[This new thread continues the discussion from the prior thread "Santa Rosa Plan to Reunify Courthouse Square calls to remove 35 Redwood Trees?" which is now closed.]
The City Council PASSED UNANIMOUS YES VOTES to continue with the courthouse square reunification plan.
Is anyone in favor of chipping in to help fund a www.change.org petition to influence the council members to stop the development for now? Alternatively to the Change.org petition, the city will acknowledge wet-ink petition signatures in order to put the issue up for vote on the November ballot, but at a long and arduous 9 months of signature collection. There's got to be a different way through some kind of "Docu-Sign" as a legal way to obtain mass wet ink petition signatures, of which we would need 7,500, or 10% of the city's population.
We have some idea of what the true cost of the reunification will entail. They tell us $10 million. But if $10 million is akin to a mortgage loan, then it will cost much more, as per the September 22, 2015 council meeting, the true cost will be $20 million when interest is included @ $665,000 per year for a 30 year loan.. The way the council has pursued money for this project requires no public vote, yet funding will be with our tax dollars through the generation of new fees, including rent control fees @ 4.7 million per year to administrate.
This plan has been in the works for decades, but no matter, the public "poll" is not in favor due to financial ambiguity, and the plan itself to remove trees, to which there could be a better way to spare them in a different plan.
The community has expressed sentiment at the meeting last night that there are too many questions and the plan was Marshall-ed in some secrecy through closed study sessions, hence potentially breaching the Brown Act, which calls for all citizens to participate in governmental discussions. Most disappointing, there were no PUBLIC HEARING NOTICES erected at the site of Old Courthouse Square to let the public know that the topic was being discussed by City Council. (Our citizens could benefit from an automatic text when any meeting takes place at the City Council).
I understand the reunification is important and a long sought and noble desire. But the time is not now. We have a severe housing crisis and the $10 million turned $20 million when finally paid off, is a priority for putting more jobs into the Santa Rosa Permit Department to help expedite developers building plans to build more affordable housing. The council seems to disagree and thinks that the $20 million would have an unknown return on investment, but one council member speculated of 20 years. This is not a good answer and 20 years is a horrible ROI. We need SOLID ROI information before moving forward.
Trees will be slated to be cut ASAP. I'm sure the City is being tight lipped about the exact day of cutting to prevent public protest.
BTW: I URGE anyone who is interested to view the video archive stream on the City Council website (ARCHIVED videos) to see the public courthouse hearing held on September 22, 2015, (please watch item 4.1 and 14.1, as well as video of the actual vote to approve on January 26, 2015 near the end of the video).
Anyone? Please comment your ideas and thoughts.
Many thanks!