City Council — April 7, 2026

♪ You You You.

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the City Council meeting of April 7th, 2026. I'd like to call this meeting to order if you'll all rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. 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

If we could introduce our Spanish translator.

Good evening, buenas tardes. I have a brief bilingual message to share with everybody. Buenas tardes, mi nombre es Regina, estoy aquí con mi colega Hugo Santos. Estaremos proporcionando interpretación simultanea entre el inglés y el español para esta junta. Si quieren participar en español, si quieren escuchar todo lo que se va a presentar en español tenemos unos auriculares disponibles para que lo puedan hacer. Pueden alzar la mano o dejarnos saber estaremos en el cuarto lateral por el resto de la reunión So we are providing simultaneous interpretation between Spanish and English for today's meeting. If you'd like to follow along in Spanish, participate in Spanish, we have some listening devices available for you to do so. You can raise your hand or come find us at any point during the meeting.

We'll be here available to assist. Thank you. Gracias.

Thank you. Okay Mr. Rosen report from closed session.

Thank you Mayor. So for the one closed session item that was read into the record at 5 p.m., there is no reportable action?

Thank you. Okay, at this time we have public forum. Anybody that wishes to speak on anything that's not on our agenda this evening and pertinent to our jurisdiction?

Yes thank you Madam Mayor I have received three speaker slips and for those on the Zoom webinar if you wish to speak to public forum please use the raised hand feature now will call upon you speaking first I have Johanna Chase followed by Charles Hughes and Johanna you'll have three minutes thank you

Good afternoon. Based upon a review of the mission statement strategic plan, job descriptions and interactions with city staff, City Government does not prioritize the delivery of municipal services to the Goleta community. This concern seems to be institutionalized across all departments. While other small coastal cities like Carlsbad, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Pismo and Redondo have mission statements that focus on the delivery of municipal services, high expectations for public service delivery, public service to residents and visitors. The City of Goleta's mission statement is quote an employee mission statement and does not even mention the delivery of municipal services to the community. The current strategic plan Reflects key initiatives, but none of them list the delivery of municipal services as a key initiative.

Two of the 126 objectives less than 1% allude to customer service but omit the importance of strategies to achieve or improve the delivery of services including analyzing customer service feedback embedded within the strategic plan and job descriptions in the front-facing departments of public works neighborhood services planning environmental review instead of a customer service focused language such as inquiries concerns is feedback Sorry to say, repugnant language including, quote, irate and complaining citizens is there instead. In the City's Department of Public Works, public works management salaries make up 13% of the total citywide budget salaries while in Manhattan Beach it's 2.5 and Pacifica it's 4%. Seated leaders often talk about the importance of attracting and retaining talent But Goleta continues to promote from within, perpetuating the institutionalized concern rather than seeking out leaders who understand the value of building respectful relationships through ongoing reciprocal communication to support the high quality delivery of municipal services throughout our community.

Will you commit to immediately without delay cross-training front facing staff in the permit office so staff can provide answers, support and solutions about all permits including those that are outside the scope of building planning and environmental review. Ensuring public works neighborhood services planning and environmental review Each has at least one staff member who follows up directly with customers to identify the level of satisfaction in resolving issues and concerns. A citywide annual customer satisfaction survey, which they have in Manhattan Beach, to inform ongoing continuous improvement in the delivery of municipal services. Revise the mission statement strategic plan and job description to focus on the delivery of municipal services.

Goleta's a wonderful community I'm very glad I live here. But there's a tremendous opportunity for growth by learning from coastal cities outside of Santa Barbara County and emulating their models for high quality delivery of municipal services. Thank you.

I'd like to speak today about the wonderful services the city provides to senior citizens at the community center. And I would like to start by reading something. According to the National Council on Aging, folks who regularly visit senior centers report better psychological well-beings, lower levels of stress and lower levels of depression than those who don't take advantage of these important resources.

The centers are not just avenues for gatherings, but hubs for maintaining and improving overall health. and well-being, wellness. So I'd like to... It's great that we have those services in Goleta at the community center. But I think there's room for it could be much more than what it is now. Currently they have one room they call The senior lounge, great. That's great because people can socialize and stuff there. But what's happened, and there's plenty of rooms for the other programs, senior programs that are offered there.

What kind of limits the number of people who can go there is they have about four or five different exercise programs during the week so they have like three of them in the lounge And I got pictures of them today. They have to move around when they exercise, chair exercises mostly. So there's not enough room so it limits how much People, seniors are allowed to go in the senior lounge while the exercise is going on. But it's really not conductive to socializing which is very important for older people. A lot of older people live alone and their apartments become like isolation chambers. It's hard to get around too.

So sometimes the only time they get out is for the senior programs. But if they had plenty of room to do exercises in other rooms, that would make room for more people. More seniors would be able to exercise because there's more room and that would open up the senior lounge for socializing, playing cards just not formal. So interacting with others and peers, I think that's really important. I hope in the future when you get a chance you'll be able to somehow expand those services. Thank you for listening to me.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Speaking next Kyle Richards

Here comes a familiar face. Hello

Mayor, City Council nice to see you all staff good to be back my name is Kyle Richards I'm a resident of Old Town Goleta and first I want to say congratulations on the success or the ongoing progress of Project Connect as a resident there I'm very grateful for an excited by the city's investment in old town but that's not why I came here today but just to let you know that I am here today as the District 2 representative on the Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees, which is the district that covers most of Goleta including area in each of your districts. And I also serve as the Vice President of the board. You may have seen in the news that city college broke ground on its own $100 million capital project, the new physical education building This is located on the four acre site of the old PE building and it will have 77,000 square feet of space to better serve students and the entire community.

The building is being funded by over 70 million dollars from Measure P The 2024 bond which raised almost $200 million for capital improvements at the college, as well as another $34 million in state funds that have been brought into this community through this project. Voters supported Measure P with over 65% of the vote and we are now delivering for them. Replacing the old PE building was an obvious priority due to its seismic deficiencies, leaky roofs, faulty plumbing and asbestos.

I am proud to say that we are aiming for silver LEED certification for the new building and I'm very pleased to report that approximately 98% of the materials from the old building are being recycled. I'm also excited that beyond the obvious benefits of serving our students, our athletes, our health and fitness programs we are also exploring other ways that the facility can better serve and partner with the community. As we have during past emergencies like the Thomas fire and debris flow, we will continue to host Red Cross and provide other disaster response support during emergency events And we are improving our capabilities in this area by using solar panels and battery storage to develop a microgrid that, as you know, will keep its power running in the case of a power grid outage which we would get during an emergency.

This facility will also be the largest flexible event space in the greater Santa Barbara area which we are exploring as a potential convention center space and that means commencements, community events, conferences and economic activity that strengthens our entire district. In more ways than ever, this facility will help SBCC serve the South Coast Santa Barbara County. And finally as part of our commitment to transparency we've established an independent citizens oversight committee for Measure P. We conduct annual audits and we have public facing project dashboard on our website. Finally I just want to say thank you to the community for supporting Measure P in this project and thanks for the opportunity to speak and share this update from City College.

Thank you very much.

And Madam Mayor, I have no further public speakers.

So first, I just wanted to acknowledge this past weekend there was the event known as Deltopia in Isla Vista recently rebranded as Soltopia. And so during that time, as we've done in years past, we did do a permit parking program in the university neighborhoods and that program went from Friday noon until Sunday, I don't know exactly what time it terminated.

And so I just wanted to report that we the report we got back from our sheriff personnel is that they didn't write any tickets, they didn't tow any cars and their observation of that neighborhood was that people were minding the signs and not parking there. So there didn't seem to be a parking problem there. And then we also got general feedback about The Seoul Topia event that it was pretty smooth.

I went through personally at around 5 o'clock on Saturday, it looked really busy to me but according to our sheriff personnel compared to previous events they felt the numbers were fairly low you know but maybe it takes you know over years it'll grow itself who knows But after that, so all good indicators to us. But we did also get feedback from some folks that the intel out there is that there might be another party in the Isla Vista area this weekend. And so we're hearing differing kind of information about that.

So we're trying to evaluate like is this going to be even a bigger deal this next weekend than past weekend? We don't know. Some people are saying probably not. But on the permit parking, the action that your council actually takes. We're able to do that permit parking for another weekend at essentially no additional cost. So given the intel we heard that maybe there's going to be some partying and another unsanctioned event next weekend, and that it doesn't really cost us a lot more to do that permit parking. We've made the decision to go ahead and do it in the same neighborhood during basically the same time frames Friday at noon finish on Sunday for this weekend. Like I said, we probably would not have normally recommended this because there is a cost to it and it doesn't look like there's going to be a big party this weekend but you just never know.

But since we can do it at pretty much no cost, we're proposing to do that. So if you get any feedback from your constituents, if you hear about it, yeah, we are planning to re-sign the signs out there for the weekend coming up.

And we had time to get the permits back out to everyone?

That's my understanding. It'll operate as normal.

Council Member Reyes-Martin.

Thank you, yeah I think that makes sense I just maybe if you could restate that we do have time to get the word out and I've shared with you that I already had some questions this afternoon from folks who are gonna be at Little League Games at Gersh Park on Saturday just some confusion around no we already did the parking restrictions what's going on this weekend? So we will be able to get the word out

The permit parking program, when the permits went out to the residents both dates were listed on our letters and on the permit. So for the residents both dates are listed. For the Gersh Park participants that we handed to the organizations. Both dates are listed, we are following up with Gersh Park to see if they need any further permits for their users. So far we haven't received any information but we'll continue to follow-up with them and if they do we'll make sure that they get in those hands but everybody else has received the permits had both dates from last weekend and this weekend. Their letters had both dates on them and then we've actually have been on the streets and the new signs are already posted.

Great thank you. Thank you

And then Madam Mayor and members of Council, my second announcement is just a reminder of one of our bigger events of the year. The State of the City next Wednesday April 15th at 5 o'clock in the Community Center. It starts at five there's going to be tabling same format that we used last year staff tabling networking and then of course we'll go into the main auditorium and we'll hear the state of the city from you and your colleagues And we'll have department heads there to take questions as well and refreshments. So that's for the entire community, and we expect a good showing next Wednesday.

And that's it for my report.

Thank you. OK, moving on to consent.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. That takes us to item A1, acceptance of the January 2026 investment transaction report. Item A2, acceptance of the February 2026 check register and item A3 amendment with KMP strategies LLC for public outreach services.

Thank you. Council wish to pull any items from consent? Not seeing any. Do we have any speakers that would like to speak to an item on consent

Thank you, Madam Mayor. If any attendees on the Zoom webinar wish to speak to this item please use the raise hand feature and I will call upon you. Madam Mayor, I'm seeing none. Okay,

then I'm looking for a motion to approve consent calendar. Council Member Smith?

I would move approval of our consent calendar items A1, A2 and A3. Do I have a

second? I'll second it. Second, okay. Roll call vote please.

Thank you.

Ayes have it. Do we do something wrong? It didn't go up there.

Oh,

it didn't? No.

Oh I displayed the vote and it didn't pop up. Apologies.

That's okay. It was unanimous. Okay so now we're moving on to presentations.

Yes item B1 a proclamation of the City Council of the city of Goleta California recognizing the week of April 13th through 20th as International Dark Sky Week.

Thank you and I've asked Mayor Pro Tem Smith to please present this

Welcome, thank you for being here. We'll do our proclamation first and then we'll allow some moments for comment. So the City of Goleta proudly proclaims, recognizing the week of April 13th through 20th as International Dark Sky Week. Whereas the beauty and wonder of a star-filled night sky is the shared heritage of all humankind and the natural beauty of Goleta including the star filled sky is valued by residents and visitors alike And whereas the experience of standing beneath a starry night sky inspires feelings of wonder and awe, and fosters a growing interest in science and nature, especially among young people within the Goleta community.

And whereas light pollution not only impacts the ability to see stars, but has scientifically established economic and environmental consequences which result in significant impacts to the ecology and human health of all communities including Goleta. And whereas light pollution represents a waste of natural resources amounting to roughly $3 billion per year of wasted energy in the United States and contributes to diminished energy security And whereas Goleta's natural places can be impacted by light pollution, and that affects migrating birds, nocturnal animals and overall ecosystem health. Especially in the local habitats around the Goleta Slough, Lake Los Carneros Park, the Elwood Bluffs, local creeks and nearby foothills.

And whereas, reducing light pollution involves making better use of outdoor lighting to direct light down where it is useful instead of upward into the sky and using outdoor lighting only when and where necessary. And whereas International Dark Sky Week is meant to raise awareness about the effects of light pollution, provide free education resources and solutions to the public and encourage the protection of and enjoyment of dark skies and responsible outdoor lighting.

Therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the city of Goleta does hereby recognize the week of April 13 to 20 as International Dark Sky Week and urges residents to learn more about night sky friendly lighting. To implement practices and improvements that reduce light pollution and to look up and experience the wonder of the star filled night. Approved today and signed by Mayor Paula Perotti.

No one's taking pictures?

One, two three.

Mayor and Council, I am Lisa Potter and I represent the Goleta Valley Historical Society Board staff and volunteers. I am here to thank you for this proclamation on behalf of a countywide coalition of diverse organizations who recognize the value of a dark sky in taking action to protect it. Thanks to the advocacy of these groups, seven of the eight cities in Santa Barbara County are issuing proclamations recognizing this year's International Dark Sky Week and the county board of supervisors has issued a resolution.

Light pollution has such a wide range of impacts that there is something for everybody to hate about it but light pollution is unique and that it is reversible immediately as soon as the light is turned off or pointed down the pollution is gone It is completely feasible to expect that when we step outside on a moonless night, anywhere in our county, even near developed areas, we should be able to look up and see the Milky Way spilling across the sky. So on behalf of all these organizations across the county that participated in our coalition, thank you.

The members of our coalition are the Astronomy Club of Lompoc, the Central Coast Chapter of Dark Sky International, Guadalupe Napomo Dune Center California Nature Arts Museum. We watch the Goleta Valley Historical Society, Santa Barbara Audubon Society, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit, Summerlin Citizens Association and the Carpinteria Valley Association. Thank you very much.

Do we have any speakers?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. If any attendees on the Zoom webinar wish to speak to this item please use the raised hand feature and I will call upon you. Madam Mayor, I'm seeing none.

Okay thank you.

Yes thank you. Item B2 a proclamation of the City Council of the city of Goleta California recognizing the week of April 19th through the 25th 2026 as National Library Week

Lovely ladies. Okay, a proclamation of the City Council of the city of Goleta California recognizing the week of April 19th to 25th 2026 as National Library Week whereas library spark creativity fuel imagination and inspire lifelong learning offering a space where individuals of all ages can find joy through exploration and discovery Whereas libraries serve as a vibrant community hubs connecting people with knowledge, technology and resources while fostering civic engagement, critical thinking and cultural enrichment.

Whereas libraries partner with schools, businesses and organizations to maximize resources, increase efficiency and expand access to essential services strengthening the entire community. And whereas libraries empower job seekers, entrepreneurs and lifelong leaders by providing access to resources, training and opportunities that support career growth and economic success. And whereas libraries nurture the young minds through story times STEM programs, literacy initiatives, fostering curiosity and the love of learning that lasts a lifetime. And whereas libraries protect the right to read, think and explore without censorship standing as champions of intellectual freedom and free expression And whereas dedicated librarians and library workers provide welcoming space that, I laughed because it's so welcoming.

Welcoming space that inspired discovery, collaboration and creativity for all. So now therefore be it resolved that the City Council of the city of Goleta California does hereby recognize the week of April 19th through 25th 2026 as National Library Week in the City of Goleta encourages residents to visit their library, explore its resources and celebrate all the ways the library helps our community enjoy. I approve this seventh day of April 2026 and signed by myself Paula Perotti.

Oh. And then we'll do one with all the council? Yes, please.

Thank you Madam Mayor and Councilmembers for this very special proclamation. National Library Week reminds us that libraries are more than buildings with books, they're gateways to opportunity creativity and connection. With the support of the City of Goleta we are able to expand those opportunities for all I would also like to recognize our exceptional team of library workers who bring passion and care to every interaction, as well as the friends of the library groups at each of our locations whose generosity and dedication strengthen our services in countless ways.

Finally, I am proud to share this proclamation this evening with our patrons. If public libraries are the heart of their communities then patrons are the heartbeat. Their enthusiasm and support bring our mission to life each day. On behalf of the Goleta and San Ynez Valley Libraries, thank you for celebrating National Library Week with us. We encourage residents to check our website calendar for activities such as scavenger hunts and more festive events such as poetry readings during National Library Week later this month Sunday April 19th through Saturday April 25th. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have any speakers?

If any attendees on the Zoom webinar wish to speak to this item, please use the raised hand feature and I will call upon you. Madam Mayor, I'm seeing none.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to next item?

Yes, thank you. That takes us to Item C1, addendum to the initial study mitigated negative declaration for the San Jose Creek Channel Fish Passage Modification Project.

Okay, thank you. This is a public hearing and staff will make their presentation. There says there's a motion was made at the last council meeting opening the public hearing so we'll start this. We'll have staff presentation then we'll go to council questions, public testimony and staff responses more questions and public questions, council deliberation close the public hearing

Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. I am Autumn Glazer, the Assistant Public Works Director, and I'm joined today by Gerald Kamadi with COM3, our Consultant Project Manager for this project. In addition to Gerald, we also have Julie Love with RINCON, and we have a couple RINCON participants online. And we also have Ed Zappel our Fish Passage Designer with NHC online as well.

And with that I will hand it off to Gerald and I'll get the presentation going.

Thank you Autumn. Good evening Mayor Prodi, members of the Council. So tonight, I'm going to kick off the presentation. It's not too long and my role will be to provide some history and context because it's a bit of a convoluted story. So I'll start at the way back in the early days of the city in 2005 When the San Jose Creek Capacity Improvement Project was first born, the objective of that project which the name implies was to increase the floodwater conveyance of the existing trapezoidal concrete channel known as the San Jose Creek Channel through Gleda Old Town.

At the time, the floodwater conveyance capacity was for a 25-year event and the objective was to increase it to be able to carry 100 year flood event. And thereby, the end result would be to remove a large portion of Old Town Goleta from the floodplain especially the eastern side The western side, we still have San Pedro Creek providing flood water so it wouldn't completely take out the whole of Old Town but certainly the eastern side. So that was the primary objective back in 2005 and the project launched and I will, that project at the time, I'm gonna refer to it as the phase one project for simplicity's sake as we march through the presentation and also that's how it is referenced in staff report and the resolution.

So the scope of that project, again was to widen the channel from Goleta Slough up to Hollister Bridge as well as replace the existing Hollister Bridge over San Jose Creek Channel to make it a wider and higher bridge. So that was the general scope. The next major milestone would be in 2007 when the city approved as a CEQA lead, the ISMND or Initial Study Mitigated Negative DEC for the project The following year, in 2008, an addendum to that ISMND was approved to add FISC passage elements to the project. And that was following interface between the city team at the time and the resource agencies, in particular CDFW.

So the first fish passage elements were added to allow fish to be able to swim up their migratory route into spawning grounds upstream in the hills around San Jose Creek. The project marches on at that time and then the city does encounter some funding challenges And as a result, in order to be able to deliver a project, a sizable project, they decided to remove or snip off the top of the project. In other words, the Hollister Avenue bridge portion, as well as about 200 feet of widening of the channel just downstream of that.

So by doing that, it allowed the project to advance into construction and a sizeable phase modified Phase 1 project would be constructed. And as an aside, that snipped off portion if you like became what we all know as the Hollister Avenue Bridge Project. You're very familiar with that term which is now under construction as part of Project Connect. That secured its own funding through Federal Highway Bridge Program which pays about 90% of the funding there and so that project is in construction right now. That's phase two. So back to phase one though To continue the story, so the project was advanced to construction which began in 2013 and was completed at the end of 2014 along with the fish passage elements.

And again that replaced the trapezoidal concrete channel with this nice wide rectangular one plus fish passage weirs and different elements inside. Unfortunately, the fish passage elements didn't work as entirely planned for a number of reasons which you will recall being presented to you earlier or in previous presentations. But to identify the key issues, the weirs were trapping far too much sediment. The design of the weirs was unrealistic from a maintenance standpoint. Some of the weirs were wood weirs hinged at the end that would need to be opened and closed depending on the coming of a storm or not.

And also, a number of them were washed away in big events so it was just unrealistic and the long effect of it was that the fish weren't being served basically So there was efforts to resolve this for a number of years and then in 2021 CDFW, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said you know city we need to make this fish pasture system work. We want you to do a modification project to fix it so Subsequently, in 2022 the city approved a new CIP project known as the San Jose Creek Channel Fist Passage Modification Project.

And this is the Phase 3 project so the Phase 1 project was constructed, Phase 2 project is Hollis Avenue Bridge and this modification to Fist Passage is the Phase 3 project and it's why we're here today to address it from an environmental standpoint Before I

Thank you.

Thank you. So the analysis conducted for the San Jose Creek Fish Passage Project, ISMND or Initial Study Mitigated Negative Declaration Addendum concluded that impacts resulted from the modified project would not be substantially different from those described for the original project Biological and cultural resource impacts have the potential to occur as a result of the project. However, the mitigation measures in the final ISMND address and resolve these impacts. Specifically, biological mitigation measures will include pre-construction surveys for the sensitive California red legged frog and tidewater goby Pre-construction nesting bird surveys, environmental compliance monitoring and habitat restoration in the northern section of the project.

Cultural resource mitigation measures include monitoring by a qualified archaeologist and a Native American observer. And then all other resources will not be impacted as documented in the ISM&D addendum. Next slide please. In summary and in conclusion, the modified project would not generate new more severe or require new mitigation measures compared to those identified for the original project.

The mitigation monitoring and reporting program or MMRP adopted for the original project in May 2007 would remain applicable to the modified project. To note, the language that has been added to the biological mitigation measures in the ISMND addendum They were added to help clarify the intent of each measure. Although the language has been slightly altered, the intent of the biological mitigation measures remain the same such that these mitigation measures are not considerably different than those analyzed in the final ISMND for the original project.

Thank you.

That concludes staff presentation

Thank you very much. I'll go to council now for questions. Council Member Cariocco?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Well it's been a long and winding road to get here. I'm old enough and been around long enough to remember the working group that met in 2007 to try and find a balance between fish passage and flood control You know, this creek channel had been rerouted from basically being almost like a coastal creek that ran along Goleta Bay to being really a flood control conveyance creek. And it's a creek that used to really have a lot of biological diversity and, you know, steelhead trout could – they're not really marathon runners or more like sprinters but they could sprint through the old San Jose Creek in short bursts, whether it was a low flow situation or high flow situation. But with the new project that went in in the 60s or 70s and whenever it was you ended up having so much velocity of water during the high flow periods that they just couldn't make it and so it just stopped really being habitat for steelhead because they just couldn't make the track.

And so it's really good after so many years of public process to seemingly be right on The precipice of making this work, and I just hope it doesn't end up being like Charlie Brown with Lucy in the football. I'm really hoping that this design will work and that we can get to a place where we can really have it all, where we can have a safe and revitalized Old Town corridor along Hollister and along San Jose Creek but also have a place can reinvigorate that diversity we used to have, biological diversity along the creek.

Can staff just kind of help walk us through a little bit how is this going to work with the change from the Weir system to the new Weir system? Can you give me the short version of how it's going to function differently so that the steelhead can actually make it a short leg at a time and have some shelter and when they're You know, they have the stamina to go again and get there.

Council Member Kuriako, I'll start and if you need to pull someone in, I can. So the difference with this one is that this was really designed with maintenance in mind and the idea is that with the vortex weirs, they actually allow for the debris to flow over and not accumulate which is what caused some of the limitations of the current design Thank you. the peak of the storm to actually flush the system and allow for those minimum criteria to be met during fish passage velocities.

But we feel like it's easier to maintain but we're not sacrificing protection for maintenance?

Correct, correct. I would just add one thing is that the, there's a lot more weirs gonna be in there. So the proximity of the weirs are a lot closer. Okay

yeah I think that's the really important point because they can only go a short distance before they really need a place to shelter and rest and so having you know greater prevalence of weirs provides more opportunities for them to shelter and rest and then make the trek up okay thank you I think that's it for me right now.

Councilmember Kasdan?

We don't have any documented occurrences of steelhead moving up the concrete channel since it's been built. Not in the concrete channel, but there's potential for them to be in the upstream natural channel. But we don't have any documented red-legged frogs right there either. There are what are more than likely resident rainbow trout up there in the northern section of the natural channel. And if they can move, you know, up and down the stream through or the creek rather through the weir system that's what we're hoping that will happen. That steelhead that migrate up and down as opposed to rainbow trout that stay just in a local spot. They'll be able to use that whole area to get up to the spawning grounds in the upstream natural channel

There we go. The habitat will be improved and as if by magic they return, do we anticipate that we will see in a certain amount of time the frogs and the steelhead returning? Is that the expectation The habitat, just improving the habitat will you know if you build it they will come.

Yeah so the great majority of the project is in the concrete channel right? So that does not provide habitat for red-legged frogs so we wouldn't expect any more frogs in that area. In the northern upstream channel there is a little bit of work that needs to be done there where uh that we will have to Uh, remove some of the sediments in the bottom of the channel to make sure that the gradient is all even between upstream and downstream so there isn't quote-unquote like a speed bump there anymore. So that's a very minimal grading and if we do have to do some grading and there is some impact on the side of the banks we will be doing some restoration, some habitat restoration with native plant species. It's not a whole bunch of restorations so That part might not be creating a lot more habitat, but it will make it better.

And I think the other thing that's really important is that we're gonna be taking out non-native plant species in that natural area and I think that also and probably mostly will be one of the reasons why species like red legged frogs can come back in because the habitat will be better.

Okay thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem Smith. Thank you thank you for the presentation and in the report, I guess it just high level and I really appreciated staffs, you know background, you know sharing all the background information here. But just sort of a high level. I don't know if staff could speak briefly to just with the passage of time. You know, does the passage of time impact like the decision to do an addendum versus you know something else or you know why for this particular project? Does like the passage of time impact or not impact kind of the environmental analysis kind of more broadly.