Redding City Council Tackles Tourism, Infrastructure, and Wildfire Preparedness at June 16 Meeting
- Elisa Ballard
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
Redding, CA — The Redding City Council convened its regular meeting on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, addressing a packed agenda that highlighted tourism promotion, long-term infrastructure planning, water management, and wildfire preparedness amid an early heat wave. Councilmembers in attendance were Mayor Mike Littau, Vice-Mayor Dr. Paul Dhanuka, Councilmembers Jack Munns, Erin Resner, and Tenessa Audette.
The evening opened with presentations on tourism and downtown revitalization by Danny Orloff, Visit Redding's Tourism Marketing Director. who provided a semi-annual update on visitor trends, marketing efforts, and economic impacts from events like Kool April Nites. Council also heard from John Truitt, Viva Downtown Redding's Executive Director, about the overlapping designations — Main Street District, California Cultural District, and the Downtown Entertainment Zone — that are working to boost foot traffic, cultural programming, and local business activity.
Major Approvals: Council unanimously approved the City’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), outlining approximately $751 million in planned investments in streets, utilities, parks, public facilities, and transportation projects. Funded through a mix of utility revenues, grants, impact fees, and general funds, the CIP serves as the city’s roadmap for maintaining and expanding critical infrastructure.
In separate public hearings, the Council adopted the 2026 Water Shortage Contingency Plan and the 2025 Urban Water Management Plan. These state-required documents outline responses to potential shortages and long-term supply reliability. Key updates include restricted outdoor watering hours during conservation periods to minimize evaporation. These plans are required by the State to be prepared and adopted every five years. Water service by the City serves 90,254 residents, which is most of the City and some outlying areas. The water supply comes from the Sacramento River, Whiskeytown Lake/Reservoir, and the Redding Groundwater Basin and is more than adequate to meet needs, according to the report presented. However, the plan calls for a steady 1% per year reduction in per-capita use to meet targets set by the State.
Public Safety and Wildfire Measures: A significant discussion focused on Redding Electric Utility’s (REU) new Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) preparedness program. The plan targets a small percentage of customers (less than 5%) in high-risk areas with enhanced notifications and support. An analysis was performed on 20+ years of local weather patterns to determine the criteria that would trigger a PSPS. Planned Power Shutoffs are a last-resort measure due to the stress they can cause for medically vulnerable residents. Council approved a $500 rebate program for eligible customers to purchase backup generators or battery systems, aimed at mitigating impacts and advancing wildfire mitigation efforts. When the rebate is applied for, the REU will install a special meter (valued at $2,000) that will allow for automatic switching to the backup generator to power the home.
The REU is ready to start reaching out to impacted customers twice a year, advising them that they are in power shut-off-focused areas and asking them to prepare for potential shutoffs. Notifications will be through direct contact, phone calls, emails, SMS/Text, and printed materials. Weather conditions will be monitored, and if there is a risk event, which likely would occur in the fall season with high winds and dry conditions, alerts will go out to impacted customers. If a power shutoff event occurs, customers would receive a $100 credit for the inconvenience. The PSPS customer program will cost $250,000 to implement.
Other Business:
A modernization of the Transient Occupancy Tax ordinance was introduced, including provisions for short-term rentals that require short-term rental providers to collect, track, and remit the TOT tax directly to the City. (Applies to AirBnB, VRBO, etc.)
Council recognized the formation of the Redding Electric Professionals’ Association as the bargaining unit for certain supervisory, technical, and professional utility employees who were not currently represented by a bargaining unit. This will have an immediate financial impact on the City due to the initial loss of some employee contributions to their CalPERS pension plans that will need to be renegotiated.
Consent calendar items included grant applications for wildfire mitigation, homelessness services, and infrastructure projects, plus beautification efforts in key neighborhoods.
A Resolution was approved to appropriate $182,210 in Fiscal Year 2026 and $87,830 in RY 2027 for payment to the Air Pollution Control Board.
Public Comments
Shasta Unfiltered will bring you coverage of the public comments that were made at this meeting in our next article to keep you better informed. We will bring significant focus to the comments because they are made by concerned residents who have valuable information and perspectives on plans, or the lack thereof, affecting residents.
The agenda of this meeting reflected the Council’s focus on balancing economic growth, infrastructure needs, and public safety as summer heat and fire season intensify. Full video and agenda materials are available on the City of Redding’s YouTube channel and website. Public input on upcoming items, such as master fee schedule adjustments, will continue at future meetings.
To view the full 3-hour video for the meeting, you can go to this link:
