From: Laurie alderman <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 6, 2023 11:11 AM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; dina.el[email protected]; [email protected] Cc: George Barich <[email protected]>; Damien O'Bid <[email protected]>; Suzanne Smith <[email protected]>; Susan Harvey <[email protected]>; Laura Sparks <[email protected]>; David Rabbitt <[email protected]>; Kay Rivers <[email protected]>; Sylvia Lemus <[email protected]>; George Barich <[email protected]>; Noah Housh <[email protected]>; Craig Scott <[email protected]>; John Bakker <[email protected]>; Kevin Patterson <[email protected]>; Michael Parish <[email protected]>; Angela Courter <[email protected]>; Rick Green <[email protected]>; John D'Anna <[email protected]>; Bryce Martin <[email protected]>; [email protected]; Austin Murphy <[email protected]>; Joe Dworetzky <[email protected]>; Jeremy Hay <[email protected]>; Susan Gorin <[email protected]>; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Why are the citizens of Cotati Paying $983,100 for park and ride lots in Petaluma and Santa Rosa?
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I have brought this to the attention of CalTrans, the City of Cotati, the County of Sonoma, SCTA, for a couple of years with the functional exchange agreement for the St. Joseph's Park and Ride lot signed in 2014 by the City of Cotati. The Cotati Hotel is just starting construction in the last few months, which has started the functional exchange agreement to proceed. The citizens of Cotati are supposed to build an Airport Blvd in Santa Rosa a new park and ride lot, and make improvements at a Park and Ride lot in Petaluma.
I was assured in the last few months, that this was all a wash....that the citizens of Cotati would not be on the hook for the cost overage that is due to inflationary factors over the last nine years.
Public Comment Item 11B
So, what happens when I look at Tuesday's city council
agenda? We Cotati citizens are paying $983,100 for the park and rides lots elsewhere.....that are both about 10 miles away from the City of Cotati. We already paid $5 million for sewer upgrades in the area that helped facilitate the Cotati Hotel. Now, we are paying nearly a million dollars to facilitate the hotel with this functional exchange agreement?
Cotati is a small city of 7500 citizens. We don't have a library, senior center, senior services, teen services, swimming pool, splash pad, gym or theater, and lousy local bus service. Why are we citizens being burdened with these out of town park and ride lots, when it is about 8% of our total city budget of $12 million? We also lost use of a nearby park and ride lot near St. Joseph's Way during the hotel's construction. The city designated another park and ride lot .4 miles away from the stop on Old Redwood Hwy as the "commuter" lot. This requires people to walk a long way, across freeway entrances/exits, and two busy intersections just to ride the bus.
Also, we Cotati citizens are paying for an unneeded Park and Ride Lot on Airport Blvd. There is only one bus route that would go near, SCT Route 62 , which comes every few hours on weekdays. The main SCT bus stop is 1/2 mile away. Also, SMART service started since, with plenty of parking available on Airport Blvd. now.
This is an undue burden on the taxpayers of Cotati. Maybe we could be paying for a senior center instead of two out of town parking lots?
I am attaching the pages from the agenda packet on this. P.S.
Kevin, this is also my public comment on the agenda item.
Sincerely,
Laurie Alderman
Cotati, CA 94931