GRASS VALLEY
Special City Council Meeting
Tuesday, April 05, 2022 at 7:00 PM
Council Chambers, Grass Valley City Hall | 125 East Main Street, Grass Valley, California Telephone: (530) 274-4310 – Fax: (530) 274-4399
E-Mail: [email protected] Web Site: www.cityofgrassvalley.com
MINUTES
CALL TO ORDER
Meeting called to order at 7:02 PM.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Pledge of led by Mayor Aguilar.
ROLL CALL
PRESENT
Council Member Bob Branstrom
Council Member Hilary Hodge
Council Member Tom Ivy
Vice Mayor Jan Arbuckle
Mayor Ben Aguilar
AGENDA APPROVAL -
Motion made to approve agenda by Vice Mayor Arbuckle, Seconded by Council Member Hodge.
Voting Yea: Council Member Branstrom, Council Member Hodge, Council Member Ivy, Vice Mayor Arbuckle, Mayor Aguilar
REPORT OUT OF CLOSED SESSION
Nothing to report.
PUBLIC COMMENT -
None.
CONSENT ITEMS -
Members of the public requested that item number one for discussion.
Motion made to approve consent with removal of item number one for discussion by Vice Mayor Arbuckle, Seconded by Council Member Branstrom.
Voting Yea: Council Member Branstrom, Council Member Hodge, Council Member Ivy, Vice Mayor Arbuckle, Mayor Aguilar.
Item # 2.
City of Grass Valley, CA MINUTES April 05, 2022
1. United Pentecostal Church – Approve Parcel Map 21PLN-12 Recommendation: That Council 1) approve Parcel Map 21PLN-12, and 2) adopt Resolution 2022-15 accepting an Irrevocable Offer of Dedication along Ridge Road and Ventana Sierra Drive.
ITEMS REMOVED FROM CONSENT CALENDAR FOR DISCUSSION OR SEPARATE ACTION AND /
OR ANY ADDED AGENDA ITEMS
2. Rustic Woods Phase 1 – Approve Final Map 21PLN-44
Recommendation: That Council approve Final Map 21PLN-44 and adopt the attached Resolution 2022-16, formally accepting the public utility easement.
Tim Kiser, City Manager, gave presentation to the council.
Public comment: Thomas Birtchfield, and Wilman Dea.
Motion made to approve Final Map 21PLN-44 and adopt the attached Resolution 2022-16, formally accepting the public utility easement by Vice Mayor Arbuckle, Seconded by Council Member Branstrom.
Voting Yea: Council Member Branstrom, Council Member Ivy, Vice Mayor Arbuckle, Mayor Aguilar
Voting Abstaining: Council Member Hodge
ADMINISTRATIVE
3. City of Grass Valley Strategic Plan Update (last updated April 2020) Recommendation: That Council 1) receive an update on the Strategic Plan comments to date; 2) receive additional public comments; and 3) provide comments and direction to staff on updating the Grass Valley Strategic Plan.
Tim Kiser, City Manager, gave presentation to the Council.
Councilmembers discussed making the name of the Strategic plan extremely clear for the public, More Breakout group discussions, and having a booth for City hall discussions during public gatherings.
Public comment: Leron who works with animal control requests a new shelter to improve the safety of the public as well as the animals. Ralph Silversteen would like to see a new general plan, the strategic plan address green house gases, Climate change crisis, a Resolution stating the City will not support the Idaho Maryland, having a policy for a percentage of subdivisions required to have affordable housing, and to have the fee schedule adjusted. Johnathan Keen, would like to see the continuation of the wolf creek trail, and have special attention be made to developers to honor the setback of the creeks. Rebecca Haan wanted to put an emphasis on how do you survey your community, and to know who is your demographic. Michael Anderson is a member of Northern Star Broadband Board and believes how to create more jobs and attract young families there needs to be improve the broadband, and would like the city to explore the idea of a municipal build of broadband. Wilman Dea wanted to know how we are tracking our efficiency at addressing homelessness and how does the public seeing what efforts are being made in the efforts of addressing homelessness. Online public comments are attached.
Council took a brief break at 8:03 pm. Council resumed at 8:08 pm.
Item # 2.
City of Grass Valley, CA MINUTES April 05, 2022
Council discussion: Councilmember Ivy wants to see more on housin, and having some sort of housing breakout groups. He would like to address short term rental plan, and see a housing market data as a region and the median income of Western Nevada County and the City, and utilize this information to segway into a larger conversations of more technical actions.
Councilmember Branstrom wants to continue what previous councils have set out to achieve. One of his main goals is to make Grass Valley attractive to young families as we can. He would like to see the wolf creek trail enter into North Star property, and supports Councilmember Ivy's want for continued discussion on housing. He thinks that looking into multifamily housing would be beneficial. There is a need to address the broadband issues, and there needs to be a water rights and NID discussion and having a seat at the table with NID. The city should also be preserving our native history prior to the gold rush and be address climate change in anyway that we can.
Councilmember Hodge thinks that a scientific surveys needs to be done and there is a need to understand our demographics, she would like t see steps for the fee schedule for the sizes of houses and ADUs, wants to focus on climate change and EROI, finding the funding for broadband, ways to support for the arts, fire and resources with the effects on brush clearing and how it intermingles with our senior population, and eliminating invasive species from future developments. Vice Mayor Arbuckle believes that need to have workshops on housing, meetings with all of the Cities and county to have face to face discussions, define what affordable is, need to have broadband, need to have a modern animal shelter. Mayor Aguilar thinks that attracting young families is crucial, and with additional housings there is an increase need for police and fire and parks, but what will it take to maintain the services that the city is accustomed to. He wants to look at energy and what we can this city do to have energy during PSPS, and water and drought. He thinks that we do need to improve our animal shelter, and need to look at having an ADU and housing workshop. The city needs to have broadband, improve parking downtown, improved walkability and expand our trail system. He also discussed how the City tracks our ability to address homelessness.
No formal action taken.
BRIEF REPORTS BY COUNCIL MEMBERS
Councilmember Ivy attended a meeting for Nevada Union and learned that the trade program at the high school level is having the funding cut from the budget. Councilmember Hodge it attending the ERC meeting on Thursday and they will be having their first in person meeting. Councilmember Branstrom attended the League of California legislation meeting and it is regional photography month and in Grass Valley there are exhibits at Center for the Arts and Courtyard Suits. Vice Mayor Arbuckle attended the GVDA & Chamber Meeting and is pleased to announce on April 23rd there will be the Car Show, and May 21st will be armed forces day. Mayor Aguilar had nothing to report.
ADJOURN
Meeting adjourned at 8:56 pm.
_________________________ _____________________________ Ben Aguilar, Mayor Taylor Day, Deputy City Clerk
Item # 2.
Taylor Day
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Itara O'Connell
Tuesday, April 5, 2022 1239 PM
Public Comments
ideas
We need a youth center.
Safe location for people w/o housing for tent camping. public toi;et and other services ln patient care center for mentally ill.
Mental health team to take care of people instead of the sheriff.
Tha nks.
Itara O'Connell
19950 Sunshine Charlie Dr.
Grass Valley CA 95945
1 Page 11
Item # 2.
Taylor Day
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Attachments:
Itara O'Connell
Monday, April 4,2O?? 9:01 PM
Public Comments
Fwd: lMinewatch] Special request from Hillary Hodge - Tuesday at 7pm Untitled
------- Forwarded message -------
From: R Bryars via Minewatch
Date: Sun, Apr 3,2022 at 9:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Minewatchl Special request from Hillary Hodge - Tuesday at 7pm To: Ralph Ralph via Minewatch :hristy hubbard
Cc: CEA Foundation Mrne Watch committee <m inewatch(acea-nc.orq> lcan't attend, but l'm willing to provide input:
- Walkability. More sidewalks. Alta St, etc
- Trails & sidewalks to schools. Within 1/2 mile of Lyman Gilmore, there should be good sidewalks or trails. - Low income housing by support of Habitat.
- Active clean up of Brownfields sites to provide land for low income housing. - More focus on flood prevention by adding retention/detention ponds in areas that are likely to flood. Example is Nevada County Golf Club that needs retention at the Hughes Rd end. - Smoke free housing. All multifamily housing MUST be smoke free. - Wolf Creek Trail. From Sutton Way to Alison Ranch Rd. Easements must be obtained. lt's OK to have some trail on the streets.
- Trail through Berriman Ranch connecting Wolf Creek Trail with Empire Mine. - Whiting St Brownfield site should be cleaned up and sold to Habitat. - lmprove sidewalk on both sides of Mccourtney from Mill st and Allison Ranch Rd - Be creative with parking close to town. Section from Hwy 174 to Bennet St could have a parking lane if the freeway bank were cut back.
On Sun, Apr 3, 2022 aI9:19 AM, Ralph via Minewatch
:m inewatch(acea-nc.oro> wrote:
Minewatch mailing list
[email protected]
htto://cea-nc.orglma ilma n/listinfo/minewatch cea-nc.orR Minewatch malllng list
Minewatch @cea-nc.org
htto://cea-nc.ors / matlman Ilistinfo/minewatch cea-nc.orq And there's more.
Ray B
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
I Page 12
Item # 2.
Taylor Day
From:
Sent:
to:
Subjea:
Susan Rogers
Monday, April 4,zuzz b:o8 PM
Public Comments
Fwd: Strategic Plan lnput
Ut is not necessary to read this out loud during the meeting, as long as every Council Member gets a copy ln their packet.)
To the GV City Council,
Please be sure include a detailed component for Wildfire Preparedness and Evacuation in the city's updated Strategic Plan. The section should include:
: Support for the development of Firewise Communities within City limits. - That the City supports and expects awareness and recognition of, and regular communication toward, Firewise Communities within the City limits, from the Fire Department (perhaps the Fire Marshal). - The Preparedness sectlon of your Plan should mandate that the City Fire Department communicate annually (i.e., every year) no later than March 15, by postalmail to every residentialaddress in the city, to spell out the requirements that must be met by June 1. The outside of the envelope should have printed on it, "]une 1 Deadline for Meeting Haza rdous Ve8etatlon clearing Ordinance."
I realize that this level of specificity is generally not appropriate for a Strategic Plan, however previous communications have been very "official" (and in a plain white envelope that's hard to tell who it's even coming from), rather than in a manner that attracts attention and invites compliance. I'm sure County OES and the County Sraphics department would be happy to consult with the city fire department on effective mailed materials.
- a timeframe for responding in a timely manner to citizen requests (or at minimum, to requests from established Firewise Communites) for neighborhood inspections from the Fire Department, including notifications to non-compliant property owners AND follow-up inspections and citations to those who do not comply with initial courtesy notices. -- some way of coordinatin8 with County efforts for grant funding so that the City can obtain funds for the inspections above. (OR if it would work better, a provision to partner with the County so that County Defensible Space lnspectors can work within City limits, however City requirements are different from County so this idea is unlikely to fly). 1 Page 13
Item # 2.
Some neighborhoods are desperately in need of help and support in getting people to comply with hazardous vegetation clearing. "Education" doesn't cut it - we need someone in a uniform to walk the neighborhood, taking notes and issuing courtesy notices about required clearing that, if not performed within a certain timeframe, will result in an ordinance violation notice. I realize this takes money. lf nothing else, the Strategic Plan should call for finding the money so this can be done.
Thank you,
Susan Rogers
Founding vice chair, Nevada County Coalition of Firewise Communities, now on the Steering Committee
Coordinator, Glenwood-Maidu-Charlene Firewise Community 2
Item # 2.
Taylor Day
Flom:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Alena Loomis
Monday, April 4,2022 3:44 PM
Public Comments
FW: Clty of Grass Valley Strategic Plan Update
Sent: Monday, April 4, 2022 3:30 PM
To: COGV General Voicemail <[email protected]> Subject: City of Grass Valley Strategic Plan Update
Grass Valley City Council and leadership:
The City of Grass Valley Strategic Plan Update includes important objectives and priorities. Well done. One area that needs further thought, discussion, and inclusion is the long term shift in transportation modes that is inevitable. As we seek to reduce our carbon footprint we will eventually come face to face with our auto centric urban and rural planning.
Current progressive thinking is to keep the same transportation system and replace gas powered cars with electric. This does not solve the volume of cars on the roads, the high cost and limited space for parking, or the actually full lifecycle cost of battery technology. I suspect the thinking will shift to incrementalchange and introducing more public modes of transportation including light rail, mono-rail, and high speed rail. Different options and solutions will be proposed to match the intensity of actual demand. I sug8est that standardization of design will occur. New transportation modes will develop to link up with the public transportation systems such as electric bicycles, electric ultra light vehicles like golf carts, and Disneyland style people movers. Strategic planning can acknowledge this future by aligning transportation investments with an eye on future repurposing right of ways for hlgher volumes of bike and light vehicle traffic. ln addition, its helpful to identify where light rail stations might be located to interface with local low carbon modes.
Parking lots are a rich source of future repurposing for stations and parking the low carbon local vehicle of the future.
Many cities around the globe are doing this kind of planning and investments and are seeing the benefits. Workers traveling from urban residential to their workplace are traveling on conventional and electric bikes and having a much smaller parking and carbon footprint. Something to think about as we identify low cost housinB locations. There is not going to be one massive shift, it will be incremental and over decades. The better the planning the more successful the outcome. Step one is to move the bikes off the sidewalks and into real bike lanes.
Paul Schwartz
Sent from Mail for Windows
1 Page 15
Item # 2.
Taylor Day
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Attachments:
Follow Up Flag:
Flag Status:
THOMAS BU RCH FIE
Monday, April 4, 2022 Z:33 PM
Public Comments
Voice Mail (52 seconds)
audio.mp3
Follow up
Flagged
You received a voice mail from THOMAS BURCHFIE
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Set Up Voice Mail
Hello, my name is Thomas Birchfield. My wife Elizabeth, and I live at 2625 Ridge Rd in Grass Valley. We are calling concerning the Grass Valley City Council agenda title, rustic Woods phase one. We have a couple of concerns regarding flooding issues that are maybe 'cause for some concern in the beginning of this, the commencement of this project, the property is right on the edge of the Nid reservoir is our understanding in our experience at the soil around here is like very shallow like 2 feet deep and we have occasional flooding problems and we were wondering if this project will be of any help in alleviating those problems or will they become worse? We will be at the meeting tomorrow night and we hope to see you then. Bye.
1
Item # 2.
1 Taylor Day
From: WIRELESS CALLER
Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2022 7:42 PM
To: Public Comments
Subject: Voice Mail (2 minutes and 16 seconds)
Attachments: audio.mp3
Hello, this is Matthew Coulter commenting on the supposed strategic plan for 2022. And maybe you could add in there emptying the trash cans on Mill Street and picking up the broken glass and picking up the feces that is all over the street from the pigeons, possibly opening the meal. St Elizabeth Daniels Park for the children to be able to use and not the contractors. And on that note, the meetings that you have with your club members, of course everybody is going to agree with your direction. These are all yes, people. They're all on your payroll or will benefit financially from what you guys are screwing up. So why are you surprised that everyone is in agreement, just like the City Council that votes in unison? Things would still pass if it was three to two, but it's always unison. We just lost a huge amount of low income housing at the corner of Brunswick Road and Nevada City Highway. All those cabins, we keep losing large chunks. We lost the house there on Colfax Avenue. The city bought and demolished, which is against the city charter. We continue to talk the talk, but nobody walks the walk as far as fire goes. Memorial Park is a total fire danger. There's piles of dry leaves over there. They were from last year. Last year, all on coal, fax, highway. Public works is over there all day. Putting in one light bulb on a building and they can't clean the leaves off the roof of the Cub Scout and Girl Scout building. It's never been done. There's piles of dry leaves on top of that old, beautiful wood building. So when you guys think you want to make a plan to do something back to the basics, back to the basics.
Goes smell Wolf Creek. It's a sewer. Troth. It's towns. In the worst condition. It's been in my entire time. I've been here in over fifty years. Going on 55, it's scary. You guys are insane. Goodnight.
You received a voice mail from WIRELESS CALLER.
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Set Up Voice Mail
Item # 2.
City of Grass Valley
City Council
Agenda Action Sheet
Title: Local Emergency Proclamation (COVID-19)
Recommendation: Continuance of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) proclamation declaring a Local State of Emergency
Prepared by: Timothy M. Kiser, City Manager
Council Meeting Date: 4/12/2022 Date Prepared: 4/7/2022 Agenda: Consent
Background Information: On March 5, 2020 the City Manager, acting as the Director of Emergency Services for the City of Grass Valley and the Disaster Council (Vice Mayor Aguilar and Councilmember Arbuckle), declared a local State of Emergency to ensure emergency personnel can obtain equipment and resources in the most timely and effective manner. In accordance with the Emergency Services Act Section 8630 (b) the governing body must ratify the declared emergency within 7 days for it to remain in effect. On March 10, 2020, at the Grass Valley City Council Meeting, the City Council approved Resolution 2020-09, Proclamation of Local Emergency. The City Council shall review, at its regularly scheduled meeting until the local emergency is terminated, the need for continuing the local emergency.
Council Goals/Objectives: Continuance of the proclamation declaring a Local State of Emergency due to prepare against coronavirus COVID-19 executes portions of City Strategic Goal #6: Public Safety. The City of Grass Valley is devoted to providing a safe Place to Live, Work and Play.
Fiscal Impact: The changing variants of COVID19 make it very difficult to anticipate the Fiscal Impact moving forward. For FY 2021/22, it appears the impacts will be minimal compared to previous years, but due to the constantly changing impacts of COVID-19 the actual fiscal impact may change.
Funds Available: N/A Account #: N/A
Reviewed by: __ City Manager
Attachments: None
Item # 3.