Dear Neighbors, Working with our City staff, we recently updated our City Council priorities list. This is a semi-annual process in which the City Council clarifies the policy initiatives that City staff should develop over the next 6 to 12 months. This process is completed in two steps. First, the Council votes on all the nominated ideas and is allowed 1 vote per item. My allotted 6 votes went to the following items:
Ban gasoline-powered leaf blowers
Private property graffiti abatement
Develop innovative strategies to hire crossing guards
Safe parking program
Downtown zoning code update (responding to the housing crisis)
Impact fee deferred payment program for housing (responding to the housing crisis)
Click here to watch a clip from the City Council meeting. After the first phase of voting was complete, we ranked the priorities that received 5 or more votes. The ban on gasoline-powered leaf blowers received only 3 votes and did not advance to the priority-ranking vote. In the priority-ranking phase, each person can apportion their 6 votes however they want. Based on input from residents and stakeholders over the past 9 months, I allotted my 6 votes to prioritize the following:
2 votes: Downtown Zoning Code Update (Responding to the Housing Crisis)
2 votes: Impact Fee Deferred Payment Program for Housing (Responding to the Housing Crisis)
1 vote: Safe Parking Program
1 vote: Sanctioned Encampments
Each of these issues received enough votes to be ranked in the top 10. However, the issues we have chosen to prioritize will not automatically be implemented as ordinances or policy. Instead, these issues will be studied by City staff before coming back for Council consideration. In other words, stay tuned! The policy details for each item will be fleshed out over time, and then the City Council will vote whether to implement the fully developed idea. I will keep you updated throughout the year on the progress of these issues. Like us on Facebook