GENERAL MEETING MINUTES

October 17, 2024

VIA ZOOM

Call to Order: 7:02 p.m.

Police Report: Cmdr Weeks – 28 day crime map: 10 DV assaults, 1 robbery at liquor store, 2 burglaries – 1 a construction site, 1 near Northbank/Petit, professional burglary crew got caught in T.O. CVS a cluster.

Announcements:

•  Oct 22, e-bike workshop at City Hall, 6-7:30
• Coffee with a Cop Oct 30, 8-9:30 a.m., Lovewell Coffee, 2271 N. Ventura Ave.
• Teen Driver Safety Week – parents requested to talk to their teens about safety.

Pam: how will e-bikes be monitored by police? Poor courtesy shown by bike riders to walkers.

Cmdr Weeks: e-bikes are the number one complaint at the moment. They have arrested one group who beat up a female senior citizen on the Westside. There has been some enforcement around the Kimble park by traffic officers. Many cities are trying to figure out how to legally exclude them from bike paths. They are hard to catch and they flee. Some bikes are considered motorcycles.

Recognition of Attendees: District 4 Council Member — Jeanette Sanchez-Palacios

(District 5 Council Member — Bill McReynolds could not attend)

Breanne Dunn: Consultant for City of Ventura

Marlyss Auster: Visit Ventura

Minutes of Last Meeting are posted on the website

 Treasurer’s Report: Balance of $858.91, no activity in the bank account this month so far.

Announcement: Dr. Sanchez-Palacios – City will be hosting tenant/property owner workshops starting Saturday. We are limited to certain rent increases by law. City is proactively soliciting feedback about evictions and housing. First meeting in English Oct 19 from 10-12 at Westview Village, and Oct 30 in English. An in-person Spanish meeting scheduled for Nov. 9, and virtual Spanish Nov. 14. All dates can be found on City website.

Next City Council meeting: Main Street Moves survey results. No official action that night.

Sara: at a city council meeting discussion of sidewalk vendor legislation due to popup taco stands. Does not affect licensed food trucks. City is working on licensing the stands/popups. These are a multimillion dollar venture from L.A., getting around the health and environmental laws. Human trafficking may have been involved in some cases. Dr. Sanchez-Palacio added that the law will include more than just food vendors, but also flower sellers, etc.

The Board met with two developers—Cachuma townhomes went before the design review committee last night. A nice design. The developer for Wells/Darling is now proposing a Chipotle and a Starbucks, and a 6000 SF market/deli that would be “in between a Circle-K and a Vons.”

Next Vision Planning: Sara is working with the school board and school district on the next one.

Dr. JSP: The City staff is looking for information on grocery stores. The developers claim they won’t come here, but we do have the population, so they need to do research. The city is looking at the carwash/gas station as 4 different drive throughs. The developers have been asked to go back and redo it.

Old Business

None

New Business

Volunteer opportunities. Recording Secretary needs to be filled. Other board members may not continue, but Sara will.

Guest Speaker – Marlyss Auster, Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau

Responsible for promoting our community. Through tourism marketing, sales tax increases to pave streets, etc. Ambigram is on bumper stickers everywhere. Everything from the inside, no external marketing co. Partnerships with Brand USA, Visit California, Central Coast California, Ventura County Coast, Ventura. They hand off business to Downtown Ventura, Ventura Harbor Village. Our Community is the heart of everything they do. No advertising to Los Angeles (they don’t spend enough money here to make it worthwhile). We want people to travel further so they stay overnight and use our restaurants.

Marlyss – 12 years, lives here, raises her kids here.
Michele Gilmour – 13 years (communications)
Mike Laan – 10 years (dir. of mkt)
Michele Foster – 10 years manager
Julie Madsen – 2 years communications
Lela Brodie – many years, content
Nicole Taylor – visitor center sup.
Cameron Yzaguirre – sales
Aubrey Zambrano/Ventura Visitor Services
Plus 20 volunteers who greet visitors daily

• Funded by the City. Contributed $6,442,539 to City General Fund in 2019, $7,634,435 in 2023.
• Visitor Center open every day (few select holidays closed), website, social, visitors guide, trade shows.
• Not aspiring to be Santa Barbara, etc. we stay true to who we are.
• 22k people/year visit the Visitor Center. Run promotions to do shopping here during the holidays.
• Print ads – March Madness, 13 regional sites.
• Ventura Highway by America – they got the license through 4/1/26 used in videos produced in-house with locals, not models.
• Inspiration Guide magazine tells the story of Ventura, now at 85k copies. New one comes out in January. All local. Award-winners.
• Trade shows, mini communications, and PR events.
• What’s New? – lots of new businesses downtown and midtown. All neighborhoods are covered in the guide.
• Events coming up – Winter Wine Walk, Witches Paddle, Howl-o-Ween dog costume contest, downtown Spooktacular Costumer Contest and Trick or Treating.
• We hosted Visit California Global Influencer Advisory Board visited for four days, built relationships.
• 2024 X Games – we benefited in a huge way from hosting. 9.3 billion media impressions, 16.5 hours of live coverage. People know us now; people come and spend money here for city services we can count on and enjoy.
• Community Results – 9k meals donated, 10,755 water bottles saved by hydration stations, 81 lbs of trashed picked up off the beach, 12 students created a ramp.
• 2024 Transportation results – Strawberry festival a big topic (avoid the mess).
• Amtrak over 400% increase in ridership, Metrolink over 300%
• Not having X Games here in 2025. We will maximize the successes that we had.
• Nominated for and given several awards

Breanne Dunn – Eastside Neighborhood Greenway – series of pedestrian improvements from Kimball to Saticoy.

Links to:

• Schools: safe routes, Jobs, Fresh food, Recreation facilities, Create improvements to disadvantaged areas.
• Pop up events.
• Most popular requests: bike lane, improved crossings
• Improvements – people are willing to give up some convenience for cars.
• See plans on website.
• Cost estimate: $5.67 M. 100% by transportation program, no matching city funds if awarded.

Santa Paula Branch Line – 4.2 mile project “Rails with Trails”

• Early design May 2024, End of design late 2024. Bid for construction mid—2025. Phase 3 east end in-person meeting.
• 4 miles of trail
• Traffic signals
• Solar lights
• Bike/ped bridges
• Shade trees
• Trash cans
• Benches
• Trail kiosks
• Bike repair stations
• Exercise station
• Water fill stations
• No matching city funds needed.

Metrolink Station Trailhead: Bunting & Nightingale

Park & Ride facility just east of the station.

North Bank Dr. Community Crossing

Making it a place where you might want to spend some time.

Public outreach: they want to hear from the community. Video on website, get info on events, etc.

Digital communications, City of Ventura, Meetings, Website, Surveys (survey closes on Sunday)

Dean: is the pathway laid out now? Ans: by next August. Dean also asked if they might open sections of the trail as they are built. The question was taken under advisement.

Sara: in SP original plan – bathrooms? Ans: Not currently funded through the grant. Mixed feelings.

Sara: Projects end up at Darling/Wells, Wells/Telephone/ is there a further plan to connect the bike lanes? Ans: https://www.cityofventura.ca.gov/2526/Active-Transportation-Plan current map and proposed. Breanna will follow up and come back with answers.

Anything on Los Angeles Ave is Cal Trans, not the City.

Sara: has the vets home been part of the discussion? Ans: No, but everyone has been noticed. Sara will get a name for Breanne to reach out to.

Terry: city/county collaboration very important with park, Boys and Girls Club, library, etc. to make the children of Saticoy feel included.

Saticoy Park – big renovation program going on, where trail meets turnoff to Saticoy Park. Breanne has reached out to Boys and Girls club. He dropped the ball on communications.

Community Discussion

New officers will be elected at the next meeting. Please volunteer.

Next Meeting: November 21, 2024

Adjournment: 8:50 PM

Respectfully submitted

Sheila Lowe, Secretary