Mayor Alexander
0:04Alrighty. Good morning or good afternoon everybody. It is May 26 at 300 PM. We are going to start the Temecula City Council. We are first going to start with the invocation with spiritual leader from trumpets of Tazara. Miss Karina Reid, if you can please come up. And then following that, we're going to have three incredible young brave children to do the flag salute. It's going to be Hunter, Mia, and Olivia. And two of the young ladies are going to be from American Heritage Girls. So, if we can all rise, please bow your heads with me. Lord, I ask that you would fill this space with
0:47peace. Lord, would you fill the grounds with peace today that so many have come with just things on their hearts, Lord? So many different agendas that we see today. And we just call upon your peace, Jesus. We thank you for that peace over hearts and minds. Peace that calms emotions. Father, we ask for your wisdom to come to the council. Lord, we ask that you would open their ears to hear without agenda. And we thank you, Lord, that every decision that they make will be of you and from you to serve this city. Lord, we ask that you would bless this beautiful city through the
1:35council's decisions and that today there would be honest conversation not just within the public, Lord, but within the council itself. I ask that you would remove deception and manipulation from all decisionmaking. Lord, we know that you hear our prayers and so we call upon you to come into this place. Lord, you have placed every council member in their seat. They are there and accountable to you, Lord. And so I ask that they would feel the weight of the seat that you have granted them. Lord, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your peace, Jesus, which is ruling over this meeting today. Bless
2:21everyone who enters into this space in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you, ma'am.
2:28God bless.
2:29If I can please have the three young children come up. You guys are going to do great. Thank you for joining us. Place your right hand over your heart everyone and please take off all your hats. Now let's begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for one nations nation under God with liberty liberty justice for all.
Mayor Alexander
3:06Wonderful. One 23 coming up real quick. Have something for you. Here you go. [applause] You know, I have to say this is um that was incredible to be able to hear everybody at one time. So, I just want to thank you all for contributing and thank you again to the three that just are uh were here and uh yeah, you guys are amazing. All right, so the next one we got to do roll call.
3:46Yes, madame mayor. Mayor Alexander,
3:48I am here.
Council Member Kalfus
3:49Council member Kalpus
3:50here.
3:51Council member Ron
3:52here.
Council Member Schwank
3:52Council member Schwank
3:53here.
Council Member Stewart
3:53Council member Stewart
3:54here.
Mayor Alexander
3:56Outstanding. All right, we're next going to move into our presentations. Uh first one is going to be a presentation by Mayor Alexander myself regarding the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. For many of you who maybe this may be one of your first meetings this year. We have been rolling these out every single council meeting. So there's a quote from our founding fathers every time. And so this time around uh let me see if my there it comes. I was able to pick this one from Thomas Jefferson. I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves.
4:35And if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. Just to expand on that a little bit, this quote from our founding father Thomas Jefferson shows that the ultimate power of society lies within all of you who are sitting in these seats. that if people lack the knowledge or judgment to use the power wisely, then the solution is not to remove the power from the people, but to be able to educate them to make a wise decision. And I believe that Jefferson uh made
5:28an in wanted to inform and educate the populace and is essential for the functioning of our democracy. So, I just want to thank you guys for listening to that and just reminding ourselves the importance of the founding of our nation. Uh, next we are going to move into a presentation by a local nonprofit, Circle of Care Ministries Food Pantry. If you can come up. So, one of the things that we also have been doing this year is every time in the beginning, well, every first meeting of the month, we bring in a local nonprofit to be able to share what they're doing. We want to
6:08be able to encourage and let people know how they can be a part of this community by serving each other. And this year's quote is serving. It's going to be community serving community Temecula together. And so, this is just a part of that. And we I just want to say thank you and welcome to uh begin your presentation. Thank you, mayor.
6:27Thank you.
Public speaker
6:27My name is Charles Kim. I'm the CEO and pastor of Circle of Care Ministries. We started in September 99 and this September will celebrate our 27th year of continual operation. We started first on Pole Street with the aim of ministering just to the single moms that were there uh living in section 8 housing. Since that time, we've grown from the first night of 20 people served or 20 families served to 200 to 250 families a day being served. Currently during COVID, we were at our height of 500 families a day, five days a week. Uh God has always made the provision uh and in that
7:16his promise to us is that the supply would always be sufficient for the day. Uh we've provided you with a short video. I'm sorry that it's not spec specifically for Circle of Care, but Circle of Care is um greatly uh featured in the video.
7:36Wonderful. Well, let's roll that video.
City staff
7:40Feeding America Riverside San Bernardino is the largest hunger relief [music] organization in the Inland Empire with over 100,000 people who rely on us each [music] month. Feeding America Riverside San Bernardino distributes over 2.5 [music] million pounds of food per month and partners with over 250 local nonprofit agencies. Well, hello. Uh this is Circle of Care in Temecula, California. Uh this morning we've already loaded up the van with totes to be preparing to go out to different stores that we pick up from and then bring it back uh to this warehouse. Our mission is to alleviate hunger in the Inland [music] Empire. We envision a community
8:22where everyone has access to an adequate and nutritious food supply. [music] Our retail rescue program goal is to feed more people and fewer landfills. [music]
City staff
8:32The retail rescue program works with 270 stores and benefits [music] 94 of our partners. Every month they rescue over 1 million pounds of [music] food from meat to produce to dry goods and even non-food items. Our pantries with the [music] help of all their volunteers and staff are able to serve over 75,000 families each month. The retail rescue [music] program greatly benefits our partners but is a very demanding program. Our partners have to ensure food safety throughout the [music] entire process from the store all the way back to their site. They have to check all the donations once [music] they receive them. Monetary sponsorships are
9:20needed to ensure our partners have key pieces of equipment to [music] run this program such as transportation, cold storage, and heavy machinery.
City staff
9:30This is our warehouse. The Crossroads Church here on UNES has given us about 4,000 [music] square ft of warehouse space at no charge. We have our 12T racks. We [music] uh stage our products as they by date when they come in and then [music] also uh when we buy bulk items uh we do uh it according to the products. [music] This exclusive program also helps grocery retailers benefit from reduced [music] disposal costs and donation tax advantages while supporting their local hunger fighting programs. It's a big [music] job that we can't do without you. For more information or to donate, visit feeding america.org. [music]
City staff
10:20With that, we invite the community to participate with us in food drives. uh high school students needing community service hours uh can can get their community service hours with us. Um we we constantly are looking for new avenues of uh resources and in that we thank you for your participation with us. Chuck Washington has uh been generous with CDBG uh or I may have the wrong acronym there. uh uh this past year in the absence of uh uh FEMA's uh CDBG uh last year or two years ago we were awarded $250,000 and this past year uh there hasn't been anything. So uh we buy food
11:11as funds are available but primarily the foods come from local grocery stores, restaurants uh and logistic centers. So uh in that we've been able to serve the community and about 60% of the participants that come through or the participants the re those that receive are actually citizens of Temecula.
11:36Excellent.
11:37Thank you.
Mayor Alexander
11:37Thank you. Do any of my council comments do any my I cannot talk today. Do any of my councilmen have anything to add or comment about? No. Please. Yeah. I wish there was a bigger crowd that could be here to hear this today. [laughter] So, I'm really happy that uh you were presenting today of all days. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.
Mayor Alexander
11:59I was thinking the same thing. Absolutely. What a perfect time. If I can ask one thing while we have just a few people in the crowd. Um how what is your biggest need? If there's something you can say this is our biggest number one need, what would that be?
12:11Finances.
12:12Okay. All right. Does everybody hear that?
12:15All right.
Mayor Alexander
12:15It costs to give away free stuff. Yes. Well, thank you so much for your time and your presentation. We look forward to connecting further with you in the future.
12:23Thank you very much.
12:24All right. Bless you. Thank you. [applause]
Mayor Alexander
12:32All right. We have one more presentation that just got added on to the agenda and that is going to be a pres a presentation by former mayor and uh city council woman Lorie Stone. And this was quite a surprise to me. So thank you ma'am.
Public speaker
12:50Good afternoon madame mayor, council member, staff and guests. It is my pleasure on behalf of the UNI American Eagles to present an honorary doctorate to Mayor Jessica Alexander upon the recommendation and the faculty and by the virtue of authority vested in them the trustees of the UNI American Eagles have confirmed Dr. Jessica Alexander having successfully completed the requirements and thereof she is awarded the degree of honorary doctorate of philosophy community service. In recognition, in recognition of her lifelong learning and her extraordinary leadership, serves and achievements in the fields of community service, leadership and global peace with all rights and privileges obtaining in whereas whereof the
13:54seal of the uni American Eagles and the signatures of its officers have been affixed here on this day, the 27th day of April 2026. So congratulations Dr. Jessica Alexander
14:11and I know that you are the presiding officer of this meeting.
14:15Thank you. [applause]
14:17I was wondering if we could just take a quick little picture.
14:20Um and we I'll send it to the Eagles, the American Eagles. So
14:26thank you ma'am. Wow. What a what an honor. Thank you. blessing. [applause] [applause]
14:58I love you.
15:00Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
City Clerk
15:27Thank you very much, ma'am. That was a wonderful surprise and an honor. Okay, next one. We have public comments. City clerk, how many public comments do we have? Yes, madame mayor. Um, we have approximately a hundred comments on the main item today. However, however, [applause] [applause] yes, congratulations community. Um, however, we are we have just a handful of people, two people here on non-aggenda and two people here on the general plan update. So, uh, with the mayor's concurrence, we'll go ahead and hear from them first. Um, with the non-aggenda, they have three minutes. With the general plan update, they have um five minutes um or
16:17less. So, um Oh, I'm sorry. I just got a third non-aggenda. Okay. So, the first um non-aggenda speaker is Mr. Jim Davis to be followed by Tim Kimble. Mr. Jim Davis to be followed by Tim Kimble to be followed by Philip O'Reilly. If any of you are here in the room or in the conference center, we will go ahead and give you an opportunity to come up and speak now. And then on the general plan update, I also have Gerald Montante and Dennis Fitz. So any five of you, if you are here and would like to be heard now, we welcome you. Jim Davis, Tim
17:09Kimble, Phillip O'Reilly,
17:15I see them walking right now.
17:17Dennis Bits,
Public speaker
17:18and Gerard Monte. when you come up to the podium, if you could just give me your name and go ahead and speak, please. All right, the first one, if you want to come up, please.
17:34Hello.
17:35Hello, sir. How are you?
17:36I'm wonderful.
17:37Go ahead.
Public speaker
17:38So, uh Jim Davis and I are here together. Um be uh better. I could go first. So,
17:47what was your name, sir?
17:48Oh, this um my name is Dr. Timothy Kimble.
17:51There you go.
17:52Um, I have resided in this valley for well since 1985.
18:00Um, is this something I can put? Oh, right here.
18:04Yes, sir. Yeah.
18:05Aha.
18:05You just if you want to just pick that right up
18:08on on the right hand side, just pick that arm up.
18:10Oh,
18:11yes.
18:11Aha.
18:12Should there it is.
Public speaker
18:13There we go. All right. [clears throat] On Saturday, April 25th, 2026, the Oldtown Temecula gunfighters performed in Oldtown on private property. On Monday, I received a phone call from Jamie Lenos from Temecula Code Enforcement. I also received email and a letter um that was uh enclosed notice of violation. Uh the first sentence stated, "The city of Temecula code enforcement received a complaint regarding a potential violation of the Temecula municipal code." Um I am a potential violation. I am here to today to determine if there was an actual violation or a potential violation. If there is an actual violation, uh, the gunfighters would like to have the
19:04ability to correct the violation so that we can continue performing in Oldtown. We were only given the option to discontinue our shows, not correct the problem. Uh, I told Miss Lenos, uh, that we have performed in Oldtown for at least for the last, excuse me, 38 years. I asked how we could be in violation. She likened our situation to speeding and driving recklessly for years and finally getting caught and given a ticket. I thought that was a real poor analogy. Um, we were not told of or of the nature of complaint either. Uh, the Oldtown Temecula Gunfighters have performed at Sam Hicks Park front and
19:44Fourth Street in the 80s and 90s. We used to perform uh in the intersection of Maine and Front Street. Um, we have performed on the steps of city hall as well as the balconies of city hall. We've performed for 10 years at the hotel Temecula uh for the benefit of Oldtown and Reality Rally. Um, we've performed all over um the last 38 years uh California uh Nevada, Arizona. Um and um so pictures of the gunfighters have been taken by enthusiastic visitors to Temecula. Visitors are excited to see cowboys and they enjoy our skits and our gun safety demonstration. Our photos are in family picture albums
20:29in every state of the union and every country of the world. Uh the gunfighters were founded in 1988 and has been active in the entire time. Um, at every performance we do a gun safety demonstration that is geared towards kids.
20:44And that is your time, sir.
Public speaker
20:46Okay. Um, please don't erase the history of the Old West or the history of the contributions made by the Oldtown Temecula gunfighters.
20:53Thank you, sir. The next speaker is Tim Kimble to be followed by Philip O'Reilly.
20:58That's Jim Davis. [applause] Thank you, sir, for coming. [laughter]
21:13Good afternoon. My name is Jim Davis. Uh, thank you for having us, uh, be allowed to speak. I'm a member of the Oldtown Temecula Gun Fighters and have been since 2004. As I already know, we've received a notice of violation from code enforcement on April 27th. The notice is extremely vague. It mentions that there was a complaint, but about what was not mentioned. It says there was a violation of the Oldtown specific plan and mentions the land use matrix 4-1. It does not say what we violated. The notice gives no option of appeal. All of these are blatant violations of due process. It's not like
21:57we've been performing in secret. We performed all over Oldtown for over 38 years. We were on the vacant lot at Fourth and Front State long before I joined in 2004. Newspapers printed articles and photos of us from Western days. So, I think we have a right to know what we're being charged with. Oh, I forgot. We advertise on Facebook. So, we have been ambassadors for Temecula, as Tim mentioned, all over California, Nevada, Arizona. We performed in front of 10,000 fourth graders at Anaheim Stadium. We have a 100% safety record. Not one member of our team or one audience member has ever been injured during our
22:50shows. We are not rush. My question is
Mayor Alexander
22:58if we can I know you guys are all wanting to support if we can just let the speaker speak please. I appreciate you very much. Thank you.
Public speaker
23:06Um my question is though is why now because of one complaint after 38 years? Really? I spoke to businesses on Saturday up and down front in mainstreams. Most of the owners of those businesses love us. Why? because we bring business to Temecula and like us they don't understand why we are now persona nonrada. So all we're asking is how do we actually violate the code and what can we do to rectify this short of no longer performing after 38 years. I think that's the least that is Otus. Thank you.
City Clerk
23:52Thank you sir for your time. [applause] The next speaker is Phillip O'Reilly. Phillip. [applause] Phillip O'Reilly. [clears throat]
24:02Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for coming in.
Public speaker
24:04Good afternoon. My name is Philip O'Reilly and I've proudly lived in this valley for 30 years. I think it's a beautiful thing that we've got the valley support out here today. And ultimately, I brought with me a few things I'd like to share. If we can get this going over here. I bring to you today the Merida Gateway Monument Petition. I bring this today because my father was the original crafter, fabricator, welder of the old town arches here in Temecula. And to say it as I see it, I watched this town go from 10 to 110,000 people. Currently, Marita and Wdemar are looking at redefining
24:37their border by Palomar Street and Jefferson Avenue's connection, which would bridge right unto us over here. Jefferson Avenue connects to Oldtown and those beautiful arches. All things to say, I wanted to bring some awareness to this as ultimately the city of Maretta [Murrieta] has brought forth that they will be widening the road from a two-lane to a fourlane. Our house here is the only ranch that has not had this eminent domain process started as they were unable to 20 years ago to put public easement on our property. We fought off the power lines then and I'm here to fight them off here today as well. And
25:07ultimately, I see the opportunity for Maretta [Murrieta] as well as Temecula in the valley for something that just doesn't exist currently. I'd like to bring my phone out and showcase some photos to highlight some things as they exist. This is our property here. We are the last bump in the road on Jefferson before that dead end. There's the church, the water towers, and us. This is the current 180 acre development that's going on in Wdemar. And to highlight, they will be bridging together Palomar Street here with Jefferson over here. And we are the first house that you will see coming into there. Now, the idea of
25:44this gateway monument would be to herald and honor the whole region as ultimately I think there's a lot of things that have fallen unrepresented in our region. As I put in this little spiel down there, we're talking about Juan Maretta [Murrieta] sheep farm, the Pchanga Bond of Indians uh representation in Marietta [Murrieta], the Southern California Railroad in the Marietta [Murrieta] grain elevator, the rancherero era, highway 395, as well as modern and future gem of the valley representation. Unfortunately, unlike Temecula, we don't have a lot of brand work and artwork in Marietta [Murrieta]. So, I just urge the crowd. If it is something that interests you, I'll be passing these
26:18out if that's okay with everyone up there. And ultimately, I'd like to get some support with this QR code on a change.org petition in order to show the council that, you know, we do mean business. We want to honor our city and we want to see that beautiful highway constructed. As a last little tidbit, this Highway 395 reconstruction, as Maria calls it, will be bridging together 79 south and north through Lake Elsenor to the 74 freeway as well as through Tomesco Valley Canyon to East Ontario Avenue, all in a straight line connecting to the 91 freeway. If that doesn't scare you guys in terms of
26:51traffic of what that back road's going to become, well, I'm telling you right now, it's it's a little bit more serious than people are taking it. So, ultimately, that's my time. You guys have a beautiful rest of your day and don't let these power lines happen, please.
27:02Thank you, sir, very much for coming. [applause] [applause]
27:09Dennis, Dennis Fitz, one more.
City staff
27:11Dennis Fitz. And just a friendly reminder, sir, you have five minutes. Um, and just a friendly reminder, um, the the city council prohibits any audiovisisual usage up during public comments other than still hard copies. So if you have pictures of something, you're more than welcome to go ahead and use that slides, but no videos or telephones or those kinds of things. Thank you. Welcome, sir.
Public speaker
27:37Okay. I'd like to address [cough] the land [clears throat] use plan uh in the general plan. Well, much of the residential area of the city was mostly developed. The draft land use plan ignored a large area of underdeveloped residentially zoned land in the northeast part of Temecula. This area bounds Nicholas Road and is generally called the Nicholas Valley. We have an area where many houses are still on dirt roads. This is really outrageous for an upscale community. When I moved to the Nicholas Valley in 1991, the potential land use by the county, the swap map was zoning for a halfacre residential lots. The city's original draft
28:16plan showed 2 and a half acre zoning for most of the Nicholas Valley. The city staff recommended this zoning due to the lack of paved roads and drainage issues. This zoning has not changed since then despite the pavement of major roads and drainage improvements. As stated in the original general plan, the city of Temecula at the request of residents prepared a study overlay for the Nicholas Valley. This special study overlay was completed in 1995 and presented to the residents at several meetings. The proposed land use varied from very low to medium low density. Largely due to the high cost of road construction and flood prevention
28:57for the proposed alternative zoning. The residents favored the original designated plan. In 2007, the city of Temecula studied the Nicholas Valley again with the primary intention of paving leafer road. A number of public meetings were held and many residents attended. The Niculus Valley was divided into four planning areas with proposed densities from 1/2 to 2 and a half acres per dwelling unit. The intent was to form an assessment district for Leafer Road. A survey was taken and do I have to do anything here?
29:35Nope. Just put your paper right under
City staff
29:37Oh, there it is. Okay. Uh, of all the residents and this is the respondents. If you look at the lot size, out of the 72 respondents, only 10 wanted to keep the original 2 and 1/2 acre zoning. And that was in 2008. A final survey was conducted in 2009 with density options of 1/2, 3/4, 1, and 2 and 1/2 acres per dwelling unit. While most of the residents wanted higher densities, the vote was split between the four choices, and no clear majority was shown. At this point, the city took no further action. With the extension of Nicholas Road complete and most of the drainage issues
30:17addressed, it's time to finalize the zoning for the valley. I think 1acre zoning would be most appropriate and would be acceptable by most residents. A change from very low to low density would accomplish this. An alternative would be for the city to perform another survey. Instead of splitting the vote between four choices, it would be better to use the rank sum vote where residents would rank the choices that they like best in four all four of them if there are four. If no majority is obtained at first, then the rank sum process would be used and the one that received the least votes would be
30:57dropped and that would be filled in by their second choice. A higher density zoning would benefit both the land owners and the city. With the current zoning, it's not possible to subi subdivide lots less than five acres because they don't make 2 and a half acres each. Such large lots really aren't in conformance with the rest of the city in this area. Reszoning would give the residents more flexibility in developing their properties. Thank you.
Mayor Alexander
31:25All righty. Thank you very much, sir, for coming up. And I believe we have a few more speakers on these items.
City Clerk
31:29Yes. Um, Madame Mayor, as a reminder to the public, these three speakers are receiving five minutes each instead of the standard three for non-aggenda because their items are on the business portion of the agenda. Um, Gerald Montadare, I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing that right, sir. Um, thank you. And then lastly, Heather Stanford. Heather Stanford.
31:54Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for coming.
Public speaker
31:55Good afternoon. I know some of these people. Uh, I'll just bore you with about two minutes here. Uh, good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Gerald Montanti and I'm a four decade resident at 31605 Caya Girasol near Riverton Park. I [clears throat] am here this afternoon to ask the council to update the the zoning designation in zone 4. I guess that would be west of uh Balcott from very low density to very low to low density housing. That's the one acre Dennis mentioned. Our current very low density restriction is no longer no longer matches our community's needs. It severely limits housing options at a
32:38time when families and seniors are struggling to find attainable places to live. Transitioning to lowdensity development enables a subtle and thoughtful variety of single family lots while preserving the neighbor neighborhood's distinct character. This minor change promotes smart growth, reuses existing infrastructure efficiently, and keeps local tax dollars in the city. This is not about high-rise development. This change affords new opportunities to my children who are currently shut out of the housing market. I respectfully request that the council direct staff to initiate a zoning amendment study for zone 4 to explore this change. And thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you very much, sir. [applause]
33:27And our very last speaker is Heather Stanford. Welcome, Heather.
33:32Good afternoon, Miss Heather.
Public speaker
33:33Good afternoon, may Madame Mayor and council and city staff. My name is Heather Sanford, like Sanford and Sons, not Stanford like the college. But anyway, I am the CEO of Mission Hope, and thank you for allowing me to speak before the real party begins today. One of my favorite parts about living in this valley is this, that we have a heart of a community that cares about the people that live here. So my agenda item is completely unrelated to the big fiesta of the day, but I did want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for myself and my team for the
34:00opportunity with the agenda that is on today to partner with Thessalonica Family Services, our DBA mission hope to ensure that every single citizen in Temecula has a place to call home and healthy food to thrive. And by doing this partnership with us this year, that's exactly what we're going to make sure happens. We're going to be able to save the city time and money by funding it through my Mission Hope team that are well equipped to do wraparound services for people in need, especially families with kiddos. We don't ever want a family living in a car or at a park or on a couch at
34:28somebody's house and bouncing around. We want them to be stable in school, be able to get food every day, and get the wraparound services they need to get their life back in order to thrive. So, I just want to throw out there really quick. Um, I'm not going to take up my whole five minutes because I know you guys got a lot to get to today, but in the last five years here, we have served, um, we have housed over 99 children, 167 people individually. We have served 60,892 people in our resource center in 5 years. And we have provided 103,000 people with 3.45 million
34:57meals um, in the last 5 years. And we'll continue to do that at Mission Hope with partnerships such as the councils and the city of Temecula believing in what we're doing. And thank you for honoring us as we honor our our values of dignity and hope and resilience for these people. We see the humanity in every single person regardless of creed, race, color, or anything. And we believe that they're they deserve the right to thrive in our environment. So, thank you council. I appreciate your consideration of the proposal today and I hope it all goes through and you all have my phone number and email
35:25address if you have any follow-up questions. I would love to chat with any of you. Have a wonderful day. Thank you, Heather. You as well. Always good to see you. [applause]
Mayor Alexander
35:36Okay, so moving into the reason why I think a few people are here today. Um, I am just going to read the script so that way we just have a couple house cleaning items here, make sure everybody's on point and uh so that way we can have a very smooth meeting. The goal here, and I'll reiterate it again, is I want to get everybody who submitted a card to speak today. That is this council's goal. We all want to hear from you and we would like also SDGNA and other organizations to do the same. So that being said, again I want to thank everyone for
36:09being here. It is an important meeting today as we all know at this time. I want to share again just a few housekeeping notes. First please note that agenda item 16 regarding the uh Red Hawk specific plan is being taken off the calendar today. It will be placed on a future item and will be renoticed. Any written comments already received will be part of the record for that item on a future agenda. If you are here for that item and you do not need to you do not do not need to stay for the rest of the meeting unless you wish to do so. Second,
36:43we are moving item number 19 regarding the SDG&E proposed transmission line to the top of the agenda. So, we're going to take that here in a moment. I know many of you are here for that. The city is facilitating this meeting for community awareness. This meeting is the first of many meetings to come. Today we will begin with a presentation from staff followed by our council questions of staff. We will then hear from SDG&E representatives followed by council questions of the representatives. We will then go into public comment is where all of you get to speak. We currently right now have over or approximately a
37:26hundred speakers right now on the docket. And so those in order to hear from everybody, each speaker will get one minute to provide their comments. Please note that you can comment in one of three ways on this item. I know some of you don't like to come up to the podium and speak, so there's some other ways here. Uh you can comment in person here at the podium, via email, or via QR code. Please feel free to ask staff any questions you may have on how to provide comments. All public comments, no matter how they are received, will be made part of the official record.
38:04Finally, I ask everyone in the council chambers and in the conference center, be understanding and respectful of each other. This meeting may be a little long, but it's very important. We will take recess as needed. Please refrain from interruptions or displays uh displaying signs in front of other people. So, if you want to display a sign, we would ask at least that you go to the back so you're not uh in anybody's view. Uh let's see. I want to make sure I do not lose my spot. All right. Uh we will take recess. As we said, disruption of council meetings is prohibited pursuant to the
38:43law and policy set for the council protocol manual. We would like to hear from everyone in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Instead of clapping or jeering, consider the following. This is what we would ask. If you agree with the speaker's comments, please raise your thumbs up. If you disagree so everybody can see, go ahead and put your thumbs down. We raise uh we uh please raise your thumbs when needed. The city clerk will be calling up two names at a time. Please be present to speak when your name is called as we will try to move this meeting quickly to accommodate every one
39:20of you. Is there anything to add from any of my other council members? Yes, sir.
39:27Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. And just sort of build off what uh Mayor Alexander was talking about, we'll certainly take some breaks, but you might see one of us or all of us at some point step off the DIS. Um maybe use a restroom or something like that. Um, just know that there is technology in the back. It's super weird. You can go to the bathroom and actually still hear the people talking. So, we're we we will be able to hear you 100% of the time.
Mayor Alexander
39:52Do you now understand why I had him do that comment? [laughter]
City staff
39:57Thank you very much, Council Member Zach Schwank. All right, with that being said, want to make sure um let's get a staff report if we can start out. Madame Mayor, City Council, I'd like to introduce Brandon Rabidu, the assistant director of community development to present on this item.
SDG&E representative
40:16Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council, residents, neighbors, and fellow businesses. Tonight, we're presenting on the SDG&E Golden Pacific Power Link project. But before we get started, we want to make sure we're providing some facts to the community so everywhere everyone is aware of what's going on with this project. We want to be clear and saying this is not a city project. The city is not a municipal utility. We do not have a utility. Um, this is not the city's project. We do not approve or deny transmission projects. We'll talk about who does in just a few moments. And additionally, we're sharing information we've been provided to
40:49us by SDG&E or San Diego Gas and Electric. And the city was made aware of the project in midappril 2026. And I'll share more about that timeline in just a few moments. We invited SDG&E and the California independent system operator to today's meeting. and we will give them an opportunity to share their thoughts as well. So why are we here? Clearly, this is a project of immense community concern. We want to provide transparency to the public. We want to provide an opportunity for the city council to hear from the public and one opportunity for the city council to communicate with each other and the public.
41:24And if desired, the city council can provide direction to staff on next steps for this specific project. We're going to go through a little bit of alphabet soup so everybody knows what the acronyms mean. We want to be clear and transparent with everyone. So the California Independent System Operator, Caseio, um is an organization. It's a nonprofit through the state of California and they manage the flow of energy within the state. Additionally, there's San Diego Gas and Electric, which is a regulated investor utility serving San Diego and Orange County. I want to be clear, SDG&E does not provide services to Temecula. Serra Energy is the parent
42:02company of SDG&E and the proposed project is called a extra high voltage transmission line. This is a standard to transmit 1,000 to 2,000 megawatts of energy which could power approximately 1 million to 1.5 million homes. It is also called a 500 kilovolt or 500 KV project. We talked a little bit about um the California Public Utilities Commission. We'll talk a little bit more about that in just a minute, but we call that the CPU. You'll also may hear a term the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. That is the federal arm of the utility regulators. You may also hear the California Environmental Quality Act, also known as
42:42SQA. That is the environmental document that provides transparency, public uh input, and studies to back any type of project within the state of California. On the federal side, you have NEPA, which is the National Environmental Policy Act. Does something very similar to SQA in terms of transparency, communicating, studying to understand the impacts of a project. And then finally, the branding name for this project is called uh through SDG&E is called the Golden Pacific Power Link Project, which is a extra high voltage power line project. This isn't the first time the city's gone through a power line project. In March 20 uh March 23rd 2001, the
43:22Valley Rainbow Extra high voltage transmission project was submitted by SDG&E. This was a different alignment that's being than what is being proposed, but it was going through the city. On December 19th, 2002, the CPU, the California Public Utilities Commission, denied the project. They found that the project could not be justified and was not cost-effective to rateayers. on the current project that we're speaking about today. On May 18th, 2023, the Casio board approved the 2022 2023 transmission plan. This plan included a line called the Imperial Valley North of Songs. That's for the Sanopre nuclear generating station for those unfamiliar with that acronym. And that was for
44:07an extra high voltage transmission project or 500 KV project. On April 29th, 2024, the project was awarded to Horizon West. And in the summer of 2025, SDG&E assumed responsibility to build, own, and operate the new line. The city is unaware of any notifications from the California Infinite System operator to the city about the project. At that time in midappril 2026, the city started to receive emails from SDG and public relations firms hired by SDG&E about the Golden Pacific Power Link project. The graphic on the right of your screen is the initial graphic that was provided on the web page and it did not show any
44:48high voltage transmission lines going through Riverside County. The city manager being wise and been through these projects before directed staff to learn as much information as possible and to attend any outreach meetings. And just for clarity, the city added the red star on this map just to show you where Temecula's in proximity to the region. During that time, mailers from SDG&E went out to residents along the proposed or preliminary path, I should say. Um, these are an example of the mailers. There's no map on here. Um the image is not from the city of TMCA on the left. Um and I'm sure there'll be additional
45:25comments about that in the future, but that is what was sent out to folks around along the path. Then on April 15, 2026, a fact sheet showed the proposed extra high voltage transmission line following Temecula Parkway along Highway 79. As you can see, prior to in comparison to the prior graphic, this is now showing the proposed project going through Riverside County and Temecula. On April 24th, 2026, a meeting is scheduled with SDG&E, the mayor, and city staff to learn more about the project on May 4th, 2026. And at that meeting, SDG&E provided a presentation to staff. And the mayor and city staff shared that the
46:05preliminary route was of major concern. Concerns about the map being provided were also shared. It needed to be more transparent, clear to the public on what was going on. and we shared a litany of concerns related to public safety, hazards, insurance, squa, planning, evacuation routes, highf fire severity zones, economics, cultural resources, habitat, biology, and more. There was also a letter for concern from Mayor Promron. And at that meeting, we asked about alternative routes. No alternative routes were shared at that time. On May 5th and 6th, the city manager sent a letter to SDG to hold all records and notify the city of any future meetings.
46:47We also started to share information on social media. So on May 6th, the community was made aware of this project through the city's social media through various social media platforms and emails. On May 12th, 2026, the mayor sent a letter to SDG&E sharing concerns. And the mayor also invited SDG&E and Caseio to today's meeting. On May 12th and May 14th, SDG&E held community virtual openhouse meetings and there was hundreds of people that signed up for these meetings. We're not sure how many people attended multiple meetings, but for instance, one meeting had well over 300 people attending. On May 12th and 14th, a a new map
47:30was shared um at these community meetings. And this map actually showed an even more clear alignment of the propo preliminary um route going through Temecula Creek. Temecula Creek was shown as the preliminary route. And then SG SDG&E during their presentation to uh city staff provided this slide which you may see. Um again the city was notified at this fourth step in the transmission line planning process. Uh we were not notified in the first three steps. We're currently at the fourth step which is about to start environmental engineering and studies. At the next step, the California Environmental Quality Act and NEPA process or National Environmental Policy
48:14Act process um will begin. In terms of timeline, this is a slide that SDG&E has shared. We are currently where the red arrow is. We're at the virtual openhouse point, but SDG&E is stating that in summer fall 2026, there'll be in-person open houses. And then the process first starting state and federal permits will start shortly thereafter. So let's talk a little bit about the preliminary alignment. The red outline is the city limits that's been added by city staff from SDG&E's map. That is the boundary of Temecula. And you can see the blue dots on the screen that follow the Temecula Creek path. We understand from
48:52SDG&E that the preliminary route alignment is a 1,00 ft corridor study. And we understand that the map shows again it's following Tameccha Creek within the city. As everyone is aware, Tameca Creek is surrounded by homes, parks, schools, and businesses. So, let's talk a little bit about what extra high voltage transmission lines look like and are. So, just to be clear on the terms that I'm using, I want to uh share with the public. When we talk about height, this is what we're talking about. When we talk about span, the distance between two transmission towers is what we're talking about. And we talk about right ofway
49:32or RO, that is what we're talking about. It's the land below the towers um that doesn't necessarily follow the footprint of the towers. It will it's usually larger than the actual footprint of the towers. So, what do these extra high voltage transmission lines look like? Well, they have height ranges between 125 ft to 91 ft. That's comparable to a 12 or 19 story building. So in comparison to existing buildings in the city limits, Abbott Vascular off of Overland Drive is a and uh is approximately five stories. Tameca Valley Hospital is a five-story project as well. The spans we discussed what those look like on the
50:13screen before. Spans are between 1,400 feet and 1,800 feet. For approximation, that's four to six football fields for the NFL. As mentioned earlier, the rightaway is approximately 200 to 250 ft. That was the red line that I showed earlier and it may be more depending on terrain. So, as we talk about these high extra high voltage transmission lines, we have questions and some of those are what do these look like in a residential or commercial area in terms of scale and and how does the massing look? The following examples are not in Temecula and many of these transmission lines existed prior to development occurring not
50:52after. There are various types of extra high voltage uh transmission line structures that may be utilized. They can change shape and form. So these are just examples. So this is in Ontario, California. You can see the scale of a single family home. That's a two-story home. And then transmission line in the middle of the screen. This is another example from Rancho Cukamonga for scale. This is an example from Dwarte. This is a commercial um office area of the high voltage transmission lines. So why is the project being proposed? According to SDG&E, it is for California electrification policies, grid reliability, and reducing transmission congestion. I mentioned
51:45earlier we talked about who actually approves these projects. The California Public Utilities Commission approves these projects, the CPU. And this information that's highlighted and quoted below is directly from CPU's website. I'll read just a brief excerpt of it. The CPU regulates investor-owned electrical utilities, which SDG&E is. And the CPU also approves the necessary certifications and permits for the construction of high voltage transmission lines. Anything above 50 kilovolts. What is the CPU? It's made up of five commissioners that are appointed by the governor of California, Gavin Newsome. And these appointments are confirmed by the state senate. The commissioners serve staggered six-year terms. So that's a little
52:34bit overview and facts about the presentation, but as we can see, we have a lot of community concerns and questions. So here are some of the questions we've already heard. What type of users will be served by these extra high voltage transmission lines? Industrial, commercial, and residential. What communities and areas will the project serve? Who is making the specific decisions where the preliminary route is going? Why was this selected as the preliminary route? Who benefits from the project? What are the other alternatives? How will Temecula and our community be included moving forward? And how will our stakeholders in our community be engaged? These are just a
53:17few of our stakeholders, but not all of them. And we also want to know what already has been studied. Again, I'm saying it again just for clarity purposes. This is not a city project. The city does not approve or deny transmission projects. So, today staff is looking for for direction from the city council to consider a resolution of position, conduct further research and requests for information or direct staff to and any other direction the city council deems appropriate. And with that, the QR code on the screen would allow residents or community members to submit their comments and make those available for the record. Additionally, we
53:57have SDG&E's web page available. Staff is available for questions, but obviously SDG&E will be coming up in the next presentation. They're available to answer questions.
Mayor Alexander
54:08Outstanding. Thank you very much for that report. Great job. With that, I'd like to push that out to the council members here. Do we have any questions for our staff?
Council Member
54:21Nothing at this time. Okay, I see nothing else at this time. Next, what we'd like to do is move into calling up SDG&E for their presentation. Are they here? SDG&E I think they're walking up right now. Excellent. Again, we want to thank them for their time for coming in today to be able to go over all of this information and um thank you. Thank you very much for is it the four of you? Three of four of you for coming back. I think I've met a couple of you from our last meeting. Uh thank you very much. I know the public is very excited to
55:10hear about what you have to say. Uh we're going to have a lot of questions and comments and so if we can just move forward and I'll give you guys the floor and we'll go from there.
SDG&E representative
55:19Thank you, mayor. Uh my name is Kevin Gity. I'm the chief operating officer for San Diego Gas and Electric. Uh appreciate this opportunity to have a discussion about the Golden Pacific Power Link. We think the way we'd like to address it is is Jeff of Billington from California Independent System Operator will talk about the need, how the line became to be something that our state selected, and then Erikica Martin from SDG will walk through just where we're at in the process of this initial routing. So, thank you.
SDG&E representative
55:49Good afternoon, Mayor and and counselors. Uh, as indicated, my name is Jeff Benton. I'm the director of transmission infrastructure planning at the California ISO. Um the California ISO conducts a transmission planning process on an annual basis. It's based upon our our FIR order tariff. Um it's an open and transparent process um through throughout um and like I said, it's an annual process. It's currently effectively about a 15-month process that does have overlap of each of the years. Um and one of the main inputs or two of the main inputs actually um come from the state agencies. The ISO has memorandum understanding that was renewed in
56:34in 2022 um with the California Public Utilities Commission and the California um Energy Commission in that it's to to really tighten the linkages of resource planning, transmission planning, interconnection and procurement of resources. um and planning the transmission system reliably to meet the the load growth. And so the California Energy Commission is responsible for the state's load forecast which they provide to ourselves and the California Public Utilities Commission which is used. So it's consistent planning for the resource and transmission needs within the system or in within the state and the California Public Utilities Commission is responsible for the resource planning and through their integrated resource plan
57:22they develop the portfolios of resources that we utilize um in our transmission planning. Um, and through that process in the 2022, as as staff indicated, the California ISO in the 2022 2023 transmission planning process and within the transmission plan identified the need for transmission um to to meet the load growth and the um make in terms of the resources that were identified within those portfolios to meet the reliability and state goals. Um the need for for transmission projects the the line and in the transmission plan it's identified as the Imperial Valley to north of Songs transmission plan. It is the one that is now being
58:13referred to as the uh Golden Pacific Power Link. Um it is one of the transmission projects that was identified within the transmission plan um to to reliably supply the load that is continuing to grow within uh the state as well as particularly along the the uh the coastal system with the renewable and the resources that are needed to meet those from a reliable point of view. um to transmit th that power um to to deliver to those loads. And so through that the need was developed in terms of for for that going through the analysis um was selected in terms of that a 500 KV
58:57line um for this project from the Imperial Valley area to to what's referred to as the north of Songs uh substation that will tie into the 230 KB system on the coast in that area. Um and through through the transmission planning process once that project was the need was identified um and through our board in terms of the transmission plan um we go out for on a project of this nature for competitive solicitation for the projects um going through that process um looking in terms of for developer to to identify um to meet the functional specification and the the technical requirements and from the point
59:42of delivery to to the interconnection point. Um that that um in a in a cost-effective manner um giving consideration in terms of of the um affordability and efficient in terms of alternatives to meet the needs to to reliably um develop in terms of the system in in in the California system. And so that was the the um as the staff indicated, San Diego Gas and Electric secured um the project and are proceeding with the project based upon the needs that were identified within the 2022 2023 transmission plan and and the functional specifications that were identified um as a part of that transmission plan. I'll I'll
1:00:30turn it over to to Erica.
SDG&E representative
1:00:32All right. Thank you, sir. Hello, my name is Erikica Martin. I'm the director of project development for uh SDG&E on the Golden Pacific Power Link. Uh I'm going to walk through some slides, although I'll say that the staff report covered a lot of background and helpful information that I don't need to repeat, although you'll see some of it in the slides. We can move more quickly through it. Um, and since we had uh we had Jeff here cover the need from Kaiso in the transmission plan, I won't go back through that either, and I'll I'll keep an eye on on the time. So, we talked
1:01:12uh Mr. Billington covered the statewide transmission planning process that occurred before the need for the project was identified and the Kaiso annual transmission plan that identified the project. Those steps you can see on this slide, they're the first three arrows up there and that's that statewide transmission planning process. That gray arrow is where we are now. And although it looks like we're at the end of a process, what we're at now is the very beginning of the routing and sighting process, the development of the project, beginning with SDG&E as Mr. Billington described um securing the rights to the project after a competitive solicitation as the
1:01:56staff reviewed and working to refine and develop the project. When once we've completed this early development process which includes engineering studies, technical studies, environmental studies um and significantly community outreach which is what we're doing here and what we have what we will continue to do for the next several months then we will submit an application to the CPU and in addition to their transmission planning responsibilities they have ultimate responsibility over the routing and sighting for the line and they will review in a formal regulatory process both um both our proposal and they will also conduct the SQA or the California Environmental Quality Act review for
1:02:41the project and they will determine both if the project will be built and or where it will be built. And so I'd really like to impress upon you all that this is very early in the process that we are we have not submitted that permit application yet and once it goes to the CPU that is a lengthy regulatory and environmental review process where routing and environmental and community concerns are discussed and considered. So just a review and I'll go through this um relatively quickly. Uh SDG&E's project goals are first and foremost to design and build the project that Kaiso identified in the transmission plan. Any
1:03:24project, any proposal has to meet Kaiso's project objectives or we don't have a project that includes uh this the origination and the end point of the project. Uh starting in Imperial Valley, an existing substation there, and ending in that new substation that will be built by Horizon West, uh somewhere north of the Song's generating plant. And so the goals of Kaiso are are our goals here including delivering a project in a cost of effective way um because ultimately this project um the costs are borne by the rate payers in California and that's all of the rate payers of the investorowned utilities PG& Edison SDG&E all
1:04:10of those customers uh have the benefit of the transmission system and so all of those customers will bear a share of the costs for this project. And so a top consideration will be the affordability, how much uh when we design and route the project, considering the costs that would be associated with design and the route. And I'll just note as part of that um that we know from our experience uh owning and operating transmission system that the largest driver of costs for the transmission line is the length of the line. Each additional mile that's added adds construction and material costs and that's the biggest needle
1:04:48mover for determining what the cost will ultimately be. And so um that's one of the considerations as we're looking at developing the most cost-effective project that we can. And then we um also heard that Kaiso has set a target inservice date for this project of 2032. So that's the date that we're working to meet with our project timeline. Here's a map of the area without the line on it showing the starting and end points as identified in that 22 23 transmission plan by Kaiso. That red triangle is the existing substation in Imperial Valley. And the white triangle up in the northwest corner is an approximate
1:05:35location of the new substation. Since that is being built uh by another developer, we we are not here to talk about that. We don't have that location to provide to you today, but we do know that it will be north of that song's generating station. And this I think you've already seen. This is the preliminary proposed routing corridor. This is the starting point. And when I mentioned earlier that we're at the beginning of that routing and sighting process, this is where we're starting. No final decisions have been made. We are at the beginning of the study and analysis of this route. We're at the beginning
1:06:16of really hearing public comment on this route. Uh but this is the starting point for us to continue to refine and develop. I know that it is this is a very high level map um and that is because our development and engineering is also at a very high level stage at this point. Our continued public outreach and stakeholder conversations as the project develops will continue to provide more detailed information as it becomes available. Oops, wrong way. And so this uh highlights the segment that's in Temecula also still very high level but it shows some of the topography and the features of the map just to
1:07:03give a better understanding of the portion that is in Riverside County and that passes through the city of Temecula. It's approximately 5 miles of the current proposed alignment. Um and the the corridor as was mentioned earlier is still 1,000 ft. That's not ultimately what the right of way would be even if the alignment didn't change. That's just a very wide steady corridor for us as we're continuing to understand what potential impacts might be, what our concerns and questions and how can we incorporate that into the design and development of our project. Here is again the timeline of the project. And you've heard us talk about
1:07:49each of these pieces a couple times. I I also want to reiterate the in-person public meetings that will be held in the late summer and fall. Uh we don't have the dates for those yet or the locations. We're using the information that we gather in this early public outreach process to identify the places where those need to happen and um the folks that we need to hear more from especially as there is more information that's available about the project and the status of it. Um we do know that things will change, information will change and we want to continue to communicate out about that. Those
1:08:29public meetings will be an opportunity for us to communicate and for the community the community to communicate with us. We will plan to file our project application before the end of this year. Another opportunity for us to communicate with agency oversight and for the formal record of the proceeding before the CPU to begin and to have public comment on the record and public participation. Those are additional opportunities for communities and stakeholders to be involved. And again, we are shooting for a construction timeline in the fall of 2029 and an inservice date in 2032. Um, I think I've got some information on here for you all
1:09:14to contact us. I think you also have that. I'll just end by saying um that we understand the questions and the concerns that are raised by a project like this and that is exactly why we are out holding virtual open houses and public open houses to be able to hear and take that feedback. We're grateful for the time. We're grateful for the input. We'd like to keep the dialogue open. Thank you. I want to thank you all so far. I know we have some questions coming up, but again, I want to thank you guys for coming out here, being able to present this, and allowing
1:09:52the community to be able to be heard and have questions as well. So, with that being said, I would like to start opening this up with our council first, as we always do, with questions. uh as the mayor today I have some questions that I would like to lead with and if anybody whether Kaiso or SDG&E would like to be able to come up and answer any of these questions that would be great. So thank you very much. So first I'd like to start off by asking a question regarding the planning and the transparency of this project so we can ensure that the council and
1:10:25the public fully understand all of the options tonight. Queso, I believe you're in the house. if you can come up just for a minute. Uh can you please share on the primary maps and full bids submitted by Queso in 2023 for this project? They received four bids specifically from Horizon West, SDG&EC, and California Grid. Of all the bids, Queso picked Horizon West map, which Queso has revealed was the only primary map going through our city of Temecula. All of the other biders maps went through open spaces and not through populations.
Public speaker
1:11:12Okay, remember up or down? And although Horizon West won the bid, you gave it the route over to SDG&E if I was correct on that. So, we'd like to see what SDG&E's original 153 mile route that did not go through the urban areas of Temecula as well as the other maps from the biders that did not go through the urban area of our city. Would you by any chance have those today? I know that we had asked for them before. Um I I don't have copies of those in terms of with me.
1:11:48Okay. So we want to respect everybody. I know
1:11:50those the we do provide in terms of a selection document
SDG&E representative
1:11:55that's posted on our on our website. The the full bids themselves um have significant amount of confidentiality and and that within the bids um and so those have not been made available. Um we like I said is is we do make available a selection report. Um I will note as we go through the the uh selection process there there's a number of factors that are taken into consideration to come up with the selection of the winning the the awarded bid. um looking at in terms of um rightaway being one component costs and and a number of other factors with regards to the to the biders.
1:12:41So um that is that is all a part of the analysis and for those components the the individual bids themselves are are um confidential with the exception of what we have provided within the selection. um reports.
Mayor Alexander
1:13:01Okay. Would any of my council members like to ask a question on that one directly? Yes.
Council Member
1:13:05Yes, I would. Um you didn't answer the question of Yeah. [applause] Why was that route selected? I don't care about the bids. I don't care how much money it was going to cost. Why was that particular route selected? going through a dense residential area
1:13:29uh down a environmentally uh delicate stream bed. Um and Temecula is known as a hot air balloon community. So, how in the world can hot air balloons exist with 200 foot towers of high uh power going through it? I mean, it it makes zero sense to me. And so, that's what I want to answer to. I could care less about the bottom line. Tell me why it came to me. Well, as as I indicated, the the routing is one of the factors when going through of the selection. And so taking into consideration of of all of the factors, it was determined that at the the
1:14:22the bid that was selected um was the the um taking all of that into consideration the the appropriate the appropriate um alternative or selection or or proposal to proceed with. So, so when a hot air balloon and and it happens often, you see it on the news, hot air balloons hit those how power lines because you're at the mercy of the wind. So, you don't always have the ability to outmaneuver a power line. And so, therefore, you're putting and I if if someone were to die with those power lines, I'll be the first one to support whoever is going to sue you guys forever.
1:15:10[applause]
1:15:12All right. Thank you. Thank you for your question, Mr. Mayor. Prom, we need to just keep it to questions, guys. We'll have our time for comments, but thank you very much, Sue.
1:15:24Boy, I don't envy your position here. Um, so just following up on on the mayor's original question, your selection criteria, there's a lot, but it's it's a bit of a black box when it comes to the public or or even our city understanding why this particular alignment or why that particular project was selected uh of the four. Um but in that criteria and what you do have on your website talks not just about you know the the alignments themselves and different proposals but it specifically mentioned um local opposition uh in in its analysis along with cost um and the only local opposition in any of
1:16:06the bids as I understand it there's only one urban area it's going through which is you know the city of Temecula. So, how ho how does and and if you could also clarify because we've heard several different uh descriptors of what I I always say cal IO but what the agency how you prefer to be called but if you could explain to us how how did you come up to this decision given that those don't seem like you know criteria when you and the CUPC CPU and others are supposed to select the environmentally superior alternative in this analysis Well, that's that's one of the components
1:16:44and and as Erica indicated that is identified as preliminary and does will go through the SQL process with the CPU for the uh detailed permitting and routing. um a preferred alternative will be submitted by the proponent um as well as alternatives are required and they'll go through the the EIR in terms of the uh environmental re review um to determine as to what a final route will be. Okay, but it didn't answer the the question again. I I I I don't understand how I know this is frustrating but just bear with me here. No, no.
1:17:25How opposition comes into the selection criteria like that's specifically mentioned on your website. So why was that even discussed as part of why you would or how you would select a project? That doesn't seem like a criteria that should be considered by the state of California. Well, as we look at in terms of the the preliminary proposed routing um as like I said, one of the factors um that that gets weighed as we look at it. And so as we're looking at um which alternative or which um project sponsors project to proceed with, we give consideration to to that routing um and to like I
1:18:12said in terms of other factors which include costs which includes the uh track records of the the biders um cost containment that is determined within the the bid um and and like I said is all of that is outlined within the selection report that is publicly available and posted on our website um with the selection um of the the project sponsor.
1:18:39Okay.
1:18:40All right. All right. Thank you very much for your question. I believe Council Member Brenda Kelus.
1:18:46Yes. Thank you. Uh this question is for yourself as well as SDG&E. Um as was said, this wasn't your original route that you submitted. My question would be if you can't tell us due to confidentiality of what your original route was, can you explain to us why you believe that going through this route initially wasn't in the best interest of SDG&E since that was not submitted on your initial proposal? Uh that's a that is a a challenging question to answer because we have we we have uh we are in a different phase of the project now. We have um we are refining and developing the
1:19:28project that we acquired in the this past summer of 2025. I will say that we have spent a lot of time looking at the different ways to get from Imperial Valley to north of Songs and we know that there are alternatives in different segments of the line and those alternatives will be submitted to the CPU for their review. Also there it is a challenge to say the least to get about 140 miles from Imperial Valley to the north of Songs. There are a number of considerations that we have to weigh for a pro for a proposal as well as for alternatives. Kaiso's project objectives are
1:20:11the first. There's constructibility and feasibility. Where can the towers go? Where can they where does the topography allow them to be built? where is there space to put them? Um, there's cost. We talked about affordability and length. There's environmental concerns that need to be studied in a transparent and public way. We haven't completed that yet. There are community concerns. There are cultural resource concerns. All of those are potential impacts that will go into both a proposal and an alternatives analysis that will be submitted as part of our of part of our application. that will be a chance for us to share what what we think
1:20:53about those alternatives and that route and then ultimately it will be the CPU that studies and analyzes it to determine what actually should get built and where it should go. And I I I know that's it's a hard um that's a hard answer. Um, but because we're in this preliminary phase of development, I don't I I wish I could be more concrete, but I think that those that additional information will be part of our public outreach process.
1:21:22Absolutely. And just a follow-up question on that, would it be fair to say that your original bid that you guys would like to win, right? because that's millions of dollars in cost generated for your private entity. You believe that the route that you submitted was the best for your shareholders at that time in order to win the bid.
1:21:40If if we didn't believe that, we wouldn't have submitted it.
1:21:43Thank you.
1:21:48Okay, to go.
1:21:49Yes, please go.
1:21:50Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm just trying to build off of your question because I have several questions and trying to figure out where they're going to align. But if we're talking about planning, we're talking about maps. Um you had mentioned that this is like the very early stages of this process. It doesn't feel that way. Um when we received emails in April, um it feels like very late in the game, right? [applause] So So my question is just essentially like why does this feel so late to us when you're saying it's like hey this is just the beginning, you know, it doesn't feel that way
1:22:21from from our perspective. And looking back at the timeline, there's three years between the start and where we are now. And to get an email in April just seems um doesn't seem like it's the beginning of the process. So I don't know who'd like to answer that or or speak to that.
1:22:37Yeah, I I understand that. Um and it it feels like that in some ways to us as well because the competitive solicitation process started in 2023. Um and and we were a bidder in that. And so we know that the need for the project has been identified for a couple of years. The awareness of the project in the public also has been this is a unique process for an electric infrastructure project for SDG&E and I think you know relatively in the state in this transmission plan there were three projects that went through the competitive solicitation projects. Many of the other ones, the rest of the
1:23:12other 42 projects um did not go through this process, but this extends the timeline. There is a transmission plan, there is a bidding, there's an awarding of the project, and then there's a project development phase because whatever is submitted in the comp the competitive solicitation process is extremely high level and it's a bid. It's not a fully developed, fully engineered project. So since that project was awarded originally to Horizon West and then it was acquired by SDG&E in July of last year there has been some development of the project but really we've taken it up in earnest at 9 months ago. Um and so in
1:23:55order to know have any information to share even a highlevel public route we needed to take that time to understand what it could be these these very preliminary engineering studies technical studies that's what we've been working on for the past nine months in order to have something to to share. It's uh there are many questions that we get where we don't have specific answers to them because we have not developed the project to a high level of engineering or sighting and because we are so early in the process. So um I know that does those are a lot of steps that all took a lot
1:24:38of time. I understand that that would feel that this this project has been out there for a long time, but I just have to emphasize again how much more there is of the process to come. We uh when we're submitting an application to the CPU, we don't usually start um with public outreach 6 months or more before we file because we usually like to know a lot more about the writing, about the routing, about the structures, about the impacts, um because it does make it easier to provide information and to have that dialogue. But given the size of this project, the places where the route
1:25:17currently goes, the questions that we knew would come up, we made a decision to have these discussions earlier before we have uh even settled on what our proposal will be to the CPU before the CPU does their public outreach. And so that's that's years to come. So there is, as I said earlier, lots of opportunities for participation. Written comment, oral comment, on the record, off the record to us. There are lots of opportunities for continued engagement.
1:25:50All righty. And I believe if if you want to just stay at the podium one more time. Sorry. Believe I have one more question from Mayor Prom.
1:25:59I should have brought a bigger water bottle.
1:26:01If you need more water, let us know, please.
1:26:03You some.
1:26:05Okay. So, so the maps that are they're provided are like a, you know, treasure map on the back of a Yeah.
1:26:11You know, thank you.
1:26:13restaurants, you know, placemat, right? But, but you the
1:26:18Caliso and SDG&E aren't making decisions on that. You have a lot more detail in in these and and specifically running along some of the alignments that we're most familiar with in our our backyard. There's only one place you can put a line of that magnitude and it's along the Temecula Creek. So you have higher level engineering and drawings and details than than what you're providing us today.
1:26:45Uh we we really do not we are actively studying those things. We have identified using a map that that high level those high level locations. Now we need to go out and do field surveys. We need to do LAR and and check those physical locations. We need to send out um biologists and other folks to go out and do field surveys for those to identify habitat.
1:27:07I understand how that works because I actually used to do that for a living.
1:27:11But what I'm wondering is like your your alignments don't have a lot of wiggle room around them. You're not going to put it into a neighborhood with existing houses. You're not going to put it in the middle of a street or a freeway. So, so you're already selecting areas where you know you have a high likelihood of placing the alignment. So, what I'm asking is why wasn't that information shared with the city early on in this process? And and I'll also say, you know, no clapping. Come on, let's keep it together. I'll I'll also say when you when you came to the city's meetings, you
1:27:47provided and brought forward every map except the map of the city of Temecula. Now, but I also have it on good authority that you did the same to tribes in San Diego County when you met with them and had missing maps of their specific tribal territory. So,
1:28:06I'm having a hard time understanding how this is a community outreach process. It's open. It's transparent. you're trying to get, you know, the feel of of what's going on when you're showing up to meetings with mi municipalities and tribes and and other entities who are going to be impacted the most by these projects, knowing full well where these alignments are and not divulging exactly what you know about those alignments.
1:28:31Uh I I'll say on the meeting with the city that was a display problem in a PowerPoint slide and and so that it was it just wasn't clear. is a highlevel map but it wasn't uh it was not at all an attempt to leave out information and we offered to come back and correct that and we haven't had that opportunity yet. We are providing the information that we do have what we do know and I I don't know what you're referring to in terms of the tribal meetings. We have tried to be very open and transparent and and that sort of goes back to my
1:29:05earlier point about how we get asked questions about really specific location of sighting and exactly where will the right of way be and we don't have an answer because we genuinely don't have an answer. We don't know but we want to understand what are the concerns, what are those specific areas, uh questions, issue things that we don't know about that are on the ground. We're looking at maps. We're going to go out and look in the field to engineer it, but we also need to know from the folks who are there what are those things that we need to know that helps us to site
1:29:39to even understand where it could be cited. That's why we have a thousand ft corridor of a place where it might go. But again, this is no final decisions are made. No routing has been finalized by us or by ultimately the state agency that will make that decision. Okay, good. All righty. Thank you for answering that. I'm going to ask some questions here because I know a lot of these questions are probably things that the public is going to ask. But what's a really good thing right now is we have these wonderful individuals here who are going to help answer those questions. So, everybody can
1:30:16get those questions answered. So, with that, uh, I'll just leave it ended open for anybody who would like to answer this. Uh independent real estate valuation data shows the placing of high voltage corridors near residential parcels can slash properties and empty lots values to up to 50%. How does SDG&E plan to financially compensate Temecula property owners, developers, and municipal tax base for immediate destruction of the of the residents family wealth and hard-earned property investments?
1:30:52[applause]
1:30:59So, we really hope to design a project that limits any direct impact to private property. That that is all that is our that is certainly our goal. And because we don't know the route yet and we don't know if or what those impacts might be, it's hard to answer that question. However, we prefer to work with any private land owners and um understand concerns, understand what impacts might be and the type of property or the value of property uh if that is where the the project routing leads. So, we would interact directly with that property owner to understand what their concerns and damages might be
1:31:43and then we would go from there. Thank you for that answer.
1:31:52Any of my colleagues have any other questions about property value? Yes, sir.
1:31:55No, not property value.
1:31:56Not property value. Anybody to my left? Seeing none, I'll go to my next question and thank you very much. Our city's economic growth relies on vibrant housing, business, and new construction. What developer will buy empty? Will a developer buy empty lots or building uh family residential tracks directly under a 500 KV corridor? And how will you offset the long-term economic strategization? I cannot say that word today. This project forces into the fi uh the fiscal security of Temecula's families. Thank you for that opportunity. Um, we work with developers frequently along our two 230,000 volt lines or 500,000 volt lines. So, I can assure you home
1:32:49development projects are continuing in around those type of assets. However, they value those uh what they ultimately develop them for is really up for those individual speculators. But we have not seen the existing transmission lines in San Diego County or Orange County actually prevent development of housing.
1:33:08Okay. Any of my colleagues have anything? I just wait. I might have you ask the next answer the next question. Anything?
1:33:14I do have a question on that, mayor.
1:33:16Yes, please go ahead.
1:33:16Uh, with that being said, in regards to developers, the city of Temecula, especially in this corridor, is already developed. Um, the homes are already built. So, in this area, I'm not concerned about develops coming in. I'm more worried about and concerned about the the current property owners there and [applause] and I understand that you work with the private homeowners. Um, but has SDG ever done a study on the equity lost near these transmission lines? And if so, have they reimbursed these homeowners for the equity that they lost?
1:33:49I'm not familiar with that. Um, we have I would say we have very public line sighting processes here in the state of California and uh within those documents we may be able to find examples where that has been done historically. It's not uncommon to study that.
1:34:05Thank you.
1:34:06Thank you very much uh Mr. Kus. Okay sir, maybe you can help us with this one. So Temecula is the most important thing for us besides our residents is their safety. So I want to ask this question. Temecula is completely surrounded by high fire risk zones. During a wildfire, minutes matter. A lowflying firefight firefighting helicopters are our primary defense. How can SDG&E justify stringing massive high voltage lines and towers directly through our airspace knowing they can create a deadly physical barrier that can and probably will actively threaten lives, property, and total financial investments of our citizens. Can you help me understand that [applause]
1:35:02we don't think there's a lack of coexistence there? We work in very detailed ways with our firefighting communities to have that awareness, co-rain with them, etc. Right. Um, just this weekend, and folks may or may not be aware of this, there was the tank um up in Orange County, right? That behind the scenes almost nobody knows Edison had to deenergize several transmission lines associated with that. This interconnectedness of the grid in moments like that matter. Now, while the temperature was really very cool, had that showed up in 100 degree days, it would have been a very big deal. And so, these transmission lines have to
1:35:38be weighed on totally how they provide for a community, the reliability, and the benefit. This line in most likely scenarios will provide resiliency in wildfire space. But I will also tell you, it's one of the main reasons we wanted to step in and build this transmission line is we think SDG is the world's best operator of transmission lines in high fire threats area. And one of the reasons I will tell you that is personally I live in a high-f threat area. I have 230,000 volts line half a mile either side of my home. Right? And so this is not something our teams take lightly in building
1:36:11assets like this in wildfire spaces. But what I will tell the community, wherever the line ends up being, it will be safe, it will be reliable, and its fire safety will be the top thing for SG&.
Mayor Alexander
1:36:26Thank you for that. And I believe some of my council members have other questions. Yes, sir.
Public speaker
1:36:31Well, just following up on the thread of of uh wildfire risk. Um I having spent the better part of my career working on wildfire and wildland urban interface uh projects and specifically research on community resilience. Um it's I can unequivocally say that this project creates a significant risk of of fire within the community and the surrounding area. um you know and and I' I'd love to hear why you think that's not the case because you know and and I understand that you SDG now consider considers itself a leader in in you know wildfire resilience and and and uh you know safety of the grid but
1:37:18y'all were also responsible for the Witch and Gujito fire in 2007 that burned down a significant part of
SDG&E representative
1:37:26San Diego County and caused by a line like this though. No, not okay. We can talk about the, you know, severity because the relative risk of these lines really does matter. These lines are almost never ever the source of ignition or wildfire. Never.
1:37:42Almost. Almost never.
1:37:44Disagree with you on that on a national scale.
SDG&E representative
1:37:46We shouldn't disagree. I think what we should provide is facts that where fires happen, it is in the lower voltage and as you get them into these structures almost never because of how high they are and how far the wires are away from each other. That's just a fact. Almost never.
1:38:03Almost never.
Mayor Alexander
1:38:03All right, we're going to we're going to disagree on that point.
Public speaker
1:38:06We don't have to disagree. I'll I'll provide you that study of the individual line level.
SDG&E representative
1:38:10I would love to see it and I'll be happy to provide you others as well. Yeah,
Public speaker
1:38:14but you know what what surprises me is how cavalier, you know, you are with the wildfire issue because it's a serious threat. And placing this type of infrastructure in our community not only enhances that that risk uh in in a pre-existing high-f fire risk zone, but it severely impedes the ability of our fire department to actually respond to those incidents because of the high voltage lines and because of the air attack and other, you know, resources that they're going to bring in. you're placing this in specifically in the zone that poses some of the highest threat to the city of Temecula. The other piece too
1:38:52is firefighters generally don't like fighting fire under high tension power lines um when there's a fire going on in a creek where these lines are placed. So, I I'm just I'm finding it really hard to understand how you're saying, "Well, this isn't a a fire problem because there's layers of issues that, you know, that we're just simply not going to be able to handle um when it comes to fire risk for Temecula."
SDG&E representative
1:39:18Mayor Prom, I'm sorry if any way, shape, or form I came off as cavalier. This is the number one thing we worry about every day and we've worried about every day since 2007. And in 19 years, STG has not started wildfire. And what I can tell you is when we carefully examine the facts, which I will provide to you, 500,000 volt lines do not start ignitions, they do not. Okay? And that's just a simple matter of fact, right? And so we don't have to disagree about that, right? The the benefits of often lines like this come in in the rights away or fire breaks that
1:39:50they can cause, right? We coordinate directly with the firefighters in San Diego County that are fighting any fire anywhere that may start two miles away from our transmission lines but may burn there and we actively coordinate with them and in most cases they'll say let it burn under your lines right and that's in a wildland interface space where this line is I don't suspect that that's where where uh the treatment would be but our intensity of working with our fire partners is is unmatched we own the helicopters to get on into any potential wildfires in and around our assets. And again, I not to be
1:40:26cavalier at all, this is something that is everything that we do. And should this line end up anywhere near Temecula, anywhere near this proposed route, you will absolutely have the best operator who is the best safety provider in this space.
1:40:41Okay.
Mayor Alexander
1:40:42All righty. Thank you for that. And I believe we have another firefighter here who'd like to be able to ask you a question.
Public speaker
1:40:48Just a few questions on uh fire. How much money has SDG paid out in wildfire settlements in the last 25 years?
SDG&E representative
1:40:57I think I don't think not even a single dollar in the wildfire fund as we think about it here within the state. Not a single dollar.
SDG&E representative
1:41:04Not in that wildfire fund. If you're talking back to 2007, sorry, I wouldn't know that.
Public speaker
1:41:102007 was 2.4 billion. Thousands of homes burned in that fire as well. And we talk about almost never, right? that that these lines almost never start fires. It's not never, right? It's not 100%. They will. [applause]
SDG&E representative
1:41:26I I don't think I don't think we'll find a single line of 500,000 volt that has ever started an extreme wildfire in the western United States. I feel that strongly about it. Starting an extreme fire is what we're talking about here.
Public speaker
1:41:39Well, extreme is subjective, right? Because it can start out as a little brush fire.
Public speaker
1:41:42We can start with 2.4 billion, but I'm quite confident there's not a 500,000 ft line that's done that. This next one is a rhetorical question uh which you don't have to answer, but I think it's important for us to stop pretending that major utility infrastructure through high fire severity zones like the one that is proposed here comes with no consequences. There are consequences and there's the absolutely the possibility of wildfire through this corridor. I I will answer it only because if you take a look at the map and it is one of the biggest challenges we have here in the western states in order to
1:42:19get power from outside of California and into California, there's not a spot around our state's borders where we can cross without going through the high fire threat district. Right. And and that's just really very critical for us all to consider. If there was a means to get from where this line originates in Imperial Valley up into uh Orange County without traversing the wildfire threat area, all of us would have would have thought about doing that. It's just not possible in this case.
1:42:47Go ahead,
1:42:51Mr. Schwank.
Mayor Alexander
1:42:52All right. Thank you very much. Um, yeah. So, trying to build off my colleagues a little bit, thinking about, you know, even if these lines never start a fire, fires happen. Yes,
1:43:04we've had fires in this creek in the past in their
1:43:06active wildfire season for Riverside. Yeah.
Public speaker
1:43:09And so, I'm mostly concerned about right next to homes, not being able to an air attack, like thinking about there's there could potentially be a fire and you have these resources and you're mentioning you have helicopters and that's great. Um, but I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned about um sort of the the Temecula Valley Hospital component of it as well is very close. And if we're talking about flight paths and we're talking about air attacks, um, how do these lines impact the existing flight path to the hospital? Have you reached out to the hospital and done any work on on modifying or the potential modifications
1:43:47with the FAA or or sort of building off of the sort of air attacks and and flight paths?
SDG&E representative
1:43:53Um I'm just going to join Kevin for a second to talk about the hospital. So um we will uh go through an FAA review uh if the route stays where it is to determine that there is no operational risk or conflict with the hospital. We don't see there being a need for any conflict there right now, but since we don't have a precise location for the route. Um, I can't say that with certainty other than we would coordinate with the FAA to make sure we would we would be required to do that. We would never place a line where it impeded the Hilo pad from
1:44:28the hospital. So, that would be a barrier to placing the line there. Um, and so that's for the further development that needs to come to determine what those limitations or restrictions might be both from the hospital's perspective as well as the FAA's perspective that is going to make sure that there's no aircraft conflict. Okay.
SDG&E representative
1:44:44And I would like to make sure it's clear that the line itself does not provide prevent firefighting on them, under them, uh, air drops across them happens frequently. If that's the right thing in our coordination with fire agencies, if the right thing is to drop retardant on those lines, that's what'll happen.
Public speaker
1:45:03Uh, next question I have for you, still staying within public safety, uh, question. I know you're stating that wildfires, this isn't really a thing that happens. We're saying that it can possibly happen. But I do want to put out there for the record and ask that uh Temecula currently maintains an excellent ISO rating, class 2 rating, which directly keeps our residents homeowners insurance affordable as of today by introducing massive industrial uh ignition risks and obstructing aerial firefighting assets in a high fire zone. Have you had the opportunity yet, sir, to calculate how much our ISO rating can and will drop? And will SDG&E step up
1:45:46to pay back the skyrocketing insurance premiums for our citizens when the project destroys their uh financial security and instability? [applause]
SDG&E representative
1:45:57That's a hell of a question to try to answer. So, no, I have not done any studies on the ISO ratings here, right? But again, I want to make sure it's clear. These are not the type of lines that create wildfires. These are also these are also the the the the type of lines that also do not prevent firefighting. And I know we keep saying that. That is just untrue. These lines do not prevent air attacks at all. They happen all the time on on any structures we have in and around San Diego. We witness it. I've seen them happen up here in Riverside this
1:46:32year. direct drops onto Edison lines. Right? So the lines themselves do not prevent air attack.
1:46:39Okay?
SDG&E representative
1:46:39And and the men and women that fly if if you're very if you've never gotten into a CalFire and the way they coordinate the air attacks, you you'll really quickly learn the reason why those lines are not do not end up being a hazard is that they're absolute professionals in understanding how to fight in and around those assets.
Mayor Alexander
1:46:56Okay. Thank you for your statement. uh open up to anybody else to finalize any questions on public safety.
1:47:05Yes, sir.
Public speaker
1:47:06Just a a quick one un un related to public safety, but I was I was curious why uh Caliso and um SDG are traveling to the city of Temecula with the armed security detail. Um you know, we're consistently one of the top 25 safest cities in the nation. Um police presence here was fairly substantial today. So, is it the city or something that we're doing that makes you feel like you needed a security detail today? [applause]
Mayor Alexander
1:47:40Really great question for the public discourse. So, um very informative. Uh so I think it was in response to understanding that the Riverside County was sheriff's office was spotting additional folks here in in in response to how many people were attending. That simple. An existing protocol. You you responded by posting uh sheriff deputies. Our security detail came in. I myself did not uh arrive here with security. My piece of 2013 Tacoma trucks out there in the back. I mean, in case you think this was additive to to this mayor prom.
1:48:17Well, it's I say it because you know you're you're coming. Say why?
Mayor Alexander
1:48:22I Yeah. I mean, it's a little surprising that you chose to do that. Coming to the city of Temecula, it's a it's a showing of of trust and faith and, you know, Riverside County Sheriff's Department and the city of Temecula providing the kind of service that
Public speaker
1:48:37Yeah, understand that. But bringing in private security, it's just a it's an odd move. It's never happened in this city hall before. I don't think uh Mr. Washington, I'm not sure that's even happened at the county board of supervisors meetings. And I know you guys have had way more contentious meetings up there than than we have. Um, and so it just it it struck me as a surprising move by San Diego Gas and Electric to come to our town and have that sort of uh
1:49:01I appreciate I appreciate the discussion on it. Very helpful.
1:49:04Okay.
Mayor Alexander
1:49:06All right. I've got four [snorts] more questions. Let's get out of the public safety area. I think we beat that with the beat that pretty well. Let's move into let's talk about our tribe Pchanga. I can't speak for Pchanga, but as mayor, I have an obligation to ask this question. Have you evaluated whether this corridor directly threatens our tribal neighbors and their ancestrial sacred lands? Why should the city of Temecula support an intrusive infrastructure project that shows complete disregard for the cultural heritage, sovereign rights and historical legacy of Pchanga? [applause] [cheering] Of course, we would never do that, but we can discuss uh citing transmission
1:50:01lines and doing it in a very e environmental uh way is is part for the course for any transmission line in California. No transmission line is ever going to get built that rises to that level of disrespect you just mentioned. But we have met with Pchanga and Erica can brief you on that. Yeah, our um we have placed a top priority on our dialogue and partnership with our tribal partners that may be along this route. Those were among the first folks that we reached out to when SDG&E obtained the project, understanding how culturally rich this region is. Um and so input from them as we
1:50:43develop is going to be crucial to understanding how we can reduce and avoid as much as possible any impacts to cultural resources to areas of ancestral origin. Um and we know that that those exist along the preliminary route and that is why we need continued study. We need that to be a publicly transparently studied process to understand what those potential impacts might be. We want to hear directly from the tribe what is a meaningful way for us to avoid that. Um can we avoid that and what from them from their perspective is a meaningful way to mitigate any impacts should there be any. We want
1:51:23to hear their voices. And so that's why we've had um several conversations with different representatives of the Pachchanga tribe and we we will continue to do that as development moves forward as long as they're um wanting to to continue to dialogue with us. And so far they they have been
Public speaker
1:51:41and can you can you help me understand if you guys don't have a route how are you going to decide whether it it impedes in their areas? I I think that's where the dialogue comes in, right? We can say here's this general area. Tell us about this area and what is it that is your that are the priorities? What are the concerns? What are your questions about this place where that these area where it might go? And then we can take that and inform our project development. And then ultimately in that SQA process, studying any potential impacts to cultural resources is a very um technical
1:52:15and transparent part of the public process. So in addition to the dialogue that we're having, the CPU will also take this piece on and make sure that to the extent that there are impacts that they can be avoided and reduced and they again will choose the route and and identify the route that poses the least impacts.
SDG&E representative
1:52:36And how soon do you figure that those routes so that way the city as well along with our the tribe Pchanga can look at that together because it sounds like you guys don't have any of that currently. We're going to continue to share information as the project is developed over the summer. We talked about those public meetings that that we will have. We'd love to come back and have more specific conversations with you all when when we get to that stage of project development. We'll file application at the end of the year where there will be our proposal in it and alternatives and an assessment
1:53:08of potential impacts. And then the CPU, the CPU will have their process that will be a couple years long and they will provide a schedule and opportunities for additional input through that as well. Okay, thank you for that. And I will open that up to any of our council members.
1:53:28Yes, sir. Mr. Stew.
Public speaker
1:53:30Yeah. So, um did you take into consideration other historical uh uh significance of this route because it is the old Butterfield stage route which was basically the Southern Immigrant Trail and to litter this trail with these high powered super tall lines would totally destroy the historical significance of even that
Public speaker
1:54:01and so even the you know Pchanga tribe was this whole valley so really as far as I'm concerned put it outside the Temecula Valley and you'll be safe
Public speaker
1:54:12inside the Temecula Valley is all culturally sensitive so that you know and I I and I realize we're early even though we're we're we feel like we're not early but I I I hear you guys saying that there is opportunities I think it would make us all feel better if you had routes that didn't include Temecula in it.
1:54:36Yeah. [applause]
SDG&E representative
1:54:38Um yeah, I there I we don't know what alternatives there will ultimately be. Um but I feel pretty sure that there will be alternatives that avoid the Temecula segment of the route in order to ident to determine whether there is an alternative that reduces environmental community cultural resources all the things so that we just talked about. Um but I also want to note that there are cultural resources all over the Southern California region. There are se San Diego County just in particular has more federally recognized tribes than any county in the country. So we know the challenge that we have here to find a route
1:55:22that doesn't have impacts. I don't I don't know if we'll be able to find that. We're trying to weigh all of these significant routing criteria to identify the best route. Ultimately, the CPU has to weigh that. But I don't know that that even the CPU will be able to identify a route that doesn't have impacts to the environment or cultural resources or all of these things. I think it's how can we mitigate, avoid, reduce, where can this go that is the least impactful. That's where we're trying to get right now. So that that's my concern about the CPU is um because according to your timeline
1:56:04it looks like it's December you're going to submit a route and
1:56:08before the end of the year
1:56:09before the end of the year.
Public speaker
1:56:11So and how are we going to be notified of that route to and is is this meeting the C CPU meeting is this a closed door meeting? Do is it a public hearing? Is it something that we're going to be notified well in advance so we can
1:56:28That's a great question.
SDG&E representative
1:56:29Yeah, we we will certainly be continuing to provide updates about when we file our application. The CPU will also notice uh interested parties including the city of Temecula. Um and it's not one meeting. It's a yearslong process that has multiple steps and stages including specific opportunities for public comment, open hearings, you can provide written comment. um you can provide uh in-person comment and they'll decide what the dates of those things are. So when we have them or when the CPU has them, it there are specific notice requirements in their regulations that provide for public awareness. The the role of SQUA in large part is public
1:57:13awareness and public input. And so those all of those requirements will be fulfilled.
Mayor Alexander
1:57:20All right. I just want to make sure that you guys are aware. We just want to know as soon as we possibly can so we can make our
1:57:27understood
1:57:27uh opinions known. So Sure. Yeah. Thank you.
City staff
1:57:32Uh Mayor Pro Tim. So if we're if we're talking about c we'll let Banga speak to their cultural resources, but we do know that this alignment is going through a traditional cultural property that's you know designated and sits along the corridor for you know their creation story which was fairly significant. Um I'm not sure if you guys looked into the Liberty Quarry at all. I' I'd recommend it. Um yeah
Mayor Alexander
1:57:58the [applause] the the reason I bring it up is because this alignment is going through you know a very similar area that [snorts] was designated and talked about during that you know 7 and 1/2 year process um that identified you know this river corridor is the last fully protected free- flowing river in Southern California. Also provides the drinking water supply for Marine Corps base camp Pendleton. the uh wildlife corridor that sits here is the last inland to coastal wildlife linkage and habitat linkage left in Southern California. Um, you know, I mean, I could go on this, you know, and and I I wasn't being facitious
1:58:36in the letter I submitted to SDG saying, you know, you could have taken a crayon and drawn just about any other location, you know, besides this and found a less sensitive spot. it. You know, given all the history that's gone into this region and the dedication of our tribal partners, our federal partners, um, you know, the city and and our community to protect protect what are arguably some of the last of their kind in all of Southern California. It just kind of surprises me that this alignment is even under consideration.
1:59:07I I can assure you that all of those areas would be steadied understanding what the impact what they have been. I I guess that's my question
1:59:16in relation in relation to this project.
Public speaker
1:59:18Well, but in in relation to the land itself, it has been studied and you're also aligned directly adjacent to and potentially through the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, which is one of the largest does not go through the Santa Margaret.
1:59:34Well, it's right on the edge, right?
SDG&E representative
1:59:36Uh it it does it does there are no direct impacts to the preserve in the preliminary alignment as we said. How how do you know that if we don't know where the preliminary because the map I'm looking at
SDG&E representative
1:59:45we do know that a thousand feet corridor does not go through the ecological preserve.
1:59:51So it's going through private property predominantly then
SDG&E representative
1:59:55uh we don't know can have a more detailed discussion about that portion of the alignment when we have a map in front of us. It's really difficult to it's really difficult to do that in this context. I think my larger point was we as part of our process, as part of the SQA process, the impacts of a transmission line to all the resources that you just talked about will be steadied. But also, I just want to note that this is a very constrained region. It is a really big challenge to get from Imperial Valley to north of Songs without creating impacts no matter what potential
2:00:33alternative or alignment is chosen. And so there's there's um a phenomenon of just a trading of impacts that happens. You can eliminate an impact in one area and then if you move the alignment you create new impacts in another location. And so that's part of this deliberative iterative process to understand from our perspective and eventually the CPU will take it on. How can we find a location that is the least impactful? We have to do some study to understand how a transmission line would affect different pathways to know what that might be. And that's what we're at the beginning of right now.
2:01:13But I guess I'm still I mean we can talk about this later, I'm sure. But um I I I guess I'm still not understanding what the point of the project is, you know, because it was it was provided to us both in in your materials and in in the presentation earlier in fairly obtuse terms, you know, talking about grid stability, talking about moving trans, you know, uh electrical, you know, capacity into, you know, north of Songs and Orange County and so forth. But can can someone provide us like where exactly is the energy coming from that's being transmitted and where exactly is it intended to
2:01:48to go ultimately like who are the end users on this
2:01:57the the resources that it's it's um intended is developed and included within the CPU's um IRP. They provide us with the locations of the resources right down to um kind of lack better the bus bar the substations where they're uh projecting the needs taking into considerations uh a number of factors as they go through that bus bar mapping process with the methodology is documented on the the IRP website taking into considerations costs different types of resources the mix of resources um environmental from the land use point of view of the resources.
2:02:41Okay. But where is the energy coming from?
2:02:43It's it's coming from from lack of a better east of here in the southern areas. Um I I I don't have if if I can if you look in terms of in the transmission plan. I I don't have the numbers right here. Um we have a number where we look at the zonal aspects of it. And so there is in the southern all the way out to to the Arizona border. There's resources on on the eastern which go on kind of the Delaney, Colorado. Um the whole areas.
Public speaker
2:03:13So are you anticipating like the renewable renewable? It's renewable resources in Imperial County.
2:03:19Some of them are. Yes.
SDG&E representative
2:03:20Are you anticipating any import from out of state? there is in the in the portfolios of the CPU in terms of out ofstate wind from the New Mexico area that would be feeding into here as well. And delivery is intended to go
SDG&E representative
2:03:36well delivery in terms of as we look at the renewable resources is is for the resource or the loads within say California is what the portfolio is based upon and and the lines that we look at bring basically those resources to be deliverable to the loads and and those will be in the San Diego and and a lot of it is the coastal area that tie into the north of Songs area prov provides more for the the local tying in the to the 230 KV system in that area. Like indicated, the the lines themselves go um as as indicated, there was three uh competitive solicitation
2:04:16projects. One was a line that goes east of north of um Imperial Valley. There's the line that goes from here to north of Songs and ties into the north of Song substation to the 230 KV system just north of of of Songs, the the Song's generation uh location as well as the a 500 KV line that goes up to Sarano um and ties into the 500 KV system in that area to make an integrated uh u uh project in all in terms of as part of the transmission plan, like I said, is to make the resources that are within the portfolios as identified in the
2:04:59locations of the portfolios to the loads and and those the loads in in a large part in terms of our in the coastal area um from San Diego all the way up to LA. So, is it fair to say that there's a lot of uh unused or abandoned energy in the desert that's not currently making its way into the the areas where you'd like to distribute it? Well, there that's that's one of as we look at is is making access to those resources to um to be able to be deliverable and be incorporated um based upon the the um resource needs. um to to supply
2:05:42the loads in the area. So it's it's continued development um as we look at the renewable resources um that have been identified to be to be installed between now and and as we look at the next 10 and the CC and the CPU are required to provide us out a 15 year target now for the loads and the forecast of the loads as well as for the resource portfolios for us to plan the transmission system to to to be able to um deliver that power reliably um to meet the the reliability needs of the state as well as the the the state's goals as well.
2:06:20So ignoring for a moment the Anza-Borrego State Park and and you know BLM land and all of that that this is traversing in San Diego County, I think the question for everybody, you know, sitting here today is why are we becoming the dumping ground for abandoned energy created in the desert [applause] to be able to move it into, you know, areas that don't benefit our own community. I mean, it just it I'm having a really hard time understanding how the CPU in the state of California think that our community, the only urban area that's being impacted by this project, should take the burden for a
2:06:58project that's clearly benefiting Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
2:07:04[applause]
SDG&E representative
2:07:04Well, it as we look at it, it benefits the the entire really from the point of view of the um ability to supply the loads within the California area, California system um as well as the renewable resources that are required in terms of for the state for overall um reliability for resource adequacy um as well as the state's um goals.
Public speaker
2:07:32But isn't that outdated engineering? I mean, we've been talking for years about distributed energy, micro grids, you know, other forms of, you know, a more resilient reliable infrastructure that does not include specifically the development of high, you know, energy power lines.
SDG&E representative
2:07:48I would say renew or the u distributed generation is a component of the mix. Um but to meet the the overall reliability needs and um transmission connected resources um have been identified and and that would be in terms of also as to um the CPU and their IRP process which is an open and transparent process um as to those reli those resource needs as well.
Public speaker
2:08:20Okay. We'd really like more information on that if it is that open and transparent. You know, I I've been I've been looking and and I I can't for the life of me figure out and and why nobody has it on the tip of their tongue where's the energy coming from and where is it going? What is the what is the critical need that this is filling? the the energy the energy is coming from and and I could probably I don't have in front of me the within our transmission plan and our subse hang our our subsequent transmission plans we do identify the the zonal locations
2:08:53that that the CPU has provided. So where that energy comes from is um is is transparent as to what we're planning for and identified within our transmission plan. Um, as well as in the CPU's IRP, they do provide a complete workbook and it comes out in in the development of the IRP before it's it's approved by the commission. Um, that clearly identifies all of the locations and resource types that they've included in the in the IRP, right down to the location.
Mayor Alexander
2:09:32You can make sure we get a copy of that. I'd appreciate
SDG&E representative
2:09:33I can I we can we can take that as to provide you to the links to those by all means.
Mayor Alexander
2:09:39All right. Thank you for that answer. I have a couple other council members who have a few questions and I have one or two right after. But just kind of doubling down and asking a little bit more about what uh Mayor Prom was asking about. You know, one of the things that I had noticed is on your slides you had said over the next 20 years California will need at least by 2035 85 gawatts. Is that correct? And then within 10 years of that by 2045 we're needing 160. So we're doubling the amount of energy needing. So my question to you is why? And is that
2:10:12going to data centers? For instance, the one in Imperial County that has been submitted and is going through the process that that entire county does not want to deal with Imperial. So is that going to be part of the energy that's going to be used in these data centers? And if I'm correct, I believe there's over 300 data centers currently in the uh going through California uh ready to be implemented. So, can you help me understand that a little bit more, please?
SDG&E representative
2:10:36The the data center loads that we plan for um are included within the CEC's load forecast as to what they've developed in their for forecasts. Um I will say those have increased over the last probably three years in the forecast that we have um identified. I believe the total over the 2030 to 20 or 2035 to 2040 time frame that's included in the portfolio or in the CEC's forecast is about 4.9 gawatt. Um, and so if we look at the load growth that the CEC's load forecast currently has, and I'm referring to in terms of what's in the 2526 transmission plan that we just had
2:11:22approved by the board um, a week ago, um, in those time frames, the load increase that the CC has increased, it's probably about the data center load is about onethird of um, by 2035, the load forecast for the for the Kaiso system has been forecast to increase by about 15 gawatt by 2035. By 20 gawatt in in the 20 40 time frame and by the 2035 to 2040 it's about 4.9 gawatt which is included as data center load within the CEC's load forecast that they develop as part of their their forecast for the state of California.
SDG&E representative
2:12:04Great. and and would I assume correctly that as this continues to roll out that we're going to see more and more of these projects wanting to be able to be pushed into communities? Is that correct?
SDG&E representative
2:12:15I I I can't in terms of respond as to in terms of it depends on where those locate. Um we have had a significant amount of um the data center load growth being in the um greater bay area, the south of greater Bay Area. Um and we have transmission projects that have been identified to to um support the the load growth in that areas where data center is a component of it.
SDG&E representative
2:12:44And what are the energy sources that are stemming to be able to utilize that energy? the the energy resources are the resources that make up in terms of within the the portfolio of or the the uh the IRP um that is designed to meet the load growth and the locations where they have identified those renewable development.
Public speaker
2:13:05So is that wind which what kind of energy is being sourced to utilize that? Um, in a lot of ways, a lot of the u the the resources like you identified in terms of in the portfolio um make up a lot of it is is either solar storage um or wind or are a large component of uh of the resources that are identified.
Mayor Alexander
2:13:28Okay. Thank you. Uh Council Member Stewart, I believe you have a question.
SDG&E representative
2:13:32Yeah. So, um I'm just going to say this. The Temecula Valley is a high wind corridor and it's coming straight through where these transmission lines are supposed to go through. So that that is another consideration, but that's not what I'm solar production. I mean, there's so many homes with solar on their houses right now. I'm having trouble understanding how the uh need for additional power is so great unless it is for data centers. Um and and just the fact that the energy efficiency of everything from refrigerators to to uh air conditioning units have gone so uh so well that again I'm having trouble understanding this
2:14:23this additional power need that and to Mayor Prom's uh point this we have become basically the uh dumping ground of this for to to supply power for San Diego County high density areas along the coast. It has really nothing to do when you say California grid security that's along the coast. When it comes out to here, we're producing a lot of that electricity on our houses. you you don't go into Los Angeles and find a whole lot of solar systems, but out here in the valleys where we get sun, you know, intensely, there's a lot of people with a lot of solar producing a lot
2:15:08of electricity. So, that that's where it's not making any sense to me that you want to put it through Temecula for grid security and for um Los Angeles and Orange County. I mean, and San Diego County. I mean, and and honestly, that's where it's all going. That's what Saninophre did produce, all that power. Why don't they re reuse Saninophre? There's there's ways to create nuclear energy now in smaller nuclear reactors that are incredibly safe, uses totally different uh radioactive material and so and can actually be reused. So why aren't we looking that route whether instead of and and it's to me that's security. A nuclear
2:16:02power plant is way more security than some solar or wind farm. And so um that's what I don't quite understand is I don't understand the load that you're talking about keeping increasing increasing unless it's for data centers. That's the only thing that makes any sense. I I I [applause] will leave I will leave a lot of that in terms of is would be discussion with the California Energy Commission within their IRP process. Um they do develop the forecast and like I say is it it is looking out into a 10 to 15year time horizon. Um they do do an hourly as they look at the
2:16:41profile. That is one of the things that um that is shifting and as as you look at the solar um the peak shifts has shifted to a later hours. Um as we look at things of the of in terms of just fuel switching and electrification and electric vehicle requirements those are driving a significant amount of the the load growth that is is within the California Energy Commission's load forecast. um and those impacts on the profile um are are are driving those needs for the for the requirements. It also drives also the especially the changing of the profiles um the resource portfolio and resource mix um
2:17:28that the CPU develops as part of their integrated resource uh portfolio or plan. Um, and the question in regards to nuclear would be one I would I would suggest that you bring up and participate within the CPU's IRP because that's that's not a component that we're responsible for with regards to the resource planning and and like I say the the the re the inclusion and of um specific resource types. But I would encourage you to participate in the CPUC's process. I do have a quick concern follow up on the whole solar because I do know now that there is almost no solar going on anybody's
2:18:09houses right now without batteries and so that that solar that load that like you said has shifted to the evening I totally agree with you it is but we're using our own power at that point we're using the battery power we've stored up in our batteries to charge our cars so again it it it doesn't it doesn't make sense what you're saying as far as the uh load increase in the evening because if we're producing our solar power and then we're storing it and then and we're probably still shoving some back into the grid on top of that. So again, but I don't want to
2:18:49belabor it. So
Mayor Alexander
2:18:50yeah, no, and I and I will just like I say encourage you and and we can provide you links directly to the to the CEC's load forecast. Um they do forecast and there is a significant uh distributed generation behind the meter solar as well as growing as to storage that they do incorporate into their load forecast. um and into the profiles that they develop. Um basically like I say is they develop an 8760 forecast for every year out 15 years that is incorporating the growth of behind the meter solar as well as storage and the impacts of the profiles to come up with the load
2:19:32forecast. But like say we can provide you with some links to the CEC's load forecast information if you would like.
SDG&E representative
2:19:39All right. Thank you very much. and I believe council member Calfus.
Public speaker
2:19:42Yes, thank you, Mayor. Uh to go back to an original question that you had a few minutes ago talking about the tribal communities. Um I just want to touch on that real quick before we move forward. Um first off, is it fair to say that SDG&E has has traversed through tribal communities in the past? And if so, you talked about mitigating the impacts. What were some of those mitigations uh that you had with the impacts? Good question. And did they include whether to the the sovereign land or public land that you've traversed in the past or private land paying a one-time fee or recurring fee
2:20:13to the owners of those lands? So, the mitigation to the impacts through tribal communities and has SDG paid impact fees, if you will, to those communities once you traverse them?
SDG&E representative
2:20:27I I don't know. I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to. I will say we have facilities that are on or near our tribal partners' land throughout our service territory. So, um we have easements and leases from them. So, we pay them for the right of way that we use different locations, uh different infrastructure, different places are are structured differently,
2:20:52but there are leases out there between SDG&E tribal communities.
2:20:56We do have right of way with uh tribal communities. Yes. Do you have right-of-way leases with any public or private entities as well?
SDG&E representative
2:21:06I I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head. We'd have to get back to you on that.
Public speaker
2:21:11Yes, please get back to us. Um and if so, I know I speak on behalf of the Temecula community when I say that Temecula is not for sale. Thank you. [applause and cheering]
Mayor Alexander
2:21:26I'll take that for 200. All right. Uh any other questions? Yes, sir.
2:21:32Last one.
2:21:33Um just on the uh alternatives analysis, uh you mentioned SQUA. Is is NEPA
2:21:40going to be required as well for the project?
2:21:41Yeah, [snorts] you you mentioned BLM land earlier, Bureau of Land Management. So the substation in Imperial Valley is almost entirely surrounded by land that's managed by Bureau by BLM. And so we will likely no matter which way we go need right of way from them and that would trigger review under the federal environmental review act.
2:22:03So so under federal unlike SQA federal requires a much more rigorous alternatives analysis.
2:22:09It is different than the state review. Yes.
2:22:11Yeah. Well not just different I mean it's actually referred to as the heart of environmental impact statement in the in the regulation itself. Um, and so just starting off this project, you've provided an alternative, which I'm assuming is the preferred alternative at this point. But, you know, you you create these alternatives based on the project description. What is the need? You know, what are we trying to accomplish with this project? And then you back into historically this, you know, you would back into different potential solutions to meet that objective. But I I still don't have a clear objective of what what it is CPU or
2:22:51or anybody is trying to to accomplish under this scenario. But my my bigger concern is that we've seen these maps, we've seen these alignments. You say, "Oh, this is just preliminary and we're here to talk, but clearly time has gone into both the bid, the proposal, the acceptance." Um, and the situation we're in now with that line. And my concern is is we're we're starting off the at least from a federal perspective, the NEPA process absent the kind of alternatives analysis that one would expect under that scenario.
2:23:22The NEPA process has not begun yet much like SQA has not begun either, but there will be a robust alternatives analysis as you identified. Uh the NEPA review is agency specific. uh policies have changed in the last couple of years and so BLM has their own guidance about how they will conduct NEPA review including alternatives analysis. We will um obviously provide data and information to the agency as they do that but that will be part of the process and that has not begun yet. So, and and I guess that's why why why even have a map at this point, right? I mean, if if the
2:23:58alternatives analysis is supposed to be rigorous, including the no project alternative that's supposed to be analyzed at the same level as any of the other alternatives. So, we're not we're not seeing that conversation at all, and we're not seeing any rigorous review of any of the other um alternatives, including the several that were presented to Cal ISO in the bid process. So I'm, you know, I'm just saying it it concerns me that we're backing into this, at least from a NEPA perspective, in the wrong wrong direction and you're already presenting, you know, and and we're here today talking about, you know, the preferred alternative in
2:24:32essence. So, I think I mentioned this earlier. Usually, we uh we don't come out this early with a map for the reasons that you're talking about right now. But we wanted to have early discussion with stakeholders, with community members, with um local jurisdictions to understand what the preferred route should be, what our proposal should be to these agencies and then also what alternatives should be evaluated and studied. That's part of this public engagement process. That is our goal. We aren't backing into anything. those processes haven't started yet. But when we had some early discussions with stakeholders, what we heard over and over again was, well,
2:25:19we don't have anything to react to. This is a huge geographic area that you need to cover that Kaiso identified in the transmission plan. It would be helpful to us to to see a map so we can react to it and give you feedback and then additional alternatives development flows from there. And so that's part of what we're responding to in this process. So why I so I I'll just end on on a couple of quick things. So if if what we're describing from you know the environmental perspective, cultural perspective, community perspective, economics, so forth is not appropriate for our our community specifically. um then
2:25:58then why not just take an eraser and you know align that thing along a different corridor or something where where we're able to have a I think a more fair conversation about this because what you've done is you've come to Temecula there's been some hiccups in the public outreach and marketing campaign here um and and I'm I'm just trying to figure out like it there there's probably there probably was a better way of of handling the the roll out of this to have a more fair balanced and I think transparent conversation on I I can assure you our goal is to have that transparent conversation.
2:26:30That is genuinely what we're trying to do and hearing your impact and feed impacts and feedback is is loud and clear. We we're hearing that obviously no decisions have been made. No final route has been identified and ultimately it is the CPU that decides that route. And so this will all all of the public impact um information and feedback is part of the process and will be both received by us as well as by the agencies that are involved. And so that is how you continue that public transparent process. Make sure that your um information, your data, your perspective, your very strong opinions are all
2:27:12part of that record. That's the goal and that will be factored into the for the decision makers when they ultimately determine if it will be built and where it will be built.
2:27:21But you hold a lot of the cards right now and for those decision makers giving them an alignment that does not include the city of Temecula is fully within your purview at this point, right?
2:27:33We [applause] no decisions have been made. No final no even our not even our final proposal has been identified. That is what we are trying to get information on in this public outreach process.
2:27:47Well, we would appreciate continuing that dialogue. I I also want to just close the loop on the 500 KV fire risk piece real quick. CPU's own publications, including multiple ERS. Uh, and I'm just reading from one. I was I know I've read this somewhere before and I know it's in a lot of the documents that we've reviewed. ignition sources related to construction operation of new 500 KV circuit would have a very high potential to ignite wildfire surrounding the corridor. This is the CPU's I'm not I'm not looking for a response because I clearly have a company on this AI for that but uh really very
2:28:22careful I said you can stop wildream wildfire nobody's asking you to speak right now thank you
2:28:29yeah why don't you sit down
2:28:30I will do that thank you [applause] [cheering]
2:28:38this is the California Public Utility Commission's own document and own publication making those this is not a Google or an AI search. This is a qualified response from somebody who spent 20 years doing research in wildfire and urban interface fires. Sir, what you're saying is just patently wrong in the state of California. Do not speak.
2:28:57Well, if you're going to call
2:28:57the state of California, the state of California would disagree with you.
2:29:01Sir, if you could do me a favor, sir.
2:29:03Started a major wildfire is what I said. We can all go back and check the records.
2:29:07We're done.
2:29:08Construction could start an ignition. A major wildfire. Hasn't happened. Let's get our facts right,
2:29:12sir.
2:29:13Yes, sir.
2:29:14Listen, sir. We're just trying to be able to have dialogue. So, can you please just I understand that you have your opinion. Our mayor prom is sitting here as an expert as well, being able to share. I'm looking right at his computer, exactly the document that he's talking about. So, let's just I I know this is very tense. Let's give each other the ability to have that conversation completely. I appreciate you. Thank you guys for answering so far. Anything else? [applause] Okay, I've got two more and then we're going to open it up. All right, we've talked about a lot of things. I want to
2:29:46say first off, thank you very much for our county board of supervisor Chuck Washington for being here because this is actually going to land right in his backyard. Temecula's and our region's economy thrives on our worldclass wine country and massive tourism industry that brings millions of dollars into our local businesses and schools. Can SDG&E show us any definitive evidence after you finalize your project that turning our scenic landscape and our homes into an industrial power corridor will not permanently wipe out the asset value of our local tourism economy. [applause] I I'm going to give you another unsatisfying answer on this one because we don't know
2:30:40where the routing will be. We cannot
2:30:43Can I ask Can I Can I ask you a question? I don't want to interrupt, but I'm Have you guys done these before? Like I I would assume you guys have some type of data or have done a little bit of preeminent pre just a little bit of what's the word I'm looking for? Thank you. Information on this and I I I know you're sitting there, you're by yourself. Trust me, I I get it. But you see the importance to our community. And I'm just here to tell you to be in this position as the mayor and to sit with incredible council members and a
2:31:18community that does not want to see the destruction of our city. I need to have more factual information to understanding how you guys coming in are not going to destroy everything that's been built over decades of time and to be able to destroy businesses, tourism, families, and schools. Please help me understand that. [applause] I I hear you and appreciate what you're saying. I think the challenge is that valuations and damages are very locationsp specific, property specific, usep specific. And so to to have more specific information, we we need to know those things. And so that is part of the process. When we have more specific
2:31:59information and we understand what the impacts are, we can work with property owners to before a decision has been made to understand what visual impacts might be um to understand what from their perspective the damages are that they might suffer, but we don't I can't speak to that specifically now. I I certainly wouldn't want to be inaccurate or make any guesses
2:32:20and I I appreciate that. But can you understand you know we asked you guys to come? Yes, I
2:32:27this is our second time that I've I'm here with you and I'm still hearing the same information. We don't have it and and I get that. But I would hope that you guys can continue to bring the information cuz you guys even said you know what questions we're going to ask. You stayed that you know what questions we're going to ask and so you wanted to prepare yourself. Then why are you guys not prepared for these questions? These are very simple questions. [applause] I I we you earlier asked me it doesn't or um one of the other council members asked me about why it doesn't
2:32:57feel like we're very early in the process, but we are. And this is part of how I can show you that we are so early in the development that we don't have that specific information. We need to know parcels, location, sighting to be able to answer it. And so that is a that is genuinely a demonstration of how early this development is. But hearing from you all is part of that development process. And as it advances and as we get additional stakeholder feedback and we do know parcel numbers and there is noticing of of additional public meetings and a regulatory agency process, more of that
2:33:43information would be available and developed. And do you guys have a mapping or some sort and I hope you guys have this of the impact region or area as far as how far out um either animals uh vegetation anything is impacted from the point of those power lines. What does that look like?
2:34:02We are currently conducting surveys on habitat presence of species. We have there's a lot of desktop information that's available. So we're
2:34:11I'm sorry ma'am. I mean in general. So I I you guys have done these Yeah, we do have the layers of data on
2:34:18what does that look like? So, if I have your tower and I sit there in my backyard,
2:34:24how far? Because I can see those towers depending upon where they're going through that corridor and I know plenty of other people here can as well. How do I know that those are or not going to affect my home or any of the residents or businesses or schools around there? What is the impact zoning area? We do not have specific structure sighting, but when we do, that will be part of the visual or aesthetics impact that is studied.
2:34:52Okay. Any other council members have anything on this one? This last question? I got one more.
2:34:58Yes, please.
2:34:59Just on that question, mayor, uh, in regards to, and we haven't really hit on it, uh, the EMF, the electromagnetic fields.
2:35:05Thank you.
2:35:07[applause]
2:35:08And I know there's various studies uh by many different agencies out there and there's a great debate on the long-term health effects and health concerns in regards to the EMFs. Um would you or have you uh committed to an independent publicly available measurements of before and after construction of said EMFs on these extra high voltage towers. California is one of the absolute best states for managing that illness or concern. Has been that way for more than 30 years. Uh all the utilities in the state are required to do exactly what you asked for on a daily basis even around any existing lines. And so yes, for
2:35:47this new one, there will be before and after and a study directly to anybody's home to what that impact from EMFs would be. in general across most states do not even offer any EMF measurements anymore because of the minimal impact
2:36:03and those states
2:36:03but that will be done.
2:36:04Thank you. And those studies you're referencing are publicly available. Is that correct?
2:36:07Yeah. Yeah. I don't think in the United States there's a clear standard for it. I think that's the reason why you hear some debate. I think it originally originated in in Europe maybe 40 years ago, 35 years ago, but in all the studies here in the United States, we we've not ever landed upon an exact number. It's not it's not uncommon for somebody to move into a new home, see a a power line in their backyard, to call a utility and ask them to come out and measure that. And then we actually have professionals that go out there and measure that and sit down with
2:36:35a homeowner and actually show them what the uh what the MSR at their property and give them other things to to show what that might compare to. But that's routine every day.
Public speaker
2:36:44And with that being said, with all of them that have been out there in California, [snorts] are is there an average EMFs or is there the ratio that we're looking for? you know before there's zero then after do we know that number on how much these emit
SDG&E representative
2:36:56I don't know the exact it does come down to the distance but uh rapidly when you get a 100 ft away from any of the large power lines they pretty much near near background noise
2:37:08thank you
Mayor Alexander
2:37:11any other council members about health risks or concerns do you good All right, with that, uh, I would like to open it here up to the rest of my council members for other questions. I know we've been able to get questions in and out, but I think there's a little probably more specific questions. Um, I'll just say this before I finish. I really hope that your concern is more about the people rather than your power lines. I really do [applause] because in our in our position, it is my honor and duty to put people over power lines every day and this will not look good
2:37:58in our city and nor do I ever want something like this. So, I'll open up to the the rest of the council members. [applause]
Council Member
2:38:08Yeah, I don't have any other uh questions uh to to talk about. But I think we've hit on most of the the points. I uh I I would really just ask that y'all take this meeting seriously. Take it into consideration. Recognize that, you know, this this community is is unique um in a lot of respects. And and in fact, I I kind of want to thank you all for for doing this because this is the reason why I moved to Temecula 17 years ago. This community has a remarkable spirit and a remarkable way of coming together. And surprisingly, in the middle of all the political upheaval
2:38:48and disagreements we can have on a whole variety of issues, this much like Liberty Corey is uniting our community in a way that I haven't seen in a very long time. And you really have to, you know, watch the documentary that was produced by Pachchanga on Liberty Corey. do some digging into this because you will see this community will give you a run for your money unlike any other. [applause]
2:39:17Questions.
Council Member
2:39:21And so my hope and and question to you all is that you you you take this seriously. You take this back to state of California to have them understand what it is they're, you know, getting into. Um, but also just take into consideration the cost for municipalities like ours, uh, the tribe, the community, and all the dedicated folks who will see this thing through to the end, um, and say there's a better way to to do this, and it's not it's not through the city of Temecula. [applause and cheering]
Mayor Alexander
2:39:55All right, we've got a couple more questions. I'm going to send it over to Councilman Zach.
Council Member
2:40:01Thank you very much. So maybe just a few comments and sort of like open-ended questions. Um maybe I'll start with the questions first. So you know like was mentioned you know this is the beginning of this process although it certainly feels like we're at the home stretch. Um I've been looking at the grid. I mean it's a complex grid right there's just no way around you know looking at um the electric grid and and and getting power to and from you know everyone. I I was looking at data centers is a big one. EVs is another big one, right? So, we need to think about
2:40:35um you know some of the impacts that aren't necessarily associated with some of those things. Um my concern is is you know the alternatives like we haven't talked about a lot of alternatives right and so hopefully through this process we can look at alternatives you know upgrading existing infrastructure we talked about more localized power generation and things like that. So, you know, just know we're we're ready uh for this fight. We're ready to uh to start uh in earnest in this. Um but I don't want it to come off as we're just being nimi, right? Like just not in our backyard. I'm sure you build
2:41:09into this process. You know, there's probably not a community you go to that says, "Oh, can we have a 500 KV line run through our community?" Right? You you already know this is a problem, right? Um and so I will fight for Temecula 100%. But I'll also fight for Myetta. I'll fight for San Diego County. [applause] I have I grew up in east in San Diego in the mountains in Julian and San Diego. And so I have friends in the desert. Ansgo State Park is a beautiful beautiful culturally rich environmentally sensitive landscape that I will fight for as well. Um so there's not a u
2:41:44for me there's not a better alignment. you know, it's it's thinking about um impacts to our community, of course, and that's why I'm sitting here and I'm gonna fight for it, like I said, and everyone up here is and everyone in the audience and everyone in the conference center and everyone watching online. Um, Mayor Prom mentioned, you know, just the fact that this has brought the community together. Um, this is your first meeting you ever attended, but I talk a lot about building community. Hey, this is great. We're building community. We're getting folks to come out and and be part of this community. It's really
2:42:15important and I think it I think Temecula sort of speaks to that. Um so I'll sort of wrap up with that. I I really want us to to truly think through alternatives. Um I'm looking at you know the cost effective way to this. California is already paying significantly higher uh energy rates than the national average and I don't understand how this project will will lower rates. is certainly not going to lower already insane rates and the cost of living is already through the roof. So, I'll stop there for now.
Mayor Alexander
2:42:47Oh, great questions. Thank you very much for that. Uh, any other questions directly from Yes,
2:42:53Council Member Calfus, please.
Public speaker
2:42:54Uh, one question in regards to alternatives. We haven't hit on it. Can you just discuss um underground undergrounding these wires and what that process looks like, right? Because we talked about there's no good route to send these high voltage lines through. Can you just walk us through what SDG&E has done as regard in regards to underground?
SDG&E representative
2:43:20I'm sure that could be something to get studies as part of the ultimate project. It could be interveners uh stakeholders ask for that on on a general scale. Uh overhead lines are somewhere around $15 million a mile. um a direct bearing underground for 500 KV might be 150 or 160 and that's just based on something I think that Edison um a project that they're moving forward with. U the thing with undergrounding of course is the massive disturbance that it actually takes to get them underground right as well. And so it won't be something that will be dismissed. It'll something that'll be studied. uh its relative
2:43:58cost impact could be significantly against the project though but it will be studied.
2:44:04Thank you very much. That's all mayor.
Council Member
2:44:06All righty. Thank you for that question Stu. Yeah, I you know, for me it's all about alternate routes and I I really really and I understand you guys are in in the early process and I understand why we feel like you're not, but I it sounds like you are. So, I'm I'm giving you that credit that you know what you say is is true. So, um, the Temecula Valley is too beautiful, too nice, too everything to disturb like like is planned. So, if you can if you can reach down and figure out an alternative route that skates by us, that's what I want to see.
2:44:51But anyways, that was my [applause] welcome. All righty. At this point in time, that ends council questions. We are now going to be moving to public comments. All right, we were going to take a break, but let's keep rolling with it. Uh, yes. Um, Madame Mayor, um, as a reminder at the beginning, we I do have approximately,
City Clerk
2:45:15well, I'll just say over a hundred comments. So, um, I'm going to go ahead and read two names at a time. Um, so folks can go ahead and come on over from the conference center as well as the patio. I think both of those spaces are full. Um, and each speaker will have one minute. If you have heard something that someone else has said, you might want to go ahead and focus on something else. Um, your one minute starts when you literally start speaking and the the podium clock will show you exactly how much time you have left. and I will just keep calling the names
2:45:56um so that we can just roll as quickly as possible. If I could just let everybody know, I understand that there have been individuals who are expecting or have written speeches 3 to 5 minutes long. Again, this is for us to be able to make sure that every single one of you 100 plus get heard today. That is our goal. I want uh SDG&E uh Cuck all of them to be able to hear what you have to say here in our city and whether you are for against this project. So thank you for that.
Public speaker
2:46:26Thank you madame mayor. Okay, with that the first speaker will be Shaliny Renfro to be followed by Rachel Allen to be followed by Paradise Verona. Good to see you, ma'am. Haven't seen you in a while. It's good to be back. I wish it were under different circumstances. Honorable mayor and city council members, my name is Shaolani Renfro or Shawl. I am one of the co-founders of the newly formed coalition, Save Temecula, Fight the Power Link. Our two-week old petition to stop SDG&E currently has over 6,000 signatures. Multitudes of residents are rising up and voicing the many ways SDG&E's plan would devastate our community. It's important
2:47:26to note that this decision does not need to wait for the CPU. We get to decide it here tonight when our city commits to immediately invest the financial and other resources necessary to win this fight. We are at a pivotal moment now during the preliminary routing and planning stage and applications.
2:47:52Your time is up. The next speaker is Rachel Rachel.
2:47:56They messed with the wrong city
Public speaker
2:47:58followed by Paradise Verona to be followed by Patricia Granja. So Rachel Allen followed by Paradise Verona.
2:48:06Thank you for coming.
Public speaker
2:48:10Good afternoon everybody. My [snorts] name is Rachel Allen and I'm a local realtor here in Temecula. I work directly with families who choose this community because of its beauty. Constructing massive 500 KB transmission towers through Temecula Creek will absolutely impact South Temecula and surrounding communities. Families do not move here to stare at 200 foot industrial transmission towers outside their homes. I also have serious concerns about wildfire exposure and insurance availability. We're in the middle of a California insurance crisis with rates rising and insurers pulling out of high-risisk areas altogether. So I have to ask, did SDG&E Queso, and the CPU fully evaluate this proposed route
2:48:51against Southern California's highf fire severity zones, the Temecula wind corridor, and the earthquake fault zones? So why should Temecula bear the visual impacts, wildfire concerns, and economic consequences while receiving no benefit from this project? I will add the investigation of the famous eaten fire is pointing to failed transmission equipment. The next speaker is Paradise Paradis Verona to be followed by Patricia Grancha to be followed by Charlie Co.
Public speaker
2:49:22Good evening. Hello. Hi there. Thanks for having me so much. So whether you've lived here for 30 years or just moved here, today's decisions affect all of us the same way. So thank you for having me. My name is Parody Spirona. here as a resident, a parent, and someone who truly loves Temecula. My family chose here, like many of you, for the beauty, and that identity took years protecting. And we have welcomed over 3.4 million visitors just last year and generated over 1 billion in tourism. And that's because we value the the opportunity to welcome folks into this beautiful valley. Now, imagine [snorts] these towers.
2:50:03is going to disrupt so many different local businesses, so much of our community, and wildfire concerns are immensely real here. In my own lifetime, there's been 3,600 California wildfires linked to utility equipment and transmission systems. And so, I just wanted to leave that. I know that there's a lot of folks wanting to Thank you, ma'am. Thank you so much.
2:50:26Thank you very much.
Public speaker
2:50:27Next is Patricia Branch to be followed by Charlie Co to be followed by John Hicks. Good evening, Patricia.
City Clerk
2:50:35Um, good evening. Thank you for having me. Location and distance to these electric lines matter. These lines cause electric interference by electrical fields, magnetic fields, and corona discharge. That's the buzzing sound you hear around them. Comparing a 500k volt electrical wire to a microwave is negligent. And that's what you said during your meetings, dear. There have been numerous destructive fires tied to power lines. I can name a few. Dixie fires, Zog fire, the Calivore fire, the Electra fire, the campfire, and so on. Please quit trying to gaslight us. These lines will be emitting emitting electricity 247. We are in a fire zone. On a personal
2:51:13level, I have been evacuated. I was evacuated with the Samantha fire. There's no way for us to escape. Um, on a personal level, I will no longer be able to view the luscious surrounding. I'm by the creek bread creek bed. I won't no longer be able to hear the frogs croak croaking at night that I fall asleep with and the birds chirping. I urge you to find a better path.
2:51:36That is your time, ma'am. Thank you.
Public speaker
2:51:38Thank you. Charles Co to be followed by John Hicks to be followed by Dennis Long.
Public speaker
2:51:43And just let you know if you have not spoken here before, there is a timer right in front of you that gives you a countdown and uh once it hits red, you know you're kind of in that 10 15 second mark. So, just let you know, sir. Thank you for coming. Thank you, madame mayor and council members. My name is Charles Co. I've lived with my wife near Temecula Creek in for um 33 years and um it's a lovely place. Um Matt Ram mentioned the Liberty Quarry a while ago and I spoke against that quarry many many times and in fact I'm even in their
2:52:16video and um I'm totally prepared to speak as many times I need to against this crazy project. Um, in fact, I'm hoping, in fact, I think the city was prepared to sue should the uh Changa Indians not come to the rescue at the 11th hour and saved us by buying the property. There probably is no property to they could buy to save us this time. So, it's on our on us. We got to make it happen. And um just an observation,
Public speaker
2:52:47I think we've heard a bunch of politicians tonight, not people who really mean what they say. Thanks. Thank you very much, sir, for your time. [applause]
Public speaker
2:52:55John Hicks to be followed by Dennis Long to be followed by Renee Carter.
2:53:00Thank you for coming, sir.
Public speaker
2:53:02Good evening, Madame Mayor, Mayor Prom, members of council, and city staff. Uh, I'll take my minute just to say one thing. I open my personal phone and information up to either one of you on that sit on this committee and anybody else in the city, Temecula. I'm in a unique position to be able to answer every single uh question that unfortunately Southern California Gas and Electric was not able to answer. I have it right here. I was one of those I was going to come in with a five minute speech that can tell you that Riverside County as a whole will be holding the burden
2:53:31uh on its population in the number of 81 to 87%. And I got and it's respect to community on house associates I have exhibits. In order for you to understand what they're trying to accomplish, you have to understand how power companies deal with energy trading, power trading, power procurement, and energy procurement. I happen to know how that works. So any of you that have a question, I will leave my number with uh staff and I can talk to you all directly and then I would welcome another opportunity to come here.
2:54:04Thank you, sir. Next speaker is Dennis Long.
2:54:06Yes, please. If you can leave your information, we'd be happy to get a hold of you, sir. Thank you for coming up. The next speaker is Dennis Long to be followed by Renee Carter to be followed by Gerald Jared Sleser. Thank you, Dennis.
2:54:19Good evening. Thank you for letting me come. This is my speech that I prepared. My wife proof read it. Now I have to go off script. I'm a father of three. My daughter gave us two grandchildren and my two sons are Eagle Scouts. This is a over $2 billion project, 150 mile in length. Correct. My son's Eagle projects were about $1,000 and they needed to come in under budget. You're not in budget when you're passing off the cost to 9%. Let me help you with your study. Leave Temecula now. Thank you. [cheering] [applause]
2:54:59Thank you, sir, for your comments. Next speaker is Renee Carter to be followed by Jared Slush Sleser to be followed by Lawrence Sleser. Who was that first one?
2:55:11Renee Carter. Renee Carter. Renee Carter.
2:55:16Renee, raise your hand if you're coming in. Or
2:55:19Renee Carter. Okay, we're going to move on. Jared Sleser. Jared Sleser to be followed by Oh, wait.
2:55:24Lawrence Sleser.
2:55:26Jared by Okay, there we go. We got two Slesers in here. Sounds good.
Mayor Alexander
2:55:32Mayor Alexander and the Temecula City Council. My name is Jared Sleser. For the past 16 years, I've worked in the energy sector. I spent a decade working on energy efficiency programs for the major utilities like SDG&ECE, IID, the gas company, and so on. Six years ago, I started a company called Transform Power. We install solar, and we're based locally here in Temecula. The most important factor that I believe we're overlooking is that the utility company does not need the power that these lines are meant to carry. Over the last 3 years, 3,433 megawws of solar have been installed in SDG&E andCE territory. That's an average
2:56:11of 1144 megawws per year. This proposed project is meant to carry 1,500 megawatts of power. At our current pace in SDG&EC territory, solar installers will have installed 8,000 megawatts of solar paired with batteries by the project completion date of 2032. These solar installations will provide double the amount of power these lines are meant to bring.
2:56:37And that's your time, sir.
2:56:38Thank you for coming in, though. [applause]
2:56:42Then Larry, I would assume that was your son.
2:56:46Sorry.
2:56:46Larry Sleser to be followed by Melanie Neman to be followed by Adam Ruiz.
Mayor Alexander
2:56:52Madame Mayor and should I say Dr. Mayor, [laughter] thank you. And members of the council, I want to thank you for looking out for us. I really appreciate it. [applause and cheering]
Public speaker
2:57:03We all appreciate it. And uh what I'd like to say is just make sure we need it. Try to hold their fire feet to the fire. Make sure that uh we can't accomplish it with what Mayor Stew said. Uh batteries. I understand the uh problem between 5:00 in the afternoon and 9:00, but I think batteries could take care of that. The next thought is, as Mayor Cauus said, how about undergrounding? So, it's only five miles in the city. Why not have that undergrounded? And lastly, if you see that beautiful um graphic behind you, the city um medallion, we don't want to have high high transmission
2:57:46lines going through our emblem. Thank you.
2:57:49Thank you very much, Larry. Good to see you. Next speaker is Melanie Neman to be followed by Adam Ruiz to be followed by Christopher Bailey.
2:57:58Good evening, ma'am. Thank you for coming.
Public speaker
2:58:02Good afternoon, Mayor Anderson, city council and staff. My name is Melanie Neman. I live on Lomolinda Road near Garter Middle School. My home borders the Temecula Creek basin. Last week, I received a letter from SDG&E notifying me to expect a field crew to access my property as soon as May 18th and possibly multiple visits over the next 18 months. I received this letter in my mailbox on May 21st. Questions, why did I receive the notice and why was it so late? How many other residents received this letter and where are their properties located? How exactly could this project affect the resident properties that received this
2:58:42letter? What are your plans for mitigation? How could I possibly even sell my home today or for the next 18 months or whenever this is settled? I'm opposed to the SDG&E project anywhere in Temecula. Thank you.
2:58:59Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker is Adam Ruiz [applause] to be followed by Christopher Bailey to be followed by Eric Schwarz. Adam Ruiz, thank you for coming with your expertise.
Public speaker
2:59:09Thank you. Uh good after well now evening I guess mayor, members of the city council. My name is Adam Ruiz and I'm here on behalf of the Temecula Advocacy Coalition which is a partnership of Visit Tmcula Valley Oldtown Temecula Association and the Temecula Valley Wine Grower Association. TAC represents the organizations at the core of this region's visitor economy and today we're asking the city council to formally oppose the proposed route of the project. We want to be clear. We understand the need for in infrastructure and that's not what we're opposing. What we're opposing is this specific route which would run a 500 KV transmission towers
2:59:43directly across State Route 79, Veil Lake, Gowway Downs, the Deeportola Wine Trail, and the Temecula Parkway corridor. That is the heart of wine country. That's what visitors come here to see. Tourism generates more than1 billion dollars in annual economic impact for this region. That economy is not separate from the landscape. It is the landscape. And once you put industrial transmission infrastructure across those viewsheds, you cannot undo it. Uh running out of time here. We left a more detailed written comment. Look forward to continue to work with you guys. Thank you.
3:00:11Thank you very much, sir. [applause]
3:00:14Christopher Bailey to be followed by Eric Schwarz to be followed by Lorie Holsey. Mr. Bailey, good to see you.
Public speaker
3:00:22Good evening. uh truncated statement here also. So, good evening honorable mayor and members of the city council. On behalf of visit Temecula Valley, we stand in opposition to the proposed route of San Diego Gas and Electric's Golden Power, Golden Pacific Power Link through our region. Temecula Valley's tourism and agricultural economies depend on the natural beauty of our landscapes. The introduction of 500 kilowatt kilov volt transmission towers across state route 79 veil lake gowway downs and the Temecula parkway corridors threaten the scenic character that draws millions of visitors each year. This route also poses unacceptable wildfire risk placing high voltage overhead lines in high severity fire
3:01:04zones near our vineyards, businesses, workforce and visitors. While infrastructure expansion may be necessary, this project should account for the 1 billion economic impact created by local tourism and follow a route that does not damage the viewscape and ambiance of Temecula Valley. We urge the city council to demand alternative Eric Schwarz followed by Lorie.
Mayor Alexander
3:01:29Hey guys, remember thumbs up, thumbs down. I know we're very excited, so we can just keep it moving. Thank you guys for all of your comments so far. So again, Eric Schwarz to be followed by Lori Holy to be followed by Robert Quaid.
Public speaker
3:01:43Good evening. My name is Eric. I live in Morgan Hill along the Temecula Creek. It's little doubt in my mind that the proposed route of the Golden Pacific Power Link will have detrimental effects on Temecula's economy, home values, and safety. Fire risk is not theoretical or hyperbole. Two years ago, Morgan Hill, June 24, we had a fire that was successfully mitigated by Calire uh aviation assets. I'm not convinced that uh the power lines will will uh not be encumbered encumbering to the aircraft. A deluge from 50 ft is much more effective than a
Mayor Alexander
3:02:14please keep it down. Sorry. Can you pause this time for one second? I'm so sorry everybody. We're trying to hear if we can just keep it down a little bit. Thank you so much. Go ahead, sir.
Public speaker
3:02:23Dropping for effect from 50 ft is going to be much better than a fine mist from 200 ft. Additionally, sometimes we get a stray hot air balloon right out behind my fence. It's pretty cool. My dog goes crazy, but those power lines will definitely be a risk to those uh uh pilots. Thank you very much.
3:02:42We appreciate your comment. Thank you. [applause] Lori Holy to be followed by Robert Quaid to be followed by There are many more residents who strongly oppose this project but are unable to attend this due to work schedules, family responsibilities, and other obligations. Please understand that the number of people presented at this meeting do not reflect the true level of concern throughout this community. Many hard-working families or residents want their voices heard and share these same concerns about safety, health, fire risk, and preserving Temecula's identity. Many residents feel and long-term impacts have been adequately addressed, including environmental concerns. And above all else, as a teacher, if
3:03:26I came to a job and gave the data you guys gave, I'd be fired. Thank [applause] you,
Mayor Alexander
3:03:34Robert Quaid. Again, [applause] Robert Quaid to be followed by I think it's Ed Gerso
3:03:44to be followed by Samantha.
3:03:46Good afternoon, neighbor.
3:03:47Good evening, Madame Mayor, members of the council.
Public speaker
3:03:50Yes. Uh let's uh let's be clear. I think the the routing of this these lines had something to do with uh the city's best friend, Governor Gavin Newsome and his cronies up in this PUC, you know, particularly for all the years that we've supported him. But the point is it's like this is like having we are the only area outside of SDG&E service area that is getting these lines. That would be like my neighbor who owns two houses next to me with wanting to build a dog walk across my property so his dogs can get back and forth. Well, all I have to say to
3:04:20Gavin Newsome and the whole program running [snorts] this through our city, keep your dog walk.
3:04:26Thank you very much. [applause]
Public speaker
3:04:30Ed Jerso, I think it's Ed Jerso. Okay. Samantha Newan, Mike Flora, Kathy Seismore. Okay, I'm gonna read all these names again. Renee Carter.
3:04:50Oh, coming on up. Kathy, go ahead and come on up.
3:04:54I'm slow, but I'll
Public speaker
3:04:56Okay. [laughter] Great to see you, Miss Kathy. Come on up. All right. In 2022, I had the privilege of being a member of the committee that updated our quality of life master plan, the document that governs our city. Um, I helped to write the QLMP and this project violates it. Core value number one commits to hardening our community against wildfire. This project runs 500 kilova lines through a high severity wildfire zone. Core value 4 commits to protecting wine country from urban encroachment. Core value 5 envisions a city surrounded by unscarred natural terrain. This project scars it. Core value six says that the city's strength is its
3:05:50people. Whole bunch of them are here today. So um let me just say that um this project doesn't serve a single home in Temecula. All of the risk, none of the watts. Um yeah, one thing I've lived in Temecula 20 30 years. We don't back down. We're a force to be reckoned with.
3:06:10Thank you, ma'am. [applause]
3:06:13All right, our next speaker.
Mayor Alexander
3:06:14I'm gonna go ahead and just play um these cards one more time. And if you are here, um please um come on up. Renee Carter. Renee Carter. Okay. Renee Carter. Okay. Ed Gerso. Ed Jerso. Okay. Samantha Newwin. Samantha Newwin. Okay. Mike Flora. Wait, there's some people coming through.
3:06:48Okay. The back.
3:06:51Can you say the name one more time?
Mayor Alexander
3:06:53Yeah. I'm happy to say the names one more time. Renee Carter.
3:07:00Ed Gerso. Okay. Samantha Nuin, Mike Flora. Okay. Chris Seismore to be followed by Dax Snider.
3:07:14Keep going through Chris.
3:07:16Okay. Dax Snyder to be followed by Aaron Dornan.
3:07:24She'll be back. Can we? All right. Um Jim Naiderrecker. Jim. Wonderful.
Mayor Alexander
3:07:33Welcome Jim to be followed by Edward Hubler and Amomar Camp Nar.
3:07:40Good afternoon sir. Good to see you as always.
Public speaker
3:07:42It's actually good evening. I believe the proposed transmission line poses a real safety spread threat despite studies claiming there are no causation between EMF exposure and cancer or leukemia. A study conducted at Slater Elementary School in Fresno, California, located near high voltage transmission lines reported 13 cases of cancer over 19 years. The expected number of cases was only 3.2. That's a third that's a 322% increase. At the Monaceto Union School, there were six childhood cancers in 7 years. That was 15 times the expected rate. At 200 feet beyond the right ofway, the approximate magnetic field is 5 to 20 millig.
Public speaker
3:08:26The exposure in those schools was 3 to five millig. So all the homes south of the creek and the businesses north of the creek are going to get 5 to 20 millig approximately. That's totally unacceptable. Um the the data in those schools demonstrates
3:08:44that is your time sir. Thank you for
3:08:46it's not a good idea.
Mayor Alexander
3:08:47Thank you very much. Okay, [applause] D I think it's either Dax or Dan Snider. Come on up, sir.
3:09:00Good evening, sir. Thank you for coming.
SDG&E representative
3:09:02Good evening. Um, mayor, council, neighbors, and also SD G. I I'm here as right now as a representative for the Red Hawk Community Association. We've got um several if not many complaints and concerns about this project and we we uh put together a letter and we uh sent it off to uh everyone in the association and we mailed a copy to the council for your review. Uh basically we're very much opposed to this for a number of reasons that have been spoken so far and um mostly the uh the property values whether you're in direct site it affects everyone. A drop affects everyone in comparisons.
3:09:48Um the environmental impacts and also the uh long-term health uh implications whether they're proven or not they're still perceived and that means something. Um, myself, Don R. Snider. I'm the president.
Mayor Alexander
3:10:05And that's your time, sir. I appreciate you very much for coming in. Thank you. [applause]
Mayor Alexander
3:10:11Madame Mayor, I'll go ahead and make an announcement at this time. It looks like there are some seats available in the council chambers. If there are individuals in the conference center or in the patio that have filled out speaker cards and would like to speak, please go ahead and make your way over there. It looks like there's about 20 seats or so here. Um, and I'm also going to call these cards uh, one last time. Renee Carter, Ed Gerso, Samantha Nuin, Mike Flora, Chris Seismore, and Amomore. Okay, those are they have been discontinued, withdrawn. Dax already spoke. Um, Dr. Erin Dornan. Okay, we will start
3:10:56a fresh here. Edward Hubler to be followed by Sariah Badin Badinha to be followed by Christa Chich.
3:11:13Hello sir.
Public speaker
3:11:15I spent most of my career as a corporate executive and whenever we started a project the first and foremost thing that we talked about was cost. We all know that it's cheaper to come through Temecula than it is to go onto the south side of Mount Palomy down Highway 76. That's the reason that they chose Temecula is because it's going to be a whole lot cheaper for them and the CEOs of the companies can put more money in their pockets.
3:11:46Thank you very much for your comments, [applause]
3:11:49Sia. Sia Binat Christa Chich.
3:12:01Good evening, Christa.
3:12:03To be followed by Gabrielle Renfro.
Public speaker
3:12:08Good evening, mayor and city council members and city staff. My name is Christa Chich and I serve as the executive director for the Temecula Valley Wine Growers Association. I'm here today in opposition to SDG&E's proposed Golden Pacific Power League route through Temecula Valley and our wine country. Temecula Valley Wine Country is more than just a tourism destination. It's an agricultural preserve, an economic engine, and a source of pride for our great community. Families, venters, and local businesses have spent decades building a world-class wine destination centered around scenic beauty, hospitality, agriculture, and outdoor experiences. Massive industrial towers cutting through our wine region would permanently damage the
3:12:47rural character character and visual landscape that attract millions of visitors each year. We respectfully urge the city council to formally oppose this proposed route and advocate for alternative alignments that avoid Temecula Valley and Temecula Valley wine country. Protecting our region today means protecting its economic sustainability, agricultural heritage and quality of life for future generations.
3:13:11And that is your time. Thank you for your comment.
Mayor Alexander
3:13:14Gabrielle Renfro to be followed by Ross Jackson to be followed by Michelle Cormack. All right.
3:13:32Good evening, sir. It's a long time.
Public speaker
3:13:35Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Gabriel Renfro. First, huge thank you uh to you for taking the concerns of residents seriously. We are trusting in you to be our heroes. I strongly oppose these monstrous towers that would cut through our neighborhoods, increasing our costs and risking our safety while providing no direct benefit to to Temecula residents. Our community is prepared to fight this for as long as it takes. But let's not do this for years. Let's squatch squash this thing now. To SCG&, you don't want this fight. Temecula is going to stop you every single step of the way. We will drain
3:14:12your time, your money, and your energy. Don't do it. Get out. To my neighbors in the audience, I encourage you to join the Save Temecula Facebook group, which is an activation hub for future activities. To sign the change.org petition, to go doortodoor and pass out save Temecula flyers. Get one of these sweet t-shirts and put a sign in your front yard. Woo!
Mayor Alexander
3:14:34Thank you. All right, [applause] Ross Jackson. Ross Jackson. Hi, welcome Ross. To be followed by Michelle Cormarmac to be followed by Monty Sharp.
3:14:46Thank you. I know you guys are very excited to hear what they have to say. Remember, let's try and business business meeting. All right. But thank you though. I appreciate your energy.
Public speaker
3:14:53Good afternoon, Mayor, Council. My name is Ross Jackson, secretary of the board of Temecula Oldtown Association. We've heard a number of uh stories about pros and cons. What we would like to suggest is that simply keep your decisions made with a community's voice in mind and a long-term character of our city remain part of the conversation. On behalf of the president, Julie Null, and our board, we would like for you to please oppose this item. Thank you very much.
Mayor Alexander
3:15:31Thank you, Mr. Ross Jackson. [applause] Michelle Cormarmac to be followed by Monty Sharp to be followed by Bob Cormarmac.
3:15:40Thank you for coming in, Mr. Chelle. Good to see you.
Public speaker
3:15:43Hello, madame Madame Mayor and our beloved city council. I want to thank you guys so much for your love for this community, love for the people, your well-informed and wellthoughtout questions. I know we are in great hands. There's just you covered most of what I have, but there's something I want to state. We back up to the creek, our house, and we have measured the distance across from our back fence to the back wall of the homes across the way. It's 600 ft. They say they need a 10,000 ft corridor. We do not have a 1,000 ft corridor there. We also, it's right where the
3:16:15wildlife preserve is. So, it's full of trees and shrubs. And we were forced to go on the California fair plan this year for our fire insurance. We don't need something else that's going to contribute to that. My own brother lost his home up in paradise to power line fire along with 18,000 homes up there. So we just want I just thank you guys for for having our backs and SDG&E we don't trust you. You say mo so many statements that are very misleading. We are not going to trust you.
Mayor Alexander
3:16:44Thank you very much Monty Sharp. Monty Sharp to be followed by Bob Cormarmac to be followed by Rose Corona. Mr. for Monty Sharp. Pastor, how are you, sir?
Public speaker
3:16:56I'm great, thank you, madame mayor and city council, we are blessed to [snorts] have you. [applause] SDG&E has said that the cost is basically going to determine the route, but they [snorts] have not acknowledged the cost to our community. They have not acknowledged the cost to our families and especially our children and longevity of life and quality of life. the tower poles and the lines that run right next to the homes of Veil Ranch and Veil Ranch Middle School to which they argue there is no health problem. Yet studies do suggest to the contrary. Uh in a 1999 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences report
3:17:35concluded that ELFs and EMFs exposure can not be recognized as being entirely safe. They cannot. So we put our kids at risk. It's playing like playing Russian roulette with our children's lives. Now I know that these people would not do that with their children. Why should we have to be forced to do that? In addition to that, our communities being faced with
3:17:59Thank you, Monty.
3:18:01I'm being done. [laughter] I'm being done.
3:18:03The next speaker is Bob. Thank you, sir. Please submit any of your comments into the email. I know you were. Um, the next speaker is Bob Cormarmac to be followed by Rose Corona to be followed by Tim Parks. Hello, Bob. Good to see you.
3:18:19Thank you.
3:18:20Yes, sir.
Public speaker
3:18:20Thank you, Madam Mayor, City Council. Thank you for your support. I'd like to say that um historically in California, half the most destructive fires have been caused by power lines. Why? Because power lines like to use creeks and drainages to install these power lines. Creeks and drainages significantly influence wind-driven wildfires. The proposed power lines are directly targeting a drainage with heavy vegetation that runs throughout our city. Every day, the wind blows through that drainage depending on which type of weather we're having. Here are some examples of these fires. 2018, the Campfire, the deadliest in California history with 85 thou uh 85 deaths and 18,000 structures.
3:19:042025, the Aladena fire only burned 14,000 acres but destroyed 9,000 buildings, mostly homes, and killed people, 19 people. This was an area very much like we live. And in 2021, the Dixie Fire, the largest in California history.
3:19:20That is your time, sir.
3:19:21Thank you, sir.
3:19:21Thank you, Bob. I appreciate you.
Mayor Alexander
3:19:23Rose Corona to be followed by Tim Parks to be followed by Marsha Casto. Miss Corona, good to see you, ma'am. It's
Public speaker
3:19:33a lot to get me out here. And before you start my time here, I just would like to thank um as many people know, I my family's been here for over 50 years and it's a long long time to see a lot of change and I thank you for all of the work and hard hard questions that you put together and really did your homework on this. And as somebody who came here when there was 200 people in town, I really appreciate the work you put in and I wish that CDG& had done the same. I just will be as quickly as I can. My
3:20:10name is Rose Corona and many of you may know me and my family as the owners of Big Horse Feed and Merkantile and Corona Ranch on Hawaii Highway 79 Temecula Parkway and Butterfield Stage Road. I preface my comments to say first of all that I'm not here to speak on behalf of my family who've owned the [gasps] for over 50 years but may or may not be impacted by the potential project but more so I I'm here to speak on behalf of the citizens of this community as a voice who has seen a lot in 50 years and
3:20:37and that's your time ma'am I'm so sorry
3:20:41Tim Parks
3:20:41thank you great to see you [applause]
Mayor Alexander
3:20:43Tim Parks to be followed by Marsha Queso to be followed by Linda McDonald just to remind people as well. Don't forget you have your timer in front. I know it's a lot. You have so much information you want to share. So, thank you. Go ahead, sir.
Public speaker
3:20:56Yes. Thank you for this moment. Uh longtime resident since 91, own a couple properties out here, and I appreciate the health concerns. I appreciate uh the historical aspect of the city and the blight that it will cause. I don't like the disclaimer, however, that the city has nothing to do. I would hope that our city has a say in this matter that legally we can go against this. Um such as the historical value we mentioned that as far as the Butterfield stage um the real estate values all of that you've covered today I appreciate but uh I oppose this project. Thank you.
3:21:44Thank you very much sir for your time. Thank you for coming. [applause]
3:21:47Marsha Queso. Marsha Queso to be followed by Linda McDonald. And then Alyn Travis.
3:21:57Hi Marsha.
3:21:57Hi. Good evening. I'm Marsha Kaso and I live in Paloma del Soul for 36 years. I don't trust these people. I'm sorry. I don't. There's no clear transparency here as far as I can see. And I want you guys to protect our city and I will do as much as I can to protect Temecula. I love this city and I don't want these transmission lines coming through. It affects our health. It affects our our children's health. Something needs to be done. And where are the attorneys of uh Pachena Indian? I'm going to go over there and go talk to them. Okay. They need to come
3:22:40here and defend us as well. Okay. Everybody needs as a community to come forward and and defend our city. Do not trust these people. Please do not trust them. I beg you. I beg you. That's all I could say. Thank you, ma'am, for coming. Linda McDonald to be followed by Olin Travel to be followed by Yuan Hawks.
3:23:06Howdy. Linda McDonald here. Um, 40-year resident. So, I've been through this before. This ain't my first rodeo. I fought you guys before when you tried to come through here 25 years ago. We won. Liberty Quarry tried to get in here. We won. So, that should be a little bit of a notice to you that we're not going to back down. We will win. And this is the stupidest route I've ever heard of to come through. Here's a here's something you guys can do. Ordinance. Get an ordinance going. You guys declare that no power lines can come through this city. Do it. It's all I got
3:23:45to say.
3:23:46Thank you, ma'am. [applause]
3:23:48Olin. Olin Travis.
3:23:51Hi there.
3:23:52Hi. Hi, Ollin. Thanks for coming in today.
3:23:54It's Arlland.
3:23:55Arlland Arllin. I uh I have sloppy handwriting.
3:23:59No problem, sir. Um
3:24:00that's why I type [laughter]
3:24:02Thank you for coming. I typed up um uh I I typed up my thoughts on the project. Um I have uh I'm semi-retired. I've got 30 years in the business. Uh I uh spent some time uh doing projects for San Diego Gas and Electric.
3:24:19Uh
3:24:19if we can just hear you in the mic so we everybody can hear everything you have to say.
3:24:23So anyway, uh so hello. Hi, sir.
Mayor Alexander
3:24:26Mayor Alexander, Councilman, fellow residents, uh guests. Uh I I submitted my comments. You have them to be part of the record. Um I'm available uh for uh to help out. Uh I helped out on the Valley Rainbow Project that we successfully kept out of this uh valley. And um and I wanted to mention a couple things while I'm here. Um if you look at the Ironwood project, the Ironwood project is a um 500 KV uh line that will come into uh Imperial Valley to bring wind power
3:25:11and Horizon Wind is uh the sponsor of that project. The next speaker is Yuan Hawk to be followed by Jim Schlash to be followed by Michael. Farewell.
3:25:24How are you, ma'am?
3:25:25Good. Good evening, madame mayor and council members. My name is Dr. Yuan Hawk. I am a longtime resident 19 years in Temecula. I'm here to strongly oppose this project. Temecula is a home. It's not a dot on the map and this project is not a line on the map. I want to urge you and to stand with us to protect our home and defend our homeland and we are here. You see hundreds of us here. We will stand with you. So, please consider to oppose this project and keep our home safe for us and for our future. Thank you.
3:26:14Thank you, ma'am. [applause]
3:26:16Jim Schllo to be followed by Michael. Farewell to be followed by Jillian Larson.
3:26:23Thank you for coming in, sir.
3:26:24Yeah. Hi, I'm Jim Schllo. I'd just like to say first, thank you for your insightful questions. I thought they were awesome. And uh as an engineer, I'd like to say to the STG folks, uh there's no way you start a $2.3 billion project with as little planning as you did about Temecula.
3:26:39If you could just come closer to
3:26:40Oh, I'm sorry.
3:26:41Thank you.
3:26:41So, um yeah, I encourage the the city council to uh you know, not take their word for it and uh you know, start doing forcing them to do the engineering studies that they need to do. Look at the alternate routes, hold their feet to the fire, let me know how I can help. And just thank you for your support. Thank you so much for coming in, sir. [applause]
3:27:06How are you?
3:27:07I'm good. How are you? Thank you all. My name is Michael Farewell. I live in the Red Hawk community in the fairways. First of all, city council members, thank you. You did an ad admirable job representing us today. Appreciate that. Uh, real quick, California doesn't care about us. That's the truth, right? So, we have to fight for ourselves. The problem is they passed SB49, so it's going to limit our ability to limit uh to litigate. So, we have to unite early and we have to push for alternatives quickly. I'm sure they have plans, so we need to push them toward that. Thank you all.
3:27:37Thank you, sir. [applause]
3:27:39The next speaker is Jillian Larson to be followed by Joseph Kamroski to be followed by John Mitchell.
3:27:45Hi, Miss Jillian. Good to see you.
3:27:49Good evening. Good evening, everybody. I'm here opposing obviously, but first of all, and actually only this doesn't matter anymore what I was going to say. Thank you to the city staff for your excellent, well-prepared information that you gave us that covered everything on mine and I'm sure everybody else's. Thank you to our city council for your intelligent, educated remarks and questions and answers. And I have to say to the people behind me, and I won't turn around because I want to be heard. Um, you came to us without a horse. It's not a cart without a horse. You don't have a horse. And also, it
3:28:23was a case of not ready, aim, fire. It was fire, aim, and not ready. So, if this is the project that's going to go in with this kind of preparation, lack of answers, not really getting anything clear, having no information for us, please just leave us alone. You've got a fight on your hands, and you don't want to pick Temecula. So, thank you everybody, and thank you everybody for being here. This is not going to happen here. Thank you.
3:28:52Thank you. [applause]
3:28:53Joseph Kamroski to be followed by John Mitchell to be followed by Cindy Allen.
3:28:59Good afternoon or good evening, Dr. Kamaroski. Good to see you.
3:29:02Thank you, Mayor Alexander. Dr. Alexander, city staff. I have never been more proud to be a Temecula resident than tonight. Thank you so much for what you're doing. I'm going to speak from two hats. H number one, I'm an elected official for Temecula Valley Unified School District. and these power lines become danger close to uh Veil Ranch Middle School. And I speak on behalf of the 800 students that are enrolled there and the parents and the community members that live there. I condemn this. Secondly, I speak as a resident. Stu, you hit on my argument with the balloons. That's what I was going to center
3:29:29on. That's the very DNA and identity of Temecula. What I didn't hear was the FAA mentioned in depth. So when the CPU kicks in with SECA, make sure you tag that national governing body and force as much impact as you can on this vacuous and empty SDG. And to answer your question that they couldn't answer, it's called the Federal um Communications Commission FCC. They don't have the answers and they never will. Brendan, I'd be happy to educate you on EMFs. Thank you so much for your time. Um and I know you're going to do the right thing.
3:30:01Thank you.
3:30:02Not the wrong city. John Mitchell to be followed by Cindy Allen to be followed by David Allen.
3:30:11Thank you for coming, sir.
3:30:14Uh John Mitchell, I moved to Temecula with my wife 5 years ago. We live on the creek and I want to thank the um council for their uh questions. I think they're very intelligent. I wish I could say that the answers that we got from the Golden Pacific Power Link were anywhere informative or close to that and I hope that the next steps the council makes is to engage our legal council and start putting injunctions and lawsuits on these guys. That's all I have to say. Thank you.
3:30:43Thank you, sir. [applause]
3:30:45Cindy Allen to be followed by David Allen to be followed by Aleandro Thornton. Good evening, Madame Mayor and council members and everyone else here. Um, my name is Cindy Allen. I'm a Temecula concerned citizen here to oppose the SDG&E power lines being put directly through our city. Um, bringing in many of those high powered lines d will directly affect the health of the residents in and near the proximity to the power lines. They are known to cause cancer and leukemia. No matter what you say, I know it to be a fact. Do your homework. Other issues when purchasing homes, people did not expect these power
3:31:28lines to be here. They bought their homes. You can't put them in after you buy. They're going to degrade their properties. Um, and then I just have a question for SDG&E. Would you live a thousand feet from these power lines with your family and your children and grandchildren? I can't imagine you doing that. I couldn't imagine doing it. So, please come.
3:31:53Thank you, ma'am. That's your David Allen.
3:31:55Thank you so much.
3:31:56David Allen to be followed by Aleandro Thornton to be followed by Lisa Sleman.
3:32:03Good evening, Mr. Allen.
3:32:05Hello. I oppose this method. Period. There's no give and take or nothing. Take your toys and go home. I will not put up with it. And I I've spent $50,000 in my house. I have solar panels and battery backup systems. I'm not draining any power from them. I got my own power. But that's the way I feel about it. They can go home.
3:32:32Thank you, sir. [applause] Aleandro Thornton. Aleandro Thornton. Lisa Sleman. Okay. Aleandro Thornton. Lisa Sleman. Mark Winkler, just to as people are coming up, I'm just going to let everybody know we're going to continue this. We're not going to take a break if my council's okay with that. Uh we're over halfway through and so we want to make sure everybody gets heard and then we'll take a break uh after the motion. Yes, ma'am.
3:33:03Good evening. I'm a homeowner in the Temecula Creek area directly impacted by the proposed project. I stand you before you today in strong opposition to this project and the placement of massive transmission towers behind our homes. Like many people, purchasing my home was one of the biggest financial decisions of my life. After going through a divorce, I essentially put all my eggs in one basket to create a stable and fresh start for myself. I invested everything into my home and because I believed in the safety, beauty, and long-term value of Temecula. With this propos proposed project, I'm being told that my investment, my sense of
3:33:40security could be significantly damaged. Homes affected by these transmission tales could see property values significantly reduced. This in turn should be reflected in our property tax assessments which will affect you. These towers would permanently change the character of the Mecculara Creek area. Families chose this community for its open space, scenic beauty, and quality of life. Not to below is Mark Winkler to be
3:34:10Thank you for coming up by Bill Beal to be followed by Dennis Fitz.
3:34:16Good evening, Mr. Winkler.
3:34:18Good evening, council. Thank you. I appreciate you fighting with the full weight of your authority, your resources, and your financial commitment. The supposed greater good scenario would have tally to take all the risks with no benefits and SDG&E reaps the profit. In return, our city receives increased health and safety issues, environmental damage, visual blight, declining property values, and rising insurance concerns, harm to our local economy, erosion to our city tax base. Temecula will carry the brunt of the devastation caused by a giant transmission infrastructure where none existed before. In a region threatened by wildfires and earthquakes, these risks are very real, not theoretical. We need
3:34:57action, advocacy, expert resources, and a united front. Together, we are stronger. That is why community members and I have formed Save Temecula, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting the power link. Our mission is simple. Unite residents, businesses, and community leaders to protect Temecula's future. Other alternative routes and technologies exist. The TNG board would not put this monstrosity in next we wouldn't put it in ours to be followed thank you for your times to be followed by Christina
3:35:27Braamonte so again Bill Vilville okay Dennis Fitz up thank you Mr. Fitz.
Public speaker
3:35:41My name is Dennis Fitz and I'm a retired environmental researcher from the University of California, Riverside. All indications are is that distributed power is the future. San Diego Gas and Electric should get out of the past and look into the future. They could be building an outrageous power line that could be obsolete the day it is built. Thank you, sir.
3:36:11Christina Braamonte. Christina.
3:36:18Mayor,
3:36:18thank you.
Public speaker
3:36:19Council, thank you so much for your insightful questions. I couldn't have done it better myself with or without a PhD or any kind of education. Thank you so much for working so hard on behalf of this beautiful city. Mother's Day, I should have been celebrating, but instead I drafted a petition. One of my guiding principles in life as a mom is Mother Teresa's saying, "We can do no great things, only small things with great love." And I feel like we have to come together as a group and fight these. I don't care what it takes, but my mama bear says Thank you, ma'am. [applause] Don
3:37:15Don Smitty. Don Smitty. Don Smitty to be followed by Mike Walkshaw. Yes. Come on up. That person isn't answering. Don Smitty. No, Don Smitty to be followed by Mike Walkshaw to be followed by Sandy.
3:37:41Yeah, that'd be it. [laughter]
3:37:45Thank you for coming, sir.
Mayor Alexander
3:37:46Okay. Thank you, Madam uh Alexander. I app and council members. I only have a couple of items. One is the height of the towers. If a developer came in here and said, "I wanted to build 12story or 19story buildings," you probably would not approve that because we don't have those here in Temecula. Another one is for our relatively friendly people here. I heard from a pro their project management perspective and some of the things I didn't hear about are one, do you have a riskmanagement plan and can we see it? Two, you talked about stakeholders, but are you talking about did you do a stakeholder
3:38:26analysis including future stakeholders, not just people today, but what are you doing to impact the future people and the future of our environment? Because are when we talk about stakeholders, we're not just talking about people, we're talking about the environment as well. And from that perspective,
3:38:46and that's your time, sir.
3:38:48Thank you.
3:38:48Thank you so much for coming.
3:38:49Thank you.
Mayor Alexander
3:38:50Thank you for your comments. Okay, Sandy B, come on up. To be followed by James Nollo to be followed by Orion Roofs. Thank you, ma'am, for coming.
Public speaker
3:39:03Yeah, thank you. I just have a couple questions. I just want to know by the time they have a specific structure location on this matter, is it then too late? Is that why they're hemming and hawing and not telling us? Also, how many microteslas is deemed safe? Microtesla is a unit of measurement for electromagnetic field we'll be exposed to in America shortterm is 100 microteslas long-term point4 not four point 04 is deemed safe 200 meters is supposed to be the setback those houses in Dherty didn't look 200 meters behind so I don't think our safety really matters one bloody bit I think the dollar does.
3:39:49That's why they don't bury these. They could bury them. They don't because we don't matter. The dollar does. F that. Thank you, ma'am.
Mayor Alexander
3:39:59James Nollo to be followed by Ryan Roos to be followed by Janette Noa.
3:40:08Thank you for coming up, sir.
Public speaker
3:40:14Thank you, uh, Mayor and Council. I'd like If you can get right into the microphone, that'd be great.
3:40:21Okay. How's that?
Public speaker
3:40:22Perfect. Wonderful. Thank you. Uh I was a worker at Sanonafry and we learned about radiation and so uh one of the things is that you're ex the power lines that I learned about a town on a river and another town on the river and uh one town was getting cancer and the other town wasn't. the town down river from the other one had power lines going across the river and so the town below uh was drastically more cancer and so with the power lines going over the water district and the kids
3:41:15and that's your time. Thank you for your comments, no sir.
Mayor Alexander
3:41:20Ryan Roofs, Ryan [snorts] Rooves, Janette Noa, welcome Janette. After Janette is Katherine Lopez,
3:41:31hi ma'am.
Public speaker
3:41:32Foremost, thank you so much for your fight and for fighting for us. Second of all, if Mr. Washington from the Riverside County Board of Supervisors is still here. Please take up this fight for us because where I live, I live on Summit View and I invite the people from SDG&E to come to my house and stand in my front yard because I am across from where the panels and these big towers are going to be. Madam May, we can't be here. Yes, if you can just talk.
Public speaker
3:41:59You will see what we will see. you will see the destruction. And most importantly, if you don't think Temecula is important, then go and tell that to Disneyland because if you go to California Adventure and you go on the soaring ride and they say the most beautiful parts of Southern California, they show Temecula. That's how beautiful we are. That's how important we are. And that's why this cannot pass. Thank you, ma'am. [applause] Okay. Um, madame mayor, I'll just remind the audience on your behalf that we need to speak into the podium and your comments need to be addressed to the mayor and the council, please.
3:42:40Thank you very much.
Mayor Alexander
3:42:41Katherine Lopez to be followed by Nancy Snowden to be followed by Taylor Law.
Public speaker
3:42:49Katherine Lopez. Katherine Lopez. Okay. Nancy Snowden. Nancy, welcome Nancy. And then to be followed by Taylor Law and Jodie Christopher at the very end, which were coming near, I will read all the comment cards that were not um answered to one more time just to make sure we didn't miss anybody. Um, welcome Nancy. Thank you.
Public speaker
3:43:18Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Um, my name is Nancy Snowden and I'm here representing uh my community called Aubry Place. I'm on the board and we are on the corner of Butterfield and uh Channel Street. We border the Temecula Creek. So, this project um would directly affect our homes and we have 180 units in our community. So, we want to just let you know that we're against it and I really appreciate tonight and the questions and answers that you posed were really great. So, thank you for this informative evening. Thank you very much for coming, ma'am. Taylor Law to be followed by Jodie Christopher
3:44:04to be followed by Bob Cal.
3:44:10Hi, ma'am.
Public speaker
3:44:12Yep. Just leave it right there. Okay. Good evening. My name is Taylor Law and I live on Temecula Creek Road in Behinger Creek neighborhood and my home backs up to the creek. Um, my four kids attend three local schools and most mornings before my kids wake up, I go for a run with friends along the creek trails and into the hills. We run here, we walk our pets, we ride our bikes, we gather at parks, we walk with our families. And these moments matter, so please don't take that away from us. Two years ago, on the last day of school, a fire erupted. Um
Mayor Alexander
3:44:43if you can pause for one second because I'm very thankful for your slides that you're putting. There we go. Thank you very much in the back. Thank you.
Public speaker
3:44:48Second. Okay. Um a fire unrelated to power lines erupted directly behind my house in the creek area. From our backyard, we saw red and orange flames racing through the brush towards our neighborhood and even closer to those on Morgan Hill. Uh we all watched CalFire save our neighborhoods. The airplanes flew skillfully close to the homes on Morgan Hill and just above the ground. Helicopters dumped water again and again, douncing the fire until it was out. CalFire responded so quickly with air support and firefighters on the ground that were delivered by helicopter directly to the creek bed. They were able to do this because the creek
3:45:23bed was open and unobstructed. If high voltage power lines had been there, the aircraft operations would have been impossible. That puts every family in this area at greater risk when the next fire comes. And in California, we know there will next fire. Thank you. Next speaker is Jodie Christopher. [applause] Next speaker is Jodie Christopher to be followed by Bob Cal to be followed by William Boy. Good to see you, Mr. Christopher.
Mayor Alexander
3:45:49It's good to see you guys, too. And I want to say again, just like everybody else said, mayor, city council members, and our staff, um, thank you for what you've done tonight. It's I'm very proud of you all. Um, my concerns are not, uh, EMF. My concerns are nonionized radiation. This is something that we don't measure and it is a c it is caused by our power lines. We we keep saying that this is not a problem. It's not a problem. It's not a problem. The health concerns based off of these high power lines are a huge problem. Please consider that SDG&E you also have
3:46:26a high power line corridor just south of us. Why aren't we using the same corridor that's already there? Why are we proposing a new one right through a city? It's ridiculous. The third thing is is this is outside our state's power. We're bringing power from outside our state to inside our state because we can't build power here in our state. It's ridiculous. We need to stand up as citizens and get power back in California.
Public speaker
3:46:51Thank you so much, Mr. Christopher. Bob Cal to be followed by William Boy to be followed by Barry Schmidt. And Mr. Bob, good to see you. council.
Mayor Alexander
3:47:02I'm very much against the uh power lines going through Temecula as you would would think. Uh the broader question is why do they need 160 gawatts of power by uh 2045 when each gawatt is one nuclear reactor. So if you have uh need 160 gawatts of power by 2045, you're going to have 160 nuclear reactors you're going to need along the state and you're not going to have enough solar power from El Centro. That's where the solar power is right now. They're building out. So uh uh they just don't have they're where are these solar panels coming from? They're going to come from China or
3:47:42they're not going to come from the United States. And uh we're going to have to import these and I don't even know if they have enough to to supply us all. Thank you.
Public speaker
3:47:50Thank you, sir. William Voit to be followed by Barry Schmidt to be followed by David Sola.
3:47:56Thank you, Mr. Voit. Coming in.
3:48:00Thank you for stepping up and and um
Mayor Alexander
3:48:04Oh, sir, unfortunately, we cannot have any of our devices, but thank you so much.
Public speaker
3:48:09That's fine. Uh, I wanted to say thank you to you all for stepping up and and and being the champion for the city and uh, I really appreciate it. My name is William Vote. I am a resident and only been here for about seven years. I put my entire life savings into a home that's 500 ft from these lines. I'm on Nighthawk Pass. Like my neighbor um, just spoke eloquently earlier. You know, this this really can't go through. I'm here for my grandkids. We've moved my whole family here. Their schools are right there next to these power lines. You know, I've I've seen videos of
3:48:43people walking on those trails behind my home. I want it to be the way it is now forever for my kids and for our house and for our family's future. We can't I'm for sustainable power and for green power, but I not at the expense of our future, not at the expense of Temecula. Period.
Mayor Alexander
3:49:01And that is your time, sir. Thank you for coming and giving us comments. Barry Schmidt to be followed by David Sola to be followed by Michael Antonucci. Barry Schmidt. Barry. Okay. David Sola. David. Okay. Michael Antonucci.
Mayor Alexander
3:49:24Michael. He had to leave. I think I heard. Okay. Tara Thomas to be followed by Mary Mikolich. Welcome.
3:49:35Hello, ma'am. Good to see you as always.
Public speaker
3:49:38Thank you so much for having me and for the great work you guys have done already on this. My name is Tara Thomas and I serve as a children's pastor in Temecula and I'm here to voice my opposition to the proposed project. I'm here to point out that yes, there is a school along the proposed lines, but there are also many churches along the route as well. And many of these churches have preschools. And um these preschools serve the youngest and smallest residents of Temecula. And as stated um on earlier and on the SDG&E website um they provide free measurements for electric and magnet magnetic
3:50:12field upon request and um that SDG&E follows California Public Utilities Commission guidelines to mitigate exposures. So this raises a question for me. What effects do these frequencies have on the youngest and most vulnerable among us? I'll leave those um answers to our resident expert, Dr. Kay. But why would we risk exposing them to these effects for a company to save money? I propose that we do not run the lines through Temecula.
3:50:41And thank you, ma'am, for your for your comment. [applause] Next is Mary Mikolich to be followed by Jessica Chadwell. Mary. Okay, Jessica Chadwell to be followed by Michael Fineberg. Oh, there we go. And after Michael, we will have Lorraine White to be followed by Alice Richter.
3:51:16Thank you for holding out, sir, and being here to speak.
Public speaker
3:51:19Thank you for this opportunity. Michael Fineberg, 36-year resident, uh, local rancher, and very conveniently, I am a power line fire lawyer. In 2018, uh, I'm sorry, in 2007, a power line fire was ignited by SDG&E power lines on my friend and ranchers property, Glenn Drown, in the Ramona, San Pasal area. I've heard the COO say the same thing. That's the corporate statement. We did not cause that fire. They didn't cause that fire. You know what they did? They paid my clients $600 million because they didn't cause the fire. And yet that continues. This is a matter of corporate integrity, believability, support, and follow-up support. The
3:52:06power line fires across this nation where I have been and including the campfire where eight of my clients died were caused by transmission lines just like the lines that are planned here. Those were older. So was the one in Ramona. However,
City Clerk
3:52:22and that's your time, sir. I would love to keep listening to you if you can. Actually, I just want to make sure I have his information.
3:52:27We have everyone's information. Yes.
3:52:29Outstanding. We'll be reaching out to you.
3:52:30Thank you.
3:52:31Thank you very much, sir. The next speaker is Lorraine White. [applause] Lorraine, are you here? Welcome. And then Alice Richter and Sarah Guyger. Thank you for coming.
Public speaker
3:52:44Good evening. Thank you, city councils. Thank you for being rock stars. I think everything's been said. You did your homework. You had intelligence questions. I wish I could turn around and address them who I want to address. I've been in the business world [snorts] for 30 years and you were not prepared. And it's it's really it's embarrassing and it's disrespectful. And one of you didn't even stay. I live in Morgan Hill.
3:53:07Ma'am, you need to speak into
Public speaker
3:53:08I live in Morgan Hill. My backyard is Temecula Creek. I had someone from Edison come out said how long tall they would be. They would be all the way to my fence all the way across my yard. My property value goes down. My insurance guy said, "We won't get insurance." And I've been watching your faces from the other room the whole time. Please at least look like you care and please come prepared next time. And thank you again. I'm proud to be from Temecula. Thank you ma'am for your comments. Alice Richtor. Alon Musk has the answer
3:53:42to be followed by Sarah Geger.
3:53:45She made it in her time.
3:53:48Alice Richtor.
3:53:50Alice.
3:53:52Okay. Sarah Guyger. Welcome, Sarah. To be followed by Teresa
3:53:58Breaker.
3:53:59Thank you for waiting.
Public speaker
3:54:02Uh, good evening. My name is Sarah Guyger and I have been a resident of Temecula for 17 years. Our family does not want this project here. My own house backs up to Temecula Parkway. We do not want the upheaval, the mess, the fire danger, the health consequences, the eyes, the decreased home values, or the environmental impact. Temecula, an upscale rural city known for its beauty, wineries, horse trails, and tourism, is obviously the wrong location for this SG& project. Quite frankly, it's appalling that no one had the sense to stand up and say to their committee, you know what? This is a terrible idea. It doesn't matter
3:54:35if it is moved to a few miles in any direction outside of our city or even if it's suggested to put lines underground. SDG&E ultimately, if you cannot complete this line without going through or by Temecula, then you need to kill this project. Full stop. Thank you. [applause] Teresa Teresa Breaker to be followed by Peggy Bartell's to be followed by Miguel Gonzalez.
3:55:00Hi ma'am.
Public speaker
3:55:01Hi. Thank you city council. You're doing a great job. Uh we have a home that's directly on Temecula [clears throat] Creek and we paid a premium for our view and that was two years ago and now it's we're already impacted. It's not like a future impact because if we tried to sell it today, we would have to uh disclose this going in and that it's on the map. We'd have to give the map and show them. It's going right. Uh you could see this on here if that's our view. It would be destroyed. Can you show that?
City Clerk
3:55:45Uh I believe if we can just open that up, please. So that can be powered on.
3:55:50Yeah.
City Clerk
3:55:50Oh, for Oh, for that. I apologize. Not for your phone. I'm so sorry though, ma'am. Well, thank you.
3:55:54Everybody saw it, but thank
Public speaker
3:55:56Thank you very much, ma'am. I appreciate you. Peggy Bartell's to be followed by Miguel Gonzalez to be followed by Christopher Müller. Hello. Thank you for allowing me to speak here tonight. I want to talk a little bit about California having the highest death rates related to transmission line wildfires in the nation. Other comparisons are when you look at in Oregon, the transmission line related wildfires have killed 12 people. In Washington, three people. In Idaho, one person since 1994. In California, since 1994, transmission line fires have killed 157 people. You need to ask why are we putting transmission lines up in residential areas? We can easily
3:56:53divide a 500 kilovolt line and bury it underground. That's the first thing. The second thing is the proposed project area, the Temecula Creek corridor is the second highest wind velocity area.
3:57:10And that's your time, ma'am.
3:57:11Thank you.
3:57:11Riverside County Miguel Gonzalez. Thank you very much, ma'am, for your time.
3:57:16Miguel Gonzalez to be followed by Christopher Mohler to be followed by Hong Min.
3:57:20Evening, Miguel.
3:57:27Good evening. Good evening.
City staff
3:57:29As long as it's not a phone, we can have it on there.
3:57:31Um, I came to this meeting expecting to see more information on the alignment. I opened the website for the California Energy Commission and anybody is can see in there that there are already uh transmission lines that go from Imperial Valley to Sanonre. So the rightway is already in place. Um and they are 230 KV and 69 KV but the rightway is there. So I would like to see more homework from this project to see why to Temecula. this point I will oppose the project to go to Temecula Creek and I can mention multiple reasons why but I would say just simple I will oppose the
3:58:12project as it is right now.
3:58:14Thank you very much sir.
Public speaker
3:58:17Christopher Mhler to be followed by Hong Men to be followed by Abraham Feltus.
3:58:24Good evening Mr. I believe it was Muller.
Public speaker
3:58:27Madame Mayor council members thank you for the meeting. This project is a product of a problem that SDG has created themselves through their suppression of the ability of homeowners to put solar systems on their homes. They've did this through legislation that was put forth by the Edison Electric Institute, an association of investorowned electric companies of which SDG&E is a member. SGAA has is a guaranteed profit for their infrastructure investments. However, the homeowner does not have any guarantee that the money that they've put into putting solar on their home will ever be returned. And this is due to legislation that has been put forth by the
3:59:21Edison Electric Electric uh Institute. This will continue. They've
3:59:29And that's your time, sir.
3:59:30That's it. Thank you.
3:59:31Yeah. I'm sorry. Thank you very much for coming in.
3:59:33Okay. Thank you.
Public speaker
3:59:35Hung Hung Min to be followed by Abraham Beltus to be followed by Stephanie Baxter.
3:59:40Always good to see you, sir.
3:59:42Madame Mayor, uh, city council members, staff, good evening. My name is Hong Min. I'm the CEO of Temecula Valley Hospital and I am here to speak out in opposition to the power lines. At Temecula Valley Hospital, we service about 50,000 patients through the emergency room every year. We're also a cardiovascular hub and a comprehensive stroke center. The work we do is saving lives. It's not about property values. It's not about sightelines. It's about people's lives. Over the past 12 months, we have experienced four blackouts. Three of them resulting in an internal triage. We have some infra in infrastructural issues that we need to deal with
4:00:24with our own power. We do not need to be spending our most valuable resource, our attention and energy focusing on building power lines that provides power not to our community but elsewhere. We need to take care of our needs first. And with that, I oppose the power lines.
Public speaker
4:00:41Thank you, sir, very much for coming in. Abraham [applause] Feltus to be followed by Stephanie Baxter to be followed by Christine Vanderbas.
4:00:51Good evening, sir.
Public speaker
4:00:52Good evening. My name is Abraham Feltus. I've been here close to 50some years here in the city of Tmicula. [snorts] I owned a industrial landscaping service here in Tmicula. Speaking of hospitals, that's one of my main customers back in the day. I'm retired now. However, Tmicula Valley is the heart of this city. It protects our heart. Our heart
City Clerk
4:01:18and we have to protect our heart. Not allow the Edison lines or anybody's lines that's going to expose any type of illness on our community. By doing by doing that is saying no, no, no. Shop someplace else. Put it in the ground and it will grow. Thank you so much for your time and coming and and staying with us. [applause]
4:01:44Stephanie Baxter to be followed by Christine Vanderbos to be followed by Maria Pete. Hello ma'am. Good evening. It is so great to be here with you. My name is Stephanie Baxter. I'm an elected member of the Fbrook Community Planning Group, your neighbors to the south. We are no strangers to being uh dumping grounds as I heard uh described this evening um with battery energy storage uh infrastructure projects, highdensity housing, uh things that we are not asking for but are being pushed down upon us and our local control is uh continually being overridden as is proved by this project. residents are tired of the environmental double
4:02:26double standards where communities are asked to destroy nature in the name of saving it. And I thank you for leading this charge. I thank you for giving us hope. Um and we I I can guarantee you there will be many other communities following along uh your lead and we are with you in people over power lines. Thank you. God bless you and we will see you in Fbrook in July.
4:02:53That's right. Thank you, Christine. Christine Bonderbos. Christine. Okay. Maria Pata. Okay. Veronica Langworthy. There she is.
Mayor Alexander
4:03:11Okay. And after Veronica will be Marcus Heredia to be followed by Ron J. Wilson. All right. Good evening. Good to see you, ma'am.
Public speaker
4:03:28Good evening, Temecula City Council. My name is Veronica Langworthy and I'm from the city of Wdemar. I'm resident there for 20 years and um I'm glad to hear you're urging SDG&E to listen to the people of Temecula and I hope they are listening and hearing the voices that are speaking with wisdom. Um many years ago in Wdemar, there was a railroad company that came. Have you heard of the railroad in Wdemar? They found a lovely piece of land to build on. It was sandy level and you know one of the local peoples the farmer said that's a creek. We get floods. It looks great to
4:04:06build on but it's not a good place to do it because there are flash floods. If you've read Louis Lamore this happens. And so they built it. Train ran great. Um, flooded, railroad tracks went away, built again, flooded, railroad tracks went away, and then the railroad went away.
4:04:28And that's your time.
4:04:30Hopefully.
4:04:31Thank you, ma'am.
4:04:31Thank you.
Mayor Alexander
4:04:32Marcus Heredia to be followed by Ron J Wilson to be followed by Samantha Hunter. So, Marcus, welcome. Hi,
Public speaker
4:04:40Marcus. I'm a citizen of Tonga. Council's right. Council has good knowledge that the mouth of the river is our creation area. the creation area. We call that place uh which literally translates to her birth canal to my the mother earth and our first village is right there eha. I work for SDSU doing habitat restoration. I personally steward all of the land right there and I walk that river almost every day. I take care of everyone there, all of our plant and animal relatives, and I make sure everyone is doing good. A lot of the things that they would have to do to clear those areas
4:05:37would be clear-cutting to put those lines in, and that would hurt all of our all of our animal relatives and all of our plant relatives. It would make it really difficult. Any fire retardant would be toxic to the area and to the the river itself.
Mayor Alexander
4:05:52And that's your time, sir. Thank you so much for coming in, [applause]
4:05:56Ron. Ron Wilson to be followed by Samantha Hunter.
4:06:02How are you, sir? Good to see you.
4:06:04Hi,
Council Member
4:06:05Madame Mayor and Council. Thank you for your wise words earlier and your good strong point of debate. I hope we do send them home today with a clear understanding that Temecula is a community that will fight for what we believe in. So, if you take your thousand foot corridor and you draw the line down the middle, 500 ft away, you're going to put that outside edge right through my living room. And I'll tell you what, SDG&E I'm not going to have it. Temecula will fight you. Thank you.
4:06:35Thank you. Thank you. Always good to see you. [applause]
Mayor Alexander
4:06:38And Samantha Hunter. And then I will go through all of the cards that um one more time. Hi ma'am.
Public speaker
4:06:50Hello. My name is Samantha Jane Hunter and I am USFA's Miss Temecula. Today we stand on the precipice of a historical decision. This will affect not only our city but the state of California, United States of America and the entire world who looks forward to coming here. Another [sighs] translation which I can add, the city of Temecula, the name translates to the light which breaks through the fog in the morning. I hope that all of us together can join and be the light which breaks through this fog. This decision is a matter of life and death. It's a decision which [sighs] will affect us for
4:07:36generations to come. Our city will never be the same should this come to pass. And I have to tell you, I'm completely terrified. Thank you. Thank you for coming in and good to see you again. [applause] Okay, so um I am going to run through these speaker cards one more time. If you hear your name, please come on up. Renee Carter, she left. Ed Gerso, Samantha Nuin, Mike Flora, Chris Seismore. I left Amar left. Erin Dornan. [snorts]
4:08:21Good afternoon or evening. We're still in evening. Yes.
Public speaker
4:08:24Good evening. Um, madame mayor and council members. My name is Dr. Aaron Dornan Leudo and I live near Temecula Parkway. State planning for these steel power towers started three years ago. Yet, our community was left in the dark until last month. Today, the corporate rep sits here calling this clinical name the project to distance herself from reality. She even has the embroidered shirt ready. They think our home is a done deal. My philosophy is nothing about us without us. Deciding our [clears throat] future behind our backs is wrong. They do not care about our community, our wine country, our hot air balloon economy. The threat is
4:08:55real. During a recent fire in this exact path, I had to cut my work meeting short to console a young girl crying on the street because her dog was trapped inside her home while our brave firefighters fought the blaze from the air and on the ground. Multiple of my own friends lost everything in the eaten fire last year. If these massive transmission lines spark a new blaze, the bottleneck will trap thousands of families and block aerial firefighting. This will crush our property values and worsen our insurance crisis. Tmacular bears all the catastrophic risk with zero benefits. San Diego fought to keep these lines out. Our
4:09:25community deserves that same fierce advocacy. And that is your time. Stand with us and formally oppose this. Simon,
Mayor Alexander
4:09:30thank you so much for coming in. [applause] Sora Barionat, Allesandre Thornton, Bill Vil, Don Smitty, Ryan Rofs, Katherine Lopez, Barry Schmidt, David Sola, Michael Antonucci, Mary Micheloid, Jessica Chadwell, Alice Richter, Christine Bonderbos, Maria Patza. Madame Mayor, that concludes all speakers. You are welcome to part partake in discussion and motion as needed and uh we will be taking a recess afterwards.
Mayor Alexander
4:10:27Outstanding. Well, first of all, I just want to say thank you to all the speakers coming in. Thank you to SDG&E for staying and listening to us as well. Um, but again, I know this is uh this is just the beginning for our city as well as we're about to step into comment from all of our council members. I also want to say thank you to um Randy Joel for your dedication there moving forward and saying all those names and to our staff for doing your due diligence. Uh great job. So, with that, I'd like to open up to our city council members and see
4:10:58what else you have to say. Anybody want to start? We'll start with my left.
Mayor Alexander
4:11:03I will start it off. Thank you, madame Dr. Mayor. [laughter] Uh, to reiterate what she said, I first want to thank everyone for showing up today. We had our county supervisor here. We had the mayor of Mya. We had council members from Myetta. We had commissioners. Um, but most importantly, we had hundreds of community members. And that's what this was for, to listen to you and to hear your perspective and your thoughts on these power lines coming through Temecula. Um, you know, the conference center was full, this center was full, our city hall here, the patio was full. You showed up and you showed up
4:11:36in force and that's what Temecula residents do when they care about something. And it made me proud to be up here representing you and made me proud to be up here fighting for you. Uh, with that said, if you can pull up the slide real quick for me. This is on SDG&E's website. Our values, the number one thing is do the right thing. And we agree with you. Do the right thing. Not the right thing for your shareholders, not the right thing for your profits, do the right things for the communities that you wish to traverse. And you have one responsibility and that is to
4:12:14maximize your shareholders return. We have a responsibility up here on this day and that is to protect our community members and that's what we will continue to do. As you heard tonight, the community unequivocally opposes this project. We will continue to show up. We will continue to speak out. We will continue to fight against the power line project and we will continue to fight to save Temecula. And with that being said, I will make the first motion to formally oppose this power line project going through Temecula. Um, and I would ask in that motion for city staff to work with city council on drafting the
4:12:53verbiage that formally opposes this project going through our community. Thank you, mayor.
Mayor Alexander
4:12:59Okay. Thank you. And we will be coming up on that uh in a little bit. So, thank you very much.
Council Member
4:13:04Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. Um, again, you know, not to belabor this point too much, but um, the community showed up tonight for sure. We really appreciate it. Um, I heard a ton of um, comments online as well. Um, but it's always nice to see people in person voicing their their thoughts and their opinions and and I think um, you know, I think that that matters a lot. This community has got some fight in its belly and uh, and we're we're in for the long haul. uh to SG&E, you know, certainly appreciate you coming up and and uh and going through this this process.
4:13:39Um obviously disappointed in in some of the the vagueness and and and whatnot, but but we'll work through it, right? We'll we'll we'll get to a place where um we have a greater understanding of what's at stake and um and what we can do about it. Um I think that uh you know when we when we look at projects like this and it was mentioned this can't be undone like this is this is a huge decision um that that is weighing on all of us and everyone in this space right and everyone in this room this is something that just can't be undone and and
4:14:14it's a huge scar on the landscape and it's something that um you know we're clearly going to fight with everything we've got leverage all resources uh including um but not limited to everything under the sun. You know, I think this is this is something that uh that um most absolutely needs to to stop and and we're we're here to to stop it. Um, other than that, um, you know, I think, you know, when we get to the the motion section of it and we sort of what does it look like on a on a community sort of outreach, um, everything's on the table for me.
Mayor Alexander
4:14:55Awesome. Thank you so much for your comments. I'll send it all the way to the right.
Public speaker
4:14:59All right. So, again, I want to thank all of you guys for coming out and supporting us because really, we're just five voices. if you guys weren't there, they would probably say there's no uh no push back on us. So, the fact that you're sitting there gives us the power up here. So, thank you guys. And then um as far as the SDG&E I you know what I'm I'm going to take you at your word and that this is really the beginning process and that there is opportunity to move these lines somewhere else because Temecula is not the place for it. I mean it this
4:15:40valley is just way too important to and I'm sure everybody's going to say that about their valley, right? But but we're 115,000 people here in uh Temecula. So it's like and it's it's become it's it's part of our souls literally. If you live here, it's part of your soul. That being said, please move it somewhere else. That's my comment.
Council Member
4:16:15Thank you, Stu. So, you know, I I think we've all heard a lot tonight about this project and there's a lot of unanswered questions that we have. Um I I'm I'm always amazed by this community and how you all come together. Um uh yeah, it is it is it is a remarkable thing to see and it's part of the reason why I brought my family here and we raised our daughter here and continue to live here [clears throat] under the best of conditions. Projects like this and their alternative analyses and and the type of work that needs to go go in should not be using predetermined
4:17:02measures. Um should not dismiss alternatives arbitrarily or structure analysis to favor a preferred alternative or a preferred route. Um we know this the law has spoken to this very clearly over the years. Um but already in this process and maybe it is very early but already in this process you've demonstrated a biased screening criteria artificially narrow purpose and need statement no specific purpose and scope in fact um leaving all of us to wonder what exactly are we trying to accomplish with this uh utility companies like SDG&E and others generally argue that things like 500 KV lines are needed for re regional reliability renewable energy integration
4:17:44um peak demand support, grid redundancy, a lot of the same buzzwords we hear o over and over again for these kinds of projects. Uh historically, that all made sense because the G grid was designed around large centralized generation plants, one-way power flow, long-distance energy transmission, and passive customers. That's not the world we live in today. It's certainly not what California is. Um that's the 20th century model. Today's model uh increasingly shifting toward distributed energy resources, behind the meter generation, battery storage, local resiliency hubs, micro grids, vehicle-to- grid systems, community solar, smart load management. Um unfortunately utilities you you keep proposing large transmission projects like this
4:18:32partly because the regulatory and financial system still rewards massive capital investments like this um and not rewarding the modern alternative of where our grid actually needs to go. And one of the gentlemen said it earlier best uh that you know by the time this project is done it's obsolete. Um bottom line is modern energy architecture, engineering, emerging technologies are being ignored. Uh you're not planning for uh you you actually are planning for an antiquated design that's unfortunately being rewarded by outofouch and outdated policy, law and regulation. So from the top down with the state all the way down through this, you know, proposed project, it's
4:19:14just providing the wrong incentives to do the wrong thing. um regulatory incentives actually favor oversized infrastructure even when distributed alternatives could substitute for transmission expansions. SDG&E in the state of California should instead have to prove why decentralized alternatives cannot achieve the same reliable objectives with lower environmental wildfire and community impacts. That should be the alternatives analysis that's demanded today under our modern uh energy infrastructure. You know, I for those of you who've been with me on this council for a long time, I have a history of of having folks jump up out of their seat and try and exercise demons from me. Um, [laughter] Erica
4:20:05Martin, I think you I'd love to play poker with you one day because you've you've done a fabulous job representing San Diego Gas and Electric. I'd caution uh bringing Mr. Gity to future public meetings because we saw tonight exactly what SDG&E has on the back door and it wasn't pretty. Um, sorry to say that was uh that was disappointing at best and if we're just starting our relationship here today wasn't a great start. Um, so I would hope that as we move forward in this and I would share in my council's uh colleagues comments on on how we move forward uh objectively um dispassionately uh
4:20:45and and use the best available science, technology and resources available to find the best solutions for the problems that supposedly plague our electrical grids in Southern California. But I will say unequivocally that you have selected one of the most environmentally insensitive routes, culturally insensitive routes and community impactful routes imaginable. And you know, we're all just sort of stunned uh by by the level at which you know this has come to our attention. Um we can do better than that. We hope you do better than that. We hope that uh like our my colleague at the end said uh that you you do the right thing.
4:21:27um and that you listen to what what's happened today and we save all of ourselves a lot of time, money, and uh investment in something that just uh just won't won't happen. So, thank you. [applause] All righty. Thank you to my colleagues again. Thank you all for staying uh at this time. It's been hours, but I think each one of you can can say it's worth it. It's absolutely worth it. and they need to hear us and the state needs to hear us. Not just SDG&E Sacramento needs to hear us that this is not what we're going to put in our backyard. [applause] You know,
4:22:08it's very interesting. Not one person came up to this podium other than SGE and Kaiso that was for this project. Not one. Not one. So I just want to encourage everybody to continue this grassroots movement because the fact of the matter is is their project is just starting but so is our grassroots movement just starting as well. So continue to just move forward and work together as as a city as we have been. Again I want to say thank you to the co my colleagues so far. Um it seems like we're all in the same position all wanting the same thing. You know, one thing
4:22:40I want to add that I wasn't able to before, and I think it's sometimes all about timing in Queso's May 9th, 2024 project sponsor selection report. So, this is a report that they put out. They stated in quote, "Horizon West proposed, and I'm saying this route, that would transverse an urban area. The ISO understands that routing transmission facilities in urban areas poses a risk of public opposition which can negatively impact budget and schedule risk. To that I ask, is that all you guys care about? Your budget, your schedule risk, not about the people of our city. What about the health that we talked about, the
4:23:31schools, the businesses? Again, people over power lines every time. Thank you guys for coming out. And at that point in time, I would like to add to make a motion to add on to what I believe uh one of my council members was motioning to. if we could. Number one, I'd ask for a um a direct uh direct to direct the city manager to do all he can to oppose the proposed project based on the information we have right now and today. Number one. Number two, at the appropriate time, I would ask that we can bring back additional information as uh referenced in the staff
4:24:12presentation and council comments. and to number three, bring back a formal resolution in opposition as needed. With that, I'd like to open that up to my council. I know there was a motion on the floor and I'm going to ask Calus if he was okay with that as our motion.
4:24:29Absolutely. I will second that motion, mayor.
4:24:31All right, let's vote. And my video is not working.
Mayor Alexander
4:24:49I'm an I. That is a 5. And that motion passes. [applause] With that, I want to again thank you guys for coming out. I wish you guys safe travels back home in order to be able to hopefully come back again and have some more information for us as we've requested. Thank you for your time again. Uh with that, we're going to take a 10-minute recess and we'll be back to continue our meeting if anybody would love to stay and listen to more. Okay. So, thank you everybody again for uh that meeting. That was fantastic. We end up going through public comments. So, next we are
4:25:55going to move to city council reports. Would any of my colleagues like to add anything to the evening?
Council Member
4:26:01Madame Mayor, can we go back and do our boards and commission?
Mayor Alexander
4:26:05Of course, we can. Do not want to forget those important people over to my left. [laughter] We'll start out with um let me see the uh planning commission by Lenny Truly Tjo.
City staff
4:26:18Hi, I'm still here. [laughter] Good job you guys tonight. Um proud to be a Tmaculan. So, our planning commission report. Next slide, please. Um, I think everybody knows who we are. Um, and our description of what we do. Um, basically, we conduct legally required public hearings. So, we are an important commission. We had I'm going to report tonight on two meetings. Our last meeting uh the first meeting I'm going to report on is the May 6th meeting and u we had an amendment to the uptown Temecula specific plan regarding the streetscape and sidewalk improvement standards and just for clarifications and additions for this document which
4:27:03our staff is great about making those clarifications and making sure everything's clear there. um that was voted 50-0 by our commission and so we recommend that approval. And then we had our um an amendment to the Red Hawk specific plan to allow a wedding and special event center associated with the golf course and also a conditional use permit to allow a wedding event center to operate as part of the existing golf course between the hours of noon and 900 p.m. No more than 3 days per week. And there was one public speaker for this item and we we voted 300. I think we talked about
4:27:41this before with two recusals since we have three members of our commission who live in Red Hawk and who are very close to the power lines. So um anyway, we were able to actually um hear this item which had been tabled for a few months. So that was good. And next item or next slide please. And then also a conditional use permit to allow for ducks in a row which is right there in the Truax building. Um it is a eating place for a type 47 ABC license and they also have a business right next to them. Uh we were impressed with them as a
4:28:21business and um voted 5-0 on that project to approve it. and then the sign program and amend amendment application to modify this existing sign um to allow an additional sign location for Kurasushi on Winchester Road unit 4. I don't have a map there, but um anyway, if you were to see the sign, you would see why we voted against it for one to follow staff's recommendation on that to deny that signed program amendment. And next slide. And then at the May 20th meeting, um, we heard the general plan update presentation from staff and the city's general plan update consultant and provided general recommendations and feedback.
4:29:12And I think you will be hearing that tonight. And we had three public speakers for this item. I think that's all I have.
4:29:20All right.
4:29:21Sweet questions. Anybody?
4:29:23Nobody. All right. Thanks.
City staff
4:29:25Thanks. Thank you very much for your time and to you and the rest of the planning commission. Thank you. All righty. On next to our public safety reports. Oh, wait. Did my council have anything else to ask or Okay, moving on. Uh, public safety reports. County Riverside Fire Department Chief John Crater. What do you have for us today?
City staff
4:29:46Good evening, Madame Mayor, Council Member, staff, and Temecula residents. I'm here to give you the report for April of 2026. Your Temecula firefighters ran a total of 959 calls in the city. 16 of those were fire related. Uh 73 traffic collisions and 692 medical emergencies. And year to date, uh your Temecula firefighters have ran 300 3,692 calls in a report.
4:30:19That's it.
4:30:19That's it. Short and sweet tonight.
4:30:21Short and sweet. Well, thank you guys. Thank you for your team and everybody who's serving to keep our city safe. All right. Next, we're going to move on. We've already done public comments. And so, next we will move on to our city council reports. Do any of my colleagues want to go first or have anything to add? Anybody to my right, to my left? Seeing none, you're good.
4:30:42Yeah.
4:30:43Okay.
4:30:44All right. Next, we're going to move on to our consent calendar. As far as today, we have nine items, and I will read the titles. Number one, wave reading of the title and text of all ordinances and resolutions, including the agenda. Number two, approve action minutes of May 12th, 2026. Number three, approve list of demands. Number four, approve city treasures report for the periods of February 1, 2026 through February 28th, 2026 and March 1st, 2026 through March 31st, 2026. Number five, approve annual renewal of city insurance policies. Move to the next page for number six, approve increase of construction contingency to the fire station 84
4:31:29renovation PW19-14. Number seven, authorize city manager to negotiate first amendment to construction contract for ADA transition plan implementation. ADA curb ramp replacement phase 1 PW24 TAC07. Number eight, parcel map 38833 for subdivision of one existing lot into two separate parcels located at 29885 Camino del Soul. And number nine will be a receive and file temporary street closures for 2026 summer events. Unless anyone would like to pull an item. Can I have a motion, please?
4:32:13Move to approval.
4:32:14Second
4:32:15motion to Let's vote. This thing still doesn't like me. So,
Mayor Alexander
4:32:26there we go. Thank you. That motion passes 5-0. Thank you very much. All right. There we go. All right. Right. We are going to recess coun this council meeting to the succeeding meeting to the s to the scheduled meeting of the tmcula community services district the successor agency to the Temecula redevelopment agency the tmcula housing authority andor the Temecula public hearing of authority and I move that over to Stu
Mayor Alexander
4:32:59and I will call to order the Temecula Community Service District meeting. Madam Secretary, please note we're all still here. Are there any public comments? All right, being none, we'll go to the consent calendar. Item number 10, approve action minutes of May 12th, 2026. Number 11, approve second amendment with Vision One, Inc. for theater ticketing software. Item number 12, set a public hearing to approve TCSD proposed rates and charges for fiscal year 2627. Can I have a motion, please?
4:33:34Move approval.
4:33:35Second. All right, it's been moved and double seconded. So, please vote. All right, that passes 50. Um, we do have a business item. Approve agreement with the easier said than
City staff
4:33:59thea family services DBA mission hope for in implementation of the Temecula family bridge program and flexible family assistance administration for fiscal year 2026 27. Can is there a staff report we're going to get? Yes,
City staff
4:34:20there is indeed. Yes. if we can just bring up those slides. So, we've been talking about this now a couple of times and we mentioned it during the budget workshop. So, a lot of this should sound pretty familiar to you, but essentially uh working with our team on homeless outreach and prevention, they encountered a significant problem in our community with a lack of emergency and transitional housing for families with minor children. And what we were finding was that these families were often the invisible unhoused. So, they're not the people that you're seeing on the street. They're not the people you're necessarily thinking of when you
4:34:50think of homelessness within our community. Frequently, they're living in vehicles or sometimes moving between different temporary housing options. We met families in our community where the causes of homelessness included a sudden loss of employment, an illness, a hospitalization, um sometimes domestic violence and existing resources often can't preserve the stability of the family unit, which means they can't either keep the family together intact. uh some of the solutions required separating older males in the family so either fathers or older children I mean older male children or it meant moving the kids out of their schools or moving family members away from their jobs. So the goal
4:35:28was to find a solution that kept their families intact and kept their stability their support systems and their income and education all consistent. Um so with that obviously that is the need we identified and then next slide please. After a lot of research, what we landed on was the solution that we proposed during the budget workshop, which is entering into a contract for family bridge housing with Mission Hope. And you heard Heather Sanford earlier come in today and speak a little bit on this item. So, this is what she was referring to. You can see the house there. They have several residences on their property.
4:36:01Uh they're really beautifully maintained. They get donated renovation from LAR comes in and just completely renovates these homes. They're they're fantastic. And um Mission Hope is a longtime partner with us. We've seen their outcomes within their community. In fact, on that same property, they're currently operating what's known as the empowerment village model, which runs homes in which u mothers with young children can go for a two-year program where they are in residence there and they receive um counseling, they receive coaching, um information about just financial literacy, balancing their finances, um nutrition, all kinds of life skills. And the idea being at the end of that
4:36:42two-year program, they can then graduate into transitional housing and then eventually into independent housing. And I mention that because although that's not the program we're contracting with them for, that is a program that provides a service to our community. They've been running it for years and they've had fantastic outcomes, which tells us that they're really wellqualified for this program. They have a strong network of wraparound services. They're able to find donors to donate vehicles, um, food, you name it. If a family needs something, they have donors who can who can step in and help. Through the program that we're bringing before you today, the city
4:37:14would contract with Mission Hope to operate a four-bedroom bridge housing residence for eligible Temecula households with children. They would manage all of the property operations, including the rent, utilities, maintenance, furnishings, insurance, and this is very important, the on-site oversight. So they would actually have staff on the premises to provide security and oversight and make sure everything was operating safely and and the way we would want it to. Uh they can also provide stabilization services including doing the intake, screening, eligibility verification, case management, housing search and transition planning. Um up until now that's all been done uh inhouse by city staff. And so being able to
4:37:52leverage Mission Hope to do that would really free up some of our staff time to pursue some other important priorities for community services. Uh next slide please. The total cost of this contract is $350,000. The CDBG public service program allocation, which you'll recall council supported putting the entire $79,000 worth of that allocation towards this service, will cover the dedicated use of the property itself. And then the remaining $271,000 which will provide all of the additional wraparound services as well as the funds that will be administered as part of family bridge housing, flexible family assistance administration, flexible emergency shelter, motel support and resource and housing navigation
4:38:34will be funded within our existing budget from contract reductions where we were able to realize some savings in some other areas. I did want to call your attention very quickly to the second bullet there under scope of work. So, the family bridge housing is what we just discussed. The flexible family assistance administration is the funds that council has set aside for the past several years that we've been able to allocate to find emergency and transitional housing for families in crisis. Because this shelter would only be for women with minor children, we needed alternatives for families with dads, older males involved. So, a portion of that
4:39:08money will then go to the flexible emergency shelter and motel support. So when we have families come in that have family units that aren't eligible for inclusion here, we still have a solution for them as well. And that concludes my report and I'm available for any questions.
Council Member
4:39:22Right. Thank you for that report and a lot of good work is happening in the homeless um helping sector that we're we're trying to do. Any questions from staff?
4:39:35No questions.
4:39:36Zach,
Council Member
4:39:38just one question. President Stewart. Um, so with the flexible family assistance, like we've been managing that in house, right? So we're transferring that. Um, which I think is great. Um, but what sort of controls do we still have levers on that those dollars?
City staff
4:39:52Thank you. I'm really glad you asked that. So we would still be utilizing the exact same parameters that we developed and that were approved by the city attorney for the administration of those funds in terms of eligibility, verifying and what types of proof we accept for eligibility, um, how much funds can be expended on any one family unit. uh when they would need to reapply. All of those guidelines transfer over directly and as a term of the contract, they would just be administering the funds accordance with our guidelines.
Council Member
4:40:17Okay, that's perfect. I know how valuable that portion of it is. Is it's really important. So, thank you for that.
4:40:24All right. Um that being said, I'll accept a motion.
Council Member
4:40:29I'll make a motion. I just want to say something super fast. Go for it.
Council Member
4:40:32Just want to say thank you to Heather and their team. Um, having had the opportunity to work with all of you guys before, I know that the love and the dedication that you have to your clients is incredible and I know that moving forward with this, if we do, uh, it is just going to be a tremendous resource for our community. So, I just want to say thank Heather uh, the team and, uh, yeah, you guys just do an excellent job. Thank you.
Mayor Alexander
4:40:56I will second that motion and also have a brief comment. Uh the last city council meeting where we discussed this program uh was also when we were discussing the nonprofit uh grant program. At that time I had my reservations on the the CDBG funding going to this uh versus the nonprofits. And for those that didn't see our uh annual budget hearing, we did not only uh move this CDBG funding, but we also doubled our community services nonprofit grant program, which the council said they were going to do, and they uh followed through with the word. So, I just want to thank my council colleagues and make
4:41:25that known to the public that uh we are happily in a fiscal position to be able to fund both of these programs. So, thank you.
4:41:32Very good. Any other comments before we go to vote? Then let's vote.
Mayor Alexander
4:41:37And um I will go ahead and Yes, we have a second. And I will go ahead and um state for the record that there were no public comments on this.
4:41:46Okay. All right. That passes 50. Uh, director report.
4:41:56Nothing this evening. Thank you.
4:41:58All right. General manager.
4:41:59Nothing further.
Mayor Alexander
4:42:00All right. Board of directors. No. All right. I will adjourn this until the next one.
City staff
4:42:07All right. And I will reconvene the Tula City Council to the public hearing. Uh we're going to enter into number 14 item adopt resolution uh reconfirming automatic annual fee adjustment in western Riverside County multiple species habitat conversation plan MSHCP local development mitigation fee and I believe uh Mr. Matt Peters you have a staff report for us.
Council Member
4:42:32Good evening madame mayor and council members. Next slide please. So the city of Temecula is a member of the Western Riverside Regional Conservation Authority or the RCA and that includes Riverside County and 18 cities. In 2003, all the member cities adopted the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan or the MSHCP and its implementing agreement. The MSHCP is intended to preserve plants, animals, and habitat for 146 covered species on 500,000 acres. There's a lot going on with this map, but for context, this is western Riverside County. In the southwest corner is the city of Temecula. Northwest corner you have Corona and the city of
4:43:17Riverside. And then out to the east is is the county. So, you can just see the scale uh of the MSHCP. The MSHCP includes a local development mitigation fee that's assessed on new development for land acquisition, land management, biological monitoring, and administration. And the 2020 nexus study adopted by the RCA establishes the legal justification for the fee. And the Tmaculum Municipal Code provides for the automatic annual fee adjustment in accordance with the RCA's implementing agreement. And the MSHCP fees the city collects are pass through payments. All cities collect the payment at the time of building permit issuance and then pass through those payments to the
4:44:03RCA. The MSHCP adjusts annually or the development local development mitigation fee adjusts annually based on the CPI and this year's increase is 3.2445% effective July 1st, 2026. And here are the fees. You can see for residential it's based on a sliding scale based on density uh less density um the higher the fee higher density the lower the fee and then you see commercial and industrial um that's the fee per acre. The local development mitigation fee is not subject to SQA and is not a project for the purposes of SQA. And staff's recommendation is to approve a resolution to reconfirm the automatic annual fee adjustment in
4:44:55the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan Local Development Mitigation fee. That concludes my presentation.
Public speaker
4:45:04All righty. Thank you very much, Mr. Matt Peters. Uh, do we have any questions for staff from the council? None to my right. None to my left. All right, let's open the public hearing. Do we have any public comments? Let's close the public hearing. Discussion of motion.
4:45:25Oh, we got a question.
Council Member
4:45:26Quick question comment. Um, so this MSHCP has been around 20 years roughly now.
City staff
4:45:34Yes. How how close are we to, you know, tying a ribbon around the plan and calling it good?
Council Member
4:45:42So, the target acreage for the MSHCP was 153,000 acres. Um, it's been a while since we've checked in with the RCA on our progress. Um, I'm not sure I have the answer to that.
4:45:54Can we just get a little thumbnail back from them? It doesn't We don't have to bring it back to council. Just an email or something back would be helpful just to kind of know what the status is.
4:46:02We'll do that.
4:46:03Thanks.
4:46:04All righty. Great question. All right. Uh, discussion a motion.
4:46:09Approval. Second.
4:46:11All right. First and second. Let's vote. All right. Motion passes 5-0. We're going to move on to number 15. Uh, Conduct Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act. TERA. I'll call it TERA. hearing and adopt a resolution approving the issuance of California Enterprise Development Authority revenue obligations for the V benefit of Vine Creek Apartments affordable housing project. Uh with that, let's start out again with Matt Peters with a staff report, please. Sir,
4:46:50I'd like to introduce Heidi Ureas, our housing and real estate analyst in community development to present on this item.
4:46:57Mayor, city council.
4:47:00Quick. All right. So tonight we'll be conducting or I'll be presenting on the tax equity and fiscal responsibility act hearing also known as the TERA hearing. You were correct. Um before the council tonight is a resolution approving the California Municipal Finance Authority CMFA to issue revenue obligations for the benefit of Vine Creek affordable housing. Uh I do want to make a note the city is not issuing debt. The city is not responsible for any obligations. The city simply simply facilitates the public hearing. So, CMFA, California Municipal Finance Authority, was created in 2004 to help finance community projects such as affordable housing. Um, the city has
4:47:36been a member of CMFA since 2021. The purpose of a TER hearing is uh to go ahead and it's it's a public hearing required by the IRS before CMFA can issue revenue obligations. The hearing must be conducted by a public body such as our city council and the purpose is to allow interested persons to comment on this project and the funding. So, Vine Creek affordable housing, you have all seen it. Um, it has already been developed and this is uh this solely is because the uh developer will be going from a construction loan into a permanent financing loan and so they have to issue these
4:48:14these bonds. Uh so the revenue obligations are not to exceed $25 million and these funds are being used for the financing of affordable housing. The city's role is to hold this TERA hearing per the IRS code. It's to allow and to allow CMFA to issue the revenue obligations to Vine Creek and um which is within the city's jurisdictional boundary and approve resolution allowing CMFA and Vine Creek Affordable Development to issue revenue obligations. Again, the city is not issuing any debt of its own. um it's an associate member of CMFA and the city does not have any responsibility here. So staff staff's recommendation is to adopt
4:48:54the resolution approving the issuance of CMF by CMFA of revenue obligations for the benefit of Vine Creek Affordable Development. Jared Zuki from CMFA team is here present if you have any questions tonight.
Mayor Alexander
4:49:07Excellent. All right. Well, thank you so much for that staff report. Do my colleagues have any questions of staff or of the individual that is here? Seeing none, let's move into open public hearing. Any comments? Close it. Next, uh close public hearing discussion. A motion for my colleagues.
4:49:27Second.
Mayor Alexander
4:49:27All right, let's vote. Motion passes 5-0. Excellent. All right. Next, we're going to move into item 16. However, that one, I believe, is continued for another meeting. Is that correct? Excellent. So, we're going to move that one. Next, we're going to move into our business items. Number 17, we're going to move into approval preferred traffic striping configuration for the PABA road pavement rehabilitation project PW25-05. And I believe Mr. Ron Mareno, you are going to be issuing a staff report.
4:50:10Yes. Good evening, Madame Mayor and City Council.
City staff
4:50:12So, this is a continuation of an item that was brought to you back in March. It wasn't continued, but I should say the recommendation was to go back and look at different alternatives. So, we have done that and now Nick Minichi is going to present he's our senior traffic engineers some various options that the council can then examine and look at. I will say that at [clears throat] the next council meeting, we will be bringing forward to the council the request to award the pavement rehab contract to Vance Construction. They are the ones doing the oxlane projects, doing all the paving out on the 15 right
4:50:45now. Very reputable firm. We're excited to have them on board. Probably we got a better price because they are local in town right now. So, uh that's going to be going to the council next meeting. We'll get going on construction of the rehab project. We'd be looking at striping sometime in July, I would think, by the time the rehab's done. So, just for context of where we're at. So, right now, I'll give it over to Nick and he'll do the quick presentation and a quick overview of where we were at and where we're at right now.
4:51:13Thank you, Nick.
Mayor Alexander
4:51:15Thank you, Ron. Uh, good evening, Madame Mayor and members of the council. This presentation is in regards to proposed driving modifications for Paba Road. As Ron mentioned, um the PABA road pavement rehab rehabilitation plan is going to rehabilitate 1.4 miles of roadway uh on PA road from Enz to Margarita. This was brought to the council on March 24th um of 2026. At that meeting, city council approved the contract documents and also the solid solicitation of contract bids or construction bids. The city council did not approve the stack recommendation for road diet striping on Paba Road. Um instead, uh council directed staff to develop additional striping
4:51:57alternatives. So the meeting objective for tonight is we're going to review and select hopefully select a preferred striping alternative. Um a total of four alternatives were developed. The first three are in the agenda report. A fourth one was added um today. So we can go over that quick overview. Don't want to spend too much time on this. A lot of this information was from the last meeting, but um Papa Road Little Road Diet background um this this was previously brought to the traffic safety commission in May of 22 as a receive and file presentation. Um it was brought to city council in March 2026 and
4:52:34it was not approved. Um Papa Road has numerous complaints in the past regarding speeding, roadway access on the residential from the residential roads and a good amount of collisions near the library driveway from what we have heard. Um there's just different there's difficult line of sight um due to road the roadway horizontal and vertical curves along the corridor. This map shows the different speed limits on Papa Road. Um at Prima Vera from Enz to Primma Vera it's 40 and from Prima Vera to Margarita Road it's 45 miles per hour. General PA road characteristics it's generally a four-lane road with the two-way left turn lane and
4:53:15bike lanes. um existing um daily traffic is around 12,500. The posted speed I mentioned previously and the 85th percentile speed along the highest points on the corridors is 52 miles per hour um in multiple locations and in the past there past three years there's been 11 collisions. A little recap from the last meeting as well. Road diets, it's not the city has done several road diets in the past. There's three of them up on the screen. Um, Los Arena, Redhawk, and then Oldtown Front Street. I won't sit here and go over all the the data that we've gone through, but this is just a little
4:53:55refresher for those that may have um not seen it. Um, these are very similar roadways in terms of ADT. Um, and going from four lanes down to two lanes with the two-way left turn lane. Um, and these were successful projects for the city in terms of collision rates dropping and speeds generally reducing. wanted to present. Um after the meeting, the last council meeting, there was a request to get more information on um data in terms of peak hour data um for road diet specifically. Um when we look at roadads, this is another factor we look at is peak hours. I didn't present it, but we
4:54:36do have that information. And what all these numbers are trying to show is um the peak hour for a road diet for if we went from four lanes down to two lanes and a two-way left turn lane. It's very similar to the other roadways in the city that actually have more traffic. Um you can see going westbound 700 is the max um one hour volume and then going eastbound it's 757. Several other roadways in the city have more. Um, and for peak hour, you can generally handle up to 1,200 to,6,6,600 vehicles in one direction before there's some type of congestion degradation. Um, so we're pretty
4:55:17confident if road diet was selected that there would be no congestion issues um on the roadway except, you know, at the signals where we are matching the existing striping. We're not changing it. Whatever happens today is still going to be the same thing if we were to implement um road diet striping. So the first alternative, this is what was brought to at the last council meeting. This is the proposed road diet striping. We go from four lanes down to two lanes with um a two-way left turn lane. Um there's wider bike lanes. Um there's buffer lanes that eat up the cross-section of the roadway um
4:55:56at the intersections of ENZ and also at Margarita. We're going to match existing lane configuration for optimal operations. Here is the general striping um of it. There is a complete restriping of the roadway um as part of it and I will kind of zoom through it unless people have very specific questions on it. Alternative two, this is essentially maintaining the existing roadway geometry of the current configuration of Papa Road. Um, we're going to keep the general four-lane road with a two-way left turn lane and maintain the existing bike lanes. There are some proposed striping improvements that is just kind of bringing up the basic safety
4:56:41necessities we would want to do on the roadway with any type of striping project. So this would be crosswalk enhancements, green bike lane symbols or markings on the roadway and some small striping improvements near Inz Road to clear up some confusion. Um at the bottom you can see bottom of the screen is the existing configuration with lane widths for PA road. Currently this is more on from Prima Vera to the east. Um this is so this is like in front of the library. We have existing 11 foot through lanes, 10-ft turn lane, and 5-ft bike lanes. Those are the minimum roadways width we do in
4:57:20the city. We really can't decrease those. You technically go to 10 feet, but it's a really small lane and we generally don't do that in the city. So, here is the striping. Um the red is all the proposed striping that's um proposed. Anything that's not red, the existing white and the existing aerial is staying the same. So, what we're showing is just kind of some intersection improvements at UNES um bringing the bike lane um not against the right turn pocket. We put it usually to the left of the turnpocket. So, we wanted to make some improvements that way. We also do some green conflict striping
4:57:59in front of the driveway at via um I can't read that from here via Alurus. Um, and then also we add a bike lane in front of where the city is just wrapping up has wrapped up the PA sidewalk project. There's a new curb line there. So, we would add a bike lane there to complete the the missing bike lane. You can see as we go through the corridor, there's just some green bike lane striping the the markings. Um, near the fire station, we would add some crosswalk enhanced crosswalk striping. And then at Margarita Road, enhanced crosswalk striping and then also some green conflict striping
4:58:39for the bikes and pulling that bike lane to the left of the right turn uh pocket. Alternative three, very similar to alternative two. Um we add a little bit more biking enhancement um near Enz Road as well. Um we maintain existing geometry through the rest of the corridor similar to alternative 2. Um and I can show you what is proposed. So we as mentioned from ENZ to the east we add a little bit more enhanced bicycle striping. We do a buffer as far as we can do it um up to via Alurus and you know it's just a little bit more striping to make it
4:59:22a little bit safer for the bikers in this corridor. We have room to we don't have room to add two lanes going eastbound. So, we wanted to eat up that extra width with some enhanced bike striping for this area here. The rest of the corridor matches the alternative to striping. Very limited striping improvements for the rest of it. Alternative 4, which was added today, is no striping changes. We just keep the existing configuration of the road. Um, generally it stays a four-lane road with two-way left turn lanes and bike lanes. Um, and that's the cross-section for it. There's some photos up there of what the existing
5:00:03striping looks like. Next steps, we're seeking approval of a proposed striping alternative. And as Ron mentioned, striping implementation, it's it's probably going to fall around fall of 2026, depending how the that project goes. And with that, we can open up to questions and discussions.
Mayor Alexander
5:00:24Outstanding. Thank you so much for that great report. All right, let's open it up just to questions right now for staff if we have any.
5:00:32Ste's got one.
5:00:33Ste,
Public speaker
5:00:37what does striping normally cost? So like just to do the striping of Pa Road because we've always said it's just it's just paint. But what does that paint cost us? I'm curious.
City staff
5:00:51So it depends. Um, generally I use around, let's just say it's like a dollar linear foot for striping. Um, putting it down on a project like this at the beginning, that's just the cost of the project. It's not a big deal. It's already included as part of it. But if we were to put it in and then let's say remove it, that's where it can get a little bit expensive because you got to grind it all out. There's a little bit more than just removing. Um, so to answer your question, it's a dollar a foot. So, however many linear feet of striping we have, and I
5:01:20don't know. I mean, we have 1.4 four miles. If you multiply that out by like eight or nine lines across that whole road, it it can be pretty expensive.
5:01:29Yeah. Okay.
Public speaker
5:01:30I I will add to that question. No matter what, because we're doing a pavement rehab, we have to restripe the whole corridor. So, we're looking at the difference between the options is pretty negligible, right? Because even if you
City staff
5:01:42go back to the two lanes, you have to stripe all that. If you go to the road diet, you have to stripe all of that. So, therefore, it's already built into the project cost. So, we're not seeing any variable difference between the the four plans that we're asking for council direction on.
City staff
5:01:57Yeah. My my concern or my thought was if we did it and then wanted to change it to another striping configuration, what would that additional cost us?
Public speaker
5:02:08Yeah, that's going to be the dollar a foot per the 1.4 miles and then depending on how many stripes. So, it's 52420. Yeah, it's gonna be about, you know, a good 200,000, you know.
5:02:21Yeah.
5:02:22Yeah.
5:02:22Okay. That's that's what I wanted to know. Thanks.
Mayor Alexander
5:02:26All right. Thank you, Stu. Anybody else? All right. With that, I don't see any Oh, we got one to the left.
Public speaker
5:02:32Sorry, just a couple questions here. Uh the 10-ft lanes in the city, you said we have a few. Is there a particular area uh that we have 10 foot lanes?
5:02:40Um, actually, I
5:02:41What do we have any?
City staff
5:02:43I'm not con sure of any actually 10 foot through lanes. We do 10 foot pockets like left turn pockets which is pretty standard design but as far as a through lane I don't think there are any. I do know other cities tend to do that. If you go to Carl'sbad they got a lot of 10 foot lanes um and it's pretty tight.
Public speaker
5:03:01Thank you very much. And just one more question here. Uh just to reiterate the last meeting um staff brought forward the recommendation of the road diet and that was they stud you know staff you guys studied that because it was a recommendation at that time in 2022 from the traffic safety um committee at the time to to study that and that was why there wasn't multiple solutions presented um so first I want to thank you for bringing back multiple solutions after being study and my question is is would it be fair to say that after restudying this corridor and bringing back these new three solutions
5:03:31A B and that all three um that all three solutions provide comparable outcomes in terms of safety, speed reduction, and overall traffic calming and effectiveness. That could be a question for Ron or
City staff
5:03:45Yeah. Well, and when we were directed to come back with alternatives, we wanted to make sure that we were doing something that was going to be safe, cost effective. Nick and Eric are the best traffic engineers in our area. So, whatever's of those four, and you're correct, we only brought the road diet last time because that's what was directed by the traffic safety commission. This time around, we have four good designs and either one of them could be picked and that's all we're looking for direction from tonight.
5:04:12Thank you very much. Thank you, mayor.
Mayor Alexander
5:04:15All right. No, thank you very much, uh, Councilman Calfus. Anybody else? Going once. Oh, there we go.
Public speaker
5:04:21Um, one more question. So in the areas where the traffic diet has been implemented um like Lasserina and Redhawk um it did in one of the slides it did say that there was a reduction in um accidents. What kind of accidents are we talking? Is this with pedestrians? Is this with bicycles? Or is this car to car?
City staff
5:04:49It varies. It varies, but it's probably most likely vehicle to vehicle. I didn't study all those accidents, but I just did a general query of three years before that striping, three years after, what are the total accidents and if they've been reduced or increased?
Public speaker
5:05:04Okay, because because that's that's a consideration of mine. If they were biking accidents, did it inc uh uh decrease the possibility of a bicycle in a car or if it's two cars? You know, for me, it would have made a little bit more clarity on, you know, what kind of safety are we um trying to achieve? Because by making bigger bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, obviously it would seem like mentally you would feel safer for sure because you got such such a big buffer between and there would be a huge buffer on uh PABA, but um yeah, that something I would have liked to known,
5:05:55but anyways,
5:05:56we have that data. I just don't have it on me.
5:05:58Got it. All right. Thanks,
City staff
5:06:01Mayor. One more question after I heard Steve. Uh and in this data after analyzing it and correct me if I'm wrong out of the uncontrolled intersections right so the the non-stoplighted intersections on both the east and west end of the street there were zero pedestrian and zero bicycle versus vehicle accidents. Is that fair to say?
5:06:22I believe so. I
City staff
5:06:24that is how I I read the data that zero bike accidents and zero pedestrian happen accidents happened between this corridor
City staff
5:06:30and a majority six out of 11 happened at the controlled intersections which won't be changing.
5:06:36Yeah. Correct.
5:06:37Thank you.
Mayor Alexander
5:06:40Anyone else? Okay. Thank you so much for your staff report, sir. All right. We did public comments and we had none. Is that correct? Sorry. It's been a little of a long day. All right. Going from there, let's move into discussion. Who'd like to kick off today's business item number 17?
5:07:02I don't mind starting.
5:07:03Absolutely, sir. Go for it.
Council Member
5:07:05Thank you. [laughter] Okay. So, I appreciate you all bringing this back and um and and I think so I have some some thoughts on some things and like try to sort of navigate this. Um the the idea that um a road diet is the safest alternative is in that's a fact. Like the road diet is like the safest alternative, right? um any improvement on speed reduction is going to eliminate, you know, any sort of conflict between pedestrians and bicyclists and and vehicles. And I think we might be focusing a little too much on the bike and pedestrian side of things on on this project specifically
5:07:46because the bulk of the collisions in our city are vehicle-to- vehicle, right? They're people driving that are crashing into other people um that are driving. Jeep Crater had a report tonight there were 73 traffic collisions in the city that they responded to, right? Like so this these are resources responding to those. Um you know last meeting I focused a lot on the connectivity which you know through the bike master plan we've been working on and it's it's made a huge uh we've made huge strides to say the least. But I think, you know, for this conversation, I want to focus a little bit more on
5:08:22the vehicle side of things and traffic collisions and what those actually mean. So, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, they report out on like the economic impact of traffic collisions in the United States. And so, it's a $340 billion in uh external, you know, sort of damages, right? Um that indol involve people dying, right? Um, it involves injuries, property damage. Um, this is like a significant amount of people. In 2019, there was 36,000 people that were killed in the United States, right? And and that's important. Like people losing their life is is is important. It's a huge drag on um their family um but also
5:09:06like from an economic perspective. um each person in the United States based on the the uh NHTSA, every individual pays about $1,000 in like these external um damages with respect to traffic collisions, right? And most of those costs are insurance premiums and congestion, fuel use, environmental impacts, and taxes, things like that, right? So, we're all sort of bearing the brunt of of traffic collisions. speed related traffic collisions were associated with and this is back in 2019 just over 10,000 deaths and they estimated 46 billion dollars in in uh in damages right in cost right so that's something that I think we should focus on when
5:09:49we talk about these projects and we've seen the three that we've done we've seen them create a safer environment and while the intersections aren't changing and that's just due to you know sort of size restrictions and through lanes on the side and right dedicated turn lanes and ENZ dies into or sorry PABA dies into ENZ you can only go right or left you know so there's all these these um these situations that are they're constricted right and just because that isn't changing doesn't mean that reductions elsewhere don't make those improvements better right because people slow down they're not as rushed they're not passing people on
5:10:29the right they're not racing to get to the intersection um and so those things, those matter, right? Um, and I was really encouraged by the conversation I heard tonight about the the power lines, about this like we have this outdated sort of vision of like the world, right? Like with traffic with these transmission lines and you know things are changing and I think of transportation in the same way like that we've built our community in in sort of like this reactive way to the past, right? traffic engineers of of old, they it was like all about building roads and and you know coming out of
5:11:08World War II and and and building highways and cars and suburbs and that's like what we did right for 50 plus years. That's just what we did. Um but I think like if you look at the system that we have, how do you make it function a little bit better? And we've seen that these projects work in that way. They slow people down. Um I heard some comments last meeting about um you know kids riding the wrong way and that's a valid concern like people riding you know against traffic. So we're talking about bikes and the reason they're doing that is because the infrastructure isn't
5:11:45built for them. It's built for people driving. And so in order to change those behaviors you need to build infrastructure that is intuitive that makes sense that feels safe. And th all these little tweaks over time, they really matter. Um, and so I think like we can think about this project from, you know, safety, from a crash reduction. We can talk about giving kids opportunities to ride their bikes to school in a much safer way. Um, I've been out there, you've all seen my videos, like there's not a ton of congestion out there. the the data that you presented with the sort of similar segments
5:12:22proves that um even at the peak times which was a which was a huge sort of like point of contention at the last meeting um and and I think everything we've seen from physically being out there or the actual roadway data is sort of backs up what what we know um I traveled from this during peak time when TVHS when um when Lynfield and and Tmacale Middle School were all in session. It took me from ENZ to to TVHS. It took me four minutes. It took me 10 minutes to drive all the way to Butterfield State Road during, you know, this time. Now, if I
5:13:00was dropping my child off at Lynfield, it would take a little bit longer, obviously. Um, but but I ask, is that like too much, right? Like it's 10 minutes to go that distance, you know? It's that's probably not um too much. I have um an image that maybe Jonathan could throw up because I I think when we talk about the roads in our system and this is pulled from the city's website. Temecula has 352 centerline miles of roadways encompassing 8.8 million square yards of concrete and asphalt surfacing. So these are all the roads that we maintain. It's kind of hard to visualize that in like
5:13:36um what does that look like? So this is a visual of what that would look like. These are all the roads that we have in our city. Um, and if you think about, you know, equating it to a football field or something like that, it's a significant amount of space. And thinking of that as a public good, not just for people driving, but for people walking, for people biking, and and using that space as a way to make the town that we live in as safe as possible. Um and we have the ability to do that um tonight through some striping enhancements to make this
5:14:10little tiny section, this 1.4 mile section um a little bit safer. Um so I'd ask that we would um stick with you so the original recommendation from the traffic safety committee uh commission rather and and you know support this road diet because we know it works. Um it's proven that it's worked. Um and the the congestion that's on this segment um is significantly less than what we have out on Front Street or even you know through Los Ranchitos and through through that section of of the city um along you know in de Portola. Um, one thing with the existing striping or some of the other
5:14:51modifications, the reason I didn't support sort of like going back and and looking at um other alternatives is we've done this in the past. Uh, I'm very confident in our traffic team and our public works director that the that the uh project that they present is the best project and, you know, sort of asking and putting them on the spot to pick pick a project as the best project. um that's our job and they're going to present um what is the safest through uh research through roadway statistics and data. They're going to present this uh in alignment with you know the things that um as
5:15:29a council that we're asking for. Um and I'll sort of leave with this. This isn't, you know, this isn't like Zach likes to bike, you know, kind of thing. I do love to bike. Um but m many of you know I'm at UCR uh working on my PhD. I was selected um next year to receive an NSF um fellowship to study uh sustainable transportation. So essentially like science research to policy um I'm really excited to take part in it and part of the reason that I was selected is because of my time here. Um, I serve on serve on the transportation committee at Skagg and
5:16:11the time that I put in there as well as the time that I put in at RTA. Not to mention the fact that um the advocacy that I've done over the last 15 years in this space as seen as as is very valuable to UCR and to that speaks program. Um, so this isn't just like um, hey, I like to ride my bike. You know, I I like people to arrive where they're going safely, whether they're driving, whether they're biking or walking. and safety in our community is the number one core value and doing a project like this and continuing with the improvements that we've
5:16:45made over the course of the last five six years um will bear out in the long run with health outcomes with um you know families giving getting an option I filled up my car this morning it it's not very not very uh friendly on the pocketbook right so giving people choices like if they can leave their car home for trips under a mile the impact sort of compound. Um, so just thinking about it more broadly, um, in this little section is part of the system, right? And so like what does the system look like in 20 years? It's probably not going to look like what
5:17:18it did 20 years ago. And the system that we built is meant to change um and and meant to evolve with the needs. We're seeing a huge um sort of bike renaissance with kids. Let's give them a safe place so they're not riding against, you know, the flow of traffic. So they're following, they understand. If we continue to build um projects like this, it'll help in the long run.
Mayor Alexander
5:17:44Thank you very much for that information and that presentation. Who'd like to go next? I guess everybody's pointing at you.
Council Member
5:17:55All right. Uh let's see where to start here. First off, congratulations on uh doing that study and on receiving that. That was pretty cool. Uh as far as road diets, I wouldn't say that I'm against road diets in totality. Uh but I would also say that road diets don't work on every road. Um and we shouldn't do road diets on every road. And um I understand the you throw out some statistics about um you know the millions or billions of dollars that traffic accidents cost in California. Um, but traffic collisions are inevitable with the automobile. Um, and I think that the only way to get
5:18:32rid of traffic collisions in totality is to get rid of the automobile. Um, and I think that's something that we have to live with, right? I I go on traffic collisions every day at work and there's a a variety of reasons. Um, and the configuration of the road is one of the variety of reasons of why people get in accidents. There is a whole list of assortment. Um, and most of it will probably um, the sheriffs would tell you that they're usually doing something wrong in the vehicle that they weren't supposed to be doing, which includes speeding. Uh but I want to focus on this
5:18:59particular uh road here and this particular section and staff already answered a couple of my questions and I just want to reiterate um those questions that were answered and that there have been no bike or pedestrian accidents via uh a vehicle in this corridor um in the uncontrolled intersections. So this is already arguably a safe road. What we're doing here is already a safe road. what it is. Um, and with, you know, the hybrid, the compromise option of number three, uh, it would make that even safer and a bigger buffer for those, uh, bike lanes, but also for, uh, the vehicles. Uh, I would just
5:19:36disagree on one part where you talked about the infrastructure. If it was built for them, they wouldn't go against the grain. I think there's already bike lanes that the infrastructure is built for them, and they are 14 and 15y old kids, and they like to go against the grain, both literally and figuratively. Um, and I think increasing the buffer lane won't necessarily persuade these teenagers to go with traffic. Um, it's and I I like the euphoric thought that um with an increase in buffer lane and bike lanes that more people will ride bikes, but I think it's also important that um we look into how
5:20:08many people use bikes in the city. How many people are actually using this corridor on a bike, right? We have all the the traffic data for automobiles. We don't have the data on how many people use bikes. What do they use bikes for? Are most of the people on bikes doing it as a hobby or are they actually going to the grocery store? Are they riding their bike to work? Um it'd be an interesting statistic to see um on who is riding bikes, why they're riding bikes, and go from there to see if a double uh you know, a bigger bike lane is necessary. But
5:20:39again, in this particular instance, with there being no bike collisions, no pedestrian collisions, I would argue it is already a safe street. Um, and I I'll reiterate, you know, last meeting on my reasoning on keeping it two lanes across. There are three major things that are happening uh in the city and around the city. One of them being the development of Altter, a thousand new homes, more people using the street. Uh the other one being the hopeful widening of Yianz right at this corridor uh between Rancho California and Rancho Vista and the hope would be is that more people will use Paba right I don't go
5:21:14on Rancho Vista now so my vehicle isn't allowed in or on this uh statistics because I know how much traffic backs up at UNES um and the hope would be that more people use Paba to get to Yanz now that that um that would be widened and lastly county is improving or they already have completed their improving improvement of Paba Road at the county where we border and more people will utilize that to get to the wine country and get to Oldtown and and in my mind there will be more cars using this not less and ultimately I would say that this road works right
5:21:46this we're not talking about widening this road this road does not have congestion you are right this road works and and in reality I would like to give a clap to city staff and previous city councils that approved this road because we are not talking about that is too congested and we need to widen it more. We did and we planned appropriately and to change that to limit and have possible congestion in this corridor without the hopeful for a mass improvement of safety because it is already a safe road with very few accidents outside of the intersections um would just not be the biggest benefit
5:22:20for the totality of the community.
5:22:24Thank you, mayor.
Mayor Alexander
5:22:25All right. Thank you very much for your comments. Anybody to my right? Yes, sir. do.
Public speaker
5:22:31All right. So, I've got a little slightly different bent on this. Um, when I look at Paul Road, I I see a lot of what uh Brendan is saying that that new development of Alterara is really a big question mark. And my experience after walking through the models, they are not going to be a bunch of senior citizens living in those two and threetory uh units. It's going to be families 100%. And so I see that PABA road is going to take a higher volume of cars getting their kids to and from school and they're not going to want to go across Ranch or California
5:23:13Road because that's that's a traffic jam going, you know, coming on and off the freeway. So, they're going to look for an alternative route and Santiago to Paba is the alternate route to crossing Rancho California Road. So, I see that as being more of a a driver for myself
Public speaker
5:23:34that um uh I agree with Brendan. It's the road is working and and the other road diets that exist around the city, if you really look at them, they're in residential zones. They're in just nothing but homes. Redhawk. Nothing but homes, you know. Uh the only the only one that might be Laserina, you know, that is a through or a collector road that'll get you over to Butterfield. And so that one you can make an argument. Plus, there's a school. Um, which I know that gets a little congested, especially during pickup and drop off because of the road diet there, but it seems to have
5:24:16worked there. But again, this road has just a little bit different dynamics going for it than, you know, these other road diet uh areas. So, I'm kind of leaning I'd be okay with just keeping it striped the way it is. But if if there's another alternative and I don't know which one it was, alternative three that does that make something wider.
Mayor Alexander
5:24:45So, oh, there you go. Ron, do you want to answer that? I was going to jump in. Sorry.
City staff
5:24:50Yeah, that's where the Nick was able to take a foot or two and move it over. Give a bigger buffer. You're talking about from UNES.
Public speaker
5:24:57Yeah. And that Yeah. That opens up that bike lane going further to the two streets.
Public speaker
5:25:02Yeah. And and I totally agree. Making a bigger bike lane will not change a kid's opinion on going against the grain because they don't care. They're they're not thinking with this. Um so they're they're constantly pushing against the grain wherever they can. So and I see it all the time. It's not even it's not a one-off. I've watched it. So, um, yeah, I I don't know. That's where I stand. I I I am I'm leerary of changing what we have based on several unknowns. And at the cost of 200,000 plus to change the striping, if we go, oops, we made a mistake. Maybe we should
5:25:49have, could have, would have, I don't know. So, I'm in favor of keeping it the way it is or increasing the bike lane a little wider just give a little bit more uh distance between the traffic and but that's my opinion.
Mayor Alexander
5:26:06Okay. Thank you very much. Mayor Prom, would you like to chime in?
Council Member
5:26:10So, I I'm going to agree [clears throat] and disagree with a whole lot that was said here. Um I I I don't think the the road right now as is inherently safe just because we don't have a lot of documented accidents, right? Right. I mean, it's it's like saying, you know, the nuclear energy is inherently safe because we haven't had a massive explosion in the United States. I mean, you know, we worry about these things because they are actual issues. The number of collisions, whether or not they have to do with children or pedestrians or bicycles, you know, that doesn't move me one way or the
5:26:42other, that argument, because we still have collisions, right? So a 35% reduction in Red Hawk as an example, that's a measurable outcome and I think it's a positive outcome for those 35% of, you know, individuals who didn't have to experience a traffic collision. Um, it's also not safe because the 85th percentile right now is telling me that folks are speeding on that road on a regular basis and that 85th percentile is underestimating significantly those folks. So, you know, since our last meeting, I've driven down that road on multiple occasions and made a point of doing so just to kind of and I'll pull over occasionally
5:27:19just to kind of see what's been going on. And I saw folks easily exceeding 60 m hour on a regular basis during both peak travel times and non- peak travel times. Now when we talk about safety um you know your response time in navigating a collision or having you know a response to uh an incident dramatically decreases the faster you go. This is something we learned in driver's ed in high school, right? There's nothing new there. Um the faster you drive, your peripheral vision is also obscured, you know, quite a bit uh by every 10 mile increment. Um but the more interesting statistics on you
5:27:59know traffic collisions and and they mirror a lot of what you see on the pedestrian injuries and fatalities. So at 40 m an hour a pedestrian or a cyclist experiences an on average about a 46% chance of fatality. Going up to 60 m hour it's near certainty. I mean just for those reasons alone I'm thinking why wouldn't we want to you know the whole point of this project the whole point of this conversation was that several years ago that community in particular had reached out and there was some concern about the rate of speed and the use of that road coming to the council asking
5:28:37for a road diet that could substantially help improve that situation road diets and I can't remember the acronym national highway something something organiz organization that unequivocally has stated that road diets significantly improve uh safety on the roads. So I don't think all of these alternatives are equal by any means. One of them is a superior safety alternative and you know arguing otherwise it's like why are we even having the conversation? I mean I I you know staff would not have come forward with this recommendation nor would we have seen decreases across every one of these miles of road where we've done road diets and you
5:29:19know some are larger than others obviously and yeah I agree some of the roads are different than others but the whole point was to you know improve um you know outcomes and and decrease risk and I think that's what the the original proposal was was accomplishing um so you know and the interesting thing was obviously nobody's here this evening to speak on this publicly but you know of the folks who came last time the prepundonderance of speakers were those who were cyclists or or other users as pedestrians on that road um and I can say just from my own experience in Red Hawk uh the
5:29:56traffic is is slower it's safer people are out bicycling more and using the sidewalks and walking around the neighborhood more because it's also quieter right I mean there's all these residual benefits that occurred with what I thought originally and initially when this was being done. I was like, "This is kind of a dumb idea." I won't be, you know, I won't lie, Ron. I thought it was kind of weird putting on these stripes, but the outcomes have been substantial for our community. Um, and and that particular neighborhood and seeing it operate in other parts of the city, I I got to say it's done its
5:30:28job. So, I'm not here to secondguess, you know, what what's been done on the research side or second guess what I think it's a great idea. Um, and you know, I think if we have anything that measurably improves public safety, the safety of our pedestrians, and the safety of those driving on our roads, then then I'm all for it. Um, I'll I'll end by saying that the numbers don't bear out either. You know, there was lots of discussion about Altter and and you know, all of this other stuff. I mean, come on, let's be honest. How many high school students are going to be living
5:31:01up in the hill that get driven down Paba Road? You know, it's 1100,200 units total. Not every household is going to have a high schooler. You know, in fact, a very insignificant portion of that community is going to have a high schooler living in there if you go by the statistics of the rest of this city. And so, you know, even if you increase the number of vehicles on that road by 50 per day, which I think would be considerably high for what Altar actually is producing, even if you cons even if you increase Papa Road by 50 driving out to the high school, it
5:31:33still doesn't, you know, reach some of the other standards on roads that we have that are, you know, benefiting from from road diets. So, I'm, you know, I I'm I'm just baffled that we're still arguing about uh stripes on a road and and debating anything that can increase public safety on our streets. So, you know, for those reasons, I'm I'm just back where I was before saying do the run diet. It's it's a good idea. It works. We know it works. You know, let's go ahead and implement this thing.
Council Member
5:32:03All right. Can I jump in? We good? All right. So, couple questions that I've just been jotting down, listening to our council members, just trying to get an idea of how to move forward with this. So, couple questions kind of statements all in one. First thing I kind of thought about is thinking if there's not a ton of traffic on the road. I would think that the cyclists and others using the bike lane should feel safer along the reduced speed, right? Like where it's at right now. So, let me reword that. So right now if we don't have a ton of traffic going down the
5:32:35road, do these cyclists really feel unsafe down that road? You know, having again cycled myself before, um there's plenty of room. So if we have two lanes currently right now, they should feel pretty comfortable knowing that they're supposed to keep a certain distance away from cyclists. So just kind of my thought, there's not a lot of traffic going down there. So why change it? That was kind of my one thought. Hope that made sense. Um, you know, the other thing I'm just thinking about is I know we I'm not going to ask the staff to go re-evaluate this or anything, but we looked at the
5:33:08traffic and we looked at how much is going by, but how much of pedestrians do we have going through? Like, how many cyclists do we have? How many walkers do we have? How many are we going to have? You know, again, these are just those questions that we're posing that again, we haven't looked into, but let's think about it. I mean, I I go down PA all the time. I don't see a lot of cyclists. I and I'm sure they're there. I'm not saying they're not, but I don't see a lot of pedestrians because it's not a lot of homes in that area. You have
5:33:35a couple homes, you have churches, you have um a couple areas that are smaller, if I'm correct, Ron, that are just smaller housing areas if I'm correct. So, there's not a lot of pedestrians that are moving through that area, through that corridor. Is that correct?
5:33:49Correct. There's smaller subdivisions over there.
City staff
5:33:51Thank you for that wording. Yeah. So, that was just kind of another thought. Uh the the one area that I can say kind of listening to staff and listening to the council members here that I get concerned about is going downhill. So I know going downhill we are able to pick up speed very quickly and I think we all know that. So you have to be very very careful um making sure that those accidents at that intersection do not happen because you got to slow your speed down. So with one of these and if you can remind me with one of these proposed striping is
5:34:22any of those reducing at all to 10 ft is we're bringing that into 10 ft so we can have a road diet to slow those cars down a little bit.
City staff
5:34:30Uh the alternative three it's not really changing anything as far as widths. It's giving more buffer that because there's extra ride ofway in there because it's only the one lane and that's over towards Yianz. But Nick was able to add a couple of feet to the buffer and that gave some area in there because if you notice that portion of Yianz is not as wide as the rest of it. Right.
5:34:52So therefore it doesn't have a typical configuration.
5:34:55Gotcha.
City staff
5:34:56That that's why it is that way but you can steal a couple feet just because we have a little extra room.
Public speaker
5:35:01Excellent. Okay. Couple more things. Um, you know, I I heard opening up the biker biker lane can increase uh, you know, would just be safer for the ebikes. I'll tell you, I was just riding with my family the other day and I had like a mob of kids coming down the bike bike bike lane, one wheelie, flipping me off because I was I was being that mom of like, get down off that one wheel. And I'm just going to tell you, I believe that again, this is my perception. If if we open up that buffer and bike lane, I believe there's going to be more
5:35:33individuals as these ebikers possibly riding side by side through the buffer and possibly through the bike lane. That's just my opinion. I don't know if that's true, but I think the more room that they have, the more greater time or they're just going to expand throughout that those lanes. Just food for thought. Um, let me see. spoke to a couple individuals with fire and officers here in our um in our community. They would both like to see the double lane stay for that configuration. And I think that's it. So, just again thoughts. Just want to throw those out there of what I've thought and heard
5:36:08and throw it out to somebody else. Anybody's got anything or a motion?
5:36:15I have a few comments.
Council Member
5:36:16Yes, sir. Um but I will make a motion uh prior to making those comments to approve option number C or three the hybrid compromise um for the restriping. And that is my motion. But a few comments uh just to reiterate uh I don't like how this is being positioned as um one is safer than the other. You know when you say that hey road diets statistically are safer and and cause 35% less accidents on streets. And that's been um you know studied by the the agencies that you guys uh mentioned. But there's a reason that we're not road dieting every single road in Temecula, right?
5:36:55And I'm not sure that we all agree that we shouldn't do that or we wouldn't do that. Um I am of the prerogative that road diets absolutely can work in certain streets um and may not work in other streets. And I've mentioned that multiple times on why I don't believe uh this corridor is one of those. Um, and it was mentioned that, you know, you're not secondguessing staff and and neither are we. Uh, you know, in this position, I don't want to be seen that, hey, since we're looking at option number three, we are uh second-guessing staff's original recommendation. But as it was said, staff
5:37:24only studied that single solution because that is what they were asked to do. They were asked to study the road diet in this corridor. They weren't asked to study multiple options. And with the multiple options being presented here today, there is no staff recommendation um as there was last time. And I think there is no staff recommendation because as my first question um alluded to is all three of these new options are similar in safety measurements and we have to have a measurement of safety uh which in this case is uh safety collisions. Um and I'm not secondguessing staff's data and staff's recommendation. It's been
5:37:57stated multiple times that we're secondguessing the 52 miles per hour data that they uh keep showing us that people are going 60 miles an hour. Um but that is second guessing the data that we are presenting with. People are going to go faster. people are going to go slower. Um, and ultimately to lower the speed limit, we can lower the speed limit. Right? There's a a huge portion of this corridor that is 45 miles an hour. If we want to lower it from the 52 miles per hour that most cars are traveling at, let's lower it from 45 miles an hour to 40 m hour.
5:38:23That effectively lowers people's speed limit. And the way that we make sure that they lower their speed limit is that we enforce the current laws and ordinances that we have in place. And lower speed limit, lower collisions. Ultimately, I don't think there is a superior alternative. I think all three of these options are good options. Um, and again, uh, my motion will be for the third hybrid option.
5:38:50Thank you, mayor.
5:38:52I'll second that motion.
Mayor Alexander
5:38:53Okay. I got a couple of comments and then sort of answer your questions, but we can certainly vote on that. Um, so with respect to your question of like um, you know, there's plenty of room and there's there's not a lot of uh, traffic so you feel safe. Um, what a road diet does is it forces people to drive in a lane, right? So just because there's a ton of space doesn't mean that people move over. It doesn't mean that people um, drive in the lane adjacent. They'll they'll ride right past you. The reason why you don't see a ton of people um walking and
5:39:26biking on that street is because people are speeding and they're like, "It's not safe." So, I'm not going to let my kids go um out there by themselves. Certainly not let them bike. Um but that's one of the reasons why we don't see um a lot of people out there. And I've seen uh heat maps where we've made connections on roadways where you can see a lot of more people are using it from an active transportation perspective. But again, we're focusing way too much on this as a bike thing. This is a safety thing. This is like stop making it about biking and walking. Yeah, that's
5:40:02important. But the the the the the goal of a city council is to create a city that is safe. And to say that traffic collisions are inevitable and throwing up your hands isn't what we should be doing. There are tons of municipalities that adopt uh vision zero policies that seek to eliminate traffic violence. This is a fact. This happens. Um infrastructure matters. So we can feel like, you know, kids are going to do what kids do. And that might be true, but that isn't borne out in the data. When you build infrastructure that works, this is across the United States in in states that are um
5:40:42in the Midwest that build out things. Bentonville, Arkansas is a perfect example of this. Um there are other countries that that do this really really well. Um so infrastructure does in fact matter with respect to people following the laws, right? we can't just arbitrarily lower the speed limit to 40 if the if the 85th percentile is 52. Um so people are still going to be speeding especially on the downhill portion, right? And so um thinking about again the economic impact every traffic collision in our city, we need to send police and fire. We send our sheriff's department and our fire department out there. That's a
5:41:23resource that does not need to be going. If we can eliminate a handful of these, it makes a difference over the course of our city, like over the long haul. Um, I'd like to know, you know, like we can say, oh, I talked to someone and they want to keep it four lanes and or someone believes in two, but the the data on our road diets is like definitive in our city, but if you only look at the road diets, that's one thing, but if you look at the other road [cough] segments that matter as well. So, Rainbow Canyon functions at a higher um you
5:41:52know peak volume than than um than this section will. So, a lot of our our roads already function at this sort of higher level. I think the question was asked was like, well, who who bikes? Um well, now it's mostly kids, right? Like if you go if you go to any school right now and go look at their bike rack or do a walking uh sort of analysis, like it's a lot of children, but it's also a ton of seniors that that are home all day and they're like, "Hey, I'm going to go for a walk." Right? And if you look at where people walk,
5:42:26they're sort of you I remember when I was a kid, like I had this this region that I could go and explore. that's gotten smaller and smaller as we've built out this infrastructure. You you get children that are only allowed to go to the end of your street. I see a kid in my neighborhood that can only ride around our street. And that's a shame that he can only go around our street because being able to explore and and and build some some autonomy and make a little mistake in a safe community. And that's that's what we want our kids to do. We want them
5:43:01to be able to explore and not be like, "Oh, Johnny, you can only go to the end of the street because in is too dangerous." And I'm not saying that like this is going to solve our problem. This is a small piece that I think is so important because the neighbors did in fact come. The neighbors on Paba came. The neighbors on Rancho Vista are coming now and complaining. They're saying like, "Hey, people are driving 50 miles an hour down Rancho Vista. When are you gonna when are you gonna change Rancho Vista?" My son went to Veil Elementary and I witnessed multiple times people blowing
5:43:33through the crosswalk during school hours at well above 50 miles an hour. Right? So, we have an opportunity to make a small little tweak on our system that isn't going to overload it. I I really dislike the idea that we're only talking about bikes and who bikes. Well, we don't do a study on biking. We should we should do we should do biking counts. We did a huge uh master plan back in 2016 that packed the house. Every place we went to was full of people saying we want this, right? Like think about when you travel the places you go, there are places that are
5:44:08walkable and bikable, right? You go to places, you travel these places, that is an asset. If we talk about tourism, we talk about quality of life, this is an asset for our community that we should be investing in and it's not a detriment. And sure road diets make sense on some streets but if you look at Winchester Rancho Temecula Parkway those are those through those are the places we want people to go right businesses line them we don't want papa to be a cutthrough for people to get to wine country like I just don't think that that's the best use of that space um and
5:44:45so yeah it makes sense to take a little here and and and reallocate it to slow down speeds so that our first responders don't have to be going to collisions, potential collisions, because people are are speeding. It it's it's honestly a no-brainer to me. I I I made a video on the the Front Street Road diet. Zero negative feedback. Like, it's no different than the video I made for Papa Road, but somehow Paba Road is like this contentious issue that's going to break the backs of our city. It's just Honestly, it's ridiculous. It's very frustrating because we have clear data that says this will make
5:45:25our community safer. Stand on that. This will make our community safer 100%.
5:45:33All right. Thank you very much, Zach. Uh yes, sir.
Council Member
5:45:38Yeah. I I mean, you know, a long- winded response to say, "Yeah, it's going to be safer." It is. I mean, there's, you know, I don't even know why we're arguing about this or debating it at all. it's it's just simply going to make it safer. So, where's the hangup, right? And and we could put all sorts of unknowns and speculation out about how many high school kids are going to be driven by their parents to, you know, a high school several miles away. Um, we can make speculation about what Alterara is going to bring as far as traffic is concerned. But what we don't have
5:46:10to speculate on is that 85th percentile 52 mph means that the vast majority of drivers on that road are driving too fast, you know, and 15% of them are driving well above, you know, 52 miles an hour. So, we're not speculating saying, geez, I wonder if somebody's driving 60 m hour down the road. No, they are. I've seen them. We've all seen them. It's not an uncommon practice. And easily based on those statistics, one out of 10 drivers is going 60 miles an hour or greater, you know. So, so there's really I mean, so there's no debate or or conversation to be had on that.
5:46:49The question is, is the will of the council to listen to what the community had asked for, you know, four years ago and follow through with a commitment to them saying, "We're going to do something about speed and and, you know, safety on on PBA road or are we just going to say no b business as usual or we'll give you a couple of, you know, inches on your bike lane." You know, just because the house isn't packed with folks doesn't mean folks in the community and on that road don't still care. Um, it's just, you know, nine o'clock at night on a Tuesday and,
5:47:21you know, we had a rough, you know, go of it earlier. Um, but, you know, I I I just, you know, a lot of speculation, a lot of worry. We know it works. We've put it on roads, both, you know, common roads that are more neighborhood driven and those that aren't, and we've seen positive results because of it. Do we want to continue that? Um, and then, you know, I'm I'm just still scratching my head. So what's the negative outcome if we do the road diet? What are we so worried about that's going to happen on PBA road where you know are we going to
5:47:56see this massive amount of congestion? Well, no. The numbers don't play into that. We just don't have that many vehicles on the road and our annual or our average daily uh trips don't support that speculation. So, so what's the worst thing that's going to happen by us creating a safer or even slightly safer road in Temecula? I don't understand what the big issue is or what we're trying to prevent doing except that we've had a couple of grumpy people, one of which didn't even live in the neighborhood complaining about shrinking down one lane. I really could care less what that person thought. You [laughter] know,
5:48:33that wasn't your neighborhood. you live down the way, you know, so why are we paying attention to that? You know, one grumpy person comes out of all of this city and we're cowtowing to to that sort of response. I just don't get it. You know, I just I'm baffled by this and you know, I know we need motions and everything else. My my motion, bless you, would be just to simply adopt what was what was done. It wasn't just staff being directed to create a road diet. You know, that was the council's will. That was the neighborhood's will. That was a lot of folks weighing
5:49:05in on this and they could have come up with any version of measures, not just a road diet, any version of measures, whether it was visual friction or any other kind of uh uh measure out there to help reduce those speeds. This was the one they landed on because they have the evidence. They have the support to say that it actually works, you know. So, you know, they they did a great job. They did exactly what the community and the council had directed them to do. And now now we're you know saying ah never mind I it just doesn't make any sense to me.
5:49:37All right. Thank you very much Mayor Prom Mr. Stew.
Public speaker
5:49:40So you know everybody's making the assumption that we narrow it to one lane that the speeds are going to reduce. And you know I've been on that road many many times too. And I think even in one lane, you're still gonna hit 60 miles an hour, you know, because like you said, the amount of traffic that's on that road is not as if you had a a flow of cars, there's always going to be one person that's going to go the speed limit, which is going to block everybody up. And that's what will cause the road dial to actually work is when someone is in
5:50:18the lead going, it says [clears throat] 40 or 45, whatever it is, they're the ones that's going to make everybody behind them. That's what happens in Red Hawk. I
Public speaker
5:50:31Well, no. When I drive Redhawk Parkway, when someone's in front of me and they're they're going slow, it's it slows everybody down that's in that's just what I've experienced. But, you know, that that's what I that's what I'm hearing. I'm hearing we're making the assumption now. To me, it would make more sense because I've had a lot of experience with Pina Colada and people speeding down Pina Colada and we put that 25 mph uh speed uh sign there and it works miracles because I I guarantee you most people aren't paying attention how fast they're going. And the minute you see that thing pop at you
5:51:16and says you're going 28 or 30,
Public speaker
5:51:20you you break. You you slow down because most of us want to be good citizens. We're not we're not out there to be dragstrip uh people. We're not going as fast as it's just literally you're just not paying attention. And so to me, I would rather just see that actually take place where especially on the downhill motion, you get this big old red thing that says you're going 50 miles an hour. Slow down. And and to me, that makes more of a mental picture in my mind than you give me one lane and there's no one in front of me, I'm still doing 60. I
5:51:58mean, that's that's really what what I I would say was would would really would happen. So, I'm more in favor of those little radar things that we put out there. Make it a permanent one. That
5:52:13We already have one though.
5:52:14Do we?
Public speaker
5:52:15We do. And I I I mean, I literally sat at that intersection and I felt like it was more of a challenge to see how high, you know, drivers could get that thing to cycle. I mean, I, you know, I'm telling you guys, you know, spend some time on this road. That little, you know, meter down at the end, I would hear people actually gun the engine to see, you know, and I'm sitting there, I'm like, "Oh my god, this is having the opposite effect of what it was intended to do, you know, and it just, you know, yeah, it works in some areas, you
5:52:43know, but that clearly wasn't the the solution there. I mean, you know, take the time and and sit there because you'd see the exact same thing that I saw." Madame Mayor, [laughter]
5:52:55I just want Please go ahead.
City staff
5:52:56Okay. Thank you. I just want to answer your question because you you sparked something in me where you said like, you know, hey, we really need a vehicle in front to sort of slow things down. And that's how this works. Um in the city, we platoon vehicles through intersections. So like just because there isn't a ton ton of traffic, like if you sit there and you watch like vehicles end up getting platooned, right? So, like if you're going to make a left-hand turn off of Enz onto Paba, it's not going to be one car that makes a turn. It's a bunch of cars. Watch it.
5:53:25It'll queue up, right? And it'll be eight, nine, 10 cars. And and that queuing, that platooning of vehicles when you get the single lane road diet is what slows people down. Because I do believe, you're right, there are a lot of people that are are good. And are there still going to be people that speed? Clearly, like that's still going to happen. But are we doing everything in our power to affect the most amount of people to slow down? So you were just sort of making a case for the for the road diet with the platooning of vehicles because that's exactly what we do in
5:53:55the city is is that's what happens and that's how it functions and it works. It clearly works.
5:54:02Okay, there's a motion in progress. Are we done? [laughter]
5:54:05I have a few more comments. Madam Mayor,
5:54:07are you serious?
Council Member
5:54:08Yes. I I happen you know a lot of there's there's a lot of baffling going on. I'm baffled that my colleagues are baffled that we're having this discussion. I think this is a great discussion and it needs to have happen and I'm I'm glad it's happened the way it's happening even though it's just pain. I think this is a great discussion for our colleagues to have. Um and I think you know it was mentioned that the speculation of all terror and the speculation of this and that and we can't create policy off speculation. The roads as they currently are was built off speculation. They were
5:54:34built on how many people the original planners of Temecula thought would be driving these roads. That's why they're as wide as they are. That's why we took much as much right away as we did when we built these roads initially. It was built off speculation. This entire city and the infrastructure that we see was built off speculation and and this current policy that was built off of thoughtful engineering, not speculation. Big difference.
Public speaker
5:54:56And I would argue that this and the road the way it is currently configured was also built off of engineering that you speak of the way it currently sits today. Unless you're saying that when this was created, city staff just said four lanes. We need four lanes here for no reason. I guarantee there was a staff report at that time that said this is the best configuration for the city and this is why and these are all the reasonings all the engineering
5:55:18at that time
5:55:18at that time and just like at that time in 2022 when you say the community came and they spoke and they said this is what they wanted in 2026 this is not what the community wants in my opinion right your opinion was that in 2022 this is what the city wanted this is what the traffic safety commission had staff analyze and you say that staff if if staff they would have brought back something else. When I talked to staff, I don't want to put on the spot. They they said this is what we were positioned to study. We studied this specifically because the traffic safety
5:55:48commission told us to study this road diet. And now that there are multiple recommendations because the city council and city staff works at the uh city council's discretion and the the traffic safety commission's discretion at that time. We recommended, hey, could you study multiple areas? And they brought back multiple areas. And now these multiple different striping options they have said are all similar in comparison to safety. And we talked about safety and the speculation of safety. I just want to say from my perspective, I would never, and this is just my own prerogative, you guys are mentioning your prerogative. I would never allow my kids
5:56:21to bike on any lane that is over 40 m hour. You mentioned the 40 mph fatality rate is 46%. I don't care how big the buffer is. I personally would never allow my kids on a 40 mph street. That's my risk, right? We all have our own risk tolerance. You will never see my kids, no matter how wide Paba is, no matter how wide Rancho Vista is, they will never be on bikes. Why? Because it is inherently unsafe to have a vehicle any distance to a bicycle without any sort of physical barrier. That's my perspective. I don't care how quote unquote safe or how big the
5:56:53buffer is or how big the bike lane is, it is inherently unsafe riding a bike next to vehicles regardless of the buffer space. Um, but again, that's my opinion on uh bicyclists. And I just want to reiterate, it's not just TVHS on this strip, right? And from Altera, we keep talking about high school, TVHS. Yeah. But it's also Trinity Preschool. It's also Paloma at the end of that street on Paba. It goes past the strip, but there's Lynfield. There's Vintage Hills up on the left. There's a bunch of streets or a bunch of schools on this street that potentially um like we discussed, it's probably
5:57:24not going to be senior citizens living in these two, threetory homes. It's going to be families. And they're not going to just have high schoolers. You were absolutely right. They're going to have preschoolers. They're going to have elementary kid. They're going to have middle school. TMS right there. They're going to have uh high schoolers. They're going to have all these uh different age groups and they will all be traveling on this road. So, I think with the thoughtful planning and engineering that our city staff has done, they have said that four lanes on this road uh is safe. And we keep talking about safety, safety, safety,
5:57:50and the perception of safety. There's no way to gauge the perception of safety, right? They're going to feel safer on the street or they're there, you know, just because there's no accidents doesn't mean that it's not safe. Yeah. But there's no way to there's no data on the perception of safety. We can't have that. There's no data to back that up. And it was mentioned that we can't arbitrarily lower the speed limit on this uh street. Absolutely, we cannot arbitrarily lower it. There is a section that is already 40 miles an hour, which means that the city council already approved for it to be lowered
5:58:16from 45 to 40 because of data and analysis. And I could almost guarantee, I won't say 100%, I'll say 99%. If we study this corridor and they say that they are going too fast for 45 miles hour, we can absolutely lower it to 40 mph. It's not arbitrary. There will there can be data and engineering to back up that lowering of the speed limit, including the school, including the library, including the accidents that happen here, the five that happen outside of the controlled intersection. So, no, it won't be arbitrarily lowered. But I believe with research and data and analysis, we can absolutely lower it to
5:58:47a portion that's already at 40, the whole corridor to 40 mph. You want to lower people's speed limit, lower their lower the actual speed limit by law, and then enforce the damn speed limit. That's how you lower speed limits. And yes, you could say that when cars back up and there's more congestion, it's going to lower the speed limit. Absolutely. On other roads like Red Hawk and other ones that differ from this one, there's a physical median in between. On this one, there will not be a physical median. There will be a center lane that people will zoom by on your left. If you're going
5:59:1625 miles an hour, that is human nature. They will zoom by on your left. And we can talk about speculation and all that. Um, that is just reality. uh compared to the Red Hawk one which has a median in the lefth hand corner so you couldn't speed around in certain intersections. So there are things that can be done and again I do not disagree with road diets in totality. I disagree with it based on the research and data that I have seen on this particular street that it will not be beneficial for the totality of the residents and that is why I continuously push back
5:59:43against this even though it may baffle you. I feel like I've given adequate reasoning um and quote unquote speculation with Altter, the widening of UNZ and the widening of Paba at the county side to say I understand staff's recommendation initially because that's what they were tasked to recommend and to research in 2026. I do not think this is the best move moving forward on an already safe street for our constituents. Thank you, mayor.
6:00:10All right, we've got
City staff
6:00:11just I'm just [laughter] point of clarification though. staff at no point ever said that all of the options are equally safe. Point of clarification there.
Public speaker
6:00:21And if I mentioned that, I apologize to my uh specific question that was asked.
6:00:28It was
6:00:29Are they safe? Yes, the answer is they are safe.
6:00:32My question is
6:00:33they are not equally safe.
City staff
6:00:34Would it be fair to say that after restudying the corridor and bringing back these solutions, they all provide comparable outcomes in terms comparable? Yes. comparable outcomes in terms and that is uh perception of comparable outcomes because because we can't predict the future comparable outcomes in terms of safety, speed reduction and overall traffic calming and effectiveness and the answer was yes. All three provide comparable
6:00:58play back the film. It did not. Nobody said yes.
Public speaker
6:01:02Nobody said yes. We can go back and play back the film or look at the video later, but nobody said yes to that. And I'm I'm more than happy to let our public works director. I just can't lay on that issue because it's just not true.
6:01:13Sure. So
City staff
6:01:15we brought the road diet back in March. We were directed at that time to bring back other viable options. So we put together different plans that could uh be comparable that had some enhancements to bike safety and pedestrians and just trying to look at it. And I will say no matter what the council's direction tonight, we will have to after this rehab and restriping, we will need to do a speed survey. So that that is coming out of this no matter the option that's chosen. And then what I concluded with was Eric and Nick, best traffic engineers in the area. They're not going to present
6:01:51something that's unsafe, but [snorts] they all can work.
Public speaker
6:01:57Can I ask a quick question actually as I'm listening to some of my council members here? Ron, if you can help me out as I'm looking. I I understand we are moving into that we want to move or it's proposed to move into a road diet. Road diet typically is considered to shrink the road down. But each one of these I'm seeing as 11 ft across from what is today
6:02:18what the road diet does and this was kind of yours and I's discussion before.
6:02:22Yeah.
Public speaker
6:02:23Is you're taking one lane and you're creating a striped buffer with that lane. So your your bike lane moves a little bit wider. You have a much wider buffer and then you have the one lane you had before. So that's why it's not changing width.
Public speaker
6:02:38And that's and that's kind of my question. I'm just proposing this. I understand that there is information out there, but if I'm going down a a lane then driving that's 11 feet wide, whether it's one or two, why would that slow me down? Like I just don't understand how that would slow me down. If I'm driving down PABA and it's one lane, whether it's two lanes in 11 ft or one lane in 11 ft, how is that going to slow me down if I have nobody in front of me?
6:03:04Well, just to rebuttal, I think on their behalf is that they're saying that if there's the the person in front of the lead
6:03:09other than in front, but but we have less dense traffic there. It's not as
Public speaker
6:03:13I think they're saying their argument is that people will back up and that ultimately slows down the majority of the traffic. Is what I is that fair to say that the road diet that's the purpose is to have one car and it's going slow. The purpose isn't just to do that. It's to provide and we had this great conversation years ago with the term visual friction. So the more opportunity you have to place things in the peripheral space of drivers, it's a just just simple psychology of what's going on with the driver that as there's more infrastructure, more things on the sides of the roads,
6:03:41more feeling of that, you know, sort of it closing in on you that it artificially drops speed limits. Um,
Public speaker
6:03:50and and that's that's all it does, right? And whether there's a driver in front or not, it doesn't really matter. You know, that's just what it does. Look, I clearly we don't have the votes to do a road diet on here. So, let's just let's just move this item.
Mayor Alexander
6:04:04Okay. We have moved by Calus, myself second. Let's vote. Oh, wait. Hold on. Prove striping. We have to figure out. So, we're looking at configured. So, we're looking at
6:04:22my motion was for option number three,
6:04:24alternative. Okay.
6:04:25Alternative
6:04:27hybrid option.
City staff
6:04:28All right. And that motion passes three to two. All righty. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, staff, for digging into those for different alternatives. All right. Uh, let me see. Our last one, I believe, yes, is going to be number 18. It's going to be our next big one. It's going to be re Oh, just a receive and file for a general plan update draft land use report concept. And we should be receiving a staff report from Matt Peters and his team. Is that correct?
Mayor Alexander
6:04:56That's correct. One more introduction. I'd like to introduce Amanda Tropiano from Denovo. She's our general plan consultant. And I think I mentioned this last time. If she looks familiar, it's because she helped us with our housing element just a few years ago.
SDG&E representative
6:05:10How are you, ma'am? Good to see you. I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me. So, I have a presentation and then hoping to facilitate a dialogue with you about some next steps for the city's general plan update. So, with that, I wanted to go through just a brief overview of what has brought us here to the discussion for tonight's uh tonight's conversation. The project kicked off in earnest in June of 2025. and we spent the fall of 2025 really connecting with your community both in person and online to understand some key issues and themes that your community really wanted us to focus
6:05:43on as part of this general plan update. Moving into the beginning of this year, we worked on developing existing conditions, uh reconnecting with the community on some of the topics we're going to talk about tonight. And then looking forward into the summer of this year, we'll be developing some draft policy information and guidance and then kicking off the environmental review. Ultimately, our goal is to return to you in the summer of next year uh with these policy documents and environmental review and allow the planning commission and the city council to consider the item. One of the cornerstones of this effort has been deep conversations with
6:06:18your community and key stakeholders to again uncover those issues and opportunities that Temecula has facing the next 20 years. To that end, I wanted to remind both yourselves and the public about different avenues they have to connect with us and provide that feedback. From a dedicated project website, we submit regular communications on lift serves and social media. We sent a direct mailer to every mailing address in the community. It was just over 40,000 addresses. We hosted those in-person workshops, have conducted online surveys. We were in front of you as part of the city council housing workshop. We have looked at all of the outreach and
6:06:54uh expanded on the work completed as part of the quality of life master plan. We've had two online surveys and then had a community workshop last month on the draft land use vision report. One of the things I wanted to reiterate again is that this work is really born out of the city's investment in the quality of life master plan and in fact the general plan itself will be organized around those those core values. So again, just as a reminder, especially for the public, we're approaching this through that lens uh around a safe and prepared community, transportation, mobility, and connectivity, healthy and livable city, economic
6:07:31prosperity, a sustainable and resilient city, accountable and responsive city government, and equity. And that vision statement from the quality of life master plan will also serve as the vision statement for the general plan. So transitioning into our topic tonight, we're really going to be focused on the idea of land use planning and kind of um considering some special strategic growth areas that may uh be suitable to um see some changes over the those next 20 years. So one of the things we like to set up uh the conversation with is just a recognition of the sort of east to west uh evolution of land use
6:08:08patterns that especially are prevalent here in Temecula. So looking at your most eastern boundary, a more rural equestrian lowdensity uh experience and then the heart of the community being your more traditional suburban environment and then really thinking about a more urban or multifamily environment, especially west of the freeway. So the the topic of tonight's presentation is really reviewing the concepts included in the land use report. And first and foremost, we recognize that Temecula is largely built out. The vast majority of the community is developed with existing residential or commercial, industrial or job- centered areas. You have wonderful open spaces and recreation facilities. These are something
6:08:52these are qualities that we're certainly uh prioritizing for preservation enhancement uh through this process. So our goal through thinking about these strategic opportunity areas is to think about how the city can invest in fueling its economic engine for the next 20 years. So this is really about smart and targeted investment in strategic areas, not widesale changes to the community's land use pattern. And our goal is to really maintain that excellence that Temecula is so well known for and ensuring that your land use plan remains relevant. So as markets change and desires change over the next two decades, the city can be nimble and responsive to
6:09:30those issues. The concepts are essentially grouped into two key categories. The first are the four strategic study areas and we're going to spend most of my presentation talking about those and then as well as some parcel or sight specific changes, we're referring to those as A through H. So the four areas we're going to talk about include Southtown. This is the area of south of Oldtown, the innovation corridor sort of on the eastern side, what you'd refer to as Overland Drive, Town Center and Tower Plaza, and the area of Commerce to College. This is around the Prominade and MSJC. As part of this discussion, we're
6:10:07also looking for tools for how we'd implement some of these ideas. Right now, the city has a pretty broad mixeduse overlay that's applied consistently across different mixeduse vision areas uh throughout the community. It's sort of a one-sizefits-all solution. 20 years ago, this was appropriate and probably the right fit. But as we think about how places evolve over time, we are looking at different levels of mixes of uses. So, it may be appropriate in some places for that scale of a mix of uses to be lower density and lower intensity than in other areas. So, as part of our uh concepts, we're going to be talking
6:10:41about three levels of mixeduse development. The first would be the mixeduse edge. This is sort of your lowest scale of development. It's really where these strategic study areas interface with existing residential neighborhoods. And then the next level up would be the mixeduse neighborhood. This is creating kind of walkable local serving opportunities. And then the mixeduse core. This is sort of your highest density or scale opportunities really along your major transportation corridors. We've also introduced a new very high density residential land use designation. This is simply a tool to help implement your upcoming seventh cycle housing element. We're just letting you know we're thinking about it.
6:11:18Uh we're thinking about how to leverage your investment in this work to best position you for that update when it comes. That use isn't applied anywhere on the map, but it's just a tool in your toolkit that may be available if you need it. So starting with Southtown, just to help orient yourself, this is really south of the Oldtown Arch, north of Temecula Parkway. This area we really see as an evolution and expansion of the wonderful investment obviously starting in Oldtown, but you've seen happening in Uptown and then of course Southtown. I assume you see a theme in the in the naming typology as you
6:11:50go along the corridor. This area is primarily designated for service commercial and highway tourist commercial. And looking forward, we're thinking that the most appropriate designation for this would be a recommended specific plan implementation. Temecula has a wonderful history of preparing, adopting, and ultimately implementing specific plans that guide the cohesive redevelopment of these special areas. And we've seen that in places like Oldtown and Uptown. And we've identified this as being an appropriate location for that mixeduse neighborhood application where that would be sort of that local neighborhood serving mix of uses. uh that really is an extension but complementaryary to the oldtown area. So we're thinking you
6:12:30know imagine uh boutique hotels, arts districts, craft retailers, maker spaces and then one of the unique qualities of this area is really a connection to its natural topography. So thinking about how you can reorient some of the businesses and buildings to face out onto the creeks and use that really as an opportunity as opposed to having that be kind of the back of house. And then as you'll see as we talk about the different strategic areas, we also recognize that they occur within uh the context of their existing environment. So people already live and work in that area. How can we create that synergy and
6:13:06opportunity to really revitalize the space and leverage that commercial opportunity, create that economic uh development opportunity moving forward. So for each of the areas, I'm going to present sort of a an imagination of the art of the possible. This should not be taken literally. These are ideas to sort of spur ideas and investment um and interest into what is possible in each of the areas. So, uh this is probably a familiar uh look for you. This is on Front Street just as part of the Southtown area. So, as I transition into the slides, thinking about how you can activate that space, really bringing together goods
6:13:41and services, I'm creating an environment that's um welcoming, a great reflection of the priorities of Temecula where you can provide those local goods and services, generate that economic development and opportunity, and bring people living and working and shopping closer together. We also have thought about those connections to the uh adjacent uses. So really thinking about activating the spaces, using the creeks as trails, how people can get safely and securely to use these uh reactivated uh strategic study areas. The second location is Innovation Corridor. Again, on the eastern side of this, that would be the uh roadway known as Overland Drive. and it kind of crosses
6:14:26over uh over to the uh west side as well. So this is really focused on an opportunity for economic development. The innovation drive corridor is really uh already a jobs and um thriving economic development engine in Temecula. This is not focused on land use changes. It's focused on how do we position this location to capture a larger proportion of the regional interest in high wage and high-scale jobs and ultimately use this as an opportunity to attract employers and investment into Temecula to keep this space um strong and to keep your jobs uh and local economy strong. So this involves, you know, sort of again as
6:15:06we move east to west, thinking about a connection starting first at MSJC, being able to move down into that sort of mixeduse uptown environment, uh, crossing over the waterways and looking at those more job center locations. So you see sort of an evolution of a life cycle from, you know, maybe a younger student all the way into a full-time career in these jobs that we want to attract and locate here. So again, as we're working through this, thinking about the art of what could be possible here, um this is these are attractive, nice, well-maintained opportunity buildings here, but how do we find spaces for employers
6:15:44to really identify uh this as a location where their employees want to be? So, one of the big um factors that we hear from the business community, and I'm sure your economic development team backs it up, is that they have choices in where they go. And a big part of their choice and where they invest and locate is where their employer employees want to be. And so creating that space and environment so that employees feel proud to come to work, are happy to be there. Um this is a huge asset for employers looking to invest in local communities. And again, thinking about that um transition
6:16:18as you go up and down the main corridor, creating a window or avenue into a space in Temecula that really demonstrates the city's commitment to its business community. Next, looking at Town Center and Tower Plaza. This is really the corner of ENZ and Rancher California Road uh just off of the freeway. This area is currently designated for community commercial, professional office and highway tourist commercial uses. We are not proposing any land use changes in this area. the uh the emphasis is still on keeping this a primary commercial center, emphasizing the role that it plays in your local economy, especially the provision of goods and services
6:16:57that a lot of your community members utilize. But it has um some opportunity for strategic targeted infill development or investment that helps uh improve the viability of those commercial centers, not take away from it. So really strengthening that commercial investment to stay competitive as consumer preferences and choices change over time. There are also some really interesting opportunities to connect this space to your nearby uh amenities including the Temecula Elementary School, Margarita Recreation Center, other open space features and nearby homes. So there's great opportunities to create those connections. And then as we're thinking about its proximity both to the freeway and then on its eastern end
6:17:41to existing single family homes, we really see uh this as a gradient of development opportunity. So next to the freeway are the locations where you can probably have the highest tolerance for um maybe slightly taller buildings. And then as you move east to that neighborhood edge, you're starting to get some lowercale development. So this is a a view a pretty iconic view of what town center tower plaza areas could look like. Now it's um you know an older architectural style as we're thinking about the future of Temecula. And so thinking about again not taking away from the existing commercial uses. This is building into and
6:18:19onto them. So you can still see that commercial frontage. It still is providing opportunities for commercial and retail space. But what's happening just behind that? How can we better utilize that space? And especially in these types of older centers where the back of it was really utilized as like loading bays or driving aisles, there are opportunities to rethink what that could do in order to create a more um positive experience and connections to those local communities. And again, really thinking about those nearby amenities, how can they all come together and create a positive atmosphere at this location? And then finally, the Commerce to College study
6:18:56area. Uh this is always one of my favorite to talk about. It's such a unique opportunity that any community gets to have a major regional commercial center like the prominade next to a community college. This just doesn't happen that much and it's a it's an envy of many communities I I have the opportunity to work in. So this is a wonderful place to think creatively about what the future could be to create uh partnerships and connections not only between the prominade and MSJC but also the uh adjacent commercial uh properties as well. So thinking about a connection a physical connection that allows people to move
6:19:31seamlessly between the two along a grand boulevard that suits the needs of all users people that drive, walk, take transit or might want to ride their bike, especially students. and then opportunities to create connections to boost the local economy and workforce. And then similar to some of the other study areas, looking at those connections along your creeks to nearby residential areas and in commercial centers. So thinking strategically about what that connection, that physical roadway connection could look like. Again, accommodating all users. So there's people that are certainly going to be driving. There are people that are going to be um walking, biking, especially around these
6:20:10types of facilities. is what could that experience be so that people really want to move from the college to the shopping center uh gra there uh have opportunities to live there and then transition back and forth in a really seamless way. And then we have uh thought about what the whole kind of um envelope of this area could be. While uh the significant emphasis is certainly on preserving and protecting the mall, it's not going anywhere. So that's certainly not what we're suggesting here. But I'm sure many of you are familiar with the evolution of malls and commercial space. People are just certainly um looking for
6:20:45that experience when they go out and they spend their money and they want to go shopping for a day. They want that experience to be something more than what they can get online. So we're really looking at opportunities to create that public space and connections uh to those adjacent uses as well. So transitioning into the discussion of the eight individual sight specific or parcel specific changes. These are all uh uh recommendations that staff supports. They're all uh generally pretty straightforward. I am going to go through them one by one, but I do want to recognize that staff is supportive uh of these proposals and again
6:21:20they're labeled A through G in the draft land use report. So site A is known as the DAZ site. This is approximately 30 acres. It's owned by the city of Temecula. It was purchased with redevelopment funds. It has a PDIO on it. Uh, one proposal would be to change its current public institutional facilities designation to industrial park. Uh, thereby increasing the opportunity for the city to um to sell that at a at a profit and reinvest those profits in the development of affordable housing at an alternative location. Site B is the Salonaway uh split zone lot. This is a property that has the same ownership
6:21:58as ABC preschool. The original uh request was to better reflect the split designation between professional office and open space to match the actual topography of the site. Right now, the site's sort of split split half and half. Half of it is professional office on the north side and uh open space on the south. If you look at the area really closely, you'll see that it doesn't exactly align with the built condition. Since then, the property owner has requested that the uh professional office be redesated to highdensity residential and maintain the open space designation. This property is surrounded by other highdensity residential properties and would be
6:22:37a suitable location to accommodate that type of use and staff supports that. Site C is off of Kelly Medusa. This is uh an open space uh slope area owned by a homeowners association. There's no homes that will be built here. So red designating that space as open space just to memorialize that it is not intended for very lowdensity residential development. It is preserved as a as a slope and open space facility. Site D is approximately 20 acres. This is um currently designated as community commercial. It's just north of Target and the proposal is to change it to service commercial. There has been some past interest
6:23:17in auto dealerships in this location. Right now under the community commercial designation, a CUP would be required for that. Moving to a surface uh service commercial designation would just allow auto dealerships without a cup and hopefully streamline that opportunity. Site E is the DS triangle. This is another site owned by the city of Temecula. It is currently designated as service commercial. The proposal is to designate it as highway tourist commercial. There has been some interest in a hospitality or hotel development at this location. the highway tourist commercial use just allows for greater flexibility of uses. So we haven't really seen any historic you know investment
6:23:55or redevelopment of the site. This hopefully will open up some additional avenues for development. Site F is the Boys and Girls Club. It's sort of a hodgepodge of open space public institutional specific plan implementation facilities. The Boys and Girls Club would like to invest in their property and develop some additional amenities such as a gym. This really sort of just clears up these inconsistent designations we have in the area that would allow the Boys and Girls Club to do what they'd like to do there and uh continue to serve your community with some new amenities. Site G is the Santiago Enz property. This is in
6:24:30Los Ranchos. It's owned by the city of Temecula. It is currently designated very low density residential. The proposal is to designate it as open space. through that public process, we heard a lot of interest um that uh for an open space or recreation facility in this area. Uh so this would provide the opportunity for the future development of that type of amenity in this in this location. And that brings me to the to the last site here. Uh this is the Savala split zone on the north side in the black boundary. It currently is divided east and west between low, medium density and medium density
6:25:09residential. This is a challenge for any property owner or developer. You're dealing with two different development standards, two different densities on different sites of the site. Obviously, it's also um resulted in no development on this property. So, the proposal is just to designate it all as one single designation as medium density residential to allow for um hopefully some new interest in development at one consistent density. So with that, that brings me uh to uh Mr. Peters will present the next few slides. And these are really some areas of opportunity that have um come to light since we released the draft land use report for public
6:25:45review.
Mayor Alexander
6:25:48Thanks, Amanda. If you could advance the slide for please. So the uh first site is the sports park. Um if you're familiar with the um flood basin and the proposed soccer fields, Amanda mentioned the city-owned parcel we refer to as the Diaz site with the idea of adding industrial as a potential use so that uh that property can be sold and then as industrial and the money used to reinvest in affordable housing. Um there was a recent field trip by some city council members. they went to the Ontario sports complex. And some of the ideas we've discussed have been um you know a a baseball stadium,
6:26:30uh additional ball fields, perhaps an indoor facility that could be used for volleyball, pickle ball, um on the city-owned site. So really creating this largecale um sports complex with perhaps a pedestrian bridge connecting the basin and the sports fields to the city own site and um indoor facilities. So we'd be looking for your feedback on exploring that further. And the next area is the Los Ranchitos parcels. Um there's actually three sites that we'd be looking for your feedback on. Site A was already mentioned. That is the city-owned site. That's seven acres at the corner of Unes and uh Santiago. The second location is identified as
6:27:20B. Um that's actually zoned very low density residential that is on Temecula Parkway. It's east of the park and ride and then it's west of Jedadia Smith and it's south of Vallejo. So if you can imagine the traffic on Temecula Parkway residential backing up to that if we're looking out 20 years should we consider that for commercial development? And then finally area C that is at the corner of Margarita and deport. We actually have a preapp in right now uh in the planning department. The preapp is identifying a two-story hotel inline uh medical offices and then retail. So, it's definitely a mixeduse site and again,
6:28:08if we're planning out 20 years, it is zoned very low density residential. Uh, it's across from the hospital and Kitty Corner from that site is uh commercial as well. So, we'd be looking at your feedback [clears throat] for your feedback uh as to what to do with that site. And then the next area is the equestrian sphere of influence. So this area is east of Butterfield Stage Road. It's between Butterfield Stage and Anza Road. It's north of Temecula Parkway and south of Dayola. So right now, this area is outside the city. And what we'd be looking for your feedback on is the potential to add this
6:28:50to the uh city sphere of influence. Our sphere of influence um is just to the south of Temecula Parkway. And what we'd want to do is perhaps look at uh expanding commercial along Temecula Parkway between Butterfield Stage Road and Diaz and then transitioning the land uses at the at the back property line with residential to day. And adding that to our sphere of influence would allow us to to comment. We do comment on uh proposals that are with or adjacent to the city, but adding it to our sphere of influence um would carry a little more weight with our comments. And then the last area
6:29:32is Nicholas Valley. You heard some comments earlier tonight that most the majority of that area is zoned again VL very low density residential. There's a minimum 2 and a half acre lot size. Um historically the city has met with land owners out there and proposed different densities, different size lots. Um one of the limiting factors in this area is it's on septic. So and there are dirt roads uh in this area. So any increase in density, we'd also have to consider we'd want to consider some sort of assessment district to help fund those improvements. Um, so that's uh certainly an area we can reach out
6:30:15to the land owners. We could conduct a survey and find out more. So we'd be looking for your feedback on that site as well. So we have shared the draft land use report with the community both online and in person. We also were able to facilitate a dedicated meeting with your general plan advisory committee on April 9th just specifically focused on this topic and collecting their feedback. We held the in-person workshop here at city hall on April 22nd and a survey ran from late April through early May mimicking those same questions. Overall, the community feedback was supportive of the vision and concepts presented in the
6:30:50draft flanges report. There are of course varying um community member preferences on the scale, type and style of development, but overall seeing the opportunities to bring different types of uses closer together uh and create those um special strategic areas that improve the local economy and are able to respond to changes in market condition over time seem to resonate well with with um with your community members. We also facilitated a similar conversation with the planning commission on May 20th. As part of that work, uh we do want to summarize some of their feedback and comments here. So, in general, the planning commission was supportive overall of
6:31:27the plan and concepts included in their report and that the areas selected for future um investment and strategic transitions really were the appropriate locations for the city to focus on um as opportunities arise over the next 20 years. with again the reiterated focus of protecting your commercial centers um creating uh successful revitalization of these spaces through the introduction of complimentary uses. So more specifically the commissioner comments included considering including the city-owned parcel on Temecula Parkway is part of the southtown focus area. Right now Southtown stops at the kind of its southern b southern boundary of the study area stops at Temecula Parkway. also uh an
6:32:09idea to consider con conducting some sort of visioning exercise for Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail. So thinking about ways of looking between Temecula Creek Park to Southtown. Could we create sort of a unified vision um recognize the historic trail, integrate it with wildlife protection and other amenities and draw tourism and uh economic opportunity through that strategy. looking at Los Ranchitos, thinking about the reinvisioning of circulation and roadway classifications to preserve the equestrian character. These are comments that we've also been receiving at the general plan advisory committee meetings where the public has provided comments to that effect. Incorporating walkable elements into these focus areas, but also
6:32:48recognizing as I had mentioned earlier that people will continue to drive. Um, and this is a fact of life. We are not trying to run away from it. we are finding opportunities to provide additional choices for people to, you know, get out of their car if they want to, but also make sure we're recognizing the role of the automobile. And then finally, we also got some specific feedback on the scale and density of intensity of development that we'd be appropriate. We received um from the planning commission a range of feedback including preferences to maintain a lower scale across all of the different district opportunities of
6:33:20two to three stories and some interest at um some of the higher scales as well when we were thinking kind of five stories or more in some of those strategic locations. So sort of a range of views on that. So that brings us to the opportunity for your input tonight. I'm sure you all still have a lot to say tonight. We are specifically looking for your feedback on some key ideas and this is um I do want to emphasize that there really this really is an opportunity a milestone moment in that entire timeline that I had presented earlier. I sort of described the project in
6:33:53two phases general plans that take about two years to do. The first phase, the first year takes us to sort of this moment and then the next phase, the second year is sort of evaluating those policy decisions, studying the impacts of those land use choices, preparing the technical studies in environmental reports so that we can come back to you and demonstrate to you what those potential implications could be. So, specifically, we are looking for your feedback on whether you support the proposed visions for both the study areas and the individual sites. Uh, are the boundaries that we've identified appropriate? Are there any changes or expansions
6:34:28or retractions you'd like to see? Are the numbers of stories or residential densities envisioned for those different mixeduse district overlays appropriate? Are there some that are more appropriate in different study area locations than others? And then do you have any other feedback that you'd like to share with us tonight? because we are really at a juncture where we need to have that information in order to move forward with that next phase of work. So that that concludes our presentation. Thank you so much for your patience as we worked through that. We'll answer any questions you have now and allow you guys to to weigh in.
Council Member
6:35:05All right. Well, that was an excellent presentation and I just want to thank the community and staff for doing the community outreach, getting the information out to you guys in order to be able to do that analysis and bring us what you did. So, thank you for that. I'm gonna open it up to let's do my book ends. Go ahead, Stu.
Council Member
6:35:22All right. So, excellent presentation. I love everything you've got planned as far as, you know, the way you're reimagining. I did have a question about the mall
Public speaker
6:35:33and it shows a creek. Where's that? Is that creek? Is that the Meadow View? The one in Meadow View?
City staff
6:35:39That's right. And do you envision kind of bringing that in and tying into the whole mall college campus?
City staff
6:35:47Yeah, ideally we'd be looking for opportunities to activate those spaces and you know partner with um local agencies to really understand how we can use that as an as an amenity not simply sort of a a waterway. So to the extent that we can look at um policy direction or programming ideas to
Public speaker
6:36:06partner and create those connections off the street so that people can use that as a walkway. That would be fantastic.
6:36:13Yeah, that's really cool. I I love the concept. Um also the Nicholas Valley.
Public speaker
6:36:19So I'm I'm really in favor of the one acre like the one speaker said earlier. Um because Meadow View we're on half acre uh minimums and we all have s uh septic also. So I don't see that being a a limiting factor. The dirt road issue is more of the limiting factor. So I think um if that was coupled with like you said a service district that would actually if we could because I think it needs to be paved if they're if they're going to do any kind of development. Um I I don't know how you could develop that without having some sort of roads
6:37:02and we would have to have some sort of uh service district to facilitate that because we'd have to maintain it in perpetuity too. So, um, so it but for them it may be worth it because if they can take that two and a half acres or three or whatever they're on and convert it into three 1acre lots, you know, that that would be uh might be financially beneficial. But, um, and it would kind of literally our last dirt roads are right there in Nicholas Valley. So, um, it would be nice to somehow bring them into the 21st century. 20. Yeah. 21st. Um, but but I'm
6:37:47definitely in favor of looking into that option of letting them go down to that one acre. Um, because again, I don't think the density even at one acre, it's not going to increase that much in that [snorts] area. So, um, and if they're cool with paying more for a service district, it's on them, you know. So, that that's my two cents. I love everything you propose with all the other properties. As far as the uh Diaz property, I'm more in favor of selling it off as uh industrial um just because I think we can get a lot more money for it and that money can
6:38:32be used for affordable housing, which is the one thing we're lacking right now is the cash, you know. So if we had cash to entice on whatever uh you know someone maybe wants to redevelop a piece of property in Temecula, you know, and turn it in just like is it Vine Creek? Yeah. Um did over there. So I would love to have that little carrot out there by using that, you know, selling that um as industrial property. So that's my input on this. Thank you.
Mayor Alexander
6:39:07Okay. Thank you very much. If I can just ask staff, uh, we had those four questions and if I did it the wrong way, do you want us to go question by question or just send it out to council members just for evaluation?
City staff
6:39:20No, I think we were we were hopeful tonight, right, that we could go have you think about these questions with what you saw on the slides
City staff
6:39:28as a whole. So, we don't need to go through each question. No, unless there was something you saw that like Councilman Stewart pointed out, he picked out Nicholas Valley, picked out sort of the college area. So, it's I think you could apply this to anything that you saw on the slides or none of it if you were good with what you saw.
Mayor Alexander
6:39:45Just wanted to make sure I was doing it right. Thank you. All right, let's go to my other book end. Sir,
Council Member
6:39:51thank you, Mayor. A lot to digest here. This is a big item. Uh but first, thank you for all the work that you've put in with the GPAC with the subcommittee. Uh myself and Mayor Prom have been on it. And I mean this is a a huge item. I know no one's in the crowd tonight, but working on our general plan, which is the vision for the city for the next few decades. Um was something that we did not take lightly. And it was an honor to be on the subcommittee, honor to work with you guys. Um and believe it or not, Mayor Prom and
6:40:15I actually work very well together. Uh despite what you may have seen the last one, it's all civil discourse, but um there's a lot to go through here. I I I guess it's kind of hard because there's so many different uh areas that we went through. I don't know the best way to go about it. Um I guess I want to start off with saying the the areas that had opportunity zones. It was a big discussion for Mayor Prom and I and the subcommittee and I'm sure at the GPAC um that it was important for my colleagues to know that the overlay zone of the mixed
6:40:43use with the current commercial that we're thinking about putting the opportunity zone that would overlay with potential for residential um is an opportunity for the developer to come in, but they would still have to get full council approval if they wanted to change that in the future uh to a residential zone. Um so that was a big sticking point for me uh during that um subcommittee meeting. And I also want to touch on uh we had a a city-wide survey that went out um that hit directly on future developments uh in regards to how high they should be, how many stores they should be. Did
6:41:14we receive that feedback? Um and if so, what did it say?
City staff
6:41:19We did. So, as part of the online survey, we did uh show the illustrations of different building heights starting at two to three stories, uh a range of sort of five stories and up to eight stories. Our results are mixed. So, we received feedback from the community. We received almost 250 responses to the online survey and we received a range of responses. I think a higher tolerance for the medium to higher densities uh adjacent to the freeway or in areas uh in those more uh concentrated commercial centers at Town Center, Tower Plaza, and at the mall specifically. And then looking at the more, you know,
6:41:52uh lowercale development at Southtown, seeing that more as a local serving kind of extension of of Oldtown. Um opportunities for a range of uses there. So both appropriate uh lower scale and higher scale as well. So I'd say we we received a range of of interest um mimicking the the feedback we received at planning commission as well. Honestly,
Council Member
6:42:13thank you very much. Yeah, after that having that meeting and and you know listen to the community and with that survey, I would be more inclined to look at a max of five stories just so my colleagues know where I I stand on that. Uh, I know the approval could go up to eight like an uptown sports or uptown uh specific plan. It can go up to eight. I think for these areas uh five would be uh beneficial, but that's just my prerogative for my council to sit on. Um, as far as the Diaz lot, like council member Stewart mentioned, I think this is a
6:42:42one that I really want to uh dive more into with staff and my colleagues and look at the potential that we could do there with the regional sports park. And I really want us to to dream big on this one, if you will. have a huge vision and let the state or let some other entity tell us that we can't do it. But this is one like Mr. Peters mentioned. Um a couple of my colleagues went down to Ontario and looked at their minor league sports field that was surrounded by other uh different sports fields, soccer fields, baseball fields uh and and indoor facilities. And
6:43:12I think uh and Mr. Pety asked for direction on that. My personal um viewpoint would be to to dream big on that one. Look into the the minor league stadium. look into surrounding sports field that look up at the the big baseball stadium with the pedestrian bridge and look into that Diaz lot across the way that could potentially be parking uh for that facility and for that huge complex. So on that specific one, I really want us to to dream big and let other agencies kick our dreams down. Uh but hopefully we can fulfill those dreams uh with a a professional baseball stadium surrounded by
6:43:45other muchneeded sports fields that we have in this city. Uh, another one that was mentioned, and I know Mayor Prom will talk about this, is the sphere of influence over the equestrian area. And I'll let him hit on that, but I really want to talk about and see what my um take is with the colleagues on the sphere of influence over the wine country in totality. You know, we mentioned throughout our uh QLMP, the wine country and how it's a vital core to the essence of Temecula. And even though it's out of the city limits, um it is a huge part of who we are
6:44:15as a city and it's also a huge part of our sales tax base. Even though we get zero sales tax from the the wine country itself, they come overflow into Temecula, shopping at our stores and our oldtown restaurants and looking at a sphere of influence with uh in my mind no hope to annex it, but more of just as Mr. Peter said to have a say at the table when they make decisions because we know that uh development is continuously happening in county and whether they have the wine country community plan but it would be nice to have a seat at the table and and
6:44:43give our input to protect the wine country and to protect the equestrian neighborhoods uh in that area. And again, I said this hard, there's there's there's so much in there and we can go through each one, mayor, um with with the Los Ranchitos lots and them looking to go commercial and also us looking at the um circulation element with Yianz and I know that was in there. So, there's so much that we could discuss and go through, but I know that that city staff needs certain things to hit on, but those were uh the main ones I wanted to touch on before we get into
6:45:12very specific.
6:45:14Okay, wonderful.
6:45:15Thank you, mayor.
6:45:15All right. Thank you very much. Great insight, May.
Council Member
6:45:20Well, yeah, and appreciate working with you on the uh subcommittee. Um, also just appreciate that all of the reinvisioning and graphics that we saw, all of those roads were on a road diet. So, I'm just messing with just messing with you. All right. Um [laughter] but but honestly I think the the concepts moving forward really help I think Temecula, the city council, our residents and businesses envision a very different future in a lot of these uh a lot of these areas. Um and I think it's I agree like five stories I I I kind of landed on the same thing in a lot of the
6:45:55areas, right? I mean, it just gives this opportunity for something different in Temecula and and really fosters the kind of growth that I think we're all sort of envisioning. Um, for some of the properties like the sports, you know, park concept, uh, I I love the concept, but I also think we need to be very careful in our calculation about what we're doing with the Diaz property. Uh, selling it makes a lot of sense, but if we're going to do that there, having that extra acreage for other infrastructure and needs might be really important, right? So, so I think there's a lot that you know
6:46:25and again none of this is set in stone and a lot of it gives us ultimate flexibility in doing what we need to do to create that branding and that vision. Um the uh sphere of influence I I agree. I think we need to think a little bit more broadly on the sphere of influence. Um and I don't think we should be too shy about talking about annexation particularly particularly along that uh south uh 79 corridor out to Anza. Is that right? Um because if if that has the opportunity to be more heavy on the commercial side, you know, looking and forecasting in the future,
6:47:00talking about city budgets and and bringing in new sources of revenue, that is an extremely important corridor that could could help do that for us. Um, of course, all this needs to pencil out in future analyses and everything else. So, I don't want to get people too amped up on the concept just yet, but you know, it's opening that conversation and right now with the, you know, work we're doing on the general plan, now is the time to have those conversations. Um, the, uh, you know, I I I love the concept areas from, you know, South Temecula to the innovation zone to the college and,
6:47:33you know, prominade area and all of that. I think the the real incentive for any business to to invest in those properties is to know that they're that the city has a potential plan. I I I appreciate the conversation we had earlier when we talked about, you know, it's not a foregone conclusion to have housing or have these other elements. This will have to be something the future councils will have to decide, but at least putting it out there saying, hey, here's the potential of what these properties could do. And you're absolutely right. you know, the the retail sector and the the malls and everything else
6:48:03have gone through, you know, quite a transition over the last 10 years or so. Um, and so just having that opportunity for us to, you know, kind of put it out there in a general plan, uh, to get people thinking about how to invest, you know, in these properties or reimagine these properties. It's a it's a good opportunity for us to do that. So, just really appreciate all the work that was done on this and the the concepts and the trying to, you know, consolidate all of the variety of stuff that's been coming at you guys from every different direction. Um, I know it's not
6:48:32easy. Um, but you really did capture a lot of uh the community sentiment and the the, you know, hopes for the subcommittee. So, thank you.
Mayor Alexander
6:48:42All right. Thank you to all my council members. Agree with everything I've heard so far. Uh, obviously the one area that's going to affect Oh, goodness gracious.
6:48:53I'm gonna keep going.
6:48:54You just keep You just keep talking.
6:48:56I'm done.
6:48:57It's I mean, it's not like we've been here for eight hours or anything. So,
6:49:00I'm [laughter] sorry.
6:49:02Don't don't be sorry.
6:49:03Go for it.
Council Member
6:49:04Um, thank you for the presentation, uh, and all the hard work into the subcommittee as well. like the I I I really there wasn't anything on the sort of like the vision of that that like jumped out at me that that was just like a hard no is very um forward thinking and and I think the the rub will be like vision versus reality like that first project that comes in that sort of meets the vision um where all you hear in the community is like we don't need any more people the roads are full so is the the will of the council regardless of
6:49:38who's on the council at the time willing to sort of stick to that, right? So, I think that'll be we can have these grand divisions and we can have these plans and we can do specific plans and and create these like opportunities. Um, but at the end of the day, we'll sort of like see how that plays out like in the long run. But, I mean, I love the connectivity. Um, you know, I I I too noticed, you know, there's like sort of the road diet world and I was like, "Wow, that kind of Paba could have looked like that too, you know." Um, but
6:50:07but I understand like we're we're kind of like visioning, right? And and I I think that's the thing I appreciate most about this job is like thinking about the future and thinking about 20 30 years ahead. And um, you know, you think of the mall and MSJC and potential higher, you know, like different higher ed and like that that corridor right there has so much potential, so much untapped potential, much like all the other sites that that are on that as well. um you know, specifically with like the Diaz Dindy property. Um yeah, so I went to uh the Ontario Stadium and and toured that
6:50:44and and I could just think in the back of my head like this is possible in our city. Like it is legitimately possible. Um, so sort of for me it it isn't like do you do you list the property now and and use that funds to develop the the the sports park, you know, ballpark possibility with housing. It's sort of like we can pump the brakes and kind of see what, you know, how that how that all plays out knowing that any sale those RDA funds will have to go back into affordable housing. So we're not not losing anything there. Um I I hear a
6:51:17lot about uh folks who say like oh I wish you know and they have these sort of visions about Temecula and one of them is like you know I wish there was like UTC so University Town Center like the mall right like they they sort of want that sort of feel. Well that feel includes like housing and that feel includes a lot of different things than what the prominade in that area exists. But I think planning forward for for adding housing and and I'm okay with like the five stories is fine, you know, like I'm I'm sort of okay with that. I think um I
6:51:48remember back in the Uptown specific plan, there was a there was one person that wanted like I forget how many stories, but it was like an obscene amount of stories and it sort of in the back of my head was like, well, it's not even feasible for a 30s story in our city. Like the the the money is just not there for that. We're not at that level. Um but overall, like generally supportive of everything. The one thing I want us to be very mindful of is a lot of these what we'll call them opportunity zones house small businesses where the rents are um affordable
6:52:18and as you redevelop you're sort of like are you pushing out existing uh businesses um and and replacing them with something else. And so I can think of Southtown as a perfect example of like if that gets redeveloped, you know, what happens to some of those businesses that um that section of town is a little bit older. The the rents I'm assuming I I haven't certainly looked, but I'm assuming the rents are a little bit cheaper than had um had there be a you know a four-story mixeduse, you know, kind of space. I don't know, but I just want us to be mindful of the
6:52:50impacts to some of the businesses that we currently have. um as we reinvision and we'd redevelop these, you know, you see businesses here in Oldtown frustrated with some of the pri you know the the per square foot pricing and things like that and and you know those smaller businesses are really the backbone of our community and we like I want to do as much as we can to protect that and I know and I know we will. Um, but overall like totally supportive of of this vision and and and reimagining some of the stuff and um if we need to go through the individual sites
6:53:22at some point we can but overall I was supportive of staff recommendation and the work that you all done as well as the subcommittee's work.
6:53:31All right, sorry I forgot about you.
6:53:33[laughter]
Council Member
6:53:34All right. So, again, agreeing with everybody uh on these areas. Uh looking at the fact that Los Ranchitos does fall into my district. Uh I know you've obviously done reach out to to that area. Is there are we looking to do more outreach to them as far as for Los Ranchos and
6:53:56Yeah, I definitely think we'll be reaching out.
City staff
6:53:59Okay. And then I believe one of those you said uh we're looking at was it lot C or some C something. What was it within that?
Council Member
6:54:08We identified it as a lot C. It's at the corner of Margarita and Dayport. Okay. We do have a preapp at this time.
Council Member
6:54:14And do we have any push back? I I think it's it may be a very good idea knowing that we have I believe the hospital within that area. You know family needs to stay there or people or even doctors who might be coming in maybe that might be a great opportunity to kind of build that up. I know Maretta [Murrieta] has that. Um, so just another good area for revenue, but I just questioning any push back that we've heard from Los Ranchitos on that um on that project. So the preapp came in um the city provided comments and then I talked to uh a representative from
6:54:48Los Franches. They actually received it after the city got it and they had comments themselves. Okay.
6:54:54So it's going to go through some different iterations. um they have different concerns than the city does, but I think eventually, you know, that will get to a point where I think both sides are supportive potentially.
Mayor Alexander
6:55:08And then can you just put that map up of Los Ranchitos of that section of the three lots, please? That is open. So, just to make sure, so C we have is the preapp right now currently. And then B is that long strip. We have one house, I believe, that's in there. Is that correct?
City staff
6:55:24That's correct. And then obviously Santiago Inune. So just out of curiosity with B, I know there's been a lot of conversations uh coming back from ICSC. There were uh there are businesses interested in kind of doing something in that area as well, but we're possibly wanting to move that to low density or commercial just to make sure
6:55:45to commercial. So the thought is um
City staff
6:55:48mostly city staff just looking at that site and thinking about the future. It's not necessarily a request from Los Ranchitos. It's just wanting to get it on everyone's radar. Uh looking 20 years into the future is it's it's zoned very low density. I think if we were starting from scratch, we wouldn't necessarily identify that for residential. Um so we take a look at it for commercial and the viability in the future.
Council Member
6:56:12Excellent. Excellent. I love that. And I'd also like to be able to I know we're going to have more discussions, but with um parcel a just digging in and just finding out getting more information obviously from Los Ranchos and what their vision is. I I've we've been hearing things things have come out of this council, but I'd like to be able to I know we're having a meeting I think myself and Ron, so we'll be able to get a little bit more information from them. So
City staff
6:56:34yeah, just just to add to that, um, Los Ranchito's representatives have been at a lot of the GPAC meetings and some of the things we heard about that site uh was an equestrian center in addition to uh identified in the CIP is a community garden at that site. So um I think what we've identified is open space, but uh again we'll we'll be going um listening to the city council as to what the vision is for that site. Sounds good. Okay. Uh then moving on to the sports park area. Uh I'm in definite agreeance, but I'd love to be able to take a look on
6:57:10that uh that one lot across from the basin that there might be a possibility for maybe an indoor facility. Again, going to ICS, we had great conversations about multi-ports uh fields within one area, which was pretty neat. So, you know, being able to have baseball, so uh you know, baseball, soccer, different different sports within that area. So, just again another opportunity I'm definitely in for diving in with council to see what that would look like. Um, let me see. Innovation corridor. I love the idea. Uh, definitely love seeing the fact that you guys are bringing in food and just restaurants in there as well. So,
6:57:47that way the these businesses have a place to eat. They're not going somewhere kind of off the not off the grid, but for their area. So, that's very appreciative. I understand that completely. And also just having it in the perspective of going back to the possibilities of having a military business community in there as well could definitely bring some good revenue. So I don't know if that's a possibility or could fall into that depending upon the type of contractors or the type of um uh business in itself. But other than that I'm very appreciative of all you guys put put through the city um the staff
6:58:19everybody. So at this time anybody have anything else that they'd like to add? Are we sure we don't do another round? Okay, sounds good. All right, so uh staff, to my understanding, I think everything is remaining the same. So, we're just going to have it as a receive and file. Okay, sounds good. All right, so with that, uh thank you again for your time. And uh so we don't need a motion. We'll just do a oops a receive and file on that one. All right, the last one is going to be department uh reports are going to be receive and file only. And do we
6:58:54have any more public comments at this hour? No. Seeing no. Uh items for future city council agendas. Anybody?
6:59:03Nope. Okay. Seeing none.
6:59:07Are you Do you?
6:59:09I'll hold it.
6:59:09Are you sure?
6:59:12Floor is yours.
6:59:14Okay. All right. That's gone. All right. City manager, any reports?
6:59:18Nothing further.
6:59:19All right. To their wonderful city attorney.
City Clerk
6:59:22Oh. Um, we had a close session tonight, but no reportable actions.
6:59:26No report. Okay, that being said, adjourned.