August 26, 2025 Special Meeting of the Mountain View City Council

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Transcript

[00:07:00] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay. Um, good evening everyone. Um, welcome to the Mountain View City Council Special Meeting of August 26, 2025. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:07:15] Group: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:10:52] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: All right, I think we can try to reconvene. Hopefully the technical issues are resolved. So we can move on to Item 3, which is roll call. The City Clerk will take attendance by roll call.

[00:11:04] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Clark?

[00:11:06] Councilmember Chris Clark: Here.

[00:11:06] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Hicks?

[00:11:08] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[00:11:09] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember McAllister?

[00:11:10] Councilmember John McAlister: Yep.

[00:11:11] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Ramirez?

[00:11:12] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[00:11:13] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Showalter?

[00:11:14] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Here.

[00:11:14] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Ramos?

[00:11:15] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Here.

[00:11:16] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Kamei?

[00:11:17] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Here.

[00:11:18] City Clerk Heather Glaser: You have a quorum.

[00:11:18] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you very much. So we'll move on to Item 4, which is our Public Hearing. Item 4.1 is about our 2025 Building Codes Update. Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen and Chief Building Official Nina Bizek 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 start with the staff presentation.

[00:11:51] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. I'm Lindsey Hagen, Assistant Community Development Director, and I'm joined tonight by Nina Bizek, the Chief Building Official, to present the 2025 Building Codes Update.

[00:12:05] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Starting with some of the background on the building codes, the formal name of the codes that we're primarily talking about tonight are the California Building Standards Code, which is adopted as part of the California Code of Regulations, or Title 24. This code regulates various aspects of all building occupancies in California, including things like construction, sustainability, life safety, as well as other provisions.

[00:12:36] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: It's overseen by the California Building Standards Commission, or CBSC for short, and it's updated every 3 years to incorporate new technologies, latest advancements, lessons learned, and enhance safety. All cities in California are responsible for enforcing this code. Local amendments to this code by cities is allowed, but they must be accepted by the CBSC and are restricted to really two areas. One is administrative or procedural in nature. Local amendments can also be more stringent than State Code provisions, but local cities have to adopt findings due to local climatic, geological, or topographical conditions. Staff has incorporated those findings in Attachment 4 to the staff report.

[00:13:39] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Talking a little bit more about the California Building Standards Code, this code is often just referred to as the "State Code." It's comprised of 13 Parts; each one of these parts listed on your screen is really, in and of itself, individual codes. So really this code is a pretty substantial code. I do want to highlight a couple of the particular parts. Part 7, which is highlighted on here, is a new code that was brought into this 2025 cycle. It's the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code. It's in response to a lot of the wildfires that California has seen in the last couple years and requires certain building requirements and materials to be used in fire-prone areas of California. Mountain View is not located in any of the areas where this code is applicable.

[00:14:44] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Additionally, I want to highlight Part 11, the California Green Building Standards Code, or CalGreen. This is a code and chapter or part, I should say, that our reach code provisions are all located in this part. And then lastly, just highlighting Part 6, which is the California Energy Code. This is where a lot of the energy efficiency provisions lie, and when cities modify this code, it does require additional approval from a state agency.

[00:15:15] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Getting into one of those agencies and approval process, we did want to talk about Cost Effectiveness Studies. So this is required when a local amendment related to energy efficiency or conservation standards, either are proposed in Part 6, the Energy Code I just mentioned, or in any of the other parts of the California State Code. And if an amendment is made, it does require the adoption of local findings by the City, as well as the California Energy Commission does have to approve these amendments, and that process can take anywhere from two to four months.

[00:15:50] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: The study must evaluate how many years it takes to recoup the initial cost of the requirement compared to the ongoing operational outcome. So multiple cities can use the same Cost Effectiveness Study, as long as the local amendments are in line with the study. And the study must demonstrate at least one cost-effective path to comply. So, important point to that is it doesn't mean all aspects of the provision have to be cost effective, just at least one.

[00:16:18] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Staff has included a Cost Effectiveness Study for one of the new 2025 reach code provisions, the AC to Heat Pump, which we'll talk about in a moment. This was prepared by the California Energy Codes and Standards Statewide Utility Program. The study complies with the requirements of the California Energy Commission for consideration of their approval, and staff has included the necessary findings in Attachment 4, which also is where the study is located. It's also an example of an amendment that's not in Part 6 but related to energy efficiency. That particular provision is actually part of Part 11, the CalGreen Code.

[00:16:55] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So in addition to some of the nuts and bolts of the code, it's important to talk about the current regulatory environment that we are in in relation to the 2025 code cycle. In particular, there are three major actions in the last two years that have fed into why staff is proposing the package of amendments we are, including reach code provisions for 2025 at this time.

[00:17:18] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: The first is in 2023, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District adopted rulings that established a sale prohibition on nitrogen oxide-emitting water heaters and furnaces by 2027 and 2029 respectively. To be clear, there are no current gas appliances on the market that meet a zero NOx emission. So effectively, it's anticipated that this is really going to shift the market availability of gas-powered water heaters and furnaces in the near term. So that is why staff has started to introduce electric pre-wiring requirements in anticipation of these appliances going electric in the near term.

[00:18:00] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: In 2024, the outcome of the California Restaurant Association and City of Berkeley lawsuit came, which resulted in Mountain View having to suspend our all-electric requirements related to gas appliances, as well as other cities in our region took the same action. In its place, we adopted new electric pre-wiring requirements for new construction for all development types, which we referred to as Phase 1, which was adopted in 2024. And so now as part of the package before you tonight, we are proposing a Phase 2 to that pre-wiring requirement as a continuation of these efforts.

[00:18:35] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: And lastly in 2025, this year, we have Assembly Bill 306 and AB 130, which came to fruition. AB 306 is a reaction from the Southern California wildfires and the rebuilding efforts around them. Essentially AB 130, which was signed into law on June 30th of this year, effectuated AB 306 immediately. And essentially it prohibits amendments by the California Building Standards Code, or cities, to the State Code for six years that impact residential development. Unless the amendments meet certain exceptions, a handful of them, which are listed here on your screen.

[00:19:18] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So these exceptions relate to previously adopted City amendments in place by September 30th of this year. Amendments related to emergency standards or home hardening; home hardening is essentially fire-proofing or fire prevention measures in a home. Amendments that are necessary to implement a City's adopted General Plan, and is part of a City-adopted greenhouse gas reduction strategy while still allowing mixed-fuel residential construction. And lastly, administrative enhancements related to processing permits, so things like reducing review timelines or adopting fee schedules, you can make amendments related to those matters.

[00:19:49] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So AB 130 is really the reason that City staff significantly accelerated the preparation of the 2025 Building Code update. We calculated it was actually seven weeks from today we received the code. So it was roughly six weeks for us to get here today. We are attempting with Council's approval, of course, to introduce new code provisions and submit them to and receive acceptance by the California Building Standards Commission prior to the September 30th due date to give ourselves the greatest chance of success in adopting new local amendments to our code, including new reach code provisions.

[00:20:24] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So any delay in adopting code provisions at today's hearing and the tentatively scheduled reading on September 9th will lower the City's chances of receiving the necessary approval to incorporate new code provisions for implementation by January 1st of 2026, and possibly for six years.

[00:20:40] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So shifting gears into the preparation of our 2025 code updates and sort of how we update the building code in general, first and foremost, it takes a village really to do this work. Regionally, we coordinate and participate in various groups, primarily one being Silicon Valley Clean Energy every code cycle, who helps this region with reach code provisions. We also coordinate with other professional organizations, technical code experts, and of course consult other cities.

[00:21:05] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: From the City side, it really truly is a collaborative effort, as there are many parts to the State Code as you saw, and it requires us to really divvy up the work based on areas of specialty. So, as you can see from the list on your screen here, we really coordinate with staff from the Fire Department, like the Fire Marshal and Hazardous Materials staff; from Public Works, like Land Development and Public Services. We also coordinate, of course, with many building staff including Plan Checkers, Fire Protection Engineers, Inspectors, the City Attorney's Office, as well as the Sustainability Division and the City Manager's Office. And I will say even this year we consulted with the Police Department on one section as well. So I really just want to take a second to thank the team enough for all their work this last couple of weeks on all this effort.

[00:21:45] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: In terms of sort of getting into the particulars of what we look at when we're doing this work every three years, it can really be put into three buckets. First, we remove code provisions that are no longer relevant. So usually these are provisions that the new State Code has gotten more stringent and has absorbed that requirement. A great example of that would be some of the 2024 pre-wiring requirements we adopted for multifamily residential and commercial kitchens have now become part of the base code, so those are no longer local amendments. The other rationale for removing code provisions would be if there's been a change in how a standard is calculated or defined or applied, so it may make our local amendment moot.

[00:22:34] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Kind of shifting to the second bucket, we update and adjust the code provisions to meet minimum 2025 State Code provisions in this case. We look at the new provisions and see if we need to add any new local amendments. We have to align a lot of the references to the correct code sections because a lot of times those code sections do move around. And then we also reorganize or clarify some of our current code requirements. A great example of this is our mandatory green building table which is located in Attachment 4. This is actually a table that outlines all of our reach code provisions. It's been a very popular and well-utilized table and so we really tried to enhance it this cycle. Additionally adding any necessary administrative procedures or references.

[00:23:18] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: And then lastly, it's of course reviewing our reach code provisions, making sure to carry over any provisions that are still exceeding the new code cycle minimums, and then as well as look at any new reach code provisions.

[00:23:34] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So sort of getting into, what is a reach code? Reach codes are local building code amendments that go beyond the minimum requirements of the State Building Code to meet a community's environmental and sustainability goals. So this can really range from promoting clean energy, expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure, reducing waste or water, or pursuing other environmental objectives. For this year, an example of that would be some of the bird-friendly design standards.

[00:23:59] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Why the City looks to adopt reach codes? A great sort of starting point is in April of 2020 the Council adopted a resolution to become a carbon neutral city by 2045. And so as part of our work in greenhouse gas emissions, the City does intermittently undertake an inventory. So the table or the graph shown on your screen here is from the 2023 inventory of our greenhouse gas emissions. And as you can see from the chart, buildings contribute to about 32% of Mountain View's greenhouse gas emissions. And the majority of that, at 22%, is related to gas appliances and equipment that are in those buildings. So an important aspect of reach codes is really as a tool to help facilitate electric upgrades aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in buildings in the most cost-effective way.

[00:24:35] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Moving on to the actual proposed new 2025 reach code provisions. We've sort of grouped them here for simplicity of those that are applicable for single-family and duplexes, versus those that are applicable to all development. For single-family and duplexes, we have AC to Heat Pump requirements. We have the Phase 2 electric readiness requirements or pre-wiring requirements. We have a zoning incentive which I will not discuss in this presentation further and they're not actually included in the 2025 building code updates, but it's something that staff is pursuing and happy to answer any questions later. And then for all development is the electric pre-wiring requirements for Phase 2, as well as bird-friendly design.

[00:25:25] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So getting more into the particulars of each of these provisions. The AC to Heat Pump provision is related to single-family residential only. It is triggered when you're replacing or adding space cooling equipment. And in those cases, you have sort of two paths. You can either install a heat pump space conditioner, which is essentially a heat pump system that can do cooling and heating, and simply comply with the State Code minimum requirements. Or install an AC unit, which will only just do cooling, with your gas furnace and do other energy improvements above the State Code minimums; things like greater attic insulation or air sealing of ducts.

[00:26:09] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So some of the background on this provision, it's again really in support of BAAQMD's recent ruling on the prohibition of nitrogen oxide producing furnace sales by 2029. There are already existing, or there are already included in the 2025 Energy Code non-residential components to heat pump requirements. And so this is a voluntary measure, this provision, that is included in the 2025 CalGreen. And so this is what staff is proposing to adopt.

[00:26:44] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: This is the requirement that requires a Cost Effectiveness Study and approval by the California Energy Commission. There are other couple of other cities that either already have this provision in place, like the Cities of Portola Valley and San Mateo. And then San Jose and Sunnyvale are currently pursuing them as part of this current cycle.

[00:27:05] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Moving on to electric readiness or pre-wiring requirements. So this applies to all existing buildings where additions or alterations are proposed that require a building permit and a gas or propane appliance is proposed to be installed. So it applies to all indoor and outdoor natural gas or propane appliances for single-family, multifamily, hotels/motels, and non-residential development.

[00:27:29] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: This requirement would require the installation of a circuit wire to meet the minimum voltage that's necessary for an electric version of the gas or propane appliance proposed to be installed, but no less than 120 volt. It requires infrastructure to be installed from the panel to within 3 feet of the appliance. It requires the labeling of these, the circuit as well as the panel and the line. And it would require applicants to include location and dimension of that future electric appliance on building plans.

[00:28:00] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So these provisions are very similar to our existing pre-wiring requirements. The only additional factor is just that it applies to existing buildings and additions and alterations. Some of the background here, this provision is proposed in lieu of Silicon Valley Clean Energy's identified 2025 pre-wiring reach requirements. So that reach code provision applies only to single-family; this applies to all development. And to be clear, this does not require someone to change the use of a gas appliance, they can still have the appliance, but rather it prepares the property owner for the future of a future electric appliance. And the thought being as well that installing this infrastructure at the time that other renovations are occurring is really the most cost-effective way to install that electrical infrastructure.

[00:28:55] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: And the last provision that we'll talk about is the bird-safe design requirements. So this is a new set of bird-safe design standards that are in an optional appendix in the State Code for multifamily residential development, hotels/motels, and non-residential development for new construction and major renovations. And really these provisions include requirements around specific glazing requirements and other visible barrier requirements. It identifies certain architectural design features that require the application of the bird-friendly glazing, things like glass railings or passageways.

[00:29:34] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Requires time-controlled lighting for exterior lighting or interior lighting that's visible from the exterior to be fully turned off from 2 AM to dawn. It also has a recommendation about encouraging janitorial services to occur from sunrise to sunset. And in terms of the thresholds that are proposed for this provision, it's new construction of a structure of 10,000 square feet or greater in size. So this aligns with our current 2022 reach code provision. And then the two that we're expanding into or proposing to expand into are for existing buildings of 10,000 square feet or greater in size that is replacing or adding 50% or more glazing on the exterior. As well as for multifamily residential, applying both A and B standards if the zoning requires bird-safe design. So really introducing this or adopting this appendix is a way to add greater clarity to our existing requirements from the 2022 reach code, as well as complement existing zoning requirements where bird-safe design is already required for multifamily residential and non-residential, which would be in our North Bayshore and East Whisman precise plan areas.

[00:30:50] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: In addition to all of the standard local amendments and reach code provisions that we've been discussing, staff also took this opportunity to do other code clean ups. So we wanted to briefly highlight those. We, as part of this package, have proposed to relocate all of the existing floodplain management regulations from Chapter 8, which is where our building code lives, to a new Chapter 48, and that is included in Attachment 1. This allows it to be a lot more accessible to the public and easier to find.

[00:31:24] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: And then adopt new 2024 International Property Maintenance Code and relocate that from Chapter 8, which is the building code, to Chapter 25, our Neighborhood Preservation chapter. And this really is an area where other similar provisions are located and so makes sense from an operational standpoint. And those are included in Attachment 2. There's clean up and removal of toxic gas provisions in Chapter 24, which is our Hazardous Materials section of our City Code, and that's included in Attachment 3. The toxic gas provisions are largely in other state and federal regulations so they don't necessarily have to be in our local code. And last but not least, general clean up to Chapter 8 to remove outdated or unenforceable sections of the code and reorganize the content which is also included in Attachment 4.

[00:32:15] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: One last plug before we close out the presentation is, since I have this platform, I want to talk about some of the rebates and credits that are available for a lot of these electric readiness and other initiatives. Some of these are related to our reach code provisions, some of them are not. But in general, what's on your screen here, Silicon Valley Clean Energy has numerous rebates available for Mountain View residents related to heat pump water heaters, HVAC, induction cooktops, and other electrical upgrades including panel upgrades.

[00:32:49] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: The City also has a rebate program, a limited time availability for heat pump water heaters, and essentially we're teaming up with Silicon Valley Clean Energy on those. There's also electric vehicle rebates available through various parties, as well as TECH Clean California rebates available for heat pump HVACs and water heaters, as well as tax credits for building electrification projects. So there's really various opportunities for residents to try and receive money to go towards these improvements.

[00:33:25] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So with that, staff will conclude our presentation. We do recommend that Council consider adoption of the four ordinances that we have attached to the staff report. These ordinances do include local amendments and so do include the local findings that have to be made, as well as include the Cost Effectiveness Study that was previously mentioned. On that note, that concludes staff's presentation. We do have various other staff and team members available for questions that I do want to mention. We do have Daniel Lee, our Chief Sustainability and Resiliency Officer available. Carrie Sandal, our Fire Marshal, is also available. Farhad Faramand from TRC Companies for any technical questions, as well as Nupur Hiremath from Silicon Valley Clean Energy. So with that, concludes staff's presentation. Thank you.

[00:25:20] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thanks so much. So we'll move on to Council questions. Does any member of the Council have questions for staff? Councilmember Hicks.

[00:25:30] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, I'm familiar with the electrification aspects of this of the proposal, you know, from sitting on the Council Sustainability Committee, I'm comfortable with them. We've gotten a letter from various environmental groups asking us to tweak some of the bird-safe design. And I'm hoping we can do that. Uh, but I'm wondering, I don't want to slow down the process at all, so I just like... I mean I see in Council questions staff has been asked some questions on that subject, but I'm wondering just specifically, is that something that that we can do?

[00:26:15] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Yes, thanks for the question, Councilmember. In terms of making additional tweaks and amendments, that is all possible and part of the purview of Council tonight. It's at this Council's discretion to make those amendments. Specifically in relation to the bird-friendly design, I believe we received a letter from a couple different groups about the suggested edits, or further amendments I should say, to the bird-friendly design. Reviewing the letter, they're related to removing filming requirements on glazing, removing netting requirements, and making adjustments to the glass passageways sort of trigger of when that comes required.

[00:27:02] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: As well as adding some additional special conditions under sort of scenarios, architectural design details where bird-friendly glazing would be triggered. So looking over this letter, there is nothing of major concern from staff's side in terms of being able to incorporate these. And just to be clear, what would happen here is if the majority of Council does want to make this amendment, staff would incorporate it into the second reading ordinance that we would bring forth which is planned for September 9th. So that would be another opportunity for Council to kind of verify that staff has addressed it accordingly.

[00:27:40] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. Thank you. Thank you for doing not only the electrification stuff so quickly but also responding to the bird-safe design even more quickly.

[00:27:55] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you very much. And then we'll go to next questions, but I just for a quick process question related to Councilmember Hicks' question, City Attorney Logue, so if we were to make those amendments could that be part of the motion? Or would we need to take a straw poll on that? Just wanted to, so that I can for my tracking purposes.

[00:28:15] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: It should be part of the motion.

[00:28:19] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Okay, colleagues, so if we're interested then the motion maker can include that. Councilmember Clark.

[00:28:25] Councilmember Chris Clark: Just one question because we had the... I don't think the bird safe requirements came up at the Sustainability Committee meeting. They're kind of new. And so I'm referencing that back to the CalGreen sort of summary of the voluntary provisions that can be adopted that are summarized. And I just wanted to clarify a couple things. So in CalGreen it says you can use a time switch control device or an occupancy sensor. But in the staff presentation it only says time controlled lighting. So I'm wondering if, I assume you can also use occupancy sensors if you have people there after a certain hour?

[00:29:25] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Yeah, thank you for the question. So I'll just have two parts to the response. To answer your question simply, yes. I apologize, it might have been an oversimplification in my presentation, but it would be whatever is written in that Appendix A5 would be applicable, so the occupancy sensors would be fine. And then the second part, which I realize wasn't part of your question but I will just acknowledge, so the bird-friendly design standards we were not aware of at the time of the CSC meeting because we hadn't received the published 2025 State Code so we didn't know that that was an optional appendix. So that's... It came to us, we saw it, we saw the opportunity and staff took the chance of proposing it tonight.

[00:30:23] Councilmember Chris Clark: That makes sense. And then the second part is related to that. I was just trying to dig in and figure out the the appendix says the control devices shall be programmed so the lights are extinguished from 2 AM to dawn, with an exception for emergency lighting, lighting required for nighttime security. But I assume if you have a group that's working there, you know with some team halfway across the world who just works in the middle of the night, that the occupancy sensors override that? This isn't like a thou shalt work in darkness at 3 in the morning if you happen to be there working?

[00:31:40] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Yeah, it's a fair question, Councilmember. Yeah, no, so it's definitely not intended to be absolutely prohibitive. Some of this, I think you do have to take a little bit of a reasonable test to in terms of how a building is occupied. Additionally, it does have the exception in here about life safety, so there are certain lighting you absolutely have to have in terms of fire exiting when a building is occupied. So there's definitely lighting that would still occur. I think a lot of this is about trying to encourage, and then...

[00:32:24] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah, I saw some of the voluntary pieces. It was just, it's just one of those things where if you're looking for a... to lease a commercial space and you can't really use it for a few hours. Also because daylight changes throughout the year right. So, I get the intent. The intent I agree with, I think as long as it isn't...

[00:32:38] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah. Anyway, thank you.

[00:32:40] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Councilmember McAllister.

[00:32:45] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah. Thank you. Um, all this reach code took place after I left the council so I'm trying to get up to speed on this thing and it seems to elude me a little bit here. But I'm more interested in some of the requirements for electrical appliances that were... I keep hearing the word voluntary, but then I hear you need to do this or do that. And then I noticed on here it says, you made the comment about new construction people are supposed to do things, or new construction requires a building permit. So if somebody was to replace their water heater, are they required to have a building permit?

[00:33:25] Chief Building Official Nina Bizek: Thank you, Councilmember. Yes, you are required to have a permit. We have to ensure that you've installed it per the manufacturer's specifications and also verify that it is a listed product for California as well as any connection points for electricity or exhaust or electrification.

[00:33:50] Councilmember John McAlister: So, I want to just replace my water heater. So everything that you just said, how much would that cost? Let's say the water heater costs $500. What other costs are associated with what you just required or is being required in the potential new reach codes?

[00:34:10] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Yeah, let me pull up a slide real quick.

[00:34:25] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Um, so, Councilmember, in terms of your question about water heaters, so these are some cost estimates that Silicon Valley Clean Energy shared with us based on the local service territory. So these are some average costs to replace your gas to heat pump water heaters, about $7,000. To replace a gas to gas water heaters, about $2,000 to $3,000. Part of the rationale between about pursuing heat pump equipment is about the long-term savings in operations and monthly payments for utilities which is proven to be more cost effective with a heat pump water heater than a gas powered one. In terms of other costs related, obviously there will be some minimal permitting costs, and it does depend on if you need other improvements as part of your upgrade. So in some cases somebody may need an electrical outlet or something installed, and so that would be some additional minimal work to be done, but this price tag is the average that they've seen.

[00:35:25] Councilmember John McAlister: So does this price tag include where you were talking about... you know you said voluntary if they want to go to gas is a voluntary decision. And therefore they can... if they want to go to gas to gas versus the heat pump, they may have to increase their attic insulation, they might have to do dual pane windows. Is that what... is that covered under what you were talking about in this instance?

[00:36:00] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Yeah, so I think another slide I'll show you here, this is actually pulled from the Cost Effectiveness Study for the AC to Heat Pump so that was included in the staff report. I will in the meantime ask Farhad from TRC Companies to get promoted in the meantime while I just respond generally. So this kind of snapshot provides the overall cost comparison between keeping your AC and having a gas furnace...

[01:30:00] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: and replacing them versus having the heat pump component so, um, over that time span. Um, Farhad, do you mind responding more specifically?

[01:30:11] Farhad Farhmand: Yeah, happy to. So, uh, good evening Honorable Council. My name is Farhad Farhmand with TRC, technical consultants to Silicon Valley Clean Energy and, um, happy to provide some, uh, support here tonight. Um, I think there's, there's two questions that are being asked. One is, um, with a heat pump, with a water heater replacement, uh, that requires a permit, what is that additional cost for the electric readiness? And what staff is providing here is, uh, kind of a host of options available. One is you either provide a 120 volt circuit, and that's, that's gonna be typical, uh, for all water heaters unless you have a water heater that's the old type that runs on a pilot light. So if you have that situation, you're gonna be looking at a $500 to $800 additional cost to run that 120 volt circuit. That's kind of at the high end. You can obviously run a conduit, that's gonna be a similar cost. Um, that's what you would see, but as you saw on the previous slide, a water heater replacement is, you know, I think the Councilmember said $500. It's not that, not that, uh, inexpensive, unfortunately, even for a water heater replacement. It does cost more. So the cost of that additional infrastructure, additional infrastructure does become, um, a smaller portion of that like-for-like replacement that you'd be doing. So that's one question I wanted to address.

[01:31:31] Farhad Farhmand: The second question is if you are, uh, what's the, what's the voluntary and what's the mandatory provision? Um, uh, staff described this but I'll just reiterate. CALGreen's model code is a voluntary model. It is available for local jurisdictions to adopt as mandatory, and that's what staff is proposing tonight. So they, they will take that voluntary model designed for jurisdictions to adopt and adopt it as mandatory. What this would require, this policy would require is when you are installing an air conditioner to have, uh, you know, a few additional efficiency measures so that your energy equivalent to what that heat pump would have been. And the specific measures are listed here, um, and so that's fan efficacy, uh, refrigerant charge verification, duct insulation, and attic insulation as well as air sealing. It depends on if you're replacing your ductwork or not. Um, if you are not replacing your ductwork, the added cost of those efficiency measures on top of the AC can range between $4,000 to $7,500. And that is by design, we, we want that energy equivalency, we also want to incentivize the heat pump adoption. Um, this last bullet here is if you are replacing your ductwork, that could alone cost somewhere between $5,000 to $10,000. It's already a much more expensive project and thus the, and, and you have more work happening so the additional cost of the efficiency measures is relatively lower. Um, they are still, uh, there but it's not as high as if you were reusing your existing ductwork. I hope that answers your question, I'm available for further questions as well.

[01:33:03] Councilmember John McAlister: What about AC is usually a, some people luxury, but just basic uh, stove and a furnace. What kind of costs are we looking at there? Do you need a permit to change a stove?

[01:33:20] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Thank you, Councilmember. If you have the existing connections already in place, then it is deemed in compliance, just that is removed and replaced. Example would be if you already have an existing 220 volt circuit and you're buying the same model that uses that same capacity, then a permit would not be required for just that swap out of that unit. It would be required if you were going to say a, a larger unit and you had only a 120 volt circuit and you needed a 220, then you would need to get an electrical permit to make that modification to accommodate that new range. Hopefully that...

[01:33:55] Councilmember John McAlister: What about going from gas to gas? Replacing an older gas uh, stove to a, a different gas stove?

[01:34:05] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Uh, thank you. It, it's the same kind of summary.

[01:34:08] Councilmember John McAlister: So there's no permit required?

[01:34:09] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: No. It's not, it's only if you're going to be increasing the line size or the manufacturer's specifications are requiring a different pipe size or flow rate, then a permit would be required.

[01:34:20] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. So that item doesn't change based on what the Supreme Court decided. So someone could replace their stove, not have to worry about it, that would still be allowed. It's not mandatory. So let's go back to the uh, water heater. You're replacing a water heater with a water heater. All the connections are the same, all the power is the same, so there's nothing really changing is that you're taking one off and putting a new one on. So why does that require a uh, permit and if, because all you're doing is replacing something that already exists.

[01:34:58] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Yeah, Councilmember, appreciate the question. I think as, um, uh, Nina highlighted before, if it's a, if it's a like-for-like replacement, it doesn't require the building, a building permit. Um, one thing I do want to clarify is, um, none of these provisions prohibit the use of gas appliances. The Berkeley lawsuit was very clear a city can't prohibit it. A lot of this is, these incentives or provisions are really trying to encourage, um, the use of electric appliances or preparing for future electric appliances because of some of the rulings that we already know about from BAAQMD where you won't even be able to purchase a gas water heater or gas powered furnace, um, in the near term. So this is really, a lot of these provisions are about sort of preparing people for that future time.

[01:35:44] Councilmember John McAlister: So everything we just talked about is not required. I mean, you're, the reach codes are uh, require, one thing you say they're required, again or they're, they're voluntary and you don't have to do any of that? If you, what I'm trying to get is the cost for seniors, for other people that have been in a house that, they don't have the income and one of the fastest growing age demographics in Mountain View is the aged people are growing older and people are staying in their houses longer. And I'm trying to again understand is that, well you have these rebates and you have this, but now all of a sudden, I'm using a phrase called unfunded mandates, that you're requiring all these people to do, you know, additional cost just to do something simple. And I'm trying to clarify, is it really required to do all this or is it just the City wanting people to do that versus they could still stay with the simple things and replace, and repairs and replacements?

[01:36:45] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Yeah, I appreciate the, the question and I think I understand. I think, um, maybe a different way to frame this. These code provisions come into play when a building permit is required. So typically we don't see people come in and just want to install an electrical conduit and just pre-wire one thing. That's not a frequent permit we see. Oftentimes these requirements get triggered when people are doing much more major renovations and remodels. And so that's really what is at the, um, core of what is proposed in this package for 2025 is about, um, encouraging and, and, um, impacting existing buildings where those renovations are taking place.

[01:37:26] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Um, so there are examples that we've talked through where building permits are not required, in which case these code provisions would not apply. It's really just when you trigger that building permit where these requirements come into play. Um, in terms of some of the, the cost concerns, I think, uh, I think we can all agree the cost of construction and everything is, is gone high. But, um, uh, a lot of these improvements because they're packaged with other major work, um, they become kind of minuscule in the cost of things. Um, and I think what the rebate programs and tax credits are trying to sort of help fill some of that gap for income-qualified residents and that's why, um, I know Silicon Valley Clean Energy as well as Mountain View, um, as well as many of the state, um, credits also have additional funds that they will provide, uh, for income-qualifying residents. So I think that's where it would trigger potentially more of the senior demographic where they have fixed incomes. Um, and so I think resources are available to help with some of these costs. I think the reality is if you're coming to do some of these improvements, there's a reason, um, you're obviously in need of, of replacement or some other, um, trigger.

[01:38:40] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So, um, I don't know that I would necessarily sort of couch it or phrase it as an unfunded mandate. It's more, um, if you trigger these requirements, you know, these are the options you have in front of you. And I think just to clarify the AC to heat pump, there's a reason there's multiple paths put into that. Um, it's because it can get complicated. Not every house is built the same. Some houses don't even have ductwork. So, in terms of how their, you know, HVAC system operates. So that code provision has built into it, um, different sort of options for those scenarios to the best ability that we can standardize it. We've, you know, those code provisions have tried to. Um, and I do want to just highlight, you know, worst case scenario with the electric readiness or even the AC to heat pump, there are going to be scenarios where, um, we do have exceptions put into the, the code where if, for example, um, the AC to heat pump or let's say electrical pre-wiring requirement for some reason triggered the need for you to upgrade your electrical panel and that was not part of your proposed package of improvements, um, then there's a path for us to say, you know what, um, this doesn't seem appropriate for your, um, improvement. That's not really our intent. Um, so we would actually not require you to pur, you know, have to comply with that provision.

[01:39:58] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, I did read those, you had a couple of exemptions in there. Um, uh, it was on page seven, I think, of 18 where you put in there. So, uh, okay. So I under, that's why I took out AC going in because that, that is a major appliance and there is electrical and foundation and so, I left that out and most people aren't gonna be putting in, they have the luxury because even though everything getting warmer, the luxury of having an air conditioning unit uh, is not common. Um, so if I was to summarize it, uh, very simply, for the person out there, if all I'm doing is replacing my water heater or replacing my range with like kind, none of this applies.

[01:40:45] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: That is correct.

[01:40:46] Councilmember John McAlister: Building to...

[01:40:49] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Thank you, Councilmember. So there would be only one exception, and the exception would be is if you currently do not meet the seismic requirements for bracing the water heater. So if your current one is not meeting those regulations, then we do need to make sure it is earthquake compliant. And that would be something we would be inspecting, the strapping. Correct.

[01:41:08] Councilmember John McAlister: Straps. Okay. I think most plumbers are putting straps on. Okay. Um, another a little higher topic. Please bear with me, Mayor. I know we have a short time. Um, if we get to the point where we're going to be having brownouts, you know, electrical because there is a stress on the electrical grid right now and we int, before we used to have brownouts. How is, how can you justify some of these things if all of a sudden that, okay, we're going to have brownouts so your electrical's not working and so forth. I know up at Lake Tahoe, they have power outages all the time so they say let's go with gas cause it's reliable. Thinking of a big, how will we address this? Or is it too big for this topic and I'll be gladly close up and go on.

[01:41:55] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Um, it's a, it's a great question, Councilmember. I think, um, part of this is about, um, well, let me back up. Uh, the 2025 code does include, actually, and introduces new requirements particularly for single family, uh, about getting ready for battery storage systems. Um, and there's already requirements in place to install battery storage. So I think we will see over time that with the installation of the battery storage, um, even if there is a blackout or a brownout, uh, people will still have power through that battery storage. So I think that's one way that in general the state's trying to respond to the electrical grid. Um, and I think overall, um, I... sorry, lost my train of thought. Um, I think part, I'll say, I'll just add that, um, part of your question is bigger than the item before you tonight.

[01:42:54] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes.

[01:42:54] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: But I think to be fair, um, a lot of this in our efforts here is really trying to find other clean energy and other sources, um, of energy for electricity and, um, I don't know that there's a way we can really prevent them, um, other than trying to deal with infrastructure improvements and expansion which I know PG&E is doing.

[01:43:14] Councilmember John McAlister: One last question for Silicon Clean Energy. Why aren't there rebates for batteries? If that's where we're going, why aren't we saying let's do that now?

[01:43:28] Poonam: Uh, good evening everyone. I'm Poonam from Silicon Valley Clean Energy. Uh, we don't currently offer a rebate for batteries, you're right. Uh, but we do have some pilot programs that we have run that have installed residential customer batteries, um, and we are looking at uh, a new program coming up in the, probably in the next six months or so, um, where we may consider rebates for batteries. Uh, it's all a part of this larger effort to make sure that the grid is sustainable. And so if we are providing rebates for batteries, we want to make sure that those batteries are connected to the grid and are sharing power back with the grid so that you don't end up with a brownout or blackout situation. Um, so it's this whole concept around demand flexibility which is kind of moving power back and forth between the battery and the grid.

[01:44:16] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, thank you. I'll rely on my uh, Councilmember Showalter to advocate for batteries. Thank you.

[01:44:29] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Does any member, any other member of Council have a question? Okay, not seeing any. Um, I just had a quick question for um, staff and SVCE and our consultant, which is for the outreach for the residential rebates, um, what has been the outreach in languages other than English or what have we been doing to make sure? I know that the additional rebates are income qualified so maybe we could talk about our outreach efforts and how that's been utilized and if there's more that we can do there. Thanks.

[01:45:00] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Um, so I will actually ask Danielle Lee to be um, promoted uh, since it's her team that really runs the rebate program and um, she may be able to shed light on that.

[01:45:26] Danielle Lee: Good evening Councilmembers. Can you hear me?

[01:45:29] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[01:45:30] Danielle Lee: Okay, great. Uh, thank you for the question, Mayor. Um, we have been conducting outreach for the year of the heat pump water heater um, through community events and we're also developing a wide range of outreach materials um, in partnership with our multicultural engagement program. Um, we'll be offering those in um, English, uh, Spanish, Chinese and Russian I believe.

[01:46:00] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, so we don't, we haven't done that outreach yet but we're going to be doing it?

[01:46:04] Danielle Lee: Yeah, we're developing, we've just, we've developed um, a whole character, a water heater character, so we're, we're rolling it out now.

[01:46:13] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. And then SVCE?

[01:46:20] Poonam: Hi again. Um, so SVCE does already provide multilingual outreach in uh, four different languages, that's our default I think on our website. Um, and then we're also, we've been doing a lot of um, rebate promotions uh, particularly in Spanish and I think we're starting to do it in Vietnamese as well. Uh, so I think our latest was some TV ads and radio ads. Um, so we are doing outreach to promote our, our rebate program pretty heavily in multiple languages.

[01:46:48] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Are you seeing people start to engage or? Cause I think that's the other part, right, is like the outreach and then to make sure that...

[01:46:55] Poonam: Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, and so we actually also have our um, rebate application form available in multiple languages. Um, I know for sure we have it in Spanish and we're just rolling it out in other languages. Um, but we haven't received any uh, application submitted in Spanish yet. Um, we do know that we have a lot of clicks that came into our website from Spanish uh, emails that were sent. Um, so we are getting some interest but maybe um, we don't know if those folks are bilingual and still ended up submitting an application in English or are waiting for some other reason.

[01:47:34] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Great, thank you very much. Okay, those are my questions. Um, so now we'll move on to public comment on the item. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone. We'll display a ti, a three minute timer on the screen and each speaker will have three minutes. We'll start with in-person public comment first so I'll call your names and just ask you to queue uh, to the left of me. Bruce Karney, Shani Kleinhaus, Silviana Pamer, Dashiel Leeds and then we'll move on to uh, virtual. So first is Bruce.

[01:48:24] Bruce Karney: Tonight, um, in my 17th year of environmental advocacy in the City of Mountain View, I'm very proud of what the State of California, the Bay Area, Silicon Valley Clean Energy's territory and the City of Mountain View have done over that span of years. And I am so, so sorry that the legislature has put cities in the position where they have to act so rapidly to save six years of environmental progress. But you are doing what needed to be done. So thank you staff, thank you Council for rising to this emergency. Um, I have other remarks I wanted to make but I want to shift focus to respond to John McAllister's question about how does this affect lower income Mountain View residents. There's a program called Full Service Home Upgrade offered by Silicon Valley Clean Energy. It's available to lower income people and middle income people and high income people. I recently was one of the first to go through the Full Service Home Upgrade in which Silicon Valley Clean Energy found the contractor, supervised their work and provided a low, low fixed guaranteed fee to me. And I thought that was fantastic. But there's an even more fantastic option for those who are low income and have less than half a million dollars of investable assets. For those homeowners, they can get free heat pump water heaters and free heat pump HVAC systems and free induction cooktops, induction stoves, all through Silicon Valley Clean Energy. They just have to apply and qualify. And I don't know why the phone isn't ringing off the hook at SVCE because you're not going to get a larger free deal in uh, the Trump administration, so you better take what you can get now in the, the last year out from the Biden administration. Really time for electrification is now. I'm sure that Trump is going to try to make it even harder to do solar, to put in offshore wind or onshore wind. Um, so I hope that the City Councilmembers will reach out to their constituents and tell them about the Full Service Home Upgrade program from Silicon Valley Clean Energy.

[01:50:34] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Shani Kleinhaus?

[01:50:39] Shani Kleinhaus: Thank you so much. Shani Kleinhaus with the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance. Together with the Sierra Club we sent you a letter uh, with recommendations for some changes to the bird safe design sections. I want to say first thank you all for your leadership and thank staff for looking at it promptly. Um, we tried to keep it to comments that are really about the quality, protecting birds but not big enough so you'll have to do public outreach or really re-finding that are not there because these are um, pretty simple. I don't know if you got the handout that I gave you but uh, our letter is there and in conversation with some of you, I've seen requests for support. So you'll see there's a table that shows you what other cities are doing as, some of them. This is all we could do in just a very short time, but also Mountain View itself in the North Bayshore Precise Plan has very strong requirements. And for example, for passageways, um, the North Bayshore Precise Plan does not even allow passageways that are made out of glass. Never mind saying you'll have to retrofit it and use treatment, just says don't do it, which is because it's so deadly to birds. Um, there is a ques, a request to not allow internal films, so I included a little bit of science that shows that they're not effective. So we tried to give you enough information so you can adopt our recommendations. Um, I would ask you to include them as they are, not, not change like, I know San Jose looks at 30 feet so we put that as a comparison, but please accept our recommendations as they are. Um, and I really want to thank you again for the leadership on this. Uh, one last thing is about the lighting. Um, the City was expected to do an um, Dark Sky Ordinance and I don't know where it's at, we haven't heard. So hopefully we can help and reach out to us also if there's any need for additional findings, we can provide you with information that you may need to, if you need to change anything just reach out to us. Thank you.

[01:53:08] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. So I don't see Silviana in the audience, so I'll move to Dashiel Leeds.

[01:53:24] Dashiel Leeds: Hello, my name is Dashiel Leeds, I'm the Conservation Coordinator for the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter. Uh, first thank you so much for moving swiftly on this ordinance, preparing it uh, to be ready for adoption before the AB 130 cutoff. Um, and I really appreciate uh, the response by both Council and Staff to respond quickly to questions that we had for improvements on bird safe design. Um, we hope you can incorporate them tonight into your motion and proceed with the first reading to get that code in before the AB 130 cutoff. Um, I'm just going to list the overall changes that we had to um, A5.107, that's the bird friendly design code. Um, so like first was to remove the interior applied film as a compliance pathway. As Shani discussed, the interior applied film is much less effective than exterior film. Um, two, to remove netting as a compliance pathway. And then three, uh, to add to the list of special conditions, um, these are features sometimes called hazardous features that would trigger uh, bird friendly requirements given that the ordinance would already be applicable to them. So adding to this list of conditions: uh, parallel panes of glass such as glass passageways, atria open and enclosed, glazing adjacent to courtyards, three floors of glazing adjacent to any green roof or partial green roof, and standalone auxiliary structures or free standing glass, plexiglass or other clear transparent or highly reflective uh, free standing structures. Um, I just want to circle back really quickly to the AC to heat pump. Uh, we think that this code provision is really excellent and worthy of adoption as well. Um, the absolute best time to uh, install a heat pump is when you're replacing your air conditioner. Um, when you get a heat pump, not only do you have the space cooling benefits, but you can operate that in reverse so you also basically have a gas space heater as well, which for residents means that if their gas space heater dies later on, they won't have to replace that appliance because they already have the electric appliance in place. And regarding some of the resiliency concerns that you mentioned, a lot of gas appliances, I think most now new appliances, even the gas ones, have electric starters. So you actually won't see any resiliency benefit for newly installed gas appliances. So it's actually better to future proof Mountain View by going electric. And in terms of the grid impacts, you know, this sort of gradual home electrification is really just a drop in the ocean compared to some of the larger uh, movements that are happening right now. Um, so thank you so much for your time and consideration. We hope you move swiftly with the code tonight.

[01:55:29] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Mary Dateo?

[01:55:35] Mary Dateo: Um, good evening. Um, I wanted to thank Staff and City Council for um, accelerating this, um, considering um, the electrification in the building codes because I know there wasn't a lot of time and it, it's not a simple, um, not a simple, not super simple, um, it takes a lot of work. And so thank you for considering this and I do ask that you uh, please approve the proposed changes to encourage electrification um, to meet our own uh, climate goals. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. And, you know, requesting people to install a heat pump instead of AC seems like a really easy ask. So um, please uh, please approve the changes. Thank you.

[01:56:20] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. All right, any other in person? Okay, moving to virtual. We have John S.

[01:56:30] John S.: Hi there. Uh, I'm John Scarboro, I'm a resident of Mountain View and I'd like to thank you for moving so quickly to get all these changes in place. I hope the CEC and CBSC move as quickly. Um, the changes for electrification are great. I like that they will help us get our housing stock more modernized and help give us more resilience down the line when we start having more expensive natural gas. So, uh, I think we're doing our part to help our communities and, you know, the world be a more habitable place and be ready for the future. So thank you very much for considering this and I urge you to pass it quickly. Thanks.

[01:57:13] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Our next virtual speaker is Bruce Naegel.

[01:57:22] Bruce Naegel: Can you hear me?

[01:57:24] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[01:57:25] Bruce Naegel: Okay, first I want to thank the, the team coming together and working through this on sh, on short time frames in order to, to get these provisions in place. You were handed a, a short stick but you charged ahead gracefully in terms of moving it forward. There's been a lot of good topics about what's in this. One of the things that we've not mentioned as much uh, is the fact that moving to, getting rid of natural gas and burning it is a health benefit. And I think we need to keep that in mind because the more gas we put and burn and put into the atmosphere, the more likelihood there are for all kinds of nasty things to happen to the respiratory tract of people. There are documented things in regards to the things that happen to people with asthma. Um, you know I know people that have asthma and it is not a, an easy disease to, to live with. So I want to thank you for that and thank you for all the efforts of putting it together to move this forward. And you know, I think you've had a number of good uh, provisions from other people on this thing, so by all means take the whole package. Thank you.

[01:58:30] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Okay, I saw it cleared. So, oh, David's here in person. Okay. Hi David.

[01:58:43] David: Yes, you can do your blue card after. I was like I swear it was virtual and now I don't see it anymore. Okay. Uh, yeah. Yeah, I thought that Alex was gonna give a comment and I had an extra moment for that, but apparently not. Uh, hi. I'm uh, I'm back to talk about uh, single stair apartments. Um, the existing code changes you're working on seem nice. Please continue, you know, that's good. Electrification is good. Uh, but uh, single stair apartments, uh, one protected exit stair per floor with uh, shorter um, front door to stair distances. Uh, I want to request uh, we agendize a future item to consider case-by-case path for uh, single stair development under CBC 104.11. Um, the uh, the idea is to uh, extend Mountain View's existing Alternative Materials and Methods program so that case-by-case single stair proposals can be considered. Um, uh, CBC 104.11 allows, is a state law, it allows uh, approval when the design complies with the intent and provisions of the code and is uh, not less than the equivalent in safety. Um, so the idea is that projects would trade uh, the trade, they'd be able to not have the second stair uh, and in return they would uh, provide improved sprinklers, uh, pressurized stairways, uh, caps on unit per floor. Uh, I don't have specifics I want to suggest here, just I'm, I'm asking uh, studying this in the future. Um, uh, we have an existing uh, alternative methods uh, uh, system and this would be uh, as I'm proposing extension for it for case-by-case approval when the um, single stair design is safer than uh, what uh, would uh, uh, be available with the dual stair or what we currently allow with dual stair. Um, anyway this uh, stays within what's allowed by the state code and it would be uh, safer than the long double corridor uh, buildings, uh, double corridor apartments that we're getting. They're big, they're blocky. I know uh, a lot of people don't like how uh, the really, really wide uh, buildings we get from dual staircase requirements uh, look. And uh, this is a, this is a solution to that. So uh, thank you.

[02:01:29] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. I see a, one last virtual public comment from Alex Brown.

[02:01:40] Alex Brown: Oh. Hi friends. Hi David. I just wanted to say hi cause you expected me to talk. Also I like birds and electrification and stairs. Bye.

[02:01:53] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: All right, that concludes public comment. So we'll move forward with Council deliberation and action. And note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the ordinances attached to the report. Councilmember Showalter.

[02:02:10] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Thank you. I'm trying to push the move and it's not working. Um, but I'll make the, the motion. I think there's, I think while the Clerk works on that, perhaps maybe you can speak. Yeah. Well I would just like to make a few comments and that is um, really to um, echo what has been said before by other people. The uh, Staff has really um, taken a sort of a Herculean effort to get this done so quickly. When this came up um, uh, last year and we realized it was going to happen, um, the City Manager's Office and, and the um, uh, the Planning Office just jumped into uh, action. And we are so grateful that you did that. Um, it's, it's exactly what needed to be done and but usually it's, you know, I mean usually it isn't required but it was very important this time and so I, I really am very grateful that this happened. And you've put together an extremely comprehensive building code update which is very important for the safety of Mountain View. I think one of the things that it's always important to remember, um, one of the jobs that cities do is we um, we are the keepers of, in a sense, of building safety. We can't really control what people charge to buy a structure, but we can make sure that it's built safely. And um, it's just really the most fundamental um, form of, requirement of government. And as time goes on and we know of all these changes that are happening in with our climate, it's very important for us to do what we can do to um, reduce our greenhouse gases and may, and at the same time make our, our building supply much safer. So thank you very much for that. So with that, I will, um, uh, I'll have to ask for some help for the bird safety but uh, like to introduce an ordinance of the City of Mountain View amending the Mountain View City Code to delete Chapter 8, Article 8, Floodplain Management in its entirety and adopt a new Chapter 48, Floodplain Management, and finding that the amendments are exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act to be read in title only, further reading waived, and set a second reading for September 9th, 2025. Introduce an ordinance of the City of Mountain View adopting the 2024 International Property Maintenance Code with local amendments, amending the Mountain View City Code to delete Chapter 8, Article 5, um, 2021 International Property Maintenance Code in its entirety and adopt a new Article 6, Property Maintenance Code and Chapter 25, Neighborhood Preservation, to locate with other similar city regulations, and finding that the amendments are exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act to be read in title only, further reading waived, and set a second reading for September 9th, 2025. Introduce an ordinance of the City of Mountain View amending Chapter 24, Hazardous Materials, of the Mountain View City Code to streamline content and make other clarifying amendments, and finding that the amendments are exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act to be read in title only, further reading waived, and set a second reading for September 9th, 2025. Introduce an ordinance of the City of Mountain View repealing the local amendments to the 2022 California Building Standards Code, adopting local amendments to the 2025 California Building Standards Code including the 2025 California Energy Code, three, amending Chapter 8, Buildings, and Chapter 14, Fire Prevention, of the Mountain View City Code to comply with changes to state law, four, adopting findings to support the local amendments, and five, finding this ordinance is exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act to be read in title only, further reading waived, and set a second reading for September 9th, 2025. And I would also like to add the um, the bird uh, amendments as suggested by, in the letter from the Sierra Club and the Silicon Valley Bird Alliance.

[02:06:57] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay. That, that is adequate. Great. Thank you, Councilmember Showalter. Councilmember Ramirez.

[02:07:04] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you Mayor. I'm happy to second the motion. Um, first uh, uh, thank you uh, Councilmember Showalter for including the uh, uh, bird safe design um, um, amendments that were uh, shared by the community. Um, I want to uh, express my gratitude to Staff uh, for working expeditiously to advance these amendments. I know you were working under a very truncated timeframe. It's a good um, reminder and example that um, the City uh, can uh, work with uh, haste and alacrity when um, we have to uh, address an issue with, with urgency uh, as was the case here. Um, I'm grateful to members of the community who came forward and, and shared uh, their support for uh, the amendments. Um, and I'm grateful for um, all of my colleagues, I think I'm expecting that we'll be supporting these uh, unanimously. I did want to ask uh, for a friendly amendment, a very light touch thing. Um, if uh, we could ask Staff uh, to provide uh, Council some information about the status of uh, the single stair reform efforts at the state level and um, opportunities that may exist uh, locally uh, to implement um, changes where it makes sense and is safe.

[02:08:24] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Um, I'm a little confused about, would that be at a future date? That's not to be included in this?

[02:08:29] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: It's not a Council meeting. It's maybe an email to Council or uh, maybe our Intergovernmental uh, Relations Team can just give the Council a status update. I know there, there's been some legislation and, and studies done at the state level and it would be I think helpful to understand what the status is and if there are um, opportunities for the City of Mountain View to benefit from that work.

[02:08:48] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Well I, I think that's a great idea but I'm not sure that it needs to be included formally in the motion. I would ask Staff, is it better to have it in the motion or is it better to have it um, just as, as a um, direction for Staff?

[02:09:07] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Yeah, I don't think it needs to be part of the motion for introduction of the ordinances, but I think that it can just be something that Council could all agree on if you're, if you're making a request. But I don't think it needs to be part of the motion.

[02:09:17] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay. Kind of like an Item 8 request. You can treat it like an Item 8 request. Okay. Is that okay, is that acceptable to you?

[02:09:27] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Does that mean we're doing it?

[02:09:29] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah.

[02:09:30] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay, great.

[02:09:38] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Vice Mayor Ramos.

[02:09:40] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just wanted to take the time to thank Staff for moving expeditiously on this. I know that it was a really tight deadline and, and we're really um, really having to adjust in order to make this happen in time for that deadline. Um, and with that in mind, I'm, I'm super appreciative of the willingness to work with the, to incorporate the community feedback that we got in such a, a time, uh, tight timeframe. Um, because our community are, they are partners in policymaking and, and it's kind of the point of having an open meeting where we do have this discussion. And, and so once again, I appreciate uh, your flexibility and including all these amendments, particularly the bird amendments. Um, I wish there was a better way of calling them than just the bird amendments, but um, that as we move toward a climate resilient future, um, thank you so much for your work on this and I hope Mountain View continues to lead.

[02:10:39] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Councilmember Hicks.

[02:10:40] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I will start by also commending Staff on the amazing speed that you worked on this. I don't need to say it in more detail because, because everyone else has. And I just wanted to also, I'm gonna support the, the motion, the tweaks to the motion and also however it gets done, the stair legislation update. Um, uh, I just wanted to uh, use this opportunity to have a little dialogue on the important question that Councilmember McAllister brought up. Um, and say the way I, I mean I think asking how this impacts lower income seniors, etc. is an important question. And I just want to say that when I, I have a home that's over 100 years old, and when we redid the electricity, um, building code required that we put in a lot of outlets that we thought were completely unnecessary. And we told them we don't want all those outlets. And they said, um, you're not doing it for yourself now, you're doing it for future residents, um, who may, you know, smart homes, etc. may have more appliances than you do. So we put it in for future residents. We haven't used those outlets yet. But um, but you know, we also refinanced our home. I know ver, I am a senior also now, I was not then, but um, I know very few seniors who can't, who uh, don't have money to pull out of their home. We didn't see the impact of the additional outlets at all. We never think about it. Um, and it's prepared our house is prepared for the future. So I just want to say that what we're doing here is not atypical. It's something that is, doing things the way we use homes constantly changes, requiring that they be updated for the future is pretty typical. Um, and all that said, I see it as preparing for, there's a, another price point that we need to look at, which is the rising cost of our home insurance. And if we don't address the climate crisis, that's the cost that I, that I really worry about. So, um, with that said, I will be supporting the motion.

[02:12:50] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Councilmember McAllister.

[02:12:55] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, I have a question for Silicon Valley Clean Energy. Uh, and then a quick comment. Are your rebates or the dollar uh, contributions, is that a limited time or is that something that you're going to, is it a limited time offer?

[02:13:13] Poonam: Uh, not currently. So we just got an additional $4 million from our board this August. Our program is a total of 14 million. We've paid out about uh, 7 million across our service territory. So there's 7 million more to go. Uh, and um, we intend to continue programs in some form or shape uh, to support residents as we go through this transition from gas to electric. Um, the rebate program is just one example. Uh, Mr. Karney previously also referenced a newer program that we have which uh, through which we actually send a contractor to your home and make the upgrade for you, so you don't even have to worry about the rebates or finding a contractor.

[02:13:54] Councilmember John McAlister: Now is that program continuous, going to be a permanent program?

[02:13:58] Poonam: Uh, currently it's funded through 2027.

[02:14:00] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Thank you. But I still like you to look at batteries because with the use of uh, with the advice and counsel of Bruce Karney, we put in solar and we would love to have a battery that we can store that energy and get the grid working. So hopefully somewhere down the line you'll have a rebate and I'll be knocking. Thank you. Uh, and then could you pull up slide nine? It's the uh, pie chart. Okay. I appreciate everybody coming out and advocating for the code and bringing everything up to date and I agree if you're remodeling, yes it's a great time. I'm remodeling a project in Carson City and we're taking out...

[03:00:00] Councilmember Pat Showalter: the galvanized plumbing and putting in all new stuff so it absolutely makes great sense. But I would still like to see some of the passion that... Look at the blue, transportation. And this is my sidekick the saying 'You're worrying about this but when it comes to transportation I don't see the enthusiasm, the need for uh to get this resolved quickly.' And that's why we have an we've been working on a multimodal program for the City of Mountain View. And there is 58%. If we can get people out of their cars or give them options to get out of their cars, we need to help that. And I know Mary's on board on this. And so, please, it's a something that really deserves your attention. It's something that can be taken care of fairly easily. And so please focus, get the energy, get the people behind it, and let's try to reduce transportation because that's your number one... No, I mean increase transportation options but reduce the dependence on them. So that's your largest... Thank you. And I will support the motion.

[03:01:04] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Councilmember Clark, I see you in the queue again.

[03:01:05] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um, yeah, I just wanted to echo the thanks. It seems like just yesterday we were—the Sustainability Committee was meeting on this and uh you... this was a Herculean effort as Councilmember Showalter just said to do this over the summer. Um, so really appreciate the the time and effort that went into it. I just had um uh not part of the motion, just just one... um I think the um we'll do the second reading, adopt everything if everything goes well. Um, but there's a third step which is the acceptance by um the CBSC and or the um the California Energy Commission. Um, which I I assume will happen. I don't know how many other cities are doing this and what their backlog will be, but maybe in our weekly update or whatever if and when that happens just let us know. Just so we can kind of put it to bed and feel a little better about it because there's there's just that one last step where you just never know what will happen. So really appreciate that and I think um I don't see Shani but um in case you're listening uh I I really um one, um I know not everyone appreciates science these days but um I I really did appreciate the science behind the uh the glazing on the uh interior versus exterior and then the the table that you put together really quickly with the other cities really helped too. So thank you everyone.

[03:02:28] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. All right. So, um, want to echo thanks to staff. I hear a couple things that could be some follow-up items. I think the only thing that I'd like to elevate is um appreciative of the necessary steps that the City's taking but also coupling that with the education and outreach component to make sure that all of those who I would just maybe categorize as like vulnerable populations whether they're se- they're seniors or um because of their um financial background are making sure they know that the resources are available be- um I think that that is really critical. Um and it's great to know that the SVCE funding is not time limited. Um so all the more reason to be able to promote that and excited about what our um sustainability um office is going to be doing and I think that that's also a great way for us to be promoting it in our Civic Leadership Academies and letting them know um that that exists.

[03:03:26] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: So, um, sounds like uh we we have the motion with the three items and then fifth is to include, I'll call it like the bird safe bird design elements that came forward to Council and then also kind of close what I'd call closing the loop as as Councilmember Clark mentioned in terms of getting that you know final adoption that we made it um before the that bill.

[03:03:58] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: And then I was asking um um Councilmember Ramirez, this single stair bill is AB 835. State Fire Marshal building standards, single exit, single stairway apartment houses report. And so maybe what we can ask is we have, you know, our our state lobbying um groups and we have our our lobbying portfolio and so maybe we can just ask for a status update if we're watching it, um, that bill and we can we can envelope it into our our portfolio of bills that we're monitoring. Does that sound fine for colleagues? All right. So that's everything that this motion is going to include. Let's vote.

[03:04:45] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: All right, and that passes unanimously. Thank you again to to staff and our community for um rallying behind this. So we'll move to Item 5 which is our closed session announcement. City Attorney Logue will make a closed session announcement and then we will welcome public comment on the items listed for closed session.

[03:05:05] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Thank you. Good evening Councilmembers. This is City Attorney Jennifer Logue. There are two items on this evening's closed session agenda. Item 6.1 is a conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation under Government Code Section 54956.9. The name of the case is San Francisco Baykeeper versus City of Mountain View and City of Sunnyvale, United States District Court of the Northern District of California, Case Number 20-CV-00824.

[03:05:36] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: And the second item, Item 6.2, is Public Employee Performance Evaluations pursuant to Government Code Section 54957 for the City Attorney, City Clerk, and City Manager. And there will be no final reportable action taken in closed session this evening so there will be no report out after closed session.

[03:05:58] 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? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a speaker card to the City Clerk. We'll take in-person speakers first. Do not see any. And I do not see any virtual hands raised.

[03:06:20] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: So I will close public comment. And we'll move on to Item 6, our closed session. The Council will now recess to the Plaza Conference Room for closed session and will not return to open session for adjournment. And we will close the public session at 6:34.

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