| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:02.02 | Deirdre Coyne | Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. Today's meeting of September 1st, 2026 is being held at 420 Litho Street City Council Council Chambers. It is also being broadcast live via Zoom on the city's website and cable TV channel 27. Councilmember Cox. Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 00:00:23.40 | Steven Woodside | I don't see her. I haven't heard any. Oh, I do see her. She's just walking down. So continue with the role and I'm not sure. |
| 00:00:31.15 | Deirdre Coyne | Councilmember Sobieski? |
| 00:00:31.16 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:00:33.17 | Deirdre Coyne | Vice Mayor Blaustein? Here. Mayor Woodside? |
| 00:00:36.13 | Steven Woodside | I'm here and |
| 00:00:37.80 | Deirdre Coyne | Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 00:00:39.82 | Steven Woodside | Okay. We will be going into closed session on Items that are listed on the post agenda. I'll briefly read them. First item C1, conference with legal counsel for anticipated litigation. One case, and this is authorized pursuant to government code section 54956.9. We have Item C2, public employment. Title city manager. This is authorized pursuant to government code 54957. Similarly, Authorized by the same government code public employment employee appointment, title city manager, |
| 00:01:21.44 | Carolyn Revell | MANAGER. |
| 00:01:22.60 | Steven Woodside | Item C4, Conference with Labor Negotiators, as authorized by Government Code Section 54957.6. Our representative is Kathy Nikitas, and this deals with the unrepresented employees. Item C5, Conference of Real Property Negotiators Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8. And this is the Cass Gidley Marina 1620 Bridgeway property. our negotiator, city manager, and city attorney. And the Sausalito Community Boating Center is the party in place. Item C6, the last item, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation. pursuant to government code section 54956.9 D21 case. So we will be going into closed session to talk about those items. Are there any public comments on closed session items? Okay, none online and none in the chambers. So we'll now go into the closed session. Thank you. |
| 01:31:53.75 | Steven Woodside | We'll be calling the meeting to order shortly. |
| 01:32:02.90 | Unknown | I'll see you next time. |
| 01:32:10.90 | Steven Woodside | I think we'll wait for just a moment. Mr. Sobieski, I think, is right here. OK. |
| 01:32:20.01 | Steven Woodside | So we're now calling this open session to order, and I'm going to ask Mr. Michael Rex to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. |
| 01:32:32.02 | Ian Sobieski | I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. |
| 01:32:48.12 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Michael. We'll now have a roll call. |
| 01:32:53.89 | Deirdre Coyne | Councilmember Cox. Here. Councilmember Hoffman? Here. Councilmember Sobieski? Here. Vice Mayor Blaustein? Here. Mayor Woodside? |
| 01:32:59.89 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:33:03.33 | Steven Woodside | I am here. Thank you. |
| 01:33:10.41 | Steven Woodside | So we have concluded a closed session. We met for about an hour and a half, and we've just come out of that closed session. and I will have a couple of announcements to make. First of all, we did discuss each of the items that were listed on the closed session agenda. With respect to item one, one item of anticipated litigation, there's no action taken to report out at this time. With respect to the next two items, I do have announcements to make. The first is public employment. And let me just refer Okay. Elaine Forbes has resigned from her position as city manager. We have accepted her resignation and she's no longer employed by the city. Our hearts are with Elaine and her family and we stand behind her as she takes this time to focus on her health and healing. And I want to thank the people of Sausalito for your sympathy and for your patience during this time. This was an extremely sensitive matter, and I'm grateful for the respect and compassion you've shown to Elaine and her family. It's very much appreciated. |
| 01:34:30.72 | Carolyn Revell | I know. |
| 01:34:35.55 | Steven Woodside | With respect to the next item, public employee appointment. |
| 01:34:39.85 | Unknown | APPOINTMENT. |
| 01:34:41.57 | Steven Woodside | The Council has, in closeness and unanimously agreed to appoint Brandon Phipps as the interim City Manager for the next six months. Um, This decision was unanimous. Given the fact that we are in election season and there perhaps will be some change in council going forward in the next year, It is anticipated that there will be a recruitment And we would hope, that Mr. Phipps would be a candidate. |
| 01:35:16.22 | Carolyn Revell | HAPPENING. |
| 01:35:16.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:35:16.34 | Carolyn Revell | it. |
| 01:35:17.84 | Steven Woodside | And we will be returning in the next meeting, we hope, with a formal contract to that effect. So... Those are the two items where I have something of substance to announce. The Conference of Labor Negotiator, item C4, we did not discuss. We did give instructions to our negotiators on the real property negotiation item regarding the community boating center. That was item C5. the conference with legal counsel on another case, again, there was no action taken to report out at this time. |
| 01:35:54.57 | Sergio Rudin | And we may want to state for the record the refusal of Councilmember Sobieski. |
| 01:35:56.48 | Steven Woodside | that's not going to be a I'm sorry. That's correct. The last item, Councilmember Sobieski recused himself and did not participate. Thank you. So that concludes the report on closed session. Mr. City Attorney, do you have anything to add? |
| 01:36:17.41 | Sergio Rudin | No, I do not. |
| 01:36:18.22 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:36:18.30 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 01:36:18.34 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay, thank you. So we now come to the point where we look at our agenda for tonight and ask if we have approval for the agenda as it's posted. Any comments from council members? Thank you. |
| 01:36:32.71 | Ian Sobieski | Move approval. |
| 01:36:34.25 | Steven Woodside | there a second. |
| 01:36:36.59 | Ian Sobieski | second to the second. |
| 01:36:37.20 | Steven Woodside | Okay, all those in favor, aye. |
| 01:36:38.99 | Ian Sobieski | I. |
| 01:36:39.55 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:36:39.65 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:36:40.22 | Steven Woodside | Okay, that passes unanimously and we'll proceed. I do have an inordinate number of announcements. I think I'll get those started and hopefully completed before we move on to this special presentation and report from the city manager. First, we have present Mr. Andy Davidson. And I have a proclamation, Andy, if you'd like to step forward. Thank you. |
| 01:37:12.11 | Steven Woodside | Andy, I don't know that I have to read it because it sounds like everyone in the audience knows about your good work for the city, but I will read this. Whereas Andrew Davidson has devoted 17 years of extraordinary service to the city of Sausalito as the senior civil engineer, chair of the Sustainability Committee, and chair of the Transportation Coordination Committee, and whereas he served as an engineering resource during storms, landslides, roadway failures, flooding, utility emergencies and other emergency events while reviewing private development projects for community impacts on Sausalito streets, drainage sidewalks, utilities, retaining walls and other public infrastructure. And I probably left something out, Andy, I apologize. And whereas Andrew has |
| 01:37:34.19 | Carolyn Revell | And. |
| 01:38:01.71 | Steven Woodside | participated in hundreds of engineering reviews, field investigations, resident inquiries, construction issues, and infrastructure decisions, while both managing and contributing to numerous major capital improvement projects. And I could go on, but I will simply say, now therefore, via proclaimed, that the City of Sausalito hereby recognizes and thanks Andrew Davidson for his long-term stewardship of the community, combined technical engineering expertise, emergency response, project management, institutional knowledge, and direct community service. We encourage all residents to celebrate his tremendous contributions to our community. |
| 01:38:54.90 | Steven Woodside | So I'm just signing this proclamation, Andy, and would you like to Make a few comments. |
| 01:39:01.89 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:39:01.90 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:39:03.39 | Steven Woodside | No. |
| 01:39:03.59 | Andrew Davidson | Well... |
| 01:39:03.85 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:39:03.86 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. |
| 01:39:04.37 | Unknown | . |
| 01:39:04.96 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:39:04.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:39:06.43 | Andrew Davidson | But I spoke to you folks a month or so ago when this was announced, and it was very heartfelt what I said to you. This is a time of Thanksgiving. I'm super appreciative for all that. Um, Sassalito has done for my family and me. I'm super appreciative for my family. Um, When I first stood up here and was introduced to the city council some 17 years ago, I did not have my family with me. I didn't know that was something I could do. But today, I have my wife and two of my three children here, and I'd love to have them come up and just at least smile and wave. I don't know if we can get them to do anything else. But that's Betanise. Andres and Natalya Natalia was about three when I started here, and Andreas was probably one. And that's one of the reasons I love Sausalito, is the stability that you gave me to have my family. We had our youngest is, she's 15, so she was born while I was working here. So to wrap this up, I want to say thank you to Kevin McGowan, your current director of Public Works. Um, to thank jonathan goldman your prior public works director i'd like to thank the council I worked with some of you directly. Sustainability was a wonderful experience. You folks did a lot. You got a lot done when I was there. I know you're still doing it, but... I mean, the bag ordinance, composting, the fantastic presentation that you put together at the Corps of Engineers. That was fantastic. And you had a lot of the infrastructure work was accomplished because you folks decided to put money to it and get it done. So I benefited from that. And so thank you very much. And I wish you and the city of Sussex all the best. Thank you. Well, thank you. |
| 01:41:07.64 | Steven Woodside | other Other comments from council members, Ms. Hoffman? |
| 01:41:20.99 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:41:21.01 | Unknown | Thank you. Good luck. Thank you. |
| 01:41:25.97 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, the mayor has asked us if we wanted to do comments. So, yes. I told Andy earlier that we were setting his pension aside and bringing him back on active duty to the city. And he did not laugh. So, Anyway, we miss you greatly, but we wish you well, and thank you for all of your hard work. |
| 01:41:50.01 | Steven Woodside | Anyone else at this point? |
| 01:41:53.27 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm really going to miss you. Thank you so much for everything. It's going to be very clear. Your absence is very strongly felt throughout the building, not just in DPW and also by everyone who got to work with you. I was so lucky to work with you on sustainability. So thank you for everything. |
| 01:42:08.46 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. |
| 01:42:10.23 | Melissa Blaustein | I'll just... |
| 01:42:10.97 | Joan Cox | just comment so um when andy started with us i was a planning commissioner and um you know over he's been here 17 years so just to give you some perspective over the past 17 years sausalito has completed nearly 100 capital projects including major park rebuilds street and sewer upgrades the public restroom construction bulkhead replacement pump station modernization, and large-scale waterfront improvements. So, Andy, you have spearheaded a whole lot of that work, and for that we're very grateful. |
| 01:42:43.69 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. I had probably more help than I can even imagine. |
| 01:42:47.69 | Kevin McGowan | And I'll just leave the last word to you, Mayor, and just say it's not lost on me that, like the police, your job is 24-7. We've seen emergency response for all kinds of disasters inside of Sausalito, and your steady hand is something that has made the community better, even when they don't know that it's because of you. So thank you. |
| 01:43:11.23 | Steven Woodside | And I'll keep this very brief. I first met you after a major landslide and you were the epitome of calm when everything else seemed to be falling apart and sliding and flowing and all of that. And I won't forget those moments. And I know you've had support from your family. I'm gonna ask if they would like to come up and we'll take a quick photo and then move on to the next items. |
| 01:43:39.19 | Andrew Davidson | I have snow water for a shower. |
| 01:43:41.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:43:48.61 | Babette McDougall | Oh, my God. |
| 01:43:49.32 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:43:50.40 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:43:50.45 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 01:43:52.36 | Mark Palmer | We're here. |
| 01:43:53.22 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah, usually come to the middle. |
| 01:43:54.53 | Mark Palmer | Thank you. |
| 01:43:54.57 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 01:43:59.61 | Michael Rex | Will I come forward? |
| 01:44:02.80 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, get your wife in it too. Come on. Everybody in. |
| 01:44:05.33 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. |
| 01:44:06.70 | Melissa Blaustein | Oh yeah, you can, whatever you want. |
| 01:44:07.70 | Andrew Davidson | I'm going to go. |
| 01:44:07.86 | Alice Merrill | Yeah. |
| 01:44:20.66 | Connor Ralston | Thanks so much. |
| 01:44:23.19 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. Oh, yeah, she's kicking. |
| 01:44:24.98 | Connor Ralston | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:44:26.39 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:44:39.66 | Steven Woodside | A few more announcements before |
| 01:44:47.57 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:44:55.50 | Steven Woodside | A few announcements of some upcoming things, but before Announcing those, I wonder if any of you notice, but that our then acting city manager and newly appointed city clerk were able to put out the agenda for tonight. How many days ago? At least 10? Right. And this is kind of a project that we were hoping during the time that we, the council, weren't meeting, we could get a jump start and get ahead and stay ahead for the balance of the year, if not longer. to try to have the tentative agendas out, along with as many supporting materials as possible, so that there's greater time for you members of the public, for staff, and for council members to study, read, ask questions, etc. We hope that this is the kind of improvement that will make our whole decision-making process better. So let's keep it up. And thanks to you, Brandon, and you, Deidre, for all your hard work to make this happen. We do have, we did have an event today that some of you may notice when you go to Vinyah Del Mar Park. We raised the flag of the... country of Chile. the Council General Patricio, who came here a few weeks ago, to say a few words, Patricio and his wife have chosen to live here in Sausalito, And he pointed out when he saw us having raised the Portuguese flag, He wondered what that was all about, and I said, we were honoring Portugal Day back in June. We discovered in the process that the flagpole didn't work well. So the Portuguese flag stayed up there for six weeks or so. And Patricio, on his way to the ferry, asked me what that was all about. And there are, excuse me, several holidays that Chile will be celebrating this September, starting today. And we raised the flag of Chile. It's in Vina del Mar Park, in one of the two flag poles. Of course, the American flag is flying. The other thing that was introduced was the Sister City program. has worked really hard to work on a project that will be coming I think first to the Parks Commission and to others to look at a refurbishment of the stairway that leads, it's called the Excelsior Stairs, it leads from being in Del Mar Park, it's not a very attractive stairway, But it will be so if that project comes forward. And that was introduced today. There are several other items I could comment on, but one in particular is close to my heart and close to Melissa's heart is called Day of Service. And because it was scheduled for September 12th that does interfere with some other holidays that are important. So I think we're having a couple of day of service, and I'll just say the first one is September 12th. |
| 01:48:03.85 | Melissa Blaustein | same day. |
| 01:48:04.82 | Steven Woodside | Oh, really? You got it on the same day. |
| 01:48:05.40 | Melissa Blaustein | You got it on the same day. Okay. So... |
| 01:48:07.07 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:48:07.78 | Melissa Blaustein | Just to share, I think most of you know, I'm a very proud Jewish woman and September 12th is Rosh Hashanah, which is Jewish New Year. And so many members of our community... who really wanted to participate in day of service reached out and said they wanted to be involved. And so rather than pick a different day or not be inclusive of everyone, typically on Rosh Hashanah, we have a practice called Teshlik, where we throw something into the ocean to begin the new year. And there is a new tradition called reverse Teshlik that has been going on for the last seven years where you do a beach cleanup to honor the new year and honor Rosh Hashanah. And so this Saturday, starting at 2 p.m., so those of us who want to go to morning services can go to morning services in Dunphy Park. We'll have a reverse Teshlik beach cleanup, and then you can stay and dance at DJ's by the Bay and celebrate the Jewish New Year with the DJ's and the great music. So I will be there, and this will be on the website of the day of service, included in the day of service as a thing you can sign up for. And I really encourage not just members of the Jewish community, but our community to show up and celebrate Rosh Hashanah and service and do a mitzvah with us on this day. So thank you to the, to Lucinda Eubanks for working with me on this and collaborating to be sure that we're inclusive of everybody in our community. And we are all given a chance to serve and participate. |
| 01:49:28.40 | Steven Woodside | There are the other projects that take place primarily in the morning that day. You start at Dunphy Park. There's those who have signed up as participants. There'll be some breakfast. Then about three hours of work on some public project around town of your choosing. There are 20 or so projects that have been approved. And then come back for some light bites and dancing and whatever else. So it promises to be a wonderful event. This community is blessed with a number of volunteer organizations and individuals who take care of things, and this is meant to be a way to celebrate that as a group. and to get to know our neighbors even better. |
| 01:50:10.48 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:50:10.49 | Unknown | Mayor, I'm sorry, what time does the beach cleanup start? |
| 01:50:11.39 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:50:11.40 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:50:12.99 | Unknown | Starts at two at WP Park. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. |
| 01:50:14.00 | Carolyn Revell | It would be perfect. Yeah. |
| 01:50:15.64 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 01:50:15.69 | Unknown | you |
| 01:50:15.71 | Steven Woodside | So, |
| 01:50:15.93 | Unknown | Thank you. right no on the 12th it will be on the 12th it'll be on the 12th okay thank you |
| 01:50:17.58 | Carolyn Revell | that's what I'm saying. |
| 01:50:20.30 | Steven Woodside | And the others start at, I believe, |
| 01:50:20.40 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 01:50:23.86 | Steven Woodside | Let's see. |
| 01:50:24.56 | Unknown | As early as 8 a.m. is the kickoff. And they all have different shift times, I believe, throughout the day. Right. Yeah. You can pick. |
| 01:50:25.76 | Steven Woodside | is the kickoff. Yes, there is a kickoff. |
| 01:50:30.23 | Unknown | Pick your shifts on location on the website. |
| 01:50:32.72 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:50:32.75 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:50:32.97 | Steven Woodside | Right. Okay, so that concludes my announcements, and I'll now turn it to the... Interim city manager, Mr. Phipps, for a brief report. |
| 01:50:41.57 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. |
| 01:50:41.61 | Steven Woodside | Thanks. |
| 01:50:41.63 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. Thank you very much, Mayor. And council members, I'll just first start by saying I'm honored by your confidence and very grateful for the opportunity to continue serving the city in the role of interim city manager. I really look forward to working closely with this council, our very talented staff, and with the community to stabilize the organization and to continue to advance the city's priorities. So thank you again for your trust and support. Moving to city manager's report. I want to take a moment to welcome everyone back. This is our first regular public meeting since July, and it's good to be back in the chamber. On behalf of the organization, welcome back to our council members, to our staff, to the members of the community, and our partners joining us tonight, both here and online. We have a full agenda and a productive fall schedule ahead, and we're glad to be resuming our regular council meeting schedule. I think I'll just add to the mayor's update. The goal of the advanced agenda posting is to give everyone more time in general. It gives council members time for advanced discussion of items and for questions to be answered before the meeting. It gives staff time to make any needed adjustments. It also gives the community and our city partners a longer window to review what is coming before the council. And it eases delivery for staff by reducing last minute work so again tip of the hat to our city clerk staff george coin and angeline fong this is a meaningful shift and we look forward to carrying it forward on behalf of council and the community That does it for... My city manager update. |
| 01:52:12.58 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:52:12.65 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. |
| 01:52:12.95 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thank you. We now have a special presentation regarding the updated Marin County Emergency Operations Plan. This is something that's important for all of us to be aware of. It's one of the layers of local government that is there to help in the event of an emergency. And I would just remind everyone that when we have these kind of special presentations, it's not intended to be a long, drawn-out discussion on our part or questions. We are here to receive information and to listen and perhaps telegraph some related items that might come up in the future. So having said that, please come forward. |
| 01:53:04.59 | Stephen Torrance | to help them, my staff, or in the service of the county director. |
| 01:53:17.21 | Ken Peterson | order. |
| 01:53:19.39 | Stephen Torrance | All right, we'll start all over. Good evening, Mayor and members of the council and executive staff. Stephen Torrance, I serve as the county's director of emergency management within the Office of Emergency Management, also the operational area coordinator with the intent to be able to support all cities and towns within the county of Marin and the special districts in relation to emergency preparedness, disaster response, and recovery. Today, I'll be bringing together a presentation as it's being uploaded regarding the collaboration between the city of Sausalito and the county of Marin specifically for disaster preparedness, highlighting a couple of aspects disaster preparedness month and then also as forecasted the city's or the county's new emergency operations plan, which encompasses the collaboration between the city of Sausalito as well. Next slide, please. And so a couple of focus areas we're going to be highlighting September is disaster preparedness month. We're gonna talk a little bit about the impacts from 2025 to 2026. And then we're getting to a couple of short elements of the emergency operations plan, specifically how it ties to the city of Sausalito. Alert and warning and El Nino, very brief highlights. Next slide, please. And so this month, September nationwide is Disaster Preparedness Month. This month, we are getting out in the community in various different ways, not only just presenting to our boards and council members throughout the community, but also meeting people where they are at coffee shops, farmers markets, and more. This year, we have a theme, which is Get Ready with Marin, where we're going to be pushing out a series of... of updates to the public where we want people to take five actions. Number one, sign up for Littmarin. Next, making a go bag, having a stay box, connecting with their neighbors, and also making sure that they have a plan. All of this is with the intent to be able to connect better with the community as we have a number of members of our community who are not ready for disasters, and so we want to take that first step. And so you'll be seeing over the next month, a number of special events throughout the county where we want to make sure that we are getting not just people signed up for emergency alerts, but we wanted to take tangible steps to get people prepared for various disasters. |
| 01:55:36.92 | Steven Woodside | Just a quick interruption, I don't think the audience can see what's on the slide. So far, it's pictures of people, but we will make sure that this is available on our website so that if you can't see it now, you can come back and take a look. |
| 01:55:52.63 | Deirdre Coyne | We have our tech guy coming to help turn the TV on. |
| 01:55:55.89 | Steven Woodside | Okay. But you may proceed, and we'll all listen carefully. |
| 01:55:58.52 | Deirdre Coyne | but, you know, |
| 01:55:58.82 | Stephen Torrance | Thank you. Thank you very much. Next slide, please. And so, as I mentioned, we have a number of special events, and I want to highlight a number of things that are available not only to Sausalito community members, but members throughout the county. And first, we're going to be doing our next countywide alert Marin test, and this is going to specifically be for people of the community who are signed up, where we will be doing a countywide test of the alert system, which includes phone calls, text messages, and emails to everyone who is signed up. Our goal is to be able to make sure that we use this as an opportunity to elevate not only the alert and subscriptions, but also allow people to double check their subscriptions. Sometimes people change their phone numbers and assume that they are signed up. So this is a non-emergency operation for us to be able to go through and do that sign up. Our test is going to be on September 26th at 10 a.m. countywide with the intent to be able to make sure that we have a series of follow-ups as well. I do want to highlight the senior fair that's going to be hosted in San Rafael where we're going to be working primarily with our senior population and our caretakers as well. The goal is to make sure that if people have their caretakers and seniors at home, that both aspects are prepared, not only just making sure that we have curated messaging, but we also have a series of courses where we have our 90-minute courses where we are actually tailoring it to seniors throughout the community and their caretakers. We have a number of things countywide that we are also going to be sharing on our our social media, but also with Southern Marin Fire and Sausalito Police Department to make sure that it is elevated to the local community in Sausalito. Next slide, please. And so getting into the emergency operations plan, this is actually a humongous step for the county. The last time that we updated our plan was in 2014, and there's been a couple of things that have happened since 2014. I.e., we've had, as landslides were mentioned earlier today, we've also had a number of king tide events, storms, but also COVID. And this plan is a culmination of all of those lessons learned throughout the county to make sure that we can provide a better level of service throughout throughout the entire Marin County community. With that, we had the board adoption just the past couple of months. And with that, the goal of this plan is not only just to be a county plan, but it's intended to be able to connect to the cities and towns plans. And so we are aware that the city of Sausalito has an emergency operations plan. This plan connects to it. And for example, in the event that there are services, supplies or resources or staff that are needed, the plan that the county has now directly connects to the city's emergency operations plan. And so that is the next step. Whereas before our plan did not connect to all of our jurisdictions, we made a step in the right direction to make sure that whether it's the Southern Marin Fire District, Sausalito Police Department or Public Works, if there is a service or resource that's needed, we can also make sure that it is connected to the city's needs. In addition, we've put together a number of annexes as well, and these are additional documents. Primarily, I'll call out the public communications annex. That is an annex that will allow for us to make sure that we are speaking clearly to the public during a disaster, but it ensures that all cities, towns, and districts have the legal ability to meet these series of new laws that have come up. Primarily, for example, making sure that we have American Sign Language as available during disasters. The county and our partner agencies will work to make sure that we have that available to countywide. Next slide, please. In short, what is the emergency operations plan? It's all hazards. So whether we are talking about king tides, storms, floods, fires, or something similar to cyber attacks, we can utilize it. This plan in various different ways to make sure that we are providing clear communications and clear resources to our community partners. For us, it defines our leadership and our process and procedures, but it also allows for us to link to the cities and towns, as I mentioned, as we want to make sure that we can provide rapid resources when services are needed to our community. Next slide, please. So with that, the next steps for us is that to roll this out, we are not putting the document on the shelf. We are actually putting it into operation where we are training executive leadership. And so we'll be working not only with the city and town managers, but the fire chiefs and police chiefs to make sure that they are aware of how this plan can be used within their operations. And we'll also be doing a series of community events such as this, where we are working with elected officials to make sure that they are aware of how they're how elected officials fit into our emergency operations plan. We'll also be working with county county staff throughout throughout Marin to make sure that they know what their roles are in order to support cities and towns. Also making sure that they are aware of how they may be embedded into city and town operations if necessary. Next slide, please. So part of the public outreach, we have number one, we've published a plan online. And so with that, we also have a public summary. And the reason we've taken that step is it is a 250-page document, and we understand that the public might not read that. And so with that, we've developed a six-page summary that is called Why is the EOP Important to You? And it highlights six aspects, sheltering, emergency alerts, and then also a couple other areas for people to see how this plan actually can impact their daily lives. And so we are making sure that we are taking that step to make sure that we're connecting to the communities. We're going to be having pop-up displays and events throughout the county, but we're also going to be working with our 18 to 40-year-olds, who for us are the lowest subscribers for alert Marin. And so we want to be able to tailor some messaging directly to them so we can get them to take those next steps as well if they live in our county. Next slide, please. I do want to highlight a little bit about Alert Marin. We've incorporated tons of Alert Marin feedback to the community. And I do want to highlight just about three weeks ago, actually here in Sausalito, Alert Marin was nominated or voted the best of by the Pacific Tun. And we were able to get our award down here at the Spinnaker. It was a great opportunity to showcase the improvements for the community. But what we've essentially taken is that people first approach where we've listened to the feedback, we've listened to the reasons why people are not opting in, and we've made that intentional improvement. And with that, we've seen a number of improvements with emergency alerts. For example, over the last three months compared to 2025, we've seen actually almost a 200% increase since 2025 in this last three year period, where it's just easier for people to opt in. And so we want people to make sure that they take that step, but we want to continue to drive to make sure that the best product is available to the community at large. Next slide. |
| 02:02:34.95 | Carolyn Revell | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:02:35.12 | Unknown | the |
| 02:02:35.17 | Carolyn Revell | to the system. |
| 02:03:10.94 | Stephen Torrance | With that, by the numbers, we've set 3.4 million text messages, 247,000 phone calls, over 70 alerts throughout the county. We want to be able to see that, of course, that number go higher with opt-ins. But also, at the same time, we want to make sure that people know behind the scenes how many messages are going out throughout entire county. Next slide, please. For the community, everyone always wants to know what's their percentage of people that are opted in. Specifically for Sausalito, we have about 47% of parcels. And so we look at that, and we have about 31% of multifamily units that are signed up. We want, of course, that number to be driven high. And luckily in Marin, we have a very high opt-in rate. We want to continue to push it high. But nationally, you see about 30% throughout an entire county, and we're actually approaching countywide closer to 60. And so As we continue to push those numbers, we do want to see some more uptake with our single family homes, of course, but we also want to see multifamilies continue to increase the trajectory. This website is always live and available for members of our community to take a look at, to see where there's hotspots and where there's areas for improvement. And we are using this to be able to target our community disaster messaging throughout the county. Next slide, please. I do want to highlight specifically we had during the January incident where we had significant flooding. We took some lessons learned from that, and we actually created two specific groups that we were encouraging people to opt in for. There is a coastal flooding and keen tides group that will now be live where we're going to be sending out those emergency alerts ahead of time, especially if we have forecasts that are above the predicted tide heights. Our goal is to start sending those out approximately 96 hours to 72 hours ahead of the king tides. For those that live in coastal riverine and near creeks, we also have additional groups for those as well. Next slide, please. By the numbers, we have a number of groups. We have not. We just started our campaign to be able to push emergency alert Marin messaging throughout the county. We already have 1,300 people that have signed up for our King Tides. We want to see that number go sky high. We know that there are a lot of people on the coast that can benefit from this information, and we want to be able to highlight that as a first step to be able to get improvements throughout our county. Next slide, please. Second, In addition to the alerts, we have a lot of people that live outside the area that don't know if they receive the alerts. This is actually a new website where if you actually select a link at the bottom of Alert Marin, it'll be able to take you to a map where you can see where the message went. You can call back and you can hear the message. But also, if you are just out of the area, you can go to this page and you can see the latest emergency alerts no matter where you are in the county. You don't have to be the recipient. You can see what's going on throughout the county. Our goal is to provide a high level of notification and follow up with our community. Next slide, please. Emergency portal has also been updated, emergency.marincounty.gov. As a part of the emergency operations plan, we saw that we needed to provide specific details to the community as much as possible. This website is now optimized with earthquakes, state fires, perimeters for fires, and then also outside county data as well. That way, people can make informed decisions in the event that we're asking them to shelter in place, evacuate their home, or going to a different location for services. All of this information is at the ready for the community. Next slide, please. With that, I just want to highlight what happened in January briefly. We recognized that there was flooding throughout the county. We were able to coordinate with our city of Sausalito and Southern Marin Fire District partners to make sure that we had the Small Business Administration loans brought to Sausalito. Our goal is to make sure that we can get as many people back to as close as normal. We recognize that this was a unique incident, and we have a lot of lessons learned, but we were able to take over... over three different locations throughout the county, but provide Excuse me. as loan assistance to the community from this federal government, which was, this was actually the first time that we've ever had that in Marin County. And so it was a step in the right direction. Of course, we would love to be able to do more with our state and federal partners. But this was a step in the right direction to make sure that we can provide services. In addition, we'll be continuously training over 500 city and county staff with our training program that's shared throughout the entire county to make sure that they are ready for the next incident. Next slide, please. Briefly, we are wanting to share the next couple of months. El Nino is something that we are preparing for in collaboration with all of our city and town partners. The main thing that we are concerned about at the county and our partners is elevated sea level rise from the warming of the waters. Our king tides and our winter storms all are projected to hit at the same time. And with that we have the next couple of dates. King tides are projected to hit on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and then late January. And so we recognize that that is not the best timing for anyone. And that's why we are sharing this information earlier as possible. So whether you have a visitor that's coming to your home or whether you are going to someone's house outside the county, We want to make sure you know these dates well in advance so you can take precautionary actions. We're going to be leaning into a number of campaigns and messages going forward to make sure that people know those dates well ahead of time, especially if we see that there's a storm or higher tides projected for those days as well. Next slide, please. I just want to point out that we have a new sandbag page that's been shared. It's countywide. Also, a number of checklists that are available throughout the county. Next slide, please. And then we're also going to be doing six town halls throughout the county with the Marin County supervisors to make sure that we're highlighting what is the county doing in partnership with our city and town partners and districts to make sure that we're informing the public of not only emergency operations, but the uh, but the work that's being done in collaboration to make sure that we are providing services before, during and after El Nino. Next slide, please. So with that, in closing, as we are getting ready for disaster preparedness month, this September, we ask that members of the community, members of Sausalito join us in taking those small steps, signing up for alerts, making go bags, making a plan and more. As we want to make sure that everyone throughout the county is ready, not only for September, but ready for the upcoming winter. With that, I believe that is my last slide. And I will say thank you for your time. Thank you to staff as well for allowing us to join you this afternoon. |
| 02:10:37.61 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:10:38.55 | Babette McDougall | One quick question. |
| 02:10:39.60 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:10:41.78 | Steven Woodside | Vice mayor has a question. |
| 02:10:43.11 | Melissa Blaustein | This is a softball, but for those of us in the room, well, I am signed up for a Lumerin, but could you maybe just quickly say. how to sign up for Alert Marin, maybe from your cell phone right now, if anyone sitting in the council chambers has yet to sign up. |
| 02:10:56.39 | Stephen Torrance | I will say it takes about two minutes. If you go to emergency.marincounty.gov, which is on the slide, there is a banner at the top that says sign up for emergency alerts. The best part about the updates, there are a lot of optional fields, and you just put in the address, whether you live or work in Sausalito, you can put either one of those addresses in. In addition, you can put your children's school, where you work, up to five addresses, and you will be alerted throughout the county. And so it's a pretty quick emergency.marincounty.gov at about two minutes. |
| 02:11:32.25 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. |
| 02:11:33.23 | Stephen Torrance | Thank you very much. |
| 02:11:33.87 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Be prepared is the message, right? |
| 02:11:34.04 | Stephen Torrance | Thank you. That is correct. |
| 02:11:37.60 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay, thank you. So that concludes the public presentation. And now is the time when we hear from the public generally on communications for matters that are not on tonight's agenda. and I see that we have a few who've filled out a speaker card, and that's the best way to do it, so I can call on you. And again, to remind you, we can listen and we do want to hear your points about matters that are relevant to our jurisdiction to Sausalito government. But we're because it's not on the agenda, the topic you may want to address will have to be either referred to staff or considered at a later date. But with that said, I'm just going to call in the order that I see them. Skip Cleggers is the first speaker to be followed by Charles Kaufman. |
| 02:12:40.96 | Steven Woodside | Skip, it's nice to see you again. |
| 02:12:43.07 | Unknown | It's nice to be here again. I still love the city of Sausalito. unless the feds have made it illegal. But, The reason that I'm here today is that I've read and I've heard of the city's, the city council's persistent inaction due to developers and their financial backing. If the mayor and the council find this ill-informed, please state by example the work done by your office and the city attorney's office. |
| 02:13:22.93 | Unknown | otherwise recognize that we vote as a block. and we will not forget. This is not a threat, simply a notification. In my studies, to understand democracies and how they fail. The most common cause is when a government is no longer responsible to its electorate. electorate. We clearly see the city's inability to enforce its own laws and decisions of the council. to that extent. If you look out the window in the direction of Bridgeway Marina, You can see for yourself the result of that. |
| 02:14:02.84 | Unknown | Personally, I do not agree to step aside for profiteering developments. I am reasonable. And as long as it's a completely Well, developed development and the city, the community has brought in for comments. I will consider supporting it. And that's it for me. Thank you. |
| 02:14:26.08 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. The next speaker is Charles Kaufman, to be followed by Jenny Irwin. Thank you. |
| 02:14:35.43 | Unknown | Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. I'm here representing Save Our Sausalito. which is in dire shape. We are here to present our petition with over 890 signatures. to respectfully urge the City Council to require a full California Environmental Quality Act Review. before taking any further action on the proposed One Harbor Drive development. at 80 feet tall, 477,000 square feet in area. and 294 units. This project is unprecedented in scale for Sausalito, and therefore deserves a complete and transparent environmental review. A full CEQA review is necessary to evaluate the potential impacts and needed mitigation for the following hazards that are going to need to be addressed. One, public safety. including Emergency vehicle access and evacuation routes. Traffic. circulation. and importantly, pedestrian and bicycle safety. to water Sword. Stormwater. public services and other infrastructure systems that are actually lacking in Marineship now. Three, flooding, sea level rise, and environmental resilience, given the sea level rise we're trying to deal with. Four, the impact on wildlife that will result from the removal of 56 trees, which in... includes 12 heritage trees. five, visual impacts, and importantly, the severe impact on the neighborhood characteristics of a project of this nature. And six, The impact of construction on this scale and that kind of, um, impact it will make on the entire neighborhood. Thank you. So residents deserve a complete, transparent understanding of the project's impacts before any further progress occurs, and we urge you to do a full CEQA review before taking any more action. Thank you. |
| 02:16:53.94 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Mr. Kaufman. I do believe that we will be receiving some reports in public in the near future. My understanding is that the project at this juncture is incomplete in terms of the application, but obviously there will be more to discuss and we appreciate your comments. Next, Jenny Irwin to be followed by Michael Rex. |
| 02:17:19.00 | Unknown | Good evening, Mayor, City Council members, City staff and guests. I'm here tonight because I care deeply about our city and our waterfront. I'm very concerned that Measure X takes away the residents' right to vote on future zoning changes affecting the waterfront. Once that protection is removed, important changes could be approved only by three members of the City Council. Measure X proposes major changes, but it does not provide a clear plan for those changes and how they would be carried out if the measure passes. This could lead to zoning changes happening quickly without enough time to understand the long-term effects. Our small city staff is already managing a great deal of work. Carrying out measure X would require significant staff time planning, expert advice and public money. And what happens if those changes don't work out for our supporters? Once our waterfront is changed, it will be very difficult or impossible to restore what has been lost by Measure X. Measure X, to me, feels like a very large experiment with one of Sasslito's most valuable and sensitive areas of our waterfront. We should not experiment with our waterfront without first understanding all the risks. There is a better way. Let's begin with meaningful community involvement. Let's survey our residents, our waterfront businesses, artists, maritime workers, and property owners. Let's hold some public workshops and honestly examine what is working, what is not working, and what can be improved. We can make thoughtful improvements without giving up our residents' voices or rushing into uncertain changes. There is a better way, and Measure X is not the way. Thank you very much. |
| 02:19:23.01 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Michael Rex. followed by Allison Diehl. |
| 02:19:30.74 | Michael Rex | Hi, I'd like to speak in support of SOS's partition. This project should not move forward or be deemed complete without a full sequence analysis. It clearly will have a significant negative impact on our community. And just to put it in context a little bit, what 477,000 square feet will look like on that half block. clock. I want you to know the building right across the street at 2400 Bridgeway, where the FedEx building is between Bridgeway and Molly Stones. That two-story and three-story building is $18. thousand square feet. If you divide 18,000 into 477, you could begin to imagine 26 and a half of those buildings where FedEx is stacked on top of that half a block where the front building office building currently is. 26 and a half buildings. That's shocking to me. Maybe that paints a picture and why CEQA is essential. Please call for it. Thank you. |
| 02:20:40.40 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Alison Deal, followed by Ted Hennig. |
| 02:20:48.52 | Unknown | Good afternoon. This is my third time speaking here, 30-year resident of Sausalito and in the harbor. I would like to address the idea or the concept of what's happening at Pelican. The residents and renters of Pelican Harbor want to know if the city is reviewing the land lease at Pelican Harbor. Since the control of the company that owns Pelican has been purchased by a new owner It is necessary for the city to review the existing land lease and decide if it should continue as is. This is the time the city can revoke or at least review and update the terms of the lease to current needs. The new new owner has multiple violations on his existing land lease at Bridgeway Marina. It is obvious that the small fines are not effective in controlling the terms of the lease. What does the city plan on doing? to enforce their terms of land lease. we are already seeing violations at Pelican parking by unauthorized vehicles, usage of our facilities by unknown persons, maintenance decline and exorbitant rent rent increases are just a few items in violation of our lease. of the land lease. We just want to know what's happening. We don't know. We haven't heard anything from you. And we are waiting and hoping that the city council will do its job and enforce what they said they would. Thank you. |
| 02:22:26.19 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, and similar to the one of the earlier speaker's comments, we do anticipate also having this matter come back on a future public agenda for an update. I don't I don't think I can say anymore at this point in time, but we are in communication with members of the Pelican community and I think Council that's been approached from that community to assist our city attorney. That's all I can say at this point, but thank you for coming here and for the third time right. So Ted Hennig, followed by Emmett Yeazell. |
| 02:23:06.32 | Unknown | Good evening, Mayor and members of the city council and staff. I am an on and off resident of Sausalito for 25 years using the live aboard boat as my residence when I'm here. I am at Pelican. I have both a sailboat and a trawler boat in Pelicans. I've also represented marinas, so I have, I think, a pretty good perspective from many different aspects as you know i requested the city consider a modification of the conditional use permit 467 and that didn't seem to go anywhere the city council might be interested to know that my email on that subject was apparently not received by the city although it was received by everyone else on the list and i did resend it to the city attorney. I'm here now on behalf of the group Suslita Citizens for the Public Trust as well as the Hanna Governmental Research Organization. That's an organization that enforces the public trust doctrine, has caused tens of millions of dollars to be spent to make sure the public trust is respected and we take very serious interest in what's going on here i am going to provide a letter in person this time so we don't have to worry about it getting lost it's a 25 page letter there are about 11 major issues in that letter including conversion to residential use of boat slips in violation of the public trust doctrine you are not just just city council members. You are trustees with fiduciary duties. In fact, the statute gives you 13 duties under the public trust doctrine, and they seem to have been abandoned so far, and it'll be a big mistake if you don't adhere to those duties. Thank you for your time. I'll leave the letter with the city clerk so that you can study that and 25 pages of very significant material on about 11 violations that i believe you need to take a look at Thank you. |
| 02:24:59.77 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Emmett Mazel followed by Connor Ralston. |
| 02:25:14.55 | Emmett Yazell | Mr. Mayor, council member, my name is Emmett Yazell and I live in Sausalito. About three. two or three sessions ago. Thank you. Mary Robinson was here and I was here as well. And we asked the council, What do we do about getting Spencer Avenue? between Santa Rosa and Prospect to put double yellow lines on that street. Nothing has been done. I've asked this maybe three years ago. Nothing was done. Oh. And I'm going to ask it again. Please, this is a safety issue. issue. cars that are supposed to be going up to the freeway. come on Miller Avenue where I live. And it's a real pain in the butt. to have weekend traffic. because they don't know where they're not familiar with Sausalito. Could you please do that? It's not that big an ass. We bought the B of A building. like that. we can put in a double yellow line. I don't know. Thank you, Ann. I appreciate your work. |
| 02:26:25.71 | Steven Woodside | Well, thank you for coming. When issues like this are mentioned, we ask staff to take note and be able to respond to either you individually or come back to us if there's action needed on our part. So thank you for coming. Connor Ralston. |
| 02:26:42.98 | Connor Ralston | L-O-N-N-E-R. I'm very emotional. I have a really hard time public speaking. So I'm just going to read what I wrote to Mr. Razavi regarding future relationships with Pelican Harbor. I've been a tenant and a resident in Pelican Yacht Harbor since 2001. My 34-foot sailboat Panacea has provided a local spot for me to stay while I work on the family property and visit my family and friends. I am the third generation of my family to live here in Sausalito. 106 years. |
| 02:27:26.19 | Connor Ralston | Sorry. Your actions in raising the rent on my side-tie boat space, not even a full berth will cause me grave economic damage. I will add for the record here tonight, It is also causing me grievous emotional distress. I greatly appreciate the years I've had in the harbor. It has been affordable, that buzzword, affordable. Okay? I... I'm 71 years old. retired and have a limited fixed income. My rent would go from $330 a month to $1,200 a month. That's outrageous. It seems likely I will no longer be able to keep my boat in my town, if I'm even able to keep it at all. I think this... It is true. would be termed, a constructive or economic eviction. But because a boat is not considered a residence in the usual definition, I have limited options for recourse. I'm studying those options. Additionally, I have not been formally notified by Pelican Yacht Harbor, LLC, itself that this is a legal arrangement with you, Mr. Rizavi. I only received a letter from an unknown lawyer who claims he is the representative of you as the managing partner of that corporation. This is not adequate legal notification by that corporation. I believe I signed my original rental agreement with that entity. Thank you. |
| 02:29:07.22 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:29:07.56 | Connor Ralston | Thank you. |
| 02:29:07.70 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. I apologize. Launer, is that correct? Okay, thank you. Lauren DeReemer followed by Michelle McCullough. |
| 02:29:32.81 | Lauren DeRiemer | Hello, council members, thank you for having me tonight. We all kind of know what's going on in Pelican, we're all devastated. As a marina that was originally built alongside with the Maddens, four wooden boats, knowing the man who built it in the 70s, it's heartbreaking for a lot of us. We've already lost at least 30% of our marina tenants. We've been there for decades. But I'm not here to talk about that because I think what's happening at Pelican is shocking to all of us. The way that it happened, what's happening since, and it's just, it's a really crazy situation. And if this can happen now, it really worries me if AIM is passed. And what it really makes me realize is My biggest concern with it right now is that if it goes forward, if this sale finalizes, we just double to triple the land value unnecessarily. And then I'm worried that the next conversation is going to be we're going to have to develop it to pay for it. And that's what concerns me with this entire X measure is the fact that we are looking at more problems of the same thing. And the other issue is, I spoke to one of the property owners here last meeting who takes very good care of his property, who owns a marina and a yard, who looked me straight in the eye and said, I wish my grandfather had multi-use zoned this property. And what that says to me is, and I asked him, I said, why aren't you applying for federal grants if you care about sea level rise? I asked this four times, and he avoided the question, the answer, every single time. And my concern, also, is that these people don't want to work together. These yards don't want to collaborate with each other. And I'm not just worried as a voter, I'm worried as a mariner. where we are if we can't even align on our goals as a city, as our goals as a seaside maritime town of what the future of our economy looks like. And that's where I think our conversation should be. Thank you. |
| 02:31:29.24 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Michelle McCullough followed by Adrian Brenton. |
| 02:31:36.16 | Michelle McCullough | Hi, good evening. My name is Michelle McCullough, and I want to say that I agree with Lauren why we should be talking about the future of our economy. in this town. So on that note, again, my name is Michelle McCalla. I've lived in Sausalito, And I have paid taxes in this town for 10 years. And I've worked really hard my whole life to be able to afford to have the privilege to live in this town. So there is no way this town is turning into Pier 39. That's for sure. I don't want that. However, I want to openly say as a longtime resident that I do support Measure X. And now as the executive director of the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce, I'd like to remind our community that our board unanimously voted to endorse the AIM initiative, Now Measure X, and I urge people in town maybe people like me that are new to this town, even though we've lived here for five to 10 years, to visit SausalitoThrive.org. Look at the other long-time, well-loved, established maritime businesses who endorse this initiative and go talk to them. These are people that have lived here much longer than me, and they're business people. So I'd like to think that business people plan, and they don't take risk when it comes to being able to exist still as a business. So I just urge us, if we're not sure... what to think. Don't be scared. into thinking something because you just haven't taken the time to read all the facts Don't be scared and don't be fooled into thinking you are not allowed to dream in this town. You are. And the best way to dream is to wake up and learn the facts, talk to your neighbors, take the time to have those uncomfortable conversations. Because guess what? When you talk to your neighbors, you're going to find out you got a lot more in common than you do. against each other, that those arguments, there's a lot of common ground there. So I look forward to working with you, City Council, and my community to focus on those similarities. Thank you. |
| 02:33:40.70 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Adrienne Brenton, that's the last speaker card I have from people in the room. I assume there's some online. We'll get to those in a moment. MR. BRENTON. |
| 02:33:51.40 | Adrian Brinton | Good evening City Council and staff. Thank you for taking my comment. I heard the comment earlier about concerns about not having Planning and saying that we need to do more comprehensive planning and I just wanted to give a quick recap of the planning efforts that have been done in the Marin ship. starting about 20 years ago in 2007 with Imagine Sausalito, which was a large scale citizen involved, resident involved, community involved planning measure that went on for approximately three years, four years actually from 2007 to about 2011. There were steering committees, there were meetings. They came out with a vision and a study that went into the kind of era from 2011 to 2015, where we updated the general plan. There was a marineship specific plan review work in 2011, 2013, marineships for presentations, uh, through 2013, 2014, there was the MSB steering committee, 2015, the evaluation of the marines ship specific plan, 2015, the circulation element, 2017, there was a general plan audit and plan synthesis. 2018, GPU phase one. 2019, Manship Vision Statement. 2019 as well, we did the Cosmot land study. In 2020, we did the draft general plan update. 2020, we have the Cosmot reviews with the 30 opportunities. In 2020 as well, we had EDAC narrow those down into six economic activities that were recommended. And in 2021, there was a final certification of the general plan In 2021, we started the Sea Level Rise Task Force 2023, we did the Marineship Master Plan RFP with Bob Silvestri, 2024. We had an EDA grant for economic adaptation work in 2024 as well. We did more shoreline adaptation work. And we did more visioning in 2025. So I think that when we think about planning, I think we've done a lot of planning and the thought of going back 20 years and starting the community involvement again doesn't make sense to me. We need to pass Measure X so that we can actually move on to the next step, which is to go back and implement some of these plans. Thank you. |
| 02:36:03.11 | Steven Woodside | Any further comments from people in the room? Seeing none online. |
| 02:36:08.69 | Deirdre Coyne | We have Doug Litwin. |
| 02:36:13.30 | Steven Woodside | Mr. Litwin? |
| 02:36:15.02 | Doug Litwin | Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me? |
| 02:36:17.84 | Steven Woodside | If you could. |
| 02:36:18.16 | Doug Litwin | You know? |
| 02:36:18.80 | Steven Woodside | Be closer to your mic. |
| 02:36:20.81 | Doug Litwin | I'll do my best. |
| 02:36:22.04 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 02:36:22.30 | Doug Litwin | Is this okay? |
| 02:36:25.01 | Steven Woodside | We can barely breathe. |
| 02:36:25.40 | Doug Litwin | Don't hear me. Oh, boy. I'll yell a little louder. |
| 02:36:29.99 | Steven Woodside | Okay, and we've turned up the volume on this end, so I think it's a little better now. Thank you. |
| 02:36:34.16 | Doug Litwin | Okay. I want to use my two minutes to read a quote from Mayor Woodside from July 21 meeting 46 days ago. This is a direct quote. With respect to item number two, anticipated litigation, we gave instructions, if you will, to the city attorney to explore potential causes of action regarding the property transaction regarding Pelican Harbor and also to explore alternatives we may have regarding protection of the tenants and the rental increases that apparently have been Noted. We have more work to do on this, but we did ask our city attorney to explore in-depth options that we may have beyond that. There's nothing to report at this time. Then, 10 days ago or so, when this agenda for tonight came out, I was really... I'm disappointed to see there was nothing on the agenda to talk about this topic. I'm an 11-year resident of Pelican Harbor. You've already heard from others who are living through this ever-changing nightmare. It's really shocking. to witness firsthand all the damage that one person has been able to do in such a short period of time. And don't take my word for it. or any of the people who've spoken, walk over to Pelican Harbor and see for yourself what's going on there. And while you're there, you might as well walk just a little bit north and take a look at Bridgeway Marina, That is a look into the future of what is already happening at Pelican Harbor. We really deserve to get updates and see a plan of action. Thank you. |
| 02:38:19.78 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:38:21.91 | Deirdre Coyne | Next, we have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 02:38:25.94 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, counsel. I want to... I am against Measure X as it is one of the most irresponsible initiative measures I have ever seen. It authorizes up to 10 million square feet of building on our waterfront and in the commercial zones in Sausalito. This is not the time to be tearing down our waterfront impacting views, increasing traffic, and congestion in Sausalito. We must have a better plan. There are ways to improve The functioning of the friendship, rather than a wholesale sale, if you will, to developers. I'm very much opposed to this irresponsible act and the burden that it's going to put on the city of Sausalén and its residents. Thank you. |
| 02:39:16.34 | Deirdre Coyne | Seeing no more comments online. |
| 02:39:17.95 | Steven Woodside | Okay, that includes, concludes rather, the public comments for matters that were not on tonight's agenda. So now we can turn to the matters that are on the agenda. It's 10 minutes after six. And we have a consent calendar first with several items on it. And what typically happens is we will take these items in one vote, approving them all. . |
| 02:39:50.58 | Sandra Bushmaker | I was just wanting to say that. |
| 02:39:51.82 | Steven Woodside | Yes. But we do, of course, allow at this time for anyone in the public to make a comment on any of the items on the consent calendar. Bye. Are there any... COMMENTS ON ANY OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR ITEMS? I SEE ONE from Michael Rex on item number 3B. Michael. |
| 02:40:17.04 | Michael Rex | Yeah, I wanted to speak about Andrew. Um, Our Department of Public Works, okay? I thought it would occur when he was still here, but maybe he'll see this recording. I can't recall working with a finer public servant, okay? For 17 years, he was our go-to guy. When I first knew him, his hair was darker and fuller. But I have to say, in those 17 years. Many adjectives would describe my experience with him. Helpful, professional. Accomplished, accessible, friendly, diligent, and many more. We were so lucky to have somebody like him on the city staff. I'm going to miss him greatly, and whoever replaces him will have big shoes to fill. Thank you, Andrew. |
| 02:41:14.67 | Steven Woodside | Michael will make sure that Andrew is alert to your comments, which will be in the record. So thank you very much. |
| 02:41:15.80 | Michael Rex | And, |
| 02:41:21.66 | Steven Woodside | Any other public comments on matters on the consent calendar? Seeing none, I would like to just make a comment about item 3i, which is a report on the quarterly sales tax from the first quarter of this calendar year. I think the news is good. If you take a look at it, the revenues coming to the city are quite a bit higher than budgeted and certainly higher than the rest of Marin by a large factor. And my only comment is I think this is attributable to people in this community that have stepped forward, creating and funding a business improvement district, which is self-governing. It's not governed by us. So there are downtown improvements. There was the Ferry Landside Project, Tracy Way, and other things that are making our community more attractive, both for residents and visitors alike. So those are my comments on it before I ask if there's a motion to approve the consent calendar. |
| 02:42:28.15 | Joan Cox | So moved. Second. |
| 02:42:30.42 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Mr. Sobieski is momentarily outside the room, but we can take a simple, I think because he's outside, I don't know, I think we take a roll call. |
| 02:42:39.08 | Carolyn Revell | Right. |
| 02:42:39.15 | Deirdre Coyne | I know. |
| 02:42:43.13 | Deirdre Coyne | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Councilmember Hoffman? Yes. Vice Mayor Blaustein? Yes. Mayor Woodside? |
| 02:42:50.81 | Steven Woodside | Yes. So it passes for zero with one person absent. Thank you. |
| 02:43:03.89 | Steven Woodside | So we have a public hearing item on something that has, I believe, been gone through, um, with the Planning Commission, et cetera, and is ready for us to introduce and, by title only, waive the first reading of an ordinance, a sign ordinance. And we have a presentation now, item 4A. Thank you. |
| 02:43:27.83 | Katie Nelson | Thank you. |
| 02:43:32.08 | Katie Nelson | Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, and members of the public. My name is Katie Nelson. I'm the senior planner within the Community Development Department. Tonight I'm bringing forward an update to chapter 10.42 of the municipal code for introduction as ordinance 092026 our sign ordinance next slide. Here's the roadmap. I'll start with why we're doing this, then the planning commission's recommendation, a quick tour of the proposed changes, how the permit process works, how the proposed amendments align with the general plan, and finally what we're asking the council to do tonight. Next slide. Our currents, our current sign regulations were less comprehensively updated in 2003 and reviewing them staff and the city attorney identified a few issues that really drive this update. The central one is a 2015 US Supreme Court decision, Reed v. Town of Gilberts, A unanimous nine to zero ruling. The court held that a sign regulation is content based if you have to read the sign's message to figure out which rules apply to it. Content-based regulations face the highest level of constitutional review, what the courts call strict scrutiny. Our existing ordinance has a number of these content-based provisions. It regulates signs differently depending on whether they're political signs, real estate signs, holiday decorations, or construction signs. Modernizing the code to rely on objective content neutral standards, things like size, height, location, and illumination, brings us in line with current First Amendment case law. Beyond the First Amendment piece, there were two practical issues. First, the current code requires planning commission review for most sign types, including routine applications and the approval criteria of rest on subjective findings. This can be a lengthy process for applicants and hard to apply consistently. Second, we have a detailed submittal requirements checklist for, for sign permit applications that is directly written into the code. This makes it difficult to update without a formal code amendment. The proposed ordinance before you tonight seeks to address all of these issues. Next slide. The planning commission held a study session on March 25th, followed by a public hearing on May 27th. At the close of that hearing, the commission adopted resolution number 202609, recommending that the city council adopt the draft ordinance. Four points of commission direction from the study session are worth highlighting. First, on projecting signs, the type that extend outward perpendicular from a building, Staff had proposed increasing the maximum projection to 48 inches. The commission felt that was too large an increase. And after discussion, we settled on a 42 inch maximum. That's what's before you in the draft tonight. Second, on upper level business signage, staff floated raising the maximum size to 10 square feet. The Commission preferred to keep the existing six square foot maximum, so that's been retained. Third, the commission wanted to preserve planning commission review. for signs that are tied to larger discretionary entitlements. So we've honored that as well. And lastly, on historic signage, they requested an exception be added to the 90 day abandoned sign removal rule so that signage with recognized historic value is protected. Next slide. Let's walk through the substantive changes by section. In the definition section, We've consolidated several definitions, including the temporary sign definition and removed several redundancies. In 10.42040, signs allowed without a permit, We replaced the content-based categories with objective standards and added a new allowance for small freestanding signs on commercial property. The core of the science standards live in 10. Point four to 06. So that's where you'll find a 42 inch maximum projection for projecting signs and a six square foot maximum for upper level businesses. I've also added a minimum clearance between the building face and a hanging projecting sign to preserve facade integrity. Finally, a provision has been added to allow one monument sign or wall sign. to identify an HOA apartment complex or residential subdivision. |
| 02:47:44.18 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:47:44.91 | Katie Nelson | Moving on to the historic district section 10.4 to 07. Oh, we removed the reference to the separate historic design guidelines because they just pointed back to the zoning code. We aligned many of the standards with the general standards and 10.4 to 06.0. and added an eight foot clearance requirement above the right of way on sign permits in 10.4 to 080 we restructured and clarified the administrative track for signs that meet objective standards while keeping planning commission review also based on objective standards for signs tied to discretionary entitlements like design review conditional use permits certificates of appropriateness and variances. And lastly, in 10.4209, non-conforming signs, we added the historic resource exception to the 90-day removal requirement. Full detail is available in the redlined ordinance as attachment one and the clean draft as provided as attachment three. Next slide. This slide dives a bit deeper in outlining the two track permitting process that's proposed and I want to reiterate both pathways rely solely on objective standards. The difference is which body acts and what the timeline is. The administrative track is clarified and applies to signs that meet the objective standards in 10.42060. These are eligible for review by the CDD director or their designee and limited to the objective standards with no subjective discretion. Submittal requirements are moved outside the code to the planning permit submittal requirements checklist. The applicant posts notice of the application at the property and a decision is required within 30 days of a complete application. Decisions may be appealed under a standard appeals chapter 10.84. Permits are valid for two years. Moving on to the Planning Commission track. This applies to signs tied to a discretionary entitlement like design review, variances, CUPs, and certificates of appropriateness. These applications are subject to noticing requirements outlined in Chapter 10.82. A decision is instead required within 45 days of a complete application, and a denial can be appealed to the City Council and heard within 30 days. Permits, again, are valid for two years. Next slide. Staff has reviewed the goals, objectives, and policies of the general plan and finds the proposed amendments consistent with its intent. Three programs are directly relevant. Two are in the community design, historic, and cultural preservation element. The proposed amendments respond to program CD 1.4.2 by reviewing and updating the sign ordinance and establishing clear size, location, and type standards for signage in the city's commercial areas. CD 5.3.3 supports streamlining commercial sign review to help business vitality while enhancing the streetscape. The third, E4.3.3, in the economic element supports clear, streamlined sign review that helps businesses attract customers while promoting a vibrant shopping and visiting experience. Taken together, these amendments clarify our standards and make the review process more predictable for businesses while maintaining the aesthetic quality or community values. Next slide. And that brings me to our recommended action. Staff recommends the council conduct a public hearing on the proposed ordinance, introduce the ordinance by title only, and waive the first reading, and direct staff to return with the ordinance at a future meeting for second reading and prospective adoption. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thanks. |
| 02:51:16.35 | Steven Woodside | Katie, thank you very much. It's very thorough report. Just wanted to confirm with the city attorney that This is consistent with the recommendation that I think you made some time ago, Mr City Attorney, that we needed to change our sign ordinance to bring it into compliance with federal laws. And also that for tonight's purposes, this has been properly noticed. Can you... comment. |
| 02:51:46.39 | Sergio Rudin | I'll defer the comment on noticing to city staff. But yes, the purpose... of this ordinance is to address a handful of Supreme Court decisions that have come out since, I believe, 2015, following Reed v. Town of Gilbert, regarding content-based regulations and sign ordinances, as well as provisions regarding approval of signs via conditional use permits or discretionary permits without adequate standards. So this addresses a number of issues that are in the current sign code and provides for clear and enforceable standards for the city sign regulations. |
| 02:52:32.07 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Questions from Council members. Yes. |
| 02:52:38.36 | Katie Nelson | I can confirm that it was noticed properly as well. |
| 02:52:41.20 | Steven Woodside | Great, thank you. |
| 02:52:43.17 | Katie Nelson | Thank you. |
| 02:52:43.19 | Joan Cox | I had a question regarding placement of signs. Sure. We have recently undertaken significant improvement of our streets along Bridgeway with a new median. And now Several of the properties. long. that median, are placing monument signs in the median advertising that their stores are adjacent. What. How does our new sign ordinance treat that? |
| 02:53:14.88 | Katie Nelson | Yeah. |
| 02:53:15.54 | Joan Cox | approach, signage approach. |
| 02:53:17.95 | Katie Nelson | Sure. Technically, those signs that are placed in the public right-of-way would not be permitted unless they're placed by a public agency or required by law. So the new ordinance does speak to that. There is a new provision that allows businesses to have freestanding signage up to six square feet, up to 48 inches tall, but it can't be placed in the right of way. So if they potentially relocated it onto the private commercially zoned property that could work. Otherwise the city could initiate code enforcement action. |
| 02:53:54.08 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:53:54.47 | Katie Nelson | So this is |
| 02:53:54.97 | Joan Cox | This was an issue that was actually addressed over 10 years ago when I was a planning commissioner. And I believe the way that we addressed it at that time was through issuance of courtesy notices to the affected businesses. Is that an approach the city would likely undertake? |
| 02:54:09.76 | Katie Nelson | Correct. We would likely issue a notice of violation through code enforcement first. |
| 02:54:13.55 | Joan Cox | but without any penalty, just a notification. |
| 02:54:16.93 | Katie Nelson | Yes, citing what the violation is. Right. |
| 02:54:17.52 | Joan Cox | Oh, that. |
| 02:54:19.97 | Katie Nelson | Thank you. |
| 02:54:20.05 | Joan Cox | Okay, I appreciate that. |
| 02:54:21.08 | Katie Nelson | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:54:21.10 | Joan Cox | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:54:23.42 | Steven Woodside | Other questions? Just one last question. These changes are not designed or are not likely to result in a proliferation of new and larger signs, are they? |
| 02:54:36.86 | Katie Nelson | No, in fact, most of the standards remain the same. The two that I highlighted, the increase in projection is something that changed that expanded by six inches. And there's also a difference in the amount that the sign projects from the face of the wall. There's now two inches required. |
| 02:54:59.99 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Are there comments about this from members of the public? Thank you very much for your very thorough staff report. |
| 02:55:07.57 | Katie Nelson | You're welcome. |
| 02:55:08.13 | Deirdre Coyne | Thank you. |
| 02:55:08.36 | Steven Woodside | comments from members of the public. I'm seeing none. I have no speaker cards, anyone online. |
| 02:55:15.65 | Deirdre Coyne | Seeing none online. |
| 02:55:16.97 | Steven Woodside | very, very good. testament to a very thorough report so thank you very much and thanks to the planning commission for really boring into this and thanks to the city attorney for helping us fix our ordinance so is there a motion to introduce by title only and waive the first reading of this proposed ordinance. |
| 02:55:37.93 | Melissa Blaustein | I make a motion to introduce by title only and waiver of first reading of ordinance number 092026, an ordinance of the City Council amending chapter 10.42, sign ordinance of title 10 of the Sausalito Municipal Code. Second, |
| 02:55:50.72 | Steven Woodside | OK, there's a motion in the second. Again, I think we'll do this by roll call. Thank you. |
| 02:55:56.93 | Deirdre Coyne | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Councilmember Hoffman? us. Vice Mayor Blaustein? Yes. Mayor Woodside? |
| 02:56:05.40 | Steven Woodside | Yes, so that passes 401 with member Sobieski temporarily absent. We now will turn to our business items. The first is a report regarding the gate five area drainage or I'll call it flooding study. So, Mr. McGowan, our public works director, thank you for preparing this and we'd like to hear your report. |
| 02:56:35.12 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you Mayor Woodside members of City Council Kevin McGowan Public Works Director. I originally had our slides here mislabeled and I had it as gate six but it is gate five. I have a couple slides to go over first before I introduce our consultant team to you who will make the general presentation. Um, And I just want to thank not only the consultant team, but in this particular case, we've had a lot of residents and a lot of property owners who have helped us along this journey. And so They have a lot of experience of what they are experiencing close to gate five and how the tides affect them. So I'll probably shout that out a couple times throughout the presentation. They're not all here, but some of them are. I just want to recognize them before I get going. We've had a next slide, please. We've had a few questions about right of way, and I wanted to reiterate that to folks. So this little slide, even though it might be a little blurry, it's a pretty good graphic of what the right of way is for the city of Sausalito on Coloma gate five and close to some of the other streets down there. Next slide, please. If you take a look at the parcel maps associated with this area of town, you'll notice that it is not terribly clear on where the right of way is. There's a lot of easements, different lines going different places, and it's quite confusing. Next slide, please. However, we've had some surveyors do local work here and to establish the actual right of way. It's not your typical area that you would see in a subdivision when a subdivision is developed. you would see the developer don't not donate, but at least allocate the road right of way to the jurisdiction who's going to maintain it. That didn't happen here. In this particular case, we've had some property owners who have deeded portions of their property to the roadway itself. And in some of the documentations, you'll see document numbers where you have to do some research at the county in order to establish who has either ownership or responsibility for that section of road. I did not do that in-depth investigation. I simply took a look at the parcel maps as well as the records of survey and then highlighted it on a couple diagrams in order to illustrate that to you. You will notice on this slide that there is a little red rectangle that indicates that the roadway itself is located on private property but there is a access easement across it. What does that mean? Well, that means that we don't have the underlying responsibility to maintain the road specifically but the There is a public road there. So I'm just going to leave it at that. I'm not an attorney. I don't try to be one either. Next slide, please. Again, on the north section, north side of Coloma Street, again, the parcel map is pretty darn confusing. You can't really tell what's going on or where the roadways are located. Next slide. However, you go to a record of survey, and this is a little more detailed. You can see in the middle of the picture here is Coloma Street, where it turns and goes to the north on Gate 5, where it runs into another street. Let's see, Varda Landing Circle, which is not a public street. It is a private street. So just trying to indicate to you, the council, what we have down here since this question came up next slide, please. Keep in mind, our consultant this evening is going to be talking about drainage issues as well as tidal issues. And this whole area connects the drainage system from the west side of Bridgeway and delivers stormwater to the bay via a sheet pile canal system shown in orange on this little picture on the left-hand side. The city installed this sheet pile canal system. Actually, I'll even go back further. It was installed way back when Marin ship was developed back in the early forties and fifties. It later failed in the 1970s and the city replaced it in the 1980s with a sheet pile system. Next slide, please. A little picture of that system is indicated here. You can... You can't really see the detail, but it's a steel sheet pile wall. Okay, it's about 12 feet wide as well, and that will come up in the presentation a little bit later. Next slide. So now I'd like to introduce Eric Slaw, sorry if I get that wrong, from WSP, who will be making the presentation regarding the Gate 5 Drainage Management Study. As he's finishing up this, I will probably step back in with a few more comments at the end of his presentation. So, Eric? |
| 03:01:28.56 | Eric Slough | All right. Well, everyone, yeah, Eric Slough, I think it should be a different slide deck. I guess while we're doing that, yeah, name is Eric Slau. I'm the lead engineer from WSP, uh, who did this, uh, worked on the drainage and management study. Excited to be here. couple other of the experts from our team here so when we get to the q a session we're happy to Happy to take questions. They can back me up on some things here. So see here we have. Oh. Um, should go back a couple, such as the first one. Oh, what's going on here? |
| 03:02:07.05 | Eric Slough | got in mind of |
| 03:02:07.59 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:02:07.69 | Eric Slough | Yeah. |
| 03:02:10.54 | Steven Woodside | kind of like gate five road, right? |
| 03:02:12.65 | Eric Slough | OK, there we go. OK. |
| 03:02:18.64 | Eric Slough | I'm not sure. |
| 03:02:20.14 | Dan Morgan | Thank you. |
| 03:02:40.92 | Brandon Phipps | Apologies for the delay. Just give us one moment to coordinate this. |
| 03:02:44.34 | Eric Slough | Okay. No worries. |
| 03:02:55.58 | Eric Slough | What's that? Oh, that's okay, yeah. It's easy to blame technical difficulties, right? |
| 03:03:03.58 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:03:27.61 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:03:30.92 | Eric Slough | Go for it. Okay, so just quick overview of the timeline. So back in August of 2024, uh, the city applied for a grant from the economic development administration. So that's what funded this overall project. It was not through the capital improvement program, uh, that was put out for an RFP in July of 25 and ultimately in September, 25 WSP, my firm started work on this. So there was a past study in 2011 from another consultant that was somewhat similar, so that was formed a little bit of the basis for our project. All right, next slide. So we're focused on the gate five area as drainage manager study, um, quite simply focused on the chronic flooding that the residents, their experience. So we were trying to. Simply understand that and develop some conceptual designs, uh, in coordination with the local residents to solve their problems. Next slide, please. So project aim was focused on both the flooding caused from the coastal aspects, which are the tides, the king tides, the high tides, Then also the storm surge. and ultimately sea level rise, um, over time. And then looking at what was happening from the stormwater side. Uh, so from rainfall and storm on a runoff and also subsidence since the area in that, uh, And the project area is sinking over time. So trying to look at ultimately how was this going to affect the residents over time? Next slide, please. So we had five main tasks. First, we're that vulnerability assessment, which is really understand the flooding. Why is it happening? Where is it coming from? Exactly what's causing it? and then to develop his conceptual designs. And do that with task three in conjunction with the community, figure out what's important to them, figure out what would work, what won't work and. then get to a point where we can implement it and develop our implementation plan for the city to figure out how do we actually take all this great information and push it forward into something that actually can be implemented. Next slide, please. So vulnerability assessment. Next slide, please. So really, how does this flooding occur? I think the simplest way, we have a fancy graphic, but I think the simplest way is what we found out through our analysis was that the flooding is mostly caused by coastal aspects. So what that means is the tides, those King tides that occur simply during the winter, the storm surge, that's really what causes a lot of the flooding. The stormwater itself causes localized flooding in certain properties, but as a whole throughout the community, uh, it is caused by coastal and, uh, coastal factors. Next slide, please. So here's a map that to show how that flooding is going to change over time. As I mentioned, sea level rise, water is going up, subsidence, the area that people live on is going down. So we started looking at current conditions and by 2100, you can see the map is a lot more blue. Quite simply, it's going to affect people's lives a lot. And I don't need to get in the nitty gritty of this. I think the take home is really that we need to do something. Next slide, please. So we looked at how long we'll stay flooded. So right now, people, when there's a one year, the highest king tide of the year, if you think about that, not what happened in January, that was especially bad, but a typical king tide around heat ceramics, maybe inundated for about nine hours. But as you go into the future, it becomes a large portion of the day, both in 2050. And if you go to the next slide, by 2080 and 2100, you can see a lot of blue above the green. The green is the land, blue is the water. So a lot of inundation, and it goes for the entire day, showing that something really needs to be done. Next slide, please. So here's what we were looking at with the sea level rise over the next 75 years. We're looking anywhere from conservatively a foot, but somewhere closer to four, five, or even six feet by the end of the century. And subsidence our team looked at to figure out how much is this land actually lowering. It's about a half an inch a year, which doesn't sound like it. A lot, but when you look over the course of a century, you can see there it turns out to be three or four feet, which is pretty substantial. So when you basically add those together, if you say six feet of sea level rise, three or four feet of the ground lowering, you end up getting a pretty Pretty substantial difference. Next slide, please. So we also want to understand not just what's happening, but how is it going to affect people, specifically the buildings that people live in and work in. So currently. the number there, uh, 10 buildings are affected right now, but as you can kind of see by 2080, the numbers really increase seven or eight fold, uh, for people by 2080, but the one year storm, and we look at a hundred year storm, it, it roughly doubles. So we put a financial value to that, getting to about $30 million in damages a year in 2018, cumulatively by $370 million to 2018 over the next, whatever, 50 years. Next slide, please. So we wanted to do, Engaging the community was something that we felt was necessary for this project to find something that was actually successful. So we wanted to do was figure out what really, first off, what is the community doing to tackle these problems that they face? So we found that a lot of pumps, a lot of sump pumps, a lot of people pumping into gate five, most commonly, and then a lot of sandbags. So sandbags placed on people's properties around things that they, they, they know, they love, they need to protect. And those are the two main, main things that we saw. Next slide, please. And we also put a survey out to the community between March and May to get input on what, how is it actually affecting them? So we found that about a hundred percent of people, or sorry, 96% of people see that flooding every day. Um, and 60% report that property damage. It's goes back to that monetary number. I mentioned it a couple of minutes ago. and showing that this is something that's really impacting the community. Next slide, please. So those 116 people we did see, it was a really good cross section, the community about 30% are property owners, 30% are employees. Um, you see a 20% of people actually live there. So we did get a good cross section of everyone that actually, uh, lives and, and, and goes in that area frequently and found that a majority of people would welcome change and a size of percent of people have it disrupt their daily life. Next slide, please. And this all culminated in a community engagement workshop that we did at the end of April. So we had over 50 attendees and it was a great way to solicit. Uh, community input to find out what, what do they really think it's some of these ideas that we have that I'll get to in a minute. So we found that finding a separate near term solution for VAR to landing was important, not just finding a one solution cut off for all of gate five. So that was something we integrated after that community meeting, showing the importance of it. And we noticed some other things there. Nature-based solutions, extremely important. And also people coming up consistently mentioning us that there is a cost of doing nothing. Like I said, that $370 million I mentioned previously. Next slide, please. So first I want to conceptual dine for the near term, which we say is roughly over the next 10 years. Next slide, please. So we looked at several different things that I list on the left there between tide gates, pumps, storm drain improvements. The first thing we really want to talk about is tide gates. So the flooding that's impacting people's lives is mainly coming to the storm drain system. Water comes in, goes to the culverts at a lower, you know, at Coloma Street, and then it basically bubbles up through the storm drain. And it comes out that the storm jeans by, certainly by Heath Ceramics is the first place it pops out, which up through the storm drain. It comes out that the storm drains by, simply by Heath Ceramics is the first place it pops out, which is why that experience is the most flooding. So to block that is what is called a tide gate. Quite simply, it's a gate that's put on the end of the outfall and it acts as a barrier so that the water cannot go into the culvert and outfall and through your storm drain system. So in general, they are relatively simple engineering things. They can be quite successful. However, the problem happens is that water doesn't come in, but water can also not go out. So to tackle that you have what's on the right there, which is to install a pump station. So that means when your tide gate is closed and say, we get a large rainfall, which does happen a lot, uh, just happened in January. You'd have that pump station would kick on to get the water around the gates. That way that storm water does not back up in the system. Next slide, please. So here is kind of Kevin was mentioning about it. The idea of the pump station would be on top of the Columbus street canal or all this agreed as the canal. So it would roughly cover the footprint of it. And at the end of the cow would be could be roughly where that tide gate is located so that the canal could act as a wet well. And could it be an existing easement for the city, which would alleviate some of the private property concerns. Next slide, please. So one thing I want to highlight pump stations don't have to be ugly. They can be actually very. I don't want to say pretty, I guess, but they can very much represent the culture of the area. They can represent what's important to people. So for instance, the one on the left, Hallardy has murals on it from, so there's maybe the art studios, maybe there's some sort of cooperation, the local art studios and anything. In the neighborhood could maybe be in charge of decorating of putting murals on it or whatever they try to have artistic piece so take home message here is that just because the pump station doesn't have to be an eyesore for the Community next next slide please. So here, like I said, we wanted to develop something just for Varda landing, since that was mentioned by the community, something very important. So Varda landing is different than other parts of Gate 5 because it's low-lying and it's not actually impacted by this seawater coming to the storm drain system. It's just simply low-lying that the water comes out of the land and floods. Therefore, what we're proposing here in the near term, so just a near-term solution, is a small seawall, something that's about maybe two or three feet high. We have a little image there, some sort of modular device, something that obviously flushed out later, but something that is relatively small footprint, relatively low cost, that can be done to tackle these king tides and things that people experience in numerous times throughout the year. Next slide. So how do we evaluate our solutions? This is both near term, midterm and longterm. We had eight categories. First two being the effectiveness of them, both short and longterm. We had the implementability of them, had the cost, which obviously important for everyone. Then how are the permit permitters going to look at it? Can we even permit it? community feedback, which I already mentioned, we making sure we integrate that into any solutions. And then the last two are the benefits, both, um, Ecologically and then recreational. What are the, what are the recreational and aesthetic benefits? Next slide, please. So here's our fancy chart of a lot of greens and reds to try to assess those couple of things we just mentioned, and then some qualitative dollar values, ultimately helping us to decide on which one we were gonna recommend here. Next slide. And what I wanted to highlight is these, When I talk about near term, mid and long term, these solutions, there's no one solution that can be done. It's not simply put a pump station in and you're good, put a tide gate in and you're good. I think a very important thing for people to take home here is that these solutions all work in connection together. The tide gates will help you protect water from coming to the storm system. But if you don't put a pump station in, there'll be issues. If we don't put a sea wall in provided landing, there will be issues. But if you only do one of them. Um, so that's what this map or this figure is addressing. Next slide, please. So here I already talked about sort of the benefits and limitations. So what I'll highlight is on the far right is the cost. So what we see is a cost for this Tidegate pump station, and then a storm drain improvements, as I'll mentioned in a minute here is about 5 million. That's for design and construction to get it to. the finish line, so to speak. And then for the bar to landing component, which is the sea wall and then raising bar landing to the one year elevation, which is adding about a foot and a half. Um, which I forgot to mention the last slide, but that's another component, the seawall and then raising bar to landing by a foot to increase the access. is about a million and a half, uh, sorry, one and a half million, uh, dollars. Next slide. So here I bring the slide up again to say this is, you can see where this is going. This is our recommended solution as the consulting firm in connection with talking to the residents is to put it on top, a pump station as big as possible on top of the canal. Obviously, the city has a separate project coming up to look at the structural integrity of the canal to figure out what it can handle, what is the conditions. so you know there's still disclaimers here but that is what we feel is the best solution to provide the most i'll say immediate protection. Um, it will not handle your a hundred year, even that January storm of 30 or four, that's a, it was roughly, I think a 40 year once from every 40 year storm, but this is something that can be done relatively fast, relatively, um, um, cheaper than some of the other alternatives to get something out there to handle these king tides that keep hitting every month during the winter, especially the El Nino coming up. Next slide. please. So here, this is the storm drain improvements I wanted to mention. Um. The, on the bottom left is about 150 linear feet to connect at gate five and Harbor to connect the down gate five. So that the water, instead of flowing up, um, Uh, up Harbor to clipper yacht Harbor and discharging by putting a connection here, it sends it down gate five to what would be that pump station. So you only need one pump station instead of installing a second one, um, relatively, um, straightforward. Um, and then on the right is an example of what a tie gate might look like. Um, and we recommend a sluice gate. Um, I mean, get into that more if there's more questions. Uh, next slide. So we're going to mid and long-term. Um, one thing I want to highly before we get into this is where it gets very tricky, very There's no easy solution. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be standing here today. So I think it's important. You know, every every alternative here has drawbacks. Every alternative has certainly has positives. So I'll go through all the ones that we considered. Next slide, please. So one of the big takeaways, as I highlighted from the community engagement, was importance for green solutions. So we did consider how green infrastructure could be included, mainly byoretention throughout the neighborhood. This is something that could reduce peak flows by maybe 10 or 20%, which would have some savings to the city. And obviously there'd be aesthetic benefits. And then also from a living shoreline component that can improve water quality and even, like I of more aesthetics. Would you get, next slide, please. So with that living seawall component, so that can improve water quality and, and even, like I said, more aesthetics. Which you get, uh, next slide, please. So at that living seawall component, um, so one alternative we looked at was a seawall solution, essentially along the shoreline, um, which would be obviously coordinated with. property owners, but to put a seawall that would have a recreational and ecological component. So as you can see in this image here, some sort of promenade that could go along the top of the seawall. This is something that's done, has been done successfully in many. other locations throughout the world that provides that recreational access that folks are seeking with the ecological and component there in the near shore, a living shoreline leveling seawall portion. Next slide, please. So what I wanted to mention is that these mid and long-term solutions are additive. It's important to notice that they are not, the prior investments for near-term are not lost. So the example is on the second figure here. I used to be a tide gate there. So if you just put a seawall in, that still would not work because the water would go up the pipe and keep bubbling into. the neighborhood, just like, is it you're experiencing now? So. This is an additive solution where the tie gate is there is working and then you add a seawall to cover what we call overland flow into the neighborhood. Next slide. So here we put this in to further emphasize that the reason these solutions need to get additive and more substantial is because of this significant sea level rise that could happen up to six feet by 2100 and also the subsidence up to about three and a half or four feet by 2100. So we can't just stick with the solution in the near term. We have to keep upgrading it over time. Next slide. So here, one of that is increasing the pump capacity. So the Columbus Street can only handle what's called a two-year storm or a storm that happens every two years. So if a larger storm happened, like happened in January, unfortunately, the pump would not fully be able to keep up with it. So the idea here is in the mid and long term to expand that pump capacity. So this is important to know there's no hard and fast rule where the pump station needs to be, but it could just be in, it just needs to be the closer to this area, the gate five in Coloma, the better. It would be cheaper, less piping, less hassle, but there's no hard and fast rule. And then we say it's roughly a 90 foot by 90 foot pump station is what you're looking at to the size of a baseball field. Next slide, please. One way to improve or decrease the size of the pump station is that upstream storage. So we looked at this as MLK park. So you can put an underground vault in that area is one idea, um, that it would handle flow stormwater flow. during, um, during a storm. So that way less goes down to the pump station. Um, And yeah, therefore, like I said, decreasing the size of the pump station and the investment needed since the gate five area is so constrained property wise. Next slide, please. Another option we looked at was raising gate five road. So with raising Gate 5 Road, it would essentially make Gate 5 Road act as a levy. So this means that water or properties on the landward side would be protected, but the properties on the waterward side, Clibriot Harbor and others, for example, all the people in barred landing would still be impacted because they would be on the outside of the levy, so deep, um, we looked at how high could it actually be raised? Um, so there are limitations that, cause obviously you can see it has to slope down, it has, you can't, you know, can just magically build it up and across. So there are. It can be raised a couple of feet. Unfortunately, there are limitations with, it would probably have to be moved to one way traffic. Parking would almost certainly be removed from it, depending on how high it's raised. And then ultimately it cannot be raised as high as maybe a seawall because there's just limited space. You have to coordinate the utilities. Obviously there's property owners along each side. So there are limitations, but it is something that, that we looked into next slide, please. So here's just an example of that second picture specifically shows how anything on the waterward side, the right side of that screen, It's still underwater, just like it would be today, unfortunately. Next slide, please. So here's our, um, general analysis that we did similar to, uh, for the near term solutions of a lot of greens, reds, and yellows to try to help formulate Uh, recommendation. One thing I want to mention is we did look at also raising properties and structures. So that would mean just essentially raising each one individually, as opposed to having a coordinated effort, raising each one, putting on stilts or raising them up as you, I think we might have seen in other areas. Next slide, please. So I mentioned the same thing here, as I mentioned, the near term, there's nothing that can be, um, Not one solution can be done. You can't just upgrade a pump station and expect that to provide everything. Unfortunately, have to do numerous of these things, which makes it more complex. Um, so that's just why I wanted to highlight here and next slide, please. So with that, to our recommendations, we, for the midterm, recommend putting efforts into Expanding the pump capacity so that during stormwater events, when stormwater events happen during those high tides and king tides, it does not flood the inland areas. Uh, next slide, please. We recommend the adding green infrastructure, in part because there's a lot of community support for it, too, because it is a relatively cost-effective way to handle the stormwater flows and improves aesthetics and water quality. And next slide, please. And then, so those are what we call the midterm for the next 25 years, and then ultimately working towards a long-term solution of a seawallawall solution, uh, that has that ecological and recreational benefit. Um, that's something that, um, can still provide the waterward access that citizens have very much, um, vocalized us as important. It's surprised the ecological component that people have vocalized as being important, and it provides the smallest footprint, uh, to provide the protection to the community. Uh, next slide, please. So ultimately, what did we learn? We learned a lot about drainage in the area and how the citizens handle it, how the residents of the area handle it. and how it impacts their daily life. We learned a lot about what sort of options are actually implementable and which options people actually prefer and ultimately got to a better understanding of what is feasible to move forward. So I think that's the end of my slides. I think Kevin's gonna talk about what our recommended action is. |
| 03:24:24.75 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you, Eric. Only a couple other comments at this point. You've heard a lot of information here and What staff recommends is simply at this point to accept the report. There's so much information here. It is basically a roadmap. It doesn't mean you have to go in that direction. It just says. Here's some possible solutions for you. And, um, Just keep in mind that also your council has approved the budget for this year. which includes a capital improvement program that has a specific project for the Coloma street tide gate and pump station. Yes, sir. |
| 03:25:04.93 | Steven Woodside | Let's just take about five minutes. Excuse me, take about five minutes, okay? |
| 03:25:29.50 | Steven Woodside | Quick word of explanation. I think Mr. Sobieski just got word, I believe, that his father has passed away. |
| 03:25:44.94 | Steven Woodside | We'll be back in about 7. |
| 03:28:50.24 | Kevin McGowan | past comment that our direction or our request is to simply accept the report at this point. There's so many different facets moving forward that we need to start moving in that direction. Keep in mind that on the capital improvement program this year, we do have two projects. One has to do with developing a plan to put in tide gates and a small pump station in this specific area based on what you've seen so far now keep in mind that that is a small system it's not intended to be a one in 100 year storm type of system that will solve everything in fact we're looking at maybe using temporary pumps in these areas in order to make it work so staff also has a request for proposal ready to go. So staff's kind of ready to go out with an RFP to get a consultant on board to look at that. Lastly, I want to remind everybody that all this material is on our website. Thanks to Katie Thau-Garcia and Sarah Corchidafard, who were project managers on the project. Always need to shout out to them for doing such a good job. And in addition, I want to mention again that the residents here have really stepped up. The folks at Clipper, as well as other areas, have helped out throughout this whole process to help the consultant and myself understand what the heck's going on. So that's it for our presentation. Thank you so much. |
| 03:30:17.87 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I'm going to ask the council members if they have questions at this time. |
| 03:30:23.63 | Sandra Bushmaker | I do. I have a couple. |
| 03:30:24.79 | Steven Woodside | We have a couple. We recognize though that there's a lot of information here and we don't want to um, simply ask out of curiosity. There's a lot for us to digest and for the community to digest. I just want to make sure everybody understands that as we go forward. |
| 03:30:41.50 | Melissa Blaustein | Hi, thanks, Director McGowan, and thank you to WSP. I know that we, during the storm seasons, and in response to January flooding, rented |
| 03:30:41.62 | Steven Woodside | Thanks, Director. |
| 03:30:51.79 | Melissa Blaustein | a certain type of pump, could you speak to the system we have in, um, in pro like that we're currently using and what its status is and as it would relate to. These near-term improvements |
| 03:31:03.79 | Kevin McGowan | Yes. In the last couple high tides, basically tides above 6.3 to 6.5, and there we would rent two pumps. Now, we've been playing with these pumps down there in order to see if we can come up with a good system. We rented two of them. I think one of them is a six-inch pump that's located that we place over there on gate five at Coloma, and the other one's a four-inch pump. The four inch pump takes water that's over on Harbor and pushes it over towards Coloma. And everything gets pumped out from there. I'm not sure. But there are rentals at this point. |
| 03:31:37.78 | Melissa Blaustein | And just so we understand the near-term investments, which is up to $5 million to make the suggested improvements, what is the cost right now for the pump rentals? |
| 03:31:49.79 | Kevin McGowan | Pump rentals run about 25,000 each time, sometimes a little less, depending upon how we arrange them. |
| 03:31:55.56 | Melissa Blaustein | But we could be spending $100,000 to $200,000 a year just on the rentals without having any long-term improvement, really. |
| 03:32:02.72 | Kevin McGowan | Yeah, probably more. |
| 03:32:04.20 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, thanks. Thanks. That's helpful just to know in terms of the 5 million cost what we're already spending. |
| 03:32:11.61 | Unknown | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 03:32:15.83 | Eric Slough | I think something also important is the size of the pump. So for instance, the, just add a little bit of flow rates to it, that two year pump or sorry, the pump on top of the canal that we've talked about is for, would be roughly sized for a two year storm. That's about as big as you can get on there. That's 38 CFS. And for perspective, I think probably what Kevin's been working with is maybe a couple CFS. So the pump that would be on top of the canal is a lot higher capacity than two. |
| 03:32:42.80 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:32:43.99 | Steven Woodside | A quick question. Is there anything in the works now short of these improvements that might provide a little bit of help this coming winter? |
| 03:32:55.40 | Kevin McGowan | I'm not sure. Short of these improvements, we would be anticipating doing the same thing we've done before with portable pumps and sandbags in order to try to protect the area as best we can. |
| 03:33:09.58 | Steven Woodside | OK, I know I see several very interested members of the audience who may want to comment. couple of speaker cards, but recognizing that I've seen many of you out there, both during the flood times and thereafter, and I know you have some significant interest and also have provided input and be curious if you wanted to speak to any of this tonight before we move on to the next item, but I do have two cards, one from Ken Peterson. |
| 03:33:52.32 | Ken Peterson | Hello, my name is Ken Peterson. I'm Clipper Yacht Company. I wanted to thank the engineering staff, Well, actually, the Sausalito staff with Kevin and getting all of this stuff, he actually has done a very good job listening to me, Reason, Bradley and a few other property owners of and were the owners of Varta Landing. that and the council for listening to this. The problems with all of these are, you know, they're short term. you know, and the less expensive one, they're short term. And the problem with short term, it's basically you're hiding behind a levy and the problem. The problem with levees is we got caught this year with a 100-year storm. And four of our oldest buildings this year in two different episodes ended up being flooded and have to displace our tenants, redo the flooring, redo all of that stuff. That's with a pretty good system in place. That's the problem with levies. And for us to replace our four older buildings is just physically impossible right now. With the current zoning, I cannot mow the buildings, raise them up, build a new building, and even cover the debt service to plug in our new tenant. I just want to say, Measure X could possibly make that a possibility. I would really, that is very important. Thank you. I believe Reason Bradley and I have a... a system that we could put in place using the further landing VARTA landing, the pump station, And I've just recently in the last week done a little more research and being able to build a wall in the middle of the canal with multiple check valves all the way up. I'd love to talk to the engineering firm. So... to see if our ideas make sense or not. And I don't want a room full of people. I only want the people that are directly involved in the in the room with us. I don't need the public there. And then they can... with what they if they like it, then they can present it to us. Um, I hope you listen to some of these, and I think we could do it for a whole lot less money, and it will work. Not the long term, we're talking in the next few years, but they're talking about three years before we start. we're all talking about let's get this stuff done as quickly as we can. So that's the difference. Thank you for listening. Sure. |
| 03:36:25.02 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:36:25.14 | Ken Peterson | Thank you. |
| 03:36:25.16 | Steven Woodside | Um, I'm just going to take these in order in which I've received them. The next speaker, Babette McDougall. Babette, I think you're in the corner there. Yes. followed by Rob McCullough. |
| 03:36:47.92 | Babette McDougall | I see I have my choice of microphones here today. Thank you. So, Babette McDougall. So, I'm going to say something that's quite obvious. If any of you look at the continent of Europe and you think about Italy, it's the boot. And it's the heel and the toe. And that's what Sausalito is to the North Bay. We are the heel and the toe at the Golden Gate. And one of the things that really came home to me this last winter is that so goes, as they've often said over the years, so goes Gate 5, so goes the county. Well, if we build a little wall here and a little wall there, a little while later, you've got water on both sides of that wall. I say Sausalito can only survive. if we engage in all the way up to Highway 37. I don't really think that we can sustain ourselves reasonably all by ourselves. But I most certainly am a champion of making measured steps, small, medium, and long term. And with that, I yield back my time. Thank you. |
| 03:37:52.99 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Rob McCullough. followed by Reagan Fulton. Thank you. |
| 03:38:00.50 | Robert McCullough | Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Robert McCullough. I've had offices on Gate 5 Road for 25 years. I've been flooded out two or three times at both end of the thing. I'm a mechanical engineer by training with about 50 years of experience. My landlord, Mauro Dossalini, when we got fled that last time, asked me to take an independent look at it. I walked the length of that canal and looked at all the ductwork coming in there. And there are several basic problems here that have to do with the temporal nature of the things the king tides we know they happen three or four times a year in the winter they can be exacerbated by upstream flooding in the sacramento river when pushing the water from the South Bay, but we know pretty much when that's gonna happen. the When we get a seven-foot tide... It bubbles up through the drains on Gate 5 Road and floods that road. When it goes up to eight feet, it spills over the walls of that canal onto the little artist community and comes out to the road. And it also comes through Varda, landing onto the road and goes out there. You heard the fellow earlier tonight talk about El Nino. And El Nino, they don't know what's going to happen with the rain. It may be good, it may not be good. But they do know that the water level is going to go up to possibly nine feet, just from the expansion of the water in the ocean, and the lapse of the trade winds pushing it offshore. So I think that what the guys are studying this need to take into account is the fact that these these. Tide effects happen roughly one and a half hour on either side of high tide. OK, those are the worst problems. Those need to be addressed immediately. Rain happens in a very short period of time, typically deluges over a couple of hours. If that corresponds with a high tide, you're in big trouble. So the question is, what is the frequency at which those two things happen? And that kind of thing should be part of this study. Thank you. |
| 03:39:51.24 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Reagan Fulton followed by Curtis Hevel. |
| 03:39:58.64 | Reagan Fulton | Hi, Mayor and City Council, thank you for allowing me to speak. I am a Sausalito resident and a small business owner on Gate 5 Road, and we flooded disastrously on January 3rd of this year. And I appreciate Councilperson Blaustein's and yours, Mayor, comments about what are we going to do in the near term. I'm concerned about this year and what's going to happen at Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, And while I very much appreciated the report that was put forward tonight and Kevin McGowan's efforts in these areas, that is long term, near and long term. I think we have to think about tomorrow and paper towels are not going to really do it. |
| 03:40:34.18 | Carolyn Revell | that. |
| 03:40:50.65 | Reagan Fulton | And I'm hoping maybe you would consider deploying personnel on evenings or whenever these storm events will occur to help small businesses deal with the flooding. I'm right across from Heath. They're in terrible shape when the floods occur, just as we were. We lost about $30,000 worth of equipment, and we stand to lose, again, if the floods really rise. I would also suggest, as part of the planning, that there be some further communication with landlords. Our landlord apparently has put up a sort of a seawall of a sort onto Gate 5 Road, which is going to create a bit of a canal, pushing water in various directions. Hopefully they will keep the pumps flowing, but the pumps are just going to put more water into gate five. So counteracting whatever the pumps will be doing Yeah, look at that. when they come. So a lot to think about, but the near term is my biggest concern right now. |
| 03:42:07.38 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Curtis Havill. Is there anyone else who wants to speak? I see Reason Bradley. Come on up, Reason. Thank you. I know you are, but you'll follow Curtis, okay? |
| 03:42:18.37 | Curtis Hevel | We may have not done the first cost because I think we thought it was 5B, but it's 5A, like my first cost. card I turned in was for 5B. So I got mixed up. Maybe somebody else did too. Anyways, thank you for having us here tonight and having this conversation. I think staff's done a really great job at teasing part a complex, a really complex issue and working with the community to try to find solutions to this and recognizing that it's not a one-to-one. silver bullet. It's, it's a multifaceted approach to, to, addressing this issue. At least two city councils in the past were presented with this issue. And I'm guessing that at that time, there was some hand wringing and oh my gosh, this is too expensive. It's too complex. Let's continue thinking about it and talking about it. And we'll get to it next year. Decades later, of course, now we're still having that conversation. If we again decide that this is too expensive and too complicated, many of the businesses that people enjoy and enhance the community character, Heath Ceramics, Anchorage 5 Restaurant, parts of Clipper Yacht Harbor, we're going to be impacted and we're going to start losing. We're going to start losing those businesses. This, Past storm season, Plippery Yacht Harbor lost one of our artist tenants, and we almost lost two other tenants. We've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs and manpower, hundreds of hours and man hours. recuperating after this event, that storm event. It's no small matter. Yeah, we're small businesses. We can't keep on absorbing this kind of damage. Um, so again, I want to commend staff. They've spent a lot of time and effort communicating with us coming out to this site. Um, some of, uh, you have come out to the site to take a look at it and that's much appreciated. Um. Um, While I appreciate all those efforts, we really need to have. So we've got the short, mid and long-term solutions. We need like an immediate now solution too. And, you know, based on my conversations with property owners and business owners in the area, it definitely seems like there's a willingness to work with the city. in a cooperative effort to try to come up with a a now solution that is really temporary in nature, but will give us enough protection to weather this next storm season, especially with the El Nino. Thank you. |
| 03:44:37.70 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Reason Bradley. And |
| 03:44:51.24 | Reason Bradley | I reason Bradley I'd like to thank the city council and Stephen, especially Mr Mayor. Thank you for coming down to Sausalito with the engineers and, and take a look at what's going on, having boots on the ground. Kevin and the city, appreciate what Pat and everybody's doing. Melissa, to answer your question, I believe that there's a solution right now where the pumps go up and you can only pump until you stop the water. And when the water goes over the top of the dike, you can't pump the bay. So we've come up with a plan and it's pretty simple where you go from Ken Peterson's parking lot at Clipper to gate five road that would seal the water. This isn't a hundred year plan. This is like a 20 year plan. But if you purchase a couple of pumps, they don't have to be brand new. the pumps Kevin and Pat prove that you can pump the water down and stay ahead of it until it breaches over that levee. So, We're just proposing a bunch of trucks of dirt, raise the road a little bit, a couple of pumps, and then put some check valves, like Ken said in there. So it's not a half a million dollars. Like I think that we could do it for a hundred grand. if Ken and I were like, actually doing it. And what we're trying to propose is people on gate five road, all the businesses are struggling. You know, we, we were up for four days straight pumping a hundred thousand gallons of water a day. I think we were the only property that didn't flood, but we came close. The power went out. Um, of course that's when the power goes out. So, um, I think that we've come up with a real temporary solution, but, um, we ran it by Steven and the engineering firm and everybody kind of felt like this could really work. So it's not flashy, it's not a hundred years, but I think for the next 20, we might be able to get by, which it buys time to look at some seawalls between Waldo Point and Clipper. And if that was raised up, that would actually protect, instead of raising Gate 5, that would protect everyone behind that seawall, so Varda Landing. So thank you all. |
| 03:46:53.08 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Well, thank you. And when we talk about short term, we talk about just this coming winter too. And I think there may be some things that could be done via simple permitting. Is that correct? If it's on private property and the property owners are willing, I'm asking the... interim city manager, if that's the case. |
| 03:47:12.97 | Brandon Phipps | Yes, absolutely, Mayor. And we'd be happy to streamline those kinds of proposals to help to bolster against Super El Nino. |
| 03:47:14.34 | Steven Woodside | Okay. I'm not sure. Thank you. Okay. One more speaker card from Dan Morgan. |
| 03:47:28.61 | Dan Morgan | Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers, Dan Morgan. I listened to the... |
| 03:47:29.26 | Steven Woodside | Mayor. |
| 03:47:33.90 | Dan Morgan | I'm encouraged from what I hear tonight and we've all we've spent some time with staff and and the short term plan is not short term enough. Like you said, Mr. Mayor, short term means this quarter this year, because that's what we're are. My tenants are suffering. We're losing businesses. And the first question out of everyone's mouth is, does it flood? And of course, you have to be honest with them. Mr. Bradley's. My observation is the same as Mr. Bradley's. The pumps I want to back up and thank public works and pat and staff for the great job that they've done because since the temporary pumps went in and the outflow got shut off that has worked in the recent floods. It's been dry down there. Um, The in that that's that will that system that's temporary now will continue working until the overland flows at Varda Landing. inundate. Gate five and then the pumps get turned off because you can't stay ahead of it. As one of the property owners down there, We are willing to participate in that. building up of VARTA landings. And we'd like to get that done this year. And I was happy to hear that there's a commitment to work permits fast faster so that we can get that done. I think if we can get that done we'll we will eliminate a lot of the stress and the flooding that could go on this year. Thank you. |
| 03:49:10.41 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Dan. Are there no more comments in the chambers? Are there comments online? |
| 03:49:17.07 | Deirdre Coyne | We have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 03:49:20.63 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, counsel. And thank you, staff and the consultant for your information and all the speakers that have talked about the urgency for this year. Sure. This staff report illustrates my earlier point about the recklessness of Measure X and the proposed building contained in Measure X. along our waterfront. We're going to have a six foot rise by 20, a sea level rise by 2010 and a four foot Subsidens by 2100. |
| 03:49:53.93 | Sandra Bushmaker | This requires planning and I'm glad to see the council is addressing this issue now. Like the speakers have said, we've got this quarter to deal with this winter. |
| 03:50:08.59 | Sandra Bushmaker | I would strongly urge people to take a look at knowonmeasurex.com. for documented factual data on why a no vote on X is the responsible thing to do. One of the things about Measure X that is most disturbing, particularly in light of the staff report that we had, is that it excuses developers from infrastructure improvements. And this is something that is not good thing for Sausalito and certainly not a good thing for the gate five area We have been dealing with this issue since I moved to Sausalito almost in 1979. So this is not a new problem, but it is getting worse with the subsidence in the sea level rise. And also, don't forget, we've got a rising water table as well to deal with. So I would like to have the city council move forward on the immediate problems, medium and long-term problems, solutions. Now that the council has this information, it is on notice for the impacts of the building impacts proposed by Measure X. No on Measure X. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:51:17.88 | Deirdre Coyne | Thank you. |
| 03:51:20.26 | Steven Woodside | Anyone else online? |
| 03:51:21.22 | Deirdre Coyne | Next we have Mark Palmer. |
| 03:51:23.62 | Steven Woodside | Mr. Palmer. |
| 03:51:35.31 | Mark Palmer | Hello, can you hear me? |
| 03:51:36.83 | Steven Woodside | Yes, we can. |
| 03:51:38.48 | Mark Palmer | Good evening, Mayor and Council members. Mark Palmer, I want to commend Kevin and the Public Works staff for their quick response to the flooding on Gate 5 Road. Using portable pumps during high tides has provided important immediate relief. Clearly, we also need a long-term, more holistic solution. The study lays out a good question. |
| 03:51:59.93 | Unknown | you |
| 03:52:00.02 | Mark Palmer | good path forward, including tide gates. |
| 03:52:00.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:52:02.48 | Mark Palmer | pump station storm drain improvements the seawall along part of Varda Landing shoreline and working with the property owner to raise the portion of Varta land that's on private property. At the same time, I want to highlight the new bioretention features now under construction on Coloma Street. as part of the sidewalk project. this fits right in. with the consultant's recommendation for upstream green infrastructure capturing and slurring stormwater before it reaches gate five. I encourage the council to accept the study and direct staff to use the remaining grant funds to move these approvals forward. and help secure the future of Gate 5 Road. Thank you. |
| 03:52:45.49 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Mr. Palmer. Anyone else online? |
| 03:52:48.36 | Deirdre Coyne | Next we have Max. |
| 03:52:53.36 | Max Houtziger | Hi, can you hear me? |
| 03:52:55.18 | Steven Woodside | Yes. Could you identify yourself? We just see a first name apparently, Matt. |
| 03:53:00.21 | Max Houtziger | Bye. Thank you. |
| 03:53:00.48 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:53:00.56 | Max Houtziger | Sorry, uh, Max Houtziger. I'm the owner of 265 Gate 5 Road, which is right next to the proposed pump station. So my family and I have, uh, purchased the property nearly 10 years ago I'm pretty much wanna echo what Ken and Reason said in public comment earlier, but I think we just can't emphasize enough that we need short term. action now. The studies are very important and mid and long term is also great. But I can say from experience in our 10 years there that the first seven, we were able to deal with pumps and raising the grade a little bit here and there and a few inches of water and wearing boots at high tide, but now it's you know, we needed short term action. |
| 03:53:46.63 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 03:53:49.03 | Max Houtziger | probably last year or even three years ago. And it's you know, it's not a freak year or an El Nino or something like this. It's I think we would all be very happy if we could know whose project is this, who's accountable, when is it going to happen? Is it you know, because, But the current temporary measures that are in place actually have made it worse. I think our property floods the worst in Gate 5 Road. And we've also spent tens of thousands of dollars in repairs and hundreds of man hours, same as Clipper. And we've already most recently lost multiple tenants. So it's, yeah, it's getting to a point where we are you know, unsure about the future of Gate 5 Road unless there is uh, clear, established timeline and budget for short-term action. as Griezan said, you know, this quarter, this season. Thank you. |
| 03:54:45.51 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any other comments? |
| 03:54:49.69 | Deirdre Coyne | Seeing none online. |
| 03:54:51.15 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll bring it back for discussion at this point. What we have before us now is simply a request to receive and file the report. But you've heard some comments about a sense of urgency and the possibility of streamlining some things that might be done previously. on a permit basis again it's temporary, but it could provide some relief this winter and maybe for a few more winters. I just want to make that clear, I think we've referred that if you will to staff and we hope that. whatever has come up with it, the consultant engineer thinks might help. and can be done expeditiously, I think we're all for it. Um, longer term or medium term or even what's been called short term. One of the big issues, and this comes up every time, is... How is it going to be paid for? Who's going to pay for it, et cetera. And I don't want to comment much more about that now than to say we recognize that infrastructure generally, the needs in this community... far exceed our revenue base. And we have an item following that might provide some But for now, I think we sadly can't assure the public that we can develop a medium term plan and find the funding for it right away. I just don't want to raise expectations, but we are motivated to do what we can to address this and to find the funding. I just don't I don't have a crystal ball. or a clear route to a funding source that can do some of the improvements that are designed that are in the staff report. Um, you Yes. |
| 03:56:38.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:56:38.30 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:56:38.32 | Dan Morgan | Yeah. |
| 03:56:38.66 | Steven Woodside | Sorry. |
| 03:56:41.39 | Melissa Blaustein | First of all, thank you to staff for the amount of time you put into this report and to our consultants for your extensive engagement and communication with community members. When I look at Gate 5 Road in January, I am reminded of Hurricane Katrina and how close we are to something like that happening if our canals, which are 85 years old broke. That was an infrastructure failure from a municipality because the levees broke and we all saw the outcome. I don't expect that it would necessarily be as severe, but we're hearing that there's Tens of millions of dollars of damage potentially at stake here. I appreciate that the direction, of course, is to receive and file. And again, great work. And there's obviously a lot to consider. But what I'm also hearing is right now we're spending certainly more than $100,000 annually on our pumps already at Gate 5 Road, and we are very fortunate to have a group of property owners who have come together to say we have a solution that could potentially work for up to 20 years that will cost $100,000. So I don't know if the requirement would be to immediately agendize redistributing the funds that are now being used for the rental of the pumps to moving that forward, but I think it would be Very we should be as quick as possible about making those arrangements prior to the Thanksgiving king tides if we can. I'd be happy to be part of a working group to partner with the property owners to steward that forward with staff. I'm sure all of us are very excited about that opportunity. But I'd like to, in addition to receiving and filing and thinking about which is obviously the huge issue for the $5 million and the $2 million for VARDA, this is a potential 10 to 20 year solution that the property owners themselves have come up with that is within our current budget. So whatever is required of us to move forward with that now, I would really like to see us do that as well. |
| 03:58:41.67 | Steven Woodside | If I can just add something, I think the engineers would tell us that whatever is proposed in terms of adding a wall and adding fill, if you will, is additive. In other words, you wouldn't say don't have the pumps and do that, as I understood the engineering report. However, you're correct. If it's not already available in our budget, we moved. We do have a reserve. Why do we have a reserve? We have a reserve for just this sort of thing. When we anticipate an emergency or an urgency, we shouldn't hesitate to take a look at what we have available, especially if it's a modest amount. And I'm looking at the city. |
| 03:59:18.80 | Melissa Blaustein | and could, |
| 03:59:21.13 | Steven Woodside | interim city manager. |
| 03:59:22.39 | Melissa Blaustein | Would you be willing to form a working group that would be responsible for streamlining some of these processes? |
| 03:59:28.87 | Jill Hoffman | I would be here. Actually, we already have the Shoreline Adaptation Plan group. |
| 03:59:29.03 | Steven Woodside | I would be. |
| 03:59:30.07 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:30.27 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, actually. |
| 03:59:30.56 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:33.38 | Jill Hoffman | And so we might want to just fold it into that. I mean, who's on that? I'm on that. And so Councilmember Sobieski, and we're working with the same stakeholders. So the same stakeholders that are here |
| 03:59:36.13 | Unknown | It's a big thing. |
| 03:59:44.96 | Jill Hoffman | with us. |
| 03:59:45.24 | Melissa Blaustein | I said earlier this evening that he doesn't want to be on another working group. So I'm happy to do it. I'm happy to. |
| 03:59:48.84 | Jill Hoffman | I'm happy to do that. |
| 03:59:50.34 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:50.58 | Jill Hoffman | go forward with this as well. And I'm looking at the same stakeholders right now that are on the shoreline that Mr. and some of the other guys that are on that plan. And in fact, I think I saw some of the maps from the Sorling Adaptation Plan. tonight so I think |
| 04:00:06.93 | Steven Woodside | I think a working group is fine so that we can, on our side, expedite on our side, but I don't want us to get in the way. Absolutely agree. And I think what I learned personally by walking out there, and hearing about this idea. It was just an idea that engineers were looking at at the same time as property owners and looking at the canal and all that. And coming up with a hypothesis that certainly seemed reasonable. And that was, that was only a few weeks ago. And I think, I think we want to encourage them to come forward and work with our engineers and staff to see if we can move it forward and, We're on the agenda review. We can make sure this is expedited agenda-wise if it needs approval to find money to support it. I know the property owners are interested in protecting their own property and are willing to chip in. How much? Who knows? But these are practical problems that we can expedite, and we should. And I, and. |
| 04:01:07.15 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. And I, I, I'm in agreement and, um, I'm happy that we're all supportive of this and I agree that the problems are as was stated by I think the last caller or one of the callers in that though when you do move water around water goes somewhere and so we have to be cognizant of all the property owners down there and part of the solution. And so thanks to everybody that's here tonight and people that are interested in coming up with the solution. So thanks for coming in tonight. I appreciate it. |
| 04:01:40.97 | Steven Woodside | Piscocks, I see you reaching. |
| 04:01:44.04 | Joan Cox | Thank you. I wasn't sure my mic was on. So thank you, first of all, for the really thorough report and for the really creative long-term proposed. problem solving solution. And I think that's a good question. I... endorse. the long term study, but at the same time, I agree with my fellow council members that Immediate action is required. And I would endorse utilizing our emergency fund if we don't have funds elsewhere. because this really is an emergency. I think all of us were down there on site Um, earlier this year when we had a conflagration of King tides, uh, and storm surge. Um, and it was just, it was unbelievably bad. And, um, Shocking. And when we have someone like Reason Bradley come forward with such a practical solution, I see no reason. reason why we wouldn't. undertake that study. and I see the engineer nodding your head, that is that something you could support us in undertaking So he's shaking his head, yes. |
| 04:03:01.08 | Steven Woodside | Affirmatively, yes. |
| 04:03:01.94 | Joan Cox | Yeah, so... I don't know who you're going to appoint to the working group mayor. I would love to serve on it. I think all of us would probably like to think. |
| 04:03:10.26 | Steven Woodside | I think we're all interested, but I think that Ms. Hoffman has some experience with the board. |
| 04:03:11.98 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 04:03:17.58 | Steven Woodside | shoreline adaptation studies, et cetera, that preceded it, and the vice mayor's volunteering, so I'll for now say those are the working group with the goal of bringing things to us as we need to act. That's the goal. We're not engineers. We're not going to design these projects. We shouldn't. |
| 04:03:34.67 | Joan Cox | And to address the longer term cost of this, I was really struck by the data that the do nothing analysis estimates a roughly 2.37 billion cost. And so I really don't think we can afford to do nothing. I think we have to. Um, reasonably prioritize what we can do We have to take immediate action, and then we have to figure out what we can do in the midterm to protect our valued property owners. |
| 04:04:08.05 | Steven Woodside | So I'm going to ask if there's a motion to accept the report. And before anyone makes the motion, just make the comment. I think. One of our primary responsibilities as council members is to protect the public health and safety of everyone here. And that means drawing lines and drawing lines, I think, where people currently work. where property is currently developed and do our best to protect each and every person who works there, lives there, or owns property there. That's how I look at this. If we can't, if we find out that some problems are insurmountable, as for example, in Pacifica where cliffs are falling and they can't be saved, we may have to. Um, you know, take a different course here and there, but I think our primary responsibility is to the community as it now exists. So just wanna be clear about that. That's the message I think we've all agreed upon. We've asked the staff to pursue it with that in mind and I think they're doing so. So thank you all for that. |
| 04:05:18.71 | Joan Cox | So I will move that the council receive and file the gate five area drainage management study and direct staff to proceed with developing design documentation for the recommended near term alternative. Um, I would like to see staff come back to us with some additional information to ensure that we have all of the, um, right of ways that we need in order to perform the work given that this, um, area, uh, crosses, um, public and private owned, um, property. um, and integrate the canal structural assessment into the design. and perhaps return to us with a financing plan where we could perhaps partner with private owners to finance public and private. Yeah. Yeah. construction measures to address these challenges. |
| 04:06:16.24 | Steven Woodside | So that's a motion. Yeah. Is there a second? |
| 04:06:17.47 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. just can I ask a clarifying question? Do you made a financing plan for the project that we're going to work on for the emergency? No. Okay. |
| 04:06:27.31 | Joan Cox | No. longer term project, a potential pot, because we can't afford, we don't have cash today to do that. But there might be a way for us to finance those repairs in collaboration with the private property owners. |
| 04:06:29.58 | Jill Hoffman | project. |
| 04:06:44.27 | Joan Cox | So is that a second? health. Thank you. |
| 04:06:46.53 | Deirdre Coyne | Yes. |
| 04:06:46.76 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:06:47.34 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we have a motion to second and we do need a roll call. |
| 04:06:52.38 | Deirdre Coyne | Councilmember Cox. Yes. Councilmember Hoffman. Yes. Vice Mayor Blaustein? Yes. Mayor Woodside? |
| 04:06:59.81 | Steven Woodside | Yes, so that passes 401, one person absent. Well, We'll now move on to the next item, which I think very interestingly enough may present some partial financing plan, if you will, that we could tap into, and I'll ask the acting City manager. I'm not sure. excuse me, interim city manager, I got to get the title right. Mr. City Manager, please proceed. |
| 04:07:31.40 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you very much, Mayor. Happy to be here. And I'm very comfortable standing in this position based on my previous role. So I'm going to stand here tonight as well. Okay. Okay. So tonight's item is an introduction to tax increment and infrastructure financing tools, and specifically how they could help us finance sustainable development and infrastructure in our city with a focus on the marinship. I think just based on previous discussions, I noted a couple of things, recipes, ingredients to success, partnership, and efficiency. So carrying those items into this evening's presentation. Next slide, please. I want to be clear about the purpose of the item up front. This is primarily informational and educational and no formation action is being requested. The city's been evaluating tools to support sustainable, thoughtful development with a particular focus on the marinship. And through that work, Enhanced infrastructure financing districts, or EIFDs, and other similar and complementary tools have emerged as a valuable, locally controlled way to fund long-deferred infrastructure. So this evening, staff is asking two things of counsel. First, to receive and consider this evaluation of the benefit and the feasibility of forming an EIFD and or implementing other complementary financing mechanisms. And to direct staff to continue evaluating EIFD formation, including potentially directing an initial outreach to partner agencies such as the county of Marin. Next slide, please. All right. I'll set the stage here a little bit. The Marin ship is 225 acres north of Galilee Harbor, east of Bridgeway, with about 100 parcels and roughly 69 landowners and approximately 1.3 million square feet of building area, generally at fairly low density. It is the heart of our working waterfront and our maritime and arts clusters. The city's 2020 land economic study documented major area-wide challenges, sea level rise, subsidence and flooding that threaten portions of the area, contaminated properties that need remediation, gaps in roads, pathways and parking and substantial deferred maintenance in aging utilities and facilities. The study's key finding is one that matters most for tonight. These area-wide improvements cannot be funded parcel by parcel. They require area-wide public financing that allocates a fair share to each parcel. And the study expressly identified EIFDs, community facilities districts, as well as assessment districts as a part of that strategy. Next slide, please. All right. Why tax increment financing and why now? Tax increment was historically delivered through local redevelopment agencies, but the state dissolved those agencies in 2011 and 2012, which eliminated that tool for California cities generally. EIFDs authorized by the legislature in 2014 are the successor model to the redevelopment agency. They let cities continue to use tax increment to finance public infrastructure. They require no finding of blight. And importantly, the city retains full local control over land use. Our marineship revisioning work has reinforced that a durable, locally controlled financing source is essential to realizing the community's goals for the area. So evaluating an EIFD is a logical next step, and it directly implements direction already in our strategic plan. Next slide, please. All right, let me define the tool a little bit. An EIFD is a special financing district, again, enacted with SB 628 in 2014. It dedicates a portion of the growth in property tax within a defined boundary to fund public infrastructure and community benefiting projects. Four features are worth holding on to. First, it imposes no new tax and no new fees on property owners. Second, the city keeps local control. Again, no blight finding required. Third, it's a long-term tool able to operate for up to 45 years from its first bonds or loan. And fourth, it can be formed without an election unless 25% or more of affected property owners or residents protest. So as far as EIFD by itself is concerned, that is a medium-term a long term financing tool. And we'll talk about some more short term strategies or pathways that could be integrated or complemented by an EIFD. Next slide, please. Here's how it actually works. At formation, the assessed value in the district is fixed at a base year. And as value grows above that base through new development, reinvestment, reassessment, the property tax on that growth is the tax increment, shown in yellow on this slide. That increment is drawn from a participating agency's share of the 1% of property tax. So it's a redirection. of the growth in existing revenue, not a new levy of tax. A few guardrails matter here, though. Any IFD cannot capture the school or other educational agency's share of the property tax, so schools are held harmless. Any bonds are secured by the increment itself and not by the city's general fund, which insulates the city itself, which is positive. And under current law, no voter approval is required to issue those bonds that was amended, I think, in 2019. The chart on the screen shows the idea pretty, pretty simply. The base continues to flow to the taxing entities and only the growth above the base is dedicated to the district properties. Next slide, please. All right, what can we do? with the increment allocated to an EIFD. Broadly, public capital improvements with a useful life of 15 years or more that provide a community-wide benefit. It's pretty broad. For the Marin ship potential eligible categories, they do seem to line up fairly closely with the documented needs of the area. Infrastructure projects could include water sewer drainage utility relocation undergrounding. environmental remediation and brownfield cleanup regarding mobility and access. Roads, transit, parking, sidewalk, circulation, streetscape, lighting. on community. In general, I guess that's the third category here. Parks, trails, open space, civil and public safety facilities, and public shoreline and waterfront access. And on housing and resilience, affordable and workforce housing, sea level rise and climate adaptation, which the legislature expressly authorized in 2017, which includes ongoing maintenance of the facilities that the district actually finances that was authorized in 2018. Next slide, please. On governance, an EIFD is run by a public financing authority for a single agency district that Authorities is typically three members of the city council, in addition to two members of the public. The authority directs preparation of the infrastructure financing plan. which is the district's primary governing document. The plan sets the boundaries and the legal description, the list of facilities and programs to be financed at the increment per June. directions themselves. and the financing plan that goes with it. The fiscal impacts on affected taxing entities and the district's goals and any increment limits as well. So adopting that plan is a public process that includes three public hearings. So there's ample opportunity for the community to review and provide input. Next slide, please. All right, bringing it back. To our marineship district and I'll just note for purposes of this discussion, EIFDs need not be specifically applied to the marineship we can ideate on a myriad of different boundaries and district approaches, but for purposes of this presentation we're focusing on the marineship. The area's documented need for area-wide backbone infrastructure is precisely what EIFDs are designed to fund. As revisioning, potential rezoning, and reinvestment raise property values over time, the resulting increment could be dedicated to sea level rise protection and subside in stabilization to utility. additions to circulation and environmental remediation work, to public waterfront access, and to affordable and workforce housing that supports our future regional housing needs obligations. I wanna be candid about one thing though, increment builds gradually. So when we talk about the terms of an EIFD, I named up front, this is more of a medium to long-term process if it stands by itself. And the IFT again is a tool that grows alongside the area that it serves. It is early capacity. or its early capacity can be strengthened. by pairing it with the complementary tools that we'll be talking about next. Next slide, please. |
| 04:16:48.93 | Brandon Phipps | Okay. An EIFD need not stand alone. A general purpose EIFD does give us the broadest flexibility, however, across infrastructure, mobility, housing, remediation, and climate. It's locally controlled, again, new taxes, increment-based, and can layer in other revenues. A close cousin is the Climate Resiliency District, which I'd be remiss to mention in this presentation. This is authorized in 2022. It's a specialized kind of EIFD limited to climate projects like sea level rise, flooding, heat, wildfire, and drought. It uses the same formation process, and it can offer sharper messaging and better access to climate grants and particular kinds of climate-based partnerships. But it's less flexible for mixed infrastructure and housing. So beyond those, we can complement an EIFD, again, talking about early upfront financing with a community facilities district, a Miller-Ru's district, Um, with in-lieu vehicle license fee increment, which is just another source that can be dedicated, and with state and federal grants in addition to multi-jurisdictional partnerships, for example, with the County of Marin and Richardson Bay agencies. But I won't stop there. Just to the ingredients to success that I mentioned at the beginning, that includes our property owners as well. Partnerships with them are going to be imperative to the success of any long-term plant. Next slide, please. Okay, if the council were to proceed, Formation follows a defined statutory sequence that industry guidance estimates at approximately 12 to 18 months. In broad strokes, it's eight steps. From the team of agency staff, excuse me, form a team of agency staff, legal counsel, a financial advisor, evaluate the feasibility, including boundaries and increment estimates, conduct outreach to elected officials, other taxing entities and property owners and residents. Initiate the formal process by selecting the authority itself, adopting a resolution of intention and providing notices preparing the infrastructure financing plan, That is the plan. That. commits to the specific infrastructure that will be financed with the increment generated from the district. circulate that plan and hold an informational meeting. Hold the required public hearings and protest proceedings and finally secure approval and form the district. So, None of that happens tonight. This is just a look forward. I mentioned it so the council can see the road ahead if we so choose. Next slide, please. All right. So, yeah, this slide just mentions that this is really not a freestanding action. It advances our adopted strategic plan directly. Goal A, it does support general plan and marineship implementation. Goal C, fiscal resiliency. It advances our economic development strategy and our search for new ways to diversify capital funding. And goal D, infrastructure and climate. It implements the plan's explicit direction to explore marinship financing tools and to commission an engineering analysis of infrastructure needs, and it supports our waterfront climate adaptation and circulation strategies. Next slide, please. So the ask here. Staff recommends that the council take two steps. First, receive and consider the evaluation. of these financing tools such as EIFD, to finance public infrastructure and supports sustainable thoughtful development within the city And the second direct staff to continue evaluating EIFT formation and complementary tools, such as a CFD, including as a part of that, initiating preliminary outreach to partner agencies such as the County of Marin. If the council is supportive, we'll bring it back to you with the results of that outreach so that you can make an informed decision on whether to move toward formation at a future meeting. Next slide. And with that, thank you for your time this evening. I'm here to answer any questions. |
| 04:21:03.64 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:21:04.74 | Steven Woodside | Excuse me. First, we'll have questions from council members. I know we've had a chance to... Uh, read this in advance, but I also want to compliment you, Brandon. This is a very thorough report on a somewhat complicated matter. And for someone not familiar with local government, easy to overlook. I'll put it that way. And you, you've delved into it and given us some recommendations that, um, We, they're before us now and we could take some initial steps in this regard. But are there questions from council members at this time. |
| 04:21:48.38 | Jill Hoffman | I don't have any questions at this time, but I want to thank you for putting this together and giving us something to think about. So it's very interesting. Thank you. |
| 04:21:57.88 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll move now to public comments. And I'm seeing a few cards being handed my way. I'll just take them in the order presented. Okay. Curtis Havel is first, followed by Dan Morgan. But you know what? |
| 04:22:19.14 | Curtis Hevel | You know what? Who left? |
| 04:22:20.44 | Steven Woodside | Who left? |
| 04:22:21.23 | Curtis Hevel | Yeah, I might have taken off. |
| 04:22:22.63 | Steven Woodside | Now, is this was intended to comment about the previous 5B? It's now 5A. |
| 04:22:26.75 | Curtis Hevel | It's now 5A. It was, but then I, since I'm here, I should at least. You're going to follow through. |
| 04:22:31.93 | Steven Woodside | You're gonna find And I think your background as a planner and, um, And subsequent things, maybe this matters of interest to you as well. |
| 04:22:39.34 | Curtis Hevel | Yes, sir. |
| 04:22:43.32 | Curtis Hevel | Thank you. Um, thank you, city council, um, Curtis Alville, clipper yacht Harbor and, uh, you know, the, I think the Marin ship, when you look at, the tax base and you look at the the yield of those, those that land, um, It's, it's, it's severely restricted by the land use regulatory framework that affects that property so that the, something like this helps. to kind of squeeze funding out of uh, not nothing, but it helps create a revenue stream that I think is sorely needed in the Marin ship. Um, sometimes I look at the Marin ship and I think part of the reason it's in such disrepair and why it is so rough is because, um, The land use regulations have essentially stifled any sort of creative evolution and diversification for properties there that would help generate funding for the city. There was a comment earlier about grant funding, and the question came up, and I've heard this question before about well, why don't property owners or why don't these areas just apply for grant funding? As a, as a small business grant funding, as your counsel probably knows, comes with a lot of hooks in it. And so it's not free money and it's for a, for a small business that needs to be nimble and needs to be able to make changes and needs to be able to, to operate in real time, particularly on the waterfront where mother nature dictates when you need to make changes and how you need to spend your money. Grant funding doesn't always achieve that goal because it is restricted. Anyways, I'm supportive of staff's presentation. It was very informative. And thanks for your time. |
| 04:24:44.64 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Adrienne Brinton, followed by Carolyn Revell. |
| 04:24:47.20 | Curtis Hevel | Mm-hmm. |
| 04:24:51.69 | Steven Woodside | And those are the only cards I have from the chambers. |
| 04:24:55.69 | Adrian Brinton | Good evening, Council. Thank you for taking my comment again. And yeah, thank you for the presentation. It was very great to see and kind of hear a little bit about that. One thing I think was maybe left out, I don't know if it was left out on purpose, but in the Marinship Specific Plan, we actually had an infrastructure financing section. There was a part of the Marinship Specific Plan that was designed to actually try to address some of these issues way back in 1989 when that plan was developed. I think it's fair to say that that plan failed. nothing was ever funded by it that I've been able to find, and I've done some pretty extensive research. And really, there's one main reason for that, which is that, you know, since 1022 and the Mariners' specific plan, there's really been no meaningful development in the Marinership, and there's been nothing, no activity that's happened that can put funding towards the mechanism that was put into the MSP. You know, we didn't put anything in AIM to replace that in the MSP. purposely because things like this infrastructure improvement district are the mechanisms we need to put in to be able to fund this and they work alongside measure X. We've heard time and time again from the property owners that you know, it's impossible to do anything there now. The zoning is set to such a tiny degree that it's not economical to build anything in the Marin ship today. So if we do this EIFD and we don't do Measure X, it's kind of a waste of time because we're gonna see the same continuing process for probably another couple of decades while we go back into another comprehensive planning cycle and we go through the, 20 year process that I detailed in my last public statement. And we really don't want to do that again. So these things all work together. Let's open this up. We're a creative town. We can come together and we can do this. It's really hard to build things in California. That's why the state is going so crazy with the housing laws. Not so for industrial, so I think we need to do this. The other thing I would ask is that we look into also a community improvement district. We should put a direct tax also on the increased development to further fund the infrastructure. Thank you. |
| 04:27:10.35 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Ms. Revelle. |
| 04:27:15.55 | Carolyn Revell | Good evening. I was fascinated by this presentation. It's not a concept that I'm familiar with, but I've been at many council meetings in which you've talked about the need to explore alternative revenue sources and listen very attentively to the discussion about the problems of flooding tonight. And it seems to me this is a very creative approach, and I simply want to endorse the report and urge the council to take it under advisement as I know you plan to do thank you very much |
| 04:27:48.14 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. Any comments online? Oh. Oh, I'm sorry, Andy. Andy Graham. |
| 04:28:01.08 | Andy Graham | Okay. |
| 04:28:02.46 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:28:02.48 | Andy Graham | I'm not sure if this is a comment based for 5A or 5B. I agree with the immediate short-term actions with Gate 5 Road. However, for the short-term or actually for the long-term, Let's see here. I have a little public comment. One of my concerns with increasing the availability with the available development area in the Marin ship is what this change could mean as a byproduct, more housing and more development capacity in an area that is already facing significant infrastructure challenges. We're entering another housing cycle and over the next several years, we could see development numbers compatible to what we are experiencing at the current cycle. So my question is, why would we be proposing to increase development capacity in the Marin ship before we have adequately addressed the fundamental infrastructure problems facing the area? The city has just presented the Gate 5 drainage management study, and it paints a very serious picture. Much of the marine ship is built on filled land that is subsiding. The city is already dealing with tidal flooding and storm surge impacts, and the study projected projects substantially greater vulnerability in the future. the proposed near-term drainage improvements alone are estimated at in the millions with additional long-term drainage improvements alone are estimated in the millions with additional long-term solutions We are planning the infrastructure first and then determining how much development the Marin ship can reasonably recommend accommodate, or are we increasing development capacity first and hoping the infrastructure and financing catch up later? Okay. I don't believe we should put the cart before the horse. If the city wants to increase the amount of development That can occur in the marine ship. The residents deserve to know what the total infrastructure burden will be, who will pay for it. and how much of that cost will ultimately fall on existing taxpayers, property owners, tenants. Let's solve the infrastructure problem first, establish a clear financing and responsibility framework, and then determine what level of additional development the Marin ship can realistically support. Thank you. |
| 04:30:35.92 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any more comments from persons in the room? Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. I have one last comment card from Alice Merrill. |
| 04:30:48.58 | Alice Merrill | um, I just, this has been very interesting hearing what's happening now and what's, possible and how can we work on making it a more viable area, the Marin ship. But as Andy was just saying, with X, we're adding before we're understanding. And we're we're opening it to We all know that giving the city council the vote is giving the owners, the landowners, huge buildings. We know that. And, you know, we can all say, oh, well, no, we're not doing that. we do know that that's what's Otherwise, you wouldn't change the voting part if X had been about about dealing with the issues that they've come up with Great. Let's do that. But let's not change the vote at the, that just makes no sense unless you're going to give all of those big building big buildings to people. Why is... Um, Jim Madden. who is not in the 1022, why is he for this? Well, he has a great big parking lot that could sure take a big building on it And I know that Ken Peterson has proposed a big building on his spit years ago. I remember Michael Rex presenting that. Let's deal with what we have. Let's get what we can and get it working. We've got wonderful things going on. And then... deal with adding. Thanks. |
| 04:32:43.18 | Steven Woodside | I have one more speaker card, Lauren DeRiemer. |
| 04:32:50.27 | Lauren DeRiemer | Hi, thanks for letting me speak. I just wanted to say a little something. I'm sorry to miss some of the presentation, but I was able to review some of the reports prior to this council meeting. One call that I had is there are some references in like that Cosmont study that reference establishments such as Trident that is no longer operating. So I would just request that make sure that the data in there is up to date in these studies. I heard that there was, I did, was listening a little bit virtually, and I want to absolutely second the need to tap into emergency relief funds for some of our sea level rise concerns. Like everybody else, I think we're all on the same page about worrying about that. does not mean using federal money long term, but I think in the immediate term, providing some relief is critically important before an El Nino winter. And I look forward to a lot of the continued concerns, or not concerns, but solutions that we come up with as a city to address sea level rise for our current infrastructure and how to envision a waterfront that potentially includes boardwalks and other types of floating solutions that may be better long term for sea level rise. I also want to say, as somebody who's worked in hospitality and retail and in tourism in my previous careers, want to say that a healthy city is approximately from what I know is about 20 restaurants per capita and I think we're a lot closer to 60 or 70 so I would I would urge everyone to really think of solutions that kind of lean into things that are recession-proof, like our maritime industry as opposed to retail and more restaurants in areas like this. So thank you very much. |
| 04:34:42.11 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, any other public comments, any online? |
| 04:34:46.10 | Deirdre Coyne | Seeing none online. |
| 04:34:47.21 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'll bring it back. And if I can just make an initial comment, one thing that maybe wasn't made explicit is that the fundamental purpose of the Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District is to allow the increased taxes received from new development or increased property tax assessment to allow a greater proportion of those dollars to stay local. That's the key. It's it, whether a measure passes or not, whether zoning changes or not is is in my mind for this purpose, not the issue. The issue is, do we want to set in motion approaching the county, approaching the fire district, and saying to them, join with us so that we can address our infrastructure needs, not just in the marineship, but where we see them, and then capture a greater portion of the property tax in order to pay for the upfront cost of these infrastructure needs. That's how I summarize the thinking. behind this at this point. So I appreciate the comments that were made about planning, about impacts. If you develop in one way versus another, we're just talking about whatever the increased tax is from whatever happens in the marineship. So for example, federal government parts with the machine shop. Somebody buys it. Suddenly that's new tax increment. That's additional tax dollars. And right now, our city gets about 11%. of the of those new tax dollars that are generated. Under this mechanism, it's possible to increase that percentage substantially. That's, to me, the big issue here. And it's complicated. But we need to take these steps. And the sooner we take the steps, the sooner we might be able to capture some of the increment and start planning to use it for, guess what, infrastructure. I think there's unanimous agreement we have great needs. that's the that's one thing we certainly have in common so that's where i'm coming from so um Please, Ms. Cox. |
| 04:37:09.31 | Joan Cox | Great, thank you. So overall, I think the report is solid, well organized, and reaches the right recommendation. I do have a couple of comments directed towards feasibility and timing. um, The first I wanted to correct a couple of things in the staff report. So the staff report says an E.A. IFD bond needs 55% voter approval. But as Brandon pointed out during his presentation, Current law allows a public financing authority to issue bonds by majority vote. no separate election. is required. The 55% figure was the original 2014 rule that was later removed. The staff report says three public hearings, The current general procedure is an informational meeting, such as this one. plus two hearings at least 30 days apart. The 30 the three hearings only applies to the sales tax variant of an EIFD And then Brandon's presentation mentioned the 25%, the, I think the 25% protest threshold, and that's in the staff report, But I think there's one other important variable, which is that if over 50% of the landowners protest, um, then that's an absolute bar to EIFD formation with only 69 landowners in the marineship. It will be important to assure that we have at least, you know, 40, uh, or 35, um, endorsing this approach. Um, I completely endorse what the mayor said and EIFD only generates money after assessed values rise. So if we adopted today, it's only the amount by which assessed values rise that, um, the EIFD, um, uh, IN CO COLLECTS INCREMENT. THAT'S WHY, AS BRANDON MENTIONED DURING HIS STAFF REPORT, IT'S IMPORTANT THAT THE EIFD AS A LONG-TERM tool be layered with a CFD, a community finance district that allows us, as I mentioned earlier, with respect to Gate 5 Road, to finance infrastructure improvements. in a public-private partnership with Uh, private property owners. Um, And in addition to the CFD, as Brandon mentioned, in lieu of vehicle license fees, grants, and above all, as Stephen mentioned, County of Marin participation is vital. So I would first, in terms of next steps, reach out to the county, reach out to Southern Marin Fire to assure their willingness to participate. In terms of timing, As Adrian mentioned, you know, the AIM initiative really swing. our projections wildly. If it passes, then there's a huge opportunity for improved property values. Thank you. |
| 04:40:11.46 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:40:11.50 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:40:11.55 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:40:12.85 | Joan Cox | I have a few more comments. |
| 04:40:14.50 | Steven Woodside | Why don't you finish them? There's only four of us tonight. |
| 04:40:17.00 | Joan Cox | Okay. All right. |
| 04:40:18.26 | Steven Woodside | It's not. Terribly late. And this is the last business item. |
| 04:40:20.51 | Joan Cox | THE FAMILY. So the EIFD has to be consistent with the general plan, but AIM amends the general plan and repeals the specific plan. And so before embarking on this effort, I think we have to. |
| 04:40:22.11 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:40:35.46 | Joan Cox | understand what the outcome of the AIM initiative is so that we can embark on this process in an informed way. So I would defer the first three steps, resolution of intention, public finance authority formation, IFP adoption until after December 3rd, so that we know what we're working with. |
| 04:40:56.27 | Steven Woodside | Would you be open to at least the initial forays to the county to the fire district? |
| 04:41:01.09 | Joan Cox | Absolutely. And I volunteer to assist in any way. |
| 04:41:05.38 | Steven Woodside | I believe you're the liaison to the fire. |
| 04:41:08.11 | Joan Cox | Yes, I am the liaison to Southern Marine Fire. So I will absolutely reach out. to the interim chief and to the board. |
| 04:41:15.71 | Steven Woodside | unless other council members object I would be very happy to approach the county. the new county administrator to the county executive and have an initial conversation now just one thing to know about him he worked heavily on redevelopment when he was city manager in san luis obispo he understands how this works and I think would be open to a partnership. You can say to the county, for example, we're talking about property tax here, but if there is some increased economic activity that generates sales tax, you'll still get your share of the sales tax unimpeded. So it's not like we're asking the county to give up their reason. Correct, yeah. I'm very happy to make that pitch. |
| 04:42:04.27 | Joan Cox | And very well qualified, I would say. |
| 04:42:05.79 | Steven Woodside | Well, maybe. Ms. Hoffman. Yep. Okay. Okay, so is there a motion to, I believe you can make the motion because I think you have a specific intent here. |
| 04:42:21.60 | Joan Cox | Yeah, so I move that we receive and file the staff report that we undertake the Next steps that we have identified, the mayor and myself, with respect to the county and Southern Irvine Fire, that staff defer future action on this until after the November 3 election results are certified so that they and then formulate the next three steps to bring back to us for consideration, resolution of intention, PFA formation, and IFP adoption. Did I see you nodding your head city manager? |
| 04:43:05.92 | Reason Bradley | Yes, you did. |
| 04:43:07.33 | Steven Woodside | So it's understood the motion. Is there a second? |
| 04:43:12.55 | Melissa Blaustein | you |
| 04:43:12.56 | Deirdre Coyne | Second, |
| 04:43:13.10 | Steven Woodside | Okay, let's have a roll call. |
| 04:43:17.53 | Deirdre Coyne | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Councilmember Hoffman? Yes. Vice Mayor Blaustein? Yes. Mayor Woodside? |
| 04:43:23.37 | Steven Woodside | Yes, so that passes 401, person absent. Okay, that concludes our business items for tonight. We do have council member reports and a few comments about future agenda items. And I have a comment about adjournment tonight. And having said that, let's go to council members. Ms. Hoffman reports. |
| 04:43:47.53 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I have two reports from my position as the North Bay Executive Committee former president. We had to, as the former, as the former president, I have to I have two duties, but, um, I'll get to that in a second. The first day we had two days in a row for some scheduling reasons. So the first day last week, we went to the state capitol and we met with our legislators we were able to meet even though they were in session they were in heated session for Wednesday on August 26th, We were able to meet with both our state assembly member, Mike McGuire, and our state, sorry, Um, sorry, a state assembly members, Damon Connelly. And our state senator, Mike McGuire, on the important legislation that they were busy, both houses were in deep discussion but we were able to meet with them. One of them, the most significant was probably AB 1383, which was, um, a bill to uh, a proposal that modified we thought was only public safety employee retirement benefits and adjusted pension formulas under CalPERS. It turns out that It applies to all public employees. So we talked to both of our representatives about that. It had the top line said only public safety employees, but when you read the bill, there was language deep in there that it applied to all public. public employees, and when it was sort of a sleeper bill, but then it bubbled up to the top, and came up for a vote in both houses. And so it passed. And that's gonna affect our bottom line when it, dramatically when it, so we thought we had our pension, we thought we had our pension budgets under control. I don't think so. So that's going to come up this next year. Sausalito, when this came up and 300 other 800 other cities across California opposed it. And anyway, it's going to be a problem with our budgets. And it's headed to the governor's office at this point. The other, the next thing was the next day was the North Bay division annual meeting Um, And we elected some new officers. Our mayor attended. Thank you, mayor, for attending. One of the most interesting things that happened on that day was not actually at the North Bay division meeting. Uh, oh, sorry. Let me first get to the presentation, which was extremely interesting. It was, we invited, uh, the county administrators to come and talk about the impact of the H.R. 1 cuts, which were cuts by our federal government to Medicare, sorry, Medicaid payments and ACA payments, which, which amounted to about a billion dollars worth of funding for Medicare. that flows down to the states for Medicaid and ACA funding. and how it which went uh was approved in july of 2025 but then bubbles down to are people that live in our counties, ultimately. the and how it was a presentation and how the counties are reacting to that as it comes down to the counties, which is happening now. And so we had, we invited all of our five county administrators. So Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma County. So Derek Johnson, our county Our county executive was there. The Napa County uh, um, legislative and policy advocate was there. Um, Solano County administrator was there and the Sonoma County administrator was there. So it was very interesting to see, uh, how the different counties are responding. and lessons learned from those counties And, uh, how we can all react and help to, react to this really crisis of coverage. And one of the most interesting things I thought, Mayor, was that, One of the biggest challenges is re-enrolling people into the different programs because so many people are just getting cut off from coverage And so one of the biggest costs is having to hire ADDITIONAL people to help re-enroll Um, you know, recipients of of benefits and trying to get them back as covered recipients of different types of coverage. So... Anyway, the counties are working mightily to making sure that people are covered. for healthcare, I mean, just basic healthcare. So anyway, Marin County's doing a great job as always, and Derek gave a... incredible presentation. So, That was interesting for us. And this, you know, the presentation just now on the EIFDs, incredible that this was of conversation tonight on the very same day. And some of the guys were in the room I think that's a good thing. at our presentation. in, uh, In the HR one from Mare Island. The governor appeared at Mare Island that day announcing $8.2 million to Mare Island, to cover, uh, um, key details uh 8.2 million to Mare Island for applied research and technology innovation to Maryland, the former shipyard there. for a grant, so $4.3 million. to the Shipyard for Applied Research and Technology Innovation Campus, and $1.45 million to the Poly Maritime Cal Poly Maritime Academy to support maritime Maritime Academy Advanced Manufacturing and Student Workforce Development. So when we talk about grants, the state is absolutely supporting shipyards and shipyard development. and California shipyard reinvestment. And so I think that when we're talking about what do we believe in for Sausalito and what we have to offer. We just have to decide as a community that we're going to go after it and start talking to our partners in the Bay area. So this was a. This was part of a Bay Area um, the Bay Area regional effort for shipyard revitalization. that, um, that Solano County is very focused on. But I think I've been talking to those guys and they were in the room and the Vallejo City Council and some of the other city councils up there that are working on the shipyard aspect. So, and I know the mayor's been talking about that too. So, happy to, um, pass along what I know. So anyway, thank you. Okay. Have a good day. |
| 04:51:23.85 | Steven Woodside | Anyway. Okay. That did. |
| 04:51:25.70 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:51:26.08 | Steven Woodside | Um, Ms. Cox reports. |
| 04:51:28.79 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:51:28.81 | Melissa Blaustein | Nothing for me. Thank you. Don't you want to share the colorful SMFD meeting and the updates? |
| 04:51:28.86 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 04:51:34.39 | Melissa Blaustein | that we have still ongoing with regards to a search for chief. I think it's important for the community to be up. |
| 04:51:39.00 | Ian Sobieski | So, |
| 04:51:39.02 | Joan Cox | Well, I don't have anything official to report. So there was a huge number of retired and present firefighters and other officials who showed up to Southern Marine Fire's meeting last Wednesday. |
| 04:51:39.08 | Ian Sobieski | I don't know. |
| 04:51:39.37 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:51:55.17 | Joan Cox | to urge that the city, that the district not hire the official who is believed to be in background right now. There have been, there are pending labor complaints. There's a pending labor complaint. dispute between who that, that person is believed to be. The person's name has not been made public. There's just behind-the-scenes scuttlebutt, so I can't even say who there were there are three applicants and only one was forwarded to background so Um, I believe I know who that was. I urged the board individually, the board members individually to be cautious in checking the background and understanding the background of their proposed candidate, Speaking from experience, this is the most important decision they will make. The fact that so many people showed up, past and present officials, I hope spoke to the board about the importance of this decision. But there was no report out from closed session, so we do not know what action the board ultimately decided to take. So, and I will keep you posted. |
| 04:53:11.49 | Steven Woodside | So that's a non-report report. |
| 04:53:14.35 | Joan Cox | It's a non-report report. You know, very important decisions are afoot. I will say the interim chief has just been amazing. He sat down and met with me immediately after being appointed. He has really brought, I think, some stability and some confidence to the staff during his tenure. His experience speaks volumes. His presentations were amazing. The public relations, you know, the reports that he has made today, in the Marin IJ have been comprehensive, forward-thinking, He also urged the board, uh, And, and stated that he trusted the board to make the right decision regarding this important appointment. |
| 04:54:01.12 | Steven Woodside | Okay. And so we will stay tuned because the fire history. Thank you, Melissa. |
| 04:54:06.71 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Melissa, for encouraging me to report my non-report. |
| 04:54:11.75 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Melissa, do you have anything? |
| 04:54:14.22 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:54:14.23 | Melissa Blaustein | I don't think so at the moment. |
| 04:54:15.63 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:54:15.82 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Okay. I made a couple of reports of announcements earlier, so I don't need to do that. Are there any public comments on any of those items just discussed? um, Seeing none. |
| 04:54:32.10 | Deirdre Coyne | Seeing none online. |
| 04:54:33.81 | Steven Woodside | Okay. I think we are... unless we have any other reports or items of significance. Mr. City Manager, anything? No? Nothing else? Okay. I'm going to ask that we adjourn. |
| 04:54:47.19 | Sergio Rudin | and may our future agenda items |
| 04:54:49.38 | Steven Woodside | Oh, I'm sorry, I looked over that. We do have... . Let me make a generalized comment first. And we need public comments if there are any on those items. |
| 04:54:55.38 | Sergio Rudin | a generalized comment first. |
| 04:55:03.31 | Steven Woodside | What we will try to do, and this is for the agenda setting committee and we will meet this Thursday, we will try to post an agenda by the end of the week for our meeting on on September 15th, recognizing there might be changes, slight changes along the way. We're going to do our best to work through that. |
| 04:55:21.70 | Carolyn Revell | We're going to do. |
| 04:55:25.43 | Steven Woodside | And specific future agenda items we mentioned earlier that we would be coming back as soon as we can on a couple items. I believe Pelican is one of those items. Report on Harbor One and Three is another item. |
| 04:55:41.98 | Carolyn Revell | it. |
| 04:55:43.62 | Steven Woodside | And there's a lot of work to be done there before we can have and schedule either at a regular meeting or it may take a special meeting, depending on what both our council and staff suggest. So stay tuned. Any specific agenda, future agenda items that you would like to pass along to agenda setting and to the staff at this point? Seeing none. Any public comments? |
| 04:56:14.55 | Deirdre Coyne | Seeing none online. |
| 04:56:15.70 | Steven Woodside | Okay. A quick one on future agenda items. |
| 04:56:22.79 | Carolyn Revell | Yeah. |
| 04:56:24.46 | Steven Woodside | Well, we don't know. I want to be honest with you. We don't know. This month is a long month and we're at the beginning, so I would hope so. Yes. As time goes by, we lose whatever. Yes, I understand. Well, understood. |
| 04:56:42.28 | Ian Sobieski | Understood. Yeah, we can. |
| 04:56:43.61 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. We do want to bring this back in a public way with options and actions that we may be able to take. I know it's frustrating for all of you who are there watching things change rapidly. And there's nothing more we can say right now. |
| 04:56:58.83 | Carolyn Revell | There's not even a lot of people |
| 04:57:01.94 | Steven Woodside | Okay, some of you may know this, but Kevin McGowan's wife passed away recently, and I would like to adjourn in her memory, Lisa Marie McGowan. um and We would be adjourned. and pass along our regards and support to Kevin. So with that, we are adjourned at 829. Okay. Okay, well. you |
| 04:57:34.37 | Unknown | that's me. |
| 04:57:36.35 | Steven Woodside | worried about all the flood that you |
| 04:57:38.37 | Unknown | . |
Michael Rex — Against: Spoke against the SOS project, emphasizing the need for a full CEQA analysis. Illustrated the massive scale of the proposed 477,000 sq ft development by comparing it to 26.5 FedEx buildings. ▶ 📄
Alison Deal — Neutral: As a Pelican Harbor resident, questioned whether the city is reviewing the land lease under new ownership. Cited existing violations, unauthorized parking, maintenance decline, and rent increases, and asked for enforcement and communication. ▶ 📄
Ted Hennig — Against: Representing Sausalito Citizens for the Public Trust, submitted a 25-page letter detailing 11 violations of the public trust doctrine at Pelican Harbor, including residential conversion of boat slips. Urged the council to fulfill its fiduciary duties. ▶ 📄
Emmett Yazell — Neutral: Repeated a long-standing request to install double yellow lines on Spencer Avenue between Santa Rosa and Prospect, citing safety concerns from weekend traffic unfamiliar with the area. ▶ 📄
Connor Ralston — Against: A Pelican Harbor tenant since 2001, described a rent increase from $330 to $1,200 per month as an economic eviction. Noted that proper legal notification from the LLC had not been received. ▶ 📄
Lauren DeRiemer — Against: Warned that Measure X could double or triple land values and force development. Recounted that a marina owner said he wished his property had multi-use zoning, and expressed concern about lack of collaboration among waterfront businesses. ▶ 📄
Michelle McCullough — In Favor: As executive director of the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce, endorsed Measure X, noting the chamber board unanimously supported it. Urged residents to read the facts, talk to long-time maritime businesses, and focus on common ground. ▶ 📄
Adrian Brinton — In Favor: Listed extensive planning efforts from 2007 to 2025, arguing that further community involvement would be redundant. Urged passage of Measure X to move to implementation. ▶ 📄
Doug Litwin — Against: An 11-year Pelican Harbor resident, quoted a July 21 council statement about exploring legal options, and expressed disappointment that no update was on the current agenda. Called the situation at Pelican and Bridgeway Marina a 'nightmare'. ▶ 📄
Sandra Bushmaker — Against: Opposed Measure X as irresponsible, claiming it authorizes up to 10 million square feet of building on the waterfront and in commercial zones, threatening views, traffic, and congestion. Called for a better plan. ▶ 📄