[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] to and succeed here [Music] all [Music] [Music] I got the Tri C shifting try to accul succeed [Music] all [Music] [Music] all [Music] succeed [Music] [Music] n [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] the 3:30 p.m. meeting of the Bakersfield City Council is now in session good afternoon it's my pleasure to call to order the 3:30 city council meeting of April 10th 2024 Madam clerk please call the role mayor go here vice mayor Gonzalez here Council member AAS here council member Weir council member Smith I am here council member Freeman here council member gray here and council member core thank you in keeping with public in keeping with council's new resolution public statements are now received at different times depending on the item I will call on the city clerk to call for public statements at the appropriate time so please listen carefully for the correct time to speak if you wish to make a public statement please fill out a public speaker card and place it in the box that's right there on the counter we ask that you mark whether you're here to speak on an item listed on today's agenda or a matter not on the agenda speakers who do not identify a specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for the non-agenda portion um of the public statements if you're here to speak on an item not listed on the meeting agenda you will be called first to speak statements are given a two-minute time limit per speaker 20 minutes total for all non-agenda item public statements if you're here to speak on an item listed on the agenda I will call for you at the appropriate time so please listen carefully if public statements become disruptive I will have to clear the chambers to regain order of the meeting and I have to clear the chamber sorry to regain order of the meeting you will be called in one at a time to provide your public statement when your item is called everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules of Decor established by resolution of the city council failure to abide by the city's rules of decorum including any disruptive behavior that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and efficient meeting prevents the city council from conducting the business of the city consider this a first warning to everyone in attendance that conduct that disrupts this meeting May result in expulsion and or the chamber being cleared behavior that disrupts the meeting includes repetitive statements shouting interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting speaking out of turn outbursts from the audience and surpassing the two-minute time limit Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda mayor go we've received two speaker cards regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda the first public speaker is Roman Mato welcome welcome please introduce yourself um is it uh okay okay sorry um hello yes uh my name is uh Roman Mata uh I've lived in Bakersfield uh on and off for about 20 years of my life um a lot of you might be familiar with me because I've been trying to show up to committee meetings and um I actually want to talk about an issue that pertains to a lot of the critical things I talk about um in those prior committee meetings uh a lot of the time I focus on accessibility for lowincome residents addressing the housing crisis addressing uh unemployment etc etc a lot of things uh but to be laser specific there's a major piece of news that I'm sure you're all already aware of um it's that the 99 cent store is actually going to go bankrupt and I believe they've already declared bankruptcy if I remember correctly and with it if I had to guess I bet that means that they're going to be closing down a lot of their stores and we're going to be seeing a lot of empty buildings and unused lots of land um my basis for this is uh looking at the Bed Bath and Beyond on Stockdale in California which despite being bankrupt for I think a couple years now is still there and I think that this is really unfortunate this land is in a perfect position to address the needs of the residents who we should be caring about the most if we took the Bed Bath and Beyond and converted it into an apartment or some kind of mixed use zoning thing we could resolve this inefficiency and right now as the 99 cent store is closing and it's likely looking to sell off its land and its buildings this is an amazing opportunity for the city of Bakersfield to act so this is what I would call for I would call for the city to look into acquiring these lots of land to look into developing this land either directly or in some form of a partnership and then ideally with mixed use principles in mind use it to increase the supply of Housing and maybe develop some businesses thank you thank you Mr matura next speaker please Paul Then festy followed by Michael turnup seed hi uh Paul festy I am in Ward one um there's there's been a there's a lot of tension that's been building up at the meetings now and I understand some of the frustrations that a lot of people have um I I would like to offer some suggestions as possibly what could help simmer down things for example on the speaker minute on the speaker minutes sometimes people get up and through no fault of their own they were told they only have like 17 seconds 20 seconds left to talk on any subject that they've come prepared for a full two minute to I think there needs to be a little bit more flexibility maybe that could be the last speaker to come up but it would only be fair I in my opinion if they get the two full the full two minutes that they prepared to it's hard to all of a sudden think about what you're going to say and try to cut it down and it's a practice that I see at all the other meetings I go to Baker soul and believe me I go to a lot of them including the I school district and the Board of Supervisors as of yesterday and uh another problem is when it's counted as 20 minutes for one topic meaning uh non-agenda items uh that's another that can be problematic when you have every a lot of people might have other things they have to speak about except for just one topic but sometimes one topic occupies the entire time given to that non-agenda item section and that means you could perceivably go several months trying to get a chance to talk about something that hasn't been spoken about before and then no one hears about it for a few months so those are just some things I just uh think that maybe we could think about how to be a little more Flex while keeping to the idea of not spending all night hearing public comments so anyway thank you for your time thank you Mr lesty next speaker please Michael turnup seed I cut off welcome Madame mayor members of the council did the previous speaker I am Michael turnips I represent the current County taxpayers Association I will be addressing three items on the 515 agenda item 7 c-1 every speaker at every hearing has spoken against this proposal having an ordinance that allows developers to decide what whatever parking they want including none is asking for trouble down the road to solve this issue the council needs to rewrite clarify existing Provisions that allow a developer to apply for a waiver of any and all parking makes and makes sense for his particular or her project the planning director makes this decision this gives the public protection they need from ill-conceived projects current tax respectfully ask the council to delay the vote and address the pitfalls of this proposal item 7 D5 and six history has shown that areas in the Consolidated maen District receive vastly Superior Service to areas that are not in the district customer C the council must address these inequalities across the entire city whether in the district or not item 7 g-1 this acceptance of the the acceptance of the audit reports from 2021 2022 fiscal year the annual comprehension audit financial report the cafer for 2022 is over a year late your CFA for 23 is now over a month late current tax wants to go on the record this lack of responsibility and accountability really we can't can't tolerate this as we we come we support me measure in we've been asked to help look at support some things down the road fiscal accountability is number one Uno John Maxwell said leadership is taking responsibility While others are making excuses Jean Bley said responsibility finds a way irresponsibility makes excuses and finally George Washington said it's better to offer no excuse than a bad one thank you for the opportunity to address you today thank you Mr chup seed Madam clerk are there any others in this category we have not received any other speaker cards for non-agenda public statements thank you and how about uh for agenda items any public speaker cards uh Madame mayor we have not received any public speaker cards for agenda items thank you next item please close session item 4A conference with legal councel uh existing litigation close session pursuant to government code section 54956.9 regarding the following three matters I apologize mayor I need to pull up my agenda Jane do versus uh city of Bakersfield blast parah by and through his Guardian ad Lim Joseph etan versus city of Bakersfield at L and Elton Lee Gordon versus city of Bakersfield at L and item 4 B conference with legal G Council potential litigation close session pursuant to government code section 54956 uh point9 one matter thank you motion to adjourn to close session we're journ to close session [Music] d [Music] [Music] [Music] all [Music] yeah [Music] [Music] now [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] right [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] right [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] sh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] reconvening the 3:30 city council meeting Madame City attorney thank you mayor uh we had two categories of closed sessions uh tonight items 4 A 1 two and three there's no report aable action and on item four be as and boy there's no reportable action thank you thank you with that uh we stand a journ at 5 thank [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome to the Bakersfield City council meeting this television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable companies the county of karna and the City of Bakersfield you can watch the rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at 700 p.m. Sunday at 10:00 a.m. and the following Wednesday at 700 p.m. you can download the agenda for this meeting at www. Bakersfield city. us priding over this evening's meeting The Honorable mayor Karen K go good evening it's my pleasure to call to order the 5:15 regular city council meeting of April 10th 2024 Madam clerk please call the role mayor go here vice mayor Gonzalez here council member Aras here council member Weir here council member Smith I am here council member Freeman here council member gray here council member core here thank you we have the pleasure tonight of having Dr Donald Barrett who's the pastor of First Presbyterian Church our neighboring Church to lead us in the invocation welcome from Sacramento and from Pasa we're glad to have you and then following the invocation council member Smith will lead us in the pledge would you please stand thank you mayor go for the invitation to begin your Del deliberations tonight with prayer and a a recognition that God is the Lord of all of us so let us join our hearts in prayer let us pray oh God we come before you with gratitude we thank you for being a god of love who is with us even now here in this room you never leave us or forsake us your Grace has brought us safe thus far and your grace will lead us home we thank you for making each one of us in this room one of your people a citizen of this city and of every city we see your presence we thank you oh God for being the god of meetings of government of all things we thank you tonight God for those your servants our mayor our city clerk our vice mayor our city staff our city council members and I thank you for the way of service that they have chosen to take up on behalf of all of us we all come to this room tonight as complex human beings carrying burdens carrying Joys and hopes trusting that you alone can hold us together in your love and in your peace help us Lord to trust you more and more more than our fears and more than our wounds and even more than our accomplishments may we lean on your Everlasting Arms Tonight God in your word you make clear all of your expectations of us and by your spirit we've experience the fullness and fulfillment of those very things and so we pray that you would be glorified tonight through the decisions of the city council we pray that we would have the eyes to see how our lives are all connected how our common good is upheld when we listen and respond to those most vulnerable we pray that your kingdom would come here in Bakersfield as it is in heaven through your power working in each one of us your servants may your truth be revealed may your light shine brighter May the voices of those most silence be heard loud and clear defend us all O Lord through your governing power and authority through the name of Jesus we pray amen amen salute pledge I to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you and you may be seated and Pastor you're welcome to leave at this point if you have other things to do if there aren't enough of seats I think there's some open staff seats over there if just go ahead and fill those in if you can't find a seat um but before we start we just need to have everybody seated for a fire protection for all of us just going to wait until everybody's seated here a few guidelines to help our meeting run smoothly we request that you turn off your phones please be courteous in the use of cameras and videos for safety reasons and as a courtesy to others no signs are allowed in the council chamber or in the lobby Applause is allowed during the presentations portion of the meeting but not during other portions of the meeting everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules of decorum established by resolution of the city council fail to abide by the city's rules of decorum including any disruptive behavior that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and efficient meeting prevents the city council from conducting the business of the city consider this a first warning to everyone in attendance that conduct that disrupts this meeting May result in your removal from the meeting and or the chambers being cleared behavior that disrupts the meeting includes repetitive statements shouting interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting speaking out of turn outbursts from the audience and surpassing the two-minute time limit Madam clerk next item please public statements thank you and keeping with the council's new resolution public statements are now received at different times depending on the item I will call on the city clerk to call for public statements at the appropriate time so please listen carefully for the correct time to speak if you wish to make a public statement please fill out a public speaker card and place it on the counter in that uh box right there we ask that you mark whether you're here to speak on an item listed on tonight's agenda or in a matter not on the agenda speakers who do not identify a specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for the non-agenda portion of the meeting if you're here to speak on an item not listed on the meeting agenda you will be called first to speak speak statements are given a 2minute time limit per speaker 20 minutes total for non-agenda item public statements if you're here to speak on an item listed on the agenda I will call for you at a later time so please listen carefully if public statements become disruptive and I have to clear the chambers to regain order the meeting you will be called in one at a time to provide your public statement when your item is called Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda mayor go we have 28 speakers for items not listed on tonight's agenda the first three public speakers are Randy Benson Alexandra Brown and Sandra Placencia we have a lot of people who want to make comments we have 20 minutes total for our public statements so I'll just ask you to be considerate so we can get through as many people welcome please introduce yourself uh good evening Council my name is Randy Benson I work for a Columbo construction company here in Bakersville California I'm a member of the Bakersfield Carpenters Local 743 am I okay to start here please uh I would like to talk about our tax fraud days of action uh it is estimated that construction fraud is responsible for cheating communities out of 8.4 billion ion Dollar in tax revenue each year uh that's billions of dollars in loss Revenue that could be used for building and renovating schools caring for veterans Sheltering the homeless repairing roads and funding other essential public programs the prevalence of construction industry tax fraud has reached crisis levels and must be stopped this April 13th through the 19th local 743 and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters are taking part in the national tax fraud days of action this is a week-long series of events to raise awareness about tax fraud in the construction industry this week of activism grew out of the widespread outrage caused by the negative effects of the tax fraud cost Upon Our communities families and friends this fraud is characterized by a range of practices where employers use criminal practices to avoid tax responsibilities these developers and contractors intentionally misclassify workers as independent contractors pay workers in cash and exploit vulnerable workers these business bypass legal regulations and ethical standards given them a Competitive Edge over their law-abiding counterparts this unethical business model is comparable to human trafficking because it targets vulnerable demographics and forces victims to live in an underground economy with little to no chance of getting out this class of worker are affected in a series of unfortunate ways in a few examples a proof of income is essential for making significant financial transactions such as running apartment or buying a car uh there's no income paper trail for under the table cash payments second this kind of financial servitude destroys a workers Mr Bon your time is up can you bring your comments to a close please just WP another paragraph is that okay just a sentence please okay um it's more important now than ever to hold these criminal employers accountable for stealing from the residents of Baker Feld and to bring Justice to the workers that they exploit thank you council members for your time next speaker please Alexandra Brown followed by Sandra Placencia followed by Timothy sheenan welcome let's just give uh this group an opportunity to leave yeah welcome please introduce yourself hi my name is Alexandra and I'm a biology student in the master's program at CSU Bakersfield uh researching human impacts on aquatic environments and animals and I'm here to speak asking the city to be more proactive regarding preserving sufficient flow of the Kern River throughout the city to maintain the life and ecosystem that it supports I've spent a lot of time at the river for personal Recreation but also participating in trash cleanups with bring back the Kern and additionally in my capacity as a student of ecology uh studying freshwater ecosystems freshwater is one of if not the most valuable resources we have on our planet conversion of natural landscapes for human uses and overc consumption of these resources leaves them degraded beyond recognition and unsuitable for Community use and of course there is economic Reliance upon fresh water Municipal and agricultural water use are essential in the livelihoods they support are important but I challenge you to accept that the cultural recreational and natural use of fresh water is just as important freshwat is a common that should be accessible for all uses by all life forms having a majority of the water in fenon canals throughout town is harming life preventing sufficient flow throughout the city is harming life prioritizing a bottom line over the community's pleas is harming life and historically management of the Kern River has been harming life I urge the city to consider what proper and responsible stewardship of such a valuable Community Resource as a k River looks like the injunction is given the city of Bakersfield an important charge I hope that my words remind you that it's pivotal to consider all uses of the river by our community and the capacity of sustaining and enhancing life I'd also like to encourage you to read CSUB ASI's newly passed sp22 resolution calling for ceasefire and condemning human rights violations and war crimes I also invite you to attend the bring back the current cleanup this Saturday at the Bakersfield Environmental Studies area with CB thank you thank you Mr Brown Next speaker please Sandra Placencia followed by Timothy shean followed by Wendell Wesley welcome please introduce yourself thank you uh my name is SRA Placencia and I'm a current policy Advocate with Leadership Council for justice and accountability uh Leadership Council strives to eradicate Injustice advocate for sound policy and secure equal access to opportunity for all we are here today to ask the city to introduce a resolution for the eviction prevention program the resolution must describe the scope of the program timeline for proposed implementation and a commitment to fund the pilot program in the adoption of the 2425 City budget we know that 37% of households within the city of Bakersfield are cost burdened 41% of households have habitability issues and Central and Southeast Bakersfield are the most at risk of displacement housing continues to be an issue throughout the city impacting impacting disadvantaged communities the most last year the city set aside 350,000 during the city budget to start the eviction prevention program now almost a year later this this program has still not started the delay in starting this program has led to many families seniors residents who are who are disabled facing an eviction and ultimately losing their home due to not having the resources they need it is heartbreaking to get a phone call from a parent or a senior facing an eviction knowing that ultimately our city does not have the resources to help them the funding is there but not the program there have been over 2,500 evictions filed in current count count since June of 2023 how many of those families would still like to be in their home had this program been up and running once the funding was allocated a year ago we asked for Action in leadership now we urge the city to adopt a resolution to establish an eviction prevention program at the May 8th 2024 city council meeting the resolution must describe the scope of the program the timeline proposed implementation and a commitment to fund the pilot program in the next city budget we strongly urge the city to include rights to councel as a program under the Bakers six cycle housing element adopting rights to Cel as a program can help the city meet their duty to airally further fair housing by providing a place-based strategy to prevent displacement and homelessness furthermore complying with the housing element will meet compliance and open the door for future funding opportunities from the state for this program thank you thank you Miss Placencia next speaker please just a reminder to the audience that clapping snapping isn't a part of what we do over here um Madam clerk next speaker please Timothy shean followed by wendal Wesley followed by Roman Mata welcome please introduce yourself hello U my name is Timothy Sheen um and I'm here the represent uh right to counsel I'm one of those people that got evicted and couldn't get help um attorneys um I mean I I was they did change my locks they changed everything I called I've called five six different attorneys I went to gbla they gave me a number um that number never called me back I called and then I saw I started calling up in the Bay Area and the Bay Area were they were all over it to help me but once they once I told them I was in you know gave my address to Kern County they uh said oh we can't help you um I had somebody down La the same thing they said they'd help me but I had to get down there to help them but nobody here in K County could help I've uh since the eviction and the harassment um I ended up losing I was on Section 8 at the time and because I got evicted I ended up losing my section 8 um because they wanted to come in and change my locks and do it um anyhow um it just I don't want somebody else to be to have that happened to them what happened to me because I'm still trying to recover from that right now still trying to find a home you know um and trying to figure out how to make it so um that's that's about it thank you Mr Shen vice mayor Mr Shan thank you so much for being here tonight and sharing your testimonial I think what what you're experiencing is experienced by many folks in our community and I think we need to uh participate in some sort of response um Miss Placencia thank you again for uh speaking and being a proactive Community member I always appreciate your comments um Mr C I'd like to ask if you can provide the full Council an update on our um $350,000 that we've allocated did for eviction protections last fiscal year and what the status is uh in your weekly memos so we can get an update and then also if we can uh refer this item related to a resolution to the uh housing and homelessness committee meeting I'd appreciate it thank you welcome please introduce yourself welcome hello my name is Wendell Wesley Jr um I live at California Avenue senior housing um mayor city council City management um I'm here to tell you that I started the Bakersville tennis Union because at our senior complex uh about a year and a half two years ago they gave us $100 rent increase I knew that was illegal so I reached out we got it rescinded since then after starting that Union um I've seen countless numbers of individuals being wrongfully evicted one corporate company called climber and cler now cler Cole um was actually fined and had to give restitution to tenants over $93,000 worth there are a lot of very wrong unjustify seniors and families being evicted and when they complain about mode they get basically told you need to stop complaining or you're going to be evicted you know we should not be the city that have slum Lords okay there are a lot of good landlords here we do not need slumlords I love landlords when they uh abide by the law we all love good citizens and we should be that type of uh City that supports and represents all the people no matter what they do for a living and so uh we need to take this and really run with it um we like to see this resolution pass moving forward and um we also need a lot more funding if we're going to make it work because we are going to needed a law firm eventually and that's going to cost $2 million and um also for those families being evicted living in other areas um outside of where they are right now in these high crime areas is very harmful the families so um I've also would love you guys to really have a conversation and see what inclusion area zoning would look like thank you thank you Mr Wesley next speaker please Roman Mata followed by Irvin Pike followed by Jose Garcia welcome please introduce yourself hello uh my name is Roman Mata I've lived here uh on and off for about 20 years um you may be familiar with me I was here at the earlier meeting and I've tried to go to the committee meetings and um I'd actually like to do two things in this speech one I'd like to Echo the sentiments of the uh prior three speakers who have spoken about the need for strong eviction protections and right to counsel um the story is frankly heartbreaking and as someone who has himself experienced and is in fact currently experiencing homelessness I think that tenant rights are a very crucial part especially amidst a housing crisis but I'd also like to speak to the part of the underlying issue why you know when we think about markets like the way the housing normally is and you know we think about landlords raising prices normally um you know we've been taught that's they should get outcompeted there should be other landlords who are lowering the prices and we're not really seeing that I think the reason why is because right now housing is experiencing a market failure due to a range of policies ranging from the way we tax property to the way we Zone that really only incentivizes um upper middle class single family home developments and I think that this is a mistake now there's a lot that could be done here to address these problems and if you ever catch me outside of the meeting I'm you know I talk about it all the time but I think a very major opportunity is presented to us on that speaker card I wrote down and as you've likely heard in the news that the 99 cent store is gone bankrupt and is preparing to close and sell its locations I have spoken before about like when this has happened before with Bed Bath and Beyond and right now on Stockdale in California there is an abandoned building where there are also lots of homeless people around there to make it brief the city should acquire this land develop that property with mixed use principles in mind for the common good thank you thank you Mr Mata next speaker please Mr Pike welcome please introduce yourself yeah hey my name is irin Pike um I'm here just to show my appreciation and that I am very proud of our mayor Karen go and the city council members to serve our city um due to the intimidation that you've been facing for the last few meetings and the name calling and the rudeness of our fellow citizens here and I just um I just want to say how much I appreciate you guys and I think it's really good thank you thank you Mr Pike next speaker please Jose Garcia followed by Rich O'Neal followed by Veronica Monterosa Mont Roso just if you could just wait a minute till our guests are seated welcome please introduce yourself uh good afternoon everyone I am Jose Juan Garcia I'm a current student at CB majoring biology I'm here to vocalize the need for a more proactive approach toward the conservation of the Kern River this need intensifies as temp keep increasing these details and execution of how to achieve set conservation need to be incorporated in a city climate action plan although previously abandoned and extensive and Ted tedious as it is it's fundamental to set the guidelines that Steward our local ecology and thus our way of living I strongly emphasize the way of living because the river supports such an intense and large biodiversity of plants insects animals Etc this includes endangered Critters like the sanen Kit Fox aside from being a Lifeline to our biodiversity many people in and out of Bakerfield have a genuine appreciation appreciation of the Kern River it's why outdoor recreation is popular within the parks near the Kern River Additionally the livelihood of many people is strongly interconnected with the river and this includes socialization Recreation Health volunteering research opportunities Etc the river is a staple of Baker SE that must be protected adjacently we cannot have environmental justice without Justice in all regards and this includes human rights with over 41,000 Palestinians killed and more than 7 7,000 injured excluding those missing how can we call it a conflict when homes hospitals clinics educational facilities places of worship stores Etc are bombed can we call this a just response when basic necessities are deprived with the intention of foster disease starvation and death can we really call this deserving when over 15,300 children are killed better yet when the generations that we consider our future are being wiped from the face of this planet are we willing to delude ourselves that this is a norm that we should blindly accept no I absolutely detest these inhumane acts of violence with that my support extends to my Palestinian brothers and sisters who have been deeply impacted by the ongoing genocide there needs to be an act of resolution that calls for a permanent ceasefire in Casa that simultaneously condemns the human rights violations that have transpired thank you so much for your time thank you Mr Garcia next speaker please Rich O'Neal followed by Veronica monteroso followed by ridy Patel welcome please introduce yourself good evening mayor go city council and staff um my name is Rich O'Neal and I'm here tonight speaking on behalf of the bring back the karna local organization nonprofit We want to thank you uh for allowing water down our River um I was out there yesterday there's 200 CFS blowing down that River use a lot of citizens using the the river Corridor I think I saw a city councilman riding his bike down between trucks and lake and the river big smile on his face I didn't see any Mayors but I know she's been on all those cleanups and we we got another one coming up on this Saturday at 9:00 we'll meet at the finish line businesses are happy with the quality of life that that we've created by allowing water down the river bikers are happy families are buying their picnic supplies picnicking along the river joggers Horsemen the restaurants are full along the River Building business again I just want to thank you all and uh thank you for improving the quality of life of the citizens of Bakers field thank you thank you Mr O'Neal next speaker please hello um hi my name is Veronica I live in w six I'm here to speak on behalf of the right to council program I find it a bit appalling that our Representatives haven't been able to adequately use the funds for this program to be in place especially taking into account that there's been a call from the the community for this eviction Protection Program for so long I'd like to share a bit of my story I got married a couple years ago I moved into an apartment with my husband I paid first and last month's rent in an apartment um the duplex was sold during the pandemic with the housing cze it it was sold for profitable margin um the apartment is now run by a predatory uh property management company that's been running here in Kern County for several years um they've been they've operated under at least two different names um some of their predatory practices is that they rent uh switch tenants for from regular leases to month to month leases uh so that they can evict them whenever it is easily accessible or for them or whenever they want to increase the rent uh they ignore work orders and mark them as completed even though they do nothing about them they rest the the rent drastically at will and obviously if you can't pay it then you're threatened with eviction and with they tell you that if you don't pay your rent you're going to be giving us A7 2hour notice and it's going to go to collections etc etc uh I've been able to avoid eviction because I've been paying the exorbitant rent increases and repaying months rent that I shouldn't have to repay um and I feel that I can stand up for myself pretty well but I can only imagine other people who have been in my place and they don't have the um English they don't they can't speak English sometimes not even Spanish because they speak another dialect um or they're undocumented or whatever for whatever reason they can't speak up for themselves they can't pay the rent increases that I've been able to pay for um and this is going on in our community and nothing has been done about it and I consider you uh I would wrapping up to do something about this program and properly run it so that even undocumented people can have access to this program thank you thank you Miss Mona next speaker please please introduce yourself welcome hi there my name is Ry Patel I'm here to speak in support of the city council introducing a ceasefire resolution specifically the one um United Liberation Front um has drafted I don't have faith that you'll do this you guys are all horrible human beings and Jesus probably would have killed you himself and the thing is though it's very clear to me as an someone who's been an organizer for the past couple years that none of you care because you you guys don't care about anything happening in Palestine or any other country where oppression occurs because you don't care about the oppression occurring here that's why 40% of current workers don't earn a living wage that's why the median wage is $30,000 that's why 2,300 people have been evicted in the last year alone because of your failures that's why the Carpenters here were speaking behind me when Bob Smith himself and his son's stupid real estate company Sage equities has been fined $1.3 Million by the California Labor Commission for stealing wages from the Carpenters Union it's why you won't give Leadership Council right to councel which Bakersfield residents deserve and and you won't even fund it properly you'll give it scraps while you give the police literally a murderer millions of dollars while residents who've been evicted that are literally here telling you they've been evicted you can't give them money to even get the bare minimum of right to counsel and when the city budget comes up this summer I know that you guys will vote to increase police funding and I understand that you guys are all horrible people but the thing is 2,300 people being evicted in the last year those are votes and you guys those are votes to win here in Bakersfield and while you you guys parade gandi around as a Hindu holiday called chra NRI H starts off this week I remind you that these holidays that we practice that other people in the global South practice believe in violent revolution against their oppressors and I hope one day somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you thank you and with that that is the end of the public comment period for this section Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items listed on the agenda mayor go we have received six speaker cards regarding items listed on tonight's agenda the first three public speakers are Ashley Vegas regarding item 7 D1 uh Martin regarding item 7 D1 and yes regarding item 7 D1 we're now moving to the public statements listed on the agenda yeah um before we move to this I'm sorry I missed your request to speak I just wanted to clarify I I don't know where that information came from but it is false thank you thank you as we move to the public statements listed on the agenda if you're here to speak on items listed under consent calendar item 7 your time to speak is now again each speaker is given a two-minute time limit and each agenda item is limited to 20 minutes total the consent calendar as a hold constitutes one agenda item if you're here to speak on hearing item 9A now is not the time to speak you'll be given an opportunity to speak when the item is called later in the meeting uh so at this point uh we are taking public speakers regarding items listed on consent calendar item s welcome and go ahead I'd first like to begin by uh requesting the council pull this item from the consent calendar also I'd like to request that this these flyers be distributed to all the council and city manager right now um I find it incredibly disturbing that for the past six meetings the city has neglected to introduce a ceasefire resolution as requested by constituents but was so quick to introduce this resolution that will require all person that item is not listed on our agenda this portion of the meeting now is for items that are part of the agenda oh I'm sorry D1 I'm claim my time can I start over yeah go ahead can you just give her some more time yeah all right as I was saying I am really Disturbed that the city was so quick to introduce this resolution that would require all persons except for City staff and workers to introduce this resolution that would require all persons except for yeah City staff workers to go through physical screening process by security Personnel each time that they enter a city building attend a city council meeting or city meeting or event I'm concerned about this resolution's long-term impacts on public participation especially on the marginalized folks in this community particularly undocumented residents who will be consequently dissuaded from participating in City events meetings and even entering the city building the city seemingly introduced this resolution because every top 10 city except the city of Bakersfield has implemented physical security measures at City buildings first off what makes you think you're in the top 10 cities what is your Source the only thing I can think of that the city of fersfield is top 10 of is police brutality I implore you to use your Authority and not pass this resolution this resolution says there will be no fiscal impact but there is already fiscal impact and no transparency so Christian city manager I request that you respond and share one how much the city has spent on Staffing peace officers in the past four now five City Council meetings including the 3 P.M sessions two how much the city spent to rent all equipment deployed at this city council meeting and the last one on March 27th three how much the city spent to repair the glass store and whether the city collected any bids for that and lastly share very specifically what funds were used for each of these expenditures and please be more specific than just say the gender flend nothing Christian all right wife cheater man PRI are you willing to ask these questions they're printed right in front of you silence I can't say I'm surprised this won't be the end thank you next speaker please and just for clarification we are the ninth largest city so that's the 10 is referring to the ninth largest city in California go ahead I am a resident in beersville and I condemn the use of more local tax dollars or unnecessary security measures I urge the city council to vote against the passage of this resolution that money could go to actually help our communities or under communities do not pass this resolution thank you next speaker please yes B followed by Mana karz followed by Dave damski would you go ahead and call that speaker again please yes how do you spell it um Madam clerk why you SS oh okay so Martin welcome please introduce yourself yeah my name is Martin I'm a resident here in Bakersfield and I'm urging you to Instead address this matter um which is essentially giving more funding to police here in City Hall to address the 186 day terrorist bombing campaign that the Israeli occupation forces have been escalating in Gaza with the full funding of billions in US taxpayers dollars but again instead the city manager is int introducing a resolution instead of the resolution that community members have been asking for over 84 days just to call for a discussion to talk about a ceasefire instead the manager thinks it's more appropriate to introduce a resolution today again to increase and give even more funds of our tax dollars to cops here this is the only response we've gotten from the city apart from man prit barely raising her hand most of the time to condemn what's happening but never responding to her Palestinian community members or any of the rest of us about how she can go about to use her voice and take actions to join the millions of Americans that are calling for an end to this genocide of Palestinians enough with your meaningless social media posts where you act like good people Palestinians in our community are demanding you express solidarity and to show it with your actions but mpri has decided to go back on her word and completely ignore hundreds of community members that have reached out directly to her about this m PRI we have the receipts to prove you're all talk and a disgusting coward and speaking of disgusting cowards Mr we don't have time for po foreign policy stuff Andre you stupid evil snake if you're supposed to be up there to serve the thousands of people people living in Bakersfield but instead you're Martin time is up would you bring your comments to a closee you're silent while there's a genocide happening with your tax dollar shame on you thank you next speaker please Mana karz followed by Dave tamowski followed by Scott ther welcome please introduce yourself hi I'm Maria kones um I just want to say thank you to the city council thank you for showing us exactly who you are and what you stand for mayor go Andre Gonzalez Patty gray Eric Adas thank you for showing us what a deeply distorted white supremacist islamophobic Zionist version of Christianity looks like a leadership that upholds the evils of Empire and self-promotion masked by Christianity I say no in jesus' name no these extra security measures unjustly Target black indigenous Arab um and many other constitu of constituents of color the undocumented Community as a Seminary graduate I am sickened to my core by your witness and your behavior towards Muslim Christian Jewish lgbtq plus disabled constituents and especially Palestinian constituents who have families undergoing genocide and famine these are our constituents in Bakersfield maybe if they were chrisan you'd consider these constituents human and treat them with dignity maybe if they weren't brown but you know this doesn't include Palestinian Christians this doesn't include other folks the children of Goda say I hunger and thirst and you tend to their wounds with vinegar bombs break the skins of newborns as Baker sold hands 4.5 million to Israel and gives money over to increase security thus says the Lord whatever you did not not do for me whatever you did not do for the least of these you did not do for me in Gaza Jesus is being martyred again and again and again 40,000 times these security measures are not please bring your comments to a close thank you I am appalled by this leadership next speaker please Dave tamowski regarding item 7 C1 followed by Scott Dyer also on item 7 C1 yeah welcome mayor and council members if this is the appropriate time and procedure we're requesting that item 71c be pulled from the consent calendar for separate consideration this would be the time to speak on that item is I think you may be aware the Home Builders Association of Kern County has expressed concerns about the proposed elimination virtual elimination of parking requirements for multifam residential construction in a Suburban setting we understand the interest in uh parking reductions in the urban core Our concern is really with market rate multif family housing in a Suburban setting where we think the proposed 025 spaces per dwelling unit is completely inadequate given current market conditions so we're requesting simply that the council refer this back to staff for further discussion and hopefully come up with a A solution that everybody can support thank you thank you Mr n next speaker please I think it's Mr there Mr St welcome please introduce yourself it any mayor members of the council staff my name is Scott there I'm senior vice president castle and cook May wonder why I'm up here on this topic today well as you all know castle and Cook's been a big part of the baker Shield fabric for a number of decades and uh we're concerned that the elimination or reduction in the parking standards uh could be a recipe for failure if not thought out thoroughly um B Shield is a bedroom community um people their vehicles uh to get around we're not San Francisco New York or another large high density Community uh where transportation is more abundant it's widely used parking structures are in place for office use in the daytime and residential use in the evening we meaning all of us already know the issues are created when demand for parking exceeds Supply the dignity Amphitheater is a good example here there isn't enough parking to handle many of the amphitheater events patrons with those events try to park at the shops at Riverwalk and when that fills up spills into the adjacent neighborhoods the merchants at the shopping center aren't real happy and either are the residents in this example the hardship only happens few times a year just think of this going on 365 days a year if the new parking order ordinance is is enacted and we didn't address the what if eliminating Andor reducing residential parking can work but it takes more than just passing an ordinance for it to be successful there are details that need to be vetted and work through work through before a change like the one being proposed can work it's my opinion we're not there yet thank you thank you Mr theer next speaker please ready tell followed by Lance welcome please introduce yourself and would you lower the mic please my name is Ry I'm here to speak on agenda item 71 um but also addressing councilman Smith's comments that he doesn't know what he's talking about with the California Labor Commission a press release from the state of California Department of industrial relations the labor Commissioner's Office collected 1.3 million in wages and penalties resulting from a prevailing wages assessment against Bakersfield based subcontractor Grant Construction employed by Sage Smith or Sage equities the wages collected will compensate 27 workers for unpaid prevailing wages while working on a farm worker housing construction project in the city of Wasco and K County tell this portion is resered if he gets to respond I do too Karen then following item 71 go ahead with 71 The increased criminalization for no need other than you don't like when people come and hold you guys accountable for introducing ceasefire resolutions because the only escalation and violence has been by you all and so there's no need to continue in the last 5 years I've attended City Council meetings there's never been metal detectors there's never been more cops the only reason you're doing it is because people actually don't care if you guys don't like them and they're actually resisting so you want to criminalize them and then on top of it all my councilman Bruce Freeman still will continue oppression here locally when he actually supports this and most likely will support voting for the resolution and there's what I need the community members behind me to understand is that these electeds don't really care about you the only thing you're going to do even if you vote them out of office MPR sold her soul after leaving jakara movement as their development director now working for wonderful company as Farm Workers are unionizing with wonderful and they still won't let them unionize so she sold her goddamn Soul so regardless of whether you elect people into office they'll backstab you they'll let you die and for that reason you guys want to criminalize us with metal detectors we'll see you at your house we'll murder you next speaker please Lance followed by Kev followed by Valeria Mr Patel Miss Patel that was a threat what you said at the end and so the officers are going to escort you out and take care of that we just wait until the doors close welcome please introduce yourself hi um my name is Lance Mack and I'm here to tonight to talk about um these proposed security protocols I read through your comprehensive list within the proposal itself of all the security measures you've already implemented over the past few months and it makes me feel like haven't you already really covered everything you really need to to protect this building it kind of also stried me as odd that you really can't name any of the spending that you'll have to do in the future to continue to have these security checkpoints which makes me think it's going to cost a lot more than any of the taxpayers would be willing to spend and um why would we want to support a resolution that's going to have all these like hidden secret costs like why can't you be transparent about it that's really shady and not cool um also every city council meeting that I've ever been to um that that have minimal police presence have been very peaceful and nonviolent but the more police that you bring into this building the more chaos you invite into this space the current system that you've had has worked pretty well it's pretty safe and it doesn't waste anyone's time and it doesn't waste anyone's money so the only thing that I have seen that has changed in these last few meetings is that you don't like the criticism that you're getting from the community and you want to find ways to get them to not come back and it's specifically targeting people of color it's specifically targeting LGBT people like and this violence and is coming from the police it's not coming from your constituents you have not been threatened prop like I know that something just happened now but I'm saying up up till the police presence being increased things were very peaceful and you guys come in through separate Chambers you leave through separate Chambers you don't have to come in through the metal detectors or leave through the metal detectors this is all being imposed on the public and so it's not fair that you're the ones that get to vote on this should have a say in this and it's just I don't know I just feel like it's wrong and it keeps a lot of people out of this room so that's all I have to say thank you lince next speaker please Madam clerk Kev followed by Valeria followed by Gabby welcome please introduce yourself who is the April Fullers that came up with this resolution because y'all are really getting me with this one no one this is actually serious because this resolution claims that it is of Paramount concern for Public Safety but I feel like if you were really concerned about Public Safety you would spend a little bit more time addressing our very own police force one of the most dangerous in the nation the same police force that's within the top 11th percentile for being unlikely to hold themselves accountable one of the ones in the top 12th percentile for being the most deadly using deadly force on unarmed civilians and we still let them in here we let murderers in here because whatever this is it's disgusting how is it that in a few weeks you can put together such a resolution but you can't even address a ceasefire resolution that was handed to you months ago like really it's been expressed that your condemning of a genocide which show that you are on a side of humanity that you wouldn't stand on a side that infringes on the rights and freedoms of other humans or at the very least that you would stand with your community and support and reassure them but that is not true for you because here I am now I'm thirsty I haven't had water this whole meeting because I can't have a single water bottle in here what kind of threat of security is a water bottle water bottle exactly and like I said you have police in here if you all want to look over he has a firearm some of these have batons they have tasers they have weapons whereas we can't have a water bottle I can't bring a spoon in here what kind of is that stop you right there just for a minute sir just stop for one minute I am on my last St I'm going to let you finish I'm addressing this gentleman right here you are being disruptive your speech is being disruptive and I am directing the officer to escort you out because you've already had a warning we want to hear this gentleman Kev go ahead and uh let's just let him leave and then we're going to let you continue dogs to whoever I'm not I'm not bothered by this man applying just some Sentiments of his own to my speech I could speak through it I can handle that but whatever as I'm running out of time I just want to say that I am a resident of Bakersfield and I condemn the use of our local tax dollars on this mystery unnecessary security measure and I urge the city council to vote against the passage of this resolution free Palestine within our lifetime thank you next speaker please Valeria followed by Gabby afternoon my name is Valeria I am here to oppose the city council's desire to strengthen the physical security procedures to access City buildings um we do not need our city budget going to more equipment in the lobby and policing after today it's quite clear that our unhoused population needs resources the same unhoused population that Andre keeps locked out of the David Nelson pocket park bathrooms um I don't know why you think it's necessary given that I have attended I believe the last six city council uh 515 meetings in a row now uh so have many of us here we're here we're some of the only people in Bakersfield who actually attend these meetings consistently we're constantly filling up the seats every time so it should matter to you what we think and feel because you know you're our Representatives but you've done nothing to represent any of us if you truly cared about all of your constituents you'd be reducing the amount of police in here and in general they're absolutely useless to our public they're just here for you Karen to use as your little henchmen I've spoken to so many love ones that have told me about how they've been in situations of abuse situations of violence car addict accidents and the police have shown up several hours sometimes Days Later sometimes they don't give you anything but a followup phone call the next week but after your play at the Ovation Theater I'm so glad that there were at least six police able to clear their schedule to bring two of their City Vehicles just to act as Your Valet and take your car I'm sure you had more of them huddled around you when you scurried out the back there have been absolutely zero instances of people bringing weapons or dangerous prohibited items of any kind but yeah thank God you guys put multiple signs outside to specify that we can't bring perfume Forks or P38 can openers free Palestine thank you next speaker please Gabby good evening welcome please introduce yourself thank you good evening my name is Gabby I've been here the past five meetings I would really like it if I could have your attention Andre you are my city council member I've been here any of you that want to get your attention your eye contact you're listening I would appreciate it like my my friend said before I'm a constituent of this place in the earth y'all are elected to to to do a job and listen to me for two minutes so I don't think one time for the past five sessions I've been here that all of you have collectively looked at me at the same time but yet you respond to people when they talk about trees and stop lights um but you won't respond to any of us who have friends family members who are in Palestine and have lost their whole family name lost family members just Place yourself there have a conversation with us respond to us you know you want to call us these names you want to invite additional cops to come in here for what to protect you guys from from people coming to talk to you we might be one of the 10 biggest like you might have corrected somebody earlier but we're not one of the 10 best and if you want to be like one of the 10 best cities that has fancy metal detectors every time you have to go to a meeting so that the constituents of the city can feel safe how about look at us make us feel like you are listening to us city manager respond to our very WellPoint is up would you bring your comment but I've been here every time and you guys don't listen to us people watch these videos on YouTube people need to understand that you guys don't even look at us you look at your phone the te the cops are texting each other making up thank you free Palestine thank you and we have now come to the end of this session Madame clerk next item please consent calendar items 7A through 7 I for approval a staff memorandum was received transmitting correspondence and staff comments regarding item 7 C1 a staff memorandum was also received for item 7 D1 transmitting an amended exhibit a a staff memorandum was additionally received for item 7 E4 requesting the item be removed from the agenda tonight vice mayor does any member of the council wish to recuse themselves from any item seeing none we have one request from council member Freeman to remove item 7 C for separate consideration with that I will move to uh approve the consent calendar you have a motion please cat your votes motion is unanimously approved thank you and now item 7 C council member Freeman the reason I asked that this be removed is um we've worked for three months on revising our zoning codes at which was very complicated had quite a few committee meetings and good participation from council members and the public and I think we achieved of those hundreds and hundreds of changes we have like 90 9% of them we all agree to the total support I think from community and from the Council on 99% and we're down to like one little item that has um has kind of flocked us uh we we've heard quite a few speakers over the weeks Express extreme concerns about the no parking for future multiplan Pro or in this case was revised to be like 1/4 of you know one for each four units um and the reason I don't think that particular it was try it was attempt to compromise but I don't think it quite works is there are projects that don't need parking and yes if we had a typical 200 unit apartment we'd make that developer to build 50 parking spaces if his tenants didn't have cars and didn't need them at all so they'd get penalized and then apartment that was a normal apartment that would really require at least 200 units uh that developer if they were you know not a smart or bad developer and there are bad developers I've been doing it 33 years and they're just like any other profession they're some bad eggs uh well that person would be 150 units short of what was needed um and I agree there aren't we this this it wouldn't happen all the time it would be as I've seen it at some point there'll be someone who tries to get a little greedier save some costs and does something that they shouldn't and the neighborhoods would be flooded as they all over in Southern California when they didn't used to require parking that's why I have Park and the neighbors are disastrous all over Southern California people drive all night long looking for farming place because they live in an apartment on that street that has no parking so I think we can probably solve this um with a little creative thinking and a little more discussion which I would just like the council work a little harder to find a resolution to this one item uh one possible solution and not the only one but one that I you know we we should at least look at is we have a provision that allows any developer to uh apply to the planning director and ask for a waiver of all parking standards if they have you know if they're building a project that really doesn't need parking and I I would suggest as one of the potential solutions that we revise the language to make it perfectly clear if you have a project that really will not need parking it may be a senior's project that people don't have cars it could be an affordable housing it could be a lot of different things but you know the targeted tenant really wouldn't need a car so would need parking well then I'd like the criteria set up so planning director just like pretty automatic that project's going to get approved no parking um but then if if they don't present a reasonable argument for that waiver then we just revert to what have all been pretty severely reduced parking standards that we already have and I'm not saying that's the only solution someone else may have a better idea than I have I'd like to see us put our little creative thinking caps on and work a little harder on that so what I'd like to do is I would uh I I'm going to make a motion that we table or defer this one item for a few meetings um and then we ask staff to help us with some language that would make it and with other ideas that I didn't think of including other ideas council members may have that may be creative on how to how do we resolve this um so that all these voices feel like they got heard I mean I I don't get I haven't ever heard anybody in favor of this I've heard the people who are worried about it because they're worried about that bad developer not most of them but that one and I think we need to recognize it's a it's a legitimate concern and I want them to feel in the end that you know their voice was heard um and I really would like us to pass this is an important thing our zoning I like to have a 70 vote up here that we could all come together and say as a council we back all of this so that's the reason I would like to defer this for a few more meetings uh and have us all work on some language that that's acceptable to all of us um so that is my uh that's my motion thank you council member gray thank you mayor I would like to support what council member Freeman is saying and also um support our our Builder and developers here in Bakersfield I have spoken in the last two meetings that I feel like that this is something that we need to look harder at and take our time with as our council member suggested tonight made a motion because this is going to affect our city for decades to come possibly not this is a once andone deal and I just think we're moving along a little quickly and haven't taken everything into consideration that we need to take into consideration and we need to listen to some of these other stakeholders those especially have come tonight to speak to us in this regard and make a a very well educated decision and I agree with you council member Freeman that it it's so much better when we can come into a 70 agreement from this dis then being so splintered especially on something like this that's so vital and very very important so I appreciate the motion thank you council member gray council member Smith thank you mayor Mr Bole I I think at your initial presentation you mentioned that the state was already going in the direction of of no parking standards if you're on a Transit Corridor uh if if if different things we already have numerous places I think the argument could be made with uh get on demand that everything's a Transit Corridor and and state may apply to that so and you also mentioned quite a few cities have already went to no parking standards would you kind of restate some of that Mr boy mayor council members there are several laws that are on the books that speak to um a waiver of parking standards for certain development um as noted within a half mile of a Transit Corridor no parking standards are parking standards cannot be applied by a particular city um there is a definition of a of a high high Transit Corridor um but and the city doesn't have a lot of those right now but um that is a policy there there also is uh requirements for no parking to be employed in certain instances such as with a a church development that's associated with a church would not be required to um apply parking standards um some addition laws that are out there right now um that um either are adopted or under consideration but um and as noted there are several of our top 10 cities that have also waved parking standards thank you I I you know we discussed this in committee we we we don't agree and I I believe that getting rid of parking standards at this time will help affordable housing we always say affordable housing is a key and I think that the Suburban model uh Wasteland there will still be parking developers will provide parking Scott theer will provide parking I'm sure he will uh so I'm in favor of the motion as stated thank you thank you council member sorry I'm sorry I'm in favor of the motion in the report so you're making a new motion there is no motion okay I got you would you like to make a motion I would like to make a motion to approve item C1 as stated sta report thank you council member core oh press wrong one thank you um a few questions also just uh for the sake of clarifying uh for folks and the general public um Chris could you tell us or could you paint a picture of us for us um As Cities who have benefited from reducing parking requirements could you share some examples um and and just paint a better picture of that uh share some of the cost benefits that we've seen and also how um you see this being implemented in some of our suburbs here in Bakersfield thank you council member parking costs money um and with that um the the requirements for parking add costs to the overall development of any project um consequently um those costs are also absorbed by the individuals who are housed in those projects um with a push for more affordable housing by the state and the housing crisis many cities have have employed opportunities for reduced or no parking standards and relied upon the market conditions to drive um how parking is provided I I don't know of any situations in the major cities that we've looked at um Sacramento San Jose San Diego um all don't have parking standards um and all are embracing additional densities of in their downtown core and mixed use developments um reaching out into their suburbs um largely because um there's an understanding there that the market can the market drives the conditions of how much parking is provided and if one doesn't provide sufficient parking then consequently uh that project is in danger of of not being attractive to potential renters or buyers and so consequently it really is a parking is a is driven by the market itself um that said um even here in Bakersfield we've had opportunities to embrace higher higher density development in our downtown core at least in three instances where where developers came and desired to build um platform type development that um had three four five six even six floors of housing associated with it but a number one cost consideration there was the the cost to provide parking at the city standards um for those for that higher density development so consequently There's an opportunity there we we haven't seen any negative impacts that come to us from City that are that are comparable to us in terms of in a top 10 cities and um I understand understand the committee's rationals as it relates to um reducing parking standards um for the city of Bakersfield I hope that answers your question it does thank you um another question I have just because we've heard uh from our friends in the developer Community would this prevent them from developing as they do today would this new policy prevent them from incorporating as many parking spots um or are we just to clarify we are placing the trust with our developers to kind of determine how many parking spots are then placed if you could also share that for um the benefit of the public thank you council member um there there isn't a there isn't a mandate to not provide parking um the Mandate um the Mandate isn't there there are no minimum or maximum parking stall standards that would be employed so the market can still build uh apartment complexes in a similar form as they're being built right now and there may be rationals where um less parking less parking but there are there's only a minimum threshold of 025 units uh stalls per each unit in apartments that exceed 20 dwelling units the there's a Reliance on the market to determine how many parking stalls a developer provides okay thank you um I want to emphasize what you've just said the Reliance on the market so as other cities have followed in the trend of reducing parking requirements um there's plenty of data available and studies available and examples and precedent studies available um and you can reference American planning association's website they've got plenty of examples as well um we're really placing the trust with business owners and developers to guide their own P projects rather than government telling you how many parking spots that you need you've been devel you you were developing or a business owner you know best what your customer is going to need and what is Affordable to you um and so in my eyes reducing a parking requirement achieves that as well not only that but the American Planning assoc Association talks quite uh extensively about how parking requirements reducing parking requirements promotes Small Business Development and growth it promotes Housing Development as council member Smith has indicated and it's not only big cities and top 10 cities who are doing this um rural cities and communities are also reducing their parking requirements because they realize how small but significant of a difference um reducing a parking requirement can make more than 130 cities with populations under a 100,000 rural and urban have reduced their parking requirements to reduce the barriers to develop more affordable housing um to develop the missing middle housing that's very much necessary and kind of follows in the cycle um of houselessness and and how that contributes um to a very much urgent housing crisis that we're experienced kind of everywhere uh so I least wanted to highlight that as we have this conversation as we're hearing from different stakeholders um to share that perspective and and share very real um and important City Planning and urban planning not only Trend um but movement that has is happening and I think our city would benefit greatly uh especially being in uh Ward 7 where I have inherited a district that I call the suburb of this the urban core and um there are very very large commercial parking lots that sit empty for most of the year and especially in our summer months which seem like they are longer uh here uh than elsewhere but what that also does is it contributes to our heat island effect that we're feeling in the city and so those communities feel hotter so it's not just where you're parking but it's also the material and how that's contributing to the environment around it and I know we've all maybe visited cities where we admire um mixed use developments five over ones we have retail on the first floor we have housing on top it's walkable there's um there's tree canopies we're visiting these cities already when we vacation or when we're um we're out of Bakersfield so this is one encouraging step to see that within our own city as well so I uh wanted to make sure that I added that City Planning perspective as well thank you thank you can some M core mayor thank you mayor um just some comments real quick I mean I I understand and appreciate the comments from the developer Community um you know I understand the the concern it's just really hard for me to imagine that a developer will come in without any parking knowing that as it was stated we are Baker is a bedroom community or it is a commuter community and so uh it seems to me that A smart business decision would be to provide parking for those tenants uh that will need it um and I think where this really uh becomes an issue is with affordable housing as council member Smith pointed out um there many affordable housing projects that simply do not require uh or do do not need uh parking at all I'll give you two examples six Street Apartments in War II just opened recently 26 units were occupied in the first phase the number of parking stalls that were actually utilized out of 26 units two two and one was utilized from the maintenance worker one resident out of 26 units needed parking 1622 Union Avenue 86 units another project in War I 86 units of affordable housing the number of units that actually require parking number of parking spots nine nine far less than that uh threshold that we've established so I I think this is really um you know our parking mandates have really impacted our ability to build affordable housing and frankly we need to build affordable housing throughout the city not just concentrated in central Bakersfield where we've often hosted the development of the majority of affordable housing over the last 10 20 years uh so I I'm going to support the motion to move adoption of this policy tonight thank you vice mayor council mayor arus change your mind okay so we have I don't see any other requests from the council to speak you have you have the motion that council member Smith made please catch your votes motion is approved with council members Weir Freeman and gray voting no thank you and now next item please hearings item 9A public hearing to consider first reading of an ordinance for zone change number 24-55 on approximately 998 Acres our next item public hearings uh will for our next item public hearings each side will be allowed 15 minutes it's 15 minutes for all speakers per side so it's important that you identify yourself make your statement succinctly So Others May speak we'll hear statements from those first who are opposed to the staff's recommendation then we'll hear from those who would like to speak in favor of the staff's recommendation if there's testimony on both sides each side will be allowed a a 5 minute rebuttal there's a clock on the TV screens behind me which indicates 15 minutes please step to the microphone identify yourself after 14 minutes a yellow light will come on and at the end of 15 minutes a red light will flash indicating your time is up quickly end your statement you may ask questions during your statement but they won't be addressed until the public hearing is closed if you have written comments that are longer than your verbal statement give them to the clerk she'll provide copies to the council please be courteous to others who wish to speak now staff Mr CLE yeah thinkk you mayor and Council our our development services director Chris Bole has a brief introduction to this item Mr boil thank you Madame mayor council members uh first I want to thank you for all your hard work as it relates to zoning I promised to bring you rezone specific to that zoning ordinance on in short order and this essentially is uh delivering on that promise the rezonings are necessary to provide the required inventory of housing sites appropriately zoned to comply with our Regional Housing needs out assessment for the six cycle housing element that we're actively engaged in a little bit on the process uh it has been a long process this should not come as a surprise um our the the actual formulations for our Arena were assembled or the Regional Housing need allocation were assembled by or released by um current Council of governments in 2022 and um uh those were ultimately approved by approved by hcd or the Housing and Community Development Department um briefly these are our numbers that we that we are tasked with creating a 37,461 units and as you can see in the yellow or the orange across the bar I highlight that only so we can see that those units are also broken down into income levels for very low low moderate and above moderate income categories so when we look at that from a broad perspective the city's asked to prepare or provide 18,21 low and very low units and 19,250 moderate and above moderate often times called market rate units our mix of housing is almost 50/50 with 49% being affordable and 51% being um market rate units uh the city's task with providing 65% of the County's overall Arena now let's transition into this rezone because the two go hand inand I've added the the colored bars at the top of the of the table to relate The Zone districts that satisfy those various income designations so for very low income your mixed use to your R5 and R six for low and very low income for low income mx1 and R4 and so on and so forth um to from moderate R2 R3 and rs and R1 for um above moderate income categories and that's what the city is working towards providing um those units based on um income income categories now we're fortunate to have some carryover sites from our fifth cycle and they're shown on this map in blue um and uh we are proposed reson that you're taking action tonight are here um provided a very large map I I understand uh that maybe not be at the perfect scale but it gives it gives a dissemination of how those those Parcels are distributed throughout the community and um how did we come about uh assembling that I'm I'm a big fan of not um telling someone what their zoning designation is we started our Outreach back in January um to Parcels that had been identified as being suitable for these various zoning designations so in total we've had four outreaches to those those individual parcels and uh and parcel owners including the final um public hearing notice and within that we provided an FAQ we provided descriptions of the uh various Zone districts that they might be employed with we also actually provided a consent for rezone um such that we could gauge the relative support that was coming back from the community from from this effort in the end we removed a total of 35 part Parcels from consideration because Property Owners did not desire uh the zones that were proposed and that totaled about 145.5 s acres and in turn uh we lost approximately 3,000 uh units uh in various um income categories that said you can expect a second rezoning effort to come across your Das in the not too distant future we'll be sending out our second round of letters in the next C couple of weeks with an anticipation of coming to the dis in June we look at the total number of units broken down by those particular zones you can see that this rezone provides for almost 18,000 units towards that 3756 units and I also note it's not counting units that were already carried over and included it's not including those number of units that are generated by pre-existing conditions so we feel that we're we're getting very close to meeting those Arena requirements um so cumulatively our vacant sites um are as such I would note too that there's a another effort that's running side by side with this in and that you have also seen pre- zonings and general plan amendments come across the board for subsequent proposed annexations that would also help fill the city's needs with that said staff from the Planning Commission would recommend first reading of the ordinance thank you at this time item 9A is open is there anyone who would like to speak in opposition to staff's recommendation please come to the microphone identify yourself and proceed welcome hello again um Sandra Placencia current policy Advocate with leadership Council um so thank you Mr Bo for actually communicating with us this morning and sending us the powerpint um beforehand and we appreciate it um and we just wanted to reiterate that as the city engages in the rezone uh we remind the city to comply with a housing element law to conduct a thorough analysis of sites and ensure the equitable distribution of sites is in compliance with affirmatively furthering fair housing if the resoning is meant to fulfill um is meant to fulfill the housing element Arena please continue to engage with residents and community at large we also recommend hosting workshops on the upcoming draft um that should be released later this month to gather Community input lastly we want to uplift Community priority programs and use this time to uplift the need to include um programs into the next housing element draft we ask for inclusionary zoning right to counsel rental assistance Rehabilitation and repair rent stabilization and just cause and a maximum indoor air temperature standard we reiterate that these programs will help the city reach compliance with state law and we urge the city to include them in the second housing element draft and I do want to reiterate um the folks that are going to speak beh um after me are here speaking on behalf of programs because the city has not done a great job in including them and talking to community members thank you thank you Miss Placencia who would who else would like to speak in opposition to staff's recommendation please come to the mic hi uh my name welcome police Thomas how's everybody doing I'll be nicer than most people here my name is Dave Thomas I represent 341 homeowners in the community of tusky I stand opposed to zoning revision 2455 this revision is too broad in in scope and vague in purpose instead of actually planning our community so that it is Li livable as a Blue Zone initiative does it will rubber stamp not only uncontrolled growth but it will allow revisions that will actually impede sustainable growth I have been in construction for 45 years and work with Habitat for Humanity for years to build lowincome affordable housing even Denny Wallace right there would say this is nuts this revision is just an end run to get approval for revisions such as uh 22- 0127 which would build apartments in a food job transportation and school desert it benefits no one building an expansive soil on a hillside is a disaster waiting to happen the best way to fix a disaster is never let it happen thank you thank you Mr Thomas perent record you can give it uh to just lay it right there thank you uh welcome please introduce yourself yes Mark mcari also resident of Tuscany there are two Bakers Fields there is a Bakers field that's in the Central Valley of California there is a second Bakers field that is a very narrow strip of the Sierra Nevada Foothills Dave and I live in that area there are proposals now coming before the planning and board to put up the similar multi-story high density residential in the backyard of million dooll houses people who paid for views of the kar River and the Sierra Nevada I mean million dooll lots and to bring this part of the urban core of Bakersfield in which several of these in this proposal are almost on top of Rio Bravo Hidden Lakes Tuscany cattle King that is the most desirable attractive part you need to separately individually consider zone changes General plan amendments and all of us would support not having these type of R3 structures in what is your most desirable area in your community thank you thank you Mr Mardi who else would like to speak in opposition welcome please introduce yourself hi my name is Cheryl yakap Thomas and I urge you to not approve this blanket rezoning of uh ZR 24055 in building a large apartment complexes out in the Hill area you are disregarding the Blue Zone initiative of building livable multif family dwellings close to shopping schools Parks work workplaces and public transportation let's just say you were zone change the zoning of the area between Tuscany Hills Lane and the future alany Court to multif family dwelling there's no grocery store within 7 miles there's no public transportation in the area the roadway is a two-lane road with no plan to improve it and it cannot handle over 650 more cars going both ways twice a day along with it being a very dangerous exit from the future aligan Court to Inner Alford heral highway there are no sidewalks for the children to walk on to the nearest park which is 3 and. 7 miles away the schools are already impacted and if you are a new high schooler to the area you will be busted to Centennial the water issue is as Slim as it is Tuscany's water is pumped from the river to a large holding tank and in 2022 Lake Isabella was down to 6% if it had dropped another fraction of a percent it could not have exited the outlet and we in Tusc would have been cut off of our water supply that's another reason not to reone this area and to make a a single family dwelling of homes the electrical infrastructure is inadequate in this area and we have lost power twice in the last two months for more than 20 hours just from Fallen poles um we have endangered species in the area and these need to be protected the hillside Topography is greater than 30% slope and any cutting and excavation could greatly change the stability of the Upper Land Lots any zone change in this Hillside area first needs to have a new eir and a sequ approval and extensive valley fever soil testing and a current water will serve letter please do not approve this blanket resoning thank you Miss Thomas anyone else like to speak in opposition to staff's recommendation welcome please introduce yourself yes hello my name is Wendel Wesley Jr here uh City management City staff um you know one thing I noticed this very good presentation by the way is that um this looks like it's all done on people's gross income in the measure that is used currently right now with the highs and the lows um of the medium pric incomes and we're gauging homes that are way out there on noris road that should not be in the equation okay because they're not a true represent representation of Bakersfield so we do need inclusionary zonings we see that a lot of these homes right now or in areas east of the 99 is the most heavily polluted areas you know and we need um to do more with our environment before we start putting concentrated levels of people in those areas okay so we need to move more towards a human Center um society when it comes to regard to our housing as well I would like to see you guys come to the table with us and address where these homes are and the cost of them because everything is connected and everything really does make a difference and for families and seniors specifically they can't be living in a lot of these areas where there's higher risk of pollution valley fever and other issues like that where there are in communities where there's already too many liquor stores too many smoke shops okay that's not where we want our children living so we need to really you maybe just get rid of some of these liquor stores and smoke shops you know put in a Costco a Walmart things that families need because this is not a good representation of Bakersville so please come to the table with us we do need these homes and we want to work with you thank you thank you Mr Wesley anyone else who'd like to speak in opposition welcome please introduce yourself my name is Veronica um I'm here to corroborate with what the first Speaker Miss Placencia said uh reminding you guys that keeping people house is cheaper than housing on house folks and um even our Police Department well our peace officers because it's the Sheri's Department who handles evictions and things like that would also be less impacted if there was programs in place to keep people housed thanks thank you Veronica is there anybody else who like to speak in opposition welcome please introduce yourself my name's Timothy Shen and uh I just was going to fill in a little bit about uh um I I've worked in Bakersfield for I moved here in 2000 uh no 90 97 and uh I I was homeless for for eight years um here um I've gotten off the streets I um I worked with you Ina at at Garden Pathways with Kim Albert and helping with the community and doing this um I got back on my feet got my kids back um got on Section 8 and got into this apartment um and this this this clemmer and Company was the name of the the property management who just they they my first time running into them they came they said need to expect my place and and I've never had an inspection in 15 years I've had Section 8 they've never nobody's ever come and done an inspection um I've always done it myself or section 8's done it um uh they they cut my locks they shut the water off to the property um they stuck stickers to my my my car saying happy Towing cuz they were cuz they were just I mean it was I mean it's just it's affected me I mean and like I said and I've since I've since lost my section me and and just because of the um because I wouldn't because I didn't let him in my house or I didn't allow them to cut my locks to get into my house um I ultimately end up losing my losing my I'm back out on the street again and and couldn't find any help I mean at and I've like I said I've worked and paid taxes I voted and and I couldn't get any help here in Kern County from nobody and ultimately I ended to you know thank God by the grace of God I had somebody that could could put me up in their garage and and otherwise I'd be right back out on the streets um um I just I don't want it to be because it still hurts you know um it shouldn't happen to anybody have to lose their place and be just you know thank God I mean I don't my kids weren't with me at the time but but but I mean I'm I'm basically G the streets again you know and and it wasn't no fault of my own because they wanted to you know but I just you know please help with the funding you know for right to counsil for people like me for the next person that doesn't you know that might not have you know so this kind of thing does not happen to them this this is not fair thank you Mr Sheen uh is somebody on staff able just to get his contact information so we can follow up uh Mr Sheen if you go back there uh our assistant oh Mr Johnson will just get some contact information thank you is there anyone else who' like to speak in opposition to staff's recommendation on this item good evening everyone thank you please introduce yourself um my name is Norma Diaz and I don't know a lot about the laws and zoning and all that but I'm beginning to learn a little bit and I concur with everything they're opposing and um I like that you know we could talk about this and have an opportunity to bring it before um the whole Council and um and I feel really bad for that gentleman so thank you thank you we'll we'll have somebody follow up uh is there anybody else who'd like to speak in opposition to staff's recommendation seeing none is there anyone who would like to speak in support of staff's recommendation please come forward welcome please introduce yourself hello um as you know I'm uh Roman Mata um is it all right if I address the chamber with a question I just want to ask if I'm the only one you can go ahead and talk to the council yes yes um I wanted to ask whether or not I was the only one speaking in uh support of this resolution um just because I want to know how much time but um I don't see any just go ahead and okay speak well I'm looking at this resolution and as you know I've gone to a lot of committee meetings and I've AR and I've argued for these exact points actually I've argued for mixed use in order to better meet people's needs and um though it is intimidating to stand alone when so many people have uh spoken in opposition I guess I can take this time to talk about why it's so important and talk about how I feel it benefits the different groups in this country so I'll speak to myself first I am educated I have two Associates degrees one of them is in mathematics this isn't some kind of basket weaving degree or you know anything like that and I haven't been able to find a job and I've been challenged in terms of my housing one of the biggest ways that I've been challenged is because I don't have a car and though I don't have that kind of uh clinical anxiety that often Associates some people who try to learn how to drive I do still get pretty anxious behind the wheel whenever I hear about all those statistics about how dangerous it can be mixed use zoning if there was more opportunity available to Residents and to business businesses to operate near their workers and their consumers would be a massive massive win for the lower class and for anybody who is like me who is poor and wants to find a job and who wants to find housing and are prepared to work hard for it but it's not just a win for us it's also a win for local businesses because when a local business is operating um let's take for instance the um the the one I talk about all the time the um Plaza that has the Choose Fitness it's on um Stockdale and California I believe in order for this Plaza to find its workers its workers have to come from outside of the plaza um often times this is easy because maybe a lot of them are just maybe 5 10 minutes away but very very often and I think if you look at a lot of the statistics you will see a phenomenon called the rise of superc commuters these are people who have to commute 20 30 sometimes even an hour to get to their jobs to say nothing of the horrible effect that this is in terms of climate change this is just inefficient and it hurts businesses to be able to perform in this environment to support this mixed use zoning is therefore not only a win for businesses who will have closer access to the workers and also to their consumers because I mean hey if you lived inside of the plaza right next to the Choose Fitness and in that grocery store you're probably going to go there more often just walk like a minute to get there but it's also a win for the middle class and as it benefits business owners it's also a win for the upper class who you know tend to be invested in the stock market and are interested in businesses posting a profit after profit so I'd also like to talk about one other group who I think will benefit from this as well and it is in fact homeowners you've heard from a lot of homeowners voice their um concerns about this I heard some comments about liquor stores and uh you know various uh unsavory businesses such as that but I think the thing that spawns that is not really the mixed use zoning in fact it's you know in my time over here I just took the bus here I saw like a couple of liquor stores and a couple of smoke shops they were not in mixed use neighborhoods they were in poor single story very very spread out neighborhoods the same way we've been Zoning for such a long time so I don't think that this causes that I think the true cause of this is the poverty that these that this current zoning policy that um you know the way that we've been doing things creates so when I saw this um apologies it's a hard to flip when I saw this in 9A as a resident of Bakersfield who's lived here for 20 years legitimately speaking my heart soared with pride I know that sounds romantic but you know I've got some friends in Texas and you know sometimes we you know what I mean like it can be a bit of a rivalry California and Texas and you know every time they talk about housing I have to give them the win you know because uh they kind of I feel like they do that a lot better here but I look at this proposal and in my view if we get the housing issue correct if we get efficient land usage correct I think that California will be the best place to live in the world I say that with no hesitation if you pass this policy uh if you sorry if you pursue this zoning the way that it's laid out I believe that you will save over the course of time thousands of lives you will give jobs to many many people you'll protect the prosperity of business owners who are looking for this kind of opportunity and to be romantic for a second you will restore the Dignity of citizens who have often felt so alienated in this system so I'm very happy with these zoning calls or these um I'm very happy to see this on the agenda it makes me proud about where the city is going thank you Mr MAA is there anyone else who would like to speak in support of staff's recommendation this is in support I fully support staff's effort to increase the density of the 100 square miles of the main urban area to better utilize vacant Lots areas where there are transportation and schools and grocery stores I fully support that and applaud them for getting so many people to cooperate with that our only thing is about the extreme edges of Bakers field and attempting to do without any of those services at The Very extreme edges Mr marcardi for their record would you just state your name please mark mcari uh environmental consultant in Baker thank you is there anyone else who' like to speak in support of staff's recommendation seeing none is there anyone who'd like to provide rebuttal in opposition to staff's recommendation seeing none is there anyone who'd like to provide rebuttal in support of staff's recommendation rebuttal in disagree I he right yes yes hello Roman Mata I I know um I'll try to make it quick you already heard one of my rebuttal points about the smoke shops and um Liquor Stores um I just want to reiterate that um I also wanted to address some of these concerns about the um the zoning on the edge of the um city um I don't really think that the that the zoning as proposed would necessarily um lead to a lot of these concerns that we're seeing people say um it seems to me that if you zone for you know like a certain type of a property to be built there and then you know like there's um there's some kind of like major problem like maybe it's on a landslide or like like you know it's not structurally stable I don't really know why the developer would build it anyway I mean if it wasn't I mean like why why would they do that it it doesn't seem like a likely thing to me and I really do want to say that if you should decide to be against this or you want to table this or anything like that um I just would emphasize to the highest degree that you act with all possible haste on this issue there's so many people right now in the like we are in the midst of a housing crisis that I just I I feel that like though the concerns of the other people are who have voiced their opposition should be considered there are so so many people who I have walked by in my walks to City Hall and whom my bus has driven by homeless people on the streets many of them just like me who cannot be here right now to voice their concern because they don't have the same opportunity honestly the same luck that I've had so I would vot I would urge very strongly support and at the very least I would urge haste in this issue thank you thank you is there anyone else who would like to provide rebuttal statements in support of staff's recommendation seeing none I'll close the public hearing and return it to council for comment and action council member Freeman uh I actually have a question the approval of this sort of rezone of many many properties how we're not we're not voting on a zone change for the the apartment complex we've all been reading about out in the Northeast are we no you are not staff appreciates the passions of some of the speakers in opposition but uh that particular property that they're concerned about is not being impacted by this rezone one iota well that that was really my question because I think it'll have its own hearings and approvals uh and because I agree with most of what the speaker said and good planning has zoning become higher and higher density As you move to the urban core and less and less as you move out that's just classic that's the way good planning is done this way way out there uh I was trying to figure out why would this um lay the groundwork for high density apartments on the urban Edge and you're saying it really doesn't do that uh thank you again council member the concerns uh in opposition are largely about apartment complex you reference that is in city in the Hills um that's under a separate application that that it has not been heard by the Planning Commission as of yet so it's not scheduled to your Das at this point in juncture backstep continues to work with that applicant what I would say is that there if I if I may if you look at city in the Hills all the blue Parcels are Parcels that are already zoned and staff is utilizing those zones um as they've been zon for many many many many years most of that is single family residential mapping that um has been kept alive through the Prudence of your council's actions um by the same token um the uh the state's mandates to provide for affirmatively furthering fair housing does provide for varying densities of development to occur throughout the city and I'm not going to I'm not going to say that um all density is focused into the urban core um I would follow that statement up with um a statement that every parcel that is in this in this um rezoning effort has the support of the property owner who uh responded to staff's uh request for any anybody who'd like to uh increase their densities now in reference to city in the Hills there are not a lot of parcels in city in the Hills where those those Property Owners came out but there are some uh and that speaks to the city's efforts to affirm relief fair housing throughout uh and that will be a finding that hcd must make in order for our housing Al to be certified okay all right thank you thank you council member Freeman council member we um thank you very much um so I want to talk about this this big blue blotch out in the in the Northeast uh and my by the way um their complex is not in city in the Hills it's directly below Tuscan off Alfred Hill Highway so give me some kind of idea all the blue that we see here and it's all concentrated that that development I mean it's years away it it seems like to me because there's nothing out there right now and I just want to make sure I'm reading this correctly uh most of that uh that blue land is single family residential maps that have been approved and are alive and um do provide opportunities for for uh moderate and above moderate development to occur as they are originally entitled to do so okay but I I'm I'm having trouble here because of the map and I I mean there's a big gap between what's already developed out there in those in those blue uh Lots is that is that correct I mean there's there's nothing out out there there's there's no shopping there's no um there's no Commerce going on out there it's it's really it's it's residential and and that's exactly the purpose of this this reone to provide for residential development um that will serve the needs of the community for the next eight years um which is to say for the six cycle housing element for the city of Bakersfield so um will it develop in 8 years these lands have been entitled for a long time and um we see development occurring in city in the Hills now and uh you have a zoning ordinance that you recently adopted that provides for more streamlined processes that would encourage development to occur on these entitled entitled Parcels uh perhaps in a more expeditious fashion than has occurred in the past um so no that the city's Regional Housing need allocation is to produce 37,461 units of various income brackets in the next eight years and the staff is tasked with finding 37,461 units plus about a 15% buffer so well over 40,000 units of of uh residential development in order to meet that Regional Housing need allocation as a component of an approvable housing element so yes that's a lot of blue um will it build but we challenge the development Community to be responsive to that and do just that uh noting that I can't compel anyone to build a single unit I can only provide for the necessary environment for that to occur well I totally understand that but um I'm concerned about that area it's is is a beautiful area and we want and I want to make sure that it's maintained and and when we're done that it is um something that this entire city can be proud of um so it it as long it's all residential right now all that blue exactly okay yes council member and so for that to really develop out there commercial is going to have to come correct as Rip Toops come so follows commercial okay all right well that's it for now thanks thank you council member Weir council member gray so Mr Bo excuse me if you could clarify with that conversation that you all just had what is the zoning right now all that blue is it R1 R2 is it is it multifam is it a mixture of that what what is what is that blue zone for right now it's predominantly single family residential sing most of those maps are approved during the building boom and uh they and so consequently they've been kept alive through the Prudence of of the council and those are available for construction you see development occurring um in and around those blue blotches by various Builders both local and Regional Builders um I can't specifically call out whether there's some R2 in there or what have you what I can say with certainty is for every one of those blue Parcels they're not under consideration tonight because there's no zone change associated with them that is that is existing inventory that we use to illustrate where we were when we started this effort that was the question that I was trying to get answered is the zone change going to be affecting that blue out there in city of the hills it's staying the same then no maap okay thank you thank you council member gray council member Smith thank you mayor I just want to express my appreciation to staff I know this has been a big lift and uh we want to keep the development community alive we want to have affordable housing we want to provide housing for all of Bakersfield and if we don't move forward then we lose all of that and and possibly you know the state comes in and takes over our housing or or takes away our ability so I appreciate the efforts and uh I guess I'll make the motion to approve thank you thank you council member Smith I don't see any other request to speak you have a motion please cast your votes motion is unanimously approved thank you Madame clerk next item please Council and mayor statements I don't see any request to speak yet okay we'll just give it a minute for it to come up council member core thank you mayor um so today we had uh the Lotus haa in attendance and um I AP we apologize to her for not being able to have enough public comment speaking time um but I wanted to wish her a happy 94th birthday today so uh just want to express how lucky we are to have you in the community Dolores your advocacy is a gift that we'll keep giving and on a personal note um you know I everything I know about Community organizing I've learned from the Lotus Whata she was leading Community groups um when I first became a young community advocate in Bakersfield and in Kern County right after finishing undergrad and so I consider myself a a student of the school of the lorda and she was uh never she never backed down from being a notetaker at a meeting and um you know it was humbling for all of us in the process but I think that speaks to her Legacy her humility and her dedication to service and um on that note I hope that uh Dolores you'll uh I'm sure you're watching at home but I hope you'll accept our birthday present in honoring the work uh that you and cesa Chavez LED for us that really revolutionized life for the working class here in Bakersfield in Kern County across California Across the Nation and across the world so um today I am humbled and honored to introduce a joint referral with my colleague council member Eric adius to rename a major thorough way in the city of Bakersfield in the name of cesa Chavez and um I want to pause to also read an excerpt from an article in the Californian from Robert price in which he asked on C's birthday this year um and and the headline of the article is where is Caesar traveis Boulevard in the 31 years since labor leader Caesar Travis died at the age of 66 at least 31 cities in 11 states have seen fit to name a street or other community thorough fair in his honor Albuquerque New Mexico Portland Oregon Seattle San Francisco places you might expect to appreciate the man perhaps more than any other individual transformed the lives of million millions of workingclass Latinos are among them but Chavez's name also appears at Major intersections in places you might not expect Dallas Boise Idaho Salt Lake City Milwaukee San Diego Kansas City Missouri Las Vegas Houston leuk Texas and others and on this Caesar Chavis Day a holiday in at least six States including California that honors The Life and Legacy of the late civil rights icon who would have been 97 it's also instructive to note where his name does not appear on street signs the city that jumps out is the city in which he spent some of the most meaningful days of his adult life in Chavez's adopted hometown of Bakersfield he's honored with only a Bakersfield City School District elementary school that opened the year after his death before Travis and the union he co-founded came along Farm Workers had no collective bargaining rights rights and no toilets heat breaks or clean drinking water there was little public awareness about pesticides and other dangers workers face in and around the fields these are the workers we're implicitly referring to when we in Kern County brag justifiably that we feed the world naming a street in honor of Caesar Chavez or any other American isn't just a sign of respect for that person however it's a sign of respect for the entire ethnic community that most closely identifies with that person and it helps establish them as a part of the greater National fabric I agree and Echo the sentiments of Robert price and um as someone who grew up reading to Robert Price's columns um again we are incouraged um by by Robert and um it also dawn on me that Caesar passed the year that I was born and so um it feels as if we definitely stand in the trees planted we stand in the shade of the trees planted by Caesar and Dolores alike and Caesar is a household name and we Kern County Bakersfield are known globally by their names by Caesar's names or dolores's name and this is long overdue but I'm glad we're here today and um I just want to take the moment to recognize that um while it took us a while to get here as Robert price has said um and as so many Community Advocates have also voiced um you know Caesar represents the service the commitment to service uh not only as a patriot and serving our nation and being a veteran um but also in the spirit and what I think of the Bakersfield Spirit and the Kern County Spirit Caesar embodies that and we carry on that Legacy um and so with that I I actually want to pass the mic to my Council council member adius if I may so thank you council member arus thank you mayor um thank you council member core it's an honor truly to uh make this joint referral tonight um I'm not sure that I've shared this this story from the dis yet but um I am part Filipino and Mexican and on both sides of my family uh we have very deep roots in the farm working community and in the agricultural Community just like so many uh throughout our City and throughout our County um and you know I'm I'm excited to share that a quick story that my uh great-grandmother on my maternal side Modesta um actually joined in many of the strikes and the protests um that were led by Caesar and Dolores and um while Caesar and Dolores may not know my great-grandmother who's now passed uh she remembered them uh and and they inspired her um uh to not only u stand up for what she believed in uh in a peaceful way uh but to advocate for others who were experiencing uh some very tough and vulnerable working conditions um and so I think you know like my colleague mentioned this is this is very long overdue um there are historic monuments throughout this entire County including laas um and also including 40 acres which is uh home to The Very Room uh that Caesar actually uh spent time fasting um working to ensure that workers were protected and had safe working conditions and were paid a fair wage um and I just think that um you know this while we're doing many things throughout the city I think it's important that we pay respect um to those who have come before us and um I just want to Echo um the the referral that council member core made and also ask that um staff look into different options uh for us to bring back to this Council and consider um being that Ward one is home to the renaming of the most recent Street renaming uh from Cottonwood to MLK Boulevard for any arterial in this the city I know that it can be challenging it could be a long uh process and we want to make sure that property owners are taken care of uh that their needs and uh accommodations are are met so um it's truly an honor and I'm excited to uh go on this journey and look forward to hearing from community members who I'm sure will um Embrace this idea and come out and support thank you thank you council member arus vice mayor thank you mayor I want to thank both council member core and council member Adas for their referral tonight I think this is absolutely uh long overdue um and you know in fact Albuquerque New Mexico tomorrow Albuquerque New Mexico will be celebrating ceso Chavez Day and a whole Citywide event and this will be their 30th Anniversary uh so uh to just to underscore the point there are many communities throughout the country throughout the world that that have recognized uh a leader who's in our own who came from our own backyard and so I certainly support it I will also make a referral tonight uh that staff work towards uh in the next budget uh work towards an allocation of some funding to work with those property owners who may be affected by a street name change uh so that we can help facilitate this uh this transition and it's a positive experience for everyone um I also recognize that uh we have not uh established a public property uh uh renaming uh or name change um and so I'd like us to uh name change policy that is and I'd like us to establish that as well and I'm going to make that referral tonight to planning and develop committee so that we can begin uh the framework for renaming other facilities such as Parks uh because frankly I think that um we also need to uh look at uh a a special way to honor uh Dolores WEA uh another uh one of our leaders who as it was pointed out today by council member core is celebrating her 94th birthday today and is being recognized by world leaders throughout the throughout the world uh today uh throughout social media and in the media so uh thank you again council members for that referral I completely support it and uh thank you staff for proceeding forward um couple of items tonight sadly uh Open Door network uh is experiencing significant budget cuts from the state of California uh through their calr contract uh their adopta Highway contract program this is their largest and oldest uh contract that Open Door network has had um there full-time crew members uh many of them will have to be uh either laid off or their their hours will be cut as a result of this significant budget cut uh this at a time where over 200 people who are experiencing homelessness or in our shelters are on a waiting list to to be part of to participate in this jobs program we have people who are experiencing uh homelessness who are on the streets who are hungry who are who want to get back back to work and this wonderful program has been a great entry point for folks to develop their skills to get back into the workforce and to move on to uh better jobs and uh sadly this program is being cut and so what I'd like us to do and I'd like to make a referral tonight that we look at some of our unallocated arpa dollars and see how we can meet that uh funding Gap at least for this year and next year while we still have arpa dollars remaining because I can't think of a better way a more immediate issue uh to address uh than this particular program that's really giving people not just a hand out but a hand up uh to improve their lives and the lives of uh their families and certainly I think uh Mr St is can attest to the quality of this program and the significant impacts to the quality of life to all residents should we see this program uh cut um and the impacts as it relates to uh freeway cleanups and just the look and feel of of all of our city and so uh I'm hoping that we can move um very quickly at uh finding those dollars and bringing back in agreement with with the open door Network and then finally at our housing and homelessness committee meeting we discussed uh some priorities um and uh I don't think Anthony's here but Mr Valdez actually uh outlined four different priorities for the housing and homelessness committee um for this for this next year um and one was really trying to provide some more medical treatment and medical care for those per those individuals who are on the streets today and um towards that end uh I have been in conversation and working with uh Good Samaritan Hospital and St Vincent dep Paul on developing a concept to to establish a permanent uh medical uh facility a clinic uh at St Vincent dep Paul and um all of the parties are on board the board board of directors at St Vincent depal is very excited about this concept because St Vincent frankly is really meeting the need for those individuals who really are the most service resistant in our in our community and who need medical treatment who need substance use care and so I like uh staff to take this ball uh forward and I work with Good Samaritan Hospital and St mson dep Paul to see if this is a program that we can uh partner with and to allocate one-time dollars that we may have available uh through the either opioid relief settlement or other dollars that we can then allocate to to make this program move forward with that uh thank you all good night I don't see any other requests to speak um I do see that we have the office of assemblywoman Dr JZ me beanes here thank you for supporting this meeting and with that we stand adjourn at [Music] 7:31 [Music] [Music] [Music]