Recap of the Jan. 6 Sebastopol City Council meeting
The city council updated the zoning code, allowing property owners to condominium-ize their ADUs, chose committee roles, and took on the issue of messy newspaper racks
Mayor Jill McLewis was back in the council chamber for the whole meeting for the first time in many months. She kicked off the meeting with a new tradition—the reading of a little snippet of Sebastopol history provided by the West Sonoma County Historical Society. She said the point of this was to “honor our history. We have a lot of new people in Sebastopol, and a lot of people don’t know the history of our town.”
Mayor Jill McLewis, Vice Mayor Sandra Maurer, Councilmember Phill Carter, Councilmember Neysa Hinton, and Councilmember Stephen Zollman were present in chambers for the Jan. 6 Sebastopol City Council meeting.
Consent Calendar
The consent calendar consists of items that are routine in nature or don’t require additional discussion, often because they’ve been discussed extensively at a previous council meeting.
In addition to approving the minutes of previous meetings, the city council also unanimously approved the following items:
The council received the “Minute/Reference Orders for Calendar Year 2025,” which is a list of agenda items reviewed and/or acted upon by the City Council during the previous calendar year.
The council approved a voting delegate and alternates to vote in the mayor's absence for the 2026 Sonoma County Mayors and Councilmembers Association meetings. Mayor McLewis is the voting delegate, and Vice Mayor Maurer is the voting alternate. If the Vice Mayor cannot attend, the order of other alternates is as follows: Councilmember Carter, Councilmember Hinton, Councilmember Zollman.
The council approved city sponsorship of Sebastopol Walks 2026, which includes publicity and social media. See the 2026 schedule here.
The council approved the city council meeting dates for 2026. (This got pulled for reconsideration at the end of the meeting when Councilmember Hinton noticed that it included a second meeting in August, which the council normally takes off. The council approved the removal of that second meeting.)
The council received the Code of Conduct policies, which they sign yearly.
The council approved amendment No. 1 to the Cooperative Funding Agreement between the SCTCA and the City for the Bodega Avenue Phase Bike Lanes and Pavement Rehab Phase 2 project. The City requested a minor scope change to the Project to include installation of bike lanes facilities and pavement rehab on Bodega Avenue between Valley View Drive and Atascadero Creek.
The council authorized the purchase order for a new backhoe.
The council approved a resolution opposing Federal Communications Commission Proposed Rulemaking 25-276 (“Build America: Eliminating Barriers to Wireless Deployments”), which would remove local control of wireless installations. See the staff report.
Public Hearing on the Zoning Update
The council approved the zoning changes listed below, most of which were required by state law or to comply with California Housing and Community Development (HCD) requests regarding updates to the Housing Element of Sebastopol’s General Plan.
Here are the changes:
Only two of these changes required discussion by the council:
No. 3—The workforce housing combining zone. This change lays the groundwork for properties along Highway 116 to be used for residential purposes, even though they’re zoned commercial. It creates what’s known as an overlay (or combining) zone, which according to the staff report “places an additional layer of incentives or regulations over the base zoning district”—in this case allowing them to be used for workforce housing.
No. 5—AB1033, which went into effect in 2024, allows homeowners to sell both ADUs and in-home JADUs (Junior ADUs) as condominiums—if the local municipality opts in. The Sebastopol City Council officially opted in last night by approving this zoning change. (We’ll be posting an article on ADU condo conversions later this week.)
During public comment, 14 people commented in support of the ADU condo conversions, including young adults and parents of kids who grew up here and who would like to stay but can’t afford to.
“We are so excited about what AB1033 does,” said Generation Housing’s Jenn Close, who lives in Sebastopol. “Here are some concerns that we hear regularly at Generation H: There are no starter homes, and there are few affordable for-sale options for seniors who want to downsize. These things are just true with the average home sale being…more than a million in Sebastopol. This [AB1033] is doing equity through creating affordable home-ownership opportunities, the lack of which is the primary driver of income inequality…I can’t think of an easier way to walk the talk of our shared values of having a more equitable and more sustainable and more prosperous community.”
Karen Demarest said, “You’ve made a lot of changes to allow ADUs to happen. But this is really unique because home ownership is a real way to change people’s lives. The first home you buy changes everything. It changes your sense of well-being. It changes your sense of safety and security, and it changes your long-term outcomes…I really encourage you to consider adopting AB1033.”
West Sonoma County Union High School District Board Member Lewis Buchner commented on the importance to local schools of providing housing in town that young families can afford.
There were a few skeptics. Oliver Dick worried about the effect on home values of a proliferation of ADUs. Mayor McLewis was concerned about whether city development and impact fees applied to condominium-ized ADUs. She worried if the city could afford to provide services for a bunch of new residents, who might not have to pay those fees. “I just think at some point, we have to ask ourselves, who’s paying for all this infrastructure?”
In the end, however, all of these zoning changes, including ADU condo conversion, were approved 4 to 1, with Mayor McLewis dissenting.
Regular Agenda
There were three items on the regular agenda.
COMMITTEE CHOICES
Councilmembers serve on an array of city and regional committees and also as liaisons to local nonprofits. They send their preferences to the Mayor, who tries to make everyone happy by assigning councilmembers to the committees of their choice. There’s often a little last-minute horse trading. Mayor McLewis must have done a good job of it, however, because there were very few changes. The council voted unanimously to approve the following list:
(Note: The list below lists only councilmember positions. Some committees are filled by staff members and department heads. These are not listed.)
Agencies
Redwood Empire Municipal Insurance Fund (REMIF)/California Intergovernmental Risk Agency: Councilmember Zollman (primary), Councilmember Hinton (alternate)
Sonoma County Transportation Authority (SCTA): Councilmember Hinton (primary), Councilmember Zollman (alternate)
Regional Climate Protection Agency (RCPA): Councilmember Hinton (primary), Councilmember Zollman (alternate)
Sonoma Clean Power: Councilmember Carter (primary), Councilmember Zollman (alternate)
Zero Waste Sonoma Board: Vice Mayor Maurer (primary), Councilmember Carter (alternate)
Marin/Sonoma Mosquito & Vector Control: The city will seek citizen representative.
Countywide Advisory Committees
Groundwater Sustainability Agency Board/ Santa Rosa Plain GSA Basin: Councilmember Hinton (primary), Mayor McLewis (alternate)
Russian River Watershed Association Board of Directors: Vice Mayor Maurer (primary), Mayor McLewis (alternate)
Other Governmental Agencies
Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG): Voting Delegate is the mayor; alternate is vice mayor.
League of CA Cities/CAL Cities: Voting Delegate is the mayor; alternate is vice mayor
Legislative Committee of the Mayors and Council Members of Sonoma County: Mayor McLewis (primary), Vice Mayor Maurer (alternate)
Mayors and Councilmembers Association: mayor (primary) and vice mayor (alternate)
Council Liaisons
Gravenstein Health Action Coalition/Meet Your Neighborhood: Councilmember Zollman (primary); Mayor McLewis (alternate)
Library Advisory Board for Sebastopol Regional Branch: Councilmember Zollman
Sebastopol Area Chamber of Commerce/Sebastopol Downtown Association: Councilmember Carter (primary), Councilmember Zollman (alternate)
Sebastopol Center for the Arts: Vice Mayor Maurer
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center Mayor McLewis (primary), Vice Mayor Maurer (alternate)
Sebastopol Senior Center: Councilmember Hinton (primary), Councilmember Carter (alternate)
Sebastopol World Friends: Mayor McLewis (primary), Councilmember Carter (alternate)
Council Liaison to Homeless Service Organizations: Councilmember Zollman (primary), Mayor McLewis (alternate)
Council Liaison to West County Museum/Farm: Councilmember Zollman (primary), Mayor McLewis (alternate)
Council Liaison to NonProfits/Collaborative: Councilmember Zollman
Service Organizations Liaison: Vice Mayor Maurer
Ad Hoc And Standing Committees
Agenda Review Committee: mayor, vice mayor, city manager, city attorney, assistant city manager, city clerk
Budget Committee: Vice Mayor Maurer and Councilmember Carter
Homeless Coalition Board: Councilmember Zollman and Mayor McLewis
Climate Action Committee: Councilmember Carter
EIFD Ad Hoc Committee: Councilmember Hinton and Councilmember Carter
Ad Hoc Committee for Sebastopol Cultural Community Center (SCCC) Building: Mayor McLewis and Councilmember Zollman
City Council Policy and Protocols: Mayor McLewis and Vice Mayor Maurer
Committee to Build the Sebastopol Commons: Councilmember Carter and Councilmember Zollman
Oversight Committee for Enterprise Funds: Councilmember Carter
125th City of Sebastopol Anniversary Sub-committee: Vice Mayor Maurer and Councilmember Zollman
NEWSPAPER RACK ORDINANCE
This item was brought forth by Mayor McLewis, who, when she was doing her photo evidence gathering on Sebastopol’s ugly trashcans last year, also noticed how messy—and mostly empty—the newspaper racks were. The council voted unanimously to direct the city attorney to prepare an ordinance regulating magazine, newspaper, and pamphlet boxes within city rights-of-way, including standards for placement, maintenance, and accountability.
UPDATE ON COMMUNITY SERVICE VOLUNTEER PROGRAM AND POLICE CITIZEN ACADEMY
Councilmember Zollman removed this item from the consent calendar because he wanted to hold Police Chief Sean McDonagh’s feet to the fire about these police volunteer programs. The Chief’s staff report said, “There is currently insufficient capacity to administer the CSV Program or Police Citizen Academy until staffing stabilizes and personnel are fully trained.” This did not satisfy Councilmember Zollman, who wanted a firm date about when these police volunteer programs were going to be put in place. Interim City Manager Mary Gourley said they might have a better sense of things by March.
You can find the agenda and documentation for the Jan. 6 city council meeting here. The video of the meeting is posted here. The next Sebastopol City Council meeting is Jan. 20 at 6 pm at the Sebastopol Youth Annex, 425 Morris St., Sebastopol.
Thank you, Laura, for capturing these annual, procedural, and foundational arrangements of greater Sebastopol's influence patterns. I am endlessly fascinated by who and how things get done here.