City Council — 2024-05-14

Please Mr. Chief Deputy City Clerk.

Yes, Mayor. Mayor Stix.

Here.

could you please give us a little audio for your roll call Mayor Pro Tem is here, we had some audio. So we can move on for now.

And welcome everyone to the May 14th meeting of the Ojai City Council. We'll say the pledge before we say the pledge though I'd like to give a big welcome back to Weston Montgomery our chief deputy city clerk and new father to Vinnie congratulations and we are so happy to have you here and so happy for you so thank you.

Thank You mayor thank you council thank you staff it's really great to be back and with that would everyone

commission reports? All right we have a presentation this evening Mr. Ray Powers is here from the Ojai International City of Peace and Ray will provide a presentation on the organization. Thank you so much Ray for being here.

I'm not sure this is on. Can't hear myself, there we go. Thanks council for inviting me to do this presentation. I've been wanting to do it for quite a while. I'm giving a high level overview of the history of the International City of Peace, how it came, of the global organization, the founder, how it got created here in town and then some of the milestone events and activities we've been doing.

I'm not going to weigh in on any specific issues, but I'm glad I'm at the top of the meeting because I really would love to bring clarity, insight and vision and have everybody here and at home think about what peace means to yourself. And especially what is a international city of peace? And what that looks like day in and day out in our own relationships, how we function, our communications when issues are brought up, how we treat each other. That's kind of my personal intention tonight here.

Next slide please. So Fred Arment is the founding director of the International Cities of Peace. He's the author of The Elements of Peace, How Nonviolence Works and The Economics of Peace, Freedom, the Golden Rule and Broadening Prosperity. Fred founded the Arment Group marketing firm which serves Fortune 500 as well as local profit and not-for-profit organizations And he's the founder and first director of the Dayton International Peace Museum. He has been involved with United Nations as co-chair of the Peace Cities team.

Next slide, please. The purpose of the City of Peace Movement is to create a community culture of peace by promoting collaboration and cooperation between all sectors of societies such as the arts, education, environment, business safety and security, recreation, faith-based organizations, service organizations, wellness organizations and government. The movement aims to establish communities as official cities of peace recognizing past achievements encouraging current initiatives and inspiring future generations for practical peace building The movement also seeks to expand the global network of Cities of Peace, provide engagement and educational opportunities through programs like the Global Network, the Global Family Program, the Global Action Program and Leadership Skills Development courses.

Ultimately, the City of Peace Movement aims to change the world by leveraging technology and consciousness to foster peace and create a more peaceful society. Next slide please. There are currently over 400 international cities a piece and

growing.

Apologize, we're trying to log in the mayor pro tem there might be some audio interference. I'm sorry about that. Andy is present.

Mayor Pro Tem Whitman please mute for the time being thank you.

So currently there are over 400 international cities apiece.

Apologies, mr. Powers let's get mayor pro tem Whitman if you could hear us please meet so we can proceed efficiently

Okay, good. So every month there are more cities joining the goal is to have 1000 cities by 2025 at least that's the go for to encourage collaboration and promote respect for people of all faiths increase the golden rule provides an ethical basis for enabling all communities within cities a piece to work together toward a culture of peace Now, although the international city piece is non-denominational, non-partisan, apolitical, the golden rule of do unto others as you have to do unto yourself is kind of the overarching intention of it. Next slide please.

Communicating positive messages in all aspects of communications, volunteers for International Cities of Peace should exhibit the values of a peacemaker. The International Cities of Peace Values Path is as follows. Be purposeful, be accountable, be trustworthy, be humble, be innovative. And that's part of what I wanted to bring forward in presence here today, in our daily activities with each other and how we relate to each other. Really with love. Next slide please.

On April 14, 2015 the Mayor and City Council of Ojai presented a city proclamation declaring Ojai the 99th International City of Peace and handed the document to the ICP team. The City Council officials at the time encouraged our peace initiatives in the valley and the city granted financial support for our events. The photo shows Anahata Pomeroy, Julie Heyman, Lisa Berman, Kathy Nolan, Brian Berman, Diane McCourtney and I'm not pictured there in that photo. Brian Berman and Julie Heyman are the two that brought forward the International City of Peace Global Organization. Next slide please.

That's interesting. So Brian Berman, who's a sculptor in town. He's been in Poland with his wife Lisa for the last year and a half working with Ukrainian refugees in Poland and their children. And Brian created this image of the Holos which some of you may wear and own and each of the nine sectors Our segments of peace building arts business communication community education environment governments health and spirituality So these are each of the sectors we can bring this idea of peace into in all our activities and programs next slide, please As well, the United Nations Global Sustainability Goals are milestones for the international city of peace global and local organizations. Now if you're not familiar with the UN sustainability goals, you could go to their website and learn about them.

It's quite phenomenal, the roadmap they laid out. Next slide please. I'm going to go real quick to my slides so I can see what that's supposed to say. So since 2015, each year International City of Peace Ojai hosts the United Nations International Day of Peace on September 21st. The focus is to bring community members together for sharing connection, meditation, prayer, dance, music, art as well as talks by community members who went through great challenges in life. So next year will be our 10th year hosting and producing the International Cities of Peace.

I know many of you here have come to this and it's been quite phenomenal. Next slide please. Most of the International Cities of Peace OHI events help educate and inspire the importance of living in a city of peace. The emphasis is on peace begins within, with each of us, and from there taking actions which are compassionate and peace-building. ICP Ojai has hosted peacemaker panel talks, peace essay readings, student artwork, youth and adults creating peace poles and doves, photo contests, Feast for Peace and community peace festivals.

Next slide please. This is some of the student artwork from the digital arts class in Ojai. Several years in a row, they not only created beautiful digital artwork for Day of Peace but also for Earth Day as well and we usually display those and this is just a few of those. Next slide please. These are some of the Peace Poles. There is a map somewhere online, I'm not sure where that shows all the peace poles in the valley they're continually growing but these ones particularly here are at Nordoff High School put into and San Antonio school put in a couple as well next slide please And these are the peace poles created at The Gables and at Nordhoff High School.

Many of these were displayed at the park, at the last Peace Day. Next slide, please. The team also created an International City of Peace road sign and if you're unaware at every entrance to the valley up 150 down 150 out on the east end and coming in from 33 north there is an International City of Peace road sign which welcomes visitors to Ojai. So, we have branded ourselves as an international city of peace. So what does that look like to really step into that? Because that's a billboard and that's the message we're giving.

Next slide please. Another great addition to Ojai ICP happened in April 2018. The Mayor and City Council approved initiative by Dr. Bob Dodge that Ojai is a nuclear free zone. What does that mean? It's a designation that the initiative stipulates that our city will not invest in any company that contributes funding for the manufacturing of nuclear weapons. Now I know that's hard to track because I remember calling James Vega and saying, well how do we track that? How do we know what's in our ETFs?

That's almost impossible to break that down with the people that are managing our funds. So I'm not sure how we really live into that, but that is what the nuclear free zone means. Next slide please. The Ojai International City Peace has participated in the 4th of July parade for eight years and we're always really thrilled how many people come out to join us.

Next slide please. In 2023 with council approval, so last year a city of peace flag was raised at City Hall. So thank you Mayor Betsy and all of you who came out for that flag raising. That was really wonderful to see and have up there next slide please In partnership with the Global Association of International Cities of Peace, a signature program for the Rotary E-Club of World Peace, local rotary clubs can map each good work toward a common goal, a more peaceful and vitalized community. The Rotary Peace E-Club is an amazing international organization. I've been joining on some of their Zoom calls, as well as the quarterly global City of Peace International Organization. Next slide please.

So future projects that we're envisioning are more art installations that have to do with peace around town, such as the Bells for Peace, Mosaic Peace Benches, a library of things, a youth council participation, Peace Day at Libby Bowl and more community listening circles. Next slide please. So that's all I have to share. You can go to internationalcitiesofpeace.org, there's too much information there but there's a lot to go through to learn more. I want to thank my current partners Peggy Grunier who is here and Klaus-Peter Fleischmann. The three of us took over the mantle when Brian and Lisa Berman moved to Poland. They have moved back. They're currently looking for a home and I think they might've found one. So I'm here for questions or I'll go sit down.

Just want to say thank you, Ray. Beautiful presentation and thank you so much for working for peace inward and outwards. So important. Thanks for the opportunity. I appreciate

it.

All right, we will move on to public communication. And just a reminder, these are items not on the agenda and because they're not on the agenda, we cannot discuss them. We appreciate your viewpoint and we can agendize them for the future. So we'll begin with Ron Solarsano and then Jerry Tree Bear O'Dell.

All right. Alrighty, thank you so much members of council my name is Ron Solorzano and I am the regional librarian for the Ojai Valley. I just wanted to mention a couple of things coming up at the library first of all real quick we have A local author who's going to be joining us in a couple of weeks on Saturday, May 25th. This is local Ojai author Catherine Ann Jones who's going to be visiting us to talk about her latest book East and West. Catherine is an award-winning author of eight other books including Heal Yourself with Writing And East and West is described as a captivating book that is contrasting aspects of Indian culture explored through stories of seekers, heroes, frauds and victims.

So come hear Catherine speak with us on the 25th in the afternoon. Then I want to mention that as of tomorrow, actually May 15th our summer reading programs challenges are starting for both youth and adults. This year we do have a program for adults as we usually do. Folks can who are over 18 can join the challenge and log every book that they read over the summer. They do this online through our website or they can use a paper log if they would like to do that And every time they enter a book, they get a chance to win a fun prize later on in the summer. So folks can do that and then the youth program involves its own prize drawing.

Kids under 18 are logging minutes rather than books and there's a lot of options there online for participation as well as their own prize tracks for prizes by location so Start sending people our way. Our website's a great place to start, you can register online there and just visit the library for any questions you might have and also for a lot of our special events we're going to be having during the summer. We're actually gonna be starting off with a kickoff event featuring an organization called Saving Wildlife International that's gonna be at the library on Thursday May 30th at 530 p.m., that's gonna be our kickoff event We're also going to have a number of craft and activity events during the summer, including a rocket launch, some regular weekly doodle times and perler parties, a collage workshop, rock painting, and a lot more.

So again our website has all of our information on it there we look forward to having everyone come by the library and participate in all of our challenges! That is all that I have for now. If there are ever any questions, you can always drop by our youth librarian at the Ojai Library who I don't think I shout out enough is Blanca Ramirez she is available to speak with.

I am of course also there and we're happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ron. So exciting. Much appreciated. Next we have Jerry Treebear O'Dell and Matt Davis and then Larry Steingold. Could we please do a quick sound check for Mayor Pro Tem Whitman? Just one second, Jerry. Yes,

mayor. Mayor Pro Tem Whitman, we're going to do a quick sound check if you hear us. I can. OK, thank you very much.

Yes.

Hello everyone, Jerry O'Dell also known as Tree Bear and grassroots liaison of our community. And as a solutionary perspective I have some ideas and solutions to offer As I offer myself for mentoring and as a humble demonstrating instructor of the Eco Custom Tiny Home versions, other than the other modulars they have in mind and planned. Just some things that I believe all must be considered regarding grant funding, where resources are actually needed regarding eco tiny homes.

Operational expenses, tools, supplies, resources, materials, listings, locations all must be considered with genuine consideration and compassion to what has been ignored for TOO long. Request of proposal from community of Ojai. Reasoning of needs and concerns of disabilities and abilities that need to be addressed, and recognized, and considered. Considering individuals' needs, family, community, requesting overseeing, assigned overseer for a combination of reasons.

Okay, but what I have here is like a love note. Attitude of gratitude the gift of truth. Presently here now being here with the present moment. Presently responding with full consideration and respect. Please let us resolve our suffering now we can resolve our suffering Thank you for all your respect, consideration. Yours truly Tree Bear Jerry Odell and my voicemail contact number.

And so just going through seven pages I just have a list of solutions that I would like to copy and share with you and in your time you could Look over and perhaps schedule a meeting where I could have, I can meet with the city manager. And go over some details and how our community would love to participate in this mission of tiny homes so. Offering myself up and thank you for all your consideration. Thank you.

Thank You Jerry Next we have Matt Davis, and then Larry Steingold and then Anita cram

Hello mayor and City Council my voice is a little Little bad right now. I'm coming over a cold so excuse me my crackliness but I just wanted to bring your attention that we have a typo that we Did on our activity guide for our summer? Ojai Recreation Department brochure for Ojai day We put in here that is are on October the 21st on And it's actually a typo on our part. It was October the 19th So I just wanted to make you guys aware of that and apologize for our error in our part We do have a fall brochure guide that will be coming out with the correct dates Just one of their we're going to know that that is a type of mistake in our part won't get that corrected

Thank you Matt. And just for members of the public, Matt is our director of Parks and Rec so that's why you're saying that. Thank you so much. Larry Steingold then Anita Cram.

Good evening. Larry Steingold, resident taxpayer citizen. Thank you Ray Powers for taking back the City of Peace so it's internal peace and not picking and choosing winners and losers. Security and safety that make Ojai way it is. You have issues at the encampment and you have issues at the arcade and you have issues at Libbey Park I don't know what the police have done regarding the bike riders and kids harassing adults or what have you.

But we need cameras, and I realize security can't be everywhere. And we only have so much money and we can only provide so many people. And cameras may not be a deterrent but it will pick up evidence of those bad actors that who can be talked to in no uncertain terms. The encampment, I've been told you need witnesses. You need evidence. You need video. You need people to come forward. Those people need to be protected from, I don't know what's the word? Predators within the encampment.

And so when's that? Because they're part of our community too. We wouldn't allow that to happen up in Pleasant and Drown, and we wouldn't allow it to happen in the Arbolada, and we wouldn't have happened in your district, your district, your district in the city. Okay? So they need to be safe. So the bad people—excuse me—those people who are potential bad people, however you want to put it, they need to be either taken out, sent away, gone because they're causing a problem in the community that's causing all sorts of other grief So I think that has to be done.

But in general, I enjoy living here. I intend to live here a long time and I'm suspecting you all do too and you all want to leave legacy so let's try to keep Ojai desirable and safe and be the city of peace internally so we all have peace with each other. Thank you.

Thank You Larry. Next we have Anita Cram

Good evening, everyone. Anita Cram. Oh hi. So imagine that you can fly soar above the earth or maybe just split from tree to tree That feathers grow from your fingertips instead of nails, capable of generating flight. Imagine that when you inhale your breath circulates through a system of air sacs and hollow bones within your body giving you buoyancy. That to fill your body with air requires that you breathe in, exhale then take a second breath before the first inhale is expelled on the second exhale.

All designed to keep you airborne. Birds are extraordinary living beings with many astonishing traits designed to support life in the air. They date back to the times of the dinosaurs, they are considered living dinosaurs. May 11th celebrates World Migratory Bird Day. And lately, you may have noticed a few more birds around our valley. Spring migration is in full swing. And we live near what's called the Pacific Flyway, a traditional migratory pathway that follows the coast in kind of a messy pattern. So we get a lot of them here in our valley. Some stay returning to ancestral nesting grounds. Others stop for rest and food on their long journey. The Allens hummingbird, some of you may have noticed it here in the valley, it stops here To nest, they have been documented traveling the longest hummingbird migration documented over 4,000 miles to their nesting grounds.

Often returning to the same yard where they will nest year after year after year. The greatest threat to birds is the loss and or degradation of habitat due to development or disturbance. This is something we really need to pay attention to in this valley. This is well documented in the scientific literature. These circumstances have taken their toll on the rufous hummingbird, suffering tremendous declines in their numbers and they pass through our valley to rest and feed. You may see them here.

And it's all too common of a story that puts birds at peril. Birds pollinate our plants, disperse our seeds, fertilize our yards. We learned flight from them, airplanes through the concepts of lift thrust and right at this moment the other one escapes me but anyway they're you know pay attention they're in your yard give them consideration plant a pollinator garden don't feed them unless...

Wow, good. Thank you, Anita. Impressive. Mr. Chief Deputy City Clerk, do we have any comments online?

Mayor, we have zero raised hands right now but let's give our Zoom participants the opportunity to make public comment. Zoom participants will give you an extra moment to raise your hands if you wish to make a general public comment. Still no raised hands, Mayor. We'll move on.

Thank you. We will move on to the consent calendar. Is there a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve.

I want to just make a brief comment on H. So you want to pull H? Yeah, pull H. OK. It should only take

a second. Any comments online for H?

Still no raised hands, Mayor?

OK. All right. Are

there any cards

in person?

No. Councilmember oh, okay. So um on so go to item H attachment a page 1 and item 4 Where it says delegates the authority to the recreation manager or designee to conduct all negotiations. And maybe we should put, is it understood that designee includes the city manager, assistant city manager? Or do we need to add that to the resolution?

Through the mayor if I might, it probably should just say authority to the city manager or designee is probably more appropriate.

Rather than the recreation manager.

OK,

and I credit Bill Miley for calling this to my attention.

Nice work.

Don't think I read every word.

Thank you, council member. All right. We have a motion to approve. Is there a second? Yes, I will second. OK. Now we could we have the roll call, please?

Everything is right. Do I need to restate that or is that fine?

I think it's inherent in the motion.

Okay great, thank you.

Understood. Motion passes

All right, we will move on to public hearing. No, I'm sorry this is number two discussion approval of memorandum of understanding with Habitat for Humanity regarding the development and management of five tiny homes at 410 North Montgomery Street. We have a staff report? Thank you.

Mayor, actually we have first a presentation. And I'm gonna turn this over to our City Attorney and Assistant City Manager also our Community Development Director though the trifecta here will be on

hand. And as a 30-second introduction, this is the approval of the MOU for the Habitat Project at 408 410 North Montgomery Street, Ojai. What we have before you is three things. One is the presentation from our Habitat partners on the project, how we got here, the site plan, what we're looking at and next steps. Second is approval of the MOU and then third, of course, inherent in that approval Is direction to staff to move the project forward through final design, financing and the next steps? And take any public comments before we vote. So with that I'll turn it to Habitat for the presentation and then I'll have some comments on the MOU if I may.

Good evening Council. My name is Loren Hinkle, I'm the project architect with RRM Design Group representing Habitat for Humanity of Ventura County. Next slide. So just a brief Brief recap, about a year ago we brought before you two concepts to review. We provided one concept which was four two-bedroom townhomes that were attached with single car garages that faced on Montgomery Street, and the second concept was eight tiny home duplex units. So four duplexes consisting of the eight units with no parking onsite. And so during that hearing... Next slide please.

There are many comments and support. The community was looking for affordable housing in perpetuity. They're in favor of the sweat equity model that Habitat provides, then just to remind yourselves of a few comments. That we're looking for tiny homes geared towards elderly or the veterans. There was the direction to move towards that path of the eight tiny homes.

We're looking at car share, other parking solutions and even possibly the City Parking Committee to provide options for off-site parking as well. There's also a number of concerns. Next slide. Namely that the priority be given to Ojai residents and that might also include those that are employed in the valley. Also concerned that the resale of the property would be prioritized to Ojai residents as well, and the public was concerned about the lack of on-site parking.

Next slide. So we took those comments and came up with another concept, working with both Habitat and city staff. And I realized this is not about the approval of the project tonight but it is about the memorandum moving forward. So our current proposal is one two-bedroom home and four tiny home duplexes so two duplexes consisting of four tiny units And in so doing, reducing the numbers we were able to provide six on-site parking spaces including one accessible parking space. We maintained our bicycle storage on site and also are proposing that the project be all electric so there will be no natural gas.

Electric power for space conditioning water heating cooking So and just to reiterate we're here for the memorandum of understanding and look forward to sharing with you the project as it develops Next slide just reiterates those points We're happy to answer any questions, and I'll turn the time over to staff for their presentation

Yeah, and if you can go back to the site plan. One other point to note is also came out of the council discussion is that there'd be some opportunity for potentially a family hence that the single family has the two bedroom component which could accommodate more than the tiny homes that are the one-bedroom approach in terms of the MOU it's a framework for the project to move forward is not the final approval. Final approval will come later After Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Equity and to build homeownership and the benefits that come from that but restricted to be affordable to moderate income persons Which means affordable at a monthly cost it doesn't exceed 30% of 120 percent of the Ventura County median income as it adjusts each year there will be deed restrictions in place to protect the affordability requirement with The city able to enforce that along with habitat enforcing It would also have to include the sweat equity components that are inherent in the Habitat for Humanity program Which means that participants who wish to be able to purchase one of these houses have to put in a significant amount, something like 500 plus hours of sweat equity building other projects before they're eligible for this project.

So they're committed to the Habitat program and they're committed and invested in the community. And that often results in high quality of ownership in the project as it goes forward. They also have committed, as noted tonight to be all electric and have also committed to comply to the maximum extent possible with the city's local tenant preference policy. And the qualifier on maximum extent possible is to reflect some of their federal and state financing sources treat the county as a local area not necessarily just the city So to the extent that they have to adjust that, to reflect the financing we didn't want to get in the way of the financing. To make the project work and within the city would be also contributing certain fee waivers pulling from to the extent possible under other applicable law our existing affordable housing funds because it's a for the affordable housing project.

So with that the staff would recommend approval of the MOU do you have anything to add Mr. Alameda?

Yes, I would not I know the council's fully aware of this for those at home and of the public This site was previously privately owned. There are a couple dilapidated buildings that the owner couldn't bring up to code So during it was during the Great Recession 08 through 2010 the city's Redevelopment Agency purchased this And then shortly thereafter, the state of California dissolved all local redevelopment agencies. So it kind of put the city in a bind that they couldn't go through with the development of this project. So now we have to lean on nonprofits or private developers to do that.

But it's a great fit because it's still the use that was intended when it was purchased. And it also potentially allows us to use the funds that sit in the Redevelopment Successor Agency, that we otherwise can't use, to help support the project as

well. Thank you Mr. Assistant City Manager and thank you Mr City Attorney. Thank You Habitat and Lauren appreciate the presentation any questions from Council?

I could you go to page attachment a page four where it says responsibilities of habitat resident parking item six and It was suggested by again, by Bill Miley and I've also suggested it in the past. And I think Rachel because we're on the parking committee which is just on pause but it still exists. Do we need a clause which limits the number of vehicles per housing unit?

Otherwise there will be overflow parking on Montgomery Street and Franklin, they can't park there. There's no room 20 feet wide prohibits any parking so visitor parking will have to be on the street But do we need to specify that the people that live there, parking is such an issue in our city and there is the Church of Christ across the street with all that parking but we've never formally approached them. Can all of that still be done or do we need to make sure nobody there should be parking three cars on the street?

I would recommend that we not handicap the ability of Habitat to find future residents. So, I wouldn't recommend putting limitations on limiting the life of the future residents. Instead if as we go forward in the design entitlements we can consider further parking management strategies including conversations with the church across the way who we haven't yet talked to so we can't bake that into this because it might interrupt the future deal Parking management conversations can continue, taking a look at a number of strategies. Nothing in this MOU prevents a future parking management plan.

Okay, thank you. That's what I wanted to know. Thank you

Yes, I actually had a question that you answered you asked my question one of my questions I have another question first of all, I just want to say thank you for the for the all-electric Yes exactly Thank You habitat and that was actually something I didn't see in the MOU So is there a way to guarantee that or is there a way that we can?

Yeah, I would suggest we add that as a 6C all-electric. Okay.

Yes.

Reflecting Habitat's agreement on the record but no reason not to add it to the MOU.

Great. Excellent. Thank you.

We will move on to public comments first we have John Trent.

I have a question. Oh,

I'm sorry Mayor Pro

Tem. What are we doing about responsibility for common areas? If anything is this the right stage to talk about that or what's planned in terms of making sure that the common areas are maintained

We have talked about that at the staff level. The plan to provide for maintenance is to make sure that that's baked into the ground lease itself, that Habitat will be responsible for that and in turn the purchase agreements with the five future purchasers that they're responsible for maintaining that we're not looking at doing an HOA because that complicates the financing side of it But we can avoid, we can still ensure maintenance is covered through an appropriate maintenance agreement with Habitat and the future purchasers. And a city backstop to ensure that if it becomes a problem, we have the power to go in and maintain it and get appropriate compensation for that maintenance from Habitat or the future homeowners.

Okay, and then my last question is I wasn't 100% clear about where these units are on the affordable spectrum. Are they all moderate? Are any of them low income? And I'm particularly interested in whether the tiny house unit, at least one or more of those would be in a low or very low income. Have we addressed all of that yet?

So as presently structured, it's five moderate income units with that homeownership model with the sweat equity and cash payment as well. We could have conversations with Habitat about structuring some of them at a very low or low subset. The challenge has typically been for a Habitat project where it's a home ownership model that can be very difficult to achieve with a very low or low income Income level relative to what could be put up in terms of resources to be able to make the purchase price payments and then carry a mortgage versus Habitat has been able to get financing to work with folks who are at a moderate income level and are able to make that work. So I think nothing in this MOU forecloses that if we decide, if it could be made to work, we could certainly make that into the final deal but staff's recommendation at this point is that it's five moderate income units to reflect the proven Habitat model Do you want to add anything on that

one? Thank you. I think the only thing that I might want to add, and I think it was sort of obvious with what you said is the city's contribution to this is the donation if you will of the land. I think that the council desires to have it go to a lower income threshold. The deal just simply needs more cash. That's just the straight answer to it. You'd have to commit probably considerable amount to make that. I will add that even just at this income level, that will be a benefit to this community. It's very difficult to buy a home here unless you're really on the high end of the income stream as you know.

I have another question. Since it's city land, can we specify under responsibilities of habitat that no poisons will be used on this land and also that the fig tree there is a large mature Fig tree toward the back of the property and I don't know what other there's other there's another tree Also, it's all towards a bat an apple tree by the back fence. It doesn't produce apples But it's a very popular tree with four birds and habitat do we have anything to say about or is that later on about landscaping?

And especially the you know Since we're growing all electric, let's go all out and do it right. So

yeah on that one first on the landscaping component I don't know off the top of my head where the two trees you cited where they are on the site and if there would be impacted by the proposed units as you see in the site plan on attachment B they're certainly proposing a significant landscaping I just don't know off the top of my head if those trees are at issue

I have photographs. Yeah, send them.

I don't know if we know that off the top of our heads so Certainly we can look at At this point it's a little bit late to redesign it entirely to save one tree

No, I think it's way in the back. I don't think they'll be impacted Can we have a statement that? effort is made to preserve existing trees and That

can absolutely be done and that's inherent. We didn't add that in the MOU as a line, that's inherent in the future design approvals. I'm just not sure if we're able to redesign it at this stage if that tree is impacted or those two trees are impacted by the site plan.

And

then on the- Yeah,

I'm pretty confident it's not impacted.

Yeah, and we can confirm that. I don't know if Lucas is around?

I saw Lucas for a

moment. He was here, yeah. Or maybe Mr. Taylor can confirm that There's two trees, there's an apple tree and a fig tree on the site. First of all

I'm the CEO of Habitat so I'm just not some stranger standing up here at the mic.

Yeah Mr. Taylor is as noted CEO of Habitat he's our one of our prime partners on this one. So there is a fig tree in an apple tree on the site I just don't know if they're impacted by the present.

Yeah it's in the back corner of the lot. I don't think it affects, but it does bring up the issue of who's gonna take care of that? Which we can discuss at a later date, but it is in the very corner of the property there is a tree there. I don't know if it's an apple, I don't see any