10-14-25 Folsom City Council Regular Meeting

>> come right down here to the center microphone, cathy, and we give each speaker three minutes. The aquatic center has also enriched my life. I was working in placerville and I would come down here after work and I could have had a rotten day at work and after swimming those laps, I would be relaxed and peaceful and it was just really so good for my soul. This last OCTOBER, I fell, and I broke my right shoulder in three spots. It was a really bad break. The physician said I would not be able to raise my arm above my head. Both my physician and the -- besides the health benefits, I've developed some good friendships there and not all of us live in folsom. So we go, we swim, and then we go out and have lunch in the community. So that's good for the community. The aquatic center offers something for almost anybody who wants it. You've got swimming lessons, diving lessons, water exercise, and even fun events like swimming with pumpkins for halloween and for dog lovers, there's an event for the dog lovers and their dogs, which is really a lot of fun. In addition to the fun that this facility brings, it offers many jobs to the young people in this community, high schoolers and college students. This is a place where they learn responsibility and people skills and how to save lives and all things that will help them through the rest of their working career and just help them to grow as people. So I just wanted to go on record as to how valuable the aquatic center is. >> thank you, cathy, we always appreciate hearing good news. Okay, our next speakers, please. Good evening. >> good evening. Mo dam MADAM Mayor, my name is anushka. We are honored to extend a warm invitation on behalf of the hindu temple to each of you to join it for the upcoming diwali celebrations. Diwali, the festival of lights, is one of the most important celebrations in hindu culture. It is celebrated across india and by hindu communities worldwide typically in OCTOBER or NOVEMBER. Diwali symbolizes the victory of light over darkness and good over evil, the return after defeating the king. Families light oil lamps and decorate their homes to welcome prosperity. >> at the temple, we celebrate diwali with special prayers, devotional activities, and the beautiful ceremony. (Unfamiliar word or name) Means mountain of food where we offer hundreds of vegetarian dishes to GOD in gratitude. This celebration brings our community together in devotion, service, and harmony. The we promote the values of faith, unity, and selfless service to society. We warmly invite you to experience the joy and spiritual richness of diwali at our temple on sunday, OCTOBER 26th, from 12-6 P.M. Come witness the beauty and uplifting spirit of community celebration. Thank you for listening. We hope you consider our proposal. >> thank you for coming. >> our next speaker is sushrit. >> good evening, lift that microphone up, there you go. >> honorable mayor, respected council members and distinguished guests, welcome. I'm a proud resident of the city of folsom. I'm a volunteer for the hindu hss which is an organization that promotes hindu values, community spirit, and service. Hss follows the idea of (Unfamiliar word or name) Meaning the world is one family. We believe that serving others is a way to serve the divine express in the way of saying (Unfamiliar word or name). OCTOBER is recognized as hindu heritage month, a wonderful and positive step for our community. This month especially is meaningful for hindus all around the world as it is also when we celebrate our diwali, the festival of lights. Diwali is more than just a joyous celebration though. It's a time to reflect on how lightness beats the darkness and knowledge over ignorance and good over evil. It encourages us to uphold our values, act with honesty and promote peace within our families and communities. Selfless service is at the heart of our celebrations and daily life. All year, hss runs numerous different programs and service projects such as helping food banks, cleaning up the environment, and offering educational programs. During diwali, we focus on a special project also known as sava. This project brings people across the world together across the country and just to help other people in other communities. Diwali brings together thousands of volunteers from all over the country. This project invites people to use their homes as collections for food, for canned food, non-perishable items and winter clothing. These donations go to local food banks and homeless shelters so the spirit of diwali reaches to those who need it most. Last year, we made a huge difference. About 3,000 volunteers across the nation collected and distributed 717,000 pounds of food and supplies in 38 states and over 200 cities. Being the seventh consecutive year for this event, it involves 247 organizations including hindu, jain, buddhist, and sikh temples in schools. We kindly request your guidance and assistance in identifying more of the local food banks and shelters that can benefit from your outreach. Your support will help us ensure that our efforts are inclusive as far-reaching as possible as we celebrate diwali. We wish it shares its light and hope with all residents of folsom and we believe that every individual regardless of background and/or faith deserves to be uplifted and respected. Thank you. >> thank you very much for coming out. Call the next item, please. >> your first scheduled presentation item this evening, item 1, this is a resolution of commendation honoring folsom lake surf soccer club. >> come on down, you guys! All right, coach, I'm going to give this to you. This is a resolution of commendation honoring the boys' regional league national champions. Whereas the folsom lake surf soccer elite club's national league 2011 boys' team contributed to the sports community representing the city with exceptional teamwork and dedication to the game of soccer and whereas the team is comprised of 16 boys who've trained all year with head coach and executive director who provided preparation, training, and leadership with encouragement all season and whereas the players, tate, ethan, raphael, christian, henry, brady, roman, lucas, steven, davis, ryan, cole, drake, came together all year to play at the highest level demonstrating excellent work ethic and enthusiasm for the game and opportunities to perform at the national level. And whereas the team won their NorCal regional league, became NorCal champions and in the regional league west regional playoffs which set the stage for their dominant national championship performance. And whereas the team traveled to richmond, virginia in JULY to attend the regional league finals playing against three teams from across the country dominating the game scoring a combined 11 goals to their opponents' two goals! [Cheering and applause] And whereas the players, coaches, and families of the folsom lake surf soccer club boys' team proudly represented the city of folsom on and off the field. Therefore I, the mayor on behalf of the folsom city council and community congratulate the players, coaches and families of the soccer club boys' team and extend our excitement for this national championship and wish them continued success, committed this 14th day of OCTOBER, 2025. Coach, do you want to say anything? >> no, we're good! >> well, you are all welcome! You're welcome to stay for some very exciting budget discussions, but if you want to leave! [Laughter] >> all right, next item, please. >> your next item is item 2, this is presentation of the northwest annual folsom community service day results. Community service day people, come on down! The rest of you can spread out if you want! Good evening, tom and sandy. >> good evening, MADAM Mayor, council members. Tonight we're giving you a recap of the 12th annual community service day. I've had the pleasure to serve alongside sandy, our chair of this year's steering committee, and so I will turn it over to her to take you through the pleasures of what happened just a few short weeks ago. >> thank you, tom. Thank you, all of you wonderful people, because you helped serve on community service day, yay! And I'm wondering how many of you did? Probably a few. Yay! We had a fabulous day once again and thank you so much for your support of this amazing day. So I'm going to take you through just a few slides that highlight exactly what we accomplished. And there we are in all of our whoo-hoo, tie dye colored shirts! And many other lovely greens that you can't see. Great group of people, like always. Grand total, 1785 volunteers and that was for the day of. Just the day of, because we also had additional folks doing prep work beforehand that are not in this count. So we had over 2,000 people that participated, which was phenomenal. We completed 80 projects citywide. With a total of over 7,000 volunteer hours and tom being the amazing calculator that he is just gave me a number that said that's roughly $250,000 worth of what would have cost us, but we got the volunteers to do the work because they're amazing people. So I think that's incredible. And then this is just an outline map of the places we did serve. So you've got the blue triangles which are community projects and then the little red circles which were neighbors helping seniors projects. And then one closer up, you can see there's a big grouping of homes in the left top corner. And that's always fun, because they're all neighbors. And we also had, as you well know, the community food drive. So many bags went out. I looked in my street and was just so impressed to see all these bags out that morning. And in total, we received 23 tons of food, equivalent to over 38,000 meals. So that, to me, is a congratulations to our entire city for participating in that and making that happen. Thank you, thank you. The donation drive, once again, just people stepped up and brought items that are in need. So bicycles, purses, school supplies, toys for children, holiday wrapping paper, jake's journey home, and pet shelter supplies. People just responded. We have such an amazing community. And the blood drive. So we were putting out the call even day of, and we ended up with 16 donors. Six of them first time, which is so great, so 16 lives were saved because of that. And then I alluded already to the neighbors helping seniors which were those little red dots, but we had once again just volunteers come out and help 44 of our seniors with projects that they just can't do on their own anymore and so for us to be able to step in as a community and help them, it makes my heart so happy and I think it does lots of people. And I do want to give another shoutout to our amazing sponsors, because a lot of these projects cost hard dollars to buy the materials and the supplies. So our presenting sponsors at $15,000, dignity health and the city of folsom. Our visionary sponsors at $10,000, lakeside church, folsom times, lennar homes, and the folsom telegraph. At $5,000, our leader sponsors, the church of jesus christ of latter day saints, good fellow brothers and the rotary club of folsom. And we additionally had partner sponsors. You can see all the names. I won't go through each one of them tonight. And we had good neighbor sponsors. And so in total, our sponsorships were $135,000 in cash and in-kind sponsorships, so I think that's worthy of a clap for everybody and what they did! [Applause] Just can't say enough. So with gratitude and for me with the happy dance, because we did it all, to again the city of folsom, lakeside, twin lakes food bank, dignity health, all of our sponsors and then our steering committee members. We have one over there! And we have tom hellman over here and justin raithel up there and any others here? Well, we get to represent! How lucky are we, whoo-hoo! >> (Indistinct) >> donate time, that's the most important thing! All of the committee members listed. Everyone did so much work. Like in anything, behind the scenes stuff happens and most folks aren't aware, but if you stop to think about it, obviously all the coordination, it took a lot of people putting in a lot of time and we're so grateful. >> time and love! >> yes. Pardon me? Oh, I missed something, so sorry. [Music] >> the 12th annual community service day, almost 2,000 volunteers working on about 100 projects. One of the things that makes folsom truly a great place to live. >> community service day is unique in the aspect that it's so large. And people get the opportunity to give back. That's what I think folsom is known for and we see that volunteerism is a big part of that. >> seeing everyone just come together with all of their fun ideas. There's all kinds of projects for every age level. The synergy is amazing. >> we have been doing it for the last three years because we live in this community, our kids are growing up in this community as well. >> I take my kids and when we drive through the neighborhoods, they see a dog and run them and grab them and they're so excited. [Horns honking] >> here we have drivers who are driving out to the community and picking up food, bringing it in to us and we're sorting it for the food bank and we've already filled probably ten giant boxes. >> volunteering together, mothers and daughters get to volunteer together. We can volunteer with our whole families. >> it's amazing. Everybody is bringing so much food in and it's so fun. >> seeing the seniors, they get so excited through the whole process. When we first come to interview them before the project to see what they need and then they get really excited when people come and spend the day with ethical them andafterwards, it makes your heart sing because everyone is happy. The volunteers are happy, the seniors are happy, it's just a great thing. >> I have been raking, cutting down trees, pulling weeds, all kinds of things. A whole bunch of fun though. >> and we're out here in an open space area that not many people know about. What we're doing today is utilizing volunteer help to help clear out more of the space for fire fuel reduction, because there's just a lot of dense, dead brush down here. And also once this is cleared, it's going to open up more opportunity for not just our special event race, but maybe trails in the future which we can use for some of the kids programming we do and just for community accomplishment. >> today our goal is to put a new foundation of mulch across our school. When I arrived here one year ago, our beds, dried up and they needed some love. Seeing moms and students and whole families show up, we don't often get that opportunity to see the whole family working together. Without the city of folsom, we would not have been able to do that, so we're so grateful for this opportunity. >> for the people that come one time come every year, because they understand how good it feels and what it feels like to give back. >> are you debating whether you should become a part of community service day? My answer is yes! And it's super fun. Getting dirty with people you love and maybe you don't know and you get to make friends, it's super fun. [Music] >> and I think that says it all. Thank you so much. >> peter, why don't you come on up, sandy, hang on for a second, we want to present you guys with a resolution. >> thank you, MADAM Mayor and thank you to the council for allowing us a few moments. I was there, and we couldn't be more proud. That's why the congressman really enjoys representing this community. It's the spirit of volunteerism that makes a big difference. Neighbors helping neighbors. It's the essence of what a community is all about. i know I left there, my heart was a little more filled like a lot of people. And so on behalf of congressman kevin kiley, he'd like me to present you with this congressional certificate promoting civic pride and the virtue of volunteerism in the community is what you're all about. Congratulations! And thank you. >> thank you, peter. Thank you very much to the committee, our city staff, the volunteers, the sponsors. As I said at the event, it's part of what makes folsom a special place to live and we know how hard the committee works all year long on this event, so thank you very much. All right, that takes us to our consent calendar. Anybody have an item they'd like to pull? If not, I'll entertain a motion. >> I'll move the consent calendar. >> second. >> we have a motion and a second. Please call the roll. >> leery >> yes >> raithel >> yes >> kozlowski >> yes >> aquino 6. Ordinance no. 1353-an ordinance of the city of folsom amending chapter 17.52 of the folsom municipal code for the historic district relating to design review, sign permits, demolitions, and accessory buildings (Introduction and first reading) And determination that the project is exempt from ceqa. >> good evening, desmond. >> mayor aquino, members of the council, I'm desmond, planning manager in the community development department. I'm before you tonight to talk about some proposed changes in the design review for minor projects in the historic district. There's been a number of reasons for this. Currently all buildings and all exterior renovations, remodeling, additions, all signs, demolitions, all of those go to the historic district commission. That's not only a lengthy process but it's also a costly one in terms of the amount of staff time. And particularly with the fee increase that's designed to cover more of the actual staff time involved that has made getting these entitlements more expensive. One of the other challenges that we've heard is that the public noticing requirements for design review is really inadequate, because we post the site and in those situations where there might be a neighbor in the rear or a neighbor that backs up into the alley, unless they go and see that on that street and see that sign, they're not aware that their neighbor to the rear MAY be doing something on their property. The other thing that's been an issue is we've got different expiration dates and different extension procedures for things like conditional use permits and variances inside the historic district compared to the rest of the city which kind of creates confusion and increases the risk for errors and confusion both by staff and by applicants. And then finally, there are very limited standards with regard to accessory structures. And currently they could potentially be as high as the existing structure and actually in front of the structure. So that was never the intent and that needed to be clarified. So there was a number of issues associated with this. And the bigger picture here is we recognize that the historic district is a very special area in the city with really unique carex that uniquecharacteristics that we don't see anywhere else, but at the same time, we're continually bringing forward minor projects where we hear from the commissioners themselves, from the applicants, and from the public, like, why are we seeing something at this minor of a level that takes two to three months to get in front of the commission. And particularly with all the changes in state law and most recently the passage and enactment of sb 79, there are bigger issues that we would like to focus on to help protect the character of the historic district. But so much of staff's time is on the report writing, the processing, the presentation, all the staff reports that go into bringing even minor projects to the historic district commission. It means that we don't have the resources to tackle some of those other things. So what we are proposing to do in the ordinance in front of you is to bring exterior renovations, remodeling, and smaller modifications to existing buildings, small additions to non-historic structures and accessory buildings and then non-historic demolitions and sign permits down to the director level. That would speed up the process, reduce the need for staff reports and presentations, and then also reduce the cost to applicants. We would also be exempting some items entirely from design review. This is like roof material, roof replacements, window and door replacements with a like for like situation, residential building colors, fences and walls, and the small patio covers and so forth. These are things that are really minor in nature. They don't change the overall character of the community. And planning staff gets around to these anyway just to check if there's any issues, so if there is something that is a significant change, we can look that the through a director-level design review. So we've also proposed to do modifications to the design review process that would be public notices mailed to all adjacent property owners in addition to the posting of the site. So that person that owns a home in back of the home that maybe fronts on an alley, they would now be aware of a project going on where they might not be if they didn't go in front of that street. We're also going to be posting the information on these projects on the city website. And then we're going to be providing a detailed summary to the historic district commission about those projects that are approved at the director level, but the idea behind that is to create a dialogue with the historic district commission to make sure that our interpretations are consistent with their interpretations and that we're on the right track. If we need to course correct or make some -- a different, a better interpretation, they're there to provide us with that feedback. We'll also be making modifications to the standards for accessory buildings, limiting them to 15 feet, reducing the square footage to not more than 50% of the primary structure, and ensuring that they can't be located in front of the main building. We've also provided a provision that if there is something unique or potentially controversial, that director-level reviews can be elevated by the community development director to the commission. And then we've also ensured that conditional use permits, variances, and so forth, they have now consistent timing and extension provisions really citywide to avoid confusion. Now while this item passed 6-1 at the historic district commission or was recommended for approval at the historic district commission, there were a number of commission and public comments related to a variety of aspects of this. I think they were concerned about the transparency of the director-level process, a desire for even more noticing than what we were proposing. There was questions about the methodology of how we were measuring heights particularly when it relates to accessory buildings. And then how staff was going to determine the historic significance of structures that might be potentially eligible to be listed. They were also wanting to change the process regarding appeals and elevating the review to the commission. There was questions also about could the commission itself review director-level decisions and possibly change those decisions. And then there was another recommendation to use another code section in chapter 1752 that allows for the commission to delegate the responsibility for an individual kind of task to the community development director. So we looked at all of those and then made some kind of additional clarifications or revisions. So that includes that we're also now requiring that with their design review application that they provide a project narrative that provides some context for staff about why they're doing the project, the history of the home and so forth. We've also added some enhancements about the noticing. We're ensuring that the folks that have typically requested noticing like the folsom historic residents association, the heritage preservation league, the folsom historic district association, that they would receive notices in addition to the notices being posted online. The notices mailed to adjacent property owners. And then, of course, the posting on-site. We've also shared with the commission the process that we go through as staff when we're reviewing these projects. So they understand that nothing's changed in terms of the materials, the guidelines, the code sections that we look at when we review these types of projects. So just because it's coming from the commission level down at the staff level does not mean that anything in terms of our review is changing. We're still doing the same level of rigorous review. The other question about determining the potential historic significance of a structure is we're utilizing a number of things. Not just what the applicant MAY reveal to us but also we're looking at whether it's eligible under the city's historic preservation master plan, whether it's on the cultural resources inventory. We typically check with the databases with the -- check with the folsom history museum. We check the state's database over at sac state. The california historic information system and then we also look at its eligibility under the california environmental quality act. Now, there are a number of issues that we know that we need to look at overall in chapter 1772 related to the 1752 related to the historic district. We don't have the bandwidth to do that right now. We're focused on these things that will create time for staff to work on these more substantive things like creating objective design standards for development in the historic district, getting the zoning code updated in the historic district. Those are really critical things and they're even more important now with the passage of sb 79 which takes away even more local control with regard to development next to transit. But the benefit to can businesses and applicants in the historic district, and you can see this in some of the glen's comments, the struggle of getting through the process in a timely manner. So we're talking about lowering fees and shortening that turn-around time for these smaller projects. Because we're getting more information out there in terms of putting it on the website, sharing more details with the commission, and doing more mailed notices, we're hoping this will increase the awareness of design review within the district. And then as I said earlier, we're doing that regular check-in at meetings and going over the projects that we approve so that we're always creating that open dialogue with the commission. So if they have a different interpretation of how we're approaching the standards or guidelines in the area, they can help direct us and ensure that we're interpreting things the way that they believe they ought to be interpreted. So in terms of next steps, if you approve this this evening, there'll be a second reading of the ordinance on the 28th. That would be the second reading and the adoption. We would then also be bringing forward those fee modifications to lower fees to go along with the direct-level director-level reviews and ensure those code and fee changes would then go into effect the first of the year. This would give us time to reach out to businesses and property owners within the district so they're well aware of the changes. I did want to point out one correction that needs to be pointed out in section 1752-320 regarding notice and posting of the site for design review. This is in the ordinance. It should have said 170-6070 (A) And (B) Because (C) Is not applicable to the historic district, so I just wanted to make that clarification. I do ask if you move that tonight, I do ask when you make the motion to conduct the first reading, it's just with that correction to 1752-320. So that concludes my presentation. I'd be glad to answer any questions that you MAY have. >> thank you. questions for desmond? Council member kozlowski? >> I think just one. You said at the outset that you were talking about I guess bringing decisions that had been made at the director level to the historic district commission in spite of the fact that the purpose of this is to avoid that step? How the is that going to work exactly? >> so I regularly do a planning manager's report at the end of each historic district commission meeting. As part of that planning manager's report, I would report -- and I do this today, but it's at a very high level. We would go into a little bit more detail about the projects that had been approved, show the elevations of those projects and explain to the commission what was approved by staff during that mediator. Period. That is informational only. The commission would not be taking action on that, but they could say, you know, at a future meeting, we would like to revisit this section of the guidelines that you've been using to do those interpretations or to make those decisions on that project, because we think you're a little bit off-base here and we interpreted it the following way. Then we'd be able to have that discussion. So it's not that we'd be preparing a full staff report or presentation. It would be a higher level summary with some visuals of the project that had been approved. >> I think at the commission meeting, one commissioner was trying to come up with some sort of mechanism where if three or more commissioners decided that something maybe should be elevated to the commission, that there would be a way to do that and that ended up being abandoned, is that correct? >> that is correct. It really created some brown act issues and also some logistical issues, because imagine if staff has done the staff-level review, let's say it's SEPTEMBER 12th. We've done that staff-level review. They've gotten their approvals. And then we go to the first meeting in OCTOBER. The commission now wants to hear this item. The ten-day appeal period has already lapsed. That really creates a problematic situation for the applicant in . In addition to that, then you have commission members talking amongst themselves about who is going to vote to bring this up which could lead to potential brown act violations, so that's the reason that was abandoned. >> okay. >> unelected commission members can have brown act violations? >> yes, sir, they can. >> okay, all right. Well, then again, just asking for a quick review. The items that we're talking about are yard improvements like fences, gazebos, paving? Improvements like that that sit in the rear yard or in a side yard? >> yes, those would be items that would be exempt. And then the items that we'd be reporting back would be on -- exempt from a review -- >> exempt from a review altogether? >> that is correct. >> the things that would require once again the review but no longer require going to hdc is solar panels, in-kind replacements? >> those are the things that -- I'll go back here. So those are the things that are exempt. So you've got here the replacement of roof materials, windows, and doors, residential building colors, fencing and walls, those are the things that would be exempt as long as they're out of the public view. Those things would be for the pergolas, gazebos and patio covers, as long as those are out of the public view, those would be exempt from design rough. >> review. >> if I do south-facing solar panels on my roof, they'll be visible on the street to every house that faces south. >> that is correct, but solar panels, we generally don't have design review authority over those. Those are a by-right mechanism as a result of state law. >> got it, all right. >> and so exterior renovations, remodeling, modifications to existing buildings, small additions on non-historic structures that are 500 square feet or less. And then accessory buildings, demolitions of buildings found to be non-historic and then sign permits. >> okay, thank you, that was it. >> vice mayor raithel? >> so windows and doors are oftentimes a hot topic at the historic district commission, replacing those. This is replacement of the same, so it's not a change-out at all of a different window style or different door style? >> that's correct. So if somebody was doing a like for like replacement, same window, same window, that would not go through design review. If they were changing that window to a door, that would go through director-level design review. >> okay, perfect. And then the notice to the organizations, notice to neighbors, I assume also would include notice to the commissioners before the director-level decision is made? Am I understanding that correctly? >> no, because it doesn't go to the commission, we wouldn't be noticing the commission unless the commissioners requested that. The idea is to notice community organizations and adjacent neighbors. So the community organizations have regularly requested and we typically send out to them already applications that we get in for design review to get their comments early in the process. So we would just be -- really the focus is on the surrounding property owners. >> and I appreciate that, but I also think some of your best advocates for historic preservation are sitting on the historic district commission. I did see that comment in I think it was glen's comments of wanting the historic commissioners to also get that notice. I would assume if I signed up for the e-mail distribution list, I could get -- just a regular historic resident, I could sign up for that notice? >> absolutely. >> so if a historic district commissioner with a resident hat on wanted to sign up for that notice, they could get the same notices as hpl or whoever else? >> yes, that's correct. >> perfect. And then they could always reach out if they have concerns about the project. Just like any other historic resident. And there was another public comment about appeals not being an option? But I would assume if an applicant or a neighbor does not like the decision that's made at the director level, it's always appealable? >> that's correct. However, things that are exempt from design review would not be appealable. >> fair enough, but the director-level reviews are all appealable within ten days? >> yes. >> thank you. >> as somebody who sat through a lot of non-historic shed demolitions, I'm very glad that no one else is going to have to sit through a meeting to hear the one item being a shed demolition that nobody cares about, so thank you! >> council member rohrbough, no questions. Council member leary? >> yes, thank you for your presentation. I read through the materials. I've gotten a lot of feedback from residents in the historic district and other historical buffs from town. It's clearly a very sensitive area. People want to make sure that the character of the district is retained and it's one of the things that draws people to visit here and to move to folsom and visit on a regular basis. So I had read through these letters too and had the same -- some of the same questions about notifications. And I think the notifications are within the 300-foot perimeter around a house now and include the backyards, alleys, as well as the front? >> so for public hearings, we're required to do 300 feet, but design reviews don't involve a public hearing. So currently the rules for design reviews in the historic district are the posting of the site. So that's the posting of a sign that says that there's a pending design review application for this site. That is it. And we also as a courtesy, we share the information on that design review application with the historic folsom residents' association, historic preservation league, and then the folsom historic district association if it's a commercial project. so what we're proposing to do is to broaden that. It wouldn't go to 300 feet, because these are really minor design reviews. So somebody is doing some minor remodeling, we're not going to be doing 300 feet for that, but we would be notifying all their adjacent property owners. And anybody across the alley, across the street, and then on either side of the site. >> and then the posting will just be on the property that is going to have some changes? >> that's correct, yeah. And then in addition to that, the noticing information will be on the city's website and as I mentioned earlier, anybody who has requested, hpl and fhda who's requested and received notification on these type of projects or another member of the public could sign up and we can get that word out to them about that. >> okay, thank you. And then I guess how will -- I guess you'll be notifying everyone that lives in the historic district about these changes? Because I was curious how property owners would know whether they're going to have to go through a design review at the director level or qualify for an exemption. >> the city manager has indicated to me he's not willing to pay me to go door-to-door anymore, but I'm going to try and get word out through the city newsletter, through the various different organizations about the new rule changes. So that folks know. And I hope for anybody having to go through the process that this will be a smoother and simpler process, but at the same time ensuring that we respect the historic character of the area. >> it's always difficult, I know, to get the notice out to residents within any area of town. >> are you suggesting that -- >> maybe some of the people here would like to knock doors with a flyer? >> are you suggesting not everyone pays attention to our city council meetings? >> I'd never say that! I'm one that likes to put the notices out. I've knocked on a lot of doors, not even during campaign season. And then the other questions I had was about roof materials, because they're not all standardized down there. And there's so many different options these days, although shingles, wood shingles are precluded by state law. So some of those seem like things that could vary from the historical nature that are on the list of design review exemptions. >> again, that's why we're looking at the structure. If we've got a structure that is historic or historically eligible, then that's something that can be elevated. So even though it says exempt, it still gets -- when building takes in the application for these types of things, it still gets routed to planning to make sure that it isn't a major change going on. Like I said earlier, if somebody is radically redoing their roof style, it's not going to be a like for like type of situation. And the other thing that we did do with the historic district commission and we utilized that provision in the code that I talked about earlier for individual issues, we went to them and said, hey, look, we're getting requests for standing seam metal roofs because of the durability, the fire resistance, so we did a lot of research about whether those -- the use of those was historically appropriate. And then we presented that to the commission and they voted to add those to the list. They did a resolution that allowed staff to then use standing seam metal roofs as an acceptable roof type whereas it hadn't been previously. >> so all of these will have some level of review. It's not like people read this list and go, oh, wait, I qualify for -- >> yes, because we look for issues. Any time a building comes in, we check. Is it going to need design review? And if it does, we say, time-out, design review first. In this case, no, this looks good, a like for like window replacement, no review required. >> well, thank you. I think it's important to review the process with residents as well. And I think that was all that I had to ask at this time. And I agree that a lot of these changes were probably needed to make staff time better utilized and shorten the time when people can move ahead with a project. that's all my questions, thank you. >> desmond, the ordinance references multiple times a cultural resources inventory. To do we actually have one? Who maintains it? >> we have a cultural resources inventory that is maintained by the city. A lot of the nominations on that were thanks to the heritage preservation league. They got a number of homes and other buildings on there, so, yeah, it is maintained. We are not -- just because of our staffing limitations, we're not going out and individually assessing different properties, but when they're brought to our extension, attention, we take them through the nomination process to add them to the cultural resources inventory. Council member rohrbough? >> I just have a comment. I want to say thank you to the staff. I know this is something I brought up a few times on the dais and off the dais about how do we streamline some processes, so I know this took some work, so I just want to say thank you for keeping your eye out. This proposed process really cuts down the time for projects to get approved for the residents to move forward and I think in the end, they're truly appreciative, so thank you to the staff. >> okay, this is a public hearing, so I'm going to open the public hearing. I think we have one request to speak? >> yes, one request from loretta hettinger. >> good evening, loretta. >> hello, good evening to all of you. Nobody objects to the reason for this ordinance, nobody. But there is reason to object to some of the contents. I'm always, as you know if you know me at all, you know I'm always an optimist, but I'm not an optimist that this ordinance will protect the history of this small town. One of the big reasons -- well, let me give examples. Maybe I should preface this by asking also is everything on the exemption list subject to a building permit? I didn't think so. The ordinance has the potential to eat away one little thing at a time at the historicity of the district. Small things don't make a difference elsewhere, but they do in the historic district. I objected to the blanket provision of fences being exempt and they did add that chain link fences are not exempt. But that leaves the door open for any other kind of a fence that might be decorated with modern art or something like that. I'm not -- if everything on that exemption list requires a building permit and if every building permit goes to the planners to figure out whether it's appropriate or not and if there is a way to say no, then it's been my concern about the ordinance that there really isn't recourse for a mistake that is made. The logistics of whether the historic district commission could object to a staff decision I think could be handled. People could be made aware when a staff gives them a decision that it needs to not -- it needs the historic district commission to not object to it. And I think that would happen 99% of the time. The other recourse that is not available to the heritage preservation league is an appeal. We are precluded, because we have no property rights affected. There is no way for someone to appeal based on historic design. And perhaps the biggest concern I have is that staff does not have the tools they need. The reason the process works as it goes through as well as it does in going through the historic district commission is that it gives time for community knowledge to come to the surface. I'll use the example of the log cabin. >> I need you to wrap it up, loretta. >> okay. Let me collect my last thought here and I'll be done. Things that are normal in other parts of the city cannot normal here. And an effort to standardize everything in the city, whether it's notification or not, isn't going to succeed in protecting the historic district. >> thank you. Okay, any other requests to speak? >> no. >> we're going to close the public hearing, take it back to my colleagues. Any other further questions for staff? >> there was a suggestion by one of the letters that we received, and this has come up before about the fact that we have a relatively inconsistent or some inconsistency in the appeals process between projects in the historic district and projects not in the historic district. Is that on the table for a revision or revisit? And this came up, and I was reminded of my own personal vote on something where we had to make a decision about whether somebody had standing. The standing in the historic district is are you an immediate neighbor to the project. Whereas in the rest of the city, it's a little more liberal. >> yeah, it's definitely stricter. And we are going to tackle that as part of the zoning code update. It's just that we didn't feel -- we felt that was a relatively controversial topic. We wanted to keep this focused really on minor design reviews. And so that's why we didn't tackle that at this point. >> gotcha. Well, visiting that topic and what the long-term structure of the planning commission and historic district commission and the composition of both of those boards would be something I'd be interested in us talking about sooner rather than later. For whatever that's worth, thank you. Nothing else. >> okay. Any other questions? otherwise I will entertain a motion. >> I'd be happy to make the motion with the modification including -- I don't have the section number in front of me. Oh, there we go. The correction to section 1752-320, the addition of (A) And (B) To that section. >> I'll second it. >> all right, any other discussion? >> I will add just from a discussion standpoint, I do appreciate the comments, and I do think the historic is a very special place. I also think we're kind of fooling ourselves when we tighten the screws so tight and then we tell people we have to get permits. I think what ends up happening is a lot of people don't get permits for things. And so we have to have some way to get people through the permit process in a timely fashion and in a cost that is commensurate with the changes or additions or the maintenance they're trying to do on their homes. So I definitely have concerns that maybe we swing it too far in one direction, and I share those concerns, but I also think we need to make it to where people can maintain their beautiful historic homes and actually permit that work instead of just choosing to say it's going to take me three months to get to it, so I'm going to see if I get caught, because I think there's a lot of that going on. >> all right, we have a motion and a second. >> leary >> yes >> raithel >> yes >> rohrbough >> yes >> kozlowski >> yes >> and aquino >> yes. >> next item, please. New business item, the water system flow control facilities. I. Resolution no. 11465-a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with abide builders for $1,463,825 from the water operating fund (Fund 520) For construction of the water system flow control facilities rehabilitation project (Wa2302). Ii. Resolution no. 11466-a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with inferrera construction management group, inc. For $409,268 from the water operating fund (Fund 520) For construction management and inspection services for the water system flow control facilities rehabilitation project (Wa2302) And appropriation of funds. >> marcus? >> thank you, krista. I'm the environmental water resources department. Just a couple quick slides to talk about the project, really about what we're doing. There's seven different locations as shown here spread throughout the city of the intersections and locations. In terms of the scope of work, we're replacing eight pressure reducing valves. One location has actually two valves at that location. installing new piping and operating valves, new vault lids, air release valves, flow meters at three of the locations, concrete replacement, pavement replacement and property restoration at these different locations. Some of the deficiencies, we have vaults that leak, pipe condition is not that great. Some of the valves have obsolete parts so you can't purchase the parts anymore. There are vaults that don't have the spring assist, so it's heavier to open when you have to get in and with the spring assist, it makes it a lot easier to open the vaults. We're removing quite a bit of the tripping hazards and some of these areas have limited accessibility. I'll show you the pictures, but it's tight and confined space and then below-ground, so these are some of the deficiencies. You can see on the left those pipes sticking above ground, tripping hazards. The portion along the bottom is the vault cover. So if they don't have a spring assist, it's a lot heavier to lift, which obviously can pose potential hazard for our employees. You can see the leaking in the vault on the picture on the right. This is a couple of pictures just showing the space that is within each -- not all of them, but most of the facilities. So it's not easy to work in and around this space with one person let alone if you need two in there to remove one of the valves. this is what a proposed installation would look like. This is from a project back in '22. I believe this is along auburn/folsom. You can see the piping and everything is going to be done now aboveground, which is obviously a lot easier to access and safer for our team to work in and around. And then those areas that are located aboveground will have an enclosure to looks similar to this and we'll find the right color for each of the locations and you can see the restoration that occurred with the plant material in and around that particular location. So each one of these will look similar to this. And with that, I will answer any questions you MAY have. >> any questions for marcus? I'll start on this end. >> no questions. >> any questions over here? In any all right, we need two separate motions. >> I will move approval of 11465. >> second. >> motion and a second. >> leary >> yes >> raithel >> yes >> rohrbough >> yes >> kozlowski >> yes >> and aquino >> yes. >> I will also move forward for approval of resolution 11466. >> a motion and a second. Please call the roll. >> leary >> yes >> raithel >> yes >> rohrbough >> yes >> kozlowski >> yes >> and aquino >> yes. >> thank you. Next item, please. >> new business, item 8. 8. Resolution no. 11467-a resolution approving reimbursement of general fund subsidy toward affordable housing by transferring $615,000 from the folsom housing fund (Fund 238) To the capital facilities fund (Fund 602) Relating to the discounted sale of 300 persifer street property to habitat for humanity of greater sacramento and appropriation of funds. >> good evening, mayor, members of the city council, pam johns, community development director. This is a lengthy title for a pretty simple task which is just to repay the general fund for a qualifying sale of city property for affordable housing, so I'm just going to take a moment to walk through a little history of how we got here and why we're in the repayment versus just tackling it at the outset. Our persifer site, 300 persifer site, is on the northeast corner of persifer and coloma street and the city bought it in the '60s for a lot of city purposes. It was used for fire stations, city hall annex, et cetera. It sat vacant for several years and then council approved the demolition of the building after the city hall campus was built and the site was no longer needed. So in 2020, city council declared the land as surplus for the specific purpose of trying to finally achieve a for-sale affordable housing project in the city. And that was the same year the state enacted a lot of new laws relative to the required process when a city goes to declare land as surplus or dispose of land, sell it essentially. And you have to offer it up for the same purposes the city council had decided, and so we went through one of the first full processes in the state to dispose of the 300 persifer site. We had two qualifying applications or proposals for the property and the city council selected habitat for humanity to build ten for-sale homes on that site which would be subdivided into five properties. For the next two-and-a-half years, habitat went through the process of doing design review for the homes, getting their financing in line, improving the site, finalizing the map or subdivision of the property and ultimately purchased the land from us at the end of 2024. And then in 2025, they have now constructed those homes and will start occupancy in NOVEMBER. And so it's exciting to see the successful completion of that process, because at the council meeting, there was doubt about whether it could happen, so this shows a little bit about what that looks like for anyone who is not familiar. At the time we decided on the transfer sale cost for the property, this is the information that was presented to the city council, which was that the habitat model is really to receive the land almost at little or no cost in order for them to successfully achieve their model. And so what we did was present the cost estimate that habitat had prepared for what it would take to develop the site with ten for-sale affordable housing units. And we compared it to the subsidy that we had been approving for long-term low-interest loans on multi-family units. So we were paying or are paying still about $55,000 a door for a 55-year deed restriction on affordable housing multi-family units. And what we were looking at as a comparable was $61,000 in a subsidy for a reduced price on the land sale. So that's how the city council arrived at the $10,000 cost for what was valued at $625,000 for this site. So at that time,er , we were accepting, we owned the property, we were accepting essentially a $10,000 payment and that went into the general fund. So what we're doing now is recognizing that our housing fund, which is robust, over $23 million in balance, is a qualifying expense to buy and sell property for the purposes of developing affordable housing. And we've had that conversation with this city council in the last several months. And so you asked us, come back please and let's transfer that money back to the general fund, because it's a qualifying expense of the housing fund and this was a qualifying project. And so that's what we're doing here with this resolution is just asking for that repayment from the housing fund to the general fund for the difference between the estimated value presubdivision at 625 and the price that was paid at $10,000. So that would be a transfer of $615,000 and we have, as I mentioned, $22 million in our housing fund balance. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. >> any questions for pam? >> I just have a question about the process under which people would usually request to use money out of that housing fund. Because this seems like it was done -- giving them land is something that's probably not going to happen again in the future, so would it have been and will it be in the future a process whereby when someone comes forward and the city is willing to donate some of the land or use some of the land, would the city repay the value of the land out of the housing fund into the general fund? From the get-go. Because this was very confusing. >> that's a great question. And one of the things I was reminded of by our housing manager today is that five, six years ago when we were talking about this, we didn't have $23 million sitting in that fund. we had, like, five or six million dollars. And every year, we were getting about 3 to 4 million request, so we didn't have this amount of money to invest in those solutions, whatever the city council priorities were. Now we do. And I think that opens the door for us to explore lots of different options for how we might achieve city council objectives and our housing needs at the same time. So I think now we're broadening our look at what we can achieve with those housing dollars where more traditionally we've used them for pretty exclusively for long-term low-interest loans for deed restriction of affordable housing units that are multi-family. >> and there is potentially some date at which we won't have such a large amount in those funds as they are coming in from developer impact fees. >> yes. We did a projection of the buildout of the remaining vacant lots and there would be at least another $25 million projected to come in to that fund. And then the fund starts replenishing as those long-term low-interest loans get paid back, but most of the loan terms are such that we don't get paid back for ten, 20 years in that 30-year loan term, even towards the very end. So eventually, we will have the money back in there to keep being able to loan it for those purposes, but we don't expect that this will get -- this fund will get drained any time soon. >> okay, soon being within five to ten years? >> within the buildout of the city. >> thank you very much. >> we're talking about a fund that has 22 million in it, but this money is legally restricted and can only be used to fund affordable housing projects. >> yes, for housing purposes. >> vice mayor raithel? >> which is my next question! Let me start with thank you for finally getting this on the agenda. I know we've been talking about it for a long time. The project itself looks really good. And I enjoyed the day we spent out on-site working on the project together. Habitat's got a great model. The fund 602, the capital facilities fund, it's being moved here instead of the general fund which was the $10,000, originally moved to general fund, that capital facilities fund is unrestricted and we'll be able to use it on parks, buildings, cars, anything we want going forward? >> yes, I think the city manager will answer that. >> yes, that's correct. I mean, essentially, the fund 602 is funds that have been transferred out of the general fund into that account. >> we're just setting it there so we don't use it on ongoing costs like personnel? >> that's correct. And the thought is one-time revenues for one-time costs. >> thank you. >> any other questions? >> yes, just what are the restrictions for fund 602? >> it's pretty wide open. Since it's a general fund, I mean, we have -- we're going to rename the funds. Capital facility fund is misleading. It's facility maintenance, you know. So it's for any of our facilities throughout the city that the council would deem would be appropriate. >> okay. That answers my question, thank you. >> council member rohrbough, did you have a question? No requests to speak on this item? >> no. >> vice mayor raithel? Would you like to do the honors? >> I would be immensely pleased to move resolution 11467. >> second. >> please call the roll. >> leary >> yes >> raithel >> yes >> rohrbough >> yes >> kozlowski >> absolutely >> and aquino >> yes, thank you. 9. Resolution no. 11471-a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with california wood recycling, inc., dba agromin, for an estimated $45 million for up to 15 years from the solid waste operating fund (Fund 540) For long-term organic waste diversion services. >> good evening, mayor, and members of the council. I'm your general services manager, and I'm going to talk about the long-term organics processing contract proposal. So the agreement before you this evening is estimated to cost about $45 million over the course of 15 years. It's an agreement with agromin for the processing of the city's residential organic waste that is collected each week in the green bin. It also covers the material collected through our bulk waste program and the $45 million is based on the amount of estimated organic waste between now and the end of the 15-year period including growth for development. It also accounts for consumer price index increase which is maxed at 5% per year. And it would start as a ten-year term agreement with an optional five-year extension upon mutual agreement. So I want to point out that this agreement is associated with waste collection services, so as a utility, there is no impact to the general fund. It would be paid 100% from the solid waste fund. The agreement is the result of a joint procurement process with the county of sacramento and