May 27, 2025 Regular Meeting of the Mountain View City Council

Video

Transcript

Segment 1

[00:00:15] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us for closed session. City Attorney Logue will make a closed session announcement and then we will welcome public comment on the items listed for closed session. City Attorney Logue?

[00:00:28] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. There are two items on this evening's closed session agenda. Item 2.1 is a conference with real property negotiators pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8.

[00:00:41] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: The property is city lots 4 and 8, which are Assessor Parcel Numbers 158-20-069 and 158-20-004. There is no street address.

[00:00:56] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: The agency negotiators are Assistant City Manager Arn Andrews, Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron, Community Development Director Christian Murdock, Acting Economic Vitality Manager Amanda Rotella, and Real Property Program Administrator Angela Lamonica.

[00:01:52] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: The negotiating party is the Robert Green Company and under negotiation are price and terms of lease of real property.

[00:02:01] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: And item 2.2 is a conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9.

[00:02:10] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: The name of the case is San Francisco Baykeeper versus City of Mountain View and City of Sunnyvale, United States District Court Case Number 20-CV-00824. Thank you.

[00:02:24] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on the closed session items listed on tonight's agenda?

[00:02:33] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a speaker card to the City Clerk. Not seeing any public or raised hands, so we'll close public comment and recess to closed session. Thank you.

Segment 2

[01:16:11] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Good evening, everyone, and welcome back. We are here back from closed session, and I'll turn it over to City Attorney Chopra for a report.

[01:16:21] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Thank you, Mayor. The City Council met in closed session this afternoon on the items listed on the posted agenda. There is no reportable action at this time.

[01:16:32] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you, City Attorney Chopra. And now we will move on to Item 2, Roll Call. City Clerk Glaser, please call the roll.

[01:16:47] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Abe-Koga. Present. Councilmember Clark. Here. Councilmember Hicks. Here. Councilmember McAlister. Present. Councilmember Ramirez. Present. Councilmember Showalter. Here. Vice Mayor Ramos. Here. Mayor Kamei. Here. The record will reflect all members are present.

[01:17:34] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you very much. We'll now move on to Item 3, Oral Communications. This is the time for members of the public to address the Council on items not on tonight's agenda. We'll have two minutes per speaker. City Clerk, are there any public speakers?

[01:17:49] Councilmember John McAlister: Madam Mayor, if I may, I'd like to make a comment.

[01:17:58] Councilmember John McAlister: I'd like to request that we adjourn tonight's meeting in memory of Peter Chargin, who was a really important part of our community for many years. He passed away recently, and he contributed so much to the city.

[01:18:13] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Councilmember McAlister. We will certainly do that. Are there any other comments from Council under Item 3? Councilmember Ramirez.

[01:18:23] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to briefly mention that I attended the recent Silicon Valley Clean Energy board meeting and there were some interesting updates regarding residential rebates.

[01:18:31] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Vice Mayor Ramos.

[01:18:41] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you, Mayor. I attended the VTA board meeting and we are looking at some transit improvements that will impact Mountain View residents.

[01:18:50] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Councilmember Clark.

[01:18:58] Councilmember Chris Clark: Thank you, Mayor. I sat in on the finance committee meeting earlier this week, and we're seeing some positive trends in our revenue projections.

[01:19:06] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Councilmember Showalter.

[01:19:15] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Thank you, Mayor. I was at the regional water quality control board meeting, and there's a lot of focus on flood protection which is very relevant for us.

[01:19:24] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Councilmember Hicks.

[01:19:32] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Thank you. I attended the library board meeting and they're expanding some of their youth programs, which is great to see.

[01:19:40] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Councilmember Abe-Koga.

[01:19:49] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. I've been participating in some housing policy discussions at the state level through the League of California Cities.

[01:20:01] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you all for those updates. City Manager, do you have any comments?

[01:20:13] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Just a quick update that the city's annual budget process is underway, and we'll have community workshops starting next month.

[01:20:25] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Now we move to Item 4, the Consent Calendar. These items are considered routine and will be acted upon by one motion unless a councilmember or member of the public wishes to pull an item. City Clerk, are there any public speakers for the Consent Calendar?

[01:21:40] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor, we have one public speaker. Public Speaker 1.

[01:21:55] Public Speaker: Thank you. I just wanted to speak in favor of item 4.2 regarding the park improvements. Our neighborhood really needs these updates.

[01:22:15] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. No more speakers? I'll bring it back to Council. Is there a motion for the Consent Calendar?

[01:23:45] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Moved by Councilmember Clark, seconded by Vice Mayor Ramos. Councilmember Abe-Koga, yes. Councilmember Clark, yes. Councilmember Hicks, yes. Councilmember McAlister, yes. Councilmember Ramirez, yes. Councilmember Showalter, yes. Vice Mayor Ramos, yes. Mayor Kamei, yes. Motion carries 7-0.

[01:24:10] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. We move to Item 5, Public Hearings. Item 5.1 is the update to the Multi-Family Housing Construction Tax. City Manager, please introduce the item.

[01:24:55] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, Mayor. This item involves a proposed adjustment to our multi-family housing tax to better align with current market conditions and our affordable housing goals. Community Development Director Murdock will provide the staff presentation.

[01:25:35] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Good evening, Mayor and Council. As the City Manager noted, we've been reviewing the construction tax rates. Currently, our rates haven't been adjusted in several years. Staff is recommending a 3% increase per year over the next three years. This will help fund essential infrastructure that supports new development.

[01:27:30] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Director Murdock. Are there any clarifying questions from Council? Councilmember Hicks.

[01:27:45] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Thank you. Can you clarify how this tax compares to neighbouring jurisdictions?

[01:28:10] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Yes, currently we are on the lower end compared to Palo Alto, but slightly higher than Sunnyvale. This adjustment would keep us competitive while ensuring we meet our infrastructure needs.

[01:28:45] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Any other questions? If not, I'll open the public hearing. City Clerk, any speakers for item 5.1?

[01:29:10] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor, we have one speaker. Public Speaker 2.

[01:29:25] Public Speaker: Hi, I'm a local developer. I'm concerned that increasing fees right now, with high interest rates, might slow down housing production. I urge caution.

[01:29:50] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to Council for discussion and motion.

Segment 3

[01:30:35] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. We'll move on to item two, closed session. City Attorney Logue, do you have a closed session report?

[01:30:41] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: No reportable action was taken in closed session this evening.

[01:30:45] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. We'll move on to item three, our presentations. Please note—oh, sorry, public comment—roll call.

[01:30:51] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Roll call?

[01:30:53] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Oops, sorry. Um, the City Clerk will take attendance by roll call.

[01:30:57] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Clark?

[01:30:59] Councilmember Chris Clark: Here.

[01:30:59] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Hicks?

[01:31:00] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[01:31:01] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember McAlister?

[01:31:02] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes.

[01:31:03] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Ramirez?

[01:31:04] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[01:31:05] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Showalter?

[01:31:06] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Here.

[01:31:06] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Ramos?

[01:31:07] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Here.

[01:31:07] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Kamei?

[01:31:08] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Here.

[01:31:08] City Clerk Heather Glaser: You have a quorum.

[01:31:11] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Apologies. Um, I'm going to move on to item three for the presentations. Great. Okay. Please note, this is a presentation only. The City Council will not take any action. Public comment will occur after the presentation items. If you'd like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk now. We'll move on to item 3.1, which is our Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month Proclamation. We're happy to be joined this evening by Leslie Imai, board president of the Sister City Affiliation of Mountain View to accept this proclamation. So, Leslie, I'll invite you down to the lectern and I'll meet you there.

[01:32:05] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, great. All right. And the proclamation reads: Whereas May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. AANHPI encompasses all the Asian continent and the Pacific Islands. And whereas the official designation of May as AANHPI Heritage Month was signed into law in 1992 and celebrates a variety of contributions that have built our culture and society. And whereas the theme for this year's observance is a legacy of leadership and resilience, which honors the hard work of leaders who established a foundation for future generations to thrive and adapt to change and adversity. And whereas we acknowledge the contributions of leadership of the many AANHPI who have played a significant role in Mountain View in the fields of agriculture, arts, commerce, education, government, and science, and many others. Now, therefore, I, Ellen Kamei, Mayor of the City of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of May as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month. And, Leslie, I'd—before I present this, I'd love for you to say a few words and to share about the Sister City organization, so I'll turn it over to you. Thank you.

[01:33:26] Public Speaker Leslie Imai: Thank you. Um, I'm with the Mountain View Sister City Affiliation. It's—we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary next year. We host a student exchange program with Iwata in Japan. It's open to all high schools in Mount—the—in the Mountain View-Whisman School District. Um, we typically have about six students or so each year that go to Japan and spend a week with—or actually over a week’with families, host families in Iwata, and then they come back with those fam—those students and they spend a—about a little over a week here in Mountain View with their host families, and they get to experience life of a high school student either in Iwata or in the U.S. It's a fabulous program. We have very positive feedback from all the students, um, and all the families who go through this program. It's just really wonderful. Um, we are looking for more support and new board members, so if you have an interest in the program and working with students of the high school age, I—please feel free to reach out and talk to me. Mayor Kamei knows how to get a hold of me. Okay?

[01:34:35] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: And we're so fortunate to have Leslie and the Imai family. You know, Imai Elementary School in Mountain View is named after Leslie's mother-in-law. The family has been very engaged and involved in Mountain View, and it's just thrilling to be able to—um, have you accept the proclamation and to share a little bit about our Mountain View Sister City. So I'll invite my colleagues from the council to stand and we'll do a photo, and Armin will help us.

[01:35:41] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: All right. Would any member of the council like to say a few words?

[01:35:48] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: All right, not seeing any. We will now take public comment for the presentation item. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on the presentation item listed on the agenda? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk. We'll take in-person first, and I'm not seeing any, and I'm not seeing any virtually. So I'll close this item and thank you, Leslie, again for coming and your contributions to the city.

[01:36:15] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: We'll move to item four, which is our consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the council wishes to pull an item for individual consideration. If an item is pulled from the consent calendar, it will be considered separately following approval of the balance of the consent calendar. If you'd like to speak on these items or the next item, oral communication on non-agenda items in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk now. Okay, I see many people in the queue, so I will start with Councilmember Ramirez.

[01:36:49] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to pull 4.4.

[01:36:54] Councilmember Pat Showalter: I have a number that I would like to ask questions about, so I'm not sure whether I need to pull them or just ask questions.

[01:37:05] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, um, I'll look to the City Attorney if there are questions on items of consent, shall they be pulled or can we just ask questions and they can remain on the calendar?

[01:37:14] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: I think you can just ask questions and keep them on the consent calendar. I don't think they need to be pulled.

[01:37:23] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, perfect. All right.

[01:37:25] Councilmember Pat Showalter: All right. So, um, I wanted to ask about the—establishing resolution 4.3, the Human Relations Committee establishing resolution. And, um, I—I just wanted to confirm that this was really not designed to change what HRC, um, does. It was just designed to, um, deal with the issue related, um, of the commission versus the committee. Is that correct?

[01:37:56] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Yes. So back in December when the council approved the changes to council policy K-2, one of the things that the council did was also redesignate the Human Relations Commission to a committee. So that's what this resolution does.

[01:38:10] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Right. And one of the reasons that we wanted to do that is because that means that the people who are on it don't—don't have to be electors, that—and that gives us a little more freedom.

[01:38:19] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Correct.

[01:38:21] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay, thank you. All right. Then under 4.5—I mean 4.5, sorry, not 5.5—4.5, Safe Routes to School. Um, I was wondering if we have any statistics about how well this is working, kind of, um, along the lines of how many more kids are biking to school, or, um, have we reduced the amount—the rates of accidents with this education, um, that sort of thing.

[01:38:59] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: Good evening. Jennifer Ing, Public Works Director. I don't have any—I'm too short—I don't have any numbers at my fingertips right now, but I can go back and see what staff has in the files and follow up, if that's all right.

[01:39:12] Councilmember Pat Showalter: That would be great. It's a wonderful program. It's just, you know, it'd be really interesting to—to know the impact. Thank you. And then—and then 4.6. This is—um, I'm interested in project number three, and that's the one—accept the Plymouth Street to Space Park Way realignment in the building demolition phase. And on page three, item two, it talks about the removal of 86 heritage trees and the replacement with 84 new box 24-inch trees. Um, and I wondered, is this related to the Landings project? Because I know a great many trees have been, um, cut down with the Landings project and there was—

[01:40:41] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: Um, so it's not related to the Landings project. It is mitigation for the trees that were removed as part of the original project. They'll be coming and—for installation in phase three of the project.

[01:40:54] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And approximately when is that?

[01:41:40] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: Um, as of right now, I think we moved it to the unscheduled in the recommended project list. Still a little bit further out, pending all of the things that are happening up in the North Bayshore area with respect to—um, traffic counts and such.

[01:41:43] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay. Thank you.

[01:41:44] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: You're welcome.

[01:41:45] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, I was just going to make some remarks on 4.4, which has now been pulled. So would you like me to make them—

[01:41:52] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: We'll wait, yeah. Yeah, thank you.

[01:42:01] Councilmember John McAlister: I had 4.4.

[01:42:12] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to comment on these items? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk. We'll take in-person speakers first. I'm not seeing any, so we'll move on to our virtual public comment and you'll have three minutes. Bruce England.

[01:42:31] Public Speaker Bruce England: Thank you, Mayor. Bruce England, Whisman Station Drive. This will be very brief. On the—um, City Hall remodel work, I realize that it's—you know, phased, this is only part of the work in, you know, the lobby area and—one of the departments. But I just wanted to mention that the exterior of the building is extremely hardscaped, and access for bicyclists and bike parking is extremely poor. So if there's any opportunity through the project as a whole to address those things, in any way, that would be great. It doesn't change the lobby work, but I just wanted to mention it. Thanks.

[01:43:08] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. All right, I'm not seeing any other virtual public comment, so I'll bring this item back for council action and note that a motion to approve the consent calendar should also include reading the title of the ordinance and resolutions attached to consent calendar items 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3. And I see a motion by Vice Mayor Ramos.

[01:43:29] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you, Mayor. And I move to approve the consent calendar minus 4.4, um, including item 4.1, adopt an ordinance of the City of Mountain View renewing approval of the Mountain View Police Department military equipment use policy, adopting updated military equipment use policy, and finding that this action is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act, to be read in title only, further reading waived; item 4.2, introduce an ordinance of the City of Mountain View amending Mountain View City Code, Article 13, centralized purchasing system to align the Mountain View City Code with Public Contract Code Section 22034 and make other clarifying amendments, and finding the ordinance is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act, to be read in title only, further reading waived, and a second reading for June 24, 2025; adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View amending Exhibit A, schedule of authorizations to sign city contracts and agreements to Council Policy A-10, authorization to execute city contracts and agreements, to be read in title only, further reading waived; and item 4.3, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View, one, repealing Resolution Number 15732, 16148, and 18198 and all amendments thereto, which established and/or prescribed the duties, responsibilities, powers, and membership of the Human Relations Commission, and two, establishing the Human Relations Committee and prescribing anew the duties, responsibilities, powers, and membership thereof, to be read in title only, with further reading waived.

[01:45:31] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. And that motion is seconded by Councilmember Ramirez. So we'll vote.

[01:45:41] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, and that passes unanimously. We'll move back to the pulled item, which is 4.4, by Councilmember Ramirez.

[01:45:50] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'll start by sharing my gratitude to staff for preparing the annual progress report. I—I know we don't do this for—um, many of the—plans that we adopt, but I appreciate the—the fact that we do it for this one. This is an important plan and—I know all of us are eager to see its—successful implementation. Um, I did want to—so I'll make the motion to approve—um, the—report, but I did have an opportunity to speak with•the City Manager and—wanted to add—um, some additional—measures of success and providing staff flexibility for—how they—might be articulated. But I've been thinking about—the relationship between our economic vitality strategy and some of—the—taxes—that voters have approved—most recently—the real property transfer tax and—the business license tax. And I think it maybe helpful—as this—economic vitality strategy is implemented to see—how the action items affect—or don't—the ability of the city to—generate revenues from those taxes. So the—the motion would be to approve the staff recommendation—but also to—have staff include in the next report—measures of success that—show us the—the—on one hand, the—the business licenses for—each of the tiers that—I think it was Measure P—had had explicitly listed, so we get a sense over time of—how many of each type of business category based on head count that we have in the city and whether we have perhaps, you know, movement in one and maybe some—impact to another that may affect how we think about the action items. And then also a—measure of success pertaining to the number of real property transactions valued six million dollars or more. Um, and I'm—I'd be interested in other thoughts on this. I think the measures of success are very important, I see the Vice Mayor has her hand up right now, um, and I do think it's—it's important for us to think about how the action items that—we're—implementing affect—in particular, the ability of the city to generate revenue from economic vitality. Um, thank you.

[01:47:45] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah, I was—I was just going to highlight this item, so I've seconded the motion, but I was—just going to highlight the item because this is something that I get asked about most often when I'm out and about, both economic vitality in general and then the downtown and how that's progressing. So I just wanted to highlight it to members of the public who may be here in person or online and say that this—this particular report, staff report, is an excellent resource to—get some answers to some of those questions. Um, in particular of interest in this one is it shows how our downtown is drawing people from all over the region, which is something that people have asked me, you know, is it or isn't it? Um, you know, there are various measures—talking about measures of success—um, for economic vitality in general but for the downtown in particular there are various measures and whether it's attracting people from outside the region is one of the big measures that you take of, you know, retail and restaurants and that kind of economic stuff. So, um, there's that and then there's a whole bunch of other interesting information for people who—who have this on their mind. And that's it.

[01:49:25] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Councilmember McAlister.

[01:49:30] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, thank you. So, I brought it up for some other reasons. Um, I think it's very important that we have a program, a strategy, that's—able to accomplish and—implement. And I looked at this report, you guys—a lot of you—approved it and I hadn't, and I just saw way too many action plans, action items on this particular—report. And it sort of goes back to when I came back—when we came on, we were trying to make things simpler, tighten up—the reports, what can get done. Less is better because we can use resources there. We only have two people in our economic development department right now, and to look at all the things that they have to do, I think is very burdensome—and unrealistic for them to get things accomplished. One of the big things that I saw in this that I've really been advocating for, and you probably heard me before—art, public art, is an inexpensive way to add vitality to our downtown. And we can do that—we don't have to pay people, we have plenty of people that are looking to volunteer their time. And—I'd like to see how we can get that started. Now, I had a question in there where we're going to paint the bollards and—they—the staff interpreted that as we would use volunteers—to do the design of the artist and licensing. But my question was: can we use volunteers downtown to just do work that they feel is important? And—um, sort of shoot that over to the City Attorney if she has any thoughts on that or staff have anything like that. Better clarity on the use of volunteers.

[01:51:19] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: So I'm sorry, could you ask your question again? I'm sorry, I think I missed part of it.

[01:51:25] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, the question I asked about the—bollards in downtown, the painting the big things to see. We were looking for people to paint them, so there was an ask, a request for artists to come and design something for us. And staff, I think, interpreted me saying: well, we're trying to decide about—this dilemma about paying people, artists, to do things and they need a contractor's license, and they assumed that it was the volunteers doing the work for the artist. And I'm saying, in general, volunteers, could they do work downtown? And so I wonder if I can get some clarity on that particular item.

[01:52:04] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Okay, do volunteers doing some work downtown without the contractor's license, correct?

[01:52:07] Councilmember John McAlister: Right. But they don't need one. They're just schools, artists, anybody that wants to contribute to the community feels like: hey, here's a blank canvas, I would like to contribute under certain guidelines.

[01:52:19] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Understood. Can we—elevate—um, Mitesh Bhakta, Senior Assistant City Attorney? Mitesh Bhakta, give me one moment and I'm going to bring him in.

[01:52:29] Senior Assistant City Attorney Mitesh Bhakta: Good evening, everyone. Councilmember McAlister, to address your question: the law as currently interpreted by the Contractors State Licensing Board does not prohibit volunteers from painting their own murals. It is—it's a little grayer if we were to take control over direct control over the volunteers, but I believe at—at worst that would be interpreted as a city using its own forces to paint bollards or murals. I think there would be other logistical issues which the Community Development Director and Public Works Director might be able to speak to; however, it would not violate the law as it is currently interpreted by the State Contractors Licensing Board.

[01:53:51] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, well thank you for that important clarity. Because•um, and that's why I recently had the opportunity to be in Denver, Colorado and Boulder, Colorado last month and saw art throughout all those communities. And it's fantastic. There's murals, and I took a walk with Councilmember Hicks and I kept pointing to her: look at that blank palette, look at that blank—there's a canvas, canvas, where we can decorate all these things. And I'd like to see us take advantage of what we can do early, less expensive, and move certain things forward to get this vitality going downtown. Because I think with a five-year plan, things are—it's a little hard. And if you haven't noticed, I like to get things done. And I think if we tighten up this plan and—um, trust staff to evaluate and prioritize items, that might move things a little faster and get immediate results, or a little quicker results, I—I think that would be a great thing to do. But I'm glad that we have it. I'd like us to expand the staff a little bit or get someone to help them out. There was a comment in there that they have a lot to do, and they—it would be helpful to get assistance doing it. So we'll go forward with that. Thank you.

[01:55:49] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Councilmember Showalter.

[01:55:54] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I'm going to kind of add on, um, to some things that were said before. I—I did receive several comments from people, and—um, one of the comments I thought was really interesting was about adding metrics. People are really interested in filling the vacancies, and they'd kind of like to know, you know, what percentage of, um, the vacancies are we shooting for? And I remember that was in part of the original plan, but I don't think that it was reported on, if I'm wrong, you know, correct me on that. But—but anyway, I think understanding the percentage of vacancies and how we're making progress is something people are really interested in. Um, and—and then the idea of utilizing some of the vacant properties for pop-ups. I think somebody talks to me about that at least once a week. And—um, so there's a lot of interest in the community of seeing if we can do that. And apparently San Jose has got some pop-ups going in the San Pedro garage, so that might be an example to look after.

[01:57:41] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Good evening, Mayor and Council. Christian Murdock, Community Development Director. Um, regarding the reporting on vacancy rates, in attachment one there actually is some information tracking year-to-year vacancy rates across office, retail, citywide, and in the downtown. So we do have some information related to vacancy rates, and our target is specified in each of those as well, um, from the EVS.

[01:58:30] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Attachment one. All right. Are we making progress?

[01:58:32] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Um, there is some slight progress across the vacancy rates that we're tracking, but we're not near the target rate in a few of the examples yet.

[01:58:41] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay, thank you.

[01:58:45] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Another—um, another comment was the idea of getting ready for—to have a community celebration next year for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And that could certainly be—um, a•the kind of thing that we have through Parks and Rec, or it could also be something that the business community wants to get on board with. But I—I thought that was an interesting idea. Um, and then—another comment that I have received from several people is the need to make the downtown and the parking structures clean. Um, last year we did put some more money into doing that, which I think is a great thing, but to continue with that is important. And then—and then another comment was•um, the importance of having the economic vitality team staffed up. And I know that we're working on this, but I just wanted to express that people in the community are interested in that and it's a great idea. So that's my comments. Thank you.

[02:00:33] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you so much. Vice Mayor Ramos.

[02:00:35] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you, Mayor. Um, when I was looking at the measures of success for the economic vitality strategy, I—I saw—I remember when we were looking at—when we were first looking at the strategy and—and I was lamenting a little bit how I really cared about Goal 5 and we only have one measure of success there, and I don't actually feel like that is a good indicator of success. Um, we did get a•email suggesting to take a look at how long does it take for someone to get a permit. Um, I don't want to overburden staff with that, but I would love more measures of success to show that—that time frame that people get—get—um, that it takes for someone to get a permit. And there could—and I understand that there are•um, there's always a unique case because our—we have a very diverse business community—um, that—that will have very unique needs. But it would be nice to know, um, how long does it usually take? And like when it—when it does take long, is—is that like an outlier—or is it something that we can improve on? Um, and so it would be nice to be able to track a little bit more for Goal 5, which was the—update Mountain View's development policies to provide clarity and certainty for new uses that aligned with the economic vitality vision and goals.

[02:02:40] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Um, for all of these comments, does staff need us to do some straw polls or they're just going to take all our comments into consideration? Looking to the City Manager on how best to move forward. I think my only comments would be—um, it would be great to have an evergreen opportunity for residents to directly continue to provide feedback on the economic vitality strategy. So right now it's not on our Collaborate Mountain View website. Um, when we go to our website and you see economic vitality, it says to reach out to staff directly, but wouldn't it be great if we could have a place where you could just kind of like plug it in and—it—it can live there—versus just having it put in via like Ask Mountain View. Um, that would be the only addition that I would ask, just a continual place to receive feedback on the economic vitality strategy. So—um, I know we have a motion and a seconder, but does it need to be amended for these comments or staff will just take them into account? Staff will just take them into account, lovely. Okay, great. So—um, we have given robust feedback and we have a motion by Councilmember Ramirez. So—um, I think we can—yeah, I just want to—it's okay. I just wanted to make sure.

[02:05:11] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: And—um, now we'll open it up for public comment. Um, would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk. We'll take in-person speakers first and I'm not seeing any. So we'll move on to our virtual public comment and you'll have three minutes. Bruce England.

[02:05:32] Public Speaker Bruce England: Thank you, Mayor. Um, Peter Katz, Whisman Station Drive. This—I'm sorry. Thank you, Mayor Kamei and members of the City Council. Um, I'm Peter Katz, CEO of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce. I want to start by saying the Chamber is 100 percent supportive of the EVS and like you want it to remain a top priority for the city. It remains one of the most important planning documents for our town's future. A lot of year one of the plan is about laying groundwork. On that the city is doing quite a good job. The most meaningful actions have been expanding business use, such as eliminating the PUP requirements. This was long overdue and was unnecessarily hampering the ability for business to establish multiple income streams. Also positive: the new websites and programs to help explain, track, and speed up the permit process, such as Permits MV and Express Permits. Big—big kudos there. There is also positive response to the activation of the 100-300 block with ping pong, cornhole, Connect Four, etcetera; the facade grants, um, and the painting of the streets. However, what really moves the needle for businesses is making sure streets are safe and clean. So beefing up Public Works and public services like cleaning the streets, addressing homelessness, petty theft, etcetera, makes an instant and tangible difference. These elements are central to achieving Goal 1: creating centers as commercial hubs and community gathering places. The other needle mover is revamping our permitting requirements and processes, and this is of course multifaceted. What's sorely missing after a year, although I know they are in progress, is reducing the stacking of permits—you know, are all of them really necessary, should it take so long for each approval, and the fees related to them. On June 10, the results of the initial fee study will be presented, and that's great but it's only looking at comparative costs of services. It's not looking at how expensive it is when you lump them all together, both in terms of time and fee cost, for businesses to open, construction to happen, remodels to be done. The most important message the Chamber can give the city is to remain committed to the plan and the actions therein. Please do not take things out or just kick them down the road. The EVS needs to be a top priority, not priority 10 or 20 or 30. We further urge the city to keep the Economic Development Department properly resourced. It'll be extremely difficult to meet all the objectives at the current level of staffing, particularly with the number of EVS items that are being incorporated as part of day-to-day operations. And of course, the Chamber values being a strong partner and will continue to provide its resources towards implementation. Thank you.

[02:08:54] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. All right, not seeing any more virtual or in-person public comment. We'll conclude this item and bring it forward as a vote.

[02:09:09] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, and that item passes unanimously. So we'll move on to item five, oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic within the City Council subject matter jurisdiction for up to three minutes during this section. State law prohibits the council from acting on non-agenda items. If you'd like to speak on this item or the next item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk now. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit your blue speaker card to the City Clerk. We'll take in-person speakers first and each speaker will have three minutes. And we have Michael Meredith.

[02:10:23] Public Speaker Michael Meredith: Hi, I'm Mike Meredith. I live at 400 Del Medio Avenue here in Mountain View.

[02:10:41] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Do you mind speaking directly into the microphone, sir?

[02:10:44] Public Speaker Michael Meredith: Oh, I'm sorry.

[02:10:46] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: It's so people virtually can hear you. Thank you.

[02:10:48] Public Speaker Michael Meredith: Oh my gosh, thank you. Um, the issue I'm dealing with is that the little HOA of six units that I live in is in serious crisis. An investor has owned half of this association for since its inception essentially, and he's left three of the six units empty for over 20 years. 2018, a city inspector came through and cited two of the balconies on his units as looking dangerous. Um, he went to the city, took out repair permits on behalf of the association without telling anyone else about it. No other members were informed. He did nothing, other members of the HOA did nothing, the city did nothing. As a consequence, I initiated litigation against him and the HOA in 2021. Now, this litigation has gone on for some time. Um, and this morning I appeared before Superior Court Judge Sheila Dinh in San Jose and expressed my concern—um, that the balconies—we had a structural engineer take a close look in November of 2022 and at that point the situation looked rather dangerous. Consequent to my appearances here last year, um, the city has expressed a concern, um, has acknowledged the structural engineer's assessment, and—nothing is really happening at this point. Um, the next step in this is—is really quite unclear. June 16 will be the 10th anniversary of the Berkeley balcony collapse. Um, one young woman has since succumbed to her injuries, so the—it's now seven dead and six injured. Problem with these sorts of balconies is they're vulnerable to very sudden collapse by the nature of their construction, and I've done investigative demolition partially on a couple of these balconies, and it's really hard from the outside to know how severe the dry rot is. You know, one piece of Douglas fir can look great and be great, the next one's totally gone. We've got micro-environments going on there. So at this point we don't know. Um, I'm really concerned we're pushing our luck. That the city is permitting half of this building to be used as short-term rentals, a virtual hotel, is I think a serious problem. Um, we're not really sure of the risks that we're imposing on the general public. People have to—the balconies are barricaded, people have to go under them to get to these units. So I really would like—

[02:13:36] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you, your time is up.

[02:13:38] Public Speaker Michael Meredith: Okay, thanks.

[02:13:42] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: All right, not seeing any others—um, for oral communications•in person or virtual, I'll close public comment.

[02:13:55] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: We'll move on to item six, public hearing. Item 6.1 is a commercial development at 365-405 San Antonio Road and 2585-2595 California Street. Would any councilmembers like to make any disclosures?

[02:14:21] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you, Mayor. I met with the applicant this past week.

[02:14:24] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Councilmember Ramirez.

[02:14:26] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I also had an opportunity to speak with the applicant.

[02:14:28] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Councilmember Showalter.

[02:14:30] Councilmember Pat Showalter: I also met with the applicant.

[02:14:33] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Councilmember McAlister.

[02:14:35] Councilmember John McAlister: I had the pleasure of reacquainting the applicant after eight years, so I did meet with them recently also.

[02:14:45] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Councilmember Hicks.

[02:14:46] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And I met with the applicant too.

[02:14:49] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. I also met with the applicant. Um, Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro and Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen will present the item. If you'd like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk now. We'll begin with the staff presentation.

Segment 4

[02:15:00] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: The most recent city building and reach codes are an example of these newer regulations, along with updated parking regulations that were associated with Assembly Bill 2097, which eliminated minimum parking standards for this project.

Segment 3

[02:15:08] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Thank you and good evening, Mayor Kamei and councilmembers. Um, as was just noted, I'm Rebecca Shapiro, Deputy Zoning Administrator. Um, I'll be presenting the project tonight and joining me on the dais is Amber Blosinski, our Assistant Community Development Director. The item before you is a public hearing to consider a proposed commercial development at 365 to 405 San Antonio Road and 2585 to 2595 California Street. This project originally received gatekeeper authorization—um, in December of 2019, which was required for the project to proceed with its request to use 150,000 square feet of transferable development rights or TDR from the LASD TDR program—um, and to start work on the precise plan amendments necessary to implement the TDR program in the San Antonio Precise Plan. The proposed development project is approximately 182,000 square feet of commercial office space, um, including ground floor retail and three levels of underground parking. It would replace—um, two vacant commercial structures, a small surface parking lot, um, and a small remnant parcel from the original phase two development. The site is located on the corner of San Antonio Road and California Street. Staff refers to this project as the phase three project because it would complete buildout of the western—um, half of San Antonio Center as shown here on the screen. This cumulative buildout•um, includes two prior phases that Merlone Geier, the phase three applicant, previously developed but no longer owns. Um, but Merlone Geier is collaborating with the neighboring property owner, Brookfield Properties, to integrate this site into the surrounding phase two development. In addition to the precise plan amendments I just noted, tonight's request includes development permits necessary to construct the project and a development agreement to allow a longer entitlement period of seven years. A provisional use permit is also requested for the office use as—all shown on the screen now. Excluding—um, development standard exceptions that are necessary to use the proposed TDR square footage, which is discussed in detail in the staff report, the project generally complies with existing precise plan regulations. During—um, early the early gatekeeper hearings and initial study sessions on this project with EPC and council, the project design was a key focus of both discussion and direction. The applicant completely redesigned the project to address—um, council direction for a more distinctive curvilinear design with a high-quality pedestrian environment and a gateway presence—um, as shown on the screen. The project includes naturalistic landscaping at ground level—um, and in upper floor balconies, covered or partially covered—um, on-site active frontage spaces, and a corner art piece amongst other features. And the building also employs a complementary stone material to create some synergy—um, between the new project and the adjacent office buildings in phase two—um, and varied storefront materials to add warmth and pop. The project includes retail commercial tenant spaces along the public street frontages of California Street and San Antonio Road, um, as well as a stand-alone retail space along the promenade, which sits underneath the office floors of the building—um, and is roughly aligned with the phase two plaza to the south. The office lobby and other building support spaces are located along Silicon Way, which faces—um, one of the phase two office buildings, again to the south. Um, and this project does not include any new garage curb cuts—um, because the project's underground parking is connected directly to and accessible through the underground parking—um, of the office buildings in the phase two development. As noted in the staff report, this project fully complies with•um, standards for the public and publicly accessible sidewalks on all frontages, um, and the on-site design is also highly permeable, um, with semi-regular breaks in planting areas providing additional paving that effectively widens the public walkway—um, and also provides easy access to on-site storefronts and active outdoor spaces. The project proposal includes removal of five heritage trees, which are shown on screen in the—um, infilled red circles. Um, and these are needed to construct the TDR project—um, one of the trees also conflicts with public sidewalk improvements and is diseased. Um, and none of the trees are in good condition nor have they been found by the project or city arborist to be suitable for preservation via transplantation. The project proposal will include a minimum of 18 new tree plantings and will ultimately result in on-site tree canopy that exceeds the existing condition. As noted earlier, the project includes amendments to the San Antonio Precise Plan to provide updated language for implementing the LASD TDR program and facilitating city review and approval of this phase three project or any future—um, TDR project in the area. The staff-recommended language for these amendments is modeled on the adopted TDR language from the East Whisman Precise Plan with some additional updates proposed and needed because•um, the sending site for the TDR project is located in the San Antonio Precise Plan area. And—um, previously EPC and council generally supported this overall approach in the early study sessions. Most recently, the applicant held a neighborhood meeting in August of 2021, largely fielding questions from attendees regarding the leasing status of phase two, the feasibility of retail space in this development, and the pedestrian environment given concerns expressed around sidewalk width elsewhere in San Antonio Center. The applicant participated in three DRC meetings, two of which were focused on the revised design—um, drafted after the early study session input from City Council. And ultimately the project was considered by the Zoning Administrator who recommends council approve the development agreement and the Environmental Planning Commission who unanimously recommended council approve the precise plan amendments and development permits. This project was originally scheduled to be—um, heard by council in 2022, but after some initial scheduling conflicts, it was put on hold by the applicant to—um, allow some time to re-evaluate project economics and market impacts from the pandemic. Merlone Geier—um, reached out to the city in late 2023 to restart the review process, um, while also requesting some limited revisions to the development agreement that had been recommended by the Zoning Administrator. While the project was on hold, um, a handful of state and city regulations were updated or went into effect which required minor updates to the project plans—um, and several updates to the previously recommended project conditions of approval, predominantly for consistency with the new—um, codes and regulations that went into effect. The—

Segment 4

[02:15:17] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: City staff has made updates to the previously recommended approval materials to reflect these regulatory changes and minor plan updates. And that included, that work included a determination after consultation with the city attorney's office that the scope of these updates were largely non-discretionary and would not require the project to return to the zoning administrator or EPC hearings for a new recommendation.

[02:15:43] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Tonight's project recommendation includes an addendum to the San Antonio Precise Plan EIR, which was prepared in order to review any potential environmental impacts from the precise plan amendments or the development project.

[02:15:59] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: This analysis found that there would be no new or substantially worsened environmental effects than had been previously analyzed in the precise plan EIR, and that the precise plan EIR and the addendum adequately address potential CEQA impacts, and that the project would require no further CEQA review.

[02:16:20] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: The full staff recommendation is on the screen, and that covers project approval and the CEQA findings. This concludes staff's presentation. Representatives from the Community Development Department and Public Works staff are here, along with our CEQA consultant, for any questions council may have. The applicant team also does have a presentation, and Dave Geiser from Merlone Geier Partners will kick that off.

[02:16:48] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. So I think before we go into questions, we'll let the applicant present. So we'll now have a presentation from the applicant, David Geiser, Managing Director of Design and Construction, Merlone Geier Partners, and Darryl Fulbright, Principal Design Director, Gensler. You have seven minutes.

[02:17:08] Public Speaker David Geiser: Yes, thank you. I'm told to be brief, so brief I shall be. Honorable Mayor, members of the council, again my name is David Geiser, I'm the Managing Director of Merlone Geier Partners, and I've been involved with this project since probably around 2010 in the original phases of construction and quite familiar with a lot of the members of the council. Next phase.

[02:17:43] Public Speaker David Geiser: I'll keep talking. So the, there we are. Again, the project, as designed now, as modified, is responsive to all the comments and input from the EPC, the zoning administrator, the DRC, and our two community outreach meetings and public comment that we received from our previous meetings. Next slide.

[02:18:03] Public Speaker David Geiser: And this is a list of our meetings that we've had. This is our 10th public hearing on the project. And with in the middle of all that was a complete redesign of the project, as Rebecca has explained, from the previous design that didn't meet the mark as we heard from the city council previously. So part of our efforts is a complete redesign of the project into what you see today and what will be explained here momentarily. Next slide.

[02:18:29] Public Speaker David Geiser: One thing I do want to mention, as the largest contributor to the TDR program, we represent probably 25% of the value of the TDR. Our project in the 150,000 square feet of TDR as the receiving site, that will result in a payment of approximately $19 million at time of building permit into the TDR program. I just want to make that clear.

[02:18:54] Public Speaker David Geiser: We talked about the shared parking and the amendments. We do have a development agreement. Because of the uncertainty of the office market and what originally slowed our project down in 2021, 2022, we thought it prudent to have additional time. And one of the reasons we didn't bring the project forward is knowing that we'd have a limited amount of time to develop. So that's why we embarked on a discussion with the city on the development agreement to extend our entitlement should they be necessary. And for that, we're going to be paying, you know, additional $500,000 in community benefits for that extension of time. Next slide.

[02:19:30] Public Speaker David Geiser: Our architect, Darryl Fulbright with Gensler, was involved in that redesign and in the conversations with the DRC and EPC and zoning administrator and the public about the changes that need to be made to the site. And I'm going to have him briefly come up and walk you through the plans and some of the design renderings that you might not have otherwise been privy to so far. Darryl.

[02:19:54] Public Speaker Darryl Fulbright: Good evening. My name is Darryl Fulbright, I'm a design principal with Gensler. And we've been working on the project since the inception here. And we've had the experience of working back with the staff to come up with an improved project.

[02:20:08] Public Speaker Darryl Fulbright: I'm hoping you could run the video, but I'm going to show you here on the plan some of the things that Rebecca had referred to, which is that we've really increased the public realm, which we think is important to facilitate the retail at the ground plane, so both pulling the ground plane back and having an extensive area in the back. But I want to play the video here that we have and then point out some key things that we did in the design revision.

[02:20:50] Public Speaker Darryl Fulbright: So again, this is starting to show some of the retail, and you can see the facade is pulled back at the ground floor so there's actually that extended area. We have a strong feature at the corner as the gateway into the project. We have this mass of three stories to bring the scale of the building down.

Segment 6

[03:45:02] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Okay, so that is not the County's ordinance, that is our own code. And so that is existing language that I did not touch and I do not know what the reasonable smoking distance is per se, so that is something that we could modify.

[03:45:24] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: But I did not touch existing language sort of in our code, but I don't, I don't believe that there is any kind of clarification of what reasonable distance is. So we could if that is something that you wanted me to look into fixing, we could definitely do that.

[03:45:42] Councilmember John McAlister: I mean, I know Councilmember Ramirez always likes to have some tightening up of things, so but for police officers, I mean again if we're looking at something, ambiguity just does not help a police officer when he shows up on a scene.

[03:45:57] Councilmember John McAlister: So, and have you been called to somebody complaining about smoking?

[03:46:04] Police Chief Chris Hsiung: I cannot recall being called to a situation like that, but I'm sure sometime our officers have been, sir.

[03:46:08] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, and I know this is not on the ordinance, but it says another enforcement interpretation: Any residents who desires to register complaint may initiate enforcement with the City Manager or designee.

[03:46:23] Councilmember John McAlister: And so designee is any city employee? That is 21.2.45.

[03:46:33] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Yeah, that means that the city, the way I would interpret that and typically what that means is the City Manager could designate a department to handle those types of complaints.

[03:46:46] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: So it's not as if she would designate an individual person, she could designate for instance complaints of that nature to go to the police department or complaints of that nature to go to the fire department. So she could delegate that responsibility. That's how I read those types of provisions.

[03:46:57] Councilmember John McAlister: And the last question is does, we have our rules for selling of marijuana, does this approach any of that or do they have their own licensing and their own laws related to that?

[03:47:08] Police Chief Chris Hsiung: This would be separate, just related to tobacco and vaping products.

[03:47:12] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, thank you.

[03:47:14] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Any other questions from colleagues? All right, not seeing any, I'll open up public comment. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item?

[03:47:28] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press *9 on your phone. A timer will be displayed on the screen. We'll give each speaker three minutes, and I'm not seeing any in-person public comment so we'll move to virtual.

[03:47:41] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: The first public commenter is Carol Baker, followed by Blythe.

[03:47:52] Public Speaker Carol Baker: Thank you Madam Mayor and hello to the Councilmembers. My name is Carol Baker, I'm a co-chair of the Tobacco Free Coalition of Santa Clara County. More importantly, I am a former addict of tobacco, having been hooked at the age of 14.

[03:48:08] Public Speaker Carol Baker: As a result of my addiction, I have a lifelong disability known as COPD. I am a singer who cannot sing because I cannot breathe, a nature lover who cannot hike because I cannot walk that far, and a speaker who cannot make long speeches, but that one I think we'll all be a little bit happy with.

[03:48:28] Public Speaker Carol Baker: I'm sure we're all glad of the last part, but it's something I would like to be able to do now and then. Thank you for considering ways to protect your citizens, especially your children, from this same debilitating product.

[03:48:43] Public Speaker Carol Baker: The County ordinance is a good one, I hope you choose to adopt one like it, and thank you very much for your consideration.

[03:48:56] Public Speaker Blythe Young: Good evening Council and Mayor, my name is Blythe Young, I'm the community advocacy director for the American Heart Association and have had the privilege of working with Carol and the coalition in Santa Clara on many policies, including updating the County's policy.

[03:49:13] Public Speaker Blythe Young: Um, what you have with the County ordinance is a great model policy that includes proactive compliance, um, strong education support from County staff, and really couldn't recommend a better program to adopt.

[03:49:28] Public Speaker Blythe Young: So I would encourage you to adopt the full ordinance, um, in reference or memorandum, and to not make any changes because it's good as it is. But we've seen these policies be really effective in reducing youth use, um, and just providing education about tobacco products.

[03:49:45] Public Speaker Blythe Young: And at the end of the day, it's a business license to sell a product that we know when used as directed kills people, and we want to see the youth of Mountain View flourish and live long healthy lives. Thank you.

[03:50:03] Public Speaker Chris Miller: Good evening, uh my name is Chris Miller, I am a lifelong Los Gatos resident, also a member of the Tobacco Free Coalition, although not speaking on behalf of the coalition, speaking as an individual.

[03:50:15] Public Speaker Chris Miller: I am in 98% of agreement with the proposed regulations and restrictions. I did communicate this via email. Um, the concern I have is that in 2022 the County removed the clause "who appears to be under age under 30 years of age."

[03:50:33] Public Speaker Chris Miller: That was in the original 2016 language and to this date there has been no evidence provided as to um the effectiveness of requiring identification of a 60, 70, well 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 or 90 year old person, even 100 year old person who wanted to purchase tobacco would need to show identification to prove that they're over 21.

[03:50:59] Public Speaker Chris Miller: Uh, that doesn't make any sense to me. I uh would, I've actually been working with the County, I do have an inquiry into my supervisor, um Margaret about trying to uh look and see if there's any data as to if there's been any impact of that change.

[03:51:20] Public Speaker Chris Miller: But I would uh ask you to consider uh adopting um but the policy, um but changing the statement of article 2 section 48.2.5e to add "who appears to be under 30 years of age." Thank you for your time.

[03:51:49] Public Speaker Vivek Sharma: Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers, and community members. My name is Vivek Sharma and I serve as the policy lead for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department's Community Advocacy Teens of Today Youth Coalition.

[03:52:06] Public Speaker Vivek Sharma: I'm here tonight not just as a representative of youth advocacy, but as a young person who has seen firsthand what tobacco addiction does to high schoolers, to high school hallways, classrooms, and youth alike.

[03:52:20] Public Speaker Vivek Sharma: When I was a freshman, I watched one of my, one of my closest friends go from curious to hooked in just a few weeks. It started with a puff on a mango-flavored vape during lunch, then became a daily habit.

[03:52:40] Public Speaker Vivek Sharma: By sophomore year, he was leaving class to sneak hits in the bathroom, something, sometimes shaking if he went too long without it. This wasn't just one kid, it was a growing trend.

[03:53:00] Public Speaker Vivek Sharma: I've seen students, smart, ambitious kids, fall behind because of something as deceptively simple as flavored vapor. These products are designed to appeal to us: bright packaging, sweet flavors like cotton candy and fruit punch.

[03:53:20] Public Speaker Vivek Sharma: They're marketed like candy but act like poison. We are the generation that grew up hearing about the harms of tobacco, but e-cigarettes repackaged the same danger in a way that's targeted differently at our age group and we are paying the price.

[03:53:35] Public Speaker Vivek Sharma: That is why this ordinance matters. By banning flavored tobacco and vapes and by requiring local retailers to get permits and follow stronger rules, Mountain View can join cities like Palo Alto and Cupertino in saying clearly: our youth are more important than profits.

[03:53:50] Public Speaker Vivek Sharma: You have the opportunity to protect the next generation from starting something that's very hard to stop and can damage their lives, and even ruin them in some cases. This is not just a policy update, it's prevention, it's public health, and it's personal for me and so many others and all the youth across Mountain View. Please support this ordinance in the way that it is. Thank you.

[03:53:55] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Not seeing any other public comment, I will bring this back to Council for deliberation and action. And note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the ordinance attached to the report.

[03:54:10] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I'm supportive of of the ordinance and I just want to know whether other Councilmembers want to add the clause "who appears to be under 30 years of age" whether that would be useful or whether people think it would not be. I think it might be useful.

[03:54:28] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Did you want to make the motion or?

[03:54:34] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Sure, I can make the motion and say to add "who appears to be under 30 years of age."

[03:54:40] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, great, and that was seconded by Councilmember... Oh, I'm getting a...

[03:54:44] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: I actually need to provide clarification. So I do understand that they did remove that phrase in their um 2022 amendments. And what I would ask is that the motion um your addition uh direct us to ask the County if we can add that back in because the problem is is that if we do that and they don't consider that to be substantially similar to theirs, then we can't be part of their program.

[03:55:12] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: So I'd like to advocate for that.

[03:55:15] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I could put it that way.

[03:55:16] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, great, so we'll explore that. And that was seconded by Councilmember Showalter. Would you like to make some remarks Councilmember Showalter?

[03:55:30] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes, I would. Generally I'm, I'm tremendously supportive of this. Um, this is about nicotine, this isn't really about some of the other impacts of tobacco, but as a um previous asthma sufferer, I just can't tell you how much better my life is by living in a smoke-free zone in California than it was when I didn't live in a smoke-free um life.

[03:55:55] Councilmember Pat Showalter: So it makes a really, really difference, big difference in, in people's health. I don't think there's anything as frightening as that feeling that you can't get your next breath. So if you ever have a child that has asthma or friend, I mean it's just really primally frightening. So um what we do to guard against that's really important.

[03:56:15] Councilmember Pat Showalter: But anyway, at the same time, one of the things that we're judged with is and we hear a lot about is is the difficulty of um getting permits. So I, one of the things I, I hope we'll do as we move forward with this is kind of benchmark with um the other communities about about how this process works.

[03:56:33] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And if there's problems that are um you know that identified that we we talk to the County about you know how the um program might be amended to to um work smoothly because we want people to get those permits easily and we want the to be smooth and um so so that's that's my comment.

[03:56:53] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And then the other question I had is: Is there a, is there a fee for the permit?

[03:57:05] Police Chief Chris Hsiung: Yes, Councilmember Showalter, there is a fee. The County facilitates collecting those fees and and retaining them.

[03:57:14] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay, is it huge or do you know? It's okay.

[03:57:21] Police Chief Chris Hsiung: I think it's around $300.

[03:57:22] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Oh, so it makes people think.

[03:57:25] Police Chief Chris Hsiung: That's what I recall from my memory, but I'd have to verify.

[03:57:27] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, okay, all right. Well anyway, I think this is a great idea and um uh I um I am particularly pleased to hear that we're going to be doing the outreach in our community about this because it's a change, a big change, and um uh it's important.

[03:57:44] Councilmember Pat Showalter: You know, it's one thing to have this this um program going on in other communities, but I think when we bring it to our community we need to understand um what the concerns are here. So I know there were some questions asked in the in the Council questions and there were good responses, so thank you. And I'm definitely going to be supporting this.

[03:58:04] Councilmember Chris Clark: Thank you. So overall I'm um supportive of this. I'm especially supportive of I think having a an overall um permitting framework will go a long way um uh you know instead of us having to craft that ourselves. So in that respect um I think it makes sense for us to um to partner with the County.

[03:58:30] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um I think I think between when this was initiated and today, you know, there have been a lot of developments. There is now state regulations around this, flavored tobacco is no longer a thing like it was when this was initiated.

[03:58:44] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um but I did want to offer or request a friendly amendment, very similar to the question of asking the County, you know, if we were to adopt something around you know an age um visually whether whether it's 30 or whatever. Um there's one other question I'd like um I'd like to ask the County because there's one provision in here that that bothered me a little bit.

[03:59:07] Councilmember Chris Clark: The County's ordinance hasn't been updated in a few years and the way that they define electronic cigarette products um could be construed to include things that aren't vaping products or electronic cigarette products. And the reason I bring that up is I do know some folks who are going through smoking cessation and they're they've struggled with cigarettes and then vapes and they're they're trying to use nicotine replacement and other products um to eventually quit.

[03:59:38] Councilmember Chris Clark: And right now the universe of those cessation products that are FDA authorized is actually quite small, but there are other products out there that folks are using as part of that cessation process because the FDA authorized ones, because there are so few of them, are actually very, very expensive.

[04:00:01] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um and so there are patches and other things out there that folks can use um to to basically wean themselves off of nicotine over time. And so what I'm getting at is the way that the, I looked into this pretty um in depth and the way that they're currently defining electronic cigarette products could actually include like anything that's not inhaled um or doesn't produce smoke or vapor or things like that.

[04:00:34] Councilmember Chris Clark: And so what I would ultimately like to do is if that's the case, just to have in our ordinance, you know, a single sentence that basically says for avoidance of doubt we aren't prohibiting we aren't trying to ban these substances like we're trying to ban vaping and things that cause secondhand smoke and other things.

[04:00:51] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um but as the City Attorney pointed out, I don't know how strict the County is about adopting their ordinance word for word, it's a few years out of date. So it's a long way of saying the friendly amendment would be while we're asking about the age, can we also ask about whether or not this um this this amendment would um cause the County some concern in terms of being able to participate in that regulatory framework?

[04:01:18] Councilmember Chris Clark: And if it is a concern, then we can address it when this come back comes back to us and if it's and if it's not, then it's not. I think actually it might actually help um clarify the County's overall ordinance. So um if the maker of the motion's open to asking that question as part of this process since it's going to come back to us I'd I'd appreciate that and if not then so be it.

[04:01:38] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I'm just going to ask as the maker of the motion, I'm going to ask the City Attorney is that something that you can add to your list of questions for the County?

[04:01:48] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Yes, that is something I can add to take back to the County, definitely.

[04:01:51] Councilmember Pat Showalter: That's fine with me too.

[04:01:56] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. This was supposed to be the easy item. Um so first I want to ask Councilmember Clark a question. I'm, your amendment is the one I I'm I'm still hostile to, but I but I'm open to be educated.

[04:02:14] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Are are the the the places that do business that would sell the nicotine cessation device the same kinds of establishments that would generally require a tobacco retail license?

[04:02:30] Councilmember Chris Clark: I'm not sure. By the way, I'm not trying to amend the ordinance today, it's just to ask um because it's going to come back to us.

[04:02:41] Councilmember Chris Clark: But to get to your question, there's kind of two sets of regulations. So yes, what what I'm talking about um is covered by the the general tobacco retail, like you would have to be you would have to have the retail permit and everything. It's covered by the definition of tobacco product.

[04:03:00] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um I think, but there's the other thing we're talking about tonight is what we're going to ban. And so there's what we're going to have a permit framework for tobacco products and then there's what we're going to ban.

[04:03:14] Councilmember Chris Clark: And what I'm talking about is what we're planning to just completely ban and which is e-cigarette, whatever comes under that definition of e-cigarette and right now the the County's definition appears to include things that have nothing to do with e-cigarettes or vaping or any or anything like that.

[04:03:34] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um which could potentially include like a patch which is a delivery system um but the County doesn't specify it has to be an electronic delivery system. There's some ambiguity which is why I'm trying to seek clarity from that.

[04:03:47] Councilmember Chris Clark: But the but the things that I'm talking about would be under the regulatory framework here in Mountain View.

[04:03:55] Councilmember Chris Clark: It would require permit and and all the other tobacco things that we would either do ourselves or partner with the County on.

[04:04:04] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I appreciate that. That's that's helpful. I think um I since the ordinance has been the language has existed for some period of time I would I'd find it hard to believe that someone hasn't brought this to the attention of the County and there isn't some some workaround for it or that in practice it's not enforced.

[04:04:28] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: The thing I'd be concerned about is that a um unscrupulous business uh may may use that kind of language to get around the regulation.

[04:04:39] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um so I have a friend who works for County Public Health who goes around, several of us know this person, um who uh who has been visiting some of the businesses in Mountain View that sell these types of products and and they are in fact unscrupulous.

[04:04:58] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um and I got a text message from from this person alerting me that and I know PD knows about this, FattyZone, is continuing to sell vaping products with THCP, which is a synthetic cannabinoid. I'm sure you know what that means better than I do.

[04:05:17] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: But what it suggests to me is when a business has some means to get around regulations, they will often do so um for for this type of product.

[04:05:30] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So I I'm, I think what I would suggest is if um if we proceed with that it would be to seek clarity from not seek to amend the ordinance but to seek clarity from the County about uh how they consider those types of products and and what that how when there is enforcement, you know, whether there is some some rule set or administrative regulation that they use to ensure that we're not prohibiting the type of product that would help people move off of nicotine.

[04:05:41] Councilmember Chris Clark: Correct, and so that's that's actually what I'm hoping that we direct staff to figure out. So if they come back and say, yes the the County is trying to you know in their enforcement they're actually prohibiting the sale of cer- of these types of things that I'm talking about, then that's okay I'll probably propose an amendment to our ordinance at that time and you all can vote for it or against it.

[04:06:08] Councilmember Chris Clark: I'm not proposing the amendment tonight, I'm just trying to seek information about how the County is currently enforcing this because frankly one portion of their ordinance is kind of ambiguous.

[04:06:15] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay, and maybe deliberately so or maybe not deliberately so, I don't know.

[04:06:19] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: That's helpful. So I I'm I support seeking that that clarification. I think there's value in that information. I don't support at all the other amendment um which would be to seek uh potentially uh an amendment that would uh allow someone to uh not have to be to share identification to purchase tobacco.

[04:06:50] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I don't see, so I believe that smoking is a scourge, like cannibalism, and like cannibalism it ought to be eradicated. That's for the Palo Alto Daily Post.

[04:07:03] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Uh so I I feel strongly about this. I grew up in a household with a smoker and it was miserable. Um and uh I I think we ought to make it as hard as possible um to to smoke in our community.

[04:07:21] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I don't agree with Councilmember Showalter. I think generally it should be easy to get a permit except for this one. This one should be as hard as possible. We should make it as as challenging to sell vaping tobacco in our community because it's not good, it serves no purpose, it kills people quickly.

[04:07:48] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Uh so I um I think any any obstacle that makes it that much harder to buy this product is good. Uh and one reason why I think making even someone who is clearly above age show ID is because one thing that person could be doing is purchasing this product to give to someone who cannot legally have it.

[04:08:14] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So just giving someone that that opportunity to think about whether they really want to do that is a good thing. So I I can't support that amendment um and I feel so strongly about it that I will vote no unless that amendment is removed, even though I support this work, I'm grateful to our staff uh for for presenting the the regulations, but I this you know the reason we're doing this is because we're trying to deter smoking, right? And to reduce the the impacts that smoking has on our on our community.

[04:08:22] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So making it easy is antithetical I think to to that goal and I really encourage the maker of the motion to reconsider. Thank you.

[04:08:25] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, um apologies, can you clarify, so I was trying to take notes, so you are asking for the removal of which amendment to the motion?

[04:08:38] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you Mayor for clarification. The age thing.

[04:08:41] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, okay. So all right, I'll let the motion maker and the seconder think about that. I I just want to clarify um via via staff. So to, it sounds like there may be some more information related to this ordinance that will be coming back to Council.

[04:09:01] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Um it set for a second reading on June 10th. Is that when we'll be getting more information or when would that sorry?

[04:09:06] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: So that that actually was clarified I think it just didn't get captured in the...

[04:09:10] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Oh, in what I'm my notes. Okay.

[04:09:15] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Yeah, in your notes. So it's going to be, it's on the screen if you switch it. So I said um further reading and final adoption in later this year, right?

[04:09:25] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yeah, in...

[04:09:26] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: So we have time for the item to come back.

[04:09:33] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: You do. It's it's it's late fall 2025 that we would come back.

[04:09:38] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: And that would be when we would go over final adoption, um for some of the concerns that Councilmember Ramirez is bringing up, right? We could have we could it'll have further discussion at that time. Sorry, that's what I'm trying to clarify.

[04:09:50] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes, we could have further discussion at that time.

[04:09:53] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Okay.

[04:09:55] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: It doesn't need to just be on consent, we could have it as an item.

[04:10:02] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you Mayor to clarify. Sorry, I'm just trying to clarify timeline. Yeah, so the intent was for this to come back on consent. Um ostensibly a consent item can be pulled if if Council wants to talk about it. Um but uh that was the plan.

[04:10:19] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay. Well perhaps um just to to strike maybe a path forward, if Councilmember Ramirez is okay with it, maybe the item can come back on the regular agenda and if there's anything you'd like to discuss like if anyone wants to discuss anything further at that time, that way we'll have answers to the question on can we or can't we include age, about the questions that Councilmember Clark brought up, and then maybe we'll get some more information then.

[04:10:49] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Is that? Or if people want to amend the motion that's fine too, but just sorry, trying to to strike a balance. So I think in terms of...

[04:10:59] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I have to say I don't I don't feel very passionately about whether the 30-year if you appear to be 30 years old. It has I think for people who are vending alcohol it has been from what I've heard, although I have never vended alcohol myself, um it has been handy to not have to ask everyone.

[04:11:28] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So that's why I put it forward, I don't feel that strongly about it. That was a very passionate plea on your part though. Um so I'd just instead of asking the County and bringing it back, if other Councilmembers want to say they they can card everyone I don't care, I'd just like to hear from a few other people are other people like "No, I was only going to vote for it if you let people over 30 off the hook" or you know how does anyone else feel about it? I can leave it in or take it out, I don't care.

[04:11:53] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay. Well I think what I'm what I'm trying to say is I think that whether the age 30 is in there or not, there are questions that Councilmember Clark has that are going to need to be answered.

[04:12:08] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: So either way, like if we're going to ask the County questions, might as well get them all answered, it can come back on the regular agenda, we can discuss, and then that way the age thing can get answered, Councilmember Clark's um items can get answered, and then the concern that Councilmember Ramirez can be addressed because we'll be able to have another robust discussion about this when it comes back in the fall. That would be my suggestion.

[04:12:24] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Sure, that way or if people are like "I was totally convinced by Councilmember Ramirez," we'll just ditch that one. I would be willing to...

[04:12:33] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Well there's three other people in the queue, so I'll let them weigh in. Councilmember McAlister.

[04:12:39] Councilmember John McAlister: Thank you. I'm ready for your passionate plea.

[04:12:43] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: I thought you resolved it.

[04:12:44] Councilmember John McAlister: So, um Councilmember Ramirez, when we first you first joined the Council, I remember smoking in apartments and you were very passionate about that. That was what almost nine years ago or longer?

[04:13:01] Councilmember John McAlister: So um I'm putting that in context for the rest of my Councilmembers, he was concerned about it way back then and here. But the reason I want I want to ask on Councilmember Clark: Are prescription drugs anywhere in this realm that could be possibly that would be in this ordinance at all that you'd have to or would they be exempt?

[04:13:23] Councilmember Chris Clark: Prescription drugs are exempt and then the the like that pool of like FDA authorized things I talked about are exempt.

[04:13:34] Councilmember Chris Clark: But what they don't exempt is um other similar things that um I think that list hasn't been updated in forever and I just know from I promise Big Tobacco didn't call me and like try and get me to do this or like the convenience store down the street or across El Camino didn't.

[04:13:54] Councilmember Chris Clark: This is this is just legitimately from my experience like knowing people who have really struggled to quit, like the cessation products and access to those are really important to them and not having to pay the obscene premium that FDA authorized things are.

[04:14:08] Councilmember Chris Clark: And so I just I just want to ask the question if we want to move forward. If we ultimately move forward with this overall ordinance that's fine with me, I just I feel a duty to like ask the question.

[04:14:14] Councilmember John McAlister: No, I got it, but when I think of the cessation drugs that they're usually prescription or are these over the counter?

[04:14:22] Councilmember Chris Clark: These are these are over the counter. You can get one at Walgreens. Um yeah, there are prescription drugs that are stronger, but these are like, you know, a patch that you wear. There are just other things.

[04:14:33] Councilmember John McAlister: Did it help you with your Camel addiction?

[04:14:36] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: All right, are you, does that conclude your comments?

[04:14:41] Councilmember John McAlister: No, um I sort of to address the other his passion about the age. I know when I go out I get carded for drinking and I go "That's a..." and I'm sure Pat does too because we're young at heart. Um and we get but it is a little bit taxing.

[04:15:04] Councilmember John McAlister: Um so I can I can understand the idea and I can understand your passion, so I'm open to finding out about it and then bringing it back. Um but I would hate I don't want to take it off, but it's something that if we can get compliance, one thing is to say do it and another thing is to get compliance and that's sometimes more important than just a ban it, so those are my thoughts.

[04:15:27] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: I just wanted to share something with regards to the the age, the 30-year-old thing. We could also just defer to the County. The best place for the member of the public to advocate is with the County. We have to adopt a substantially similar ordinance.

[04:15:42] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: If the County is willing to put that back in their ordinance, it will change our ordinance. Right? We don't necessarily have to fight that battle and if the County is not doesn't approve it, it's not going to happen anyways, we're going to have to adopt their ordinance as is.

[04:15:59] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: So really I just wanted to share that he could advocate with the County and we'd be stuck with it. Right? That's really the place to go. So if that changes, if that helps appease Councilmember Ramirez's concern, I just wanted to I wanted to share that with you.

[04:16:19] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Mayor. Um I hope that when I'm like in my 70s or 80s that I'll get carded. I hope I have this baby face forever. Um so I I support just having everyone kind of get carded. Um and as as I was looking through this ordinance, I I was reminded when I was in high school my grandfather passed away from complications from smoking.

[04:16:48] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I don't know if it was lung cancer, but I knew it was complications from smoking. And I was pretty young at the time when he quit smoking, but the damage was just so it was done, the damage was done. He and I remember asking my parents like "Why does he smoke because we know it's bad?"

[04:17:09] Councilmember Emily Ramos: And he and my dad told me that when he was very young they didn't really know. Um and and that since then he could not kick the habit.

[04:17:19] Councilmember Emily Ramos: And we know now that it's not good and I know there was a lot of work being done so that like every I think most of us remember DARE and and all that stuff when we were younger to know that it's not good for you and allowed us to not take up that thing. But it's it's coming back, it's rearing its ugly head in these new forms of flavored tobacco.

[04:17:43] Councilmember Emily Ramos: So I'm glad that we're taking up this ordinance. I'm also glad that we are partnering with our County um at this time when um a lot of cities feel like they can do everything on their own and sometimes we feel that way. To be able to partner kind of shows in our ability to be a very collaborative jurisdiction.

[04:18:03] Councilmember Emily Ramos: And this is one way we can do that so that we can and there's no really better um value to do that than to protect the youth in our city. So I am supportive of this motion um uh I hope that we could get Councilmember Ramirez's vote and whatever that means in in amending that motion to do that. Um and I hope this moves forward. Thank you.

[04:18:32] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I just wanted to sort of um comment on um Councilmember Ramirez's interpretation of why I asked about were the um permits relatively easy to get. I guess my view is that when permits get too difficult to get, people don't get them. And then they don't get the annual um and then they don't get the annual review.

[04:18:59] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And I want everybody in Mountain View who sells these things to be in the system and get the annual review. So it's a it's sort of the sweet spot. It's kind of like, you know, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. You know, you have to you don't want to make it too too hard or too easy, it's got to be just the right amount so everybody does it.

[04:19:17] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Well I feel like we've had robust conversation. I think that um there hopefully um we can find the compromise in this coming back in the fall and then being able to have it as a regular item and being able to have more robust conversation. Um but if not then I'll call the vote.

[04:19:38] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Uh Councilmember Ramirez. Thank you Mayor, I just wanted to clarify what the motion on the floor is.

[04:19:45] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: So right now it's the staff recommendation plus asking two questions: one about the 30 and one about the um smoking cessation devices, is that right? And then coming back to us with both of those so that we can talk then I guess. In the fall. As a regular item.

[04:20:06] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: That's thank you that's helpful I appreciate it. Um I support Councilmember Clark's amendment but I still don't support I don't want to waste the time asking a question to achieve something that the County doesn't actually care about. That's my two cents. So it'll be a 6-1 vote.

[04:20:23] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah, I was trying to get a feedback from people, some people said they wanted to hear the answer to the question so I just don't care right now.

[04:20:32] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay. So um thank you very much, thank you to to staff and um I really thought there was some good Council questions in terms of asking about some of our advisory bodies and particularly our Youth Advisory Committee.

[04:20:48] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: I like that it's going to be proactive education and so I would just ask staff if we can do it for all of our advisory bodies, um not just YAC, and our leadership academies, being able to do, you know, education in all of those places. I think that would be um great. All right, we will call the vote.

[04:21:15] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: And that passes 6-1. Thank you very much to staff. We will close this item and move on to item 8, Council, staff, and committee reports. Thank you. Councilmember Showalter.

[04:21:24] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, boy I had a very, very busy week two weeks ago. Um I went to Silicon Valley Clean Energy and BASCA and BCDC after the Council meeting. So I have some things to share with you.

[04:21:38] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Um on uh May 14th, I attended two Silicon Valley Clean Energy meetings. Um the first one was about how we will use our new space. Um we've just bought a building, it's um 27,000 square feet and that's more space than is needed.

[04:21:52] Councilmember Pat Showalter: So um uh we purchased it for $11.7 million dollars um or we will purchase it for that and um uh we're thinking about what could we use essentially an extra floor for.

[04:22:06] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And so we had a robust discussion and it will be interesting to see um what um the architects come back with, but I think it's it's going to be a combination of public spaces and demonstration spaces um that that people can use.

[04:22:25] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Then the second meeting was the standard Silicon Valley Clean Energy meeting and um one of the things that we talked about that I wanted to share was the idea of flexing flexing your energy use.

[04:22:41] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Um you you get a better rate if you use energy at the right times of the day. And um uh the right times of the day are basically when the sun is shining and so we're generating solar.

[04:22:56] Councilmember Pat Showalter: So um you get the best rate between 9:00 and 4:00 and then um rates uh go um down again at 9:00 p.m. through um most of the evening hours, you know, the the dead of night because most people aren't using much electricity.

[04:23:16] Councilmember Pat Showalter: So I just wanted to share that with you because I know for many years um we thought about using electricity um uh more when other people weren't using it and so that would be to try and put your use uh in uh at night.

[04:23:30] Councilmember Pat Showalter: So if you want to run your dishwasher for instance and you have a timer, the best time to do that is probably at noon. Or doing laundry, that kind of thing. Um so the 9 to 4 uh window is a really good one.

[04:23:43] Councilmember Pat Showalter: I also wanted to share with you a um a flyer uh we got on the cap and trade um proposal that Newsom is putting out, he's call- it's being called now cap and invest, but this is a way in California that we raise a great deal of money for environmental purposes. So um just wanted I thought that was a nice factsheet to share.

[04:24:12] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Then um I uh the next day I went to BCDC in the afternoon and um we uh we talked about where did I put that information. We we got updated on um the sea level rise uh sea level rise standards again.

[04:24:30] Councilmember Pat Showalter: They do this regularly and um how much progress is being made on the um development of the regional uh adaptation shoreline plans which we are we are working on.

[04:24:50] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And then in the evening, um I went to BASCA and um most of that meeting was devoted to talking about scenarios related to Strategy 2050.

[04:25:06] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And that was um interesting in that we discussed uh things like changing conceivable changing uh demand patterns and is the demand uh estimates that that SFPUC has which are um very conservative, uh really realistic going forward or should they be reevaluated?

[04:25:30] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And there was a general interest in in um revisiting those to be more realistic. Um and then uh we also got a report from the SFPUC about how much water is um in the system.

[04:25:42] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And although we didn't have a sort of a super super water year, we had a good one, um especially in terms of water supply. So the reservoirs are at 90% and um pretty much in in our system and that's as much as you want to have at this time...

[04:26:04] Councilmember Pat Showalter: because you have to have some room in the reservoir for the the snowmelt to flow in. Um and so uh we have that and we do not have any expectation that there will be, you know, any drought problems.

[04:26:20] Councilmember Pat Showalter: But the real good news is that um the SFPUC adopted the water supply agreement minimum purchase amendment amendment. And that is uh going to that that's the first major formal step in the finalization of the minimum purchase agreement...

[04:26:42] Councilmember Pat Showalter: um kind of getting rid of it really. And it's been very expensive, could conceivably be millions of dollars a year of charges in non-drought years.

[04:27:00] Councilmember Pat Showalter: The um for it to be final however, it has to be approved by all of the contractors um who are part of SF- the SFPUC system, and there are 26 of them. So it's got to go it's got to go to 26 essentially 26 not quite City Council, some of them are water districts.

[04:27:20] Councilmember Pat Showalter: It will be coming to ours I believe June 10th. Is that right? City Manager is it coming June 10th?

[04:27:23] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: It's coming in June, I don't know if it's June 10th.

[04:27:25] Councilmember Pat Showalter: It's coming in June. Anyway, so we want to be one of the earliest ones to um set ourselves up for having a much more modern agreement that uh is is much more um cost effective. So thank you.

[04:27:45] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Any other um Council, staff or committee reports? I just have a couple.

[04:27:55] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, um just really briefly, um attended the, Mayor Mahan holds a Mayor's quarterly meeting. I attended that on the the 16th and it was we were invited to their emergency operations center, so as we've been talking about our new public safety building it was interesting to see how they um had had put that in and talked about um emergency operations and fire preparedness.

[04:28:22] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Um and just want to um thank all of our city staff, um this is Public Service uh Recognition Month I believe, so we had our employee, yes, we had our employee appreciation luncheon and um we also had our State of the City, um as well as our Memorial Day celebration which our city staff just did an incredible job on on all of them. So it was wonderful to be able to to celebrate them.

[04:28:47] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: And then just um really briefly Google held a policy program for mayors um with mayors from around the country talking about autonomous vehicles and AI. So got to give a mayor's welcome for that. Councilmember McAlister.

[04:29:02] Councilmember John McAlister: Uh thank you for reminding me about the State of the City. I just want to say that our City Manager and our Mayor performed exceptional. Uh they were flaw- they just kept the the flow going, they knew their material and it was very professional.

[04:29:21] Councilmember John McAlister: Uh Hollywood's calling soon, but uh I think that it was very well presented to everyone, everyone had a good meal and uh I was just for the first one I hate to see the next couple maybe the third person try to do better than that, uh but it was really nicely done.

[04:29:39] Councilmember John McAlister: So I applaud them. I also was at the Memorial center uh ceremony and for 10 years ago it was dedicated and I was the mayor at the time and it was nice to go back again and see how it has evolved and it's much more um speakers, presentation uh invo- and it makes it much more robust.

Segment 7

[04:30:00] Councilmember John McAlister: The fact is we have to do our part and take a look at it. So thank you so much, appreciate it and really appreciate working with staff. I enjoyed the last four years and I wish you all the best and look forward to the next four.

[04:30:41] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Well, happy holidays, everyone. We are adjourned.

Segment 5

[05:00:01] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. First, I want to express my appreciation to staff for their work on this project over the years and also to the applicant. I, like Daniel, live pretty nearby and bike through this area very frequently and am inclined to agree with his observations there's room for improvement. So I hope that the staff and the applicant have an opportunity to consider some tactical opportunities to improve the bicycle and pedestrian facilities in the area. But, and also I want to express my appreciation to other members of the public who participated and expressed their views tonight.

[05:00:41] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So I don't have too many remarks. I think the project has great merit and I will be supporting it and look forward to its timely construction. So hopefully some of the parking allowances that we mentioned in our exchange could help facilitate that. But before I make a motion to approve, I did want to share it's the custom of the City Council for gatekeeper projects like this to expect a significant community benefit.

[05:01:53] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And the community benefit that is most closely associated with this project is the delivery of a neighborhood serving school in the San Antonio area. And unfortunately, there is, I would say, uncertainty about whether that particular community benefit is likely to be delivered. And I'm sensitive to that in thinking about how about the nexus between this project and future projects subject to the TDR program.

[05:02:25] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And whether some of those fundamental elements have changed sufficiently for us to rethink certain elements. And that uncertainty in particular, I think, is troubling for this project because the TDR proceeds are such a significant component of that value, the community benefit value that we've been seeking through facilitating the TDR program.

[05:03:33] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So with that uncertainty in mind, I want to advance the project, but I also want to provide staff an opportunity to explore ways of thinking of alternative arrangements to help ensure that there is a significant community benefit element that this project can help provide to the community. So particularly in light of this uncertainty with the Los Altos School District and the inconsistency with the funding and joint use agreement that we have with them.

[05:04:11] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So I'm going to go ahead and move to approve the project and I'll look to staff if I make a mistake.

[05:04:17] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes, one moment, because we do have somebody who moved. We just don't have a second. But I also know the city attorney wants to speak. So...

[05:05:11] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: So I wanted to provide some clarification on are you making a substitute motion? Or maybe Councilmember McAlister, you can withdraw your motion and allow Councilmember Ramirez and then you can second. Thank you.

[05:05:24] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes. So perhaps... Okay. Then you can... Sorry, our screens. You can second and Councilmember Ramirez with clarity from the city. Okay. Yes. And...

[05:05:44] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I'll be reading into the record the technical...

[05:05:47] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Wonderful. Okay. So we're going to have a motion by Councilmember Ramirez seconded by Councilmember Hicks and City Attorney Logue will also provide some clarifying comments as the motion is read into the record. Thank you very much, everyone.

[05:05:58] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: So what I'd like to clarify is for one and two that you have where you're going to propose some modifications. I'm recommending for legal reasons that you modify your motion to postpone adoption of the two resolutions to the same date that the ordinance comes back for second reading in June 2025. Okay.

[05:07:03] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: So you're just gonna... rather than adopt the two resolutions tonight, you're going to... your motion will postpone adoption of those two resolutions to the date, to the same date of the second reading and then you can read from number three.

[05:07:19] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Three and four is what I'll read.

[05:07:21] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Yes. So you'd open your motion with moving the two resolutions to the same date that the ordinance will come back for second reading.

[05:07:31] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: They will not need to be read into the record, right? No need to read the titles. So...

[05:07:37] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Correct. Correct. Right.

[05:08:19] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay. So I will move what the City Attorney has said into the record for me regarding items one and two. And then three, I move to introduce an ordinance of the city of Mountain View approving a development agreement between the city of Mountain View and Merlone Geier Partners 9, LP for the Village at San Antonio Center Phase 3 project on a 0.99-acre site located at 365 to 405 San Antonio Road and 2585 to 2595 California Street to be read in title only and set a second reading for June 10, 2025 with the following modification to Section 4 of the ordinance.

[05:09:02] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Section 4 of the ordinance shall read as follows: The City Council hereby approves the development agreement which shall be effective upon execution by the parties, but no sooner than December 2025. And then four, with an additional, with additional direction, direct staff to explore other mechanisms to effectuate the project without Merlone Geier's purchase of TDR square footage from LASD in the event the city and LASD cannot reach agreement on a new funding and joint use agreement.

[05:10:11] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: And if I could speak one more time, I just wanted to provide clarification for the applicant. We have moved the resolutions to the second reading because those only require one reading. So it's not really changing anything about it. It's just going to be the adoption of the resolutions will align with the second reading of the ordinance. So it's not... I just wanted to make sure that you understood that it's not really effectively changing anything, it's just aligning everything to the same date. Okay. So it is postponing adoption, but it is not stopping adoption.

[05:10:52] Public Speaker Matt Gray: I'm Matt Gray, counsel for the applicant for Merlone Geier. Can I just request one clarification? Is the public hearing going to be closed while the resolutions go on the consent calendar on June 10th?

[05:11:46] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: They will... they could go on the consent calendar with the adoption of the ordinance. Yes. Great. Thank you. Yes.

[05:11:57] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Do we need to put that into the motion?

[05:12:03] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Um, you could direct that they can be put on the...

[05:12:07] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay. So we can put that just for clarity purposes too, we can put that into the motion. Thank you. All right. And that will be added into the motion that those items will come back on the consent calendar when we meet again in two weeks on June 10, 2025. I think that colleagues have some comments. So I'm going to let colleagues comment and then if staff needs to lean forward and provide any other clarity we can do so as well. Vice Mayor Ramos.

[05:12:39] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you, Mayor. So I know there was, there might have been some confusion but I think the general sense, I mean I'm the second person to talk now, but I think the general sense is that we do like this project and we want to move forward with it. There's just some minor things to go through. But I recall, it's funny because Councilmember Hicks is right after me, but I remember years ago, before either of us even had thoughts that we would be on Council, we went to like a movie at ICON and we were not happy with how San Antonio was back then.

[05:14:00] Councilmember Emily Ramos: But over time I believe it really kind of grew and became a really cool place and identity of its own. Not necessarily like a second downtown, but clearly a good competition to downtown at this point. I think I actually have more happy memories at San Antonio than downtown now. And Randy even calls that area the fitness district of Mountain View. So I'm very happy to see this project move forward with this final parcel of land to really complete the whole system.

[05:15:13] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I'm addicted to a pizza place there and I have a, my one parking spot because no one else parks anywhere near the vicinity of where I park right now. So to get that area more filled out through and more people enjoying what San Antonio has to offer, I think is such a great thing. My favorite memory is the, I think you had like a foam gun event and it was amazing because I don't think, I think there was a level of bliss that I saw in a kid's eyes. They were like so overloaded with happiness. And those are the kind of memories that we can make for our community and our families here in Mountain View. So I'm excited to roll this forward. Let's get this done.

[05:16:44] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So two things. First, I, the reason I seconded this motion, I support it and the reason I seconded, if it hasn't been clear to people, I think, I think we're going to see that Council's supportive of the project, but we also just want to make some tweaks to make sure that we do get the community benefit. I think that that's the purpose. I hope so because that's why I seconded. And I just want to say when I read this staff report, I was very and also when I met with the applicant, I was very, very happy with the transformation of the project.

[05:17:22] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Speaking to some of the things that members of the public have said about wanting more things to be a little less concrete, a little more green and more walkable spaces honoring the pedestrian a little more. I think you've done a couple of key things that really make that happen. One is, let's see how do you say it, pulling the facade back at the ground floor, so it kind of cantilevers out and allows us to have wider sidewalks even though on the second through top story you have the same amount of developable space.

[05:18:34] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I actually think that's what we have to do when we're near very auto-oriented streets like San Antonio in order to get pedestrians to feel comfortable. You know, they get the shade, they get the wide sidewalks and then the developer gets the developable space. So I'm hoping this is an example, I wish all of the San Antonio Center was done that way. I do agree with the members of the public who said it's hard to walk and bike around there. But I hope this is an example of how we can do that. I also really like the, what I call a clear story, you called it a breezeway.

[05:19:10] Councilmember Alison Hicks: You know, the way you open it up even more and make more of the ground floor outdoors. You called it a jewel box with, you know, food and drink or retail or whatever you put there. No, so like you said, there's more of a public realm. I really appreciate that and I think you've really responded to what everybody has said, members of the public, Council, EPC, etc., staff. So I'm really thrilled to see that and hope to see more of it. You know, also the materiality looks good, the limestone and so forth.

[05:20:29] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And also you responded to Councilmember McAlister when he said soften the edges and I appreciate that. So that's why I'll be supporting it. I think it really does start to address some of the things that people have been criticizing about that area. You know, I mean you... the staff report says it's more pedestrian-oriented, but actually when, you know, when we go places and we step out of off the train, off our bikes or out of the car, we're all pedestrians. So, you know, it's just more human focused and I appreciate that.

[05:21:44] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I also like some of the comments about, I like the as I said, I like the shared parking. I support the flexibility on parking and I like the comments about enabling small businesses. I thought that was a good comment as well. So that's why I seconded the motion.

[05:22:06] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yes, so I'll be supporting this as well. I think the last time I saw this a long, long ago, I actually preferred a different... there were a few different architectural options and there was a different one that I preferred, but the way that it turned out, I think is is good. And I just wanted to share a little bit more about the comment on the question I had earlier, is I really... I wish I'd thought of this sooner, but I would really like to enable or think about retail not just as a ground floor amenity, which is very important in terms of activation at that level.

[05:23:31] Councilmember Chris Clark: But there are, there aren't a lot of places in Mountain View where we allow things that are this tall and one of the things that I think is lacking in San Antonio Center right now is kind of an anchor. I think the theater, Alamo Drafthouse, will be a big draw, but I think to just having a really like region-wide destination restaurant where you could have that on an upper level floor, not take up the entire floor and a really great office amenity. But, you know, maybe there's a portion of that that maybe someday down the line could be an event space or a really nice restaurant that would be a regional draw in addition to Alamo Drafthouse and some of the other retailers that are there.

[05:24:56] Councilmember Chris Clark: And the, the reason that I say that and I would like to make it as simple as possible for someone to later change that use in order to allow that is I can speak from experience when I say it's much easier to plan out a commercial kitchen before something is built than it is after the fact and it's easier to build a commercial kitchen with a vent hood at a top floor than it is on the bottom floor. And so being able to plan that around when a building is constructed as opposed to later on is important. But it looks like staff wanted to chime in.

[05:25:25] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Sir, thanks. Um, we did look that up and Amber Blosinski, Assistant Community Development Director... and restaurant would be permitted on any of those levels. It's not just the ground floor that would allow it and it's an actual permitted use. And there's lots of other uses that would be allowed either permitted or with a PUP on any of the levels.

[05:25:48] Councilmember Chris Clark: That's great. So as you as you think about the final finalized design, you know, there are those balconies extend on different areas of that top floor and, you know, a portion could be something other than an office or it could be an event space that an office has to, an office user happens to use for other purposes. So I just wanted to call that out and I'll be supporting the motion.

[05:26:52] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you so much. All right. I echo the sentiments. I think what you're hearing from Council is that this... I have some comments, if that... if that's all right. And then I will make sure that if there's questions, there's also staff right next to you if you'd like to ask. I think what I was going to say is that you're seeing a Council that wants to move this forward and are working through the intricacies with which the gatekeeper like this requires. It's a very unique position for the city and the Council to be in a TDR program which involves another entity with which we're navigating.

[05:27:31] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: But you're hearing excitement and I think this is the final piece of Merlone Geier, this phase, and I hope that this is the final piece that brings it all together. I think that there is a lot of potential on what this can be. I think Councilmember Clark brought forward some really great ideas. I also think in terms of we're going to be seeing, we didn't talk about this too much, but we're going to be seeing grade separation, Caltrain electrification, and we have walking distance from one of our highly utilized spots right there at San Antonio all the way to to El Camino and our borders with Palo Alto and Los Altos.

[05:28:52] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: So I would really encourage as this goes forward to be thinking about the walkability, the bikeability, the city's looking at our active transportation plan and that is I would say a ripe opportunity. So I think if City Attorney Logue has anything else to add, staff has anything to add, it looks like not. So I believe we can call the question and we can take a vote. Great.

[05:30:08] Public Speaker Matt Gray: If I may, there were just two things that I want to, about the motion that was made with additional information. Can I just seek to clarify them with the Council so that we're sure they're read into the record? Okay. I don't think they're controversial. One is I think in the motion as I heard it there was just a reference to December 2025 without a specific new date. We think there should be a date certain on that new effective date. Like December 1st or December 31st rather than just December 2025.

[05:30:42] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Is there something else you'd like us to clarify? We may need to take a recess to include the comments that you'd like us to...

[05:30:48] Public Speaker Matt Gray: Okay. Um, so December 1st or December 31st, you know, I defer to the City Attorney. But but we'd just prefer a date certain so that the agreement is clear. The second thing is one of the things we bargained for in a development agreement is to freeze in the city rules as of a certain date, a vesting date, and that would normally have been July 10th of 2025, 30 days after the second reading. We would still like that to be the date of the effective rules in Section 2.5.

[05:31:56] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: We can work with staff to make that happen, no problem. Thank you very much. And then as far as a date certain if we could just have two minutes, I can talk to staff and I think we can come up with a date certain for you that you could just add to your motion. Can we have two or three minutes?

[05:32:12] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Right. Why don't we just take a brief five-minute recess so that we can include that into the motion? I apologize for the for the... It's all right. So we'll just have to amend for the City Clerk then before we take the vote.

[05:40:58] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: All right, everyone, we will reconvene. Thank you, thank you very much for your patience as we as we navigated. So I believe we have an updated motion and so I'll turn it over to Councilmember Ramirez.

[05:41:51] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. So I'm going to restate the motion with some of the clarifications. So I move to postpone adoption of the two resolutions until the date of the second reading of the ordinance. Introduce an ordinance of the city of Mountain View approving a development agreement between the city of Mountain View and Merlone Geier Partners 9, LP for the Village at San Antonio Center Phase 3 project on a 0.99-acre site located at 365 to 405 San Antonio Road and 2585 to 2595 California Street to be read in title only and set a second reading for June 10, 2025 with the following modification to Section 4 of the ordinance.

[05:42:33] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Section 4 of the ordinance shall read as follows: The City Council hereby approves the development agreement which shall, which shall be effective upon execution by the parties, but no sooner than December 19, 2025. And direct staff to explore other mechanisms to effectuate the project without Merlone Geier's purchase of TDR square footage from LASD in the event the city and LASD cannot reach agreement on a new funding and joint use agreement and authorize staff to work with the applicant to modify the DA to establish a vesting date of July 10th, 2025.

[05:43:48] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So that motion has been seconded by Councilmember Hicks and now we will vote.

[05:44:05] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: All right, and that motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much to the applicant and staff as we as we navigated this item tonight. Much appreciated. We'll move on to item 7, which is new business. Item 7.1 is tobacco and electronic cigarette regulations and restrictions. This will be a joint presentation by Police Captain Scott Nelson and Senior Assistant City Attorney David Wilkas. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk now. We'll turn it over for the staff presentation.

[05:45:18] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Mayor, I just wanted to provide clarification. It's a joint presentation with Captain Nelson and me instead of Dave Wilkas. Sure. Apologies. It wasn't updated on the... I apologize for that. No worries.

[05:47:10] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. I am going to be the first speaker this evening. Captain Nelson, if you could just put up the first slide for me, I'd appreciate it. So I just want to provide a brief overview and and let you know what the purpose of this evening is. As you know, the fiscal year 23-25 work plan includes a project to develop a local ordinance banning the sale of e-cigarettes citywide or vape products citywide.

[05:48:22] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: And the city attorney's office and the police department have been working collaboratively over the past several months to try to come up with a plan on how to best accomplish that goal. And the proposal that we have for Council's consideration this evening is going to involve a partnership with Santa Clara County and the creation of a tobacco retail permit program. And that partnership with the county is going to require the city to adopt an ordinance that is substantially similar to the county's ordinance.

[05:48:54] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: And what you have before you tonight is a draft of that proposed ordinance and it will show you how our municipal code is going to have to be modified. As you see, it was a very long ordinance and it proposes adoption of a new Chapter 48 into our code and repeal of an old tobacco retail regulation. And so this ordinance has been put before you tonight for your review and consideration and to get your vote on whether or not you are supportive of the partnership program with the county because like I said, it comes with this requirement that we adopt an ordinance that is similar to their ordinance.

[05:50:13] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: What this is also going to do is so you're considering this tonight, we will come back in the fall of 2025 with the final ordinance for your adoption. I will continue to work with the county to fine-tune the ordinance to ensure that we are completely aligned with the county as we are required to be and then we'll bring it back in fall of 2025 for your final adoption. During that time while I'm working with the county on updating the ordinance, Captain Nelson will also be working with the county to do a lot of outreach prior to adoption.

[05:50:48] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: So we're actually going to try to front-end outreach instead of have outreach after adoption. And so I will turn it over to Captain Nelson to give you a lot more details about the partnership program and the proposed outreach.

[05:51:44] Police Captain Scott Nelson: All right. Thank you, City Attorney Logue. Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. Scott Nelson, I'm one of the captains with the police department. Thank you for the time to present tonight. The first slides that I'm going to cover is going to go over some key terms to help with the presentation flow. The first one is just regular tobacco products. Some examples of this include traditional unflavored cigarettes, chewing tobacco, smokeless tobacco, and other unflavored products. This has a fairly lengthy definition, but most ordinance refer to the federal United States Code much like the Santa Clara County ordinance does.

[05:53:07] Police Captain Scott Nelson: The next term is flavored tobacco that will come up. That is a tobacco product that contains any type of artificial or natural flavor or aroma including but not limited to some of the examples here: strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, or some of the other examples in the photos here. E-cigarettes is a term that will be used in the presentation. That includes any type of device or delivery system that can be used to deliver nicotine in a aerosolized or vaporized form including but not limited to things referred to as e-cigarettes, e-cigars, vape pens, also known as tanks or mods.

[05:53:49] Police Captain Scott Nelson: Vaping fluids, they can be flavored or unflavored liquid or substance that contains nicotine and be used to deliver the nicotine in a aerosolized or vaporized form. And this is the fluid that's used in the vaping devices and there's several examples of what that looks like in the slide. This slide goes over current California law. So in 2020, California Senate passed bill 793 which banned the retail sale of most flavored tobacco products. This law was challenged and it went on a referendum in 2022 which was overwhelmingly passed by the voters and was eventually taken effect January 1st of 2023.

[05:55:13] Police Captain Scott Nelson: Notably state law does not ban the sale of e-cigarette products unless they are sold in conjunction with some type of flavored tobacco product. Many local jurisdictions have even stricter ordinances than state law that include banning e-cigarette sales regardless of if they're accompanied by a flavored tobacco product.

[05:55:35] Police Captain Scott Nelson: Two of the objectives that we hope to meet with this project include enacting a local tobacco ordinance that will help with California's broader public health strategy to combat youth nicotine addiction, particularly among teens that are drawn to the flavored tobacco products. Implementing local e-cigarette and flavored tobacco bans may help reduce teen access and use, ultimately protecting them from the harmful effects associated with tobacco and vaping.

[05:56:45] Police Captain Scott Nelson: Some of the health impacts include that most e-cigarette fluids contain nicotine, which have been known to harm brain development and could lead to continued tobacco product use among youth. The Centers for Disease Control state that e-cigarette fluids contain cancer-causing chemicals, heavy metals, and ultrafine particles that are inhaled deeply into the lungs and may harm the body. CDC also states that nicotine exposure during adolescence can harm parts of the brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control.

[05:57:25] Police Captain Scott Nelson: This slide covers some of the health effects specifically related to the appeal of flavored tobacco. Flavored tobacco and e-cigarette devices are often marketed in a way that appeals to youth. This is done through the use of celebrity role models, vibrant colors, and claims such that e-cigarettes are healthier, safer, or they can be smoked anywhere. There's a couple examples of how these products can be marketed. Marketing also appeals based on the flavors that are advertised such as strawberry, cotton candy, gummy bear, and other flavors that may appeal to youth.

[05:58:43] Police Captain Scott Nelson: The American Academy of Pediatrics states that these marketing approaches threaten to re-normalize and glamorize the use of e-cigarette devices which could potentially cause this new generation of youth to become addicted to nicotine and reverse more than 50 years of progress in tobacco control. This slide talks about some of the statistics among teens' use of vaping products and tobacco.

[05:59:06] Police Captain Scott Nelson: In December of 2018, the United States Surgeon General declared that e-cigarette use is an epidemic, citing a dramatic increase in the use among adolescents. According to a 2023 California Youth Tobacco survey, 83.8% of students who ever used tobacco reported trying an e-cigarette as their first tobacco product. Survey also found that 22.4% of current e-cigarette student users who paid for their devices purchased them directly from a store. Survey also found that 57.6 of students viewed another student using a vape device within the last 30 days.

[06:00:36] Police Captain Scott Nelson: This chart on here, this represents a report card that's done annually through the American Lung Association and this evaluates local tobacco control policies in five key areas including smoke-free outdoor areas, smoke-free housing, reducing tobacco sales, flavored tobacco restrictions, and overall tobacco control grade. The 2024 report gives the city of Mountain View an overall grade of C and a grade of an F in the report of reducing tobacco sales products.

[06:01:54] Police Captain Scott Nelson: In doing our research for this ordinance, we reviewed the city of Mountain View ordinance and learned that it currently does not require most tobacco retailers to follow any additional registration permitting process. This caused us to to take a broader look and a broader approach to developing the new ordinance to regulate tobacco sales and include e-cigarette devices and flavored tobacco products.

[06:02:24] Police Captain Scott Nelson: We also reviewed other jurisdictions' ordinances to try and identify other best practices. This table shows other policies across the other cities in Santa Clara County. What we found was that nine of the 16 cities have an ordinance banning the sale of flavored tobacco. Seven of those 16 cities have some type of ordinance banning e-cigarette devices as well. We also noticed that Palo Alto, Cupertino, and Los Gatos have all partnered with Santa Clara County through their tobacco retail permit program.

[06:03:43] Police Captain Scott Nelson: We looked further into the Santa Clara County tobacco retail permit program and we learned that this program has been in place since 2016 and invites other partner cities to join them through a memorandum of understanding. The county's comprehensive retail tobacco ordinance prohibits many things including the following: Sales of electronic cigarettes and products such as e-cigarettes, vape pens, tanks, and mods. Prohibits the sale of flavored tobacco products. It prohibits advertising covering more than 15% of windows and doors.

[06:05:00] Police Captain Scott Nelson: Prohibits selling tobacco products through self-service display so a retail clerk has to be with the customer when they're viewing the product. Selling of tobacco products through a vending machine. Selling of single cigarettes. Sales of tobacco products to persons under the age of 21. Allow clerks under the age of 21 to sell tobacco products. And it prohibits the giving away or low-cost cigarettes or tobacco products.

[06:05:30] Police Captain Scott Nelson: The Santa Clara County retail tobacco program does go beyond that of just banning these products. It has more robust features that would address the lack of licensing issue that our current ordinance does not have. The TRP also provides a licensing procedure for local retailers to apply for their license through the county. They have the process, they process all the retail tobacco applications. They collect the fees from the applicants. They maintain a tobacco retailer database provided to the city in addition to a state tobacco retail database.

[06:06:53] Police Captain Scott Nelson: The county also helps conduct the annual renewal process. County also conducts enforcement operations in partnership with the police department and the city, the county TRP provides city-specific fact sheets that can go out to businesses and residents so they can be aware of the tobacco program. We've already completed some business outreach.

[06:07:18] Police Captain Scott Nelson: I went out to two of the main retail tobacco stores that predominantly sell flavored tobacco or vaping products, vaping devices in Mountain View. These retailers were both provided with information about tonight's Council meeting and how to obtain information about what's going to be presented. Both of the businesses stated that selling of e-cigarette devices did not constitute a significant portion of their overall sales. We also have planned business outreach.

[06:08:30] Police Captain Scott Nelson: Part of that is to partner with the county to contact all the existing tobacco retailers in Mountain View to let them know about the program if it passes how they can apply for their permit in a timely manner and be approved through the county program. And we also plan to work with the county to draft and distribute frequently asked question flyers and fact sheets that we can distribute to both residents and businesses.

[06:09:00] Police Captain Scott Nelson: The staff recommendation: the tobacco retail program provides the most comprehensive approach and solution to both banning e-cigarette device sales in Mountain View and significantly improves the city's permitting and ongoing regulation of tobacco sales. Although the state requires a license to sell tobacco, more than 150 cities and counties also require a local tobacco permit similar to what would be required through the county's tobacco retail permit program. Based on this evaluation of the TRP, staff recommends partnering with the county for ongoing tobacco retail licensing and enforcement.

[06:10:26] Police Captain Scott Nelson: And this is the proposed Council motion language and I can leave that up on the screen and we're open for any questions that you all may have.

[06:10:50] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Does any member of the Council have any questions? Councilmember McAlister.

[06:10:58] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, thanks. So when you said state, the alcohol, tobacco and firearms, which is sort of a unique blend of teen-friendly items. How does that play in licensing?

[06:11:55] Police Captain Scott Nelson: Thank you, Councilmember. As far as I know, the only license that a retailer needs is a license through the state. Once they get that retail license from the state, then they can operate in Mountain View. Since we don't have any other additional permitting, they don't need any type of license through ATF in order to operate as a retailer.

[06:12:16] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Also on this ordinance there's a... I saw the word reasonable smoking distance required. So, you know, that's when people... some people are sensitive to others more than others. How if we're going to go this... it doesn't look like you're chang... well you did change the number on it but what's... is reasonable something individually has to decide?

[06:13:24] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: I can help with that just give me a second and let me pull the ordinance so I can see exactly what you're referring to.

[06:13:29] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah. 21.2.25 on page 6 of 27. I mean I hate to put a officer in a in the thing that hey this guy's bothering me with smoke and yet the next person over there says it's not a problem and just... I know it's not part of the ordinance but I just saw it and I go, well, people do have, you know, concerns about which way of reasonable. Because I know there's signs... Mountain View has an ordinance like 25 feet or something.

[06:14:10] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Sorry, can you read that again? 21.2.25? 21.2.25 on page 6 of 27.

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