	Unknown	I'm going to ask everyone to hold on for a moment since I haven't commented.
04:56:32.32	Janelle Hoffman	to that.
04:56:33.20	Unknown	I'm going to say no. It's not on the agenda. It's a future debate. I'm very sympathetic and will look forward with vigor to that super future.
04:56:40.94	Janelle Hoffman	Thank you.
04:59:25.85	Chris Zapata	closed. So, you know, I would recommend giving her two minutes, but that's your call.
04:59:31.25	Unknown	You would recommend what? I'm sorry I didn't hear you.
04:59:32.88	Chris Zapata	Letting her have a public comment.
04:59:34.98	Unknown	I think that's fine for two minutes. We can hear from Laura and then move on.
04:59:41.85	Chris Zapata	So, um...
04:59:43.50	Chris Zapata	Sound check, can you hear us?
04:59:47.38	Chris Zapata	All right.
04:59:47.41	Unknown	All right.
04:59:47.85	Unknown	Can you
04:59:47.92	Chris Zapata	Can you plug Lorna into the microphone, Wolford, please?
04:59:51.94	Unknown	Yes, one moment.
04:59:58.08	Chris Zapata	Thank you for that kindness.
05:00:15.97	Unknown	I don't see her anymore, but I do see a 414.
05:00:18.03	Unknown	number was that?
05:00:19.04	Chris Zapata	that
05:00:19.33	Unknown	Thank you.
05:00:19.34	Unknown	Her?
05:00:19.36	Chris Zapata	Her?
05:00:19.75	Unknown	Thank you.
05:00:19.78	Unknown	Yes.
05:00:20.03	Chris Zapata	Thank you.
05:00:20.34	Unknown	Thank you.
05:00:20.37	Chris Zapata	That's right.
05:00:22.68	Chris Zapata	415-259-9088.
05:00:25.37	Unknown	I always do.
05:00:39.51	Unknown	She's not on.
05:00:40.94	Unknown	Thank you.
05:00:41.62	Unknown	Since he's not on, we do need to move on. There's a motion, a second, and I'm ask the clerk to call the roll.
05:00:48.55	Janelle Hoffman	Mayor, you gave Councilmember Sobieski two rounds, and I only got one. I think, let me just say, let me just give me one minute.
05:00:56.89	Janelle Hoffman	In fairness.
05:00:58.63	Unknown	Are you going to debate the sites that are subject to a future discussion that are not relevant to this?
05:00:59.96	Janelle Hoffman	No, you're getting...
05:01:06.56	Janelle Hoffman	I'm just saying.
05:01:07.01	Unknown	just saying, okay. Don't you want to do that?
05:01:08.38	Janelle Hoffman	Listen, in fairness, I think I get to respond.
05:01:11.50	Unknown	Well, I'm going to say no. It's not on the agenda.
05:01:13.97	Unknown	Thank you.
05:01:14.44	Unknown	Ask the clerk to follow the question.
05:01:15.08	Janelle Hoffman	to call the question. Remember, so you'll be asking his comments.
05:02:39.94	Unknown	Okay, can you hear us, Mike?
05:02:40.91	Jack Burroughs	Thank you.
05:02:40.92	Unknown	Yes.
05:02:45.21	Unknown	All right.
05:02:46.27	Unknown	Sorry, we can go again.
05:02:50.63	Unknown	So we're back on the record.
05:02:51.96	Unknown	And Lorna Newland's back online. You want her to do public comment?
05:02:57.51	Unknown	Pleasure, Vice Mayor. I think we should let her, if she's ready to speak right now. Yeah. No more than two minutes, please.
05:03:01.63	Unknown	Yeah.
05:03:09.83	Lorna Newland	Yes, thank you. Zoom, I had my hand up and Zoom ended, but I'm back on. Thank you. Lorna Newland, 33-year resident and a homeowner.
05:03:19.65	Lorna Newland	23 years having a small business, which is an easy in Sausalito, and almost 20 years as a tenant of MLK in Building 7. And I will say that I did get this flyer, but it said a portion of MLK. Today was the first I learned that my particular building, Building 7, was slated to be there. But what I wanted to bring up is in 2015, Mr. F was passed by over 63% of the voters, and that was the Certificates of Park Participation. And this was a voter-approved thing, providing that the future rents of the MLK site was to pay for park upgrades at MLK and Parks and Sausalito, So no taxpayer money was being used. Now, if you are closing that building, and apparently I'm the only one who was able to speak tonight. I think there are at least 20 people in the building. I'm not sure. I've been there almost 20 years. There have been tenants there for 30 years. And I don't know. There was no mention in an email uh we now have new property management which you guys know um anyway um
05:04:30.46	Lorna Newland	That when they, we dealt with,
05:04:33.33	Lorna Newland	Three years of dust. I also live in Whiskey Springs, so I have a two minute walking commute. This is my livelihood for all this time, but I don't know what's happening with at least say, what's gonna happen with these future rents that are supposed to pay for all the upgrades. But I agree too much is happening in the North End. I'm running out of time. I agree, a marine ship should be looked at.
05:05:01.02	Lorna Newland	You're putting
05:05:02.54	Lorna Newland	I grew up on an acre.
05:05:05.29	Lorna Newland	with one family house and to cram that many units in that area
05:05:11.48	Lorna Newland	doesn't isn't really fair. So I'm sorry I couldn't get everything I wanted to say, but I got a little flustered with the zoom ending. Thank you for allowing me.
05:05:21.98	Unknown	Thank you. And just to be clear, I know there was quite a bit of back and forth with respect to alternative sites that I know will be discussed in the future. And at that time, it would be appropriate to continue the discussion. But right now, we have a motion to second. And I'll ask the clerk to call the roll.
05:05:40.83	Unknown	Thank you.
05:05:40.84	Unknown	All right. Councilmember Blaustein.
05:05:43.22	Alice Merrill	Yes.
05:05:44.51	Unknown	Councilmember Hoffman? No. Councilmember Sobieski? Yes.
05:05:45.79	Alice Merrill	No.
05:05:48.79	Unknown	And Mayor Pro Tem, what's up?
05:05:51.97	Unknown	you
05:05:52.56	Unknown	Yes.
05:05:53.72	Unknown	So that motion passes. This matter will be on the ballot on November 4th.
05:05:60.00	Unknown	And I imagine that between now and then, this debate will continue. So I look forward to it.
05:06:01.31	Unknown	now.
05:06:06.41	Unknown	Now, I'll make sure that Mayor Cox knows we can go back into session and she can take charge of a meeting and hopefully we won't
05:06:14.90	Unknown	take too much more time.
05:06:17.02	Unknown	Thank you.
05:06:20.99	Unknown	Um,
05:06:22.42	Unknown	Get on the other computer. So if anybody wants to...
05:06:22.69	Sobieski	Thank you.
05:06:34.46	Unknown	What?
05:06:35.84	Unknown	No, if anybody wants to comment, like to let people in and out of them.
05:06:41.12	Unknown	Thank you.
05:06:41.59	Unknown	I can't log into Zoom right here and control anything.
05:06:46.96	Unknown	So what I'm saying is anybody has their hand up?
05:06:49.32	Jack Burrows	Yeah.
05:06:50.01	Unknown	Thank you.
05:06:50.88	Jack Burrows	Allow Jack Burrows to talk. I don't know.
05:06:52.26	Unknown	No, no, no. Put his hand down.
05:06:54.03	Jack Burrows	I'm sorry.
05:06:54.15	Unknown	Good job.
05:06:56.39	Sandra Bushmaker	Thank you.
05:06:56.41	Jack Burrows	She will continue.
05:06:57.51	Sandra Bushmaker	Thank you.
05:06:59.11	Unknown	Thank you.
05:07:16.54	Karen Hollweg	Thank you guys for welcoming me back. The next item on our agenda is item 5C, which was formerly item 3B. We are actually going to continue that item to our next meeting. Given the late hour, I will entertain public comment on that item. Should anyone wish to make it? I see no one in the audience. City Clerk, anyone online for item 5C?
05:07:43.96	Unknown	Yeah, we have Sandra Bushmaker.
05:07:45.67	Karen Hollweg	All right.
05:07:50.26	Sandra Bushmaker	Welcome back, Sandra.
05:07:52.22	Sandra Bushmaker	Thank you very much. I am delighted to hear, as I mentioned earlier, that you don't want to lose any local control.
05:07:59.05	Sandra Bushmaker	because not opposing
05:08:02.17	Sandra Bushmaker	SB 79 is a loss of local control.
05:08:06.05	Sandra Bushmaker	Now, I support the historic district exemption, but I think the historic district exemption can stand on its own merits without you capitulating that you will re-re-re-
05:08:19.00	Sandra Bushmaker	Remove your opposition.
05:08:21.44	Sandra Bushmaker	to SB 79. Let it stand on the historic district exemption alone because the
05:08:29.53	Sandra Bushmaker	The consequences of SB 79 are too huge to ignore, and I hope that you will read Susan Kirsch's letter and Amy Kalash's letter, which were posted on tonight's agenda on this particular item.
05:08:43.31	Sandra Bushmaker	And I don't believe
05:08:44.73	Sandra Bushmaker	In my opinion, that SB 79 only applies to the ferry landing. I think there are huge consequences with regard to bus stops and other areas in Sausalito that will be affected by SB 79, in which case you will have absolutely no say about anything.
05:09:01.96	Sandra Bushmaker	Thank you.
05:09:03.92	Sandra Bushmaker	Thank you. City Clerk.
05:09:06.01	Unknown	Next speaker is Sophia Collier.
05:09:10.28	Safiya	Welcome, Sophia.
05:09:21.86	Unknown	You can...
05:09:22.29	Safiya	Sophia, go ahead.
05:09:30.77	Safiya	Is she unmuted?
05:09:33.11	Unknown	She's unmuted.
05:09:34.16	Safiya	Sophia, did you want to speak?
05:09:34.21	Unknown	Surprise.
05:09:39.90	Unknown	There's no further public speakers after that.
05:09:43.42	Karen Hollweg	All right, I'm going to give her another five seconds.
05:09:47.44	Safiya	Safiya, I don't know if you're trying to speak
05:09:48.97	Karen Hollweg	but we don't hear you.
05:09:52.38	Karen Hollweg	All right, she's gone.
05:09:55.17	Karen Hollweg	Are we still on the Zoom?
05:09:56.67	Unknown	Yeah, we're still on Zoom.
05:09:57.77	Karen Hollweg	Okay. All right. I'm going to move on to items six. The first is 6A, City Manager Information for Council. I'll turn it over to our City Manager, Chris Zapata.
05:10:08.51	Chris Zapata	Thank you, Mayor. I'll be very brief. I was asked about the sewer debt retirement last meeting. I provided a staff report in your packet, which shows $5.2 million of debt was taken off the city's books, saving 20 years of interest on the sewer bonds and eight years of interest on the sewer revolving loan that we got from the state, which totaled $1.9 million in change. If anyone has any questions, they can refer to the report. I want to talk about something that's a little on topic that I believe is important, and it's regarding emergency response. This past year, the city council approved a Veritas, Bureau Veritas study of facilities. One of the facilities studied, obviously, was the Spencer Fire Station, former Spencer Fire Station. The city council also authorized $300,000 in the capital improvement program to get all of our records citywide, in particular starting with the Spencer Firehouse. So that investment to get that building ready for potential use by the Southern Moran County Fire District is going on as we speak. There's a discussion going on regarding what the terms of some agreement in the future with the fire district could look like, but I wanted to assure the council and the community that the city is working very diligently to take the council direction of getting the fire station in a situation where it could potentially be leased out to the fire district for fire service fire protection. Thank you.
05:11:40.58	Karen Hollweg	Thank you, City Manager. I'll move on to City Attorney information for Council. Anything.
05:11:44.89	Karen Hollweg	Sergio?
05:11:46.93	Rudin	Not at this time, thank you.
05:11:48.90	Karen Hollweg	I'll move on to council member committee reports, council member. Yeah. Okay.
05:11:53.61	Karen Hollweg	I'll be brief, but it's important, so I want to make sure folks are aware. At our last TAM meeting, we had a presentation on MASCOT, which is the Marin and Sonoma Consolidated Transit Plan. And there was a discussion about using Measure AA funds, and two of those things are relevant for Sausalito. The first is that there will be some routes eliminated and consolidated as a result of this change, as a result of the MASCOT change, which was decided after a significant study. but there will be a hearing on golden gate transit august 21st to look into this and one of the routes that would be discontinued is at the spencer avenue bus pad and so i i'm hoping that some members of the council can attend and i'm happy to provide follow-up
05:12:39.94	Karen Hollweg	information but it's definitely pertinent to our district um and and additionally on august 24th representatives from tam will be at the sausalito farmers market specifically to talk about this and engage with this with members of the public but the the hearing for golden gate transit is on august 21st and they will look into this specifically i'm planning to write to director mulligan um and i would welcome another council member attending or support or but I just think this is a pretty pertinent issue it just came up at the last TAM meeting so
05:13:10.31	Janelle Hoffman	Can you send an email out to us? Yes, I,
05:13:11.42	Karen Hollweg	Yes, I will send a one-way communication and I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware.
05:13:15.39	Janelle Hoffman	Okay.
05:13:15.96	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
05:13:18.54	Karen Hollweg	I wanted to alert people to August 15 at...
05:13:23.61	Karen Hollweg	Jazz by the Bay.
05:13:25.11	Karen Hollweg	So,
05:13:25.33	Janelle Hoffman	Yeah.
05:13:25.82	Karen Hollweg	Oh, great. You go ahead.
05:13:25.99	Janelle Hoffman	Oh, great. You go ahead. No, you're probably more familiar with it than me. It was on my list. Just for the council, this is our annual City Pack event. And so there's an email, I think, out. There's tickets involved, but it's for our North Bay region event. So it'll be fun.
05:13:46.56	Janelle Hoffman	and I'm not sure.
05:13:46.62	Karen Hollweg	And then they'll be at Jazz by the Bay.
05:13:48.33	Janelle Hoffman	Yeah.
05:13:48.55	Karen Hollweg	have several tables.
05:13:48.73	Janelle Hoffman	have several tables.
05:13:49.68	Janelle Hoffman	Yeah.
05:13:50.02	Karen Hollweg	Senator Mike McGuire will be there. Nancy Hall Bennett will be there. So if you want to come out and meet some of our local politicians beyond us, come to Jazz by the Bay on August 15th.
05:13:50.54	Janelle Hoffman	and then Mike McGuire will be-
05:14:04.73	Janelle Hoffman	Yeah, yeah, it'll be fun. And we'll be in the park, so it'll be a good event. Also, Congressman Huffman's having his annual clean pack event at Spinnaker coming up soon. I can't remember what the date is, but it's coming in the next few months. I'm sorry, next few weeks. Golly. Just Google it, and it'll come up. Let's see. We're getting Congressman Gary Mendes' SHIPS Act event is coming back on. We haven't confirmed that, but I think that's going to be sometime toward the end of August, so that's coming up soon, too. So I'll get an email out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's coming up. I think we've almost got that confirmed.
05:14:52.72	Janelle Hoffman	And I think that's it.
05:14:54.40	Karen Hollweg	And then I'm an alternate commissioner for BCDC. At our meeting on Thursday, we will be considering whether to continue with the bike lane pilot project along the Richardson...
05:15:07.25	Karen Hollweg	Bay Bridge. So that'll be an interesting dialogue.
05:15:13.67	Karen Hollweg	Okay.
05:15:19.22	Karen Hollweg	I'm going to get, I'll get there. Um,
05:15:22.79	Karen Hollweg	Succeeded. Appointments. I am naming an ad hoc committee of the vice mayor and myself to continue to work on the work needed to be done in connection with the ballot measures moving forward.
05:15:38.62	Karen Hollweg	Future agenda items.
05:15:39.59	Karen Hollweg	Can I be involved on the MLK one since you have to recuse and I
05:15:44.16	Karen Hollweg	I don't know.
05:15:44.36	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
05:15:45.85	Karen Hollweg	Sure.
05:15:47.96	Karen Hollweg	I don't have to recuse from campaigning for or against that. I just couldn't vote on it from the dais, but I'm absolutely able to campaign. In fact, I'm starting a campaign committee for it.
05:16:03.13	Unknown	Thank you.
05:16:03.16	Unknown	Thank you.
05:16:03.50	Unknown	Thank you.
05:16:03.51	Unknown	Thank you.
05:16:06.38	Karen Hollweg	Okay. Happy to include you. It's fine with me if it's you and him. Okay. I don't have the bandwidth right now anyway. It's okay. Okay.
05:16:13.76	Karen Hollweg	I wrote down something on future agenda items in my mind.
05:16:22.50	Karen Hollweg	short term rentals. So I'm going to add a report on the status of the enforcement efforts for short term rentals to our future agenda items list.
05:16:35.21	Karen Hollweg	Any other future agenda items?
05:16:36.94	Janelle Hoffman	Oh, go ahead.
05:16:37.96	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
05:16:38.70	Karen Hollweg	Sorry.
05:16:41.08	Karen Hollweg	It might be the same one.
05:16:43.66	Janelle Hoffman	I got it. To reinstate second floor housing, second floor residential in Ordinance 1044, now that we know that it's not really required for hotels, I guess, on second floor, and it wasn't required for the in-the-pocket. And for, so to be clear, second floor residential in the Central Commercial District and local,
05:17:13.83	Janelle Hoffman	whether or not, what we can do to encourage the inclusionary housing program and whether or not we can ramp it up even more than what it is. And also forensic audit.
05:17:26.81	Janelle Hoffman	And or at least a report on I know, Mayor, you were doing a study on that, but where we're at.
05:17:31.50	Karen Hollweg	Yeah, I'm expecting that we will be able to share a report on that in September.
05:17:37.41	Karen Hollweg	I, in fact, was going to mention that ordinance because it was asked to be brought up and we can keep talking about it. I think that El Cushionary housing is important. So anyway.
05:17:47.23	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
05:17:47.24	Karen Hollweg	Okay, with
05:17:50.30	Karen Hollweg	Yes, I know we have minutes attached from the disaster preparedness committee.
05:17:55.45	Karen Hollweg	We need three new members on the Disaster Preparedness Committee. Did we have people resign? We had people resign, so we're short three members. So if you know anyone who would be good to serve, please let us know. City Clerk, will you please run an ad for disaster preparedness so that we can do interviews when we return in September?
05:18:16.74	Karen Hollweg	Did we formally receive letters of resignation from those folks? I don't see them.
05:18:19.76	Karen Hollweg	I just got a note from the police chief letting us know that we need three members on that committee. Okay.
05:18:24.29	Babette McDougall	Thank you.
05:18:24.88	Karen Hollweg	6g we have no other reports of significance at this point i'll take public comment on items 6a to 6c and 6e to 6g I have one speaker card from babette mcdougall.
05:18:41.72	Babette McDougall	Thank you so much for acknowledging me.
05:18:43.73	Babette McDougall	So with regard to your committee reports,
05:18:47.25	Babette McDougall	with regard to future agenda items,
05:18:50.00	Babette McDougall	I would like to collectively sort of wrap up tonight's meeting because tonight's meeting is a good example of how...
05:18:56.25	Babette McDougall	You folks clearly come prepared for these meetings with certain things on your minds, and you're prepared to argue those things. And they may or they may not be.
05:19:06.95	Babette McDougall	line up with what we the citizens have on our minds and so we might say
05:19:11.94	Babette McDougall	the barn's on fire, the barn's on fire. And then you come back and say, oh, yes, and we planted petunias in the front garden last week. Do you see the disconnect?
05:19:20.97	Babette McDougall	That's what's going on tonight in tonight's meeting, and this is not the first time. So for future agenda items, may I say that we need to correct what's going wrong. This is how you lose the confidence of your people.
05:19:33.83	Babette McDougall	by the way you have comported yourselves this evening.
05:19:38.18	Babette McDougall	I wish you would listen to this and take it seriously. It's not a joke.
05:19:43.94	Babette McDougall	Thank you for paying attention, Ms. Blowski. I appreciate you looking up finally. I have been waiting for you all night to look at me.
05:19:50.26	Babette McDougall	So look,
05:19:51.29	Babette McDougall	future agenda items. We have been talking about the housing element for some time, but where we fail...
05:19:57.32	Babette McDougall	and where we have been failed by the city again,
05:20:00.62	Babette McDougall	is the city will bring it up, you get a big turnout, people are ready to take it on, and then you go away.
05:20:07.29	Babette McDougall	Nothing further happens. And then when COVID was on, people came forward. Thank God somebody came forward because most people didn't. Now people are coming back to life. Post-COVID haze, I call it, I'm Included.
05:20:21.25	Babette McDougall	And now we are re-engaging.
05:20:23.98	Babette McDougall	So don't waste the moment bringing Robert's Rules back. For example, let us go forward so that we can actually work together and not against each other. Don't have instances like tonight where you have whole populations of your own constituents walk off, walk out in protest because of the way you're comporting this meeting. That's not good. Thank you.
05:20:45.56	Babette McDougall	Thank you. City Clerk.
05:20:46.79	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
05:20:47.08	Unknown	We have Sophia Collier.
05:20:50.26	Safiya	Welcome, Safiya.
05:20:57.68	Safiya	I wondered, can you hear me?
05:20:59.94	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
05:20:59.96	Safiya	We can't hear you. We can hear you very, very faintly.
05:21:00.08	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
05:21:00.11	Unknown	I can't hear you.
05:21:00.70	Karen Hollweg	you.
05:21:02.64	Safiya	Okay, so
05:21:04.21	Safiya	I wonder if I could just speak on the SB 79 because I wasn't able to, I was trying to talk, but I wasn't able to get through. I know it's not exactly a right agenda, but if I may just give some brief comments on it.
05:21:18.06	Safiya	Okay, we've continued the item, but go ahead.
05:21:20.68	Safiya	Okay, that just I wanted just to report that we are seeking the amendment to to exempt the historic district and that we've been building allies across the state.
05:21:29.29	Safiya	and working with California Preservation Foundation and some major historic advocacy groups in Los Angeles. So we've made a lot of progress. So I just want you to know that.
05:21:39.68	Safiya	and that our goal is to get a lot more active. And with respect to SB 79, we recognize that the council may want to just continue with full scale opposition.
05:21:48.56	Safiya	in order to preserve home rule and to, you know,
05:21:52.37	Safiya	continue to be in concert with the other cities in California. So but regardless of the decision,
05:21:57.91	Safiya	that we will continue to work for the amendment
05:22:00.37	Safiya	And in the event that it does pass, we will hopefully, it can potentially contain language to preserve the historic district.
05:22:07.27	Safiya	and that we hope to work with individual members of the council and weigh in with their state representatives about the importance of preserving the district. So I just wanted to give that quick report to you.
05:22:16.47	Karen Hollweg	Thank you, Safiya. That's so gracious of you.
05:22:18.78	Karen Hollweg	to let us know that and to take some of the pressure off of us to remove our wholesale opposition to SB 79.
05:22:27.00	Karen Hollweg	Okay.
05:22:27.89	Unknown	We have Lorna Newland.
05:22:31.08	Lorna Newland	Who?
05:22:32.28	Unknown	Lorna Newman.
05:22:32.70	Lorna Newland	Yeah.
05:22:33.50	Lorna Newland	Welcome back.
05:22:35.05	Lorna Newland	Thank you. I just wanted to thank, I'm glad you're doing future agendas and what Ian showed on his share screen was very interesting. I mean, most of us don't understand why that's not being utilized. And I also appreciate what Sandra Bushmaker said about SB 79. And the whole thing has never made much sense to me trying to put,
05:23:01.78	Lorna Newland	perhaps 20% more population into our overcrowded, unbuildable, hilly town. And if you try to get out of, I live in the north end, as you know, but if you try to go north on 101 at, after 2.30,
05:23:17.83	Lorna Newland	it's a gridlock so there's there's a lot of things that can be done and also thank you um
05:23:23.51	Lorna Newland	Council member Hoffman for what you said, but I don't you know I I understand you guys work really hard and you work late and so does the city so.
05:23:34.31	Lorna Newland	Best of luck getting everything going through and thanks for your service.
05:23:40.67	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
05:23:40.69	Unknown	Thank you. City Clerk. No further public speakers.
05:23:41.60	Karen Hollweg	Thank you.
05:23:43.49	Karen Hollweg	Okay, with that, I will adjourn this meeting at 1036 p.m.
05:23:49.74	Karen Hollweg	And enjoy our break. We will come back September 2nd. So enjoy a couple of weeks off.
05:23:57.42	Karen Hollweg	Thanks, everybody.