From: Marsha Dupre
To: [email protected]; Alton, Alan; Hartman, Clare; Dunston, Daryel; Nutt, Jason; Smith, Maraskeshia; MacDonald, Dianna; Sawyer, John; Rogers, Chris; Rogers, Natalie; Schwedhelm, Tom; Alvarez, Eddie; SR CC Victoria Fleming; City Clerk; Gallagher, Sue
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Please do vote "Yes" on Item 15.2
Date: Saturday, August 20, 2022 10:46:26 AM
As a former SR CC member, many of us acknowledged the crisis of climate change and we were very pleased that the City developed the stated goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030.
We had proposed an earlier deadline, but we know that progress often, sadly, moves more slowly than global warming. Please do vote "Yes" on Item 15.2 and please refrain from complicating things by adding anything about advancing alternatives.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
Marsha
Marsha Vas Dupre, Ph.D.
Former Santa Rosa City Council Vice Mayor, SRJC Trustee Santa Rosa, CA 95404
From: Jennifer LaPorta
To: City Council Public Comments
Subject: [EXTERNAL] No more gas stations in Santa Rosa! Date: Saturday, August 20, 2022 1:37:40 PM
Dear City Council and Mayor of Santa Rosa CA,
re item 15.2 on the agenda for 8/23/22 council meeting:
Please vote to ban new gas stations in Santa Rosa.
Our climate is at full catastrophe.
We cannot afford to make things worse. What about the children? What future do they have? Sincerely,
Jennifer LaPorta
Santa Rosa
95407
From: emwiig
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Please enact a gas station ban in SR Date: Monday, August 22, 2022 8:59:47 AM
To the Santa Rosa city council,
I'm writing to encourage you to vote in favor of the upcoming gas station ban. We have more than enough gas stations to accommodate the current need and, as I hope you'll agree, our priority should be investments in the future, not the past: alternative transportation infrastructure such as charging stations, protected bike lanes, public transit, etc.
Thanks for making Santa Rosa a model city for a clean, renewable and liveable future.
Sincerely,
Evan Wiig
, Santa Rosa, CA 95405
From: CONGAS
To: City Council Public Comments
Cc: Jenny Blaker
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Agenda Item 15.2 on 8/23 Council agenda -- SUPPORT -- Gas station ban Date: Monday, August 22, 2022 12:59:54 PM
Attachments: LoS to SR City Council for 8 23 22.pdf
Dear Mayor Rogers and Councilmembers:
Please see attached letter of support for agenda item 15.2 on your August 23 council agenda:
PUBLIC HEARING - ZONING CODE TEXT AMENDMENTS TO PROHIBIT NEW GAS
STATION LAND USES AND PROHIBIT EXPANSION OF FOSSIL FUEL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR EXISTING GAS STATIONS.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Woody Hastings and Jenny Blaker,
Co-coordinators, Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations
www.con-gas.org
Santa Rosa City Council
City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Avenue
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
To: Santa Rosa City Council
From: The Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations
Date: August 22, 2022
Subject: Agenda Item 15.2 Public Hearing - Zoning Code Text Amendments to Prohibit New Gas Station Land Uses and Prohibit Expansion of Fossil Fuel Infrastructure for Existing Gas Stations
Dear Mayor Rogers and Councilmembers:
It has been a pleasure to work with the Climate Action Subcommittee, the Planning Commission, city staff, and members of the Santa Rosa community since early 2020 to bring this issue forward for a vote. The Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations (CONGAS) is pleased to offer its enthusiastic support for the Ordinance and zoning code text amendments outlined in the staff report to prohibit new gas station land uses and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure for existing gas station land uses in the City of Santa Rosa. We urge your “aye” vote.
CONGAS, founded in 2019, is a Sonoma County community-based not-for-profit organization with a mission to halt the permitting and construction of new gas stations. In January 2020 the City of Santa Rosa adopted a Climate Emergency Declaration that included a “call for a just transition away from fossil fuels.” This action before you is in alignment with the 2020 Declaration.
There are multiple reasons to support a prohibition on new gas stations:
● This is not a symbolic act. There are two active gas station proposals in Santa Rosa and nothing on the books to stop more permit applications from being submitted; ● Although the proposed ordinance will not affect the two completed permit applications, the fact that there are two in the city shows that the prohibition is needed; ● In both pending cases there are at least ten operating gas stations within a five-mile radius;
● There are already over 40 operating gas stations within Santa Rosa’s city limits, as well as others nearby, with no demonstrable need for more;
● As pointed out in the staff report and Ordinance, this action would be consistent with Santa Rosa’s own climate policies as well as those of the Regional Climate Protection Authority and the State of California in response to the climate crisis; Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations ⧫ (707) 238-2298 ⧫ [email protected] www.con-gas.org 1 ● This is an environmental justice issue, as pointed out by city staff in the local siting of gas stations, and given that every drop of gasoline leaves behind it a wake of destruction – from the drilling to the pumping to the transportation by rail, trucks, and pipelines to processing facilities and refineries – almost always disproportionately impacting indigenous, low income, and communities of color;
● Inevitable leaks and spills pollute surface and groundwater, and soils, impacting human health and wildlife habitats. Sonoma County is riddled with leaking underground storage tanks.
CONGAS enthusiastically supports efforts to improve walking, biking, public transit and infrastructure to support electric vehicle charging at places where people live, work, and spend time such as at shopping centers, cinemas, public buildings, and so on. However, we encourage the City Council to resist the urge to include any of these kinds of good proactive measures that can more appropriately be addressed in other arenas.
We support the recommendation of the Planning Commission and the Planning and Economic Development Department that the Council adopt this ordinance approving text amendments to Title 20 of the City Code to prohibit new gas station land uses and to prohibit expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure for existing gas station land uses.
We appreciate the time and effort staff has invested in this matter and we look forward to working collaboratively to achieve our shared objectives – an equity-centered, safe, clean-emission, climate smart future for the City of Santa Rosa. We respectfully request your vote in favor of this measure.
Sincerely,
Jenny Blaker, Co-coordinator, CONGAS
Woody Hastings, Co-coordinator, CONGAS
Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations ⧫ (707) 238-2298 ⧫ [email protected] www.con-gas.org 2 From: Licursi, Elizabeth
To: Bliss, Sandi; Williams, Stephanie
Subject: FW: [EXTERNAL] Gas Station Ban
Date: Monday, August 22, 2022 5:00:06 PM
I believe they want this as part of the emails for tomorrow.
From: Fred Karlen <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2022 4:51 PM
To: Licursi, Elizabeth <[email protected]>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Gas Station Ban
Liz
A copy of the e-mail as Dianna will be out of town
Fred
Council Member Dianna MacDonald
RE: Gas Station Ban
Dear Dianna
I urge you to look hard and carefully into the proposal to ban any new gasoline stations here in Santa Rosa, I do know that on an environmental front it sounds like a good idea but it fails to consider several significant harmful impacts.
1. Electric Vehicles are not a viable option for many in our community, travel patterns, distances and destinations do not make operating an electric vehicle a viable option. As battery technology improves and charge opportunities increase there will be a natural migration towards electric vehicles and market forces will close a number of stations, but for now you have the cart before the horse. Consider what happened to the old liberty stable.
2. Massive housing initiatives currently under construction - in the next few years the housing stock and thus population here in Santa Rosa will be facing a massive expansion, people will bring their cars, affordable housing most likely gasoline powered vehicles, such an expansion of population calls for an expansion of infrastructure and services, not a stall of contraction of these. More residents necessitate more energy, water, roads, retail and gas stations – at least initially.
3. Equity, inclusion, diversity – a ban on gas stations will impact low wage earners and certain areas of our city disproportionate as the limit of available fuel sources in a growing city and reduction in price competition will hit the pocket books of this segment much harder. The considered gas station ban action is in conflict with the work Santa Rosa is doing to make housing more affordable.
Again I will mention that as battery technology evolves and as charging stations populate the landscape the natural market forces will bring about the transition of reducing gasoline stations, let’s just not get the cart before the horse to the frustration and injury of many in our community.
Sincerely
Fred Karlen
Santa Rosa, CA