May 20, 2025 6:00 PM - Redding City Council - Regular Meeting

>>Well, good evening, everybody. We're back from closed session and there is no reportal action. So we'll close that and then we'll open this meeting. If anyone wishes to address city council on any item considered at this meeting before or during council's consideration of that item, please enter your name in the electronic kiosk located in the lobby. City council will allocate up to a maximum of 3 minutes per speaker for each agenda item. Staff reports are available online at the city's website, cityredding.gov or in the public view minder located on the podium at the north side of the chambers. So thank you for that. All right, we'll stand for the roll call. >>Stand for roll call. >>He was just making sure you guys are all awake. >>Oh. All right. Pledge of allegiance. Let's go. Then Tom Winslow will talk to us. All right. >>Ready? Begin. >>I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >>Isn't this a great day? >>Yes. >>Isn't this a great day? >>Yes. >>Come on now. >>Not alone. >>Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you on behalf of this meeting. We ask God that this meeting be fruitful, that we do the things that we need to do for our community and our city. This is the prayer that I have and I pray that it's for you as well in Jesus name, amen. >>All right. What do we got going on back there? Good grief. All right, roll call. >>[ ROLL CALL ] >>All right. Pursuant to the Brown act, the city council will allocate up to a maximum of 3 minutes per speaker for 30 minutes total at the beginning of the meeting for public comment on non agendized matters within the city's jurisdiction. The mayor will determine the order of speakers. If 30 minutes is not adequate to accommodate all of the individuals who have submitted a speaker request form to the city clerk, the council will trail this item to the end of open session agenda. The remaining speakers will address the city council at that time. Do we have any speakers? Huh? Yeah. Eight. Okay. All right, here we go. Mr. Waite. And then Robert Sid. Next. Yeah, yeah. Dan Wait. You're up to the lectern. >>Good evening, members. Might as well get started off first, huh? My name is Dan Waite. I'm here on behalf of the Park Marina Village Homeowners association, which consists of 12 homeowners in a private gated community. We all own our Homes and are mostly retired. These homes were built in the early 60s and are on the land owned by the Kutras family, the Kutras family Trust. We have a lease through around 2045. We've recently been made aware of a development map that shows what I'll refer to as the Blue Line and it's on a map provided by Jeremy Pagan to us. That blue line is a proposed city street pedestrian walk path and a pedestrian bridge crossing the river and lit that goes to the Roundhouse pond. That proposed road and walk trail goes right through our private community which is gated and fenced. This blue line, which would be a street, a path and a path would interfere with our parking, our driveways, our privacy and our safety. The feasibility of this proposed blue line is, is non existent. I have spoke with Chris Kras regarding this and he has no intentions of selling this property or allowing this to happen without his cooperation. I don't. We don't think the project can happen. Our intent of being here is to request that the City Redding Development Department revise the map and remove the blue line that goes through our community. Our board member members have spoke with Jeremy Pagan regarding this and he assures us that this project can never happen. Although the Blue Line is still there, the City of Reddinging's in no position to purchase the land or for the houses that are in there. Of the 12 homeowners, this blue Line is hurting our home values and potential sales of our community. Potential buyers aren't inclined to purchase with that type of proposed development tact. I suggest that the council members take a field trip to see this property and that will show why it's not a feasible project. Our members have recently raised the fences and the gates to keep intruders out and, and to keep our members safe. We just spent $25,000 on fencing and gates and security doing this, which doesn't sound like a lot of money, but we're all retired and it is, it is a substantial amount. This improvement was sparked by constant intruders and ultimately my, my Ford truck being stolen out of my, out of my parking spot last April. Our 12 homeowners, which mostly are retired and own their own homes outright, don't want any foot traffic, vehicle traffic in our gated community. And our privacy and safety is very important to us. I ask on behalf of the members to review this quickly and remove the blue line going through our community. And again, my name is Dan Waite. I'm the president of the Park Marina Homeowners association and I'm also A homeowner in there. My phone number is available if anybody wants to make a. An appointment to come out and visit the site. It's. It's just a very private, unique community that it has no room for a proposed trail, a pedestrian trail or city street as it's noted on the map. So it would be a good idea to take a look and see what we're looking. I mean, It's. There's. There's 12ft, 12 to 14ft between my front door and the curb that goes to the pond where the roundhouse is. So there's just no room for anything like that. So thank you. That's all I have. >>Thank you. Which map are you referring to? >>Yeah, yeah, I have some maps. I have a couple of maps. >>This is also referring item 9.4A. This is your reading riverfront specific plan, which is going to be presented to you later in the day. >>Yeah, just for. For clarity, on our map, it says that it's a street. It currently is a street, isn't it? There's currently a. You have to get to your property. There's a street there. >>I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time hearing you. >>So currently on. On this map, the blue line's a city street. There's currently a city street there. I think it's just indicating that's the street that gets you to your. To those. >>It's actually private property, but. >>So the objection is that it says city street, not just street. >>The blue line says it's a city street. >>It's not. It's just a street. But it's not a city street, is it? Is what you're. >>It's not a street going through there. Sorry. It's our parking. >>But you have to drive in. Is that what it. What does it delineating here? >>We. Could we come in off a park? >>It'll be fully discussed. Yeah, yeah, okay. >>But that's what you're talking about and we'll get the answer for you. >>We're talking about the line that goes right into our complex and the blue line. The blue line that goes in and it goes to a dead end of the peninsula and then there's a waterway that. At the 44 bridge. So the proposed plan shows a walk path and a pedestrian bridge going across that waterway and underneath the 44 bridge. >>All right, thank you. Thank you, Robert. Sid, you're up. Lisa Winton, you're next. >>Good evening, council. I had three items to speak on and I wasn't sure I hadn't been here. For a while. So there were two other. I was going to talk about the riverfront draft and the tree ordinance, but those aren't until later. I understand. So if I make it past my 9 o' clock bedtime, then I'll speak on this. But first off, as far as the Amazon is looking for a distribution hub. In Redding, this would be great for Redding. It'll increase notoriety and provide much needed jobs both in their facility, working in their facility and as delivery drivers. I urge the council to support this business and not put up any unnecessary roadblocks to discourage them. And then I have the other two items which I'll speak on later. Thank you. >>Thank you. Lisa, you're up. Scott, you're next. >>Am I at the right spot? Sorry. Hi. I am here with a heavy heart to voice my concern with running recreation summer camps for our children in an ADA violation that affects my son and many other children in our community. My son is epileptic and we have requested that he be able to have his rescue nasal inhaler available at camp in case he were to have a seizure while attending medication that I am asking be allowed as administered as a nasal inhaler and would stop a seizure, preventing it from becoming a medical emergency and would limit the trauma to other children and staff having to witness a prolonged seizure. My request for accommodation was addressed, but to my disappointment, not in a realistic manner for my family or most families in the community. The only accommodation offered was to have myself, a member of family or friend, accompany my son to the camp daily so that they would be able to administer the medication if needed. This is not a realistic accommodation, as most of you can imagine. If we as parents had someone to be with our children, we would not be seeking out summer camps. I understand that not everyone in the camp may be able to be trained and it is a cost, but not everyone would need to be trained. There would only need to be several people on campus at all times trained so that they could administer the medications for these children. Redditing Recreation already has a policy in place for EpiPens and asthma inhalers to be accepted the camp and used as needed. I'm only asking that a reasonable accommodation be made for his nasal inhaler to stop a seizure if one was to happen. We as a community look for a safe place for our children when we are not able to be with them. And I believe making this accommodation would make this a safer place for children. And so I am pleading with you to have this determination reconsidered and allow these Inhalers for our children to keep them safe. Thank you. I would just like to point you in the direction of Director Many, who is over there in a red tie and a blue coat, and I'm sure that he would love to hear from you. If I would just also note Director Webb is actually the ADA coordinator for these purposes. He's also in the back of the room. Room there. I'm sure that they would both like to talk to you. And council would love a followup, I'm sure, which you could email us. Thank you. >>Thank you. >>I mean, I don't see any reason or objection to that. In fact, that could be life saving. So thank you, Dr. Danuka. I appreciate that. >>Scout, you're up. Joe Fernari, you're on deck. >>Hello. I'm a taxpayer and a resident in Redding, California, and I'm here to demand that this city take action to stop supporting genocide. Right now in Gaza, children are starving to death. Entire families have been wiped out. As I speak here, over 14,000 children, babies, mind you, are facing death by famine within just a few days. Not because of natural disaster, but because of a deliberate military siege and total blockade. This is not a crisis. It is a genocide. And it is being carried out with full support from US Weapons, US Tech and US Corporations reading cannot claim neutrality. Our city uses public dollars, our tax dollars, to contract with corporations, invest funds and procure equipment. And if those dollars are going to companies that are arming Israel or enabling genocide, like Amazon, Lockheed Martin or Motorola, to name a few, then we, all of us, are complicit. I'm calling on this council to divest from any and all companies complicit in the genocide in Gaza, to pass a resolution affirming Palestinian human rights and condemning genocide, and to demand full transparency on city investments, contracts and procurement practices so the public can see exactly where our money is going and have a say in stopping genocide by cutting them off at their funding sources. We cannot afford to sit silent while our dollars fuel war crimes and genocide. Every single one of you, everyone in the audience, everyone sitting up here in their positions of power, we all have a choice. Ignore this genocide or take a stand against it and do the right thing. Later on, I'll be speaking on two other items that will specify exactly how this board or this council is funding genocide. I really urge you to listen because we have the power to do something. We are not powerless. Thank you. >>Joe Finari, you are up. Nick Garner, you're on deck. >>Good evening. My name is. Excuse me. My name is Joe Finari. I'm the Vice president of the Shasta Growers association for the past four years. I would like to take this moment to express our gratitude to the City of Reddingading for its integral role and continued partnership with the sga. The city staff creates a new design for our marketing posters each year and provides us with signage for the weekly entertainment, Entertainment and Chef at the Market lineup. Farmers Market is one of the oldest certified markets in California, proudly celebrating over 46 years of success. This year, SGA is recognizing National Farmers Market Week August 2nd through the 9th. National Farmers Market Week is an annual celebration that highlights the importance of farmers markets in the nation's food system. It's a week long event typically held during the first full week of August and aims to boost market attendance, showcase the value of farmers markets and connect with our community with communities. We would like to invite all of you to join us in kicking off this special week. On August 2, we have planned some special events. Chef at the Market, a local restaurateur will demonstrate her culinary skills with most products purchased at our market. We have live music, performances and a bit of fun and community engagement. We've reserved a dunk tank. We're toying with the idea of marking this activity as Dunk the City Council Member. It promises to be a refreshing change of pace and we hope you all participate. I volunteer my mayor any. >>I second that. >>Any feedback. We have also invited state dignitaries as well. Thank you for your time and we look forward to celebrating National Farmers Week together. I have here some invitations I'll give to the clerk and Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. >>Count me in. >>Thank you. >>Mr. Garner. Jacqueline Treadway, you are on deck. >>Open space isn't open. You know, we spent millions of dollars building that recreational area down there and there was some phony excuse that there was water damage. A friend of mine hiked down there and he said it can be cleaned up in just a day with a with a small garden tractor. So it appears to me that the reason it's not open is because of the construction trucks going in and out of the cancer center there. And you could take and build a temporary road from the two gates that are about 50 yards from the entrance and cut it over to there to where we could get into our new pond open space. And that would be really nice. I like to go down there and a lot of my friends like to go down there while I'm here. It seems like there's a disproportionate share of our unhoused population over across the river, especially along Churn Creek Road in Hilltop. And it doesn't seem fair when I drive along there and see people sleeping in doorways and I go downtown, you might see one or two. I just I wonder why that is. And I started thinking about him with this hot weather coming up and wouldn't it be nice to make this a cooling center here for him? You could have them sit in here and keep cool and have snacks up there on the tables for them. So it's just something to think about. Thank you. >>Thanks Nick. Jacqueline, you're up. John Wilson on deck. >>Hi, I'm Jacqueline Treadway. Last time I came I informed you of the least served and the greatest with the greatest innate potential of all the homeless sub communities. The autistic whose talents Governor Newsom proclaimed April should be at the center of developmental services. At this time there is no program nationally that addresses, provides for or inspires this community. Accept the innovative model of Developing DIAMONDS community conceived here in Redding. This comprehensive program was a result of a traditional thinking public collaborating with this uniquely creative divergent homeless community, satisfying the needs of both as this pilot project. There is of course no empirical data on its success, but all empirical and anecdotal data indicate this common sense approach will be highly successful for only $5,816 per person for environmental food and volunteers and housing needed for the beginning stage of this project. Adding well paid professional employees makes the cost comparable to the cost of unsuccessful programs. With a collaboration of Redding and Shasta county, we can become a national model of how to generate more success for less money than what is spent on shelter alone with a little future for the homeless. Also, if we act quickly, we should qualify for a share of the $920 million being offered by Governor Newsom to cities with proactive community based programs. In the Developing Diamonds three phase program we can be available to the homeless almost immediately, not three years from now while the other for the other program that's been funded while our current resources sources are drained. While the current resources are drained, the savings from the first stage plus the financial contribution of graduating community assets developed in phase three would have the best impact on clearing the debris of homelessness from our parks and while relocating them to an appropriate waiting room until each homeless is admitted into an appropriate housing or developmental program of their choice to evolve into the program has been endorsed by many homeless and public service associates, including the ex Chairman of the At Home Committee who has served also on the planning commissions of both Redding and Shasta county since this program resolves a national dilemma. Many, many may come to learn to look at it and learn from it. And adjacent tourism may grow as reading becomes an example of the creative, innovative and humane beauty resulting from the consultation of diverse and diverse thinkers and problem solvers. >>Okay, thank you, John. You are. >>Good evening, council. I just wanted to thank you for getting started on the only creek bridge. I live down there. It's been treacherous and I don't know all the problems that happened, but it probably wasn't your fault. It was probably somebody that dug up something, stopped the project. But you have a quality contractor down. There and they'll be done on time. It won't be like a lot of things, things that's been done lately. I appreciate that. Thank you. >>Thank you. All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Now, we do have a couple of speakers, so I'll just read this and then they can chat. The consent element contains items considered routine and or which have been individually scrutinized by city council members and are anticipated to require no further deliberation. If a member of the public wishes to address an item on the consent calendar, please enter your name in the electronic kiosk located in the lobby. Before the consent calendar is considered, it shall be the prerogative of any council member before the consent calendar is acted upon to comment on an item. Two, respond to any public comment on an item three, request the record reflect an abstention or a nay vote on an item or number four, remove the item and place it on a regular portion of the agenda for delivery of a staff report and or extended discussion. Does anybody want to pull anything or. Yep, go ahead. 1.4.1. Yeah, yeah, hold on. So 4.10B. Okay. >>Sorry. Is it closed because of flooding damage? >>Yeah, we have flooding damage plus the bridge, the walking bridge. Is that off its foundation? >>It's office foundation. >>It's been kicked across and so we're working with the state to see if they're going to fund some the improvements are the cleanups. Meanwhile, public works and community services also working on it in case they don't respond plan so that we can open up at least as best as possible. >>Is it possible to do like a press release so the public knows why it's not open? >>Yeah, we can update that information through socials, through social media or something and a press release. >>I got. I actually got a few calls asking if it was the same thing. Is it the cancer construction that's closed it? >>Yeah, no, we can certainly update the community on what's going on. >>Awesome. Okay. And then on 4.1C which is the project with Amazon. So for, for the public's consumption. I know this is on the consent because it's been worked on for a while, but this is to go into escrow. >>Yes, that's correct. So once we execute that, Amazon's already executed it, we'll go into escrow. We're currently working with their team on building permits and the those types of things. And so during their due diligence they'll complete that and when they're satisfied, then they likely will close escrow and start construction. >>About a 30 day escrow is estimated. >>We don't know. Their due diligence actually allows for up to a year of review because they want to look at everything and. But that doesn't mean they'll take that long. So that's really up to their team and how fast they want to get through that process. They're currently working on it. >>Okay, so when do you. Will that come back or will we just see that there's construction going on. And we'll keep the council up to date on that and we'll work with Amazon because clearly we want them to be their own messenger. Don't want to necessarily speak for them. >>I did get a postcard for work at Amazon, so he's looking for that. Okay. And then item 4 to A for Turo. Turo is a kind of like an Airbnb but for rental cars. So you can put your car. Can rent your own car and we're going to have that at the airport. It said that there's a 10% concession. Do those and that goes to the airport. Is that correct? >>Yes, that is correct. >>And Turo. That's right. Turo is the one that's kind of like you rent your own car, you just leave it there. Is 10% what we charge for the rental cars? >>No. Well, it's a. Those are gross receipts based also. >>So yeah, I mean I believe they run 8 to 10%. And that just goes straight into the airports. >>Correct. >>It's airport generated revenue goes to the airport. >>Okay. And then I pulled 410B and then 4 11D. I had a question about. Oh, the cal recycling. I just had a. I don't know if Paul's still here, but I just. Is this going to replace that very large machine that does all the sorting? Is that what's being replaced? >>That is correct. We're replacing what's called. It's called the mrf. It's a material. Yeah, it's sorting for all the recyclables. So that thing's like 25 years old. >>It's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. So that's what's going to be replaced with this? >>Correct. >>Okay, just want to clarify. All right, you want to add that to the other four. >>Four, ten to the thing. Where do I put that one, though? >>Huh? >>9,10. >>Well, we had a comment on that, too. Is that the one we had a comment on? >>Have a comment on a couple of them. >>Okay. >>Yeah, we'll start here. Scout, you're up on this one. >>So just goes to 910. >>Hello. So for this. This is for agenda item 4.1 C for the Amazon land sale. I'm here to demand that you do not move forward with this land sale to Amazon. This land is stolen. It's Wintu land. Never sold, never ceded. And once again, the city of Redding has moved forward, as far as I know, without consulting any tribe. That's not just oversight, that's erasure. Now you're considering or moving forward into escrow for selling 34 acres to Amazon, a corporation that is directly contracted with the Israeli military under Project Nimbus. This contract provides the infrastructure for surveillance, targeting, and attacks that have slaughtered tens of thousands of Palestinians. And right now, as we sit in this room Once again, over 14,000 babies in Gaza are on the brink of death from famine because of the blockade from Israel, one deemed inhumane and a violation of international war laws. Babies are starving. People are being burned alive. And Amazon is helping it happen. This is not just about jobs or development. This is about genocide. And if you approve and move forward with this deal, you are making our entire city complicit in this genocide. There will be blood on all of our hands. Amazon extracts, it exploits workers, it partners with war machines, and now it wants to put a flag in this community while it profits off of genocide and stolen indigenous land. As a taxpayer of this city, I demand that you do not let Redding become another cog in a system of global. Global violence, of genocide, and of ethnic cleansing. Reject this deal. End the escrow. Don't move forward. Stop pretending that this is progress. It's blood money. And moving forward with this means blood will be on all of our hands. Thank you. >>All right, we entertain a motion to. You got any more? There was two you listed. We have one other more. 4.10. Okay. All right. I have a motion to accept the consent calendar? >>Can I make a comment? >>Sure. >>I just want to tell you that I Personally say that I hear you. And it's heartbreaking what's happening to the innocent people. Of course the terrorists must be punished. But what's happening to the innocent people is heartbreaking. But I'm not sure that we in the city have the jurisdiction to right any wrongs at that scale. Additionally, it's not just Amazon, those things. The state, the federal government, pretty much every corporation. I don't know how city can address those things. So my suggestion to you is to really take these things where they belong, which is a state at a federal level. But I do hear you. I wanted to tell you that I do hear you. >>Thank you. >>Just for the record, 4.2B will be moved to June 3rd, correct? >>Yep. >>All right. So except for 9 point or 4.10 B, real motion to. For the consensus. >>Yes. >>I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar with those exceptions. >>I'll second. >>All in favor? >>Aye. >>All right, here we go. All right. Thank you. All in favor? Passes for five zero. All right, we are moving on to the regular agenda, starting with 9.2 C. Consider Norcome Care administrative entity resignation. Mr. Tippen. >>Yes. So this is going to be taken by our community development manager, Nicole Smith. And before she goes, I just. I just want to thank her before she gives the presentation and the rest of her staff for all the work that they've done on this over the last few years, a year and a half. In particular, Shawna Flanagan, who has been stellar in the work that she's done. There's been a lot of work to coordinate all the counties and do all that. She's just done a fantastic job. She's newer to our organization and we're so happy that she's here. And with that, I'll hand it over to Nicole and I'm sure she'll do a stellar job as well. >>All right. Good evening, honorable mayor, members of the City Council, item 9.2 C this evening is a request for council to approve a formal letter to the NORCAL Continuum of Care stating that the city will no longer serve as the administrative entity effective December 31, 2025. To provide some background, in June of 2023, Shasta county submitted a letter of resignation to the NorCal State indicating it would no longer serve as the administrative entity. Subsequently, on August 15, 2023, the City Council authorized staff to assist the NorCal CSC with the submission of the annual Continuum of Care grant application through the U.S. department of Housing and Urban Development. Following the following month, council approved the city to act as the interim administrative entity for a two year term set to expire on September 19, 2025. Following several discussions with the Continuum of Care Executive Board, it became clear that the cost for the city to perform to perform these duties appears to be significantly higher than what would be incurred by other entities, including a non profit entity. In response, the Executive board approved the issuance of a request for proposals to identify a new administrative entity. The RFP was published on March 24, 2025 and closed on May 8. However, no proposals were received at the May 19 executive board meeting. A new action. A new action item was introduced to reissue the RFP to the community, this time encouraging submissions from entities interested in serving as smaller territories for a continuum. This approach may allow for more localized administrative entity structures, potentially covering fewer than the current seven counties. And those current seven counties are Shasta, Siskiyou, Del Norte, Modoc, Lassen, Sierra and Plumas. Staff believes this revised RFP strategy will attract a brighter. Excuse me. A broader range of qualified applicants and may result in improved local oversight and streamlined coordination for state and federal grant programs. The executive board approved this action by a simple majority vote and the RFP will be reissued shortly pending consultation with the city attorney's office. In conclusion, due to the upcoming expiration of the city's memorandum of understanding with the Executive Board, staff recommends that the city formally notify the Continuum that it will not continue in the administrative entity role beyond December 31, 2025. Thank you. This concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions. >>Council member Audette >>Hi. Okay. So do they think that that strategy is going to work and that we'll be able to get a bidder based on dividing up the counties? Well, since we've been having this discussion with the executive board, so staff has reached out to other entities in the community. They are interested. We. Even before the other, the original RFP closed, we had spoken to a couple of different interested parties, but then the. The RFP closed without anyone putting in a proposal for it. Since that time, we've also had conversations with different entities that would either be interested in doing a seven county or a smaller county situation. So we think there will be a number of nonprofits applying for the next rfp. >>So, couple questions. One, would the city apply for a smaller jurisdiction? Is there any. Are we done? >>That would be up to you. >>Okay, so we're done. Okay. And then is the county going? Would the county apply if it was just for Shasta County? Do we know that? >>You know, we really haven't heard from Shasta county, if that would be something they'd be interested in doing. >>Okay. >>I know there have been some nonprofits that were interested in doing that just for Shasta County. Yeah. >>And have. In the executive meetings. Have they? So. Because what happens if they do divide that up and someone takes some of the others, but not us, then it just. Who takes it over? >>I think what we'll do is based on some of the conversations that we've had, I think all counties would be taken by someone. >>Okay. All right. Thank you. >>Thank you. >>All right. >>Make a. I'll make a motion to authorize and approve items one through three as stated in the staff reports. >>Second. >>Okay. We have first and a second. All in favor? >>Aye. >>Thank you. >>Thank you, nicole. All right. 9.4 a. Consider the reading Riverfront Specific Plan Emergent concepts by the city of Redding. Mr. Pagan. >>Good evening, honorable mayor, members of the council and community members. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jeremy Pagan. I'm the director of development services for the city. And tonight we're here to talk about the Riverfront Specific Plan update. Tonight really represents, you know, an important milestone as we attempt to take all of the community's feedback and input that we've received, really, in the last 18 months or so and coalesce them into some emerging ideas and concepts for council's consideration. I just want to take a quick minute to highlight community engagement, then I'm going to pass it off to our consultant team. But over this past year and a half, we've done a lot of extensive engagement with the community, really equating to hundreds of hours of staff time. We've had multiple open houses that have been well attended with some of you in this room. Hundreds of attendees showed up. For those. We formed a community coalition of nearly 20 members of the community, representing a broad range of interests and ownerships and ideas. We had multiple meetings over multiple months that we were actually able to live stream to the Internet. We have had online and in person surveys that have been well. That have been well put forth and the community's taking part in those. We've got hundreds of responses on the surveys. We have a good website with lots of information on it for public comments. We've also done a lot of interviews with stakeholder groups, individually and collectively. And most recently, we had a community workshop just two weeks ago that was well attended as well. We had 100 plus members of our community show up and give their ideas. In fact, at that workshop, this was largely a preview of what council is going to see tonight. And in fact, in the last couple weeks, we've taken some of the feedback from that workshop already and made a couple of refinements that you'll see in the presentation we give to you tonight. So all that, I want to say thank you to the community members thus far for your involvement, for your input, for your ideas, for your agreements, for your disagreements. All of it's been really good. And I definitely want to thank staff for all their hard work. Members of our planning, public works and community services team have put in a lot of time in this already, and we still have a little ways to go. And certainly thank our consultant team behind me, Dan and Daniel from MiG. And so with that, I'm going to introduce, I think next up is Daniel with MiG. They're going to dive deeper into the details and of the course myself, and then we'll be available for questions at the end of the presentation. So with that, Daniel, I'll have you take it away. >>Thank you very much, Jeremy. And members of the city council, all the commissions of the city, the staff, and most of all, the residents of the community of Redding. This has been a fantastic learning experience for us and an opportunity to serve the community the best way we know how to bring forth our technical expertise, which covers a number of disciplines. Urban planning, environmental planning and science, design, transportation, economics. We have tribal liaison special consultants working on that aspect of the community, and also economists, too, to help us analyze the economic impacts of our proposals. Now, we have a lot to cover this evening, and I will be very quick in terms of what we cover here. As an initial overview of the presentation and the materials, my colleague, Dan Amstad, will go into much greater detail on the concepts. Now, through this process, we've met many, many passionate people and they've informed this what we're calling a strategic plan or specific plan framework. It is not a complete plan. It is still very much in process and nothing is in concrete by any means. We have a long way to go in order to finalize this whole effort. So tonight we're presenting initial concepts that we've distilled from all the many activities in this planning process. And we'll be giving you and the council and everybody in the community an update on the process. Nothing is final, and we're here to essentially continue the community discussion and stimulate more. Before we get into a lot of the details, we wanted to highlight some of the activities that we've gone through in order to reach this point here this evening. So you have a map of the study area illustrated on the screen and the planning process diagram that we've referred to many times, starting with the coalition back in 2023 at the end of the year. And ultimately here we are a year and a half later with still more to go, and we're at this point here in the process. We hope that by the end of this year we'll be able to bring forward a draft plan for consideration by the Planning Commission, the City Council, and as well as everyone in the community of Redding. So you can see we're hopefully moving towards that final stage, just to bring forward some of the great excitement and energy that was present as we launched the process back in August of 2023. And you can see there at the Civic a great outpouring of community interest. The coalition meetings that we had really set the vision framework into motion. And I'll talk a little bit about the key points there that have been the guiding light for the concepts that we've been developing so far. There are a lot of components to this plan, not the least of which is the Indigenous listening session that we held early in January of 2024. And we do celebrate and honor and respect the tribal engagement that we've had. We're looking to continue that process, and we hope this is a beginning of an ongoing dialogue about the use of these resources, the stewardship of the lands, and the role that the Indigenous communities can play throughout this effort. So we definitely want to encourage the city council and staff to continue to encourage that level of engagement. We also have examples here from the workshops that we've conducted, using maps and other tools to gather community feedback. A lot of visual imagery we brought forward in order to demonstrate what other communities have done, not to copy them, but to learn from those examples and bring that energy and possibility here to the city of Redding. We know that no one is looking for major grand development on the riverfront. That is not something we've heard. It is not something we are recommending. We want to keep this in scale and in accordance with the visions that have been put forward by community members. At the same time, there's room for improvement to better protect the environment, to better utilize the facilities that are there, such as the rodeo and the civic Auditorium. And we celebrate the fact that you, as city council, have made that deal with the rodeo, to take that issue of whether they're going to stay or leave off the table, because they're definitely part of this vision moving forward. And that was something we heard loud and clear. We did talk to many interest groups as you see listed there. And we again thank all of you for participating throughout the process. Jeremy referred to the website, and that's been a great source of feedback as well. We hope to continue using that tool to gather more feedback far and wide. So the vision framework that emerged from the initial round of meetings with the coalition is illustrated here. And we truly have been using that as a framework to guide the specific planning elements that are part of what we call the specific plan, which is basically a roadmap to the future. It is not a series of development projects that get launched here. This is a planning framework that looks at the development standards, the protection of the environmental resources there, the building codes and other elements that will make up the guide work and guiding framework for future development that might come forward from property owners and the city and others that would be interested in using this incredible resource. So it is an aspirational framework. It consists of these seven elements, starting with the need to protect the resilient natural environment that is the Redding Riverfront. And it is clearly something that community members in the coalition. We formed and the reflection here that was capturing all of the principles under this element. We wanted to start with that because that is fundamental and that's the reason why the city is here in the first place, why so many people over thousands of years have come to this very spot because of its rich resource and environmental capabilities. So there's a series of principles there to protect the natural environment. And we intend to follow that all the way through with the specific plan. And that not to say we can't develop in a way that's harmonious with the environment. There are ways to do that in our initial proposals start to illustrate that possibility again mentioning and featuring and highlighting the respect for the Indigenous community, past, present and future. And again, want to thank all of the members of the tribes that have participated in the various sessions that we've had. And what we've learned from them is absolutely critical in our understanding of this incredible resource. And so, like in Vision Element A, this is talking about how we can respect the Indigenous community and the role they can play in stewardship of these lands and the resources that exist there along the river. Element C talks about making this economically viable and thriving. So we can have visions, but it has to make economic sense. It has to be viable. That's why we have an economist on the team to evaluate the land use proposals at every step of the way. We have more to do in this category, and we're going to bring that analysis forward as we bring forward the actual draft strategic plan, hopefully later this year. But we're looking at the viability of arts, cultural and entertainment venues. We know the Civic Auditorium needs a major upgrade because it is not capable of hosting some of the modern type of acts and performers and other various users of these kind of facilities in its current state. It does need to be looked at and thought about in terms of what it needs to attract the kind of people and resources and performers, musicians, artists and all of that to the City of Redding. So a series of principles have been identified there, and you'll hear more about it as my colleague Dan comes up to speak with you here momentarily. Vision Element D is about appropriate scale. We don't want anything too big. This is not going to be Las Vegas or any of those kind of cities. We're looking at something much more modest, more appropriate for the City of Redding. At the same time, we can still improve on what we have, and the possibilities there are great. Turtle Bay is a great example of architecture that's very harmonious and very consistent with the environmental conditions of the waterfront. And we think that can serve as a model for everything that happens within the specific plan study area. So we've broken that down into what we call the northern riverfront as well as the southern riverfront. And you'll be hearing a lot more detail about that momentarily. World class recreation and activities. You have some unique elements there that we want to preserve. We've heard that loud and clear through the community outreach process and engagement activities that these activities that have been there traditionally, the aqua golf, for example, is very unique. All the activities associated with the rodeo, with the recreation along the riverfront itself, all of those things are meant to continue. And we're trying to find a place that allows them to continue in a way that's harmonious with the natural environment. Connections, connectivity is an important aspect of any plan at any scale. And we want to take advantage of the possibilities inherent in that, which includes outlining where pedestrian and bicycle trails can occur, where they should not occur. And you'll see some updates here in regards to some of the comments made earlier by the gentleman from the community out there specifically talking about that individual trail that was brought up. But still we need to take advantage of this as a public resource at the same time protecting the rights of private property owners. There's a balancing act there. And our plan framework at this point attempts to do that. And that's not to say there's no further room for adjusting and improving on that. But the concept is to make sure that the public does get to enjoy this fabulous resource. So we're talking about transportation options in terms of transit, bicycle, pedestrian travel, as well as automobile travel through there, and making sure there are appropriate support facilities to enable the future land uses to be successful. Element G is about creating memorable and vibrant places. And what a great place to start here in Redding with the Sundial Bridge, which is an icon known all over the world. And we celebrate that and hopefully we can be inspired by it and continue to build those kinds of iconic elements that people already enjoy with the riverfront that we have now in the city of Redding. And so with that, I'm going to introduce Dan Amstan again, one of our senior principals, one of our leaders at MiG, and happy to have him work through the vision framework diagram. So we're going to go dive in deeper and Dan, take it away. Thank you. >>Thank you, Daniel, and good evening, honorable mayor and council members. It's good to be back in front of you again. So as Daniel mentioned, I'm going to dive deeper into the vision framework diagram. But really These emerging concepts for the riverfront area. And again, we'll probably reiterate many times this evening, you know, emerging concepts and start to get at some of the ideas, strategies coming out of the vision framework that council looked at about a year ago. A little over a year ago. And these are the materials we also presented during the open house two weeks ago to the community and got a lot of feedback on as well. So the big overarching piece of this is the vision framework diagram. And this starts to get details around land uses, mobility improvements, both streets and trails, as well as different activities within the riverfront area. And really starts to frame the core elements of the specific plan itself and some of the key features. I do want to point out right as we start here. And this is a comment that was mentioned during public comments earlier. We did have at the open house a trail going through this neighborhood. We actually, based on further discussions and discussions staff has had with residents, we've actually revised that in this diagram. So there's a key change from what council has in their packet to follow an alignment that's consistent with the city's general plan and not go through that neighborhood. Similarly, remove the city streets as well. So I want to point that out earlier on. That is a recommendation for the project team to actually make those changes that were mentioned earlier by a community member. So there's a lot of content on these slides I'm going to go through just sort of high level. But we can pull up individual slides later during discussion if council would like. But I want to start by going through these different land use areas. So the first one is habitat and open space restoration areas. And you'll notice this covers most of the northern riverfront area on the eastern side. This is intended as a preservation tool. Loud uses would be limited in this area and consistent with undeveloped nature of the lands as well. One thing worth noting though is, and I'll describe this a little bit later when we talk about the civic venues, is a larger open space and habitat restoration area as part of this plan than currently exists. And this would include about a 300 foot setback from the top of bank on the Sacramento River. And that was a recommendation and ideas that came out of a lot of community discussions. And the intent there is again creating a rewilding of the river, but also moving any future development farther back from the river create more of the open space opportunities as well. The second sort of key area, and we can think of this as the front lawn area of the current civic auditorium, is an active recreation Sort of node or center part to the northern riverfront. And this would be a larger outdoor gathering space. The area already functions as this, but maybe there's more active programming, events and other similar type uses at the center of the northern riverfront. The next area is in Orange, which is mixed use. So this can provide a new neighborhood tied to a potential redesign of Highway 44, which I'll also mention later. But this can include, as shown in these images, commercial office uses on the ground floor and some limited residential on upper floors. Worth noting, this is actually the. The majority of this is actually private property. There is one city owned parcel right by the current interchange, but the rest of it is private property which is currently zoned public facility actually. But this is sort of the private property portion of the northern riverfront. And then core, and this is in a few different pieces because of the road alignment is the civic and cultural area. So these would be the area for major public arts, cultural and sports venues like the current rodeo and the civic auditorium. Again creating that core area within the northern riverfront for venues and activities. Next, and this would be the Sheraton or the older lodging area on Park Marina Drive is the visitor hospitality core. So this would be visitor centers, hospitals, lodging, restaurants, smaller conference facilities. Many of these things are already allowed today in the current specific plan, but we're starting to organize these into specific areas as part of this new process. Moving to the southern riverfront waterfront commercial area. So these are areas that have shorter parcels with shorter parcel depths that are fronting the lakes or the ponds. And they could include professional office, retail service, commercial sit down, restaurant. Many of these uses are allowed today in the area. But we're coalescing this as a waterfront commercial sort of destination area and intentionally on the southern part of the southern riverfront having a different land use designation of office and riverfront, office and commercial. And that's because these are larger parcels. They have different size projects that are still farther away or set back from the river. But because the larger parcel size makes sense to have a different category there. And then lastly the medium intensity residential, which is this area in brown, which essentially we're recommending to keep it as is as far as a land use designation and the current allowed uses, it's currently residential zoning under the city's zoning code and also specific plan. So to keep it in place as it is today as part of this planning process. So no, no change from a zoning standpoint. Now I do want to mention is we did have the community open house. I did want to highlight some of the things that we heard during that open house. So there are many members of the community who like the idea of the green the River Greenway Trail. And I'll mention that more when we get to the southern riverfront. The LI Tower is a trail system that creates better connectivity through the area, better access to the river. There are a lot of folks who express a need for permanent conservation. Easements for the open space and habitat areas are really creating protections for those areas and making sure that we're considering 100 year floodplain, other flood related strategies as planning for these new projects. But looking at this plan and this opportunity to enhance Redding's beauty by preserving increasing natural areas, having consistent setbacks in the river and the unique identity as well. Some communities also mentioned they felt that any new developmental park Maria Drive should maintain or create visual connections to the ponds. So really connecting that water area. There were concerns at the open house about the trail passing through the private residential properties. As I mentioned earlier, we've actually removed that from these emerging concepts and a feeling the southern riverfront should be activated with more retail mix of uses and make it more inviting. There are also a few comments and this came up from other workshops about a potential for a whitewater park which is not currently in the emerging concepts because some of the complexities with rules around the waterway. But it was a comment that came up through the open house a few weeks ago. So specifically on the northern riverfront. And we've included a number of example projects or precedent projects. Again as Daniel mentioned, not necessarily copy but to learn from. A lot of these projects were brought up during the extensive community discussions we've had over the last 18 months or so. But one key one is habitat restoration, northern riverfront and really working with tribes, working with environmental scientists, biologists, state and federal agencies to understand opportunities, remove invasive species and bring back native plant and animal species within this area. And there's a few examples from across the US of a tremendous success from different ways of implementing this through partnerships with scientists, agencies and tribes as well. Second big concept is well referred to as passive recreation or low intensity on the natural environment recreation. So this would be a network of interconnected low impact trails, bridges and walkways and viewing platforms. There already are some similar facilities within the northern riverfront around Turtle Bay and connecting to the Sheraton. But this would be increasing this to bring more access to the open space and river area which was a key part of the division elements. We also heard a lot of feedback from all of our workshops and meetings about creating a dedicated space for indigenous cultural area. And this is identified in the framework diagram, essentially east of the current Turtle Bay, Turtle Bay Museum. And it would be an area that is connected to the Sacramento River. It can have different activities and events for the tribes. We would take this concept further, working with the indigenous community, but there's a lot of community feedback to have a dedicated space within the northern riverfront open space area that also is connected directly to the river as well. So moving to the civic and cultural venues, the ability to consolidate venues in the northern riverfront and to provide again this increasing buffer from the river and actually reducing the amount of footprint of the facilities. And I think a really interesting example, but it's also pretty close is the Tahoe Blue Event center in Tahoe, which has a capacity of around 5,000 or so. And it is programmed for many different events. It also is in a similar market as reading as well. And so in the background, the economics team on this project has been looking about sort of comparable scales and types of markets and how that would translate into. Into a venue. But some things we've. We've heard from the community and also just from our own analysis of looking at comparable projects is having the ability to potentially have outdoor, indoor or some hybrid of the two. And what I mean by hybrid is this example here has a retractable roof, so you can program for many different events and then in turn attract many different events to the area. So there's three essential concepts for this area. And you'll see on the diagram right here. I'll walk folks through it. This might be a little hard to read all the lettering, but this deeper purple rectangle right here, this is the current civic auditorium. This horseshoe right here is the. The rodeo stadium. And under the, what we're calling the near term option is essentially having focus upgrades and improvements to the two facilities. So for the rodeo site, ADA accessibility features, some. Some focus upgrades, maybe some additional seating as well. And for the civic auditorium, creating a new entry lobby and ancillary facilities, but keeping the core of the structure in place. So the reason this is near term is it can happen quicker, it's less funding or less expensive than some other options. Provides the ability for both of the venues to upgrade and be more efficient and effective in their operations. So cost and timing, it's a lower initial cost. It's focus improvements to both facilities. It would require improvements to outdated infrastructure underneath the rodeo site as well. That would be part of those upgrades. But it also keeps essentially the same programming. What I mean, what I mean by programming is size of people at events. So keep the same programming largely for both of the venues, but allow the city Auditorium to expand a little bit for some additional meeting space. It also would maintain the development footprint of both of these facilities and provide some opportunities for habitat restoration closer to the river. So the second option, or longer term option A, and I'll just toggle back and forth, actually moves the rodeo site to essentially the parking lot just south of the Civic Auditorium. The Civic Auditorium also stays in place as a building. And what that could allow under this option is more opportunities for connections between an outdoor site or outdoor venue and the indoor Civic opportunity. Civic Auditorium. Excuse me, but it would be a more significant investment. It would be more costly and include additional changes to roadways as well. But it does allow for modern, more competitive rodeo setup and other outdoor concerts and events in this repositioned and new facility. What's also key though is it reduces the development footprint, what as planners like to say. So it's actually consolidating all of this into, into essentially one area and freeing up more space and that 300 foot buffer from the Sacramento river for open space and habitat restoration or other outdoor recreational uses as well. The second long term option, or long term option B would be to continue that process, but to create one consolidated facility. Again, it could be indoor, it could be outdoor, it could have a retractable roof. At this level of a specific plan, we're really looking at just the programming layout side of it. There's not architecture at this point, but it would consolidate all the uses into one facility. It would be the most expensive option and we require additional roadway improvements and other changes. But it would allow a modern, competitive and highly flexible venue. So it would allow the opportunity to also do indoor tournament sporting events and other activities that can't be done in the current Civic Auditorium, given its size. It also further reduces the development footprint for more area being freed up by the river for open space and other habitat restoration. So this graphic just shows that long term option B, any of the three could be part of the planning process. What's really key about a specific plan is is this project or this document is looking 20, 25 years in the future. So a lot of things would have to happen for any of these ideas to be further created. But one key thing, and I'll preface a little bit in the redesign of Highway 44, which I'll talk about later, is this realignment actually allows, if everyone sees my green pointer, you can actually do, oh, I Lost my green pointer. There we go. It actually allows the ability to create a one way. I think I lost the battery on this. I'll try again a one way street around the venue itself. So we've also talked with staff and public works in particular about ways to improve the traffic flow as part of this option as well. So this chart is a bit of a large chart, but I wanted to highlight some of those program components. So this first row or this first column right here shows the existing facilities within the northern riverfront. The facilities exist today and the activities exist today. So the rodeo has a capacity of approximately 5,000 people for events. The city curren