The Vacaville City Council was asked by the city’s Utilities Department on Tuesday to adopt a resolution to adopt the amended 2020 Urban Water Management Plan Update in compliance with the Urban Water Management Planning Act as codified in the State Water Code.
The city’s 2020 water use target was set at 164 gallons per capita per day. That number is calculated by adding all water use within the city and dividing the total by the city’s population.
The amendment was approved unanimously with Vice Mayor Jeanette Wylie on Zoom and Councilmember Roy Stockton absent.
The council also considered the North Village Development Project Final Environmental Impact Report, as well as a General Plan Amendment, Zoning Map Amendment, Development Agreement Amendment, Specific Plan Amendment and Vesting Tentative Map.
The North Village Specific Plan was adopted back in 1995. Area Plan 2 for the project consists of 468.6 acres with 1,151 units, open space, a public park, a private swim club and the possibility of a public school.
Amendments include reserving an 11-acre potential school site, extending the development agreement by 20 years until 2045, increasing overall units from 2,499 to 2,599, as well as changing the General Plan and Zoning Map designations and obtaining a Vesting Tentative Map for Area Plan 2.
The Vacaville Planning Commission unanimously approved the amendments and FEIR in July. Changes to the project include relocating the apartment site to the south and moving the school site to the north, updated infrastructure, circulation and lot configuration, plus 2.4 acres transferred from Residential Low-Density to Residential Low-Medium Density.
The council, seeking clarification and additional information on the speed of building the public park, decided to table the item to Sept. 26.
“Parks are what people want,” said Mayor John Carli. “They don’t want to look there and see an empty lot.”
The current park building trigger would be at a 50 percent build-out. Mayor Carli suggested changing that trigger to a certain date.
The council was also asked to authorize City Manager Aaron Busch to finalize and execute the First Amendment to the 2023-2024 Agreement for Consultant Services with 4LEAF Inc. for the purposes of building plan review and building inspection services by increasing the amount of compensation by $500,000 with a total compensation limit not to exceed $750,000.
The Building Division provides building permitting, inspection services and plan check reviews whereas the third-party consultant provides supplemental support in times of staffing shortages or high volumes of permit activity.
Between November and this month, the city has only had two building inspectors as opposed to the normal three. This has led to a backlog in inspection services. On average, a building inspector will conduct 15-20 inspection stops daily.
From January to July, the city issued 2,700 building permits and completed 7,682 inspections.
Another full-time inspector was hired on Aug. 7. The budget amendment request is for $450,000.
The item was approved unanimously, 5-0 with Councilmember Michael Silva absent after having to leave the meeting.
“Once we get past this crisis, I’d like to make sure that as the city is growing we have the proper staff so we can maintain the golden standard and a personalized standard,” said Carli. “As much as it is OK to outsource when we need to — it’s a cost-benefit analysis —at the same time, to really understand what is going on in the community requires a staff that is integrally connected with other departments.”
Lastly, the council conducted a digital freeway billboards study session.
The Vacaville City Council will next meet on Sept. 12.
