From: Kate Haug
To: Mary Gourley
Cc: Kevin Kilgore; Dante Del Prete; Lawrence McLaughlin Subject: Where is the Parking Ordinance? - public Comment 2/1/11 Date: Friday, January 28, 2022 9:21:42 AM
Dear Council Members,
At the 1/18/22 Council meeting, there was consensus that the second reading of the parking ordinance, with minor changes, would take place at the 2/1/22 meeting with a target implementation of the ordinance of 3/22.
As City Manager/City Attorney McLaughlin indicated at the 1/18/22 meeting there is no legal reason to prevent the parking ordinance from being implemented with or without any additional Safe Parking in Sebastopol.
In addition, per the Council's own directive (11/30/22 and onward), no RVs can move into the proposed RV Safe Parking until a citywide parking ordinance is in place, which the proposed ordinance provided to Council.
At this point, the parking ordinance can be implemented with or without any additional Safe Parking while Safe Parking cannot be implemented without a parking citywide parking ordinance in place.
There has been overwhelming support from all sectors of the community for the parking ordinances.
There is no reason legal or otherwise for Council not to read and pass the parking ordinance at the 2/1/22 meeting.
Sebastopol currently has more transient accommodations per capita than any other City in Sonoma County. Sebastopol has 45 transient beds at the Sebastopol Inn, 85 people housed at Park Village, 6 Safe Parking Spots at the Community Church. 45+85+6 = 136 transient beds, which equals one transient bed per every 55th resident.
Forestville, home of Supervisor Hopkins - population 3700, would need 67 beds to meet our current ratio. Supervisor Hopkins has no transient beds (and as far as I can tell no transient services) in her hometown. Rohnert Park, population 42,000, would need 893 beds to match our ratio; they currently have zero. Santa Rosa, population 179,700, would need 3823 beds.
County wide they'd need over 9000 beds to match our ratio of one transient bed to every 55th resident.
The Committee on the Unhoused is proposing additional 10 Safe Parking spots at undisclosed churches and other sites within Sebastopol, which would bring our total up even higher.
No community of our size and budget is paying $72,000 per year for a homeless outreach coordinator who works solely on behalf of a limited population of under 100 people. Under direction and decision of the current Council, Sebastopol carries an outsized burden in terms of funding and supporting transients. Other cities and the County need to join our efforts before Sebastopol's residents and small businesses support any more transient resources. Sebastopol has no downtown hotel and we have an extremely high commercial vacancy rate which impacts our City revenue. Until we have enough revenue to fully fund our police, fire, public works departments, city services, road and sidewalk repair, we should not extend any more funding to transient services and accommodations.
I urge Council to use their elected office to carry out the will of their constituents. It is unethical to use elected office as an exercise in personal power or a bully pulpit where personal relationships and agendas take precedence over the health, safety and financial viability of the community at large.
While several Council Members expressed hesitation over the parking restrictions which curb illegal activities such as theft, trespassing, drug dealing, blocking of sidewalks, illegal generator use, toxic septic dumping into the Laguna, harassment of citizens and workers, and the blocking of bike lanes, it is Council's duty to provide a safe environment for citizens, workers and visitors and to enforce basic ADA, environmental, health, and safety laws.
The parking ordinance helps to mitigate these on-going, persistent crimes associated with illegal RV Dwelling by transients.
Despite some Council Member's personal preference for permissiveness toward transients, it is not safe and it is not the expressed will of the community, business owners, parents, school officials and community leaders.
I urge Council to pass the ordinance as written for the 1/18/22 and continue with the timeline that was stated at that meeting.
Best,
Kate Haug