Video
Transcript
Segment 6
[00:00:00] Kelsey Pietrangelo: ...does that feel for different rehearsals and they also have a small tent that will get put um outside of the playing surface but still as part of field three um that will get put up with some flooring protection under it but strictly field three will be for halftime rehearsals.
[00:00:15] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Thank you so much. I assume that's going to be reflected in the agreement. Thank you. Thank you, Kelsey. Okay. Um I think it's time to go to the public. So we'll go thank you so much.
[00:00:40] Maria Mukhar: Good evening Council and Mayor. Um, the first time I stepped foot in this chamber was in 2015 when I was eight years old, fighting to protect the soccer fields and this is not a new issue as we all know and I remember my eight-year-old self barely peaking over the podium just pleading to protect the fields that I so loved to go to every single day just to run around with the ball at my feet, be with my best friends and score goals and do whatever a soccer player does.
[00:01:08] Maria Mukhar: You know, after we fought and struggled after Super Bowl 50 with the failed replacement to the standard that we expected and the NFL and the 49ers promised, that fallen through promise really tested all of our luck and tested how much we thought that the 49ers and the NFL were actually going to be trusted.
[00:01:27] Maria Mukhar: Um, you know, little did I know that I'd have to again have my words heard by the council in 2022 when again the 49ers were trying to take our fields. Never in a million years did I think I would never be able to end my 10-year soccer career on the same field that I started it.
[00:01:41] Maria Mukhar: And thankfully again, we were able to rally enough support to protect the fields and I guess I'm here tonight hoping that the third time's the charm that finally our our pleas will be heard. You know, I may not be playing on those Youth Soccer Park fields anymore, but there are plenty of other eight-year-old girls that are right now sitting at home having no idea what's at stake in this meeting tonight.
[00:02:00] Maria Mukhar: They have no idea that their livelihoods are are being voted on and and the fields that they so love to go to with practice, to see their coaches and their family and their friends. They have no idea that those pieces of grass are at play right now.
[00:02:13] Maria Mukhar: You know, to you they might just seem like plots of land that have money associated with them, but to me and thousands of other athletes and youth soccer players, they're a home that people go to after a long day of school, after a long day of anything that they have going on, they go to those fields just to enjoy their time, to score their first goal or take their cleats off for the last time.
[00:02:33] Maria Mukhar: So I'm just pleading with the council and asking that you really think about the players whose livelihoods rely and reside on those fields for numerous, numerous days out of the year. Thank you.
[00:02:41] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you, Maria. Uh Shay, please come forward. Welcome. You got to follow that.
[00:03:00] Shea Salinas: Yeah, that's tough. Thank you guys so much for having me. Uh I have a great working relationship with so many people involved in this project. Um and so I I hope you all know that I hope that continues. Um and you all know that I am extremely passionate, just as passionate as Maria, about the impact of sports on kids' lives and in particularly youth soccer.
[00:03:21] Shea Salinas: Um today I come wearing a hat a different hat, not a Quakes hat, but a a director of youth soccer hat. Currently I've started as a director within Santa Clara Youth Soccer League. Santa Clara Youth Soccer League represents 1500 kids. 900 of them are Santa Clara residents or go to Santa Clara schools. Uh I believe we're the largest, definitely the largest soccer group in the area but maybe the largest youth um group um in Santa Clara.
[00:03:46] Shea Salinas: And we fill Youth Soccer Park every night of the week. Monday through Friday, 4:30 to 9 o'clock we fill that space with kids. Uh unfortunately, the loss of field number two has not fully been mitigated. I know there's been efforts by the city, um and thank you for those efforts but unfortunately it hasn't been met.
[00:04:02] Shea Salinas: I'm finding Youth Soccer Park irreplaceable, particularly field number two. The space, the lighting, uh and the quality of the field has not been something I've been able to find. I'm currently panicking trying to find field space for over hundreds for hundreds of kids. Um even so much so that I spent the morning at a tool shed down the street looking at light generators, the big light pop-up lights, so that I could put lights on Wilson or Curtis field, which would be a much lower quality surface um and a much more expensive cost.
[00:04:32] Shea Salinas: So while this is a very important conversation you guys are having, I would just love for it to continue to be had with the actual user groups that are trying to find spaces for kids. Um so whatever is decided tonight, I hope that the NFL gives me a call and says, 'Hey, what do you actually need?' Um and I would say lights and field space and access to fields at 4:30.
[00:04:52] Shea Salinas: Um as far as the 1.25 million to replace the grass, I agree, the grass is already really nice. Um so putting artificial or synthetic turf there would be extremely beneficial. That would allow us to use the field three times as much as we currently use it. Grass right now we only get to use on the weekends for games. Uh we would love for that to be artificial synthetic turf so that we can practice there as well. I think that would solve a lot of the city's problems with trying to figure out where we can be put um in the future.
[00:05:19] Shea Salinas: I know Damon's dealt with that conversation with the city of Sunnyvale and has a lot of experience there. Um so using that experience would be really beneficial for us so. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:05:29] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you, Shay. Uh Lia, please come forward. Welcome.
[00:05:40] Lia Theologides Mukhar: Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council Members. So I was a Santa Clara youth soccer parent for 10 years and my comments are actually questions. So one is, is the NFL planning to use the 49ers practice facility in addition to our youth soccer fields? Um I recall that in 2015 the 49ers didn't want their fields to be used because they didn't want them to be damaged. Um but they were okay with the youth soccer fields being damaged.
[00:06:09] Lia Theologides Mukhar: Plus, the 49ers only use their practice field from like August to December while the soccer fields are used 12 months a year. So the 49ers wouldn't have been displaced but they were okay displacing the kids. I mean think about that for a minute. Doesn't seem very fair to me.
[00:06:24] Lia Theologides Mukhar: Okay. Second question is, why is this just being discussed now? Why so late? I mean it's like tomorrow that we're talking about. Um next question, well, we know the history of the 49ers and the NFL breaking their promises. I mean my eight-year-old daughter saw it in 2015. It was very disheartening for all those children to see their fields damaged and have it take so long to get them replaced.
[00:06:49] Lia Theologides Mukhar: How can we trust them going forward? I know it seems like you've negotiated things in the agreement to force them to do what they're supposed to do. But I don't know, I've seen it over the last 10 years. Good luck. I mean I I don't believe them. I don't know if you guys do.
[00:07:03] Lia Theologides Mukhar: Um then I'm confused about this $15,000. Is that per week? Because it seems like a really low low number. Um and lastly in terms of using Reed Grant, I have some of the same questions that the mayor had. I mean it's already full. I'm wondering what time of night you want the kids practicing.
[00:07:21] Lia Theologides Mukhar: I mean in 2015 you had eight or nine-year-old kids practicing at 8 or 9 at night, like a 20 minute drive away. It was absolutely crazy. Um not surprisingly, kids were tired and falling asleep in school the next day. And not surprisingly, several families switched to different clubs. So the kids lost their teammates and friends, parents lost carpools and fellow parents that we could trust with our children and of course the club lost revenue from those lost families. Thank you.
[00:07:52] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Thank you, Lia. Um uh Mike, go ahead Mike. You're muted.
[00:08:07] Mike: Good evening uh Council and Mayor. Um, name's Mike, I am the President of PAL and Kelly to answer your questions, softball is going on year round. Just like Little League nowadays and other uh baseball. It goes it's year round.
[00:08:25] Mike: Um, I am concerned that we are going to have to displace our softball players from Fatjo Field and from Marsalli. That is a big concern. However, I have to back Damian up 100%. Angelique and Marlon and even Damian go out of their way to work with all our groups. Um, we have our meetings, I've met with Shay, um, we're the Lions, the head of the Lions. We're all doing everything we possibly can to make this happen.
[00:08:55] Mike: Um, like the last speaker spoke, there's a huge field there's the over there the 49ers um field there that uh why can't we use that? It's just a question. And the 1.2 million that we keep talking about, hopefully now that we threw in the third field, will that go up to say 1.8, $600,000 a field? And will that money be earmarked for Santa Clara Youth Parks?
[00:09:30] Mike: I just paid a bill to the city for our use usage fees. Maybe we could use some of that money to offset our usage fees that we keep charging the youth groups when all we're trying to do is help the kids. We're not trying to become billionaires and see who could out do whatever billionaire could I can get over on and uh we're truly out there helping kids. That's all I have to say. Thank you for your time.
Segment 1
[00:09:34] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Good evening everyone and welcome to the study session of the Santa Clara City Council Stadium Authority Board meeting. So I'd like to call the meeting to order. Uh, confirmation of a quorum, Mr. City Clerk?
[00:09:48] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Yes, confirming quorum.
[00:09:51] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you so much. All right, we have one item for our study session and that is a study session on the new traffic signal at Great America Parkway and Hichborn Drive related to the Irvine Company project at 2518 Mission College Boulevard. Um, City Manager? Where is the City Manager? Oh, there you go. All right. Um, staff, would you like to start? I thought I saw you here and then you were gone. City Manager.
Segment 6
[00:09:54] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you, Mike. Is there anyone else that would like to speak? Please come forward. Welcome back.
[00:10:01] Kirk Vartan: Uh good evening uh Mayor and Council. I wasn't planning on speaking on this because obviously I I haven't heard a lot about it but I just had two comments on things that I heard. Uh the first is um I think the mayor spoke about community talking about community benefits. A community benefit is something like light rail passes or a new park or um a placemaking structure or community kitchen, something that doesn't exist and is added.
[00:10:28] Kirk Vartan: So I think it's a little tough to hear that replacing a field that exists and is usable as a community benefit like they're paying for what they're damaging so I I struggle hearing that. Um and uh the other thing is I I I heard the director talk about it's kind of like we're building the plane as we're flying. Well I don't know whose fault that is. Like we've known about this for almost two years and I feel like this is a last minute thing that you're going to, this is the first I've seen, again I haven't been to this a meeting where this was talked about, but it's hard to hear that, you know, the justification is well we're running out of time and so just go along with it if you had all these months or couple years to plan. Thank you.
Segment 1
[00:10:30] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Moves like lightning. Sure. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. Uh, the first item is a study session about a traffic signal uh at Great America Parkway uh and Hichborn Drive related to uh our uh specific plan for the Freedom Circle area uh and also related to a prior development uh that you approved.
[00:10:53] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: You may recall when you discussed that development there were concerns related to the Hichborn sign uh traffic signal uh that uh were raised and we committed to schedule a study session with the City Council. No action is is planned for tonight, however there are significant implications uh with both uh cost to the project as well as uh traffic impacts should we not proceed uh with this development with the signal included.
Segment 6
[00:11:08] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Anyone else like to speak on this? Okay, staff if you'd like to answer some of those questions.
Segment 1
[00:11:17] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Um, if there is direction from the City Council to take an alternative action, uh we will need to schedule that uh at a later time. Uh and so I will now turn the presentation over to Steve Chan, our um transportation manager.
Segment 6
[00:11:17] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. Uh thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. Thank you uh members of the the community. Um, sure. With regard to the 49ers fields, um I know that the NFL has been in contact with the 49ers and would love to use their practice field. Uh the reality is the 49ers uh appear to be making the playoffs and they were going to use their their fields until they are no longer uh or if uh until they are no longer in contention. And so a operational plan to use those fields is not possible at this time uh and uh unclear if it would be possible to be used at all.
Segment 1
[00:11:32] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Welcome.
[00:11:38] Steve Chan: Chan, Transportation Manager. Uh, for tonight's agenda, we going gonna we are going to go over the Irvine Company uh project background, their project impacts, uh project uh traffic improvement identified in the area, which is a new traffic signal at Hichborn and Great America Parkway. And also for tonight we're going to go over the traffic operation simulations with the new signal in place along uh Great America Parkway, as well as uh scenario where Freedom Circle is completely built out, uh how that will operate uh with the new signal.
Segment 6
[00:11:56] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Um, uh I know it's been said a a lot that they are paying for the fields that that they are damaging. That is just simply not true. Uh understanding uh what happened in 2050 uh or for Super Bowl um um Super Bowl 50 in 2016. Um the current proposal has them not utilizing field one at all, although they will will pay to replace field one.
[00:12:22] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Uh it calls them utilizing field three uh for uh halftime practice uh um in a small tent facility outside of the playable area area not frankly very impactful at all but they are agreeing to replace field three and it has them putting down a modern um uh field protection uh pad on field uh two um similar to what is used all across the country uh for this types of of activities.
Segment 1
[00:12:23] Steve Chan: Additionally, we additionally we going to review uh stadium event operation, how the new signal uh would interact with uh current stadium event operation and finally we're going to summarize uh the uh impact of the signals.
[00:12:37] Steve Chan: Uh, background. Uh, the Freedom Circle Focus Area was approved by Council on June 7, 2022, uh which identifies a new traffic signal at Great America Parkway and Hichborn Drive to support increased development in the uh area. Uh, on recently uh March 25, 2025, Council approved the Irvine Company uh project located at 2518 Mission College Boulevard consisting of uh 1792 residen- residential units as well as 3500 uh square feet of retail space.
Segment 6
[00:12:49] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Uh and in fact the the total benefit of the project is much more than uh the the rental fee. Uh in fact we are here because of the community benefit. Uh as you know uh there is delegated authority uh to staff to enter into lease agreements for ci for for city facilities all the time and we do that on a regular basis. Uh we certainly um uh in the last two years have started to utilize the Youth Soccer Park uh for BFC. We did bring that agreement to the city council uh because it uh involved a significant community benefit component but there have been other um adult uses at the Youth Soccer Park uh that rent the facility and those are through normal delegated authority we execute those those lease agreements.
Segment 1
[00:13:12] Steve Chan: Uh, the project's transportation operations analysis uh, although not required uh by CEQA, determined a uh traffic signal is needed to address the project-related impacts. Uh specifically the impacts identified uh as part of the uh analysis uh for the Irvine Company project is that the signal at Great America Parkway and Mission College Boulevard would operate at a Level of Service F on the PM commute peak hour.
Segment 6
[00:13:33] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: In fact, one of the things that staff is preparing and I know this was mentioned in public comment is sort of where is that money going. Uh in in your um uh in the new year in your budgetary items you were you will receive an item where we will be setting up a fund where we will allocate all of the revenue or we will propose and you will decide that we we will propose that we allocate all of the revenue that we are obtaining from the Youth Soccer Park adult uh rentals into a fund to help out with the capital maintenance at the Youth Soccer Park.
Segment 1
[00:13:42] Steve Chan: As well as at the Mission College Boulevard and Freedom Circle West uh intersection, it would also operate at a Level of Service F, oh sorry, this should be uh correct that's uh PM peak hour as well. Uh vehicle uh Level of Service F generally indicates a uh vehicle would experience long queues and it may wait through multiple cycle to get through the traffic signal. And for tonight's uh study session we will review the area traffic circulation with the new sig- uh signal that uh Council raised uh during the approval of that project.
Segment 6
[00:14:01] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Uh and so uh both the BFC money and all the other adult adult rentals uh we will be proposing that to the city council so that money just doesn't go into the general fund and can actually benefit uh the facility.
[00:14:15] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: With that um and and there was a question around the um the funds for the replacement. Important to note uh that is the value of the replacement, um typical for other contracts where we negotiate for a third party to improve city a city facility. Uh they do that uh with their own funds and we do not receive those funds. And so uh the the um NFL in this case will be responsible uh for uh implementing the field replacements on fields one and three uh with city inspection uh uh city inspections before and after as well as all of the normal uh project in inspections that occur.
Segment 1
[00:14:23] Steve Chan: So this map shows the uh project uh impact uh essentially the highlighted uh circle here, Great America Parkway and Mission College Boulevard, and the Mission College Boulevard and uh Freedom Circle West. Uh the red and green line identified the key inbound movement and outbound movement for the project.
[00:14:46] Steve Chan: They will essentially the green line showing uh the Irvine Company or Freedom Circle development will access or get out of the area via Mission College Boulevard and onto uh Great America Parkway to head down to Bowers or 101 get onto the freeway. Uh the inbound traffic shows uh the key movement for this project is coming uh primarily on Great America Par- uh Parkway on the north side coming from uh 237 and turning left and onto Mission College Boulevard and entering uh the Freedom Circle area. This is the only route access to to uh for the project site to Great America Par- uh Parkway.
Segment 6
[00:14:54] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: In addition staff has worked with them um uh for several uh weeks now or or months now on um identifying the appropriate uh type of sod to to be replaced and they because they were planning on doing that replacement initially right after Super Bowl, have actually confirmed the availability should we wanted to have it done right after Super Bowl. Um also it's worth noting um the actually I'll turn it over to the Damon, did I miss anything?
Segment 1
[00:15:27] Steve Chan: And as I mentioned, uh the tra- transportation operation analysis identified a new signal uh at Hichborn and Great America Parkway that would relieve the congestion on uh Great America Parkway and Mission College Boulevard and Mission College Boulevard and Freedom Circle West.
Segment 6
[00:15:32] Damon Sparacino: Um no I mean the only the only other thing was the fact that we've done our best to find alternative space for the youth groups. Um, you know, I I I do know that we built our modeling off of historic uses. Um the other thing I'll tell you is this was the first this or the second season that we've implemented the lottery system under the new um field user um use agreement policy and that's something we might need to look at going forward um and bring back to both Park and Rec Commission and Council um relative to total users served versus percentages served and things of that nature.
Segment 1
[00:15:47] Steve Chan: With the new signal in place, it would provide another pathway, a route into Freedom Circle via a southbound left turn on Great America Parkway uh into uh Hichborn Drive. As as well as allowing people to come out of uh Hichborn Drive from the Fre- Freedom Circle area and make a uh left turn onto southbound uh Great America Parkway to get onto the freeway or onto Bowers. Uh the with this uh additional access point, the Level of Service on both the Mission College Boulevard at Great America Parkway and uh Freedom Circle West will improve to Level of Service D.
Segment 6
[00:16:11] Damon Sparacino: Um so we're kind of at a little bit of a perfect storm um increased need, meeting those needs, Super Bowls needs. Um I will say the only yeah we're we're lucky that we have Reed and Grant where we did not um 10 years ago. So I I I wouldn't want to be here 10 years ago having the same conversations.
[00:16:33] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: We had it nationally 10 years ago. That was a national conversation.
[00:16:38] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Um and and the last question that uh came from the uh public comment was why are we here now, right? Uh uh very important to note that absolutely we have been uh at the planning uh for Super Bowl for over two years now. The reality is that has been uh primarily public safety plan public safety planning and campus planning really started uh in earnest work with city staff uh um uh in 2025 uh and on this item uh a outreach in June uh and and the first substan substantial conversation in July.
Segment 1
[00:16:39] Steve Chan: As mentioned, uh the uh both these intersection will be improved from F to D during the PM peak hours. So for the traffic operation simulation, we're going to review the new Great America Parkway Hichborn signal during the AM and PM pea- uh peak hour when the uh Irvine uh Company uh development project is complete as well as uh uh assuming the Greystar development will also be completed. Uh so we will uh highlight those uh uh simulation of those uh traffic in this model. As well as we're going to look at with the full build out of uh Freedom Circle, what would this uh intersection look like in the AM and PM peak hours as well.
Segment 6
[00:17:19] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Also worth noting as the city council knows uh any city that's hosting a Super Bowl uh you have the opportunity to go to the uh two Super Bowls that are up before you and so we did have a contingent of staff of both public safety and non-public safety that went to Las Vegas and New Orleans for the last two years. Uh and I personally went to New Orleans and talked to some city officials there uh and they said exactly what I had heard in Las Vegas is uh we didn't get our agreements done until right before the Super Bowl and and New Orleans actually said they had some agreements that actually trailed and were officially signed after the Super Bowl.
Segment 1
[00:17:34] Steve Chan: So this is a image of the uh area aerial of the area roadway and intersection. Uh... Oops. As you could see, this is overview of the Mission College and Great America Parkway additional signal along Mission Colle- uh Mission College Boulevard and Marriott. And then uh Freedom Circle. And then the new traffic signal at uh Hichborn and the 101 off-ramp.
Segment 6
[00:17:56] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Uh and so we are in that uh spot around where these things are are negotiated. Um there there is unfortunately always a mad dash um but we have uh been at uh the agreement uh and the terms that are that are before you uh for quite some time uh or or several months and do feel that we uh are proposing significant protections as well as a uh very significant community benefit package again far and above uh the the initial proposal uh and uh above what the rental fee would be if we simply just accepted the rental and had no use on the fields. Thank you.
Segment 1
[00:18:10] Steve Chan: You probably can't see too much detail on this uh simulation, but I think uh you wanna like to I like to highlight uh we uh want to look at if there's a cluster of dots uh essentially representing vehicle traveling along the corridor. This is a simulation that uh traffic engineering folks uh utilize to simulate operation uh when uh it involves traffic signal. See their interaction, see if there's any uh backup resulting from uh uh future development in the area.
Segment 6
[00:18:31] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. So first of all I want to say thank you to the staff. I know you've tried really hard to do everything you can to try to accommodate um our youth and it's challenging because there just are no fields out there. So one of the things I was going to ask when the council does approve this agreement is that um we ask the city staff to continue to help uh the groups locate fields because we're talking two and a half weeks from now and we're bringing this agreement tonight and they're losing their fields in two and a half weeks and they don't have the fields um the displaced uh players don't have the fields.
Segment 1
[00:18:43] Steve Chan: Uh again, the focus is uh we want to uh see if there's any cluster of dots uh that blocks the roadway uh impacting adjacent traffic signal. Uh as you could see, the uh 101 uh northbound off-ramp is approximately 460 feet away from the Hichborn signal and generally uh during this AM peak hour with the build out of Irvine and Greystar, uh there's no general congestion along this segment of GAP.
[00:19:17] Steve Chan: And similarly you can... Oops... start the simulation again. Uh again uh going northbound between Hichborn and Great America Parkway, you generally see uh traffic move moving relatively freely up and down the corridor. And obviously GAP and Mission College Boulevard we know that is one of the biggest intersection in the uh area carrying significant amount of traffic and and it writ- it's kind of represented uh with the simulation as well.
Segment 6
[00:19:17] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So I would like the city to continue helping them and even with fees but you know $15,000 will, you know, maybe a week, maybe two weeks if we're lucky. Have you seen what the school district charges for their fields and other people, so other or other or other organizations? I mean so we have to continue to help them because they're not secured 100%.
[00:19:39] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Um also I I talked about the inspections of the entire Soccer Park and especially field two. I'd like a third party inspection before and after so within the next two and a half weeks. And I have to say I saw a map at an event of the Soccer Park several months ago that the city manager had put up so I I know you've been talking about this for a long time. I know I've been asking about this for a long long time so unfortunately here we are with an incomplete agreement because it doesn't include the entire Soccer Park.
Segment 1
[00:19:49] Steve Chan: And diving a little closer uh within the uh Hichborn and northbound 101 uh intersection, uh this simulation highlights the interaction between two these uh two intersection that's uh most closely spaced together. Uh again this is the AM peak hour with the ne- new signal in place.
Segment 6
[00:20:10] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So I want to make sure that first of all that we help our displaced youth, um that we get these pre-inspections. That is key to have that pre-inspection especially on field two because again I believe you're all very aspirational. I'm not so aspirational about the how these fields are going to end up. I've I've seen it with my own eyes. Um and then I want to make sure that um how are we going to see are we supposed to approve an agreement that's incomplete tonight uh because it doesn't include the the protections for field two that if it's damaged, how do we deter who determines that it's damaged besides our third we'll have a third party, you know, inspector and if it needs to be replaced, what protections do we have for field are we going to have that or can we say we want those protections for field two?
Segment 1
[00:20:13] Steve Chan: And generally the traffic in the AM uh is from uh south southbound to northbound traffic movement. Uh essentially traffic coming off uh northbound 101 off-ramp and heading north on Great America Parkway. As you could see there some amount of traffic coming from uh Freedom Circle uh via Hichborn Drive to get onto uh southbound GAP that goes down to Bowers or uh uh get on the 101 freeway. And also uh as I mentioned on the previous slide, generally uh there is no backup from the uh Hichborn signal that impacts the uh off-ramp traffic. Off-ramp traffic continues to flow freely uh in this simulation of the uh uh operation of the ne- new signal.
Segment 6
[00:20:57] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Thank thank you Mayor. Uh what whatever the uh motion is uh um that amends the terms presented uh we will make sure that uh there is a final agreement uh that includes those. As you know in normal business practice the the city council delegates authority to to to staff with con confirmation by the city attorney to execute agreements. Uh and so we will certainly uh follow our normal practice uh in in this case and I think um the desires are well documented in in this meeting and we will make sure that that final contract is available. I'll turn it over to the city attorney to elaborate.
Segment 1
[00:21:13] Steve Chan: And this uh slide uh we are honing in on the Great America Parkway and Mission College Boulevard and uh the signals along Mission College Boulevard. Uh this uh you know although it's anticip- anticipated to improve with the uh new signal in place, uh just want to show you the uh traffic flow uh how it's interaction uh with the adjacent signal and again the the segment that most uh probably most interest Council is that GAP between uh Mission College Boulevard down to Hichborn are generally free flowing and there's no uh congestion observed in the simulation.
Segment 6
[00:21:32] City Attorney Glen Googins: Yeah, not too much more uh to add to that. Um but um Mayor we've heard you, there are provisions in there that will make um very clear in the final agreement that the improvements need to be done in accordance with specs to city satisfaction and any repair work needs to be done to city satisfaction and standards as well.
[00:21:53] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Repair, what about replacement? You you all talk about repairs but if it needs replacement.
[00:21:59] City Attorney Glen Googins: Um whatever's whatever's necessary to return the field to its uh pre-existing condition to a playable pre-existing condition.
Segment 1
[00:22:00] Steve Chan: And this is a area overview for the PM peak hour. Uh again showing the same uh intersection, Mission College Boulevard GAP, Hichborn and GAP, 101 and GAP. Uh the traffic flow generally in the PM peak hour is flowing from uh s- uh north to south, coming from 237 and heading south to uh uh Bowers. And then there's quite a bit of uh traffic also coming on uh from Mission College Boulevard turning left and heading south on Great America Parkway. Uh again the interaction with the new signal, uh there's uh the simulation does not show any significant uh backup uh along uh the corridor that impacts the adjacent traffic signals.
Segment 6
[00:22:06] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So if you damage a artificial synthetic turf field, how do you repair it to its existing condition?
[00:22:15] City Attorney Glen Googins: Yeah, I don't I technically know the answer to that Madam Mayor but it's it's whatever is required to return it to the pre-existing condition and to the extent it's not, um there's liquidated damages for the number of days that it's not available to play on.
[00:22:28] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Yeah but I understand liquidated damages. I'm talking about the cost of replacement if it's damaged beyond repair. Is that in the agreement?
[00:22:38] City Attorney Glen Googins: No I uh uh Understood understood Madam. Not not yet because we hadn't talked about the the um the turf field in the way we are, you know, now. So um there will be provisions to that effect in the final version of the agreement.
Segment 1
[00:22:48] Steve Chan: And this is the simulation again for the GAP and 101 showing the interaction during the PM peak hour. Uh the PM peak hour the off-ramp is generally uh lighter than uh the AM peak uh because the primary movement is coming down uh from north to south on Great America Parkway. And uh to highlight that there's no uh off-ramp traffic queuing or stoppage uh observed in the sim- simulation.
Segment 6
[00:22:53] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay. Councilmember Jain.
[00:22:57] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Um if the 49ers were not using the field for the media and the rehearsal, um what does the Homeland Security perimeter say about use of those fields? And then secondly, if the repairs are going to happen in the summertime, isn't that when school is out? So would it be possible to use the school fields for all of the soccer play while the Youth Soccer Park fields are being replaced?
[00:23:33] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. So to take your former question, uh Super Bowl is what's called a SEAR 1 uh event uh special event security rating one event. Uh there is a hard perimeter set up uh for a event of that type and the Youth Soccer Park uh will be within that hard perimeter while irrespective of the uh use agreement we're discussing tonight, those fields would would not be accessible for play uh during uh the seven week hard perimeter period.
Segment 1
[00:23:37] Steve Chan: So going to the next slide, we go to Mission College Boulevard and uh Mission College Boulevard and Great America Parkway and the adjacent signal along uh Mission College Boulevard. Again uh the heavier traffic is the southbound direction and uh also uh significant amount of traffic coming uh from Great uh Mission College Boulevard turning left onto uh southbound Great America Parkway. And uh this uh you know as with the new signal, this is anticipated uh to uh be operating in uh Level of Service uh D. And uh I like to highlight that uh the dots are moving uh four time the actual speed of uh vehicle speeds. That's why uh it's it seems like it's moving a little fast but in the interest of time uh the simulation has been sped up so so you could view the uh uh effects of the uh traffic flow.
Segment 6
[00:24:01] Damon Sparacino: And to answer the school district question, yes. Um like I said we're we're going to look at every possibility there is for finding alternative space and believe that that time period might be a little easier than this first seven week push um for a number of reasons stated previously, daylight, weather, um and and other other seasonal events and one that you just brought up.
[00:24:31] Damon Sparacino: I'm actually like like I've mentioned before I meet regularly with the school district, in fact I'm meeting this week with them but we meet with them monthly to talk about issues um mutually um beneficial to us and them and this was on the table. So, thank you.
[00:24:48] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: So I think what I'm hearing is that regardless about this agreement of use of the fields, we still have to find alternative space for the the soccer groups.
Segment 1
[00:24:53] Steve Chan: And we we will go to the build out condition. Uh we also uh simulated the operation of this uh traffic signal with the build out of uh Freedom Circle. Essentially more traffic uh will be coming out in and out of Hichborn Drive and we want to simulate what that will show uh in terms of queuing uh around the uh intersection and its impact around the uh adjacent signal. Specifically for this location is the closest uh intersection is the uh 101 off-ramp.
Segment 6
[00:25:00] Damon Sparacino: For for the um June uh for the replacement period yes. Um so staff will is already starting to work on that and then we're going to go back to the drawing board and see also what we can find um to help mitigate this initial seven weeks.
[00:25:15] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Okay, thank you.
[00:25:17] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Uh thank you, Vice Mayor Cox.
[00:25:20] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Thanks. Um first I I just I think that initially, you know, talking about who has been brought into the room for this conversation, it sounds like Mike Walke was very supportive and saying that they had. I heard a little uh bit of push back. Um maybe Chris saying that they would have been like to like they can tell you what they need and where they'd like to go so.
Segment 1
[00:25:30] Steve Chan: As mentioned the 101 off-ramp is the higher traffic movement going north uh as well as uh from Bowers going to Great America Parkway and as this uh traffic simulation show the traffic as you can see uh are high volume as to be anticipated. Uh however the simulation does not show them show show traffic on the off-ramp being stopped by uh the traffic signal queue uh at Hichborn.
Segment 6
[00:25:41] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: One of the things that was mentioned um in the earlier was you said that the NFL um had said that they would agree to help. It was a vague term like that or offset costs after the event. I'm wondering if we could push that to helping with these. If Curtis needs lights and it is a terrible field to practice on but how much of that can they do up front?
[00:26:03] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Um so I I guess that's an aside because I I think that I understand we've made what progress we can on this. It seems like there is still action being taken for the fields or for finding places for uh the displaced teams. And again I'm I'm hoping that the suggestions are coming right to them, but I'm comfortable making a motion right now to accept staff's recommendations so we can move on with a a long council meeting.
[00:26:27] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Second.
[00:26:29] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: I'd like to ask that you include that we have the third party inspections before and after and that we do what we can to help the youth soccer leagues to relocate and possibly help with fees um for the first seven weeks they're out.
Segment 1
[00:26:34] Steve Chan: And we will go to the PM peak hour uh for the same intersection at Hitch- on Hichborn and uh Great America P- uh Great America Parkway and the GAP and 101 off-ramp. Uh again the primary movement during the PM peak hour is the southbound direction and uh this shows this uh the simulation with the build out traffic volume coming in and out of Hichborn Drive.
Segment 6
[00:26:48] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Is that a friendly amendment? I agree and maybe push back about the thatching. That's no I'm just kidding. Yes so with motion with Mayor Gillmor's uh two suggestions please.
[00:27:04] Councilmember Karen Hardy: As a second I do have a question to make certain that council is comfortable.
[00:27:10] City Attorney Glen Googins: Um I understand the friendly amendment and um city manager does as well and so absolutely we'll continue conversations and keep keep articulating and um uh pushing uh for the up into the last moment and and include inspections before and after.
Segment 1
[00:27:29] Steve Chan: And to uh go over the traffic queue, uh generally the simulation do not show significant traffic queue. Uh we did did uh you know uh stop the simulation to observe where the queue is located and they are in line with the uh Freedom Circle uh build out uh traffic operation analysis. Uh the longest queue, the 95th percentile queue uh for Great America Parkway is uh anticipated to be approximately 245 feet. As I mentioned, uh the distance between the uh 101 off-ramp and the Hichborn uh drive location is ap- approximately 460 feet. So uh the longest queue length is not anticipated to obstruct any of the off-ramp traffic movement uh coming off the freeway.
Segment 6
[00:27:33] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Then the second stands, yes. Thank you.
[00:27:36] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right. Um Councilmember Park followed by Gonzalez.
[00:27:44] Councilmember Kevin Park: Yeah, I mean I I think we've all heard and we know this that the fields won't be usable anyway. I I feel that that being the case it's actually a beneficial that we are renting the fields out and getting some use out of it during a time where we cannot use it for regular practice. Um that in addition to the uh motion and the the items that were put in there which is we're going to do inspections before and after.
[00:28:13] Councilmember Kevin Park: I mean if it turns out that the fields, I mean the uh I believe the synthetic turf field is not that old, it's about a year old. That I don't know how old it is but it's eight years old. Okay. So you know if it shows that those are going to be old and they're not in great condition to begin with, you know, I'm I'm kind of concerned about that but you know I think we've heard from the director that this is about the time that we needed to to update and renovate the turfs anyway.
Segment 1
[00:28:28] Steve Chan: And this shows a uh still of the traffic queue uh from the simulation uh for the PM peak hour. Again uh it's not significant uh enough to uh obscure or uh block traffic coming off the off-ramp.
Segment 6
[00:28:41] Councilmember Kevin Park: I mean I think the comment that you made is how often do we renovate, how often do we do the turf replacement, the short answer is not enough and it's been almost 10 years, it's been almost the time since the last Super Bowl. Um that said, I also uh echo Vice Mayor's uh request that if we know like we heard uh Mr. Shay come in and tell us what they needed during this time to get other other fields in play, if they need lights, if they would like to look at how we make the um fields better at I believe he said Marsalli and Curtis but I mean other other fields if we any any of the fields that we could look at and you can talk to him afterwards, you know, I'm not the expert here.
Segment 1
[00:28:47] Steve Chan: So that's the simulation for typical AM and PM peak hour uh traffic along the corridor on Great America Parkway. Uh so we we gonna uh jump to the next uh uh topic is the stadium event operation. How this new signal will impact uh stadium event. Uh for stadium event, uh traffic is prioritized for stadi- stadium event uh ingress and egress along GAP. Electronic message signs uh uh posted to advise public to use alternative route during stadium events. Uh ingress traffic uh generally spread over multiple hour to lessen general over- uh area congestion. And egress traffic uh during the stadium event is focused on moving traffic away from the stadium. Uh under these uh operation condition, the minor traffic movement are temporarily closed during the egress period. Uh Hichborn movement at GAP uh would likely be closed to uh support these event uh egress operation as well.
Segment 6
[00:29:17] Councilmember Kevin Park: Uh I would like to know what we can do to do that uh meaning if we know that we've got moneys, if we know that we've got uh things coming in, rather than wait until after the event is done, if we could uh go through with some of the improvements that are necessary um for the for the soccer teams uh and then repay that money with the money that comes in afterwards. I have you know I don't know what we need to do to do something like that but I would like to preemptively pro proactively look at what we can do to support um the the athletes today because like everyone's said we we know this is coming. This has been scheduled for some time. Uh we know that there's going to be downtime for the for the uh youth. Let's just prepare for that the best that we can and let's not uh wait until the last minute. Let's not wait until we have additional moneys to do that. Thank you.
Segment 1
[00:29:49] Steve Chan: Uh so this is a uh couple of image of the typical uh stadium ev- event egress operation. As you can see uh for the image on the left it uh shows the intersection of Great America Patrick Henry Drive. Uh both direction of uh the roadway uh has been utilized to move traffic out of the stadium. As you can see cones are lined up on the roadway and the intersection to uh channel channelize uh movement to one direction to get out of the area. Traffic staff, PD are in the field to uh help assist uh directing traffic. And as uh you can see on the image on the right, the black and white photo, uh certain uh intersection movement uh in this case uh Great America and uh Tasman Drive uh intersection, uh turn pockets are closed off and this would be similarly uh be set up on the Hichborn uh intersection uh to facilitate uh egre- uh stadium event egress. Uh not that the uh Hichborn will lock out uh resident that may be living in that area. They are uh access route to direct uh from Freedom Circle and uh onto Mission College uh Boulevard and back onto uh Montague Expressway to get out of the area. So they are not landlocked. So it's just that uh uh the minor traffic signals and uh intersection on GAP is uh being prioritized for event uh egress activity.
Segment 6
[00:30:12] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Gonzalez.
[00:30:15] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: So I guess there's already a motion on a second but um I just wanted to um talk a little bit about the history and we've learned from from Super Bowl 50 and I could tell you uh 2015 October remember those fields were not in a great shape. I coached for 10 years for Santa Clara Youth Soccer, the last two years I had two teams and uh you know for I understand what it is to play on those fields because the games that our teams played on those fields it was their Super Bowl. They they usually played at Curtis at um at Cabrillo and other places so that field was really uh a great place for them to play and uh they uh they enjoyed it immensely when they got to play there.
[00:30:58] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: As far as the um the practicing uh because of the lights is obviously beneficial for teams to play there and to practice there. Um usually uh the comp teams that um that one of my one son played for, he either practiced there or he practiced at the at the Central Park uh softball field where they have lights. So now that we have Reed we have other options. I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily say that the school district is going to be um readily available to lend out their fields.
Segment 1
[00:31:20] Steve Chan: In summary, uh the GAP Hichborn traffic signal is an in- uh improvement identified in the Freedom Circle Focus Area Plan as well as the Irvine Project uh Irvine Company Project Transportation Operation Analysis. Uh this new signal will provide a alternative access route for the area traffic into Freedom Circle. It relieves congestion uh at the surrounding intersection specifically Freedom Circle and Mission College Boulevard and uh GAP and Mission College Boulevard. Uh based on the uh analysis uh prepared by uh the Irvine Company uh transportation operation transportation operation analysis and the Free- Freedom Circle Focus Area Plan, uh uh City staff do not anticipate any adverse traffic impact associated with the installation of the new traffic signal. Uh that concludes my presentation. I am happy to uh answer any question and receive any comment you may have.
Segment 6
[00:31:27] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: Um obviously they have turf fields in in a lot of their uh their Santa Clara and Wilcox and even MacDonald which is in San Jose their their uh their high school um football fields and some of their other practice areas but um you know it'd be great if they could lend those out especially the where the lights are available so our uh our our uh community can practice under the lights especially with the the shorter evenings and the or shorter daylight that that exists uh during this timeframe.
[00:31:50] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: But um I'm sure and I trust staff will find a way to get this done. Um definitely uh obviously there's a it's a challenge for for us to do that because there's not a lot of fields that have lights you know ne next to them and I could tell you I I could I could name off more than 10 schools in Santa Clara Unified where our our teams practiced and obviously practicing um in the evenings was difficult when when the when the nights or the days daytimes became shorter so um now that we have Reed uh that'll be beneficial.
Segment 1
[00:32:21] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you very much. We'll start with City Council questions. Councilmember Jain, followed by Hardy, followed by Chahal, followed by Gonzalez, followed by Cox. All right. Councilmember Jain.
Segment 6
[00:32:24] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: But I'm going to be supporting this motion. I think that having moneys to replace those two fields are going to be beneficial to to our community overall. Um it'd be great if they they also replace the uh turf field. You know that's something that uh that we uh we got 10 years ago we're probably not going to get this time but we understand the the lifecycle of those and we have to be you know prepared and and working towards getting those moneys to make sure that we do we do replace fields for our community and um I guess it we are it is a beneficial time that this Super Bowl occurs during February because obviously Sporting and a lot of the comp teams are playing but the majority of uh of the rec the rec players are not playing during this time and that's something that maybe we're lucky because of that maybe you know the Super Bowl I think with FIFA coming around you know we're going to have to try to push that uh that uh bringing up the fields hopefully sooner rather than later maybe like you know July 2nd or whatever it is once uh once that's done to make sure that we can get those fields ready for for our teams there in the uh hopefully late probably not late July but early August timeframe.
Segment 1
[00:32:34] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Thank you for the presentation, Steve. Um, generally when we look at traffic reports, we see all these tables. We didn't see any tables this time of how many uh peak hour trips are being generated from the Irvine project. I didn't see any numbers for how many trips are being generated in the peak. And then um, since we ask all our questions together, um, when we are at LOS F, how many signal cycles do people have to wait? Um, can everyone get out in one cycle or do they have to wait for the next cycle? Um, how many cycles are we currently at and if we were to move to LOS D, would everyone get out in one cycle? Um, the other question I had was south of Hichborn, um northbound, how many lanes of traffic are there? And north of Hichborn, how many lanes of traffic are there? Because in the PM, which is when we have a problem, there may be people that want to get off of 101 and just go directly into onto Hichborn to get to the home their home in the Irvine property. And then my final question is, did your simulations include anticipated trips from the Sutter Health medical offices that are on Mission College and then the new anticipated Sutter hospital which would then be on the west side of Great America? That's all I have.
Segment 6
[00:33:41] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Chahal.
[00:33:44] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Thank you, Mayor. So uh the use of these fields were not available for these seven week because of the security reasons, right? And now that we have a field number one is protected and right after the uses of NFL we will have two fields basically almost ready to use just uh after the uses of those seven weeks. That's a plus point like it's a much better uh plan than what we had using of one and three that way we only had one field to be used and one and three would have been damaged.
Segment 1
[00:33:57] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Hardy.
[00:34:01] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Thank you. It sounds like we're thinking about the same so I had the same thoughts about Sutter Health uh both on the east and west side of Great America. Um, I wanted to understand that your simulations, are they with what has what is there now and uh we are doing an upgrade now on on that intersection at Great America and and uh Mission College. So I wondered if that was if your upgrades were with that. And and we have a you're showing a Level of Service at an F and it was did you mean that was with with the Irvine project going in that that's that downloaded them I should say downgraded them I should say down to an F. What are they at now? And in looking at this, it seems like the biggest need for this for this light is if you were coming southbound on Great America and need to turn um left onto Hichborn because you couldn't do that otherwise because you can come in and out of Hichborn now.
Segment 6
[00:34:28] Councilmember Raj Chahal: So I appreciate uh both sides how they negotiated that or worked on that. Now that right after seven week we'll have two fields open for that. And uh as mentioned by several of other people other Council members and Mayor, how we manage the displaced teams, that's important for us. Like whatever happened in case of swimming pool ISC closure, we are almost in the same uh scenario but we want to help these team teams whatever best we can do.
[00:35:01] Councilmember Raj Chahal: And uh for that perspective like talking to School Board and I remember I talking to Director one-on-one also I emphasized that our partnership with the School Unified School District and uses of their fields for our community is very important not only for this particular instance but that has to be a long-term solution bit partnership between us and the School Unified School District because we lack our parks, we don't have enough parks to sustain our uh to help our residents as of now but our partnership with School District can improve the pool of fields available to us.
Segment 1
[00:35:33] Councilmember Karen Hardy: So I was trying to understand would this light only come on when there was someone in the left-hand turn lane. That would make a little more sense to me. Um, and I will tell you I have personally seen cars lined up on 101, backed up to 101 already. Um, especially when there's events. So this is this is why when it showed it moving, I was kind of giggling because they don't. It does back clear up into 101 just with the traffic signal we have there now at Great America and uh Mission College. Thank you.
Segment 6
[00:35:40] Councilmember Raj Chahal: So that should not be goal for this one only, it should be long-term goal to have that. Uh rightly pointed out uh NFL is a multi-billion dollar concern and non-profit so they can help our nonprofits for simple things as lights and whatever additional things we are asking our stakeholders are asking. So we should push that with NFL and I know Kelsey is here from NFL she must be listening so please help us our help our teams for whatever additional benefit they're requesting during this period of displacement basically.
Segment 1
[00:36:13] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Chahal.
[00:36:16] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. I I like the simulation part of it and uh but I have some question on that. Uh currently the Level of Service on as forecasted on Great America and Mission College Boulevard is F, right? So it will improve to D as per your forecast once we have Hichborn and Great America light basically. So what will be the Level of Service at Hichborn and Great America? That's my first question.
Segment 6
[00:36:16] Councilmember Raj Chahal: And uh what else uh uses of and uh I know this thing came back to us after 10 years but I do agree that it came to last it came to the Council at the very last moment and hopefully if we get the Super Bowl again we plan this thing almost a year ahead and just like we were planning for uh our Convention Center uses for FIFA and other thing we planned that way ahead like how we they have to book it.
[00:36:42] Councilmember Raj Chahal: So we should be planning this thing way ahead if NFL wants to use it in future if we have a next Super Bowl it has to be very much when it declares right after that discussion to start that okay if you want to use it you have to book it right now, you have to tell us right now so that we make arrangements for our stakeholders who are playing on these fields right away. Uh so that should be planned in much better fashion later on. With that I'll be supporting the motion and I appreciate uh although field number one is not being used at all but we will get the the two fields grass changed uh with whatever amount I know the 1.25 is mentioned as a community benefit but it's their responsibility to change those fields.
Segment 1
[00:36:52] Councilmember Raj Chahal: And uh I've been talking about this thing for a long time. Like uh what like Councilmember Hardy mentioned, most of the benefit will be from Hichborn to the left turn on the Great America. So my question is uh uh how about when will we have those intelligent traffic lights where we can use the AI or the latest technology so that if there is no left turn on Hichborn to Great America, why uh the timing of that light or there is no light at all left turn, why hinder all the traffic which will be more traffic on the Great America through traffic basically. So what can we do to improve that basically. I had a question about the stadium traffic, I think impact and I think you explained that uh during that period it will be uh non-functional like that. And those are my questions basically.
Segment 6
[00:37:17] Councilmember Raj Chahal: But again I would also uh emphasize again the agreement should contain if we do the thatching ourselves or the same contractor do the thatching, there should not be any controversy or legal issues that has to be resolved uh how we uh plan that thing thatching as well as the grass replacement of grass so that we don't have any legal issues on that. Thank you.
[00:37:33] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. City Clerk.
[00:37:35] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: I'd like to read the motion back on back to the maker of the motion. Um staff recommendation and staff continue to assist the displaced groups find fields and have third party inspections of fields before and after. Is that correct?
[00:37:47] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: I also said help with fees.
Segment 1
[00:37:48] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Gonzalez.
[00:37:51] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: Just uh a couple questions. As far as uh and I I'm assuming that that those the Level of uh Service that the the I you said was F and we'd be moving to D, what's the preferred level we usually want to have our lights at or intersections at? And um as far as the uh the um, what was the question? As far as uh concern as far as the future Sutter Health uh hospital in the area, just uh um maybe we haven't done the study yet but just having keeping that in the back of our mind to make sure that we can address issues sooner rather than later. Um, especially if there's some benefit in uh, you know, combining resources.
Segment 6
[00:37:54] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Did you say third party inspections before and after?
[00:37:57] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Yes. Yeah.
[00:37:59] Damon Sparacino: One thing I wanted to comment on was that the uh agenda item motion is different than the one before Council for consideration tonight. So if um the clerk could pull up the last slide from the presentation.
[00:38:16] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Oh it just has field one and three right?
[00:38:18] Damon Sparacino: Yeah yeah so we we updated the recommendation um based on the the slight change so this would be the um right? Is that correct City Attorney?
[00:38:31] City Attorney Glen Googins: Yeah that's that that's the revised staff's recommendation with the friendly amendments proposed by the Mayor that were incorporated.
[00:38:37] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And and to clarify that is uh to obtain a pre and post inspection and for staff to pursue additional um mitigation for uh the impacted groups.
Segment 1
[00:38:43] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Vice Mayor Cox.
[00:38:46] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Thanks. Um, I also wanted to understand the the levels that were referenced. Um, this is something I'm not familiar with so if you could briefly explain the difference between per se level E, F, what that means and uh as Councilmember Gonzalez Gonzalez said what is our uh hoped for level. Um, I noticed there wasn't a simulation for the event time and all said and done I think that we're all good with this during normal traffic hours, the simulations were great, but as people have referenced when things get really bad here it is events. So I'm wondering um I think we talked before about uh potentially programming the lights. Um, you know the backup on 101. What will this look like at stadium operations? And I think my big question is if it doesn't plan or if it doesn't prove to be feasible, I don't think there is another entrance or exit from the housing development that's even on the books yet. Am I correct about that? Um, and so yeah my question was how many events uh will require the ingress and egress? How often will we expect to see 101 backed up then? Um, I think just more attention to what's going to go on during event operations here uh would make me feel better about moving forward with this.
Segment 6
[00:38:53] Damon Sparacino: Thank you.
[00:38:55] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Pre and post third party inspections.
[00:39:06] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Should I record the motion? Okay.
[00:39:13] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Please register your vote. And that passes unanimously. Thank you everyone. We're going to take a five minute comfort break. Thank you.
Segment 1
[00:40:03] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Park.
[00:40:06] Councilmember Kevin Park: Yes, thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. Um, I also share some of the questions that the other Councilmembers share. I mean I understand that these this light can be turned on and off. We can disable this during event days so that at worst we will have the situation we have now. Right? So at best we can try to control the ingress egress along Hichborn but at worst we will have the situation we have today if we decide to turn that that signal off. Um, you know I did also have concerns about how you built the simulation how you built the simulator. I mean I build a lot of simulators but if we program it with what we know then we usually get what we expect. And my question is what were you looking for? I mean um we are doing this because of increased need to access Hichborn but the question is what was the increased use along Hichborn that was programmed in? Um, without knowing what the change is, the traffic signal seems superfluous. I mean it's just the standard.
[00:41:09] Councilmember Kevin Park: Um, I also would have liked to seen what the simulation would have been without the traffic signal and additional increased traffic. Um, if you have a simulator usually we do things I mean even if we don't do the event days like FIFA, we have peak hours but peak hours I think are daily peak hours not the peak hours during event times that uh other Councilmembers have noticed have noted. Um, but usually with a simulator we do things like increase the traffic until there is a problem. Then we find out where the backups are. Then we find out, you know, where we need to address more traffic. Um, you know you add in things such as you add in reality, you add in errant drivers, accidents, breakdowns. I mean I go down that road quite often when sometimes during event but oftentimes for Great America, you know, want to say may it rest in peace, but I I see backups. I feel compression waves of traffic that I don't see in the simulation. I don't see in the simulator. And these are kind of concerning to me.
[00:42:14] Councilmember Kevin Park: Um, I also want to know how this changes traffic along Freedom Circle. I mean if we don't have a good ingress egress along Hichborn, I would think that the people would take the other routes and um I want to I just want to know what the traffic traffic there would look like if we didn't have that. Uh I also want to know would more people take Hichborn as a shortcut to take a right turn onto northbound take a right turn onto to Mission College. I don't know if that's that's something that people would do but I could I can imagine it. I can imagine that even if people don't have the intention to do that that if they're following their their you know app that the app would tell them go down this road because there's a road there and has less traffic. I don't know if we've done that kind of analysis. I don't know if we work with agencies we work with um some of the tech companies that direct traffic on on what we want there. Can we tell them don't include this onto onto the apps? Do not do this kind of thing? I don't know what our our our you know possibilities are to do that. Um, and I've got more questions but I'll wait till the answers before I get into details. Thank you.
[00:43:34] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So I have just a couple questions. The first one is um what day of the week did you do that study or that your model? And when did you do that? Um, I just know when and it happened to me just a couple days ago when I was coming off 101 traveling north, north yeah north onto Great America Parkway, I'm turning to look so I can merge and just as I'm turning and I'm driving I come up practically to Hichborn. So I think that it's too short, it's too short of a of a space. And there was a lot of traffic and it was uh either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday are the traffic days around here. And there's there's uh slowly getting, you know, Monday and Friday are coming in but it's Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that are that are the big days. But so I think the space seems very short when you're merging. So I I saw your simulation but it looked like everyone there was all green lights everywhere. I was watching it and thinking wow that's running smoothly because I'm out there a lot and I'm constantly stuck in traffic. So I'm having a hard time understanding why adding another stop light...
Segment 2
[00:45:00] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: what appears to me to be a random area is gonna make our traffic flow better. Especially the southbound because it's only gonna be for the people turning left into Hitchborn, but the entire group of traffic is gonna stop. When they're that close to getting on the freeway. So, I'm... I I don't understand the reason for this because if you want to get in Hitchborn you can just go down Mission College Boulevard and go that way. So, I... I having a hard time with this one.
[00:45:39] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Anyways, you there's questions. Oh, does people want a second round of questions now? Councilmember Jain first then Hardy.
[00:45:48] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Um, it seems to me that the main benefit of adding the light at Hitchborn is that you have people from the Irvine project, which is gonna be almost 1800 units, that want to get on 101. And so right now the only way for them to get on 101 is to go on Mission College, which is already Level F. So this light would allow people to get on Hitchborn and make the left onto Great America that would then allow them to get on 101. Which is I think the main benefit of keeping them off of Mission College. And I was wondering if you could confirm that is sort of the main value of the simulation?
[00:46:35] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: And uh, um, I believe that you may have a congestion point at... It depends on where the exit is from the Irvine complex. If those people are getting on Freedom Circle, how are they going to get on on Hitchborn? They're going to have to make a left turn there. So, have you modeled that Freedom Circle to Hitchborn intersection? Do you do you see what I'm saying?
[00:47:10] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: If if all all of the... Here's the Irvine project and Hitchborn's here on the side, if the exits from all of these complexes are on Freedom Circle, then they're going to have to make a left turn onto Hitchborn. Um, will there be a congestion point there of people trying to make a left? That that then those people will want to get on 101 to get to their jobs. And that's kind of the AM problem. Um, the PM problem is is what you've identified to be worse than the AM problem. So, um, but that seemed to be the main benefit of the light is to keep people off of Mission College.
[00:47:53] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Hardy.
[00:47:55] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Very quickly. Um, I'm remembering and I double checked on Google Maps that Hitchborn is only one way for that little bit of a egress. And I just wondered was there did we look at why because it's two-way halfway into about a half a block in. I just wondered if we had looked at widening Hitchborn so it's two-way so that people could come and go, but turn right onto Great America Boulevard. Because right now it's it's only... you only can come in, you cannot go out on Hitchborn. Just a thought. Thank you.
[00:48:34] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right, those are the questions. Wondering should I go to the public for questions and then you have all the questions? Yeah, let's go. We may or may not have any public, so. If there's any member of the public that would like to speak on this, please come forward. Anyone online? No one? A lot of people online. Okay. All right, go ahead.
[00:49:10] Steve Chan: Okay, so uh just to uh take a step back uh for this study session uh staff have prepared a simulation to address specifically the operation interaction between uh traffic signal as uh uh requested and special event operation. Uh the intent is not to create a new traffic analysis for the Irvine uh Company development project which City Council approved. Uh the model uh input uh to the simulation is directly from the Irvine Company uh project development trip.
[00:49:57] Steve Chan: Uh their uh traffic volume uh based on the existing background condition which is uh they take traffic count and the uh intersection around the uh project area and assume uh a City Council approved project into those uh volume as well as uh Greystar being assumed to be built and then lastly including the Irvine Company project trips to to those uh intersection.
[00:50:28] Steve Chan: So those includes those project assignment. Uh the traffic consultant assigned the trips based on typical best practice uh on uh trip assignment uh origins and destination. So that's how the model is uh uh set up. Uh the model itself is uh has parameter as uh as uh Councilmember Park mentioned, you know, uh that accounts for uh aggressive driver, slow driver, heavy truck volume, uh so on and so forth to mimic a typical uh traffic condition.
[00:51:05] Steve Chan: It does not uh model accident condition. This is a uh atypical atypical condition that's generally not modeled uh in simulation software and that specifically the purpose to is to identify uh those issue. Uh and also for stadium event uh those are also atypical operation so uh we don't model those uh uh we didn't model that operation. We generally uh as I mentioned uh address those uh uh operation needs uh based on, you know, uh the the need to move traffic along the corridor.
[00:51:48] Steve Chan: So as may I mentioned the ingress and egress uh at the Hitchborn location, it may be that uh when uh a heavy, you know, a large uh stadium event happens that requires the temporary closure of that southbound left turn, that could also happen uh with uh stadium event operation. Uh in terms of how many uh traffic trips uh is uh associated with the Irvine project, I I don't have that uh on the tip of my finger, but that was uh part of the approval of your uh the Irvine Company project. Uh if need be uh we can definitely uh share that information with Council at a later time.
[00:52:39] Steve Chan: Uh in regards to Level of Service F, uh how many cycle does a uh vehicle uh need to wait to go through a traffic signal? As I mentioned on the uh presentation, Level of Service F uh generally has lo high congestion. It generally mean multiple cycle, probably more than two, to get through a uh intersection uh that is uh experience Level of Service F. Uh the City generally consider Level of Service D is acceptable uh Level of Service for City's traffic signal. That's what we aim for and uh if it falls below that uh E and F uh we generally request the developer to mitigate that with uh improvement uh at the intersection to improve it uh above uh uh D or better.
[00:53:48] Steve Chan: Uh so generally uh Level of Service D is still uh some level of congestion but generally is acceptable. Generally uh vehicles can get through the intersection between one to two cycle. Uh the question on Great America Parkway, how many lanes they are on uh Great America Parkway going the northbound direction coming off Bowers, uh there is three lanes uh just at the overpass at the freeway and then a fourth lane becomes available whe after it passes the uh 101 off-ramp.
[00:54:26] Steve Chan: Essentially the 101 off-ramp uh coming uh northbound 101 off-ramp comes off into their dedicated lane. So after that point there's four lanes going northbound uh all the way up to uh Great America Great America Parkway and Mission College Boulevard. Uh specifically right now Hitchborn is a one-way uh movement at Hitchborn and Great America Parkway. It only allows vehicle to turn right in.
[00:54:55] Steve Chan: With the uh new traffic signal, that signal is anticipated or will be uh converted to a full access intersection allowing uh northbound through and right on Great America Parkway, allowing uh left turn move movement out and left and right turn movement out of Hitchborn Drive as well as for southbound Great Great America Parkway three lanes going southbound and one left turn lane heading into Hitchborn. Uh in regards to the simulation, did it account for the uh intersection improvement that was recently uh finished? Yes, it did. So the simulation uh if we go back to it if uh it shows three lanes coming off of Mission College Boulevard uh in the simulation and that's accounted for.
[00:55:45] Steve Chan: Uh regarding Sutter Health, that's a future project at the time of uh the Freedom Circle Focus Area plan as well as the uh uh Irvine Company project uh that was not in play. So uh as part of the Sutter hospital uh development they will analyze would need to analyze all these development in the area that's been approved by City Council uh in their uh modeling to assess uh what is their project needs to or what is the traffic impact with their project and how it would impact surrounding area and what level of improvement would be uh uh needed to uh keep all the traffic signal uh at a Level of Service D uh or better.
[00:56:33] Steve Chan: Uh in regards to Hitchborn and Freedom Circle, that's uh area we don't anticipate any significant traffic uh impact uh with the development even with the uh if if uh all the traffic continue to go out of Mission College Boulevard onto GAP with that single left uh left turn movement single route heading to onto 101 uh Freedom Circle within Freedom Circle and Hitchborn that is anticipated to uh work just uh uh fine.
[00:57:02] Steve Chan: Uh it's that if we don't build a signal uh and provide an alternative route or secondary route out of the area, uh the intersection at uh Great America Parkway and Hitchborn and uh Mission College Boulevard and sorry it's uh Great America and Mission College Boulevard and Mission College Boulevard and Freedom Circle West, both of them will experience Level of Service F uh without the traffic signal being built at the time when these uh development is completed by uh Irvine and Greystar and associated background project that has previously been approved uh by Council in the surrounding area.
[00:57:35] Steve Chan: And uh lastly I like to highlight uh the uh we have a similar situation where a traffic signal is near uh a freeway off-ramp uh specifically uh south of this intersection or south of this interchange at Bowers at Augustine. Uh the distance between that and the 101 northbound and uh off-ramp between Hitchborn is very similar in terms of distance. They're both experience high uh volume of traffic during the AM and PM peak hour uh condition. Again the uh typical traffic operation analysis uh analyze typical weekday period.
[00:58:13] Steve Chan: Uh the question of uh what what is this particular day th this model was modeling, it uh doesn't identify any particular day. It's typically a average of uh Monday to Friday normal uh AM PM peak hour traffic. So AM uh peak hour is generally in most area between the hour of six to nine uh and then PM peak hour is generally four to six uh period uh shifting an hour either uh up and down. Uh that's how it's typically analyzed uh for general uh impact uh traffic operation analysis.
[00:58:52] Steve Chan: I think that is what I have written down. Uh if there's additional question I may have missed uh...
[00:58:59] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: I may have um I asked the question about the day that this was completed, the simulation. Did you answer that in there somewhere?
[00:59:10] Steve Chan: The the simulation models the uh existing traffic, approved uh project that Council previously approved uh in the area, the uh assumption that Greystar development will be completed and as well as uh Irvine uh Company's project would be com uh completed. The date certain uh obviously we don't know. It's the assumption of all those project will be in play uh with the simulation.
[00:59:41] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: If nothing changes, does the signal get constructed when the Greystar development is starting?
[00:59:50] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. Uh let me answer that and I'll also call our Community Development Director up. Uh the signal was a part uh of the uh Plan Development zoning uh and was um included uh within the entitlements for the project. Uh and so uh um the Irvine project is um um um scheduled to provide the the signal. Because there was the question we wanted to to study this meeting and um I'll have Afshin um Hamid our Community Development Director talk a little bit about um how what would happen if uh there is a decision not to include uh the traffic signal and how the entitlements will need to be adjusted.
[01:00:36] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Um more follow-up questions? Councilmember Jain then Hardy.
[01:00:45] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: So I'm a little confused here. Um this project was approved without a a modeling of Sutter. Which one was first? I mean the approval of Sutter then must have included the um the Irvine project. Or were do we ever have a simulation of both projects?
[01:01:13] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. Uh let's talk about that. Um when as you know when projects come forward um they're and a traffic study is warranted, it is done based on known things at that time, right? Either known approved specific plan or applications already submitted. When you reference Sutter, it's important to know that there's sort of two Sutter projects, right? There there's a Sutter project on the south side and then there's the proposal for the new hospital on the north side. New hospital on the north side just came in of course not considered with this. Project on the south side um is a remodel uh and a re remodel of some buildings and a and a rebuild of existing facilities. And so I'm not sure if our staff here um can uh articulate if Sutter the Sutter on the south side was included in the traffic study and what project came first.
[01:02:34] Steve Chan: So the uh Sutter project uh as uh uh City Manager mentioned is a generally a considered a tenant improvement so they're not required to uh do a traffic operation analysis uh as per uh the City's requirement for new projects. So those trip is assumed to be uh already in place on the background model. So uh even though they not may not perfectly match, these assumption are generally captured uh in the background condition uh on the analysis on uh the Greystar uh and and uh Irvine.
[01:03:30] Steve Chan: I believe the uh Greystar uh project came first and was entitled and then the uh Irvine project came in was entitled uh almost ab about the same time when uh uh Sutter uh tenant improvement was happening when Irvine was uh being uh analyzed for uh uh for their project. So those two are generally uh at the same time so but the model and the traffic analysis uh would encapsulate uh those trips related to the Sutter's uh existing uh TI improvement. Uh I hope that answered that question.
[01:04:29] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Not not exactly. So those uh buildings are vacant right right now. And so when Sutter took 'em on the background, did it include an assumption that those buildings are fully occupied? Is that how traffic models work?
[01:04:48] Steve Chan: They they if it's vacant uh they generally assume that the uh approved use for those uh uh buildings and that's how it's assumed. If it's vacant, it's assumed that someone's gonna move in so that land use categories trips is accounted for uh for that site.
[01:05:03] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Okay so we are including some aspect of Sutter being there, but it's not exactly the use case of Sutter versus an office.
[01:05:15] Steve Chan: Correct. So uh it's typical land use uh assumption for, you know, vacant parcel uh what City Council has approved, that's the la land use uh permitted at the location and uh some amount of typical land use uh matching that core category is uh assigned to that parcel.
[01:05:31] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: I see.
[01:05:32] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Hardy.
[01:05:35] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Thank you. You you uh alluded to this so I want to make certain I'm clear. So a a smart turn signal would would um only need to come on and stop the other traffic as if someone were southbound and needed to turn left into Hitchborn or were on Hitchborn and needed to turn left south to go over 101 or whatever. So I would feel much better knowing that it was a smart signal and that it would not be stopping all the flow through traffic because it is very frustrating when something's on a cycle and it's been so long but it hasn't turned that it will that if it were just on demand and uh recognizing when there was a vehicle that needed to turn that way.
[01:07:08] Councilmember Karen Hardy: And if I understand correctly Hitchborn would be upgraded and would be now two-way so people could come out of that Irvine project and turn right onto Great America Parkway.
[01:07:20] Steve Chan: Correct. The uh intersection will be uh converted to uh, you know, uh as I mentioned uh a outbound uh travel lane allowing left and right off of Hitchborn and a uh southbound uh left into uh Hitchborn from Great America Park Parkway. In regard to the smart signal, uh yes the City all of the City's uh traffic signal is uh what we call actuated. It only turns green and uh assign right-of-way to vehicle uh where a vehicle actually sits on top of a uh detection area. It will not uh turn green if there's no vehicle there.
[01:08:05] Steve Chan: Uh, you know, if higher congestion level is experienced on Great America Parkway uh as we experience on the Expressway uh in the county, uh the county favors the heavy movement on the Expressway by assigning more green time to those uh movement favoring them and slightly delaying more on the side street movement. So we can also utilize that uh strategy for this uh signals on Hitchborn as well uh favoring Great America Parkway to uh lessen any impact uh to adjacent traffic signal or off-ramp uh uh nearby.
[01:08:54] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Chahal.
[01:08:56] Councilmember Raj Chahal: So I had the same question, why you was asking intelligent traffic light or using AI, how many cars are there are but you answer like you are you you mentioning that Hitchborn signal, left bound signal from Hitchborn to Great America will be a smart light. If there is no car on Hitchborn it will not give any green light. Are you you telling us that right?
[01:09:20] Steve Chan: Yes, correct. So uh like uh like I mentioned all traffic signal in this in the city has detection. So the detection make sure that uh it's only assigning a green to uh a movement that has uh vehicle sitting by or a pedestrian, you know, needing to cross uh the intersection at the crosswalk. So uh all intersection have that capability and also along the Great America uh corridor we synchronize the intersection or the traffic signal along the corridor so we minimize stoppage along the way. Having that I think uh uh Councilmember Park mention uh ripple effect uh from moving up and down the corr corridor. So we can al also uh better synchronize uh the traffic signal to account for the this uh increased traffic in the future.
[01:10:09] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Thank you.
[01:10:10] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So again, City Manager, if this moves ahead, when is it built? How... when Greystar comes on?
[01:10:20] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: It it is a part of the approved entitlements for the Irvine project, so the signal must be built before final certificate of occupancy.
[01:10:29] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right. Councilmember Park.
[01:10:32] Councilmember Kevin Park: So thank you very much for the presentation of the answers. I make I mean I'm looking at the only way to reduce um LOS from F to D. You know, we're gonna create an F if we don't do any mitigation whatsoever and we could create we could possibly reduce it or keep it at a D if we add these controls. Um I mean my original questions is where is traffic being reduced. And I realize that um actually traffic is being reduced because it's not we just don't have more traffic being fed through the standard um the standard place where traffic is going, which is along Great America from Mission College.
[01:11:32] Councilmember Kevin Park: Uh also I would think that you would have some um directed towards uh Montague Expressway from Freedom Circle. There's no uh talk about this. Um but I feel if we did not do anything then except at certain times, I don't know that anyone would would see the value of the left turn from Hitchborn. I don't know that anyone would see the left turn onto Hitchborn except on certain times if we didn't have this.
[01:12:03] Councilmember Kevin Park: Uh I fully believe that uh zipping, having some allowing some traffic from, you know, many of the different directions that need to get to where they need to go is most efficient. I mean it does potentially slow some things down but in general it allows people to get where they where they need to get the fastest. Um I'm kind of surprised that we didn't include more simulation. Meaning that we didn't simulate this to break the traffic, to see where the traffic would go. I'm kind of surprised we didn't do um some of the disaster modeling that I would expect to see because, you know, if we have a model that's not really that broken and we add some we make some changes and we have another another model that's not really that broken, doesn't really teach us anything.
[01:13:20] Councilmember Kevin Park: We haven't really learned anything. I think we learned something when we change the model since we're simulating to see where we think it will break and then addressing where we think it will break. Um that said, like I don't know if we have time or we're gonna do another simulation. I think this is kind of the only study session that we have and uh I will go into the decision probably with a lot more questions. Thank you.
[01:13:49] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So this is a study session, City Manager. What are you looking for? Or comments only? What are you looking for?
[01:13:59] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. So um when you approve the Irvine uh project, ac actually let's back up. When you approved the uh Focus Area uh plan, the Focus Area plan had a traffic analysis and that called for um at build out uh a traffic signal uh being needed at this area uh and that Focus Area plan included a trigger uh um for when the traffic signal would be needed. Uh the largest entitlement project uh that that application that was submitted uh to hit this trigger was the Irvine project that came before you, they went through the full entitlement process and your action to approve the project uh and that entitlement included uh this signal.
[01:14:43] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Uh you at that time um um various Councilmembers um expressed some concern about the traffic signal um a um um I think there were statements about around not remembering uh ex exactly that this was in the the uh Focus Area plan and and requested a study session to talk about it. And so we we we agendized that. Um and so why don't I invite the Community and Economic Development Director up to talk about the Irvine entitlement uh because that project is moving forward uh and they they are required to uh put in the signal.
[01:15:35] Afshin Hamid: Thank you City Manager. Uh good evening Council and um Mayor. Uh so the Irvine project came to you in March of 2025. Um as part of that approval um as the City Manager said and as our um traffic engineering team also said that the traffic signal was identified as part of the Plan Development for the Focus Area. So when that plan Focus Area was anticipated with the number of units for Greystar and for Irvine, Irvine is the project that triggered the traffic signal and it was based on the level of traffic which is an F. F usually means that it's the worst that can be in the city.
[01:16:23] Afshin Hamid: So we look at both now, we look at VMT and we also look at LOS. VMT is no longer... VMT is part of the CEQA but LOS is still the City can still require LOS as part of specific inter intersection studies. When it was studied it was discovered that the Level F would require improvements at that intersection. And so during entitlements that is what was proposed by staff and it became part of the conditions of approval of the project as well.
[01:16:59] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: I'm sorry, Afshin can you explain um LOS Level of Service and uh Vehicle Miles Traveled. I know they're acronyms that that we use a lot.
[01:17:07] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: I think we all know that but go ahead.
[01:17:10] Afshin Hamid: Well, I'm not the traffic engineer uh planning background here um but Level of Service is what has typically been used by ITE um since the 60s, help me here right, and uh Level of Service is basically from ranks from A to F. Uh most projects when they come in we use we use um uh we used to use LOS uh to help mitigate the impacts of a uh of a project onto our roadways right. Um in uh 2017 the state adopted new CEQA standards called VMT, Vehicle Miles Traveled, and so instead of using LOS in our CEQA analysis we replaced it with Vehicle Miles Traveled. Um and so we can still use LOS when we do our studies and we do that typically on major projects that come in. And Steve is here he can talk about it a little bit more. Thank you.
[01:18:20] Steve Chan: So the uh uh as Afshin mentioned VMT uh the state have moved towards uh the VMT, Vehicle Miles Travel, basically from end to end trip uh uh encapsulating the total impact of the project versus LOS is traditionally intersection surrounding the project area and not uh identifying uh impact greater than the immediate you know influence of the project. So uh the state identified that doesn't really address uh greenhouse gas uh creation so they transition to a VMT analysis to capture that and in lieu of uh you know looking at the localized impact.
[01:19:10] Steve Chan: Of course the uh most jurisdiction uh in California realized that they still care about LOS because it impacts our community so a lot of them adopted uh uh policy that still retain uh local traffic operation analysis for project so that uh any identify le unacceptable LOS uh uh is uh identified to be mitigated so it doesn't impact the immediate community community surrounding the uh proposed project. So that's in generally uh how the the two sets of uh uh evaluation is uh uh separated and and described. Sorry.
[01:20:03] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Park.
[01:20:05] Councilmember Kevin Park: So I remember when uh Sunnyvale went to, well we talk about VMT this was more than uh this was prior to 2017, this was when they were trying to open up the left turn lane from Kaiser onto Homestead. And what we noted during that study was that all of the intersections in that area were area were at Level of Service F. Uh Level of Service F and uh someone noted that the Level of Service F went to F 20 years before we were scheduled to go to F in that that area because of all the development that was built there. And one of the reasons that they used VMT at that time was because well when you're comparing F to F and when you're saying well it started at F and went to F, it doesn't really tell you anything.
[01:21:08] Councilmember Kevin Park: So I think the VMT seeing where the delays seeing where the the um um miles traveled increases that was that was much more useful. I I think that when we can use LOS actually I think that's a very nice it's a nice thing. It tells us that uh we're still have a situation where LOS gives us information which means it's not as bad as it could be. Um that said like I I really want to see more than just the simulations that were there.
[01:21:42] Councilmember Kevin Park: I feel like the simulations were there that that were shown were were the the bare minimum simu the simulations that we could see. I would have liked to have seen where things break. I would have liked to have seen where we're going to have problems because uh I almost guarantee that we're going to see traffic greater than what we've seen in the simulations and in those cases I would like to know how we're going to prepare for what we expect and but if we don't know where it's going to break then we don't know what to expect. Thank you.
[01:22:28] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So City Manager you just are looking at our comments or what you're really looking for is if the Council has changed their mind on putting that in we need to take any further action? Kind of what you're looking for right?
[01:22:39] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Yes so at at this point staff uh will continue uh is prepared to continue to work with Irvine to see out their project. Uh the the signal is approximately a $2 million project that's that's a part of their entitlements. Uh if in fact uh the Council um um after this study session uh wanted to proceed in a different direction, we would contact Irvine uh and discuss um potential adjustments uh to uh to their entitlements uh which would be uh a process that um may involve um some delay in their them moving forward but we would attempt to to work through that. Uh additionally um we can if there is a uh desire to have additional information we we certainly um uh will look to provide that.
[01:23:33] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: I I do know that one of the things that our transportation department does for all of our signals is that it's an iterative process, right? It's a living and breathing process and this will be a smart light that that that can be adjusted over time. Uh it also as we talked about for major event days uh can be taken over both with electronic programming also with um on the ground um intervention via via cones or or people providing uh traffic controls and so we we did just schedule this uh at your uh uh at your desire and happy to take any feedback um but in lieu of any uh specific direction tonight we will contact Irvine uh and instruct them to continue to proceed with their with their project and and the delivery of that sig traffic signal.
[01:24:13] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And I I did know that sort of ordering equipment and stuff was was important and so staff one of the reasons why we're here tonight is that staff really uh made uh made it clear that Irvine does need some direction uh because they're they're sort of ready to move forward with their project.
[01:24:28] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Um thank you and thank you staff for the the report and I may be in the minority here well I probably am but I don't believe there's a need for that signal. And I think that's pretty obvious because you plan on turning it off during stadium events to make the traffic flow flow smoother. But there's sometimes when you see things on paper and you actually go out and experience what it's like uh when I I'm just really concerned about the merge on from 101 to uh heading north on Great America Parkway. I I'm afraid of people merging and crashing there because it's such a short um it's such a short distance so I think everyone maybe you go drive it and take a look at it.
[01:25:19] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: It's it's just not practical. I just think that there's better ways of doing it but putting a light there is just not practical. Anyways. Said my piece. Councilmember Jain again and Park again. You have new information to say? New? Okay. Councilmember uh okay Councilmember Park, you're the one the one left.
[01:25:40] Councilmember Kevin Park: So you said it's a $2 million project and we talked about entitlements and if you we do not put the traffic signal here, like I I understand the um doubt of that the signal would be good but I can see where the signal would actually provide a benefit. But if we don't build the signal what other I mean is it is it okay to ask this question in public? What other things would we look for for in terms of entitlements?
[01:26:04] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. Um so uh we um the City is not building uh the traffic signal. Uh Irvine would uh have the traffic signal built uh with their funds as a condition of their entitlement. Uh if we were to choose to relieve them of that um uh requirement if in fact the signal was ever needed uh we would uh need to fund that uh ourselves. Um so um right now uh it is a part of the Irvine entitlement for them to provide the signal and and again it's a smart signal that that that we can adjust um that was uh deemed to be needed in um the uh focus focus area plan uh based on the full build out.
[01:26:48] Councilmember Kevin Park: So so I I don't know if I heard that correctly that if we relieved Irvine of the responsibility of building that signal, we would still build that signal but we would fund it ourselves?
[01:26:59] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Well if we relieve them of the uh requirement to build the signal, they don't build the signal. Uh and um we if in fact we determined at a later date that um traffic became a Level F just as predicted in the um traffic study then we would need to build that that traffic signal or let the um um situation continue.
[01:27:23] Councilmember Kevin Park: And do the modifications to Hitchborn, are those tied with the signal? Meaning the the two-way on Hitchborn is that tied or is that separate or?
[01:27:30] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Those are also uh improvements a part of the project as a condition of approval.
[01:27:34] Councilmember Kevin Park: Understood. Thank you.
[01:27:35] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Jain.
[01:27:37] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Um so I think we are providing direction to staff and to me the direction that I'd like to see us go and it's not quite exactly related to what's agendized but there should be a comprehensive traffic study that includes Patrick Henry, that includes the hospital, that includes Sutter Health medical facilities, Greystar and um Irvine. So we can really see what the total impact is there.
[01:28:16] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: I know when uh Councilmember Chahal and I we were on Planning Commission and the Related project came to us and, you know, they're looking at 9 million square feet of development, we didn't actually believe the traffic studies. We thought that Great America and Tasman would be extremely impacted especially if you included the Kylli project. So um we actually kind of voted against it wanting a smaller project due to traffic impacts. So I think that where I want to go is and this would probably be on the City's dime to do a traffic study that would be comprehensive of that Great America because we're gonna add all that traffic from um Patrick Henry and the hospital.
[01:29:05] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: So that's kind of where I wanted to go. And then the second question I have is that are we actually talking about four lanes on Hitchborn? One for people exiting right and one for people exiting left from Hitchborn and then one for people entering Hitchborn from the a left turn and from a right turn. Is that what we're really looking at to to smooth the traffic? Because if you only had one egress lane then you'd have the left turn people backing up the people that want to make a right.
[01:29:38] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. Um we'll have uh Steve Chan answer the Hitchborn question and then I will take um the traffic analysis.
[01:29:49] Steve Chan: Uh for the Irvine Company uh uh project the condition of a approval was to in install install a new traffic signal, convert Hitchborn to two-way traffic. At the intersection uh at Hitchborn and uh Great America Great America Parkway there'll be one uh inbound lane as uh it's uh it is today. For the outbound uh there'll be two lanes, one left turn lane and one right turn lane. Uh and then it transition back into a two lane, one in each direction as it uh get closer to uh Freedom Circle.
[01:30:22] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: So how do you address the conflict if there's only one inbound? How do you address the conflict of people coming northbound on Great America wanting to turn into Hitchborn and the people at the light making a left turn onto Hitchborn? Do you have a do you have a red light arrow so that people can't turn on?
[01:30:41] Steve Chan: So uh like uh typical traffic signal in the city, uh the when the southbound left gets a green arrow, the northbound vehicle receive a red light. Uh they are not uh supposed to go with the red light so there shouldn't be any conflict regarding the intersection traffic movement.
[01:30:59] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Got it. Thank you.
[01:31:00] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. Uh so with regard to Councilmember Jain's request um for a City uh traffic analysis in this entire area uh including um uh both Sutter projects uh full build out of of this area. Um we actually find ourself in a fairly common uh situation right now where there was a traffic there was a Focus Area plan, there was a traffic analysis for a project um done that considered um projects at that time. In the vicinity there happened to be a property that was that was vacant that is now occupied and we considered uh a a like for like office u use as a part of, you know, assuming that that they were fully occupied.
[01:31:50] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Uh and then traffic analysis are living and breathing things that actually change with new applications. And so in this area for example, we um have a proposal for a $2.7 billion hospital that will have a traffic analysis as a part of it that will include traffic analysis on the entire area along Great America Parkway at full build out for both um um uh the Irvine project uh as well as the Greystar projects and the other projects within there.
[01:32:17] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: So that analysis will be done uh in short order as a part of other projects that are proposed. If we were talking about an area where there really were no other projects proposed or upcoming, uh certainly uh u utilizing City funds uh a traffic analysis could be done but my recommendation would be because this is an active development area that uh we that will be looked at with pending applications.
[01:32:39] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right. Thank you. Um we're thank you uh staff, thank you for the report. Uh we're going to now um conclude our study session and we'll say at 7:10 we'll come back to the City Council meeting. Thank you.
Segment 3
[01:46:25] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Good evening everyone and welcome to the Santa Clara City Council and Stadium Authority's concurrent meeting. Could you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for our Statement of Values?
[01:46:36] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: 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.
[01:46:51] Councilmember Karen Hardy: As we gather, we humbly seek blessings upon this meeting. May we act with strength, courage, and will to perform our obligations and duties to our people with justice to all. Let us seek wisdom so we may act in the best interest of our people, our neighbors, and our country. All this we ask so we may serve our community with fairness and respect, putting their needs before all.
[01:47:20] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you, please be seated. Roll call. Assistant City Clerk?
[01:47:22] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Councilmember Board Member Gonzalez.
[01:47:25] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: Present.
[01:47:27] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Thank you. Councilmember Board Member Chahal.
[01:47:29] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Present.
[01:47:30] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Councilmember Board Member Hardy.
[01:47:32] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Present.
[01:47:34] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Councilmember Board Member Park.
[01:47:35] Councilmember Kevin Park: Here.
[01:47:36] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Councilmember Board Member Jain.
[01:47:38] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Here.
[01:47:39] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Vice Mayor Vice Chair Cox.
[01:47:40] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Here.
[01:47:41] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Mayor Chair Gillmor.
[01:47:43] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Here.
[01:47:44] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: Thank you. The AB 23 announcement. Members of the Santa Clara Stadium Authority, Sports and Open Space Authority, and Housing Authority are entitled to receive $30 for each attended meeting. The Statement of Behavioral Standards. The City of Santa Clara has adopted a Code of Ethics and Values and Behavioral Standards for public meetings to promote and maintain the highest levels of conduct. This includes mutual respect, robust discussion, and allowing city business to be done in an efficient and consistent manner. Please note that as the presiding officer, the Mayor and Chair's direction in matters of process and decorum should be followed, and that use of the gavel indicates all conversations must conclude and that everyone in attendance should come to order and attention. Welcome and thank you for your participation. For those joining us this evening in the capacity of a registered lobbyist, we ask you to please identify yourself as such and disclose the clients and or organizations that you represent. This is pursuant to City Code section 2.155.110. Thank you.
[01:48:52] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you, Assistant City Clerk. So for today's meeting, the Council is back in person and is conducting its meeting in a hybrid manner. The public is welcome to attend in person and the City continues to use a Zoom feature to allow participation from your home or office. Members of the public can still join via the link and or call into the Zoom meeting phone number shown on the screen now. If you'd like to speak on an agenda item or during public presentations, please raise your hand on the Zoom application or press star nine on your phone. Please only raise your hand while the item you're seeking to speak on is presented. Staff will enter your name or the last four digits of your phone number and I will call on you to speak. As a friendly reminder, members of the public have two minutes to speak on an agenda item and three minutes on public presentations, and those are reserved for topics that are not on the agenda. Prior to each agenda item, staff will lower your hand to ensure that members of the public are seeking to speak on the appropriate agenda item.
[01:49:59] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So before we move on to the Council meeting, I would like to pause for a moment and ask for a moment of silence for the victims of the mass shooting that occurred at Archer Park beside Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia in the late afternoon during a Hanukkah celebration. The shooting in Australia is Australia's deadliest terror incident and its second deadliest mass shooting since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. As municipal leaders, we share a collective responsibility to stand together in the face of violence and to make it clear that antisemitism has no place in our cities or in public life. During this difficult time, we offer our heartfelt condolences to both the victims and their families, and now I'd like to pause for a moment of silence in their honor.
[01:51:10] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you very much for that. Unfortunately, I have another one as well. Our next moment of silence is in honor of the victims of the mass shooting that occurred at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. During the second day of final examination week for the fall semester, two students were killed and nine other students were wounded as they attended a review session in preparation for final exams. School shootings in the United States have tragically increased in the preceding decades, an overwhelmingly American phenomenon attributed to the unusual availability of firearms. Our heartfelt condolences are extended to the victims and their families of this tragedy. Now I'd like to pause for a moment of silence in their honor.
[01:52:30] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you very much for that. Next we have continuances, exceptions, reconsiderations. Does anyone on the Council, staff, or have a continuance, an exception, or a reconsideration? No? Anyone in the public? Okay. We're going to move on now to our first and only Special Order of Business. And it starts with our first and only Special Order of Business this evening, the City of Santa Clara declares the month of December as Human Rights Month. Human Rights Month is a global observance dedicated to promoting and celebrating the fundamental rights and freedoms that all individuals are entitled to, regardless of their nationality, gender, race, religion, or background. It serves as a reminder of the importance of upholding human rights and addressing issues related to social justice and equality. The 2025 theme for Human Rights Day and Month is "Our Everyday Essentials," that focuses on how human rights are fundamental to daily life. The campaign aims to show that human rights are not abstract concepts, but are everyday essentials everyone relies on and can be a positive force for good. This theme also highlights how human rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and dignity, are integrated into our daily lives. I now would like to invite Deborah von Huene to the podium to share more about the Cultural Commission and Human Rights Month. So Deborah, when you're ready. And I believe you have a video too. So. Welcome.
[01:54:14] Deborah von Huene: Yes. Thank you. Thank you Mayor and Council. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was declared in 1948 following the conclusion of World War II, and all members of the United Nations who signed this agreement have agreed to follow the principles of the human rights. They include the right to equality, the right to life, liberty, and personal security, freedom from torture and degrading treatment, and the right to education. The Cultural Commission's Commemorative Months Subcommittee would like to share with you a short video animated by the artist Richard Prouse that talks about how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights came about. Thank you.
[01:55:05] Video Presentation: What are human rights? Are those rights the same everywhere? For everyone? For generations, we struggled with these questions. Then Eleanor Roosevelt and the United Nations set out to answer them. From the preamble of the declaration: Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. As we emerged from World War II, a conflict that killed tens of millions and left millions more with nowhere to go, Eleanor Roosevelt became chairperson of the newly formed United Nations Commission on Human Rights. "We won the war," she said. "Now we need to work to win the peace." Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security.
[01:56:15] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Can we stop this for a minute because something's wrong. Is there double talking in that? talking behind it? You... we all hear that. What is... what what was wrong there? Is that part of the video that they... No, it isn't, that they... All right. Can we start it again, please? Without that other talking? Better now. Yes. Thank you.
[01:56:56] Video Presentation: What are human rights? Are those rights the same everywhere? For everyone? For generations, we struggled with these questions. Then Eleanor Roosevelt and the United Nations set out to answer them. From the preamble of the declaration: Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. As we emerged from World War II, a conflict that killed tens of millions and left millions more with nowhere to go, Eleanor Roosevelt became chairperson of the newly formed United Nations Commission on Human Rights. "We won the war," she said. "Now we need to work to win the peace." Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security - Article 3. She saw the possibility for international standards for human rights in the post-war world, but also the need to act quickly as Cold War tensions grew between the United States and Soviet Union. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought and religion - Article 18. 18 countries took part in the first Commission on Human Rights. They sent experts on law, legislation, religion, and philosophy, who asked questions like: "What are human rights?" "What is personhood?" and "What comes first? The rights of the individual or the interest of the community?" Everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty - Article 11. With so many different backgrounds and beliefs in the room, finding common ground proved difficult. Eleanor Roosevelt needed all of her diplomatic skill to keep the group making progress. Meeting after meeting, for over two years, they hammered out seven drafts of the new document. And like any good diplomat, she knew that often the toughest problems get resolved outside the room. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression - Article 19. When the United Nations General Assembly voted on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 1948, not a single nation opposed it. The room applauded Eleanor Roosevelt, who smiled while she famously continued her knitting. Everyone has the right to peaceful assembly - Article 20. Since the declaration passed, critics have argued that it's idealistic because it's non-binding, that it forces Western ideas on the world as a new form of colonialism, and that the great powers manipulate it for purposes of propaganda, all while repression of freedoms and atrocities still make the news. Everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution - Article 14. But the declaration has profoundly impacted human rights worldwide, influencing the language of national constitutions, laws, and more than 70 human rights treaties. Eleanor Roosevelt called it a "living document," part of an ongoing effort throughout our lives and the lives of our children to improve human rights. Everyone has the right to education - Article 26. It's through our own education that each generation can answer the question "What are human rights?" and continue to advance them for everyone. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, "We have to decide whether it's worth the effort, and that requires character, and courage, and conviction."
[02:02:18] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Deborah, thank you for sharing that video with us. Would you like to introduce the commissioners that are here with you? And then after that I'd like to invite you up for a photo.
[02:02:30] Deborah von Huene: Yes. We have three other members of the Cultural Commission here tonight. We have Neetu Garg, Avinash Roy, and Kuku Das.
[02:02:42] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Very good. Thank you all for coming and presenting this this evening. Um, would you like to join us up front? We'd like to present you with this proclamation.
[02:04:25] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right, thank you for that presentation. Moving on, we have... Councilmember Jain.
[02:04:30] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Uh, thank you to the Cultural Commission for... stay here please... for raising this topic today. Um, interestingly enough, those first meetings that Eleanor Roosevelt held were in the Fairmont in San Francisco, um, in 1948. So, um, you know, uh, I think it's very important as we see the rise of authoritarianism around the world that we remind ourselves of this Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Uh, I've been a member of Amnesty International since 1986, and we've been writing letters to free political prisoners around the world, regularly, uh, originally started in Peru, then Syria, then all over the world. Um, and uh, you know, Amnesty International was created in 1961 because two students in Portugal raised their glasses in a bar for freedom, and they were arrested immediately and put in prison. So that was under a dictatorship. So, um, it's a very important organization that's raising awareness about the Declaration of Human Rights. So thank you for doing your part as well.
[02:06:10] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. I guess you can go now. Thanks. But you're welcome to stay. All right, we're moving on to the consent calendar. All items are approved with one motion unless items are pulled for discussion. Vice Mayor Cox.
[02:06:26] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: I'd like to pull item 3M, which is action on recommendations from Governance and Ethics Committee for updates to Council Policy 043, Official Travel by City Council Members.
[02:06:40] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right, thank you. Uh, Councilmember Chahal.
[02:06:43] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Uh, Madam Mayor, I'll have to recuse on item number 3H, action on agreement with BKF Engineers for design professional services for Central Santa Clara bicycle pedestrian and green stormwater improvement project. This is close to my property, so I'll have to recuse on that particular item.
[02:07:05] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Did you say 3H? 3H, right. Okay, very good. City Clerk, you have that? Okay. Um, Councilmember Jain.
[02:07:10] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Yes, I would like to... I would like to pull item 4B, the Stadium Authority financial report for the quarter ending September 30th.
[02:07:25] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay. And I would like to pull 3N, which is action on recommendations from Governance and Ethics Committee for updates to Council Policy for City Commissions, Boards and Committees for attendance at conferences and training events. Okay. Um, do we have any members of the public that would like to discuss and pull any items for discussion? Okay, seeing none. Councilmember Hardy.
[02:08:00] Councilmember Karen Hardy: I'll make a motion to approve the balance of the consent calendar.
[02:08:04] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Second.
[02:08:05] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay, we have a motion by Councilmember Hardy and a second to approve the balance of the consent calendar. Please register your vote. And that passes... Oh, unanimously. Oh, I couldn't see it over there. All right, thank you. Um, okay, we're going to move now to public presentations. Do we have any members of the public that would like to make a public presentation? I think we have one, right? For sure? Oh, we have two. Okay. Brian, please come forward, Brian.
[02:08:49] Brian Darby: There you go. Thanks. Um, first of all, uh, this is mainly to wish you all a very happy holiday. And uh, we're heading into... hope I'm... like I said, I hope I'm wrong, but I think we're heading into a very, very rough time next year. Um, this year has been... (laughs)... not a very good year for a lot of people. So I just wanted to remind people, I was going to read this, but it's called "The Patience of Ordinary Things." I recommend you look it up. It's by Pat Schneider. And it's a beautiful poem, just about being thankful for the ordinary things in life. I sent you each a Christmas uh, card, and I thought instead of negative agreements where things where I disagree with you, find out something that each of you said that you agree that you accomplished this year. And remind that because this is a holiday season where you renew new things and you look at the year in retrospect. So thank you and have a happy holiday and happy New Year.
[02:10:23] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Um, Kurt? Oh, Council Vice Mayor Cox, did you have something?
[02:10:25] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: I just wanted to thank you Brian for continuing to be here and tell you happy holidays as well.
[02:10:29] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: It's very nice. Okay. Kurt. Come forward please.
[02:10:34] Kirk Vartan: Actually if you... if you wouldn't mind... I would like to also thank Mr. Darby for your continued presence here, and thank you very much for the letter that you sent. Thank you.
[02:10:45] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right, Kurt.
[02:10:46] Kirk Vartan: Uh, good evening Mayor and Council. First I'd like to thank you for uh, being patient with me to continually bombard you with Agrihood information. And so I just want to... it doesn't go unnoticed, so thank you for being patient. Um, I'd like to just uh, continue to raise awareness that Agrihood was a community project, focuses from the community, ideas from the community, and it is for the community, and it serves a real need for leadership. And it was definitely not easy, but let's review just some of the things that were already presented. One, you have the actual proposal that was agreed to by the developer. Uh, we have uh, the opportunity for an all affordable like they did in Oakland with The Phoenix. Uh, a um, assisted living project which would be similar to like Belmont Village or something like that which could help be a holistic uh thing and round out for the entire site including um some of the seniors that might be there. And I want to just throw out another idea for consideration. And that is how can we use the space today? And again, this space is going to be here in the future, so it's not going anywhere. But we heard last Council meeting there was a lot of pickleball uh excitement and enthusiasm. So I would like to lean into that a little bit and say, okay, well what if we use Fred Kent's ideas of lighter, quicker, cheaper, and we try and actually utilize and create spaces for people in the community? So, um, we've heard the construction costs are really expensive right now which is why they can't do a multi-unit apartment building. So why don't we just wait a little bit, but use the space in the meantime? Uh, Core wants to be good stewards, I think this is a way to do it, show some goodwill and show some some good stuff. So, I took the opportunity to say, well, what would 1.7 acres look like if you actually turn it into a pickleball things? This has... this shows an example of what eight pickleball courts... Now, this is actually to scale. It's it's not the exact configuration because there aren't roads surrounding it, but there is a road on one side. Uh, but this shows it even has the community kitchen uh outdoors, it has a lot of gathering spaces. This has eight pickleball courts. You could reduce it, you could increase it, uh but it provides a lot of uh circulation and space for the community, for the residents. The you have townhomes to the uh west, you have 36 townhomes to the west, you have 165 senior apartments to the south, uh you have the urban farm to the right, and you have the entire community uh in San Jose and Santa Clara around it that could take advantage of a space like this. So, if you kind of push that in a little bit deeper, and what does it look like if you kind of laid that in there? Again, it's it's not perfect so don't hold me to uh actual specific things, but just think about what this might look like if you had something like this leaning into the kind of visionary um ideas for what Agrihood stands for. And there is money that Agrihood has generated uh that could pay for a lot of the construction of this and then maintenance ongoing. So thank you very much for listening.
[02:13:50] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. And boy, the pickleball contingent would have been loved... happy to see that. Okay, thank you. Um, we have 2669. Is online 2669. Unmute yourself.
[02:14:09] James Rowen: Yes, good evening. My name is James Rowen. I wish everyone on the City Council, city staff, and people of Santa Clara happy holidays. One of the legendary things that Dennis Dowling did as a teacher in Santa Clara was to bring us back to read John Muir. And as you know, John Muir's great book, The Yosemite, ended by his love affair with Hetch Hetchy Valley, which was dammed. He ended the book by saying, "Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well as dam for water tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has been consecrated by the heart of man." And now we see that children's playgrounds are going to be considered for parking lots for Super Bowls. Shall we now close children's libraries and children's schools for sports betting casinos? Children's libraries and children's playgrounds are for children to learn to read by using children's books. By the way, children's books should not be used as political tools, Mr. Park. And schools should be for children to play. By the way, Mr. Jain, uh, substitute teachers do work. And by the way, one of the first thing authoritarian governments do is keep records private and attack people for making them public. Have a good evening. God bless you all. And do reappoint Burt Field. Thank you.
Segment 4
[02:15:00] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Anybody want to speak? Now is your time. Anyone else? City Clerk? No. All right. We're going to move on but I'm going to move it around a little bit. The three or four consent items I'm going to take after the public hearing on the rate increase for the electric utility. I'm going to take them after six.
[02:15:24] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So we're going to go on with item number five which is Action Authorizing the City Manager to Negotiate and Execute a License Agreement for Property Use of the Youth Soccer Park and its facilities and adjacent parking lots between the City of Santa Clara and the National Football League for Super Bowl 60 Operational Support. City Manager.
[02:15:45] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. Thank you Mayor, thank you members of council, Jōvan Grogan, City Manager. We're here to talk about the potential use of the Youth Soccer Park during Super Bowl. Use of our Youth Soccer Park has a long and storied history. I think we all know that after Super Bowl 50 there was notice that it was necessary for the sod to be replaced and there was damage and that was replaced.
Segment 3
[02:15:48] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Do we have anyone else? Any other members of the public that would like to speak for public presentations? Seeing none, we will close public presentations and bring it back to the Council.
Segment 4
[02:16:18] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And so what you'll hear tonight is a proposal to utilize the Youth Soccer Park but frankly in keeping with Council's guiding principles to make sure that there are specific benefits to the Santa Clara community and our youth, we approached this with eyes wide open and are really happy to report that the proposal before you does not create any damage to the Youth Soccer Parks and in fact has a community benefit attached to it over $1.2 million.
[02:16:44] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And so we will outline the terms of that as well as there are individuals from the NFL's architect and operations team that are online tonight to support our conversations and with that we have Damon Sparacino, the City's Park and Recreation Director that will take us through this item. Damon.
[02:17:05] Damon Sparacino: Thank you City Manager and Madam Mayor and Councilmembers. Damon Sparacino, Parks and Recreation Director. As mentioned by the City Manager, it's a long title but we're here to look at negotiating a potential license agreement with the NFL for use of the Youth Soccer Park to support some Super Bowl operations.
[02:17:30] Damon Sparacino: The background of this was, is obvious, you'd have to be living under a rock to know that the NFL is hosting, or not know that the NFL is hosting the Super Bowl this year or coming year in Santa Clara on February 8th. Earlier this year, in and around the July timeframe, the NFL notified the City of its interest in licensing City-owned facilities to support Super Bowl operations.
[02:18:05] Damon Sparacino: That request, they requested facilities include portions of Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park, its facilities and parking areas and property to the North of the Yellow Lot, which are anticipated to fall within the Super Bowl security perimeter. So, as the licensed space is located within the Super Bowl security perimeter, the NFL requires exclusive access of that licensed space during the timeframe of January 5th through February 22nd.
[02:18:43] Damon Sparacino: To manage the exclusive use period, as well as to address Super Bowl 50 concerns, or concerns that were born out of hosting Super Bowl 50, as well as to meet the community's needs, City staff engaged in discussions with local youth soccer groups and the NFL between August and December of 2025 to discuss field scheduling, impacts, and solutions.
[02:19:10] Damon Sparacino: It's important also to note that due to issues from Super Bowl 50, the NFL was hesitant to utilize and the City was hesitant to engage in a utilization of the Youth Soccer Park for such support services. The initial proposals called for no use of the playing field surfaces. The proposals also ranged from utilizing the fields with installation of temporary protective pads and then all of this was to ensure that no damage was done to the facility.
[02:19:44] Damon Sparacino: However the discussions initially also centered around facility rental for the use of YSP rather than a community benefit. And as the City Manager teed up earlier, we were really looking at how we can engage and partner with different entities to bring real community benefit out of opportunities such as this.
[02:20:04] Damon Sparacino: So ultimately staff and the NFL arrived at the proposed plan that we're presenting tonight that includes the use of soccer fields 2 and 3 in exchange for a community benefit, as mentioned by the City Manager, project at the Youth Soccer Park worth an estimated $1.25 million.
[02:20:25] Damon Sparacino: So as part of the agreement, the City and the NFL needed to identify what is referred to in the staff report and in the presentation tonight as Licensed Space. So the diagram up on the screen right now outlines the licensed space that's relative to the Tasman Garage, also known as Yellow Lot 1, as the City's ground leased parcels with related Santa Clara former Yellow Lots 2 and 3 are already being used by the NFL for event operations.
[02:20:59] Damon Sparacino: The NFL also requested the City's permission to use the property to the North of these parcels which are shown here in the red outlined area. They're currently vacant and open and includes the former tennis courts and other vacant lots. Included in the licensed space is also, as mentioned, the Youth Soccer Park.
[02:21:23] Damon Sparacino: And one thing to note with the diagram that's up before you this evening is that the licensed space pertaining to the Youth Soccer Park has been revised and now encompasses the entire area including formally redacted field number 2. As now, through further discussions, field number 2 will be used to support the media and support services rather than field number 1.
[02:21:50] Damon Sparacino: And field number 3 will be used only for a short period of time at the final run up to the Super Bowl for their halftime show rehearsals. The use of the field 2 will mitigate hopefully any damage to the grass fields. And also enable the City to continually maintain the two grass fields, 1 and 3, throughout the entire exclusive use period, so that when the NFL vacates the property the youth groups can get right back in and playing.
[02:22:28] Damon Sparacino: Additionally, the parking lots and buildings within the licensed space will be used to support event staff vehicle parking and everything else. And although the Youth Soccer Park field 1 is included in the licensed space as you see it before you, it's not planned for being used for any Super Bowl logistics.
[02:22:52] Damon Sparacino: As a consideration for the license and use of these facilities, the NFL will provide a community benefit improvement at the Youth Soccer Park consisting of the replacement of all sprinkler heads and the natural soccer field turf areas on both fields 1 and 3 for an estimated value of $1.2 million.
[02:23:13] Damon Sparacino: The estimated values were helped out with between our staff and the City engineering staff. And the field 1's replacement is approximately 118,000 square feet and that comes to $637,000. And then the field 3 is approximately 102,000 square feet and comes to $550,000 and some change.
[02:23:50] Damon Sparacino: Additionally, the natural turf fields 1 and 3 that you see up here on the screen or referred to were last conditioned or replaced after Super Bowl 50 in 2016. The fields are due for replacement and refurbishment including soil thatching to improve drainage, reduce soil compaction, and support overall turf health, root growth, and turf regeneration given the intensive annual soccer field use.
[02:24:23] Damon Sparacino: However, the cost of soil thatching substantially exceeds the fair value of the proposed NFL use of the licensed space when considered in addition to the other community benefits proposed. Therefore the City is currently exploring funding options to cover the soil thatching component of the natural grass fields to pretty much complement the replacement of the fields and the sprinklers to an estimated half million dollars.
[02:24:55] Damon Sparacino: So additionally, during the youth user group meetings, some other things were requested. So some of the user groups asked if there's any way we can get or have the NFL replace either the synthetic turf or field 1 turf for synthetic. And unfortunately synthetic turf replacement is cost and time prohibitive, comes with additional sustainability issues, and isn't due to be replaced for another three to five years based on its life cycle.
[02:25:34] Damon Sparacino: However, another additional request through all of the meetings with the youth user groups was, could we also replace or look at replacing the dugouts that are at all the three fields? We have player, coach, and referee dugouts that look kind of professional, make the stadium feel even that much nicer for the kids that are playing in it. If you watch, you know, any English Premier League or professional soccer game you're going to see professional players sitting under similar dugouts, so it's kind of a cool feeling and thing for the kids.
[02:26:13] Damon Sparacino: Those were estimated at about $64,000 and although the NFL couldn't make it pencil for the synthetic turf, they did agree to provide the dugouts. So, I wanted to talk about, you know, what kind of funding we have and what kind of projects we have in line for the Youth Soccer Park. So, capital replacement of the Youth Soccer Park fields and facilities can only be funded through either MFA fees, General Fund, and possibly Measure I bond dollars.
[02:27:04] Damon Sparacino: Receiving the community benefit to rehabilitate the natural grass fields helps the City extend and or otherwise leverage these other funds that I'm mentioning to take care of other extensive list of unfunded capital projects both at YSP as well as located throughout the rest of the City. And I took the liberty of grabbing our current funding available in those different funding opportunities.
[02:27:37] Damon Sparacino: So current MFA balance is about $10.7 million. We currently have between years '24 and '26, $13.8 million allocated for other projects including Maywood, ISC, as we presented a gap funding last week to Council, Central Park Entrance and Access Project, which will be coming before Council tomorrow evening in fact, Earl Carmichael, and Mary Gomez.
[02:28:07] Damon Sparacino: And then currently, although we can't use Quimby, I wanted to since I was giving everybody an update on the other funding opportunities for parks, I thought I'd throw in the fact that Quimby currently has a balance of $4 million, of which $1 million is currently allocated towards Warburton Park rehabilitation project. And as everybody knows, we've been talking a lot about Measure I. There are $18 million set aside in Measure I that aren't already otherwise allocated specifically for projects that are generally set aside for aged park buildings and infrastructure projects that are either in poor or critical condition.
[02:28:50] Damon Sparacino: As part of the project and mentioned earlier in the introduction, we met or staff met with the youth soccer groups. We began meeting with the groups, you know, when we tried to meet with them as early as possible. We were notified in late June that the NFL had an interest but wanted to meet on site. Met the NFL one of the first two weeks in July and then had a meeting with the youth soccer groups in my office the first week in August. So within a month of knowing for sure that the NFL wanted to use these spaces, we tried to engage the youth groups and talk through how we were going to try to mitigate working with them and the NFL to see if we can find alternative space.
[02:29:45] Damon Sparacino: We analyzed and when I say we, my staff, they did an outstanding job and before I forget I want to say thank you to Marlon Cruz and Angelique Wilson for all the work that they did not just on this but also meeting with the groups throughout this process. They analyzed historic programming and field demand. We also talked about researching alternative field solutions outside of the City, neighboring cities. We were coming up short, some people didn't do their allocations yet and just like us they give first dibs or rights to their resident users.
[02:30:29] Damon Sparacino: And then as we've heard with our swim teams, you know, they have to drive miles and miles to go swimming and we thought to ourselves what a bummer to say that hey we got you covered but you gotta drive 20 miles to go get a soccer practice in. So staff quickly pivoted from that and looked again internally at what we can do with our own field space. With that being said, they looked at how they can increase programming hours and times and days at Reed and Grant. They also looked at activating Marsalli and Fatjo fields that have lights that will help with the short daylight hours for practice during these times.
[02:31:08] Damon Sparacino: And then we again met with the user groups. It seemed like a little late but we kept up with our normal cadence for our January through June field allocations. So we met in November. I went out there personally as well to thank the staff and the groups for working with us on this and that we were there to do our best to meet their needs. Of course all of this was with the goal as mentioned to minimize the disruption and the impacts to the youth user groups, especially during that downtime of the Super Bowl.
[02:31:50] Damon Sparacino: Ultimately staff was able to identify those spaces, we had the meeting, and we substantially provided the same and or historic services relative to at least the practice fields which is one synthetic field but with lights. So again thank you to our staff. In addition to finding solutions for this first round, we also had to look at how are we going to mitigate the replacement of the fields. We know that that's coming in June, July, September, August timeframe.
[02:32:39] Damon Sparacino: So in order to do that we're looking forward at researching alternative field solutions. We're currently, again since we've made it through what we believe the first round is in supporting the license agreement, we have to start looking and coordinating with the groups. One of the things was originally the plan was to redo the fields directly after the Super Bowl. And when I asked the groups I said, does that work for you? And to a T they all said no, that's like right in the middle of our season.
[02:33:18] Damon Sparacino: And so I said tell me what works best for you. What works best for you? And they said the middle of the summer like June timeframe when they have either the end of the season, they have a little bit of a break for the summer or then they either have a tournament season or a lull. So we had to go back to the NFL with that. That also gave rise to why we switched from use of field 1 to field 2, the synthetic, and that we're trying our best to keep fields 1 and 3 playable and as well as mediate the impacts on field 2 with the cover which we'll talk about a little later.
[02:33:54] Damon Sparacino: So as mentioned earlier, I worked and staff worked with the attorney's office to come up with the term sheet and agreement. The real purpose of this was to create a backstop and a protection for the City and to really put some things in place to help us mitigate the field use, the protection of the fields, to get the kids back into play as soon as possible and then also how to best implement a true community benefit on the back end.
[02:34:25] Damon Sparacino: So with that, the term sheet that's out was created to summarize the principal terms of the proposed license agreement. As mentioned earlier we had two updates to the term sheet. One is the licensed area. Before we weren't going to use field 2, later figured we'd best be used field 2 and then keep fields 1 and 3 as little impact as possible so that when this is all over, if field 2 comes out good with the measures that are being put in place by the NFL and their production teams, that we'll be able to have the kids back on those fields as soon as possible after the Super Bowl.
[02:35:06] Damon Sparacino: Additionally, based on adding field 2 and not knowing what the impacts will be to that, we added extended liquidated damages. So initially we built in some liquidated damages for the refurbishment of fields 1 and 3 but we also expanded the liquidated damages to include the ability to have the fields all, 1 through 3 fields, playable at the time the NFL turns it over to us after the Super Bowl. So we added another clause for LDs at that timeframe.
[02:35:42] Damon Sparacino: The parties are finalizing the form of the license agreement consistent with terms outlined in the presentation. The agreement includes the City's standard license requirements including indemnity, insurance and warranties. The agreement defines the licensed areas, I think we've kind of covered those through the presentation. Again it's the areas near Yellow Lot and then pretty much all of YSP. It also talks about the timeframe which is January through February and then it also outlines the improved period specific to the timeframe that would be best suit our youth user groups.
[02:36:30] Damon Sparacino: Additionally, as seen on the screen here, we've got the permitted uses that are within the license areas. Those permitted uses include broadcast compound, halftime show rehearsal, compounds for the green rooms, NFL operation support compound, all in connection with the Super Bowl. The other thing that's added as part of the term sheet that we wanted to lift up for Council is in the event that we're required to relocate again and we aren't able to mitigate it with our own fields in that June to September timeframe, that the NFL would agree to work with us to try to leverage partnerships that they have as well as help reimburse the City for up to $15,000 for any kind of expenses that are incurred to you know offset the movement of those teams to other facilities that the cities don't control.
[02:37:36] Damon Sparacino: The other community benefits have been discussed before but they're the refurbishment of fields 1 and 2 as well as the dugouts. In addition, the term sheet outlines liquidated damages as I mentioned before. I kind of went into it a little deep on the explanation of adding that to the current round but we have it both in place or will have it both in place for the initial return of the fields in late February as well as the expectation relative to 90 days work being completed on the replacement of fields 1 and 3 during that June through September timeframe.
[02:38:19] Damon Sparacino: Additionally, we have warranty language that helps the City. The NFL will warrant all improvement work for one year after it's done. So that's on the quality and health of the turf up to one year after it's been placed at the Youth Soccer Park. And then lastly under the condition, use, and restoration, the NFL is required to maintain licensed space in good condition while they're using it and repair any damage caused by NFL or its contractors both during the use of it during Super Bowl as well as during the repair stage.
[02:38:54] Damon Sparacino: Here we just wanted to pull a couple of shots and talk about the protections that are going to be put in place for the synthetic field. So in the last 10 years many products have been introduced and or improved in the stadium and turf protection market such as the products pictured here before you. The NFL is working with a production company by the name of BAM for the turf management system and they will be using the Matrix flooring system protect the Youth Soccer Park field number 2.
[02:39:28] Damon Sparacino: And according to BAM and Matrix website, the flooring system was engineered to support a range of large stadium events and designed for a wide range of other applications including stadium turf protection, tent and outdoor event flooring, temporary pedestrian walkways, work platforms, staging areas, and temporary parking lots, hardscaping protection, industrial uses, and ADA compliant access.
[02:40:01] Damon Sparacino: Field number two as mentioned earlier will have a majority of the media support services housed within the Youth Soccer Park. This along with the parking lot and buildings will be the main point of support use and focus during the production and lead up to Super Bowl. Field number three will only be used for halftime show rehearsal production and it will also be used for shorter duration. So it's usually about a 12 day period when we were going back and forth talking about rentals or use, they needed the rehearsals about 12 day run up. So whenever we see those in the future at Super Bowl we'll know how much goes into them.
[02:40:41] Damon Sparacino: With that being said, I wanted to leave Council tonight with a brief summary. You know we're going to have security perimeter impacts based on the NFL's needs and use of Levi's Stadium during leading up to and through the Super Bowl. We've worked with the user groups and the NFL to hear and mitigate as many of the issues we could think of. Field space, also the other thing we heard a lot of is the actual condition in which the fields were left after Super Bowl 50.
[02:41:20] Damon Sparacino: So shifting the majority of the support services to the synthetic field with a field protection and mitigating or minimizing the use of fields 1 and 3 to produce the overall support services and getting the kids back in not just the facility but a playable facility as soon as possible is both the goal of the City and the NFL in this agreement. And then also mentioning and reminding the substantial inject of $1.2 million for the refurbishment of those fields.
[02:41:58] Damon Sparacino: We don't currently have any capital projects either designed or set aside or funded for the Youth Soccer Park and anytime the City can get $1.2 million in either real money or in-kind services to help you know maintain or improve our infrastructure to help offset all the dollars we don't have and all the projects we need to complete is a blessing. So with that, I'm going to leave you Council with a recommendation. It's really long so I'm going to leave it up on the screen for a minute, give you a chance to read it.
[02:42:33] Damon Sparacino: And then we'll make ourselves available for questions. As mentioned by the City Manager we have some NFL production operations staff available to answer questions about how to mitigate or how they're going to go about mitigating the field damage or having no damage on field number two, general use of the facility, and staff will also be available for questions.
[02:43:45] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. I have a few questions here. We're going to start with Vice Mayor Cox.
[02:43:50] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Thank you Director Sparacino. So yeah, a few questions and again I appreciate that you guys have confidence that this is an agreement that's going to protect our city asset. I want to understand first of all this $1.3 million community benefit is a guaranteed minimum or it's an estimate right now? So there's no concrete numbers. So if this value comes with some post-project cost reconciliation, I'm wondering if we fall under 1.3 is there any way to true up to that number to assure that we get our full benefit for the community?
[02:44:38] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: I think another piece that would be important in that since it is an estimate, we have said no to the $500,000 it's going to cost for the soil thatching. I want to know how we can push back to get that because essentially you're putting new turf on aged infrastructure. And so in a few years if that doesn't work out, we are left with that. Again I don't see that we have a third party or contractors that we're working with, this is all up to the NFL to give us their estimates and push back so I want to know what protections we're putting in place to assure that the inspection and certification of the work is acceptable to the City.
[02:45:24] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: The use period right now is as well seven week long. And so we've got an estimated $15,000 in displacement for the teams. I think in Silicon Valley with the likelihood that, I think I heard you say in here that the teams did not want to do the reconstructive work in between the Super Bowl and FIFA, they opted to do it at the end. But if the fields are not usable or something goes wrong in between that period, you've estimated $15,000 which would then go into potentially three seasons of use.
[02:46:00] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: So how did we come up with that $15,000 number and what happens when we're well over that for the displacement of our teams? Again I asked about the NFL retaining control over the contractor selection and why the City wouldn't want to be involved with that. It sounds like we're still exploring public funding for soil remediation because that's not going to fall into our agreement here but I want to know how public dollars will not then subsidize an NFL event. And I'm happy that Parks and Rec met with the people. I'd like to know a little bit about what user groups you met with and the frequency of that to make sure that we have a representation of all user groups for the field. Thank you.
[02:46:20] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Hardy.
[02:46:25] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Thank you. Um, I, you alluded to a few things so I just want to make certain I'm really clear and the public is clear. That because the parks are within, the Youth Soccer Park is within the security perimeter, even if we didn't approve this, no one could be on those fields during that time because it's within the perimeter. If I'm understanding that correctly. And also that we need to replace the sod already and if we did not approve this we would have fields we'd have to replace the sod on for over a million and we don't have that.
[02:47:09] Councilmember Karen Hardy: You have found alternative fields for them. Now you mentioned something about the thatching. I was surprised that you would need thatching on new fields. I wanted to understand that. Maybe I didn't get that right. And I do appreciate you explained the timeframe, that was the biggest question I had as I read the report of when would this be done. And I will tell you that the turf protection system, this is what the school district has bought for their football field and we put that out there and use that with all the students and graduation and not had any problems and so I'm very familiar with that turf protection system and it works quite well. Thank you.
[02:47:55] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Chahal.
[02:48:00] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Thank you Mayor. Thank you for the presentation, Director. And first of all I think we learned our lesson when International Swim Center was down, our communication with the groups was really really bad. And I appreciate you taking the initiative that communication with the youth groups who were the stakeholders, youth soccer group, is taken care of from the very beginning and I appreciate that.
[02:48:26] Councilmember Raj Chahal: So my question starts with that only. I know you had detailed discussion with all the Youth Soccer Park stakeholders who are using the fields right now. Are they on board for whatever you're talking about, what you are presenting us today, are they on board with all the plans, uses of the field with cut off from June to September and uses in between after the Super Bowl? So are they on board everything or are there any differences still between the youth soccer stakeholders and our plans? So I just want to make sure we are all on the same page.
[02:49:09] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Second thing is field number two. I know that was not in the agenda and we didn't find it that was secluded that it will not be used, now that we are trying to use it. So why aren't we, why should not we explore the rental of those that particular field and with the caveat that it will be fully protected with the arrangements they are trying to do but they still be using that field and we should be getting some rental and that rental can basically help us for the thatching of soil changes, whatever wording you are using for the field number one and three. So I would say that we should be negotiating some rental value for the field number two basically.
[02:50:04] Councilmember Raj Chahal: And next question is, now City is trying to do half a million part of a job of thatching of soil, changing the soil or whatever process you are doing, and then the sod replacement is part of the NFL responsibility basically. Who will coordinate that two parts because there are two parts of that process. Who will coordinate that process so that it's smooth enough there are no legal issues that one should not tell them others hey yeah this is not our fault this happened because of the other issue or this is not my fault it happened because of the other issue. Who will coordinate that and what are the legal terms so that we are out of that bind that nobody should be held responsible at our side for doing that basically. So those are my questions and that's it.
[02:51:00] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Jain.
[02:51:05] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Yeah, I wanted to understand the impacts on Measure R of the use of these fields. And my understanding is that there has been the use of these fields by an outside group before, I think it was BFC. Can you explain the arrangement that was done for BFC for using the fields? And then it sounds like they might be putting like some offices on field number two. I know they're putting down this Matrix flooring system, where I think you said they can actually even park cars on Matrix flooring. So I believe that the Matrix flooring is sturdy enough to support trailers and tents and all of the things that they're using. So that's my questions. Thank you.
[02:52:05] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Gonzalez.
[02:52:10] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: Um as far as replacement, how often do we replace the the turf fields? I think the grass fields I'm talking about. I think the turf fields are I think 10 or 15 years but what about the grass fields, are they typically replaced in some cycle as well? And um as far as the um insurance, it looks like they have an aggregate number in the contract that we got this afternoon of $10 million. Do you see that as being adequate in case something happens with that middle field that is not uh we're not looking at you know getting any benefit or any replacement cost for that in case something were to happen with that field? Um and uh just one thing else. Kind of in line with what Councilmember Chahal mentioned as far as you know it doesn't seem like there's any more community benefit um even though we're using that second field versus the original intention to use fields one and three. Um is there any possibility of getting anything else that can help us with that thatching half million dollar cost?
[02:53:30] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Um, I have some comments and a bunch of questions. So first of all, I just want to address something fundamental about how this agreement is being presented to the Council. You're calling the field replacement a $1.3 million community benefit, but I want to be very clear, destroying our fields and then rebuilding them is not a benefit, it's mitigation for the damage that they're causing. So what we have actually here is a minimum obligation for damaging the property. When I think of community benefit, I think about something above and beyond replacing what you've damaged. So I don't know why we continue to call it a community benefit.
[02:54:12] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Um, when we were working on the agreement for Super Bowl 50, uh, the NFL said they were going to use our fields for halftime show rehearsals, just like they are now. Um, it ended up being an entire media village. The entire thing was a media village. And they put down protective covering over all the fields and they created and built an actual village. When they, you know, when they removed the all of the protective covering, every field was was completely destroyed including the middle field. So I just and all the all the seating areas and everything else was completely destroyed.
[02:54:57] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: And so I'm wondering why, well first of all, now walking in to tonight I thought we were talking about one and three, now we're talking about the whole park. And there's a reason they're including it because I don't know how if they used three fields for a media village, how we're now, they're saying they're only going to use one field. I don't believe that. Why would you go into one field when you last time Super Bowl 50 was three fields? So are we putting in the agreement that that's what they're, you know, committing to, they only use one field or is it open? So that's that's a question I have.
[02:55:49] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Um, the soccer groups sued the NFL in 2016 uh to stop them from coming onto the field and the soccer groups lost. But I have to say the way everything worked out because the eyes of the world uh because of all the media attention was on this soccer park. The NFL came in and they replaced everything. It wasn't just sod, they replaced the artificial turf, they replaced everything, the the bench areas and they left the park in better condition than we gave it to them. So again there was a lot of pressure and a lot of accountability from the City on that.
[02:56:35] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So when I when I look at this, I see now that this middle field, the synthetic turf field is now in play. I think that's a game changer for us because um a Super Bowl media compound includes broadcasting trucks that are very heavy, generators and power equipment, they build temporary structure tents and anchoring systems, they have scaffolding with lighting rigs, and there will be constant vehicles on and off for the seven weeks that they have it. Um, there will be heavy foot traffic from, you know, hundreds of media people, maybe even more. And the field, the synthetic field was built for youth soccer use, not this type of use.
[02:57:25] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So what we're looking at, we could, the the layers could be the base layers can be compacted afterwards, the the um turf itself could be torn or punctured, uh the infill displaced, the seam separations, draining system damage, sub-base failure. What this means for us is that even though at the end of the day it may look good, it may be unsafe for our children to use. We might have failed drainage, uneven surfaces, and compromised cushioning which could lead to injuries for the players.
[02:57:59] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So are we going to get a professional, you know, third party to inspect it before and inspect it after? Because with that heavy use there's going to be damage and history is a guide for that. So I want to talk about that. Um, I have a few more questions. Okay. So why did the proposal change from the one field to or the two fields to the three fields? So I want to know that. Um, and because this third, the middle field, the synthetic field is now in play, did you modify the agreement to make sure that if that is damaged and, you know, what efforts we're going to go through, if that's damaged, how the NFL is going to pay to replace that.
[02:58:58] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Um, uh, okay. The 500,000 for thatching, I they should be paying for that, honestly. Um, let me see here. So I didn't see field two explicitly included in the licensed agreement but we just got an email I think it was today on the license agreement, say it's been all um negotiated and approved, not by us but by staff so, but that didn't include unless I didn't have chance to read it, did that include field two in there? And what protections do we have for the replacement of field two?
[02:59:40] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Um, so the use period is for seven weeks and then the the work period is from June to September. But that would be around the same time of um World Cup. So if we're going to take soccer park offline for World Cup that doesn't make sense.
Segment 5
[03:00:00] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: ...prior to World Cup at Soccer Park. But what if, I think Vice Mayor Cox might have asked this, what if the fields are destroyed, which I suspect they're going to be, after Super Bowl and they have to be replaced, you know, right away? What would be the timeline if that were the case?
[03:00:25] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So I'm looking at any kind of pre-inspection for the entire site, not just the middle field, but especially the middle field. And then who's going to be on-site? Who's going to make sure that the NFL complies with what they said they're going to do on the Soccer Park? And if that's in our license agreement and they say, 'Okay, the middle field is just for media,' then, you know, there's a good chance we're going to get a replacement of that middle field if it's just the media village. But are they going to blend into those other fields as well?
[03:00:59] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So, um, who's going to enforce that or make sure, at least monitor it from the city during this seven-week period? The agreement says the city shall be the sole judge as to the condition of the material. How does the city make this determination of the material that's going to go on the parks?
[03:01:24] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right. Mainly my concern is Field 2, because that just changes this whole thing now. Field 2. Um, pre-inspection, after inspection. And then going to the youth groups that have been displaced on Soccer Park. You mentioned Marsalli Park and Bob Fatjo Field, which is Central Park, but those are licensed and they're used by softball. So how are we going to get soccer on there?
[03:01:59] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: And it's my understanding that Reed & Grant is pretty full. So how are we going to take all the uses of all the kids, children that use Soccer Park and put them into Reed & Grant that's already full or Marsalli and Central Park that already have their license for softball? So what specific sites are we putting the displaced soccer groups on?
[03:02:29] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: And we're getting, uh, we're receiving up to $15,000 for displacement? I don't know what the $15,000 is for. And so how are we going to make these soccer groups whole? First of all, what spaces specifically are we providing them, specifically? And if they have to go out and rent spaces for months, $15,000 is, is, you know, it's just a drop in the bucket.
[03:03:22] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay, get all those? Thank you. And I might think of more later. All right, Councilmember Park.
[03:03:38] Councilmember Kevin Park: Actually, I was gonna talk about the benefits of the fields needing renovation anyway, and that's going to be done. I realized I wanted to talk about the fact that NFL has left the fields better than they were when they started before, and that we could probably do that, but I realized I don't really have any questions. You can explain that better than I could. Thank you.
[03:04:08] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. Um, thank you Mayor, thank you Council. Lots of questions, and I think we can facilitate through all of them and have appropriate responses. Again, we do have representatives from the NFL's architect and operations team online and I think they can certainly talk about the operational plans and the temporary protection pads.
[03:04:39] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: So I'll hope to facilitate these, but first I think it's also important to back up before we go forward. I think that there's certainly, everyone walked into this recognizing that there was concerns around how the fields were damaged after Super Bowl 50, and we really wanted to ensure that if we were bringing a proposal to the City Council we had appropriate mitigations in place and had fully thought it through. I want to say that we certainly believe that we have.
[03:05:28] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Important to note, um, how the proposal initially came. I just want to repeat that. These fields are going to be within the secure perimeter, right? The NFL has no conditions in the bid to provide for relocation of those soccer groups and so we certainly knew that no matter what there would be a period where our community would be impacted. Certainly in your guiding principles there was, um, there is a provision that says seek direct and specific benefits to the community including youth.
[03:06:04] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And so when we were first approached with the option to lease Youth Soccer Park, there was not a proposal to use the playable surfaces. In fact, there was only a concept to use the parking lot, the building, and some accessory spaces around the playable field in exchange for a lease agreement. That does not have articulated benefits to the youth, right?
[03:06:30] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And so we also talked to the Parks and Rec Department and also realized that the fields, the natural turf fields in particular, are in need of replacement. We do not have funds set aside for that. And so we entered into discussions around, okay, well what would enhanced use look like and discussed the community benefit.
[03:06:55] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Important to note, I know it was mentioned in the staff report, that if we were simply to do a standard lease on the facilities, that would be for the entire time period around $400,000. The calculated benefit is over $1.2 million, and I know that there was a question about, Councilmember Hardy, around the estimate around that, and we will get to that.
[03:07:24] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: So first let's talk, go through the questions with regard to Councilmember Cox. Mentioned that there is no guaranteed amount and this is just a minimum and not an estimate. Important to note that the way this agreement is structured, the NFL would undertake the sod replacement. That is a typical structure for us where we enter into an agreement where a private entity would undertake work on a public facility, they have to do that with prevailing wage, and we certainly have inspections of that work.
[03:07:57] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And so we valued the amount of this work at $1.2 million for the sod replacement, but whether it's over or above that, the NFL are doing that at their cost. We do not have any public dollars at stake for that. In addition, during the negotiations, we asked to replace the dugouts and that was done.
[03:08:24] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Next, I want to address a number of questions with regard to Field 2, right? Important to note that when this proposal, and in the packet it did talk about fields 1 and 3. I think the Mayor talked about what happened in Super Bowl 50, which is pads were put down, but when those pads were removed, the turf was brown, right?
[03:08:47] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: When we first started this conversation, the NFL said, 'Okay, we will agree to replace the fields, we'll do it. And frankly, you tell us, do you want to do it right after Super Bowl or later on?' And so it was initially thought of that we would lay down the temporary pads, yes the turf would be brown, and that we would do the replacement.
[03:09:07] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: In talking to the youth groups, they said, 'You know what? We want to get on there as soon as possible and our preferred time period is that June through September period.' And so what that caused us to rethink is, okay, well how can we actually right after make sure that all three fields are playable? And that's where the concept of no longer utilizing any of the natural grass turfs for heavy use and only utilizing Field 2, the synthetic turf.
[03:09:40] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: That way, to accomplish the goal of the clubs, after Super Bowl, the protective pads can be removed from Field 2 and all three surfaces are playable. The current proposal calls for no use on the playable surfaces of Field 1 and halftime practice on Field 3.
[03:10:00] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: There was another question of who will be monitoring this work during the seven-week period? That will be your city staff that maintain this facility. We had that discussion with the NFL and they were very clear, 'Hey, you know what, we want you there. You know these fields. We want to make sure that these grass surfaces are playable right after we're gone, so you maintain it.'
[03:10:19] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: It's also worth noting that we use temporary protective pads in Levi's Stadium. It's a common practice. You can drive heavy trucks on them. I've personally seen semi-trucks on top of the protective pads in our stadium. And so there, it's common for rigging, heavy traffic. It is an industry standard practice. The issue that we experienced in Super Bowl 50 was brown turf. And certainly if you cover a natural turf field for seven weeks, the turf will be brown and dead. The underlying structure would still be intact, but they were not immediately playable. It will take several weeks to rejuvenate that field and that's the modification.
[03:10:58] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And the synthetic turf still has additional life left on it and so there is a preference to replace our natural turf fields. And so if I think if we can step through the questions, there was the question around thatching. And so through this experience I got to learn a lot about thatching. Important to note, you do not have to replace the thatching when you do a sod replacement. In fact for Super Bowl 50, this city elected not to replace the thatching. That is one of the reasons why ten years later we do need a sod replacement.
[03:11:35] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And so in the negotiations, the NFL, because they were agreeing to contribute several hundred thousand dollars above the amount of the rental, did not agree to do the thatching but said, 'If the city would like the thatching replaced, we will incorporate that into our project.' You may remember that there is a very similar community benefit project going on right now in our community where the Host Committee and the NFL are redoing a field at a school in Santa Clara. And the school district is having that same question. You have a benefactor that has agreed to say, 'We will do X,' and they are partnering to say, 'Okay, well we want X plus.' And there's a partnership and we envision that same partnership for the X plus.
[03:12:30] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Damon, is there anything additional about thatching that we should talk about?
[03:12:36] Damon Sparacino: Um, I think you said it well. Um, one of the reasons why staff also identified the natural grass turf has to do with the soil compaction over the last 10-plus years. There, according to them, it's hard to get good aeration and good watering and or drainage of those fields. And they said, 'You know what would be great is if we can get the thatching.' And we didn't really talk about the thatching because I'm like, it's just one more thing. I said, 'That would be great.'
[03:13:05] Damon Sparacino: Then the NFL talked to their consultant and came back and the consultant said, 'You should really consider thatching.' And so I was like, 'Okay, what's that going to cost and who can cover it?' So the thatching is something that our staff really thinks will benefit the maintenance, the playability, the turf, the healthiness of the turf for the next 10 years plus. So they did bring that up. So I just wanted to put a little extra color on the thatching and let you know the importance of it. And if we can at all make that happen as part of this process, that would benefit the whole project immensely.
[03:13:47] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Damon, can you speak to the $15,000 in relocation as well as what user groups were part of your engagement process?
[03:13:57] Damon Sparacino: Yeah, so I asked this question of our staff. So we have bi-weekly group meetings for fields ranging from anything from how are the playability of the fields going, how are your uses going, do you need additional... Just for those of us who have ever had kids who played sports know that games get canceled, things happen, you have to reschedule. So that's a constant churning.
[03:14:23] Damon Sparacino: And so getting everybody in the room frequently to talk about the ever-shifting needs of the user groups is important. So throughout the process, the predominance of the people at the table were soccer and/or Youth Soccer Park. And then when we got to the allocation and looking at how to squeeze a couple extra blades of grass out of Santa Clara, that's when all of the groups were at the table.
[03:14:50] Damon Sparacino: So when we did the November field allocation meeting, that's when you had baseball and softball and all the various soccer groups all at the table to do part of the, what we call the lottery or the field draw.
[03:15:07] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And Damon, will you talk a little bit about the interface that occurred between the NFL and our maintenance crews? Because I know that there was some work to identify the appropriate type of grass.
[03:15:17] Damon Sparacino: Yeah, so we had already a grass replacement spec. So for all of our parks as well as our sports fields, we have specific specs down to the soil use, the type of grass, the way it's cut, the way it's maintained during the maintenance period. And when we also proposed that to the NFL, the NFL's turf provider, who also provides the Niners with their turf, said they're already on to a new strain of grass that's more resilient, that stays green more in the wintertime, doesn't go as dormant, and has more resiliency, uses less water, is less reactive.
[03:16:08] Damon Sparacino: So it's like the super grass. Every time a new grass comes out, of course it has to be super, because that's where everybody goes. But, and so they, rather than just, they're like, 'We're happy to do what you asked us to, City, but there's this new and better product we'd love to tell you about.' So we met and we looked at it and we considered it and said, 'That sounds great, thank you.' So it's been a real interactive process around those types of things when you think about the maintenance and the specs around the replacement.
[03:16:42] Damon Sparacino: The other question that I needed to touch on was the 15,000, and then there was a question also about the 8,000. So there's a lot of numbers being thrown around tonight. So the 15,000 was helped to defray any potential cost that either the groups would have to do or the city might have to help in finding alternative practice space or play space relative to the replacement period.
[03:17:13] Damon Sparacino: So we're trying to find, we feel like we did a really good job for this shorter period, which is about six to seven weeks. But the replacement period is 10 to 12 weeks long. And we're worried that during that time it might be more difficult. But during that time, the other things that are in play are we will have access to Field number 2, barring it comes out good from the process.
[03:17:43] Damon Sparacino: But whereas the first six weeks we don't have any of those fields, right? So when we go to repair fields 1 and 3, we can still have kids on Field 2, which is predominantly used for practice fields. So they'll be down like two playing fields. Also, we've got daylight on our side during that timeframe where we're not up against this really threading the needle on what fields are available that also have lights. Then you're also not up against, hopefully, I mean not that we couldn't use some more rain, but weather: June, July, and August.
[03:18:24] Damon Sparacino: So there's a lot of factors that will help us find alternative. And the other thing too is, is that softball season? Is it baseball season? So we're doing all we can to look at the historic use and how to mitigate it rather than just saying we're going to do it. But that's the 15,000 backstop. The 8,700, and somebody asked how we came up to that, on lost access, was basically the commercial hourly rate for the entire facility.
[03:19:03] Damon Sparacino: For, I don't remember the total day, like how long of the day, but it came out to three fields at the commercial rate, the clubhouse, so two rooms in the clubhouse, the whole parking lot at $10 a space, multiplied by like 12 hours for a day, and that's how we came up with the 8,700. So it's not based on the youth rate, it's based on a commercial rate that we would be losing. So those are how we came up with those two amounts.
[03:19:43] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And the 87 is the liquidated damages per day.
[03:19:46] Damon Sparacino: Yes. Yes.
[03:19:48] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: In addition, there was a question around the June versus September timeframe. Very important, the NFL has really again said to us, 'When would you like it replaced?' We have said a period of June through September because we have not yet entered into negotiations with FIFA. Certainly if FIFA wanted to utilize the Youth Soccer Park, or if we our city had a need where we wanted to utilize the Youth Soccer Park during the June timeframe, we would have the replacement after FIFA.
[03:20:28] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And so that is certainly doable, and so if the city desired to have it start in July, mid-July, we would just need to articulate that. The NFL has been very, very accommodating with their vendors and have agreed to do that at the city's desire, provided we provide them with sufficient notice.
[03:21:01] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Next there was a question about impacts of Measure R, and so very important to note, Measure R does not apply here. Measure R has a time limit and I'll turn it over to the City Attorney.
[03:21:18] City Attorney Glen Googins: Yeah. Thanks. I would have said that a little bit differently, but it's substantially the same as what I would say. Measure R does apply, but, and in fact the Youth Soccer Park is specifically called out in Measure R, but to the City Manager's substantive point, the element of Measure R which requires a vote is disposition, alternative use of parks for a period of 180 days or more.
[03:21:51] City Attorney Glen Googins: And so this is within that time period, Mayor. I think some of the other uses you were referring to were also within that time period. So short-term uses that are alternative to traditional park uses are allowed within those parameters under Measure R.
[03:22:09] Damon Sparacino: And the other follow-up on that was about the BAFC arrangements that we've had in place. And when we have been able to work on agreements for use with BAFC, it's a little different because there's no impact to the youth's access. So anytime we've rented to BAFC, it's during the daytime when otherwise the field would not be used by the youth user groups. So it always has to be before 2 o'clock, by 2 o'clock. So we get like a little time to turn it over, get new staff in, things of that nature.
[03:22:45] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Damon, the next question was how often do we replace our grass fields?
[03:22:50] Damon Sparacino: Um, not often enough would be probably a general answer. Um, just like everything else, although it's more of a living asset as opposed to like cement or things of that nature, anything that's not living, having to do what our staff has said where we need to take it all the way down, thatch it, redo the soil and redo the turf, if that's going to cost us $600-plus thousand dollars, that's something we haven't historically funded.
[03:23:30] Damon Sparacino: So we should be doing this at least 10 years, especially based on... And the other thing too is they take core samples out there at the park and they can see when the compaction rate is getting to the point where our maintenance efforts aren't as good as they can or should be. And then so 10 years is on the standard, but could it be faster? Sure. Could it be longer? Sure. But we'll test for it throughout that life cycle to see when we know it is ready for replacement and then do we have the funds.
[03:24:12] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: There were additional statements around the fields will be destroyed. I just want to be very clear. Staff has worked very diligently on the concept before you and feels strongly that the current proposal before you, which calls for no use on Field 1, very light use on Field 3 really just for halftime practice, and a laydown of industry standard temporary pads to protect the surface will not damage the fields.
[03:24:45] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And so, in negotiating this agreement, sort of recognizing how it begun as 'Hey, you know what, how about we not utilize the fields and just simply pay for the rental rate,' recognized that that left the community without a community benefit. And so there was also a question was are all of the user groups satisfied and happy with this arrangement?
[03:25:11] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: I'll turn it over to Damon on that point because he had a lot of communications with them. But first I'll say, it's always difficult to make sure everybody is happy and satisfied. You know, we negotiate a lot of agreements on behalf of the city. And I think every time we bring an agreement before you, there's a question of like, could you have gotten more? Could you have gotten more, right?
[03:25:34] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And certainly I know that there were the desires to have the synthetic turf field replaced even if it wasn't damaged or additional synthetic turf, right? Replacing the synthetic turf on Field 2 is upwards of a $1.5 million project. And so we were successful in negotiating a community benefit of $1.2 million above what the rental, you know, several hundred thousand dollars above what the rental rate would be. And like all negotiations, you're not able to get everything you want.
[03:26:13] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: But we do believe that this is an agreement that provides significant community benefit as well as significant protections, if in fact the synthetic turf or the underlayment is damaged, as well as liquidated damages to cover any time where the fields are not accessible. And I'll turn it back to Damon.
[03:26:30] Damon Sparacino: I don't have much to add on that. That was good.
[03:26:38] City Attorney Glen Googins: Um, there was a few questions about the agreement, um, both in its current form and different issues that council had legitimate concerns about to make sure potential damages were mitigated. First, I think a few of you made this point, but primarily you, Madam Mayor, does the agreement in the form that was sent to you earlier today reflect the Field 2 usage? It does not yet.
[03:27:05] City Attorney Glen Googins: So there are some changes that will need to be made in the final form to reflect that. Including some specificity as to what use, now that that Field 2 is being used, specificity about what uses will be on the different fields. And as pointed out in the presentation, an extension of the liquidated damages concept to provide for the fact that within a small number of days, but some transition period after the end of their use of those fields, those fields need to be in usable condition.
[03:27:40] City Attorney Glen Googins: And so there's two elements to that. One is if in fact the fields are damaged, they would need to repair, do any repair work that's required to put them within their previous existing condition. And Mayor, you make a good point about making sure that that with respect to the turf field, right, that we understand what the existing condition is to make sure it's actually returned to that condition. And to the extent with some few days of grace period the fields as a result of those required repairs aren't immediately available for use, that triggers a liquidated damages provision in the approximate amount of $8,700 a day to cover the lost in effect opportunity to be able to use those fields.
[03:28:24] City Attorney Glen Googins: And so, Member Gonzalez, you pointed out, 'Hey, does insurance cover these types of damages?' Insurance is important. We've got substantial insurance coverage in there, but that's really more to cover general liability issues. The thing that really protects the field condition is affirmative covenants by the NFL to make sure that those repairs occur and the liquidated damages obligation for any period of time that those fields aren't available after the end of their use period.
[03:28:54] City Attorney Glen Googins: The, um, I think Member Cox had the question about, you know, how do we know they're going to be done to our, the improvements are going to be done to our specifications? There is language in even the draft that you've got that probably will be refined a little bit before we final final it, that says the improvements must be done to the city specifications with a warranty period of one year only beginning after the city's acceptance of those improvements.
[03:29:18] City Attorney Glen Googins: So there's provisions in there for making sure it's done in accordance with industry standards to city specs, and if in fact it's not done in that manner, again the liquidated damages provision would be triggered at that $8,700 a day for any time period beyond the 90 days that isn't completed in effect to our satisfaction. So very good points. We think we've addressed it in the draft that you've got. It will require some refinements, Madam Mayor, to address the new, the addition of the Field 2, the turf field.
[03:29:55] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: There were also questions about inspections. And so absolutely. I know that that was talked about. I certainly was in the room when we were talking about both pre and post inspections because everyone is concerned about the condition. We are providing the NFL with an eight-year-old synthetic turf surface, so we will inspect the condition and I know they will as well, pre and post. But I'll turn it over to the Director.
[03:30:21] Damon Sparacino: Yeah, no that's a good point. We talked about that today as part of the pivot from Field 1 to 2. Part of the, you know, I know we sort of covered that, but I also wanted to kind of drill down on that a little bit for you all, is that the NFL realizes that even if there's no additional damage if we were to do the laydown on Field 1, we asked, and our goal, and they... we've said it every time we met with them, 'Hey, we want to get the kids out there as soon as possible, as soon as we can, as soon as we can, as soon as we can,' right?
[03:30:58] Damon Sparacino: So they finally, it was like, 'Wait a second, if we do the laydown on Field 1 and the grass doesn't get mowed, sunlight, water, nothing, and it has a giant plastic thick cover on it for six weeks, it's not gonna come out looking like kids and anybody else wants to play on it.' So that's when we, that's a little bit why the pivot was. The concern has been getting the community back on the fields.
[03:31:29] Damon Sparacino: So today when we shifted to 2, one of the reasons too was they weren't interested initially in the cost relative to the synthetic turf replacement. So we shifted to grass. Now we're shifting back to synthetic turf with the caveat that if we test, so that was the thing we had talked about today, was like, 'Look, if we're going to use that, we need to at least test the attenuation of it.' So we'll have to do some drop tests at random points throughout the field. We're going to have to get on that right away, right away to get those ordered. And we'll do that with a third party. And then we'll be testing and we'll have readings for the... And when you do the drop test, you get both the above ground and below ground impact attenuation scores.
[03:32:20] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Will your third party inspect the whole soccer, the entire Soccer Park, buildings and everything? That's what we did last time.
[03:32:29] Damon Sparacino: Um, the one, whoever does the field testing, that's usually a very specialized testing. A lot of times that's both playing surface and playground. So like the poured-in-place playgrounds. Oh, I get that. That makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. So we can get somebody to inspect to the entire building? Yeah. And we can even do that with some of our own building officials, but we can also do it with a third party if the NFL wants to agree to it. But the field testing will be done with people who are specifically have the equipment and the expertise to both test and report on it.
[03:33:03] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Because I think we should have a before and after because as aspirational as you all are that these fields are just going to be ready to go after, I've lived through the experience that they were destroyed completely. So, um, I'm hoping I'm wrong. I'm hoping things have changed, but I doubt it. And I just want to make sure that we have the before so we know about the after in case we end up in court, that we have that information.
[03:33:34] Damon Sparacino: Yes, that's prudent. And we talked about that. And we talked more specifically about the grass fields and then the buildings but not, because 2 wasn't going to... and so 2 was talked about all day today. But yeah, those are good points.
[03:33:50] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Can I ask a question? Um, are they not going to use Field 1 but it's in the agreement? Are they going to put a cover over it?
[03:33:59] Damon Sparacino: Yeah, our hope is that we just cordon it off. One of the reasons why we couldn't necessarily preclude it at this point in time is we're still trying to figure out the best path of travel. Like we've been out there several times with the NFL and one of the issues with using 2 is how do you get the equipment to that field? So one way is to come through the maintenance area on the north side, but then there's a really steep down step from the maintenance ramp to the field that you're going to high center a long trailer type vehicle.
[03:34:34] Damon Sparacino: So you'd have to build a special ramp. So then are we going to come in on Marie DeBartolo? And then if we do, what's the laydown to get vehicles from Marie De... So we couldn't exclude it. We're, and I've said this several times during this process is we're literally building this plane while we're flying it. And I think the most important thing to keep in mind that we the staff have been doing is that we're trying to protect the facility and we're trying to get the kids back into it and keep playing through it and beyond it. So those are the things we're always keeping in mind.
[03:35:08] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Okay. And we also have representatives from the NFL's architect.
[03:35:12] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Could you finish answering the questions first?
[03:35:14] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. Um, I thought we had hit all of them. We've talked about the pre and post inspection. We've talked about January to June. We've talked about concerns with regard to damage. We've talked about why the shift from fields 1 and 2 to fields 2 and 3 and cordoning off field 1. We've talked about third-party inspections. We've talked about Youth Soccer groups and that community outreach. We've talked about thatching. We've talked about the protections within the agreement. We've talked about the security perimeter. Soccer Board. Ma'am, I think we've addressed all questions. I think it would be just to hear a little bit...
[03:36:10] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: I have one that wasn't answered. I wanted to know specifically where the displaced soccer teams are practicing in this first seven weeks. Where are they going? And it's in two weeks.
[03:36:24] Damon Sparacino: Yeah. So some of the, uh, so one of the ways we did that was increase, really we're just increasing the hours and the capacity and the share rate of Reed & Grant. So before we wouldn't have it, we'd close a certain time on the weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, and we extended those hours. We extended hours Monday through Friday. We shifted some of our city use. And then we're also having some more sharing.
[03:37:08] Damon Sparacino: The main point on the YSP for practices is it's predominantly used one field. They use fields 1 and 3 for games. So that was also the consideration, but for practice nights, it's the equivalent of one field for six hours that they had to come up with.
[03:37:30] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So, because I'm kind of aware of this, I understand they only practice on the middle field, but Reed & Grant is already full. So are you trying to take all the uses from Youth Soccer Park and put them on Reed & Grant that's already full? Because I know some of the kids are already looking at practicing, you know, they're in seventh grade and practicing 9 o'clock or 10, you know, late at night. So you're taking this big use and trying to cram it into... A little of that. Is that the solution that you've come up with?
[03:38:04] Damon Sparacino: Mostly. You know, we wanted to use more of Fatjo and Marsalli but again like you had mentioned the other groups are in service... yeah, softball and baseball are in swing. Um, we also moved the timeline for some of our adult programming. Um, so some of the adult soccer groups that would normally do either league or drop-in play, um, we just postponed it for a couple of weeks rather than starting in like late January, early February, we're starting those after the cycle. We can get the kids and yeah, um, the hours will be later, um, to help mitigate it and hopefully the coaches can work the younger kids in early and the older kids in later wherever possible.
[03:38:51] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: The soccer season starts in August as well, so you've got all the other...
[03:38:56] Damon Sparacino: No, I know, the problem on that one is the time that it takes to actually do it. So that's why we also had that big time range because once, I know we're still trying to talk to FIFA, we're still trying to identify what we're going to do as a community to activate events for the community around World Cup.
[03:39:18] Damon Sparacino: But if we get lucky so to speak and FIFA says, 'Oh we found we're going to practice at Stanford and at the Earthquakes fields and so on and so forth, we don't necessarily want your fields,' then the default decision is what are we going to do as a community to activate some fun zones for World Cup and then is that where we want to do it? We have it built in to start as early as June. And then the NFL asked us, 'Hey, can you give us a better timeline because our field company wants to know?' And I said I really can't. I'm trying to negotiate with FIFA, we're trying to figure out what we're going to do as a community. So they're on standby until we try to figure all this out.
[03:39:57] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Jain and then I'm going to the public, oh City Manager.
[03:40:04] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Yeah, I just wanted to note that we do have representatives from the NFL's architect and their operations implementation team as well as a direct representative from the NFL should the council like them to elaborate on the operations and the temporary pads.
[03:40:25] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay. Councilmember Jain and then I'll go... is there a certain representative that wants to speak? Okay. Very good.
[03:40:33] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Yeah, I'm trying to reconcile a couple of statements. I think the Mayor said that there were protective pads put down on Field 2 for Super Bowl 50 and the field was completely destroyed. And I see that, I totally get that if you put protective pads on a grass field and cover it for seven weeks with no sunlight, it's going to be hurting. So I don't quite understand how... has the technology changed for these pads where they're far more robust and you don't damage the fields? I'm trying to understand that, and maybe the NFL people might be able to respond to that.
[03:41:15] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. I think we'll turn to the NFL representatives online. I think Nick from BaAM is the appropriate contact for that and as he comes on.
[03:41:30] Nick Andison: Uh, good evening Madam Mayor and Councilors. Uh, pleasure to be here and yeah, happy to elaborate on the field protection measures. Quickly a little background on myself. My name is Nick Andison, I'm a Senior Production Manager with BaAM Productions. We are the partner or general contractor if you will of the NFL to look after their operations build for the Super Bowl and have been for the last five years on the project.
[03:42:02] Nick Andison: All that to say I certainly cannot speak to the exact product that may have been used in Super Bowl 50 as we were not necessarily part of that implementation, but I can certainly say that BaAM works with a number of sports leagues across North America for hockey, soccer, football, baseball, etc. to produce their large-scale events.
[03:42:26] Nick Andison: And one of the main things that we do is take a venue, ensure that it is protected and taken care of so that the event can be installed over top of, whether it be temporary protective flooring or other such measures, to ensure that that venue is restored exactly in the condition it was found or wherever possible leave things in a better state.
[03:42:50] Nick Andison: The product that we are looking to use this year as mentioned before is a Matrax flooring product. I can't say for sure if that was the one that was used in the past, but I am going to assume not. It is one that we at BaAM use on numerous of our projects across stadiums both indoor and outdoor through different leagues and different venues in North America.
[03:43:13] Nick Andison: It has been used for concerts, for unique special events. It's been used for outdoor hockey games, for other NFL events. And we have had everything from 53-foot trailers and semis to large-scale cranes to full scaffold and structure builds on top of that. And we're certainly always diligent to ensure that the weight of any item that is going onto that protected surface is beneath by a substantial amount what that surface is rated for.
[03:43:49] Nick Andison: So certainly that's something that we'll be working through in terms of the calculations as it relates to this field. And already in terms of what is planned to be out there, as was discussed before in terms of broadcast uses for media and office spaces, those all are well below the threshold of weight that the flooring protection or the turf protection can support.
[03:44:13] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you.
[03:44:15] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Okay. We also have a representative from the NFL. I think Kelsey Pietrangelo is on.
[03:44:25] Kelsey Pietrangelo: Thank you Jōvan. Um, and good evening Madam Mayor and Councilmen. Um, I just really want to get on and thank you all, Damon, Jōvan, your teams that have truly been involved in this process over the past few months, I know you've mentioned that. As you guys were saying, the partnership that we've really built over these past few months has been quite often and we've spoken many many times as Damon has referred to throughout the night.
[03:44:58] Kelsey Pietrangelo: So really just as we approach the Super Bowl in any city we're in, it's not only ways that operationally makes sense for the Super Bowl and how can we put that footprint together so we can get everything that we need operationally for the teams and for everyone in attendance, but truly also how can we give back to that community and to the City of Santa Clara being the host for us this year of Super Bowl 60.
[03:45:27] Kelsey Pietrangelo: So the pivot on the artificial field, I know that was brought up as well, was truly made in just speaking to Damon and team on how best to support the youth groups, understanding their preferred timelines when the replacement would make most sense for them, while really also minimizing that impact on the real grass fields and how can we maybe shift what we were going to put on Field number 1 to Field 2 to ensure that that field is not touched and is in tip-top shape for the return in March.
[03:46:00] Kelsey Pietrangelo: We will ensure that updated diagrams are reflected in the contract to ensure as requested that whatever we are putting on each of the grass fields is known and is part of that. And then really just the communication between the NFL and the City because it's been so often will continue. We do hit the ground running on January 5th. We want to ensure that this partnership that we've really grown with throughout the past couple months continues and that will start from January 5th when we're there all the way through that final replacement day of the last field in that to be determined date in the summer of 2026.
[03:46:41] Kelsey Pietrangelo: So just here from the NFL we are excited, we're ready to go. We just want to thank the City of Santa Clara. We're ready to get those two grass fields replaced and the 15 dugouts and just continue to talk through the partnership with the City of Santa Clara and how best to give back. So again just thank you all for your time tonight. Thank you.
[03:47:08] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Uh, thank you. Kelsey, I do have a question for you. Thank you for joining us this evening. What is the NFL's plan for field 1 and 3? We understand field 2 is going to be a media village but what about field 1 and 3?
[03:47:25] Kelsey Pietrangelo: So field 1 now as it stands we are not touching it. So all of the media operations, the broadcast operations as mentioned on field 2, all of that was strictly living on field 1. So all we are doing is shifting that to the artificial turf field to leave that natural grass field 1 untouched. Grass field number 3 will be the halftime rehearsals. So that's where they'll have some of their cast and crew about 12 days out that will utilize that field.
Segment 7
[04:34:55] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right if everyone could take their seats please? That was our first item we have a few more. And remember if we go late we have a meeting tomorrow. Yes, how exciting. Okay.
[04:35:15] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right, we are on item number 6 which is a public hearing on adoption of a resolution amending rate schedules for electric services for all classes of customers to increase electric rates and charges in each rate schedule by 4% and make other modifications, effective January 1st, 2026. Since this is a public hearing it's opened. City Manager.
[04:35:38] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Thank you, Mayor. As you noted, this is a hearing for a proposed increase in electric rates that would take place on January 1. Worth noting, the proposed rate increase is less than the adopted rate for the last three years. And so we will have our Director of Silicon Valley Power, Nico Procos, present the presentation. He will also be supported by Finance Director Ken Li.
[04:36:07] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you.
[04:36:08] Director Nico Procos: Thank you, City Manager Grogan. Honorable Mayor, Councilmembers, good evening. We have a brief presentation for you this evening and it'll be a tag team effort, so I'm going to kick things off and then I'll hand it over to our Finance Director.
[04:36:23] Director Nico Procos: So in terms of agenda, we'll be talking about our sales and funding background, the outreach that we did with our customers to notify them of the rate increase. Talk a little bit more about the proposed rate increase, some impacts and comparisons, so we want to show what our customers in different rate classes will be paying based on the 4% increase. And then we'll touch on some of the cost drivers and the responses related to the rate increase.
[04:36:55] Director Nico Procos: So just as a reminder for FY 24/25, our retail sales were 763 million. Our residential customers were about 44 million of that, and then our industrial commercial customers are really the bulk of our revenues. And really, I think what drives home what we're trying to tell you here is that pie chart to the right that shows that our industrial customers contribute about 90% of the revenue to our revenue requirement. And residential customers are about 5.8%. And actually that number will continue to drop. So as our sales are expected to double in the next 10 years, we're going to see our industrial base really grow significantly and the residential customers to continue to drop as a percentage of overall sales.
[04:37:49] Director Nico Procos: Down at the bottom there, we did a little analysis on with the 4% rate increase and baking in some of the load growth that we're anticipating, we're going to see about 32 million extra in calendar year 2026 in retail sales, and that's related to the increase. Approximately 3 million of that comes from our residential customers. And again, kind of tying in with what we were talking about earlier where our industrial customers are about 90% of our revenue, so the bulk of that additional revenue will come from our large customers.
[04:38:27] Director Nico Procos: In terms of public outreach, you can see here there's quite a bit of that that happened. Starting in June, we presented this in the proposed budget. Early November and early December, we do send formal notifications to schools and to state agencies. And also in early November, we started talking with our large customers, our key accounts, and our commercial customer listserv. And then around November 12th, we went to social media and news blasts for those folks who are on our system to notify them that this was coming.
[04:39:07] Director Nico Procos: The public notices were shortly around that time, shortly after the start of the public outreach, were published in San Jose Mercury News and the Weekly. And then also in the City Hall News and Council newsletters. And then ongoing, we are monitoring social media to see what the reaction is to the proposed increase, and that's happening on an ongoing basis.
[04:39:34] Director Nico Procos: So we want to talk a little bit about our monthly bill comparisons with the proposed 4% increase. So starting at the top, we have our residential customer change, and really there's three categories there: there's a low user, our average user, and our high user. And you can get a sense moving left to right there what increase will they experience depending on how much electricity they use. So it really runs from about $2 a month up to $7 with a large customer using about a thousand kilowatt hours.
[04:40:13] Director Nico Procos: In terms of our larger customers, same concept moving from left to right is our smaller commercial industrial customers all the way to the right to our very big customers. You can see in the second last row there, our very large industrial customers, these are typically the data centers, they'll see an increase of about 121,000. Sounds like a big number, but they also, the revenue that is generated by these customers is significant, so it's not a huge jump, it's just a big number.
[04:40:44] Director Nico Procos: And then in the last row, our five largest industrial customers under the CB-6 rate schedule, they will pay, they will see an increase of about 247,000. Again, this is going from a base of about 6.2 million and with the rate increase it jumps up to about 250... 250 increase.
[04:41:04] Director Nico Procos: I think it's important to talk a little bit of kind of the historical rate increases. We did have some information in the RTC about this. We went a little bit further back, we actually go back 15 years back to 2010. And you can kind of see it's quite a range, starting at 7%, there were some zeros there. 2014 and 2015, about 5%. And then we get into kind of the COVID years and it was pretty steady at about 3%. Now, we wanted to highlight in 2023, you may remember that we ran into a bit of an issue with natural gas price spikes. We did have two rate increases in 2023, one 8%, one 5%. Followed by an additional 10%. The good news is since then it's tapered off. We had a 5% last year, and we have before you this evening is the proposed 4% increase. And our projections from a budgetary perspective are a continued 4% increase further out.
[04:42:11] Director Nico Procos: So in terms of what other utilities are doing, SMUD in June 2025, that's the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, approved a 3% rate increase for 2026 and another in 2027. Palo Alto did a 5.1 overall increase in June, that's effective July 1st. Alameda a 4%, so similar to us, effective July 1st. And Roseville, no rate increase planned for 2026. They did do a 9% increase in June 2024 and another 9% increase in January 2025.
[04:42:52] Director Nico Procos: So this is our 2024 average system rate comparison. And we like to compare to other utilities in the state. And you can see at the top there are the investor-owned utilities, so PG&E, SDG&E, Southern California Edison. And then as you move down the list you're into kind of mostly the municipal utilities. And Santa Clara is down there at the bottom. We were at the bottom for a long time. We've actually, Turlock has kind of stepped in front of us unfortunately, so we'll do our best to get to the number one spot again, but for now that's where we are.
[04:43:33] Director Nico Procos: For those customers that are in need, we do have rate assistance programs. It does offer a 25 to 40% discount for residents that qualify. And you can see there that there are certain metrics that we use to allow people to participate in the program. They also have other programs, the LIHEAP program is actually a federal program. So we do have, and we advertise and promote these programs on an ongoing basis to customers. And with that, I will pass it over to Ken.
[04:44:13] Finance Director Ken Li: Thank you, Director Procos. Good evening, Honorable Mayor, City Council. Ken Li, Director of Finance. Appreciate the opportunity for this joint partnership in this PowerPoint.
[04:44:26] Finance Director Ken Li: Before I get started, I just want to acknowledge that our Finance Department does support our Silicon Valley Power electric utility in the area of fiscal analysis, and so the recommendation before you was evaluated by our department. And wanted to talk about the need for the increase, and I'll go bullet by bullet here.
[04:44:48] Finance Director Ken Li: So the first bullet involves increasing our reserves in line with our growth projection and to deal with market fluctuations. Across all our city utilities, we have had a conscious effort to increase our reserves. This includes a 90 to 180 day operations and maintenance reserve, a rate stabilization reserve, and infrastructure reserve. So part of the need for this increase, you may recall a couple years ago with the natural gas price fluctuations that actually ate into our reserves, and so the need to continue to maintain and grow our reserves from an ongoing level for the stability of the utility.
[04:45:30] Finance Director Ken Li: Increasing costs of renewable energy. About three months ago, the council approved close to a billion dollar power purchase agreements over 20 years. And as the state continues to put more stringent requirements on renewable power, we see that the cost for many of those agreements, such as that agreement three months ago, have started to increase.
[04:45:54] Finance Director Ken Li: The third bullet here, increasing equipment, material, labor, and construction costs for both maintenance of our utility infrastructure and new projects. Almost every Tuesday council meeting before you there's tens to potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts needed to maintain and support our utility infrastructure. So in those contracts, the cost of both materials, supplies, materials, and labor continues to increase. And that's not anything unique to this utility, all of our municipal utilities across the state have faced those similar increasing costs.
[04:46:35] Finance Director Ken Li: The fourth bullet here, continuing investment in security for substations in light of our large events and for long-term operational reliability. In the climate we have today, you read the headlines of different bad actors, and so continuing to improve our security across our utility is important that comes at a large cost both in hardware as well as software.
[04:47:07] Finance Director Ken Li: And then the last bullet there that is an event that happened very recently, still very much in process of working with insurance and warranties around the failure of a recent DVR engine. And so those, both the maintenance costs, the repair costs, and potentially the purchase of spare engines are in the tens of millions of dollars. And so when you look at all the increase in costs on this slide, a significant dollar amount necessary to support our electric utility.
[04:47:46] Finance Director Ken Li: About a year ago the Council approved, and we went out to market, some bonds for the large equipment purchases of our utility's system expansion. And so part of that issuance of those bonds, when our rating agencies reviews the fiscal condition of our utilities, they look at cash reserves. And so SVP in that first tranche received a double A minus bond rating, a very good rating. And part of the review of those rating agencies, what they look at is does SVP have a balanced budget when it comes to their revenues against their expenses, any fluctuations in those expenses over time, and then do they have adequate reserves to weather future market fluctuations.
[04:48:36] Finance Director Ken Li: And so this recommendation for 4% increase supports the continuing effort to maintain good strong bond ratings. And in light of future issuances anticipated later this next calendar year, both a line of credit to continue those expansion projects and then eventually a tranche two of bonds, very important to maintain our cash reserves in light of those future issuances.
[04:49:07] Finance Director Ken Li: And then, I touched on reserves. With this increase, the goal here to maintain a 10% rate stabilization reserve, an operations and maintenance reserve over 180 days, those are very strong reserve numbers. Our rating agencies would take a look at that the next time we go out and issue debt.
[04:49:34] Finance Director Ken Li: So with that, the next steps. Pending the Council's decision tonight, if approved, the bills to reflect that rate increase effective January 1st would go out. We did kick off actually yesterday an engagement with a consultant to look at the cost of services among our large customers, middle-sized customers, or residential. I know there's some dialogue around equity and fairness, and so we did hire a consultant and we plan to bring some of those results back later next year with recommendations around changes, potential changes to the different rates among the classes.
[04:50:24] Finance Director Ken Li: And then early next year, Director Procos will provide the Council with a biannual update around the latest projects and status of that. That will include an update on tariffs that I know is almost changes every day of late, you know, the challenges at the Supreme Court. And so we don't know the impact of those tariffs and we won't know until we actually receive delivery on a lot of the large equipment. And that's a fluid and changing item. And then CAISO actions, we will be back before the Council based on some direction given by CAISO and requirements of the system. And so that is planned for next January.
[04:51:02] Finance Director Ken Li: And so with that, staff's recommendation is that Council adopt the resolution that includes amendment of rate schedules for all classes of customers with a 4% rate increase effective January 1st, 2026. And that concludes staff's presentation. Both Director Procos and I are available for any questions that you may have.
[04:51:22] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Jain.
[04:51:27] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Yeah, I am the Council's representative to NCPA, and so I follow quite a lot of this perhaps more closely than others. I'm looking at the US... the United States Energy Information Administration and there's a chart here from November 13th of 2025 and it says US natural gas prices rise unevenly across sectors. So the residential rate increase for natural gas is 4% from 2024 to 2025. But for electric power, it increased by 37%. I mean it's a much lower price for electric power than it is for residential, you know, $14 compared to two and a half dollars. You know, we do long-term contracts, but the increase was 37% this year.
[04:52:28] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: And then I was looking at our bills and claims, it was item 3B on our agenda, and I see here that there is purchase of wire, 1100 KCMIL triplexed wire, and it's for 141,800 dollars, but there's a tariff there of 2,449, which comes to 1.9% tariff. So now we're seeing in our bills and claims the tariffs being outlined specifically. Now that number seems pretty low compared to the tariffs that I've been hearing about in the news. Maybe you could explain that tariff to me where it comes from. And I think I believe that that is just for distribution power. It's not for the big transmission power that we're getting. So, and of course that TransCanada turbine repair of DVR is in the... I think it was 10 million dollars was it? Something like that? Very expensive. So just the cost of buying materials, the cost of buying transformers with mostly there being imported from Asia with very high tariffs, and you know, during the pandemic we had extremely high costs due to supply chain issues. So I think a 4% increase given that inflation is somewhere between two and a half and 3% anyway is reasonable to me.
[04:53:57] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Chahal.
[04:53:59] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. A couple of questions. You know, three main reasons are mentioned for the price, 4% hike basically. On the second one, we have reserves, right? 10% of rate stabilization reserve. So I would love to see all those numbers in real dollar numbers. Like 10% of our current sales is around 76 million basically, so that's our target. So I would love to see all those numbers in dollar terms, what our reserve numbers are basically.
[04:54:33] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Second thing on DVR plant, that accident which happened, catastrophic gas turbine failure. Are we in contact with our insurance and what is the status of that? Because that should be covered under plant and machinery insurance part of it. And if there is any issue on that, I think we should be looking going forward, we should be looking at some insurance policies which cover such losses basically. Yeah, but I would like to find a status of that where we are on insurance coverage on that one. Or the contractor who repaired it, what is the status from them basically? And I do agree with Councilmember Jain's methodology of how the increases you're asking, I think 4% is justified and that 4% will give back around 32 million and the General Fund will get around 1.5 million of that basically. So I'm okay with that 4% hike on that. Thank you.
[04:55:54] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Hardy.
[04:55:55] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Thank you. I want to understand if we can go back to the monthly bill comparison chart and then the rate comparison chart that was in our report. There was also... I see that and that gives us an approximate what this would change. We also have in our report, and I did not see you showing it, the rate comparison with a 4% rate increase for the different class of services. You don't have that in your report? We have that in our staff report.
[04:56:34] Director Nico Procos: What's in the staff report is a comparison to PG&E. And then what's in the presentation is...
[04:56:40] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Okay. I just wondered why we chose not to do that. What I want to... that was the first question. The second one was do we need to do our rate increases across the board or costs per kilowatt close to the same but not exactly the same? Because because we do have Prop 18, I want to make certain I understand how we're justifying that. And then this cost of service report that you want to do where you said it could increase or decrease, is that going to give us the ability to charge different customers different amounts? I want to understand that cost of service report and the purpose. Thank you.
[04:57:29] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. That's it for the council questions.
[04:57:32] Director Nico Procos: Okay, I can kick things off here. So the item you spoke about with the... that was a purchase of cable, Okonite the company, and the materials are manufactured in the United States. The raw materials are actually sourced from Canada and it includes copper and aluminum. And so it's just a small percentage of the cable itself is actually foreign product from Canada and that's why you notice that it was much lower than what we're hearing about in the news in terms of the potential tariff impacts.
[04:58:17] Director Nico Procos: You mentioned the system expansion plan, and I'll say that this item, obviously we don't want to be paying tariffs, but the Okonite is not a huge cost. We certainly can absorb it and we factored a lot of this into the budget. As far as the system expansion plan is concerned, those numbers are much larger. And one of the things, conversations that we've been having with Finance, and this goes to the comment about reserves, we need to build up those reserves. We noted this in the staff report. There's more risks of operating an electric utility, this is just one of them. So it's one of these unforeseen risks. We also have wildfires. But I'll defer to the Finance Director in a moment about the question of what are the numbers of the reserves. But the trajectory is increasing and we are doing that on purpose to build up those reserves to be able to mitigate some of these impacts and also provide flexibility to the Council in future years to make decisions whether to increase rates or draw from reserves and keep rates at a lower level.
[04:59:28] Director Nico Procos: You mentioned the generator and there was a question about the insurance on the generator. This was an unforeseen incident, in fact that particular engine, we it just came out of a regular scheduled maintenance in June and catastrophically failed several months later. So right now there are several things in play right now. We do have...
[04:59:54] City Attorney Glen Googins: Can I stop you right there? I'd prefer that that particular item not be discussed in open session. There's some pending claims and litigation matters surrounding that. That was included in your recent confidential litigation update and if you'd like some additional information we're happy to provide it to you, but I'd rather not have us go into too much detail on that in this open session context.
[05:00:18] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you, City Attorney.
[05:00:19] Director Nico Procos: I'll turn it over to Ken here in a moment to talk about the reserves, but there was a question about the cost of service. And we'll bring that back in Q2 or Q3 and the results will show how have we been charging our different customer classes, how have we been collecting that revenue, and do we need to make changes. So it is possible that it will show that some customers have been underpaying and some have been overpaying. And then we'll have to have some conversations about how do we get to kind of parity, I guess, between the customer classes. And there's different ways you can do this as an electric utility. You don't have to go right away, you can phase it in. You do have options to charge different customers different rates. I will say, and I'll turn to the City Attorney here in a moment, that we are subject to Prop 26 and there are lawsuits that have happened regarding that.
[05:01:26] City Attorney Glen Googins: Yeah, just quickly Madam Mayor, if I might. We've talked about this, I think we talk about this every year that rates come up because there's an interest right in being able to design rates very specifically. But we are limited in that regard based on Prop 26 which was an amendment to the California Constitution Article 13C in 2010. And it basically redefines the definition of fees and charges and if a fee and charge that you're imposing doesn't fall within one of seven listed exceptions, it can be treated as a tax, which requires a vote of the people.
[05:02:11] City Attorney Glen Googins: The exception that applies to utility rates is that as long as it's a fee for service that does not exceed the reasonable cost of providing that service, it's treated as a fee. If it exceeds the reasonable cost of providing that service, it's a tax and requires a vote. And so we're very careful in designing our rates to do that based on a rate study that aligns the costs of providing the service to the rates that we charge. And I think as mentioned there's a pending, you know, rate study to look at a lot of this that may allow some flexibility, you know, in the future, but we really need that rate study in order to be able to redesign rates, otherwise it would be treated as a tax. There is an ability to charge a rate in that different way but we'd have to go to a vote of the people in order to support that unless it aligns with Prop 26.
[05:03:00] Director Nico Procos: I think I covered most things. The only other item was more specificity on the reserves and I'll turn that over to Finance Director to get into a little bit more detail on some of those numbers.
[05:03:13] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you.
[05:03:16] Finance Director Ken Li: Thank you, Director Procos, and appreciate the question. So around the reserves, and I will have very specific numbers tomorrow in the budget action item, but roughly across all reserves, 250 million or so in SVP. We do have a 10% rate stabilization reserve that's around 75 million dollars or so. So healthy reserves. The rate increase is needed to kind of continue that growth and support our utility from a financial perspective. I know there was also a question from Councilmember Hardy on the details around the increase by class, and so I do want to mention that in the packet in the resolution itself are pages and pages of very specific rates that Finance actually does the utility billing, so we made sure that was included in the resolution itself, so it is available there in the packet.
[05:04:07] Director Nico Procos: I think that was it.
[05:04:09] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay. Thank you very much. It is a public hearing so I'm going to the public. We have Kirk starting followed by Brenda. Welcome.
[05:04:34] Kirk Vartan: Thank you. Waiting for my presentation. So just to cut to the point, data centers are great, I think they make a lot of money and you should definitely be doing that. One thing I have a problem with is having the infrastructure that they require saddled on the backs of the small folks, the residential, small commercial. And I'll just go through a couple examples here. There's about 75 data centers here in Santa Clara, that's awesome. There's going to be hundreds of billions of dollars spent on AI, a lot of that's going to be in data centers, hopefully a lot of it's going to be here in Santa Clara. And there's a lot of expense and infrastructure.
[05:05:18] Kirk Vartan: Here's a vintage data center by Home Depot on Lafayette. You can see there's the person there for scale, it's about 90 feet tall. There's another side of it. There looks like some electrical contraption in front, I assume that's a substation of some kind to feed that data center that was put in. Those are chillers on the roof for air conditioning, and to give a perspective, this was looking from the roof down, that's that same chillers. There's about 700 of those or 750 of those on the roof of that data center. And the reason I point that out is because of the substantial electrical requirements.
[05:05:55] Kirk Vartan: Now these guys use highly efficient water cooling systems in there with these high efficiency cooling towers so water isn't even an issue here, normally that can be 800 million gallons a year of evaporation. But these elements just show the scale that we're looking at here. So my point is, if we're going to have data centers come in, that's great, but I don't think our little pizza shop, the residential, are driving the cost of all these massive upgrades that are required to drive these data centers. And it was great to hear the Director talk about equality versus equity, because they are not the same. And right now everything's being treated equal and we are not the same as a data center that drives hundreds of billions of dollars in profit and revenue. Thank you.
[05:06:42] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you, Kirk. Brenda please come forward. Welcome Brenda.
[05:06:59] Brenda: Hi, thank you. I just wanted to ask you, when you say proposed 4%, what does that exactly mean? Because you can answer if you want, but I'm just saying that I'm asking that because in the last four years we've incurred, the residents have incurred a 30% increase in power, 31% actually, not counting the one that's proposed today. So it seems like the data centers are the ones, like Kirk said, that are taking costing. And I think that the residents here actually should vote because it doesn't seem fair to me either.
[05:07:48] Brenda: As far as the 40% they talk about if you call the centers and try... you know the SVP, that's not really true. Okay. My husband and I are both on social security, and this is going to be, if this goes through, it's going to be 35% plus everything else that's gone up. And that just seems a little steep. And I think that more of this should be placed on the companies. Let them use the data centers, let them pay for what they're using, but I don't think it should come back to us. Especially when he said there's 75 data centers in Santa Clara. We're the only ones paying for this? It just seems like a lot to me. I think that should be considered. I don't know if you have done that or not. But it's like everything that I see, it's the same things over and over again. It's always the same things. It's we're going to use it for maintenance, cost of materials, construction, infrastructure, projects have increased significantly. This is the only thing I see over and over again. There's nothing different. So we're paying to have these buildings sitting there empty too because they're built but there's nothing inside of them, most of them. Maybe that one, maybe the one building there is, but I've seen two buildings that are completely empty. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.
[05:09:14] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Eric. Welcome.
[05:09:24] Eric Crutchlow: Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and Councilmembers. First, Prop 218 requires that rates be based on actual cost of providing electrical service to each customer class. It prohibits cross subsidies and it requires each class to pay no more than its fair cost of service share. Second, Santa Clara load profile is now dominated by very large 7 by 24 data centers with extremely high infrastructure impacts. These facilities require dedicated substations, higher capacity feeders, transformer redundancy and increased reliability planning. Those capital and operation costs are significantly different from the cost to serve residential customers and small businesses.
[05:10:29] Eric Crutchlow: Third, this means that Prop 218 not only allows differential rates, it essentially requires it if class imposes different system costs. Residential customers shouldn't be asked to subsidize major grid upgrades driven by data center growth. Fourth, the city already has the legal tools to address this. Chapter 13.05 gives the Council authority to adopt or revise rate schedules by class and SVP already maintains separate tariffs for large users, net metered customers and others. So I'm asking the Council to direct SVP to ensure that any proposed rate increases are fully cost of service aligned. Don't do this in Q2 Q3, it should be done before you make the determination. And if you don't you're going to be in violation of Prop 218. So what I'm asking is that since data centers are the largest highest impact load, fully assign the appropriate share of grid investment and capacity costs. This protects residents, maintains Prop 218 compliance, and keeps our utilities financially stable. So I would ask you to continue this item until you have a cost of service done. Thank you.
[05:11:25] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you, Eric. Do we have anyone else? Anyone here in the audience would like to speak? If not, online? Assistant City Clerk? All right. Do I have to close the public hearing, City Attorney? May I have a motion? Councilmember Jain.
[05:11:46] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Motion to close public hearing.
[05:11:47] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right. Councilmember Jain motion to close public hearing. Second Councilmember Chahal. Please register your vote. Passes unanimously. Councilmember Jain.
[05:12:08] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: Yeah, I was wondering, could somebody explain what a Load Development Fee is?
[05:12:22] Director Nico Procos: So I can take a first stab at that. We have essentially a special rate schedule that we charge for new customers and it's... we are undergoing a review of that right now along with the cost of service, which is, you know, it's very timely. But in theory, the costs of the system or expanding the system are included, not all the costs, but some of those costs are included in the Load Development Fee, and then a portion of those costs are then included in rates to reflect the fact that we're expanding our system to accommodate growth, but we're also replacing aging infrastructure that customers have been using for 40, 50 years. And so it's a methodology to fairly allocate those costs between new customers and existing customers.
[05:13:25] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that. Who's paying the Load Development Fee and when is it paid?
[05:13:32] Director Nico Procos: The new customers pay the Load Development Fee. And it can vary in time when they pay it. I mean for example, a data center, we have a substation agreement with different ramps, and so they might pay a certain amount upfront and then a year later when they go up to a higher, they use more energy, they'd pay that higher amount. So it's incremental. But it can vary quite a bit between different customers.
[05:13:59] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: I'm sorry, when you say higher amount, is that a higher rate or a higher fee?
[05:14:04] Director Nico Procos: It's the fee is the same, so it would be, so for example if a customer's using 10 megawatts, it's 10 times whatever the fixed fee is. And if two years later they're using, they go up to 20 megawatts per our agreement that we might have with them, then it would be the incremental times whatever the fee. Now the fee could change, it has changed over time, so it doesn't necessarily mean it will be the same. And that fee is approved as part of the rates that is approved by City Council.
[05:14:35] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: One last question, I'm sorry. The Load Development Fee for a large data center, maybe 100 megawatts, would be about what now if they were going to use 100 megawatts?
[05:14:49] Director Nico Procos: I believe the fee is about 500... 660 per KVA, so that's... you use 100 megawatts as the example? So 100,000 times...
Segment 8
[05:15:00] Director Nico Procos: That's what they would pay. That's what they would pay at peak, not necessarily upfront. It would depend on the ramp. They could ramp over five years or more. Unfortunately, we have different agreements and different vintages of agreements and so we've structured them kind of differently.
[05:15:19] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: I think in my head that came to 66 million dollars.
[05:15:22] Director Nico Procos: It did. Yeah. Yeah.
[05:15:24] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: If I can, I think the answer to the question is the load development fee is paid by new customers and certainly a 100 megawatt data center will pay quite a bit more and that rough math is right. It could be, at our current load development fee, 66 million for a large data center that helps to cover the cost of acquiring the power for that data center. In addition to the normal monthly charges. And so that is a structure that Santa Clara has put in place so that people will pay their fair share of that upfront capital cost.
[05:16:08] Councilmember Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain: I think I understand. Thank you.
[05:16:09] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Hardy.
[05:16:10] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Quick question then. Suppose we approve this tonight and then we do our cost of service report and if for some reason we find that we have overcharged our residents, what is the plan then, if that is the case?
[05:16:34] Director Nico Procos: So, I mean that is a possibility. And I kind of touched on it a little bit before, that it's not unusual necessarily to, you see this, it's fairly unfortunately common with different utilities, electric utilities. And so the Council, we'll present options to the Council at that point. For example, you can always phase in getting to equity and parity. That's an option there as well and then one that's fairly commonly used. I think the challenge is that once you start opening up the cost of service, it's going to reveal certain results and then we're going to have to take some actions based on that.
[05:17:20] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Sure. The Council will be familiar with the type of studies we do for our fees and charges which we do periodically. That's a common practice to set those fees, you do the study, you determine the cost to provide that service for that period of time. Five years later you may do a new service, a new survey, the costs have changed, you adjust your fee. I do think it's very, very important to say that while I know a couple members of the community have said that they feel that residents are subsidizing data centers and there's this potential assumption that the study will reveal that residents have overpaid, it may also reveal that residents have underpaid, right? And so it's important to note that we want to do the study by a third party outside entity, but hold off on projecting out what that could be until that work is done. And typically what communities do is they look forward after they have that data and decide how to ramp up.
[05:18:29] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Vice Mayor Cox.
[05:18:32] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Thanks. Sorry that I didn't ask during the first round, but I wanted to expand upon Councilmember Jain's question about the load development fees and capital projects being one of the big issues to fund here. I remember when I signed on, and I'll preface this by saying again, I think we do a very poor job at educating our community on the way our fees work. And so we start obviously quite a bit lower, substantially lower than PG&E, but I don't think anybody wants to just continue to hear, 'Hey, we're 60% lower than PG&E.' What they want to see is, 'What's this compared to last year? And where am I going from here?' So when we look at what data centers are doing for our community, I think it would be important for us to start with the message of what would it look like for ratepayers if data centers weren't here and what would they be paying then? Because it would be wildly more than they're paying now. So this idea that we as residents are subsidizing is actually backwards. We get cheaper rates because of the data center industrial usage in our city.
[05:19:43] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Capital project funding, again, when I look at capital project funding through load development, statistically here if we actually put this in real numbers, for like a $110 million project, and this is a slide that I got and I just wanted to say this out loud so it made sense and I think this is hopefully what we were getting at: 35% of that would be a load development fee. And again proportionately that goes to our industry partners. Which means they'd be paying 71.5 million of our capital projects. 4.3 million would go to residents. So when we talk about equality and equity, the cost sharing here is already crazy. And again, I don't think anybody is at fault for saying my rates are going up, why? I think we need to do a better job explaining how this process works.
[05:20:29] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: One of the things I thought you said that was interesting was you guys are monitoring social media to see what reactions are. What are you going to do with that information? If people are mad, what do we do? I mean, that almost makes it sound like if enough people complain we're going to take action. And I actually don't want to give residents hope that that is an open forum for change. So what are you doing with that? And then again, our proposal for 2026 at 4%, you said that you want to believe that this will continue further on at a 4% level. How far out? I know this year our projection was 2% and, you know, based on tariffs and changes we went up 2%. But I'd like to understand if we stuck with that 2% in the budget that we built, what would we have to do in terms of reductions to our capital projects?
[05:21:17] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: And then again, I think that one of the things that we need to reframe our conversation around, maintaining our reserves feels like we're spending in surplus. I want to look at that as a risk mitigation strategy instead of looking at it, and I know Kenny said you'd talk about this later. But and again, how does the updated 4% increase or improve our accuracy to forecast going forward so that we can give stability and consistency to our residents? This shouldn't feel, I think that if we look at our budget and what we plan, 4% is really reasonable. I mean, it's necessary with our events, with our security, with our infrastructure, with our capital improvements, all of that. What I want to make sure is that this doesn't feel like a 'gotcha' to our residents.
[05:22:01] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. So if you'd like to answer those questions.
[05:22:04] Director Nico Procos: Um, in terms of the rate increase, you know, in light of the circumstances and the pressures, and a lot of this has to do with, it's just becoming increasingly challenging to operate an electric utility in California. So wildfire is one area, and then also building up some of those reserves to be able to deal with those unforeseen circumstances. So the engine failure, things of that nature. And then also if we have customers that should leave as well. And so we really felt like that 4% was the right number. We have, our projections are for continued 4%, but we're also seeing significant growth in those reserves. And so I think right now this is what we have before you, but next year if we continue to see that trajectory and things are looking pretty good, I think it's very reasonable to have a conversation as like, should it be something different besides 4%? Should it be a 2%? So we certainly will, when we're here next year, we can have that conversation with Council and you can decide which way you want to go on that.
[05:23:13] Director Nico Procos: In terms of social media, you know, we monitor it. So far things haven't really taken off. We do have a team that keeps an eye on this and it's like we do have, if something should gain traction, you know, we want to be mindful of that. It's something that we want to pay attention to. I mean, we care about what our customers think and we know that there's impacts to customers. I mean, 4% may not sound like a lot, but to some people it is a lot. And that's important for us. I mean, we like to tout that we have the lowest rates in the land. I mean, I'm a PG&E customer, I'm envious. But at the same time we also know that these are real costs to people and so we want to make sure that we're keeping track of that and really developing a strategy if it should come to that.
[05:24:05] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: And just to piggyback on the response as our rates compared to others. One of the things we did provide in the presentation is our rates not just compared to PG&E but all of the other munis. And what you saw in that is we are the second lowest in the state. In reality, we are the lowest electric utility with over 10,000 customers in the state of California. Turlock, the lowest, has around, has under 10,000 customers. And when you look at us compared to all of the other electric utilities, what do we have? We're the largest data center cluster on the West Coast, right? And so that's why we have our rates at where they are now.
[05:25:08] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: The agency like a lot of electric utilities has not historically done a cost of services study, but due to Council questions and residential sentiment, we are committed to do a cost of services study. And I will just say once again, the results of that I think will be enlightening no matter where they land. But I do not think that we should project out that they will be on one side or the other. We really need to allow the expert to come in and really analyze that. Thank you.
[05:25:43] Director Nico Procos: I was just going to add that we just did a ratings review and we were held steady. S&P just released a report actually this past week where some municipal utilities are getting downgraded due to their financial situation. So we are fortunate and we are unusual too. I mean, not only do we have that, the data center and large customer kind of concentration, but we also have increasing sales. You saw in the presentation that it's projected to double. And there's costs associated with that, but there's also a lot of benefits. It helps put downward pressure on rates.
[05:26:42] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Gonzalez.
[05:26:46] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I was going to say, as Vice Mayor Cox so well said, I like your comments there. The thing that I would mention here, as we, and I'm glad that our City Manager mentioned that we track our rates compared to other utilities throughout the state to show that we're basically the cheapest over 10,000 rates. But at the same time, when we compare ourselves to PG&E, it doesn't feel good that we're still at 57% when they're increasing, you know, double digits. So we want to make sure that we do this study and make sure that we're addressing and basically charging what we should be charging. At the same time, you know, we do have rates that I can tell you are just are really good as far as what we're seeing here in Santa Clara. And that's why we're seeing not only the people that want to be here, businesses, residents, and obviously the data centers, but there's reasons for that.
[05:28:26] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: And Nico, I think we're building a lot of housing in the Northside, so if you want to look into moving from PG&E area to ours, I think that's beneficial. But definitely I'm going to be supporting this and looking forward to the rate study to see if there's anything else that we need to adjust. And just as a matter of, a AA minus rating is good. I know that a similar footprint as ours, as Santa Clara Unified has, has a AAA rating with Moody's and Poors. And obviously it benefits them in being able to get better rates when they're going out to their bonds and stuff. So if we can improve ours and be better capitalized to mitigate any adverse things that we may see here in the future that we don't see coming forward, it's definitely beneficial to us.
[05:29:20] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Park.
[05:29:25] Councilmember Kevin Park: So, so I hear what you're saying and I hear a lot of the comments about, 'Well, we would be paying more if it weren't for our large commercial customers.' And I think that that's absolutely true in the beginning. But once the infrastructure gets built out, I think that becomes less and less true. I think that once the infrastructure is built out, then we worry about cost of maintenance. We worry about moving additional power to different places. But I think what we've heard from the residents is a big factor which is a lot of the power that's being requested right now, we're trying to double our power. We're trying to go from about 700, 750 megawatts to 1.3 gigawatts. Higher than that.
[05:30:49] Councilmember Kevin Park: Just so people know, that's the amount of power that they use to train ChatGPT-3. It's just to put the amount of power that's needed to train these large AI models into perspective. But as the infrastructure is built out, I think that we're paying for new transmission lines for higher power, not necessarily because of residential uses, but because of data center uses. And it is quite possible, well, it is true that we get benefits from that. We get newer equipment, we get better redundancy. I think we have redundancy anyway, but we've got newer equipment. But if you ask why are we building that infrastructure, it's not because of the residents that we're building the infrastructure.
[05:31:44] Councilmember Kevin Park: I think that in other jurisdictions, they've got a fee that says if the infrastructure is required by a new use or a new user, then the entirety of the fees are paid by that new user, right? That's to build it out. That's so we don't have residents or we don't have other users subsidizing equipment that's only needed by a new user. We have a rate stabilization reserve target of 10%. We've got operation and maintenance reserves above 180 days of operating expense is 90 to 100. When you stated that it was above, we were above that amount, does that mean above the minimum or above the range? Is it above 90 days or is it above the 90 to 180 days?
[05:32:28] Councilmember Kevin Park: And then when we're setting rates, what are we targeting when we set these rates? I mean, we say 4%, but to be honest, I mean I've been saying this for a long time, a lot of the residents that are out there, especially people who retired, a lot of seniors, they're on fixed incomes. The cost of living increases are 2.5%. I mean, we looked those up. And I've said this every single time we've increased rates, that any time we increase our rates greater than the cost of living, we're actually stealing money from other sources, other things that they could be using the money for. I mean, again, most of us, some of us are on fixed income, some of us are not, but I don't think we're thinking like the people who are on fixed incomes, which was a large majority of the people in my neighborhood when I started coming to Council meetings.
[05:33:12] Councilmember Kevin Park: And we have so many customers that we have promised power to, but we never built that out. My question is through the years, it's been many years, decades that we haven't built out power, did we, did they still pay the full load development fee? Did they just didn't pay the increased fees as they brought on more power? I mean, what happened to that load development fee? I mean, I have a very strong belief that residents should pay for the service infrastructure they need. And I think that yes, it is true that in the beginning having large commercial customers subsidize the infrastructure is good. But as the infrastructure gets built out and we're building new and new infrastructure, we're trying to double the power. We just signed up for a battery project in Southern California and San Bernardino County that, I don't know if it'd be necessary if we didn't have these large commercial users coming in.
[05:34:06] Councilmember Kevin Park: Like we've got a number of projects, like Related, I think Related only has nine megawatts of power there and that's only enough to power the first phase. I don't know that we ever would have built that out or we can build that out because I don't know if we have the power to do that. Same thing with the Oracle campus. I think the Oracle campus was, you know, told that they can use up to a certain amount, but we put in less than half of that. And they must have paid the load development fees and they must have, we must have used that money someplace. Where did that money go? I'm worried that we have a pyramid scheme where we're chasing new customers with more and more load development fees to backfill the infrastructure we never put in and to backfill the money that we've already spent. It's a concern.
[05:34:52] Councilmember Kevin Park: And the biggest thing is, when we have customers, when we have customers that are paying rates, we should be using the monies that we're bringing in. We just voted to bring what, another $30 million per year into our general fund of excess money. I think that if we've got that kind of money to transfer into our general fund, I mean I just came back from National League of Cities conference where I talked to people and they said, 'Well, you have to be very careful when you're moving monies from an enterprise fund into your general fund.' There are a lot of things that you, there are a lot of reasons to do this, a lot of reasons not to do this. I mean, we talk about it very well. We talked about we're doing this to support our public safety. But to put in perspective, if we've got $30 million to put into our general fund every single time, every single year, I almost feel like some of those funds should be used to stabilize costs. Like at some point we should have a, you know, a goal in what those fee increases should be. Those shouldn't be 4% because we want these other things. We should keep in mind that we are transferring $30 million a year into a general fund and maybe some of these fees should be used for cost stabilization for our customers. Like any time that we raise rates greater than the cost of living, we need to stop and think, you know, do we need to do that? Right? This is something that I really, I really strongly feel.
[05:36:22] Councilmember Kevin Park: I mean, and to put it in perspective, we've got a general fund of how much? You know what it is. It's over $300 million. $300 million for just our general fund that salaries and pensions get paid out of. That's larger than the entire city budget for the city of Cupertino. I mean, just our portion for public safety is larger than the entire general fund Sunnyvale uses for all of its pensions and salaries. Like I think at some point we need to start looking at where our monies are going. I mean, I'm glad that we have one of the highest paid public service, you know, our public servants are some of the highest paid in the state, if not the highest paid. But at some point, when we look at where the monies are coming from and what we could be doing with the monies and when we use the word reserve, maybe we should start thinking about how we stabilize rates for residents. So, and again, I agree, maybe it will show, like I have, I come from high tech and I know that if you want to benchmark something, tell me what you want the answer to be and I can give you a study that shows that. I think at some point we need to look at what could residents be paying? Like what could we do? I hear every single time we raise rates, 'Oh well, our rates are still lower than everybody else,' but that's what we call a treadmill, right? We can just increase the speed of the treadmill as long as it's slower than the person next to you. And I'm saying at some point there's going to be a rate at which it's still too fast. And if we have the ability to keep our rates lower, the question is why aren't we looking at how we do that?
[05:37:59] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Thank you, Mayor. In response to a few of the questions that Councilmember Park raised. Councilmember Park, know that we did note them. Many of those we will address in the biannual update that will be scheduled for May just because of your impacted business calendar we could not get that on in December. With regard to the cost of services study, it will be a comprehensive study that looks at Santa Clara both not just O&M but also capital costs. Additionally, your question with regard to load development fees and those prior load development fees, certainly as with our impact studies and other fees, things were negotiated years ago and the rate at that time was X and now the cost to procure is Y. We do not, you know, based on when we sign agreements, we do not have the ability, depending on the terms of those agreements, to go back and extract additional funds. There were some agreements where the city accepted upfront payment and there are other agreements where the payments are phased. And so the city's substations agreements frankly vary and they're all individual negotiations. But as you know and I think as you've been updated over the last year and a half certainly, we have adjusted practices from what occurred in the past and we will provide a full update on that at the biannual report.
[05:39:49] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Also worth noting, you mentioned a few data centers, not wanting to discuss each of them by name, but I think in general what we are facing is, and frankly all utilities are facing is that there is currently a demand for power that far exceeds the ability to provide, right? That is not something that's just facing us. It's facing frankly every electric utility across the country. We have a unique advantage. Not only are we a municipal utility, but because we have so many data centers and we were already in that market, we were able to forecast and that's why this community several years ago embarked on a very aggressive power expansion program to frankly serve the existing customers and new customers that are coming in. What we are frankly also seeing with a number of our substation agreements are we are meeting the letter of those, right? When they were signed, it was understood by the data centers that we do not have the power, that way we have a load ramp or we have terms to get you the power. But the market is such where people are coming back to us and saying, 'Hey, I have a client, they really want to open this data center. Can I have more power sooner? What if I do X? What if I do Y? Can you give me more power?' And so we're having those questions like all electric utilities that have data centers because frankly the market is so red hot for electricity that even if you have an approved, a signed agreement with a data center, they would like to engage you if they have a client that is ready to move. And so we have those conversations, sometimes adjustments can be made, other times they can't. And we've all been a part of those discussions and I know individuals reach out to us as staff, they reach out to legal counsel, they reach out to council members, and there's also media stories. And so it's the nature of the market and certainly we're working for the betterment of the residents of Santa Clara every day. Thank you.
[05:41:51] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Councilmember Jain.
[05:41:52] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Yeah, typically we keep the reserve, the rate reserve there for spikes like in January 2021, the price of natural gas went from about three dollars to about 18 dollars per thousand cubic feet and we had to go on the spot market to buy natural gas. And that put a, really depleted our reserves. And we didn't raise increases, we didn't increase rates immediately, but we had to increase them later that year twice and then the following year once substantially. So knowing that inflation is somewhere between 2.5 and 3% already, having a zero increase means that we will be digging into our reserve for no reason whatsoever, no unexpected price hike in the natural gas price. So I would like to go with staff's recommendation.
[05:43:37] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: A zero increase doesn't mean we're digging into our reserves because we actually are flying a little bit blind on this right now. And I have to say, I do follow social media and I don't recall anyone supporting this rate increase. So, I mean that's natural, right? But there was some pretty strong comments about this rate increase. And I think this all leads back to what Vice Mayor Cox had originally said is that we don't do a very good job on communicating with our constituents out there about the narrative about data centers and how there is many that believe that the residents are supporting the financial, you know, wherewithal of the data centers and other things. And so I think by going out with a 4% increase, which is a large increase, that it's, without explaining anything, that's why I think the cost of services study would be really helpful. But right now just, okay, 4%, 5%, 4% for the next few years. I mean it's, without something behind it that we can really explain 'this is why we need this', I think that narrative is going to continue out there that the residential rates are, we're supporting the businesses, which is not true, but let's prove it and let's tell them and show them why. So yes, there's no happiness out there about this. There's a lot of discontent about this, about this increase. And until we change it and communicate better, it's going to just get worse. All right, Councilmember Park.
[05:45:19] Councilmember Kevin Park: Yeah. So, I mean, there were a lot of questions in my previous comments as well. I mean, we talked about so many customers that we promised power to and never built out. Did they pay the load development fee? What did we do with that fee? Power fulfilled to sites like Oracle, Related, EdgeCore, where they tell us that they, you know, even customers that data centers that we've approved but they're not breaking ground for a couple of years because, well, we don't have the power yet. I am really concerned about how we do a cost of service study. Meaning if we do a cost of service study in general, it'll show I think that residents need to pay more. But if we look at what the situation is, who's asking for the power? Why we need to build the power out? Why are we doubling the power? I mean if we doubled the residents, number of residents in this city and we didn't build the additional data centers, I don't think we'd need additional power at all. I think that even taking one project offline would cover that when you look at the numbers. So at some point, it's not the residents that are causing us to double to look at doubling.
[05:47:04] Councilmember Kevin Park: I think at some point we are looking at how we can make money on data centers. Data centers, I mean I'll tell you, I work in AI. I've gone to so many conferences, given talks at conferences when we talk about energy and how it's related with AI. And right now the only country that's positioned to do really well is China because of their hydroelectric and their solar and all the other things that they're putting in place. We're not even a tenth. The United States is not even a tenth of what China is putting online. At some point the limiting factor is not going to be Santa Clara when it comes to AI. I also know that the types of AI that we're using 90% of the power on is not what we should be using. We should not be using a generative AI engine for an internet search. The fact that people do it, the fact that, you know, the big tech companies like Google are trying to do that, are shoving that down our throats, that's completely independent from how we should be doing, how we could be energy responsible even with our AI usage. If we pointed, that's not going to be an AI talk, thank you for coming to my AI Ted Talk, but if we pointed to static vetted answers instead of having to generate a generative AI answer every single time you asked 'what's the weather?', 'who won the game yesterday?', that would save us tremendous amounts of power. It'd be faster too. But we're not doing these kinds of things. I am concerned that if we do a cost of service study that we will show that, well, residents could pay more. I'm really concerned that we do a cost of service study that mirrors what's happening here in Santa Clara with infrastructure that's built out, with the infrastructure requirements that we need, who's asking for them and what the residents, what the residents should pay into that.
[05:48:34] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right. I don't have any other speakers. Oh, Councilmember Gonzalez.
[05:48:42] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: I'm going to make a motion for the staff recommendation.
[05:48:45] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Second.
[05:48:46] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay. We have a motion by Councilmember Gonzalez for staff recommendation. Second by Councilmember Jain. I, thank you very much. I think you're done for now. I want to say I'm not going to support the motion. I think that one of the benefits we have in Santa Clara for our residents is that we have a very robust business use of our electric utility which has benefited our city for, what, 170 years? 150 years? I can't remember the actual date because it's 11 o'clock at night. And so I see the revenues from SVP flowing into our general fund and they're increasing and they're increasing at a higher rate than I would have expected and they're going to continue to increase because business here in Santa Clara is expanding dramatically. And so dramatically that we're challenged to keep up with it, especially the way the world is changing with artificial intelligence and the need for power. That's what the big issue is in the entire valley is the need for power. And we've answered that and we're moving as fast as business will let us move, as fast as we can as a governmental agency enterprise fund. But I think that our residents should benefit from that. And I'm not happy that we're not the lowest in the state, that we are the second lowest, even if it is a different enterprise fund. Because I think that our residents deserve the lower rates. It's difficult to survive in this environment. And when you talk about our residents and our small businesses, they are the ones that are suffering through all of this. I would be okay up to 2%, that was forecasted, but nothing more than that for our residential rates until we do this cost of services study. I think it probably should be zero until we figure out what we actually need to be charging. So I think that the 4% is just something that has been 'okay well let's project 4% every year coming for the next 10 years'. I don't think it's a legitimate number until we actually get more data. But I will always err on the side of keeping our residential rates the lowest we can possibly keep them because our residents are, and they have traditionally accepted all the business in our city. They've accepted it and it's benefited our residents in many ways. But I think we should continue to benefit our residents and I can't support a 4% increase. Vice Mayor Cox.
[05:52:27] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Um, on that, is it possible to deter this until we get a cost of rate study or how long would that take?
[05:52:34] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: So, I'll invite the Director back up to discuss that but the utility has not historically done a cost of services study. It's not something that every utility does. And so you have set rates every year without a cost of services study based on budgetary projections which is a normal, common, and customary practice. I'll ask the Director to talk about the timing of the cost of services study.
[05:53:03] Director Nico Procos: Right now we're projecting the cost of service to bring it forward in Q2 or Q3. As the City Manager mentioned, it's been some time since we've undertaken a cost of service study. We're anticipating that there's going to be some interesting results and we're going to have to, you know, struggle a little bit in terms of what we bring forward to the Council. I mean I will say, I think in theory it's possible to defer it. I know that sometimes when we, I mentioned earlier about ratings agencies and it's like they like to see constant kind of, you know, willingness to make adjustments to rates. They tend to not view favorably kind of deferring things. But it is possible.
[05:54:05] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: I will say as Council will know, the last few years we've made a concerted effort to improve our reserve position due to a number of risk factors. And I think as shown in our rate increase in 2023 and 24, frankly because of one of the largest natural gas spikes, we had to increase our rates by 23% in just those two years. And so maintaining moderate rate increases to keep up with rising costs and continue to build our reserves is why you have the recommendations before you. Certainly that can be adjusted if the cost of services study determines that we need to adjust downward. So my recommendation would be based on the information that was presented, that the Council consider adopting the rate increase that's needed to keep pace with rising costs and continue to build our reserves and once we get that study, if we need to adjust upwards or downwards, we take full stock of that information and make the appropriate adjustments at that time. Which may also mean phasing them in.
[05:55:23] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right. Please register your vote. And that passes 5 to 2. Thank you. All right. We're going to go now to the first item pulled for discussion from the consent calendar.
[05:56:04] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Madam Mayor.
[05:56:05] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Yes.
[05:56:06] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: I'm just wondering, your prerogative obviously to take things up in order. To the extent we run out of time, you know, tonight, you, the Council will...
[05:56:16] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: What has to go tonight?
[05:56:17] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Yeah that's what I wanted to discuss.
[05:56:20] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: We have time for one item. So what would that be for tonight?
[05:56:25] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Maybe the vesting tentative map. Considering we're meeting tomorrow. We should do the vesting tentative map. It would be nice to take a look at the items that were pulled if we do not get to them.
[05:56:38] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: No, they're not timely. So I mean it's not something that has to happen tonight.
[05:56:44] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: The financial report, no. The travel policy, no. The general plan amendment. OK to pull to continue?
[05:56:55] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Pick one.
[05:56:57] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: No, no, the public hearing should definitely go tonight. So can we, uh, two items. The open space item goes into effect January 1 so if we can take item 7.
[05:57:11] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: You want item 7?
[05:57:13] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: 7 and 8.
[05:57:15] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay. We're going to do item 7 and then whatever is left we can defer till tomorrow.
[05:57:20] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Yeah and ideally item 8 as well, Madam Mayor, since it's...
[05:57:23] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Well, we have till midnight so it depends how quickly this Council gets through item 7.
[05:57:26] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Option's going to be terrific. Watch.
[05:57:29] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay, just, you're looking at me but I'm, why don't you look at all them. Okay. Thank you. Um, right now we're on Item 7. Public Hearing: Action on a General Plan Amendment to the City's Open Space Element to add policies to address climate resilience and other co-benefits of open space, to help increase access to open space for everyone, and to preserve, enhance, and expand a network of open spaces. So it's a public hearing which I'll declare open. City Manager.
[05:58:07] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: I'll turn it directly to the Director.
[05:58:08] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Welcome.
[05:58:10] Director Lia Theologides Mukhar: Okay. Thank you. Thank you Mayor and Councilmembers. And I will go through this very quickly because this is basically a General Plan Amendment with minor text edits to be consistent with state law. So state law is 1425 and by 2026, January 1, it requires us to include policies in the General Plan to address climate resilience and co-benefits of open space, issues of access to open space for everyone, and to preserve, enhance and expand a network of open spaces. So what does that mean for our General Plan? It means basically consistency in terms of the text. So staff was kind enough to put our existing goals and policies which you see on the right side of this slide and the underlined text is what we are proposing in order to be consistent with this state law.
[05:59:37] Director Lia Theologides Mukhar: We are already a built out city so we don't have a lot of open space identified in our General Plan, it's very minor. So the language just basically adds words. For example it says a comprehensive network or for everyone or a network of trails along creeks and other rights. In terms of climate policy it says carbon farming on open space and partnered with conservation districts etc., or sustainable planting guide, support local organizations. So this is really very broad and it encourages us to do those items. So we do have two efforts underway. One is our Public Works Creek Trail Network Expansion Plan and the other one is Parks Recreation Master Plan. When these are updated in the future both of these will also be consistent with the text language that I showed you on that previous slide. And then this is a map and the reason we're showing you this map is basically we're updating the diagram and the new diagram proposes consistency by adding this proposed trail for 2025 and also along the creek as well. So these are again very minor updates.
Segment 9
[06:00:00] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: I'm going to go to the public, so to give you a little time, maybe someone will respond to you. Uh, so let's go to the public and see if there's anyone that would like to make a comment on this? Two... comments? No. Another item. Anyone online?
[06:00:19] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: No.
[06:00:21] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right. Do I have a motion to close public hearing?
[06:00:26] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: So moved.
[06:00:27] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Second.
[06:00:28] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. We have a motion by Councilmember Gonzalez, seconded by Councilmember Chahal to close public hearing. Trying to save time here. All right. Wait, wait one second. Please register your vote. And that passes unanimously. All right. There we go.
[06:00:53] Director Lia Theologides Mukhar: Okay. So carbon farming is planting additional trees to absorb carbon and open space is an ideal space or area for additional landscaping.
[06:01:03] Councilmember Karen Hardy: And the question was, are we talking about along Calabasas Creek, which is... it is Valley Water land.
Segment 8
[06:01:25] Director Lia Theologides Mukhar: So recommendation to Council, this did go to Planning Commission and Planning Commission recommended approval to Council. So staff is recommending that Council find that the Addendum for the General Plan Environmental Impact Report complies with CEQA and that the adoption of the Open Space Update would not result in impacts beyond described those in our existing General Plan EIR and adopt the General Plan text amendments. Thank you and I'm here for any questions.
Segment 9
[06:01:35] City Attorney Glen Googins: If I could... while she's looking for a answer, I was wondering if Council, is there a problem... Glen, with us putting that on there when it's not our land? And in the case of SFPUC's easement over the Hetch Hetchy where they have turned that down multiple times or given us really, really strict limitations that made it impossible.
Segment 8
[06:01:56] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Hardy. Question?
[06:01:58] Councilmember Karen Hardy: There's simple and basic and straight forward. I want to understand what carbon farming is. I read up on it and it wasn't really clear. And if you could go back to the map, the diagram as you called it, back one. I wanted to understand, it looked like you were going along Calabazas Creek and over the Hetch Hetchy easement where you put a proposed trail. I just wanted to understand because in the past SFPUC has said no to that and or with some major restrictions that would make it almost impossible. And then the Calabazas Creek, that's Valley Water land. So I was just trying to understand, are we just trying to propose what we'd like to see happen? That was it. Thank you.
Segment 9
[06:02:19] City Attorney Glen Googins: Yeah, no legal issue. We put, you know, these kinds of standards on land we don't own all the time. So I don't have a concern with this from a general plan standpoint.
[06:02:29] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right. General plan.
[06:02:31] Director Lia Theologides Mukhar: Okay. And we can partner. What it does says is, if we identify, we can partner with other agencies to carry this out in the future.
[06:02:41] Councilmember Karen Hardy: For the record, I would like to see it happen. I just know I've run into a lot of roadblocks.
[06:02:49] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Are we waiting for an answer or is that... Do we have the answers? We have all the answers. Thank you. All right. Is there a motion?
Segment 8
[06:02:50] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: That's it for the Council question?
[06:03:00] Director Lia Theologides Mukhar: Okay. And what, so your first question is what is carbon farming. And the second one is whether this is over Calabazas Creek and then the third is it's proposed over Hetch Hetchy where previously wasn't allowed. And I have staff online, they're trying to respond. So for Calabazas Creek and Hetch Hetchy, yes, those are also proposed in the Creek Trail Master Plan that is proposed by Public Works. And yes, it is consistent. And let me try to get a response on what is carbon farming. Uh, while you're doing that, I'm going to go to, it's a public hearing, I'll go to the public.
Segment 9
[06:03:02] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Somebody flip... I'll make a motion... oops, I gotta turn that on. I'll make a motion for staff's recommendation for the addendum to make our report and our general plan more in line with state law.
[06:03:20] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: Second.
[06:03:22] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: All right, we have a motion by Councilmember Hardy, second by Councilmember Gonzalez for the staff recommendation. Please register your vote. And that passes unanimously. Thank you, Council. All right. Our last item for this evening is Item number 8, which is a public hearing. Action on a vesting... We were going to take you anyway since you stayed, just FYI. Public hearing, action on a Vesting Tentative Map for a Proposed Common Interest Development of Six Single-Family Housing Units Located at 4503 Cheeney Street, continued from November 18, 2025 City Council Meeting. Uh, City Manager.
[06:04:19] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Yes. This item was delayed a number of times at the request of the developer. I will pass it to staff.
[06:04:27] Director Afshin Hamid: Okay. Thank you, Councilmembers and Mayor. This is a Vesting Tentative Map. Uh, and I'm going to go through this very quickly as well. Uh, there's two actions required tonight from Council. The first is to determine that it is exempt under CEQA 15332 for In-Fill Development Projects. And the second is to adopt a Resolution approving a Vesting Tentative Map for six single family housing units located at 4503 Cheeney Street and an Architectural Review application was already approved for this project.
[06:05:08] Director Afshin Hamid: Uh, so this is the site and, uh, uh, this is a zoom out and, uh, this is the project site itself with the, with the red, um, rectangle. Um, it is Low Intensity Residential. It's R2. It's currently a single-family home. It's about 18,000 square feet... more, uh, 18,651 square feet, um, lot. And it's surrounded to the east and west by, um, single-family planned development parcels and to the north and south are single-family homes.
[06:05:48] Director Afshin Hamid: Um, so the proposed project would take one lot and it would divide it into six lots as shown on this screen, plus one common, uh, access for driveway. Uh, the homes are about 2,700 square feet each. Uh, they have a two-car garage. They have landscaping.
[06:06:10] Director Afshin Hamid: And the project timeline is, um, in September 2023 it was submitted as a SB 330 application and then a formal application was submitted and then the zoning code was... the new zoning code was adopted in August of 2024. It did go to Planning Commission in, uh, October of 2025. And the key details here is that because this is an SB 330 application and, um, the new code was adopted in August, the classic code applies to this project.
[06:06:53] Director Afshin Hamid: Uh, so this is the Vesting Tentative Map itself. Uh, again, this is one parcel. It's, uh, about 18,000, uh, square feet. And tonight what staff is requesting is consistency with the General Plan as this would create additional residential development in proximity to jobs and advance the City Council's goals to produce new housing.
[06:07:30] Director Afshin Hamid: There is one deed-restricted affordable unit which would be at moderate rate. And then the subdivision and project are compatible in both character and size to other neighboring low intensity residential developments. Um, Council is also required to make consistency findings with the zoning code and this actually meets the subdivision parcel area and parcel frontage.
[06:07:59] Director Afshin Hamid: Public outreach was conducted. Uh, on September 25, 2025, uh, it went out to 500 feet of the project site. Uh, and 354 property owners, uh, were sent, um, the public hearing mailed notices. Uh, staff has not received any responses to those mailed notices and a community meeting was also held, uh, in November 2024. Eight residents did attend and they focused on the street parking and that the project meets all... the project does meet all off-street parking requirements.
[06:08:37] Director Afshin Hamid: The, um, CEQA for this is, um, 15332 and it's an exemption. The Planning Commission, um, did review this project. Uh, they did raise valid concerns... well, not really valid concerns, but they did raise comments, uh, about the affordable, uh, housing and one deed restricted will be at moderate.
[06:09:12] Director Afshin Hamid: They asked if the, uh, project meets the setbacks due to waivers and concessions and it does. Infrastructure impacts, um, and traffic needs. And it does not place any undue burden on surrounding properties or homeowners. And regarding the parking, each unit will have a two-car garage per the Santa Clara City Code, and all single-family homes are required to have two car... two covered parking garages. The Planning Commission recommended with a vote of 7-0.
[06:09:40] Director Afshin Hamid: Staff recommendation is that the, uh, Council find that the project is categorically exempt, um, from CEQA and adopt a resolution approving the Vesting Tentative Map at 4503 Cheeney Street. Thank you. I'm here for any questions.
[06:10:01] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. We'll start with questions before we go to the applicant. Does the Council... do the Councilmembers have any questions? We have Councilmember Hardy.
[06:10:12] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Very quickly. I was trying to... when I looked at the elevations, I saw clerestory windows and I wasn't real clear if those are on both sides or just the sides that of the interior... because it looked like it was only on one side and I wanted to make certain I understood the windows in regards to all the other existing and the proposed. Thank you.
[06:10:41] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Any other questions from the Council? Maybe the applicant can answer that in his presentation.
[06:10:47] Director Afshin Hamid: Yes, the applicant is here tonight. Uh, they're with Valley Oak Partners, uh, Jeff Aguilar. Thank you.
[06:10:53] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So I'm gonna call the applicant up. You have 10 minutes. Feel free to take every minute of those 10 minutes. Welcome. Thank you for hanging in with us the entire evening. Thank you. We appreciate your patience with us. Thank you.
[06:11:12] Jeff Aguilar: Thank you, Mayor Gillmor and City Council for hearing our item tonight. I do appreciate it. Um, I sit on the Planning Commission in my hometown and we've had a few robust hearings the past couple of months, so I understand.
[06:11:27] Jeff Aguilar: Um, my name is Jeff Aguilar. I'm with Valley Oak Partners. We are the applicant for this project. Uh, joining me, uh, tonight virtually is our architect, Eric Muzzy with Dahlin, and then also our civil engineer, Jesus Robles of CEA.
[06:11:41] Jeff Aguilar: Regarding your question on windows, yes, the home will have windows on each of the sides. One of the things the renderings does not show, but that we did agree to at the Architectural Review hearing, is the, uh, Director asked us to put, like effectively a mid-belly band on the outside of the home to break up the architecture and whatnot. And so that's something that you don't see there, but we agreed to it that night of the hearing. Um, so a change we will be making to the renderings when they are built, or the homes when they're built.
[06:12:18] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Is there anything else you'd like to say? You got nine minutes.
[06:12:23] Jeff Aguilar: Staff has been fantastic to work with. Uh, we've been working with them since 2023. And, um, when we... we've been at it, uh, in terms of collectively working with staff and the neighborhood. One of the comments was parking, um, in terms of just making sure we had adequate parking.
[06:12:43] Jeff Aguilar: We do have two side-by-side garage parking spaces. On top of that, when we did have our neighborhood meeting, uh, the residents or the community did bring up it was a concern. So we agreed to condition the project, it's a condition in the Conditions of Approval, not for the map but for the architecture, that effectively the garages must be used for parking. They can't be used solely for storage. That's all I have. I'm available to answer any other questions.
[06:13:11] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay. Do... Does Eric or Jesus have anything? Are you going to... they're on so...
[06:13:17] Jeff Aguilar: No, uh, they're available and on standby for questions.
[06:13:19] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Very good. Thank you. Uh, I don't see any questions from the Council. So what we're going to do is go to the public. It is a public hearing. I don't see anyone here in the audience, um, that would be here to speak. I can hardly speak. I'm so sorry. Um... Oh, here's a per... oh no, he works for us. All right. Anyone online? Do we have anyone online?
[06:13:52] City Clerk Bob O'Keefe: No.
[06:13:52] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay. Is there a motion from the City Council? Councilmember Gonzalez.
[06:13:58] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: Yeah, let me make a motion to close public hearing.
[06:14:00] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Second.
[06:14:02] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Motion by Councilmember Gonzalez, second by Councilmember Chahal to close the public hearing. Please register your vote. And that passes unanimously. Councilmember Gonzalez.
[06:14:24] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: Just want to make a comment that, that uh, District 1 is a highly desirable place. That area, um, is actually very close to the stadium, so you know, we have a new, uh, City and Neighborhood Relations Ad Hoc Committee that, uh, that is looking at traffic and other things to mitigate things for our residents there.
[06:14:45] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: But um, definitely I think it's a great place to be and I think the more housing we have the better and, you know, especially considering some of the things that even an email I saw earlier today from a larger development. But um, definitely want to be in support of this and I'll make a motion to uh, for staff recommendation.
[06:15:03] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Second.
[06:15:04] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay, we have a motion by Councilmember Gonzalez, second by Councilmember Chahal. Councilmember Hardy.
[06:15:11] Councilmember Karen Hardy: I just wanted to make certain when it says updated Conditions of Approval, because the architectural review details we have does not have that belly band. I just wanted to make certain that was added so that it breaks up that very, very basic side, especially where you have the clerestory windows.
[06:15:33] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: If you could come to the microphone. Thank you.
[06:15:36] Jeff Aguilar: I do not have the architectural review conditions in front of me, but that was an item that came up and I believe it should be in the minutes that we agreed to it as well.
[06:15:47] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Okay. If you could just put it as part of the motion, I would feel comfortable and could support.
[06:15:52] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: Including the architectural changes and updates that were made.
[06:15:57] Director Afshin Hamid: Um, so that's in the architectural permit already. It does not need to be in the Vesting Tentative Map.
[06:16:04] Councilmember Albert Gonzalez: Okay.
[06:16:05] Jeff Aguilar: Thank you.
[06:16:06] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Thank you.
[06:16:08] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So you take that back. Yeah. Okay. All right. So we have staff recommendation, uh, as a motion. When you're ready, City Clerk. Please register your vote. And that passes unanimously. See, it's worth waiting till the end of the evening, isn't it? Thank you very much for staying. We do appreciate it. We still have a little bit of time left, but um... I'm going to ask the City Attorney, how do we... do we continue Item 3M, N, and 4B?
[06:17:14] City Attorney Glen Googins: Yeah, Madam Mayor. It's actually pretty straightforward. There are just for Council's understanding, there are provisions in the Brown Act that allow you to do this. The additional requirement that imposes a little burden on the City Clerk is that we need to actually, because the meeting is so close...
[06:17:32] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So we don't adjourn the meeting? Do we not adjourn the meeting?
[06:17:35] City Attorney Glen Googins: Yeah, we have to... yeah, so we've got to post the notice of what you're doing immediately. So we've got to have my... Sue's putting together that posting right now and the City Clerk will do that after. But Mayor, what you'll do is you'll solicit a motion to continue the Items 3M, 3N, and 4B to the Special Meeting on December 17, 2025 commencing at 6:30 p.m. Um, and then once you approve that, Mayor, if there's approval for that, then you'll just adjourn the meeting to that time.
[06:18:22] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Is that a meeting time for tomorrow?
[06:18:24] City Attorney Glen Googins: It is... the open session starts at 6:30. Okay. All right.
[06:18:29] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Did somebody get that? Okay, let's see who did that. Vice Mayor Cox.
[06:18:34] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: I will do... but since I will not be able to attend the meeting tomorrow night, I pull 3M, and I think 3N is closely related to that. Can we continue those to a different date?
[06:18:48] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: So the next meeting after? Is that like the new year? 3M and N to January.
[06:18:56] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: Yeah. Can we have flexibility for the first or second meeting in January, if that's okay?
[06:19:01] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Yeah. Perfect.
[06:19:02] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Absolutely.
[06:19:03] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Okay. So that'll be in the motion?
[06:19:05] City Attorney Glen Googins: Yeah, so modifying that with 3M and 3N being continued to one of the meetings in January.
[06:19:12] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Absolutely. I move to continue the items pulled from the consent calendar 3M, 3N and 4... B? A? No one's helping me out... 4B. Um, to date suggested by the City staff and uh, yeah. All right. Thank you. Jeez.
[06:19:44] City Attorney Glen Googins: Just to be clear, are we having 4B go in January as well? Um, or does... are you okay?
[06:19:51] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Does it matter if we do it in January? I mean, do we have to do it tomorrow?
[06:19:54] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: That's what I'm just checking. So we'll take all of them. Okay. Yeah. So we'll take all three of them, makes it cleaner.
[06:19:59] Vice Mayor Kelly G. Cox: Okay. So I amend my motion to move all three of the consent items pulled for today to a January meeting of your choice.
[06:20:09] City Attorney Glen Googins: And in that case we don't need to do the special notice. We'll just add those items to that agenda.
[06:20:14] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Yay! Look how nice we are. Okay. Is there... Wait, is there a second? All right. I'm not gonna take anything for granted. So we have a motion and a second to continue those three items. Is there any discussion? Any public members? Anybody that wants to opine on this? Um, okay. City Clerk, when you're ready. Vice Mayor Cox, you're... you're still on. Okay. Please register your vote. All right, that passes unanimously.
[06:21:34] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: We're going to... oh... hold on. Um, is there any... does any Councilmember report a member special committee or 030 request from any Councilmember? Councilmember Hardy.
[06:21:52] Councilmember Karen Hardy: Thank you. The... our meetings have gone so late that I did not... we have not given our report from when we went to the National League of Cities, uh, the week before Thanksgiving. So, um, both Councilmember Park and I were there and a lot of the discussion centered around of cities concerned about data centers. And in speaking with many of them, they were really confused and didn't realize that you could put an impact fee for the infrastructure.
[06:22:30] Councilmember Karen Hardy: And this is what these cities were not doing that or even considering it. And I explained to a bunch of them that they should and must. So in that way I think we were helpful. Also there was a lot of talk about water usage, um, electric usage, and uh, cities making decisions for housing, uh, densities. Which was very interesting.
[06:23:07] Councilmember Karen Hardy: And um, and then we got... I got to take a few people on a tour of Temple Square because that's where I was married. So I got to do that on the Friday night and that was uh, individuals from Sunnyvale and from Mountain View that I took around. Uh, but for the most part, the most important thing I did was to take the tour up to the Olympic Village. And they took us up there and explained a lot of why they were able to make the Winter Olympics profitable and continuous.
[06:23:52] Councilmember Karen Hardy: And it really came down to being careful about the infrastructure and making it something that could last. And then having a plan for how it was to be used afterwards and using that surplus very carefully to keep the children's programs going. And mostly... most of their cost is for transportation to get them up to that area.
[06:24:18] Councilmember Karen Hardy: I also got to sit in a bobsled and there is no way I'm getting in one if it's moving. That was terrifying. But it was very interesting to see what they had done. And it... it helped me to... and they talked about the security as well. So it... it helped me to go through, are we doing the right things for our large events and are we planning correctly? And I feel like uh, I... we are doing a good job. It's not perfect but I think that that is the only Olympics that has made money and has been viable afterwards. And they did both of those. So that was... that was the most important thing probably I saw in Salt Lake. Thank you.
[06:25:20] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Councilmember Park.
[06:25:22] Councilmember Kevin Park: Yeah. I also want to say that I went to the Salt Lake City conference and I will say Salt Lake City is kind of amazing. I mean, it's uh, very cold, but every single path that I took uh, took me through the mall. Um, which I... I forgot it's the um, something River Mall. Karen knows how... she knows everything actually it turns out. But um, I really liked the way that everything was... was laid out. Whether it was food, whether it was going to the convention center, whether it was going to uh, the Mormon Tabernacle Church where we saw the... the choir.
[06:26:04] Councilmember Kevin Park: Everything took you through the city center. Like it was almost really hard to not... to avoid that area if you wanted to go anyplace interesting. Um, the mall was great. I mean it's very cold there, but you never felt cold because a lot of it's indoors and you can stay indoors um, a lot of the... a lot of the time. You could go upstairs and walk across the uh, skywalks and it was... it was so nice. And um, I think that's one of the biggest things that I'll miss.
[06:26:32] Councilmember Kevin Park: The uh, talks that I went to were... most of them were AI focused. I think that we have a very big um, disconnect when people talk about AI. I mean there's lots of different types of AI. There's generative AI, which I think needs a lot more discussion. In... in fact, we've had AI for decades, but the only reason that we're having AI talks today is because of generative AI. And even though that's the reason, we don't really consider what generative AI and how it differs from the rest of uh, logical and numeric AI.
[06:27:05] Councilmember Kevin Park: And uh, our governance, our policies and the suggestions that people bring to us are... are very indic... are indicative of the... our lack of understanding of generative AI. Um, so I'd like to, you know, talk to the City Manager later about these kinds of things. Talk to a lot of companies. I think that we can use it especially for PRAs, but um, who knows. There's a lot of dangers out there. Thank you.
[06:27:35] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: City Manager, do you have a report?
[06:27:38] City Manager Jōvan D. Grogan: No report.
[06:27:39] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Very good. Okay. Um, we have a couple of adjournments. I think one is Raj Chahal.
[06:27:47] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Thank you, Mayor. I would like the Council to adjourn today's meeting in memory of Linda Brosio Barber. Linda Brosio Barber, 82, passed peacefully at her home on December 13th with her husband of 43 years, Miles Barber, by her side. Born in San Francisco to John and An... and Anita Brosio, Linda grew up in Capitola with her older sister Elaine, younger sister Judy, and younger brother Jack. Her lifelong love for and devotion to family began there as part of a large Italian one that celebrated holidays and birthdays together with family and friends.
[06:28:35] Councilmember Raj Chahal: Linda served for many years on the board of Triton Museum, including as board president. She was also a Soroptimist for nearly 40 years, co-chairing the classy Bag Affair of the Soroptimist International of Santa Clara, Silicon Valley for a decade in addition to serving a... serving a stint as president. Linda is survived by her devoted husband Miles, daughter Shelly Divine and Charme Hartland, son-in-laws Greg Baiwski and Andrew Hartland, grandson Connor Hartland and Tyler Hartland, brother and sister-in-law Jack and Shirley Brosio, brother-in-law Gordon Likens and her beloved nieces and nephews, John Brosio, Christopher Likens, Lisa Likens, Shane Brosio, and Jacqueline Cervantes. Thank you.
[06:29:45] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: Thank you. Also this evening on behalf of the City Council and Santa Clara community, I'd like to adjourn tonight's meeting in memory of John Elwood, who passed away suddenly on November 30th. John dedicated nearly five decades to the construction industry, helping build many of the landmarks and institutions that serve our region every day, including hospitals, cultural institutions, and major campuses like Apple that shape Northern California.
[06:30:19] Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor: He took great pride in his work and was known for his integrity, his mentorship, and respect for the people that he worked alongside. John was also deeply committed to giving back through his service to organizations such as the Mission City Community Fund and the Santa Clara Police Activities League. He made a lasting impact on our community beyond his professional career. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his wife Carol, his daughters Julia and Kristin, and all who loved and admired him. May his legacy of service, generosity, and craftsmanship continue to inspire us. In memory of both John Elwood and Linda Brosio Barber's honor, this meeting is adjourned.