It will be a busy meeting of the Windsor Town Council at their meeting on March 17.
The meeting will kick off with a presentation from Zero Waste Sonoma on Senate Bill 1383, which is aimed at reducing short-lived climate pollutants in California. The first part of the new law will take effect in 2022, but municipalities should start preparing their compliance measures now.
Housing Element Progress Report
In the regular calendar, the council will start with a big ticket item, potentially adopting a resolution accepting the 2020 Annual Housing Element Progress Report.
The report will both review what permits and construction project have occurred in the town in the last year, and will also look forward to the new allocation numbers from the state for the coming year.
According to the board packet, at the Jan. 6 council meeting, staff reported Windsor’s preliminary number for the Sixth Cycle RHNA, following a recommendation from the Housing Methodology Committee (HMC — includes representatives from all jurisdictions in the Bay Area and housing advocates). Based on the HMC recommendation, Windsor’s anticipated RHNA number was 652 units, a 48% increase over the existing 440 units in the current cycle.
However, when the ABAG Executive Board adopted the draft methodology on Jan. 21 they added an “equity adjustment” that identified 49 jurisdictions within the Bay Area that exhibit “above average racial and economic exclusion.”
The equity adjustment increases lower-income RHNA units to these 49 jurisdictions, if necessary, to ensure each city/town/county receives a lower-income unit allocation at least proportional to its share of the region’s total households in 2020.
Windsor and Healdsburg were among the 18 jurisdictions to receive additional very low and low income RHNA allocations. For Windsor, the additional units come to 341, for a total draft allocation of 993 units. This would represent a 126% increase over the current RHNA.
The City of Healdsburg received an additional 176 units, for a total draft allocation of 476 units (a 203% increase over their current RHNA); the remaining Sonoma County jurisdictions saw their draft units reduced.
As mentioned, these numbers are still draft and will not be final until ABAG takes final action in late 2021. However, the town will need to begin preparing now for how to accommodate the increased RHNA numbers and how to encourage housing developments that are approved to move to construction.
2021 Summer Nights on the Green
Staff will be presenting three options for Summer Nights on the Green. According to the board packet, the options for concerts are structured without ticket sales to limit crowd size, and without social distancing circles or corrals to keep attendees safely distanced from other groups. Enforcing these types of measures at a concert may have a negative effect on the event, turning it into an exclusive, inequitable and uncomfortable experience for the community.
However, staff feels it can safely implement such measures for the movie nights and has included six consecutive showings, running July 6 to Aug. 10 in each of the proposed schedules.
The following concert options are dependent on group sizes permitted in public health orders for outdoor gatherings at the time of the established review date, which will be six weeks prior to the first scheduled concert.
Option 1:
Full concert series, 14 dates
Late start of July 8, running through to Oct. 7
The review date for this option is May 27
An additional appropriation of $37,500 will need to be added to the FY 2021-2022 budget for the six additional concerts in this model
Option 2:
Half concert series, seven dates
Start date of Aug. 26, running through to Oct. 7
The review date for this option is July 15
No additional appropriations to the FY 2021-2022 budget will be necessary for this model
Option 3:
Harvest Saturday concert series, four dates
Start date of Sept. 25, running through Oct. 16
The review date for this option is Aug. 14
A savings of $18,000 would be realized in the FY 2021-2022 budget with this model
For each of these options, on the public health order review date, there must be a path forward that allows 1,500 or more attendees for the town to offer the event.
Staff is not recommending option one, due to all the pandemic-related uncertainty. Options 2 and 3 allow more time for public health restrictions to lift and do not create any additional burden on the 2021-22 fiscal year budget.
Sonoma County Water budget
The Sonoma Water Fiscal Year 2021-22 budget proposes a 3.47% increase for water contractors purchasing water from the Santa Rosa Aqueduct. However, because the town will no longer be paying a 20% surcharge in the new fiscal year the net result is a 13.75% rate decrease for water purchased from the Santa Rosa Aqueduct.
The Sonoma Water budget includes a 9.9% increase in the subfund rates for water diverted through the town’s Russian River Well Field. The subfund rate increase is largely due to Dry Creek restoration project costs.
The council will be asked to provide direction to the town’s Water Advisory Committee Representative to vote in favor of acceptance of the Fiscal Year 2021-22 budget.
Vacation rentals
The Town of Windsor currently does not have formally adopted regulations addressing short-term vacation rentals (STRs), which are rentals of residential units for periods of less than 30 days.
According to the board packet, in 2015, in the absence of formal regulations, the town’s community development director established an internal STR policy to guide staff responses to inquiries from property owners regarding STRs. The internal policy outlined the following requirements for a residential unit to be used as short-term rental: (1) approval of a business license; (2) fire safety inspection; and (3) compliance with Fire District requirements. Like all land uses, STRs are also required to comply with Zoning Ordinance performance standards, which include standards for noise and exterior lighting.
Since then, 38 business licenses have been issued for STRs. Of these, 32 business licenses were still active as of Feb. 2021 – which represents less than 1% the total number of housing units in the town. However, staff believes the actual number of STRs operating in town could be as high 100. The town has not imposed transient occupancy tax (TOT) to short-term rentals, and they are not specifically listed in the town’s TOT ordinance.
In November of 2017, the council directed staff to prepare an ordinance formally allowing STRs as one of a number of measures intended to address housing and economic impacts resulting from the Nuns and Tubbs fires. Since this time, preparation of the STR ordinance has been delayed due to staff resources being diverted to other matters. Last year, in response to recent community concerns regarding STRs, the Town Council requested that staff proceed with preparing an STR ordinance.
But first, staff needs input from the council on various operational aspects related to STRs. This agenda item will a list of issues for consideration.
Commission appointments
The final two mayoral interim appointments of members to serve on the Parks and Recreation Commission and Senior Citizen Advisory Commission should hopefully be resolved at the end of this meeting.
Parks & Recreation commission
One vacancy exists due to the expiration of Ben Lehr’s term (appointed by former Councilmember Okrepkie). Applications were received from Alma Bowen, JB (Jeffrey) Leep, Angelica Nunez, Jason Roberts and John Wong.
Senior Citizen Advisory Commission
There is one vacancy that was created by the expiration of Bill Fallis’s term who was appointed by former Councilmember Okrepkie for an at-large seat that expired December of 2020. Applications were received from Karen Alves and Mary Ann Bainbridge-Krause.
These vacancies will be filled temporarily and will expire when the new council member is seated following the special election in May.
To provide public comment, submit them via email to the council by 4 p.m. on the day of the meeting: [email protected].
Members of the public can participate in the meeting by visiting:
https://zoom.us/j/99699164874 or by dialing 877-853-5247 and
Enter Webinar ID: 996 9916 4874
The meeting will be live streamed at:
https://www.townofwindsor.com/721/Agendas-Minutes-Videos
The meeting can also be viewed on Comcast Channel 27
and AT&T U-verse Channel 99.
