Sebastopol adopts Climate Action Framework and Head West expands
Sebastopol adopts Climate Action Framework and Head West expands
Recap of Sebastopol City Council for July 19
All council members were present at the July 19 Sebastopol City Council meeting, including Mayor Patrick Slayter, Vice Mayor Neysa Hinton, Councilmember Una Glass, Councilmember Sarah Gurney and Councilmember Diana Rich.
The Sebastopol City Council had another packed agenda for its July 19 meeting, which stretched beyond five hours, the first two and half of which were spent debating the temporary fate of a handful parking spaces near the Barlow.
Public comment: The most notable public comment came from Bruce Peters of the Belmont Terrace Homeowners Association, who said there had been a noticeable uptick in crime in his small north Sebastopol neighborhood since the creation of Horizon Shine Village. Peters asked to meet with members of the city council to address the issue.
Consent Calendar
(Note: 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.)
After proclaiming July 24 to July 30 Zero Waste Week, the council unanimously passed the consent calendar, which featured the following:
An amendment to the Little League lease of Poley Field, changing it from a year-to-year lease to a 25-year lease, which will allow Sebastopol Little League to finance the $130,000 replacement of the field lights.
Approval of several contracts already authorized in the 2022-23 city budget, which was adopted at the last council meeting. These contracts include:
A renewal of the contract with West County Community Services for the operation of Park Village, Sebastopol’s low-low-income trailer park.
A renewal of the contracts with West County Community Services for homeless community outreach, plus a renewal of the contract with the current community outreach coordinator.
Modification to the master agreement with GHD Inc. for engineering and technical support services to the engineering department.
Regular Agenda
Head West to expand further down McKinley Street
The first item on the regular agenda was a public hearing on the appeal by the owners of Rialto Cinemas, challenging the city’s granting of a Special Event Permit to Head West Marketplace, the popular vintage/maker faire that takes over the main street of the Barlow one weekend per month.
The permit, which was granted by city staff in May, will allow the market to expand farther down McKinley on the small stretch of public road that runs from Taylor Lane Coffee to the eastern driveway entrance to the Rialto Cinemas. That means that for one weekend a month, there will be 8-10 fewer public parking spaces available to patrons of the Rialto Theater and, on Sundays, the farmers market. This expansion would allow Head West to add 15 new vendor booths.
After noting the high demand for parking on weekends, Ky Boyd, owner of the Rialto said, “If the Barlow and Head West want to expand their event and include more vendors, we don't have problems with that. But contain it to the Barlow property. The Barlow is a huge campus. Find ways to put it in the Barlow. Don't extend it into a publicly owned Street. My basic question comes down to this to the city council: Would you grant any other private business in the city of Sebastopol, the opportunity to close a public street 10 times a year for a for profit venture?”
Several wise old heads throughout the long discussion that followed noted that the council had done exactly that by OK’ing the closure of a small public street for the parklet in front of Screamin’ Mimi’s.
Ultimately, the council voted 4 to 1 (Una Glass dissenting) to deny the appeal and uphold the city staff's approval of the Head West Permit to take over that half block of McKinley, with two revised stipulations:
The first was the placement of a professional security guard in the Rialto parking lot to keep Head West/Barlow visitors from parking there.
The second specified that the marketplace could also expand a short distance down Pink Lady Court in the Barlow.
During the discussions, it came to light that Head West and all of its vendors didn’t have and would need to have business licenses from the city of Sebastopol, which the owner of Head West, Jimmy Brower, agreed to.
Brower proved to be an amiable if formidable opponent during questioning, repeatedly answering direct questions with meandering soliloquies, reminding the council that he was from Oakland and that his company’s mission was to expand opportunities for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC (otherwise known as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) makers. The point of these soliloquies seemed to be that Sebastopol, as a wealthy and mostly white city, had a moral reparations duty to roll over to his demands.
Council adopts the Climate Action Framework
The council unanimously adopted a Climate Action Framework, a document that will guide the city as it works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for climate impacts such as drought and wildfires.
The framework was prepared by consultant Phoebe Goulden in consultation with the city’s Climate Action Committee, which will be responsible for moving its recommendations forward.
The purpose of the Climate Action Framework is to help Sebastopol meet the goals of a Climate Emergency Resolution adopted in 2019, which included a 2030 carbon neutrality target. Reaching carbon neutrality will involve reducing emissions as much as possible while using the natural environment to absorb excess emissions.
The framework looks at Sebastopol’s climate progress so far and sets goals for additional action in six areas: transportation, sustainable land use, buildings and clean energy, consumption and waste, community, and city operations and leadership.
With the framework finalized, Sebastopol’s Climate Action Committee will evaluate additional emission-reduction and preparedness strategies to recommend to the City Council. An initial list of actions that the city could take to help meet its climate goals is included in Appendix A of the Framework.
“I find it very impressive that the report includes recommendations that really create a very practical pathway for us,” said Councilmember Diana Rich, who also serves on the Climate Action Committee, regarding the potential actions in Appendix A. “This is a great roadmap.”
The framework also contains ways that community members can participate in the city’s climate efforts by taking action to reduce their emissions and prepare for climate impacts. Suggestions on how to take action are distributed throughout the Framework document in blue “Take Action” boxes.
You can find the framework on the city website HERE.
Community members are also invited to participate in the evaluation of additional actions by providing public comment via email or by attending Climate Action Committee meetings, which occur the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at 3:30pm via Zoom. To receive email updates on climate action in Sebastopol, sign up for the City’s “Climate Issues” email list here.
(Thanks to Holly Hansen for her excellent write-up of the Climate Action Framework, which I have drawn from for this summary.)
Other topics
A resolution to put a measure on the ballot to extend the term of Sebastopol’s Utility Users tax (UUT) by removing the sunset clause was pushed off until the next council meeting because the resolution was missing some critical language.
The council then approved a resolution to bring back retired dispatcher Tracy Peters part time while the city looks for a new dispatcher and agreed to a temporary pay upgrade for another employee, whose duties have expanded.
In an urgency item added that night to the agenda, the council also agreed to write a letter of support for SB 852, which will permit cities, counties, or special districts to establish climate resilience financing districts to undertake projects and programs to address climate change, including wildfire, sea level rise, extreme heat and cold, drought, flooding, and other apocalyptic scenarios.