May 11, 2021 Regular Meeting of Mountain View City Council

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Transcript

[00:00:39] (archive recording) Mayor Ellen Kamei: So I'll go ahead and call a meeting to order. So good evening, everyone. Welcome to our study session for May 11, 2021. I am going to read the usual announcement as required. This meeting will be conducted in accordance with the state of California, executive order N dash 29-20. Dated March 17th, 2020. All members of the city council are participating in this meeting. By video conference, with no physical meeting location. Members of the public wishing to observe the meeting live may do so at Mountain View.legistar.com, on YouTube at Mountain View.gov slash YouTube, and on Comcast Channel 26. As noted on the meeting agenda, members of the public may provide oral public comments during the public comment period for the item. By signing up at mountain view.guv slash cc underscore speakers or by phone by dialing 669-9009128 and entering webinar ID 960 0568-6214. Any emails received by 4:30 p.m. today were received directly by the city council. Emails received after 430 PM will not be read during the meeting, but will be entered into the record for the meeting. All votes will be taken by roll call vote. I will move on to item 3 and the city clerk will take attendance by role.

[00:02:10] (archive recording) Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council number, I think, is that?

[00:02:12] (archive recording) Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Air

[00:02:12] (archive recording) Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Hicks?

[00:02:15] (archive recording) Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here,

[00:02:15] (archive recording) Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: council member labor.

[00:02:17] (archive recording) Councilmember Sally Lieber: Here,

[00:02:18] (archive recording) Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: counts my rheumata check.

[00:02:19] (archive recording) Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Here,

[00:02:20] (archive recording) Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member, Shelter.

[00:01:52] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Sure.

[00:01:53] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Vice Mayor Ramirez.

[00:01:55] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[00:01:56] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Mayor, can I?

[00:01:57] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Here. Great. So we'll move on to item three, which is our study session, our item 3.one, our downtown parking strategy. So the purpose of this study session is for the city council to provide direction to staff on the downtown parking strategy framework, and options to address current and future parking demand in downtown. This study session is limited to discussion of whether the downtown parking strategy should include parking supply solutions generally, specific options to increase parking supply, such as whether to construct a new parking structure or specific locations for a potential new parking structure, will not be discussed at this study session, and will be scheduled for a future meeting. After the staff presentation, the council will answer the following 2 questions in turn. Question one is, does counsel agree with the proposed framework principles and solutions for the downtown parking strategy? Question two, is this council agree with the recommended multifaceted approach to address the current and near term? Parking shortfall? So we'll have a business development specialist, Tiffany Chu, and principal planner, Eric Anderson, to present with Forrest. And then I think we have consultants, Phil Olmstead and Alex Mercury. will also be joining the meeting. So I'll turn it over to you, Ms. Chu. Thank you, Mayor May. Give me a moment to share my screen.

[00:03:34] Tiffany Chu: Okay. Good evening, um, mayor and city council. The purpose of tonight's study session is to provide information to the council on findings, key findings of our background analysis and to get council direction on the proposed downtown parking strategy framework. Downtown is a thriving commercial district with increased parking demand, while parking challenges are frustrating and important to address. Parking demand is an indication of a thriving and popular downtown. Our work aims to address the 4 primary goals identified by city council in 2019 at the beginning of this process and shown here on the slides. Parking is a complex issue affecting and affected by many interconnected projects and plans. The purpose of this strategy is for a comprehensive approach that reviews the impact of these projects, serves as an overarching document to manage current and future parking demand and provides direction on these projects. Here's an overview of the work done to date and where we are in the process. Today our discussion will be focused on our analysis of existing conditions, preliminary findings, and suggested framework. After council feedback and direction, will develop and refine the strategy and return to council for adoption in the fall. Our study area shown here is larger than the other downtown boundaries, to recognize that parking behavior does not limit itself to the parking district or to the precise plan. The initial phase of a review included a review of past plans, historical data, and a collection of new parking data. The council report included fact sheets with more information about existing conditions and the team's findings. The key findings include on street parking is free and unrestricted. As a result, do not adequately encourage turnover. Parking duration on Castle Street can exceed 10 to 12 hours and are not available to customers. Meanwhile, public off street parking, which is a focus of the city's investment and policy only accounts for 20% of all parking in the study area. And almost 2 thirds of these spaces are available for parking permit program, and office users are used the most of these permits. The map shows parking utilization during peak time, weekdays at noon, which indicates that even when demand is highest at lunch and dinner peaks, some parking is available. However, demand and utilization are not evenly distributed. Customers are unable to find available parking at the peaks, and parking management, must consider more types of users, including all day office employees and short-term shoppers and diners. Without better management, the most convenient and free spaces will have no turnover and may serve the wrong users. The analysis also looked at opportunities and challenges due to development. Parking demand varies by time of day and day of week for each land use. For example, office demand is highest from 9 to 5 on weekdays, and dining demand is highest at lunch and dinner time. This means that challenges and development patterns can impact how and when parking is needed or used. And if this, and that if spaces can be shared, parking can be more efficiently utilized between the uses. The analysis also looked at precise plan requirements. Single use parking is encouraged, which means that less efficient uses of spaces, which are empty for portions of the day, when others are in, when others may need them. High minimum parking requirements can overestimate demand and are hard to fit on downtown parcels and incentivize drivers instead of alternative modes of transportation. Last, parking and loop fees don't reflect the true cost of building new public parking. The staff report identifies the issues listed here. The project team is seeking counsel confirmation on these issues. The study also looked at parking utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic. Flexibility and adaptability will be vital for ensuring that downtown can adapt quickly and effectively. The team also gathered stakeholder input, including residents, businesses and developers. There is a perception that parking is inadequate and customers need help finding parking. Parking management is a problem and spillover in residential areas is a persistent issue. Meanwhile, businesses are not sure of what the next normal will be after COVID-19. Based upon the parking demand and analysis, the team has identified 6 guiding principles to guide development of a parking strategy. A comprehensive package of strategies to support COVID-19 recovery in the near term and guide growth and development in the long term, provide an equitable balance of public costs and benefits to meet the needs of everyone who lives, works, or visits downtown. Manage the existing public parking supply and focus resources to support the most efficient use of parking and development, be flexible to support downtown growth, be aligned with sustainability goals, and support the vision of a vibrant walkable downtown. Based upon these set of principles, the team prepared, proposes to develop and evaluate a range of potential solutions in these 3 interrelated categories. Management of parking supplies so that it can be managed more efficiently. Increasing parking supply through shared parking and partnerships, and creating incentives for alternatives to driving through TDM programs and promoting multimodal incentives for walking, biking, and transit.

[00:09:39] Eric Anderson: Thank you, Tiffany. Um, so in order to analyze future demand on public parking supply. The study looked at near term and long-term scenarios for development. These future scenarios are conservative. They assume no parking is built and no, there's no additional management or incentives provided. The purpose was to identify worst case scenarios so that we can address this shortfall through a range of solutions. The analysis shows a shortfall of approximately 600 to 700 spaces in the next roughly 10 years, if no action were taken. Our conclusion is that this is manageable. For example, transportation demand management and limited parking demand management could resolve the shortfall by itself. Just TDM on office may reduce demand by roughly 300, 200 to 300 spaces. Next. The best way to address these challenges is to be flexible and explore supply side as well as parking management solutions. Supply side list solutions are listed here and mainly include looking at partnerships to make as much parking available to the public as possible because it's the best way to leverage the high cost of providing parking for the most efficient use of these spaces. Next. It's important to understand that parking management is also a necessity. We can't just build our way out of the problem. It's also expensive and does have impacts on quality of life and sustainability. And the same issues will arise if parking demand is not managed. Therefore, managing parking demand will always continue to buy a priority in the strategy and some solutions are listed here. I have an opportunity right now though. to partner with several developers who are interested in building downtown. Alta and Marwood. These developers can help us fast forward solutions to address parking demand. These partnerships can help move forward on either one increase in parking supply or 2 fast forwarding the parking management solutions. Due to this opportunity and the need to be flexible in the future, staff is recommending an approach that includes pursuing these parking supply options with these partnerships. These partner, um, parking supply options include, you know, these agreements, development standards, and incentives to make more parking publicly available, um, and, uh, additional partnerships for more supply, as well as continuing to develop, uh, parking management solutions that might include TDM or alternative transportation and identifying additional funding sources for the per for that purpose. So the 2nd question for counsel is whether counsel agrees with this approach. So what comes next? Following feedback from council, we will continue to work on the downtown parking strategy with the intention of bringing it back for final adoption in the fall of this year. And if council desires to explore the partnership opportunity, staff will return to council at a later date to discuss this issue. So in summary, here are the 2 questions that we'd like counsel input on. And last slide. This concludes our presentation, as was said before, we do have Phil Olmsted and Alex McCurry from Nelson Nygard, who have been great consultants supporting us in this project, also available. And we are happy to answer any questions counsel has.

[00:13:23] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thanks so much, Ms. Chu and Mr. Anderson, since this is a study session, we'll just go to public comment first. Um, so would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item. If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone. And we'll display a 2 minute timer on the screen. Um, If possible. We ready? Okay.

[00:13:58] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Roberto Miller? Roberto, are you there? It says you're unmuted.

[00:14:20] Roberto Miller: Roberto Miller. Yes, I'm here. Can hear me now?

[00:14:24] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, we hear you now. Go ahead.

[00:14:25] Roberto Miller: Okay, my problem is I have too many microphones in my studio. Okay. Um, I just want to thank uh, city staff and uh, and counsel for uh, regarding this issue, uh, also for listening for uh, to the uh, parking subcommittee, which I'm a member of here in old Mountain View, and um, want to uh, say I think it's very encouraging that, uh, uh, with the view to look at the RPP program, uh, in a way that can be uh, realized, um, Because many neighbors here that I've spoken to on our block, we had a block check-in last night, about 45 of us were really interested in the parking this year that is downtown. And it's it's just for things like when, uh, businesses overflow into our neighborhood, uh, cars we parked so, uh, full on some of the streets here, um, that residents can't get their cars out and things like that, which we need to do, particularly on narrow streets. So I just wanted to bring that out and say this is an encouraging direction and really appreciate counsel looking at this. And I know the neighborhood wants to work with counsel and and, uh, uh, help get feedback and and, uh, anything else that we can do? So, so thank you.

[00:15:41] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. James, Cozamal.

[00:15:49] James Guzman: Yeah, um, James Guzman, I'm just uh, speaking of my, of course, won't be half here, and I want to, do want to call attention to some of the comments made in the um, NVCSP letters sent into council a couple hours ago on this, and emphasized that the, uh, issue we have downtown is not inherently that there's, uh, 2 little parking per se, but rather that it's not, we need to get more people downtown. And currently parking is by far the easiest way for people to do that, so we just default to that. And I went to see very strong emphasis going forwards on how we can reduce the amount of traffic downtown by reducing the parking supply ideally, such that we get more people biking, walking, taking public transit because as staff is noted. Parking is extremely expensive to be able to maintain. Parking takes a valuable land that we could be using for wider sidewalks or restaurant seating for bike lanes, all these things. And if we aren't actively approaching this with a strategy of how can we meet our climate goals, our air quality goals, our safety goals? in the long term, then we'll just continue boning, parking, but never get around to actually improving the bike destination facilities or improving transit service enough to achieve these things, and we really should be planning on sort of how do we, in a managed way, improve our downtown mode share, and ideally, as I said, reduce parking supply in the long term. And it seems like there's bits and pieces of that in the existing plans and they stock report as it is. Um, but I really want to see a much stronger emphasis on that and an explicit acknowledgement that, uh, we can't be even maintaining our current levels of traffic and parking downtown if we want to meet any sort of sustainability goals. Thank you.

[00:17:42] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you Robert Cox.

[00:17:49] Robert Cox: Do you hear me?

[00:17:50] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[00:17:51] Robert Cox: Okay. Honorable members of the city council. I'm Robert Cox speaking as co-chair of the residential parking subcommittee. I would like to echo what Roberto Miller has said, and thanks to the consultant for taking our concerns seriously, and including them in the staff report, and to echo what Roberto said about our being enthusiastic about the possibility of exploring a revision to the RPPP program that may even result in a non-fee program. Beyond that, our letter has a lot of suggestions in it. I'm just gonna mention one, and that's the, um, solving long-standing problems of parking and equity in our downtown neighborhood, and particular, you know, non-residents who will drop their cars in Mountain View overnight while they ride the public transit back to far off cities, and we end up having to store their cars overnight on our residential street. The other one is employees who arrive early in the morning and they park in premium, public or street parking spaces all day without charge, and they're often provided with parking spaces by their employer, but they just choose not to use them. So, We're more than happy to engage with staff, and the consultant defines solutions for this and other issues. Just thank you for engaging us and we are ready to partner with you more. That's it.

[00:19:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you Peter Katz. Peter, are you there?

[00:19:26] Peter Katz: I am. It took a moment for the unmute button to appear.

[00:19:29] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. All right.

[00:19:30] Peter Katz: Good afternoon. I'm Peter Cat, CEO of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce. And I want to thank you all for addressing this very important issue. Parking continues to be one of the primary concerns for downtown businesses. Usually, number one, 2 or 3 on their list. This was true before COVID and has remained true during the shelter and place orders in the opening of Castro pedestrians. It's even true with the fact that parking remains available, especially in the big lots, but also surrounding Castro. The plan provided by the city provides a logical and effective approach, and is future looking rather than just presenting an immediate solution. The chamber supports these efforts and also encourages utilizing technologies to facilitate finding empty parking spaces, such as Clever City, which is a solution that's being rolled out in Redwood City next month. That notifies drivers of space capacity in lots and on the street. as well as appropriate signage and other tools. We look forward to working with the city on parking, transportation, and other solutions that will bring more visitors and customers to damp mountain view merchants, and bring more activity and vibrancy to our downtown. Thank you again.

[00:20:47] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Drew Meyersick.

[00:20:54] Drew Meyersack: Hello, can you hear me?

[00:20:55] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[00:20:57] Drew Meyersack: Good afternoon, Mayor Commay, and Counsel, and, uh, we thank you so much for the opportunity to speak. My name is Drew Meyersack, and I'll be speaking today on behalf of Clever City, which is the leading Edge Technology Company, focused on mobility and Smart City Sustainable Parking Solutions. Uh, I want to thank Mr. Katz as well for the, uh, the kind words just a moment ago. Uh, on behalf of Clever City, we would like to encourage the mayor and council to support the proposal to explore additional parking supply solutions in downtown. Creative parking solutions serves an economic stimulus to local businesses who, as we all know, are in desperate need of support right now. Better parking solutions means drivers will spend less time idling in a vehicle and more time supporting a local business. In a post-pandemic world, this increased foot traffic is essential to revitalizing the downtown core. Such solutions not only benefit residents and businesses, but have positive environmental impacts as well. Time spent, searching for cars is not only frustrating, but it's time spent in a running vehicle. But the more efficiently, the drivers can find a spot, the less greenhouse gases they will admit. And it's quite as simple as that. Better parking solutions also reduce vehicle congestion, which provides a benefit to all residents and visitors traveling through Mountain View. And again, we support the staff recommendations and respectfully ask that the council approved the downtown parking strategy. We look forward to continuing conversations with the city of Mountain View around how to improve parking the downtown core and beyond. Thank you for your time and consideration.

[00:22:19] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Alexander Brown.

[00:22:25] Alexander Brown: Hey, I'd just like to add my voice to the choir and say I fully support removing all parking from downtown to try to force the issue. I think that having extra space dedicated just to cars when they're not being used is silly, and I want more pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. And the 1st step is getting rid of the incentive to have a car and use it to get everywhere and invest more in people. Thanks.

[00:22:51] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you Annette Nielsen?

[00:23:00] Annette Nielsen: First of all, I'd like to say thank you to Tiffany Chu and city staff for their outreach to those of us in the old Mountain View neighborhood. Um, to give us a chance for stakeholder input discussions and for reflecting our input in the proposed downtown parking strategy framework principles and solutions. We also want to thank counsel for considering our input as you address the parking challenges outlined in the proposed framework. We appreciate the acknowledged need for a coordinated downtown parking strategy and for parking management to address concerns. One of the concerns um, listed in the report, is limited on street parking management as related to continued and increased spillover of the parking from nearby businesses and Caltrain riders into the residential neighborhood. And one of the, the items proposed in the solutions section of the report is to explore allowing parking inloof fees from development projects within the downtown parking district to be used for costs and improvements that manage parking. Our question is this, if the California state legislature passes AB 1401, which would prohibit counsel from imposing minimum parking or inloof fees on new construction near the El Camino real and Evelyn transit hubs. Essentially, the majority of our old Mountain View neighborhood. How would council continue to generate the needed funds? Instituting paid parking was also listed as a solution, and also expanding the downtown parking district. Our question, what would this mean for residents who reside in the expanded area with paid parking areas expand as well? What would the RPPP look like? And we appreciate the suggestion in the report to expand the RPP with no permit fees and hope that staff will consider a not not consider a one size fits all because the needs of parking permits are different for those already in restricted zones as opposed to those who would be considering adding restrictions to their zones. Thank you.

[00:25:06] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. All right, I don't see any other hands raised. So I will bring it back to council. Um, then we can start with questions. Do members of the council have any comments or questions? And I see that our consultants have also joined in case we have questions for both staff and the consultants. I am not seeing any hands. Do any council members have questions? If not, we can go right into the questions. Council member Abby Koga.

[00:25:45] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you and thank you to staff and our consultants for this, um, very comprehensive uh, studied. Over the years, I, over a few years, we talk about downtown parking and I've been in and out of these discussions due to my, where I live. So I think I missed the last round, but I appreciate our city attorney getting clarification so that I can participate this evening in this conversation. Um, the question, uh, what, uh, let's see, question I have, um, has to do with um, the private parking. Uh facilities. So, um, I guess specifically, there's many, many different kinds that, um, For instance, an office building has an underground parking garage. Um, and it's underutilized. I know for future projects, we can negotiate or to discuss or require shared parking. Um, conditions. But for existing, um, private parking lots or garages, um, which there's quite a few. I know I saw on the data, can we, can we do something to go back to require or negotiate some shared parking, um, arrangements. Um,

[00:27:12] Tiffany Chu: I'll try to tackle that council member. Um, I think the 1st thing that we can do um, is to follow up and see if they're meeting the conditions. Uh, that's the 1st thing and very often we find that there might be some issues and some resolution. Uh, the answer to your 2nd question, I think, is part of what we want to do in terms of some analysis, to look at what options we have, um, with existing uses. Um, we do know that we have the opportunity to work on TDM programs through our TMA, not specifically through requirements, but by um, encouraging them to become part of the solution, and then we also have the ability to, um, if they come in for modifications, um, to take a look at, uh, that. But, um, but it's, it's an, it's an item that I think we will take back with us, um, and review so that we can bring back some solutions.

[00:28:14] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: So I, I, to follow up on that. Um, I know you know my situation. A specific situation that both Counselor Hicks and I, um, uh, uh, deal with. But, um, what kind of, um, I guess conditions were put place or have been placed on these private, um, parking lots or garages, um, because it seems that the employees are office buildings, employees are not required to park in those faces, and that's really the issue. is that these garages exist, but they could, you know, don't have to park there, so they park in the residentials on the streets and the residences. Uh,

[00:29:06] Tiffany Chu: you know that that's part of what we're looking at. And I think we can certainly improve the conditions that we require of projects in downtown. Um, one of them is to um, ask them to have a robust TDM program. It's always been presumed that they would they would have reduced parking, but it hasn't been required. And that's something that we've identified. Um, joining the TMA, for example. Some things that we're doing with some of our other precise plans, we think can be brought here. Um, in terms of following up on, um, whether they actually park in the parking um, structure, I think it's a 3 prong um, item. I know the public works is working on the RPP program to make it harder for people to park. We also want to look at our downtown permit program, um, and take a look at how many employees are getting permits, because the TDM programs are not strong enough. And the 3rd piece, and this is one, I think, we have to follow up on council member is, how do we, how do we write up a condition where we have some kind of monitoring that, that, um, what kind of monitoring can we do to make sure that, um, employees do park, um, in the spaces, and that's something for us to, I think, also resolve, uh, in terms of, um, improving on our conditions.

[00:30:31] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Right, thank you. And then the other question, um, I may have missed it, but, um, In terms of Castro Street, and I know we have to decide down the road what we want to do, whether to reopen it or not, but whether the parking spaces, um, I guess lost from closing the street, um, incorporated in all all of these numbers.

[00:30:57] Tiffany Chu: I'm gonna ask Eric to respond to that. He's our development work.

[00:31:02] Eric Anderson: Yeah, so the, um, uh, potential lost parking from, uh, the, um, The 100 block was included in, uh, future, um, future lost parking. And let me get the, uh, data open and I'll verify whether we included other, the rest of the stretch. I'll be I'll have that for you.

[00:31:37] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Customer other Coco, did you have any more questions or we'll just wait for Mr. Clayton?

[00:31:43] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, you can... I think as Mr. Anderson's looking for that information.

[00:31:48] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Do any of their council members have any questions or comments? Okay, council member show, Walter. I see you.

[00:31:57] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I wasn't sure whether we'd gotten to the comment phase. Um, Yeah, well, 1st of all, I would like to join the chorus of people who were complimenting the um, the report. It was, uh, you know, I really think this is well thought out and, um, it's a big problem. I mean, uh, it's one of those thorny problems that I think, uh, you know, city councils have been dealing with probably since the car was invented. And it's not going away anytime soon. So, it's worth trying a lot of different things to see what works the best. One thing we, um, I think is is really illustrative is, is how big a difference? How much value those parking spaces have that you, you know, that have been, that have gone away from the part of Castro Street that's been closed off. I mean, you know, we've created this, you know, this restaurant space. I can imagine when it's not COVID. We could conceivably have dances there. I mean, musical, uh, um, uh, concerts. I mean, there's all sorts of uses and people could use, you know, right now, it seems like most of those parking spots are just being used for restaurants, but they could conceivably be used to sell things outside. I mean, there's a lot of possibilities. It's it's pretty. I think that's pretty exciting. So, um, I'm hoping that that, Kind of that spirit of creativity is going to continue through this. Um, I was a, I was a little concerned about how few people were using the, um, uh, the valet parking. Did I read that right that you said it was 41 spots per week? 41 people per week?

[00:33:53] Tiffany Chu: It was an average of 41 parking cars per week. We had we had highs, particularly during the summertime, where we were parking upwards of 60 cars per week, but this was an average over the course of 6 months from July through December and particularly towards the end of December. We did see a drop in the number of cars per parked per week through the program.

[00:34:21] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And was it all days of the week? don't remember. Was it just weekends?

[00:34:25] Tiffany Chu: The program ran Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11 AM to 10 PM. It was kind of a long weekend.

[00:34:32] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay. All right. Because I observed it and took part in it and I thought it worked well, but I didn't realize that in fact, it was so few, um, you know, for a few of the people, although maybe that's important. anyway. Um, one thing that isn't, I don't remember seeing here, could have been there is enforcement. Um, I do feel that, um, that is something that I've heard many years and hearing it still about enforcement and that's particularly important with, um, the, uh, people who are permit holders. Um, getting them to park in places that, that really, um, you know, are better for, uh, regular shoppers that are just going to be there for a couple hours. And then another thing that's been mentioned that I want to comment on is, um, is the importance of making sure we have, when we think about parking, we also think about parking for bikes. Um, we're really trying to make Mountain View much more, um, uh, of a bike friendly and pedestrian friendly city. And it is true that, um, there are a lot more bike, uh, racks now than there were 10 years ago, but they're still not enough. And I, I understand they're going to be more, which is good. But I do think the idea of a bird bike parking lot. that was suggested by one of the, um, one of our, uh, letters is, is really interesting. So, um, Thank you for the report. those are basically my comments.

[00:36:07] Phil Olmstead: This is Phil Olmstead from Nelson Neggard. I just wanted to quickly jump in and clarify a point. The data for the valet was what we're showing in the report is daily, average daily, not average weekly. So it's about kind of at its peak. It was about 40, 45, uh, daily.

[00:36:24] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Well, that sounds a lot better. Okay, all right, thank you. Yeah, no worries. Great question.

[00:36:33] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Hey, thank you so much. Um, Mr. Anderson, did you have that answer for?

[00:36:38] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay.

[00:36:38] Eric Anderson: Yeah, thank you. Apologize for the delay. So we assumed that the 100 to 300 blocks would lose all their parking. That's about 40 some parking spaces, uh, if the 400 blocks, so in front of Cascal and Pete's and all of those, if that also stays closed, that'd be roughly another 20 or so parking spaces, which was not included.

[00:37:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. I see a thumbs up from Counselor Robbie. Okay. Council member Hicks. I saw your hand next.

[00:37:09] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes, so, um, So thank you.

[00:37:12] Councilmember Sally Lieber: I wanted to start off by thanking thanking staff and everyone else involved in putting together this report. I found it, Very compromising, and I have to say, the people in the parking committee are very vocal on this issue, and I've been talking to them, I live in the midst of them and have been talking to them for years and years, and I think this report really reflected, um, a lot of the comments they've made, took the best of their comments and really synthesized them. So really took to heart what those stakeholders and also what a lot of the small businesses have been saying. So I found it a very, I found it very, very useful. Um, I, I'm gonna come back, let's see, uh, and I wanted to say the thing, one of the things I liked about the staff report is that it focused on, I think the important thing that we're doing here is reopening our businesses, our small businesses. The 1st to 3rd or 4th block of Castro Street are really the most vibrant public spaces in Mountain View. And I think we want to get those back to functioning well. I think we want the businesses that are having trouble, to function well. And to also admit that they were having some problems before COVID, and we want to get that well maintained again, and, you know, even improve it as there are impacts from the growth of the downtown. So I thought that the staff report was well focused on that. I agree with both of the questions. Um, And, uh, And I also want to say that I was impressed with the urban land institute analysis of how to get the parking right, which you you attach their analysis, but they spoke more in person. Um, and basically what they said was that we can't confuse when I spoke with them in person when they were doing their report. We can't confuse, um, Mountain View with San Francisco, that San Francisco is a, uh, that Mountain View is one of many small cities on the peninsula, whereas San Francisco is, you know, it's almost an island in itself. It has much more functional mass transit that we have than we have. So they can do a comp blanket, the whole city, 40 some square miles with a consistent, um, a consistent parking policy, and we're not able to do that here. If we get the parking wrong. If we don't provide enough parking, in our downtown, people will drive to Sunnyvale or Palo Alto or Los Altos. So we're in kind of a very different situation and we have to be mindful of it. And I thought that the, that the, um, staff report was mindful of that and appropriate for where we, where we're actually situated. So, all that said, um, I want to, the top things that come to mind. I 1st want to, um, uh, add to what uh, council member Abbe Koga, uh, remarked on during her questions. One of one of my main uh, comments is similar to that question of, I believe that in the, when I've visited our underground parking, under the, you know, the Sobrado and the Fenwick and West and the, the, is it 44 forecasts go under those buildings, I believe we have 100s of never used parking spaces under there. And, you know, we've, there's embodied carbon and creating those spaces, a tremendous amount, and a lot of money spent on them, and I would like those spaces to be used. Um, And, uh, so I appreciate uh, council member Epico, this question. I would like staff to, um, work on that, strongly urge staff. It seems like you're going to, but to work on that. And one suggestion I have is possibly, um, having each parking garage, uh, if it's possible pledge to maybe we could sell permits to those spaces, to, uh, office workers, thus getting office workers off the streets and the city parking lots and into those underground parking lots. I imagine that the, the, um, That the owners of those lots probably don't want random people off the street driving into them, but maybe permitted, you know, people who work in Mountain View during the day, they kind of have their driver's license, they know who they are. Um, that might be something that could go forward. So if you can look into that or any other way of making sure that those spaces don't continue to go unused. I think that would be a big step forward. The other one is what people have talked about, which is more enforcement. Um, I think, you know, even I know when I lived at Park Place apartments in the downtown, I parked on the street. And I parked on the street in part because there was no public education. You know, I was busy with all sorts of things in my daily life. And I didn't think that I was actually occupying 2 spaces. My assigned space in the parking garage and the other one that I always parked in on the street. So I think both public education and some kind of enforcement, possibly, you know, have the, um, The office owners put a sticker on every car that is allowed allowed to park under there and then look around and see if there's anyone with stickers parking on the street. You know, if we could get people to actually park there, then, um, like I said, we would have, essentially, we would create 100s of new parking spaces worth 1000000s of dollars. So that's my 1st big comment. And then my 2nd, I really appreciate it in the staff report, the comment on, um, sort of looking at the, is it the RPP? Am I getting that acronym, right? The residential parking permit to work differently. I think we, in the past, it's kind of been seen as if, um, residents in, uh, in the downtown area would kind of organize themselves to to get a permit program together and thus alleviate the parking problem for restaurants. And that just is not. That's not a rational way of looking at it. I actually think that if we were to make much of the downtown parking, much of the downtown street parking, 3 hours only, that would allow people to drive in from wherever, you know, go out to lunch, visit the library, visit City Hall, go to the drugstore and Ava's and shop at therapy, and then go home. But it would stop the, the, um, would stop the office, the people in the office from parking there because if you work an 8 hour day, You'd have to move your car twice and that's a disincentive to park on the street. So I think 3 hour parking would be great. I think then you have to give residents of the neighborhood. a free permit or 2 And the reason you have to do that, frankly, even though residents have driveways and garages is, um, There are 2 main reasons. One is some of the downtown, the downtown streets were designed 100 years ago when people generally had somewhere between one and 0 cars. So, some of them are extremely narrow. There's Sierra, uh, straight over from where I live is is 22 feet. And Robert Cox tells me history is 20 feet. These streets, when we're all parked up, you know, like during a festival, people can't get out of their driveways. If people are parked adjacent to the driveways and across the street, it's that narrow. get trapped in. You know, these were designed for 1910 or 1920, not 2020. Um, so, I think I think we need to keep people from parking on those streets. The other thing is, they're designed with tandem parking. You know, this is like a garage in your backyard and a long, narrow driveway. So when 2 people need to use the car in one household, it's a family argument to get it done and one person has to park on the street. So we're kind of designed differently than a lot of our neighborhoods that were developed, uh, post-war with with wide streets and wide driveways. And I so I think that giving people in this neighborhood of, you know, a free parking permit on the street is something that you kind of have to do to make it all function. Um, and then other than that, I love a lot of the things you're saying, beefing up the TDMs. I like what council members show Walter said about as we if and when we close down the 1st 3 or 4 blocks of Castro, it makes for more vibrant public areas. Um, I, I do believe we need more places to uh, lock up bikes. I know people who say they don't like to bike downtown because they're afraid their bike will be stolen. Um, and bike fixit stations, we're losing one of our, um, cognition cycle rate, which used to have a fixit station out front for high school kids and anyone else who went by. So I know that's a problem for me biking. can't keep my bike fixed. Um, And I think those are my major comments. Oh, I think, as you know, I think that Moffatt is the 2nd half of our downtown, I think we have to start putting the 1st few blocks of Moffatt into, you know, as we make it with the pad and bike, uh, underpass. I think that's really going to become a part of our downtown and we have to look at. I think people will park there as well and walk to the train station. So I would like to include, start including that in the study area. Oh, and way finding. You know, I think wayfinding is really important. I'm into looking into working with Clever City, but I would prefer not to build in too much infrastructure that might be expensive and then become outdated. I'm wondering if Google is going to do some sort of or could that they're in our neighborhood, do some, um, Uh, some sort of, what do you call it, immediate way finding that could be on your phone? And then it also seems like the main, so, uh, some of my neighbors on the old mountain view, uh, parking group say that they want to make sure any wavefinding is equitable and that not everybody has a smartphone, but it seems like there's like one parking garage that's constantly under parked. So maybe just directing people to that. You know, maybe it's simpler than we think for now. Um, and we could just direct people to that parking garage. So I think that is all my comments. And I was, like I said, impressed with the staff report and said, but yes, to both questions.

[00:48:39] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Council member Lieber.

[00:48:41] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Thank you, Mayor. Well, I too am, yes, both of the questions. I think that we need a multidisciplinary approach. Um, to this, and I'm, I'm kind of wondering in terms of the valet parking and I don't need to know tonight what has been the cost to park those 60 cars per day. Um, and what would be the relative costs going forward and I don't need the, um, numbers right now. I am hopeful that, um, we can look at the surrounding neighborhoods, not as one monolith, but as slightly different cases, um, because I know that closer to El Camino. Um, it's a different situation than it is um, off the, uh, one, two, and 300 blocks, um, of of Castro. And, um, I think it was Annette Nielsen, who, um, mentioned splitting that up and looking at it in a more detailed way, and I definitely, um, agree with that. Uh, I also really agree with um, having more bicycle parking. Um, Currently, there are definitely um, challenges as far as either riding bikes, um, bikes are blocked from Castro Street right now. Um, and um, also, um, finding bicycle parking in the downtown can be challenging. And I think that kind of goes, um, hand in hand a little bit with, um, the need to get more bicycle storage during the daytime or, uh, a dedicated, protected indoor, um, bicycle parking, uh, for during the, the week or, um, at other times. Uh, so those are, those are my comments. I agree with so much that other folks have said that I'm just gonna, uh, leave it there and, um, we'll continue to work with staff to see what we can, uh, get back. Thanks a lot.

[00:50:58] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you so much. Council mayor Mattachek.

[00:51:02] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you Before I get into answering the 2 questions, I just heard a couple of initial comments. And, um, on page 12 when it talks about the parking issues. Um, I specifically want to add a comment about number four. And I think there is a more concerning situation to me, and that is, it's not just that customers of the businesses come downtown and they drive around until they find a parking space. And many potential customers come downtown and they can't find a parking space and they leave. And I spoke with a number of businesses, about this issue, and especially the restaurants have a good feel for this because people call and say, hey, I'm here, I'm looking for space. You know, I'll be 5 minutes late for my reservation, and then they call back and say, hey, I'm still looking for parking space. You know, now I'm 10 minutes late and the 3rd call is, I'm leaving. So, I don't think we can underestimate the amount of business that is being lost by our small businesses because their customers can't find a parking space. And, um, I think we also need to keep in mind that, um, Castro Street is a regional destination. And because we have, I would consider very poor public transportation. Um, it makes it very challenging for people to get to downtown Mountain View, unless they're along the Caltrain corridor, um, by public transportation, and so they drive. And our businesses count on more business than just downtown Mountain View residents or Mountain View residents. They count on having business from all over a region. And I don't want to do anything that would, um, hurt their business. And as a matter of fact, I want to do things that help them serve those customers that are coming from far away. And most of them are coming via car, because the other options are not very viable. Um, Also, um, in the issue section, um, number 7. Yeah, I kind of disagree with the statement that our parking requirements are high. And the reason I say that, um, is because when you looked at the data that was provided, um, restaurants, uh, our city code had a much lower requirement than I think it was, it was like ITE. And um, We have a lot of restaurants in downtown Mountain View, which is one of the things that makes it wonderful. So, you know, maybe on balance, um, we're just about uh, where ITE says you should be, but I wouldn't characterize it as our requirements are too high. And I get that we are trying to encourage people to take other forms of transportation to get here, to walk or bike. Um, But I know a lot of people, um, are not going to do that. And as I said before, the regional public transportation is um, in need of, uh, a lot of attention to make it truly efficient and effective. to the point where people will opt to take it rather than drive. So, um, getting to the questions, um, for one, yes, I agree in general. Um, I want to add a couple of cards and I'm not going to go through all of them because if I, in general, agree, you've got the list. Um, but, um, item three. I would add that what also comes into play there is the owners of businesses. Um, We can't forget about their needs when we're looking at the host of stakeholders. So I would add that. And, um, let's see, item 4. Uh, again, I would say, you know, we don't have great regional public transportation, which is one of the issues here. And While I said, you know, I get that we're trying to address our sustainability concerns and they're very valid concerns. I also think we need to balance that with the businesses that we have downtown that we want to support them to help that area thrive. So I don't want to have one at the cost of the other. Um, question two. Yes, I agree, um, in general with the comments. Um, let's see on... Page 17. Um. Item 3 and that was, when we're looking at changes to, um, the parking requirements. Again, I want to note that we have a lot of restaurants downtown, so I think that should be factored into that analysis. And I am interested in exploring an increase in the parking supply. And as long as it's flexible, so that when we get to the point where we don't need it, and hopefully we'll get there, it can be converted to something else. Um, I'm also very interested in seeing if there's any way we can move any of these forward quickly. Um, and not necessarily wait, um, until this comes back to us. To me, there are just some little simple things that, um, I feel like we've talked about a number of times, um, and that is adjusting the parking permit program to, uh, have folks who buy those permit, park in the further away, less desirable spots. To me, that's just a simple solution that could easily be implemented without it coming back to council for us to say yes, go ahead and do that. I agree, do it. Um, I think additional enforcement um, is something else we can do without that coming back to council, um, several other council members have mentioned more enforcement. Um, and I agree. And, um, That's it. Thanks.

[00:57:56] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Um, I'll be Coco, did you want to add your answers to the questions? Perfect. Go ahead.

[00:58:04] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. Um, so yeah, so I wanted to um, say I support both, uh, or you say yes to both one and 2 um, and then just wanted to add a couple of comments. A lot has already been said that I agree with by my colleagues. Um, I would say, um, in terms of, um, things we could do sooner, my hope, as counseling our matter check mentioned, my hope is that, um, we can look at the parking management strategies and try to implement those sooner than later. Frankly, if you ask me, I think they're long overdue. Um, adding time limits, um, using technologies. I think we're kind of behind, frankly, some of our neighboring cities when it comes to, um, using like mobile payment and, um, I know paid parking was controversial, maybe a decade ago, but I think as time has passed, folks, um, understand, you know, it's not about revenue generating, although that's a nice added plus, but it's really about, um, managing parking and, and making sure there's enough turnovers. So, um, folks who come to shop in 8 downtown, um, can find a place to park. Um, way finding, you know, over the years, we've had a lot of tech, um, startups and and maybe more established, um, companies, um, tech companies come and offer their, you know, parking apps. And um, I, I, yeah, I think we should be looking at utilizing them. My understanding is as long as we just can figure out how to mark the spaces and provide the data, these apps kind of naturally use that data to create apps that, you know, folks can use. So, um, I think we should just really be, um, active and in, um, in really, um, implementing stronger parking, uh, strategy management strategies. Enforcement was already mentioned. Um, I, um, would, um, add to the enforcement piece. I, I, I, I think Counselor Hicks and I, we've, uh, have similar ideas about how to enforce the, um, private lots or the use of the private lots by the, um, employees of those, um, buildings, um, maybe the little permit or the sticker requiring stickers on those, um, Cars of those employees would be helpful, um, to identify who is who, um, and then, um, residential parking. I appreciate our neighborhood association members. I know they've worked on this for many, many years. And I'm glad that we've come to, or landing at a place of, um, you know, looking at, um, making it free for the residents. Um, I support um, council member Hicks's comments about putting a time limit, whether it's 3 hours or whatever time limit it is, um, and then providing exceptions for residents. And I think that's actually a nice combination because, um, with residents, you know, the issue has come up before it's, um, if they have a guest who comes over or someone working on their house. Um, you know, if they don't have a permit, then it makes it very difficult for those folks to park. And so being able to provide exceptions for those situations. But then also a long enough time limit for everyone else, I think, would be a happy medium in that. Um, TDMs definitely continue to encourage. I really would like to see how to, you know, try to integrate this with our community shuttle, the use of our community shuttle, more frequently. And at the end of the day, um, after we've done all this, I think, um, you know, we will definitely be able to see more parking opportunities, but I do think that supply will still be an issue. And so, um, we should be looking at how to increase supply and, um, as much as, you know, I appreciate, and we do want to encourage, um, biking and, and, um, walking. Um, there is, because of the transit center, we have this issue of folks from outside of Mountain View coming to Mountain View, um, to park and then take transit. Um, so I think we really have to, you know, be mindful of that. And, um, continue to look at how to, um, at least for the short term increased supply. Um, but as Councilman Hermetachek said, with building technology, um, you know, changing and advancing, um, it, we should look at how to make that flexible space so that those parking spaces or garages, their structures can be eventually converted down to road, uh, down the road to other uses, um, such as housing. Thank you.

[01:03:08] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you, Councilman Reaper.

[01:03:10] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. I, um, neglected to say something about the enforcement and I think that's a really sensitive issue. I recall before Palo Alto went to the different colors of parking zones. Um, that they try to period of, um, you know, enforcement and, um, It only takes a really short time to lose business in the downtown. Um, because of the perception that people are going to get a ticket if they're there. And I think that the 2 hours is really an issue because if you have lunch with a friend and then stop in one place, you know, you're pretty much over your 2 hours right there. And, um, I, I do think that some directional signage that's small and um, understandable is good. We've gotten into a period of time where we put giant signs on everything. And I think when there's so many enormous signs that it just becomes a forest of science. And, um, yeah, I do think some small directional signage that's aesthetic and, um, and pleasing because a lot of people do come to Mountain View for the food and, um, food and aesthetics are, uh, very integral to each other. And I think some of our neighboring communities are maybe at a higher vibration right now on the aesthetics and are maybe taking over some of our business, perhaps in quotes, um, eating our lunch. And, um, so I think that keeping the aesthetic quotient is as high as possible is is very important. And uh, I think that we have to be very careful about how we do enforcement.

[01:05:03] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Um, I just wanted to go back to council member show, Walter. Um, I didn't, I'm trying to keep track of everyone and I didn't, um, I don't think.

[01:05:15] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes, on both.

[01:05:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, perfect. Thank you. Nice mesh, I turn to you. I have a couple questions if. That's okay.

[01:05:28] Phil Olmsted: Go ahead.

[01:05:29] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Oh okay. All right. So I just had a, a, Question for, um, our consultants from Nelson Nygar. So some of the different jurisdictions that have been used as examples have a paid parking structure. In the city of Mountain View, we still don't have that. Um, and I know that's something that wasn't necessarily discussed in this strategy. So I was wondering if maybe you could talk a little bit about, about that and maybe some lessons learned in terms of as cities continue to evaluate and move toward, because I think all the cities surrounding us have parking. So just would love some input. Thanks.

[01:06:12] Phil Olmsted: Sure, yeah, I can jump in. Thanks, thanks for your time. Thanks for having me, and thanks to city staff for navigating this challenging and complicated but fun topic with us. Um, so yeah, you're generally right. More and more peninsula cities are are and Bay Area cities beyond San Francisco are moving to paid parking. So, well, um, Walnut Creek, San Mateo, Redwood City, uh, have all gone to paid parking, Santa Rosa up in the North Bay. Um, and, uh, council member, uh, Abbe Koga said it right. The, the, the point of doing paid parking is not to generate revenue. It's really to manage your most prime on street spaces so that we can get that greater turnover. And make sure that those front door spaces are available for your customers and visitors. Um, there is that added benefit, though, of a revenue stream and um, A lot of these cities have done the right thing and reinvested that parking revenue back into their downtowns for parking management, for transportation, demand management, streetscape improvements, uh, transit improvements, beautification efforts. So there's a lot of different things you can do with that revenue, extra enforcement. Enforcement isn't, isn't, uh, isn't uh, cheap. Um, so lots that you can do with with those, uh, with that revenue. And the technologies changing by the day. There's, uh, more and more, you want to, uh, more and more technologies are making it easier and easier to to do that payment to make it simple and user friendly and customer friendly for staff. So if you want to stay an extra hour, you can log onto your smartphone and add that time in, there's all different great things that integrate, um, those data streams from those payment apps into, um, uh, not just wayfinding, but data streams for staff to better analyze and manage what's going on with your parking system. So I hope that answers your question. I be happy to, if there was other pieces of that, that you wanted to touch on.

[01:08:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: I did, I did. I kind of want to sign up. Like, peel it back a little bit, which is, I think there's a, I guess for myself, I'm thinking about paid parking versus enforcement. And so as you mentioned, enforcement is not cheap. And so I don't know if there's been any type of analysis in terms of, you know, cost to jurisdiction and if it's more economical to go a point paid parking route versus an enforcement route, which is, you know, boots on the ground, needing to do that type of enforcement. And I don't know if you've had any analysis on that, um, with other jurisdictions, but that was just a question I had.

[01:08:51] Phil Olmsted: Well, I would generally not classify it as an either or I really see them as complimentary at the end of the day. Um, And no one wants a ticket. We don't want to create an environment where people don't want to come to Mountain View. So I think it's enforce fairly but firmly if you don't. One of the biggest things we heard from the stakeholder conversations we had is, um, and I think your, the council reflected it as well in their comments was, you know, office workers have their own parking, but yet they're parking, they get there early and they park on residential streets or in the core all day, right? And that's not fair, right? So we have to do something to enforce those rules. We don't want to, we don't want. We need to target the bad behavior and encourage the good behavior. That's really what the enforcement program is about. Um, and so I do see them as going hand in hand. Um, and again, you know, one of the benefits of paid parking is you can get that revenue stream to invest in, um, technology to make that enforcement really easy to do for your staff and cost efficient.

[01:10:00] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. So what? I guess one last question on that. You know, as we're looking at the framework principles and the solution aspect, you know, I see a lot of great ideas and my council colleagues have really dug into them and and, you know, but I didn't, and perhaps I mean, I miss it. I didn't see any recommendations about the hand, you know, the the tandem relationship that you're discussing, which is a pay parking model as well as enforcement. And so I just, Did I read that correctly? Is that not something?

[01:10:35] Phil Olmsted: Well, I would generally say we, at this point, we are kind of wrapping up. We've been calling with staff the discovery phase, right? And so we wanted to have this check in with you all to really make sure we're on the right path, temperature check things, make sure we got the problem statement, right? And the next phase of our work is really putting together, um, that suite of solutions. And it's really encouraging to hear all of you talk about, there's, you know, um, there's no silver bullet. We need to look at all both supply side, demand side, look at enforcement, wavefinding, um, all those different pieces. So one of the things will be advancing with staff and bringing back to you is that detail package. Um, and I think we're going to be, we're going to be exploring, um, you know, a paid parking recommendation that was something that did come out of your 2019 study with Dixon consulting. Um, we don't want to reinvent the wheel. Um, so we'll probably be, um, uh, revisiting some of that, but, you know, refreshing it. Um, I would say also that we're gonna do a phase plan, right? So you guys have also talked about that to some degree. We aren't going to just throw paid parking on in the midst of COVID, right? That doesn't make sense for your businesses. That's not the right solution, right? We want to find the right time to do that. And a big part of why we collected data, even during COVID, is to help your staff kind of triangulate and understand when the right time to do something like what that would be. So it's definitely not going to be something that would be out there on the streets when you don't have the parking demand to justify it at this time. So, right? So we part a big part of our work in the next phase is not just a suite of solutions, what's the timing for those things? What's the sequencing of those things to bring it all together?

[01:12:21] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Well, I'm so happy to hear that answer. I see some of my colleagues shaking their head because I think that's what we're trying to get at. been talking about parking for so long. And my questions are not necessarily because I want to go down the paid parking route. I'm just kind of generally trying to fact find myself get the information and understand the perspective that we're bringing to it. So um, those are my questions. I want to give the vice mayor opportunity. If he has any questions or if he would just like to go through and answer the 2 questions that we have.

[01:12:49] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Thank you, mayor. I'll be pretty quick. Um, I don't have any questions. My responses to both questions are yes, I think this is an appropriate strategy and approach. Um, I don't have a whole heck of a lot to add. I do like, uh, exploring paid parking and I, uh, appreciate the, the sort of measured and reasoned approach that you've described so perfectly sensible. Uh, the only thing I, I guess I would want to touch on is, uh, several members of the council had talked about, the problem of underutilized private parking, um, which is difficult for us to regulate on the other side of project approval. There's not a whole heck of a lot we can require. Um, but, uh, in the staff report, there was a list of projects in the pipeline that we might still be able to uh, address, you know, if we're creative. I don't want to lose that opportunity. Um, so, I, I don't know to what extent, uh, we can, um, require things like, uh, some of the creative solutions that, uh, have been proposed by some of the private development partners we're working with, like Alta, uh, or even Marwood. I think those are things that we would want to see. Um, uh, in other development proposals as as they pop up. Um, but I, I don't want to approve new structures that just exacerbate the problem, right? Uh, so to the extent that there's, there's something that the council needs to do. Um, prior to project approval. I know I can't list specific proposals, but I did share with the city manager, one in particular, I'm thinking about. Um, you know, it would be helpful for, for staff to tee up those solutions for us, so we don't have that project and we talk about the problem that we're expecting it to have, but not really have a solution for, for that problem. Um, so that's all I've got. Thank you.

[01:15:02] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, vice mayor, and Council member Mattachek.

[01:15:06] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: One more quick thing that, um, I forgot to say, and that is, um, I do appreciate that, um, the residential parking permit program, um, needs to take into consideration the different, um, conditions. in the different areas of downtown because it does vary by area. And also, I think we do need to look at that on the other side of Central Expressway, especially in the Willow Gate area, where a lot of people park, uh, in order to take Caltrain. So I don't want to limit it just to, um, one side of Central Expressway. Thanks.

[01:15:51] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you so much. All right. Well, we've had a lot of robust input, so I think I'll just add in mind. So I just want to thank the staff and our consultants. I think this is a really meaty topic and I really appreciate kind of the comprehensive nature with which we're able to discuss it. So the answer to the 2 questions are for me are yes, and yes. Um, and so, um, you know, I think there's been much discussion about the different permit parking programs, whether it's the permits for uh, employees or the residential parking permit program. I'm just looking for something that works. I think we're discussing our parking downtown because it doesn't, it doesn't work right now for, for a number of different reasons and for a number of different constituencies. So, you know, really want to find something that makes the most sense for the needs as well as, you know, I appreciated the comments in the in the staff report about how it's kind of an ever evolving issue as time goes on. So how do we approach these and kind of make sure that whatever we put in place has, you know, some aspect of being evergreen. I think is important. Um, so one of the things that I've been thinking about when it comes to parking enforcement is, um, Some people's 1st interaction with their government is a parking ticket. And, you know, I think that, Well, I understand why enforcement is important. You know, I think that, uh, I would be interested if we could, as we're evaluating the various suite of options, how going towards the enforcement model may disproportionately affect our communities of color. You know, I think anecdotally, that's typically what I hear, and as we were talking about, you know, equity, I think that that would just be something that I'd like to, um, hear more information about. Um, and perhaps that's why I'm just not, I just need more information, um, on that. So, um, I think my colleagues have adequately discussed kind of all the different different aspects of of parking. You know, I'm really interested in how as we're kind of re-emerging from the pandemic, how the things that we're deciding and as these items come back to us. Um, you know, how how that will all be implemented. So those are my comments. Does anyone else have anything else that they'd like to add? Okay. All right. So then I think this concludes our, oh, council member Hicks, I see you go ahead.

[01:18:35] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Sorry, I'm slow to raise my hand. I just, um, somebody just texted me a letter I was not able to read. It was the, from the Mount Vukoalition for Sustainable Planning. And one of the things, I think we've covered most of their comments, but one of the things they said that maybe we didn't cover as making sure that we have corridors leading to downtown that are pleasant to walk on. So they talked about bike infrastructure. I think we covered that. But, um, yeah, just making sure that they, I know that some of the neighborhoods that I have friends who walk down from certain neighborhoods and they find like the, the, for example, the Castro Street in front of Graham, a little hard when it's hot, you know, there's not a lot of trees there and so forth. So, um, we might look at what, what routes there are leading to the downtown and make sure that those are pleasant for people to walk on is the thing I saw in the letter that was maybe not, maybe we have not covered yet. So that's it.

[01:19:37] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. And perhaps as we're looking at the various master plans, Council of America. We can also, you know, be thinking about that because I think we have, what, our master tree master plan, and then we have, um, a pedestrian master plan, our bike master plan. I think there's ways probably to integrate, um, having a enjoyable, walkable, bikeable experience. I know that I walk downtown and you know, I enjoy it. So okay, great. All right. So I think this concludes our study session and then unless anyone else has a hand I'm missing. Okay. All right, so we'll adjourn the study session and we'll reconvene at 6.30 p.m. for our regular session. Thank you.

[01:21:39] (archive recording) Mayor Ellen Kamei: Welcome back. Welcome to the city council. Regular meeting for May 11, 2021. I'm going to read the usual announcement as required. This meeting will be conducted in accordance with the state of California executive order N dash 29 dash 20 dated March 17th, 2020. All members of the city council are participating in the meeting by video conference. With no physical meaning location. Members of the public wishing to observe the meeting live may do so at mountain view.legistar.com on YouTube at mountain view.gov slash YouTube and on Comcast channel 26. As noted on the meeting agenda, members of the public may provide oral public comments during the public comment period for the item by signing at that mountain view.gov slash cc underscore speakers, or by phone by dialing 669-9009128 and entering webinar ID 960-05686214. Any emails received by 430 PM today were received directly by the city council. Emails received after 430 p.m. will not be read during the meeting, but will be entered into the record for the meeting. All votes will be taken by roll call vote. Wonderful. And if you don't mind, if you please would join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic, for which it stands, indivisible, under God, with liberty and justice fraud.

[01:31:09] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. So move on to item two, which is roll call, the city clerk will take attendance by roll call.

[01:31:16] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: And some more rabbi Coca?

[01:31:18] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Here.

[01:31:20] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member. Yes, snakes, hicks.

[01:31:25] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[01:31:26] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Lieber.

[01:31:28] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Sure.

[01:31:29] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member, not a check. Counselor Marshall Alter.

[01:31:35] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Vice Mayor Ramirez. Mayor, Mayor, Mayor.

[01:31:39] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Here.

[01:31:40] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Thank you.

[01:31:41] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So, uh, we can move on to, let's see. Let me see if our attendee. Well, move on to. Oh, perfect. We'll move on to item 3 which is our presentation. Um, and our 1st um, presentation will be item 3.one, which is mental health awareness month proclamation. And joining us this evening to receive the proclamation is David Manetta. He's the president and chief executive officer of momentum for mental health. And the proclamation reads, whereas mental health is essential to everyone's overall health and well-being. And whereas all Americans face challenges in life that can impact their mental health, especially during a pandemic, and a range of mental health prevention and treatment services can reduce the burden of mental health conditions. And whereas in these challenging times, it is essential that we encourage relatives, friends, coworkers, and the community to recognize the signs of mental health needs and guide those in need to appropriate services and support. And whereas the city of Mountain View has prioritized mental help. By working with stakeholders in the community to create awareness about mental health services available to youth in our community. And by developing and implementing free monthly wellness workshop for teens and parents. And whereas the city of Mountain View continues to collaborate and support community-based organizations and healthcare providers to promote mental health wellness and support prevention and treatment efforts. And whereas we call upon all residents, businesses, and schools of the city of Mountain View, to commit to increasing awareness and understanding of mental health needs, to help direct services, to residents, to appropriate and accessible resources, to take care of their mental health. And whereas the county of Santa Clara and the national alliance and mental health illness, also known as Nami, of Santa Clara County and their state and national partners observe mental health month each May, to raise awareness and understanding of mental health and illness. Motherfucker, Ellen Kumay, mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, to hereby proclaim the month of May as mental health month. And I know, let's see. David, are you there? Would you like to say a few words? And, you know, I know that momentum for mental health has a new Mountain View location has been working on drop in vaccination sites, so maybe we could have you speak about that too. Hi. Hi, Alex, sorry about that. I wasn't sure if it was you for David or David for you. If you don't mind introducing yourself and sharing a little bit, that'd be great.

[01:35:09] Alex Schwarzstein: Hi, I'm Alec Schwarzstein. I am the director of development and communications for a moment. Dave is stuck in a board meeting right now, so I apologize. Um, So, yeah, we're really excited to have, um, brought one of our programs that was already serving the Matthew community to the Mountain View community this year. We've already seen a lot of folks coming in our doors. Um, we're we're here to serve, um, and we're really happy to be part of this community.

[01:35:37] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thanks so much. And I think for colleagues who are not aware, I think there was a, um, a virtual opening, right, in January or February, is that right?

[01:35:47] Alex Schwarzstein: Yes, um, yes, and you can still find a recording on YouTube if you would like to see. We have an outpatient program. in that view and we have a bunch of other programs all over the county, residential and otherwise.

[01:35:59] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, perfect. Thank you so much. Alright. Would any member of council like to say a few words? All right. All right. Well, would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star line on your phone, and we'll display the 2 minute timer, and I do see a hand. So as soon as the timer is up, I will Turn to you. Great. Tim McKenzie.

[01:36:36] Tim McKenzie: Kyle, thanks. This is great proclamation. Uh, mental health is really a serious issue in the area. I mean, pre-pandemic, I, there was several times a year that the Caltrain would stop because someone had chose to end their life with the Caltrain. I, the pandemic has been very hard on all of us. It is going to be, it continued to be a bad situation and mental health infrastructure is not super great in this country, just generally. Um, and it's great to see a proclamation, but uh, concrete action would be even better. The mobile crisis response team is an excellent thing that the county does that Mountain View is partnering with, but few people know the 10 digit number. I don't know what it is, and generally what's going to happen is you'll call 911. You get connected to the police, who are not trained or qualified to handle that. And, uh, it will be increasing the number of encounters between people in mental health crisis, crises, and the police increases the chance that people dying. That's just statistical reality of the world that we live in. And it would be much nicer if we could have some 3 digit number that could route directly to the mobile crisis response team. So if we have a situation like we had a few months ago where the 101 was shut down or the day because there was someone in a mental health crisis. Uh, the mobile crisis response team could be the 1st responders rather than the police. So I thank you for passing this proclamation. It's a great 1st step, but words with no action don't mean very much, and I would love to see that concrete step. And thank you for taking this 1st step. Very much appreciated. Yield my time.

[01:38:30] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, that concludes public comment, and I see council members have their hands raised, so I'll turn to them because I think they might have the same responses as myself. So council member, Abbe Koga, then council member Hicks.

[01:38:43] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, and I wanted to thank, um, momentum for health, uh, for being here this evening. Um, I want, and I wanted to thank them for, um, their partnership with us, the city of Mountain View, um, in listening to the public comment. I wanted to respond to that, that, um, in fact, um, thanks to momentum for health, um, we are engaging with the county on, um, a potential pilot project, for a community mobile response team here in North County. And um, the, the, the project is, the program is in the process of, um, applying for funding. Um, I understand it's that it's going to the state level. Um, Alex, I think if you could correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, that'd be great. But um, yes, we're hoping to get some state funding to do this pilot program here in North County. Um, so I just want to thank momentum for health for, including um, us, specifically the city of Mountain View, um, in this uh, potential pilot project, uh, when it comes time for us to write letters and to ask the state for the funding. I hope you'll let us know when that time is. And, um, I encourage not just, you know, us as a city writing letters, but our residents, um, to also write in and advocate for, um, funding this program. And so thank you again for all of your work and partnership.

[01:40:11] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, council member Hicks.

[01:40:13] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Well, council member Bradley Kogo said most of what I was going to say. So I'll just say, I fully agree with the member of the public that said we need more than proclamations, also action, and that's why I'm, I would like to welcome the member for health because I think that, that, that, it's great to see action along with a proclamation.

[01:40:34] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you so much, council member Hicks, and I think that's why council prioritized as a council priority, youth mental health, um, last goal setting is that, um, wanting to create the awareness, just like the proclamation does in terms of that there are resources available. There are numbers to call and that, yes, we're always trying to do more and do better, but the city, I know, has also been, um, staff has been working on, making sure those resources are kind of readily available, as well as, um, particularly for for our teens. And I know, our community development department has been working very hard on that. So great. Thank you so much, Counselor Michelle Walter.

[01:41:12] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, so we're, um, where can we find the 10 J number and refer people to it?

[01:41:19] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Um, city manager McCarthy, would you like to, I think that got, Sent to us or Alex, if you'd like to.

[01:41:29] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, thank you, mayor. We will look into that 10 digit number and get back with what it is.

[01:41:35] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Good. Thank you. Great, thanks. I thought I saw it in a council connection too. Um, Alex, go ahead.

[01:41:44] Alex: Um, yeah, the phone number is, uh, 1800-704-0900.

[01:41:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, maybe we'll repeat it one more time, so it's 1800-704-0900. Great. Thank you so much. Any other comments? All right, thank. Oh, city manager McCarthy.

[01:42:07] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Okay. Thank you, mayor. So, mayor council members, just to let you all know, uh, we have sent in a letter of support for this uh, mobile uh, crisis pilot program. It was sent into the state this week. Um, and it will be um, hopefully talked about, I believe, in a meeting uh, this week at the state. So we will be including that letter at your update on Friday. And so we are really hopeful that this program will get funding from the state and, and as already mentioned, yes, definitely encourage folks, when they hear about it to also provide better self support.

[01:42:46] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you so much. Alex, thanks for joining us. Really appreciate it. All right, so we can move on to item 3.2, which is our affordable housing month proclamation. And joining us this evening to receive the proclamation is Aubrey Merriman, chief executive officer for life moves. The city is pleased to have him. With us to continue the celebration of opening life moves Mountain View, a project home key interim housing community. We also have another special guest joining us, which is Katie Farrick, senior director of workplace programs for LinkedIn. LinkedIn is one of the extraordinary donors that illustrates the public private partnership that helped make this project possible. So I know they're going to be moving over to a virtual stage and I'll just read the proclamation. Whereas housing is a basic human need, and each year, 1000s of Silicon Valley families struggle to find an affordable home in one of the most expensive housing markets in the nation. And on any given night in Santa Clara County, 9700 individuals are experiencing homelessness, 82% of whom are unsheltered. And whereas quality, affordable housing is vital to healthy, safe, vibrant, inclusive, and diverse communities, and affordable homes as a solution to homelessness and provide support to seniors, families, youth, veterans, and people with disabilities. And whereas affordable housing is a regional need that requires regional solutions and participation from all cities and the county, and the city of Mountain View is committed to save, stable, and affordable housing for all the city's residents. And whereas over 13rd of Mountain View households have a housing burden. More than 1000 families have been displaced from their homes in the past several years. And there are over 600 unsheltered persons living in Mountain View. And whereas the city is a leader in developing innovative strategies to create diverse housing options, which is a council major goal. And the strength of our community and economy depends on providing access to housing options that allow current and future residents of all income levels to live where they work. And whereas a pandemic has exacerbated the need for affordable housing. And whereas the city of Mountain View is committed to any homelessness. And on December 8, 2020, the city council adopted a resolution to support the countywide 2025 community plant and homelessness. And whereas affordable housing development requires partnerships across multiple sectors. And the city of Malview continues to seek out a diverse group of partners to achieve housing goals established in the city's housing element and consolidated plan. And whereas the city partnered with life moves, and successfully securing highly competitive state funding through the project home keep program. To develop 100 units of interim housing, using innovative modular structures for seniors and families impacted by the pandemic. The 1st housing structures of this type in Mountain View. And now, therefore, Ellen May of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, do here I recognize affordable housing month in the city of Mountain View. To call upon all members of our community, to support affordable housing solutions, to recognize the successful efforts of the city of Mountain View, and the city's dedicated partners, who seek to improve access to affordable housing opportunities in Mountain View, and our neighboring communities, and to present this proclamation to life moves for their partnership in the innovative project home key housing solution. And Aubrey, Katie, if you would like to say a few words, please feel free to do so.

[01:46:35] Aubrey Merriman: Good evening, everybody. Are you able to hear me?

[01:46:38] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, we hear you.

[01:46:40] Aubrey Merriman: Well, thank you, Mayor Kame, city council, and city manager, McCarthy. I'm just honored on behalf of life moves to accept this proclamation. Black News Mountain View will make a significant impact on the people experiencing homelessness in Mal view. And we are thrilled to open our doors right now in this moment. But the need is so great. And we're so extremely grateful for the public private partnerships that made life most mountain view possible. through those partnerships that we were able to bring this to life. And we want to especially thank visionary companies who invested in their own backyard. A special thank you to Google and LinkedIn, who are committed to furthering our mission and solving homelessness in Silicon Valley once and for all. And LinkedIn specifically is supporting our career counseling services, one of the most critical components of our programs that empower our clients, to return and remain in stable housing. So it's not just about housing people, it's about providing the critical support that allow them to, um, return to stability and long-term self-sufficiency. So we're honored by this opportunity. And it gives me great pleasure to introduce Katie Verrick, the senior director of workplace programs at LinkedIn, to say a few words. Katie?

[01:48:00] Katie Farrick: Thank you so much, and thank you, Aubrey, for your leadership and and just this incredible project. And thank you to the city of Mountain View Council and city leadership. We were lucky to be contacted by you early in this process when you were just securing the funding, and we really were excited about it because it is an innovative way. We're already familiar working with life moves for several years, understanding that their model is holistic. So it's not just about the life move to get temporary housing. really about that life move to economic mobility and stability and self-sufficiency. And so it's incredible. The work that life moves does. We're thrilled that we're right here. to be able to be part of it, and we look forward to applying all the, all the various assets that LinkedIn has against, um, helping these people that need the, uh, need this, this, uh, wrapper on support to find the great career pathways that are right here in Mountain View. So I'm looking forward to it. And thank you for inviting me to be part of this. We're really proud to be part of the entire effort.

[01:49:07] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Well, thank you both for joining us. Yes, a round of applause. From our virtual virtual world to yours. Um, thank you so much for joining us. And would any member of council like to say a few words or, um, please feel free to let me know. All right. Well, I just want to say that it's been, uh, incredible to see, uh, this all come to fruition. And it's just been such a collaborative partnership and I do appreciate that it's a public private partnership. It's all of us working together. And I know that we're creating a model for the state, right? So it's really exciting. All right. So would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item, if so, please click race hand in Zoom, or press star 9 on your phone and we'll display the 2 minute timer. Great. Scott Atkinson?

[01:50:15] Scott Atkinson: Yes, I would just uh, comment and point out and uh, give a thanks and... Life moves here on, uh, securing, And in, the funk and her organization. So we're just, uh, operative nature, uh, of all these groups involved, and I think it's great. Of it. Thank you so much.

[01:50:42] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Tim McKenzie?

[01:50:48] Tim McKenzie: Hi, yeah, I just want to give you all a round of applause. Thank you very much. This is awesome program. Very great, especially not just providing housing, but the services, as I believe Aubrey mentioned that like that is really critical and crucial, that deserve a lot of praise. Thank you all for this. Um, I will also note, though, uh, back in November, December, as a measure C was being formally approved and ratified, one of the justifications for the rapid rollout of sign, uh, going up. signs going up was that project home key would be up and running and already processing many people. It seems like the capacity is about 100 at a time and it's still rolling out. So hopefully the slightly delayed timeline on that is also reflected in putting up the signs of related to measure C. I just wanted to say that. But again, thank you very much. This is excellent, as Mount View voice reported, the governor, shining example of what we can do and Mountain View is taking a leadership role and providing a model for our neighbors, and I really appreciate that and want to thank you.

[01:52:03] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. We can bring it back to council and just want to say once again, thank you to Aubrey. Thank you to Katie for joining us virtually tonight. I'll just give you another round of applause because this has just been an incredible accomplishment. Great. Thank you so much. Have a good night. All right, we'll move to item 3.3, which is our bike month proclamation. Joining us this evening to receive the proclamation, is Lana Ottomic, chair of the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee. And the proclamation reads, whereas for more than a century, the bicycle has been an important part of the lives of most Americans. And whereas today, 1000000s of Americans engage in bicycling, as an environmentally sound form of transportation, and an excellent form of fitness, and a healthy family recreational activity. And whereas the education of cyclists and motorists as to the proper and safe operation of bicycles, and it is important to ensure the safety and comfort of all users. And whereas the league of American bicyclists, and independent cyclists throughout our state are promoting greater public awareness of bicycle operation and safety education, and an effort to reduce accidents, injuries, and fatalities. And whereas Mountain View has been named a silver level bicycle friendly community, by the League of American bicyclists. Now, therefore, I, Ellen, mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of May as bike month.

[01:53:38] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Sure, would you like to say a few words?

[01:53:42] Lana Ottomic: Sure, I'm delighted to receive the proclamation on behalf of the Mountain View BPAC. Um, I would like to thank the city council for being so supportive of uh, the many uh, bicycle infrastructure improvement projects. Um, the city staff or working so hard, um, from planning to fruition for many of these projects. And finally, for the residents of Mountain View, for getting out there on their bikes, helping the environment, helping their own health and just enjoying life. So thank you for this proclamation.

[01:54:20] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you so much. Um, would any member of the council like to say a few words? All right. Not seeing any, would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button and zoom or press star 9 on your phone. We'll display the 2 minute timer. Tim Mackenzie?

[01:54:49] Tim McKenzie: Another excellent proclamation. Bikes are great. This is how I get around. I grew up in Massachusetts and at least once a year. I feel like I read about somewhat like a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard or MIT who died because the place is not as bicycle friendly as it is here. It's amazing to be able to do this. I've got the best commute I'll ever have in my life. Um, Lada, thank you and your fellow members of BePacked for all the work that you do and let me reap the benefits of it. It is very much appreciated, and it is a wonderful benefit of being able to live in this beautiful place in the world.

[01:55:26] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. That concludes our public comment, and then I just wanted to check in. I think May 20th is bike to anywhere day. Is that is that right? Sure Adamic? I think.

[01:55:39] Mayor Ellen Kamei: All right. Is that, yes, I see.

[01:55:43] Lana Ottomic: I believe that's right, yes.

[01:55:44] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure. I think, um, where I'm encouraged to, uh, I think it used to be bike to work day, but now many of us are virtual. So that's why it's called bike to anywhere. So, um, I hope everyone will participate in bike to anyone. All right, thank you so much for joining us. We'll move on to item 3.4, which is our Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Proclamation. Joining us this evening to receive the proclamation is Jason Shan on behalf of the Asian American Pacific Islanders Silicon Valley. They were formerly known as AAPI MV, and I recently changed their name. So the proclamation reads, whereas in 1978, a joint congressional resolution established an Asian Pacific American heritage week to coincide with 2 important historical milestones. The arrival of the 1st Japanese immigrants in the US on May 7th, 1843, and the contributions of Chinese workers to the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, completed in May on May 10th, 1869. And whereas in 1990, a joint congressional resolution extended the commemorative week to a month. And whereas this year marks the 79th anniversary of Japanese interment. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066, forcing 1100 Americans, a Japanese ancestry into relocation centers, and then into internment camps. This executive order affected 100s of families in the mountain view area. And whereas the city of Mountain View and the entire nation are enriched by the diverse cultural contributions made by residents from the Asian continent and the Pacific Islands of New Guinea, New Caldanova, Nanutu, PG, and the Samoan Islands, Micronesia, and Polynesia. And whereas Asian Pacific Americans have had a profound impact on the nation and the Mountain View community, which is home to a number of Asian Pacific Americans who serve on as excellent representatives of both the Mountain View, Asian Pacific, American community, and the Mountain View community at large. Including members of the city council, council advisory batteries, and the school district board of trustees. And whereas during these unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rosenophobia and anti-Asian sentiment has been on the rise. It is of utmost importance that the city of Mountain View reaffirm its commitment to all Asian Pacific Islanders and people of all backgrounds to ensure a community for all. Now, therefore, I, Ellen Kumay, mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, to hear proclaim the month of A, 2021, as Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month.

[01:58:29] Mayor Ellen Kamei: And Jason, if you're there, would you like to say a few words? And I think for those maybe who may recognize Jason? Jason is one of the co-organizers of our youth led rally in May. Go ahead, Jason.

[01:58:45] Jason: Hi. Thank you so much. Yeah, just a brief introduction. My name is Jason, and I'm a sophomore at Limock High School. I'm also Jeanette, who is another student here, attending, um, she and I both help to organize the APM Mark and Rally, and Mountain View, and we even work with some of the officials here. So we got to turn out around 300 to 500 people. And, you know, we had news coverage. So we are currently working to establish a permanent organization called APISV for youth and the next generation to lead change. So it's just so incredible and rewarding because yeah, this movement is being moving forward and it's being continued and that we have active change being made in our local area and government. So, thank you so much for the proclamation, and I just can't wait to see the next steps towards combating racism and social injustices in this community.

[01:59:38] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you so much, Jason. Would any member of council like to say a few words? All right, I'm not seeing any, so I'll turn it over to a public comment. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click Barry's hand button in Zoom and press start on on your phone. And we have the 2 minute timer up and we'll go to you, Tim.

[02:00:02] Tim Mackenzie: Oh, thanks. Great proclamation. Jason, you're amazing. When I was your age, I was nowhere near as engaged or organized as you are, that's like amazing job organizing the rally and thanks for helping show that our community can be supportive. Council. Thank you for the work you've done. I know REI subcommittee's done a lot of work on this, and I'm a member of the Stanford community. I, like, I would not be here without, uh, without Asian heritage. The Stanford, Leland Stanford, Senior, made his wealth by the exploitation of Chinese labor, um, and without that, like, that it was those actual people who were poorly treated by, uh, robber baron at the time, um, who that eventually were the source of my being able to come here and be part of this community. So I want to thank that, recognize that the people who did that work and uh, continue to make make our country the place that it is and especially our local community. This is where we can find the connection with each other nearby each other. and support each other. So thanks.

[02:01:10] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you. We have a 650 number ending with 793. So if you're on the phone, I think you hit star 9 to unmute. So it's a 650 phone number, last 3 digits, 793. And or maybe it's Star 6 apologies. It gets.

[02:01:46] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Oh, there you go. Are you there?

[02:01:49] Bruce Nagle: Hi, this is Bruce Nagle. I'm a long-term resident of, um, Mountain View, and, um, participate in a number of, uh, different groups on sustainability, and one of the things that I wanted to mention, which is a bit off topic, but very important, is the importance of the youth in these political movements to move our, our nation forward and our city forward, in terms of the path we should be going, whether it's, um, whatever it is, in my case, it's mostly the, Um, climate change stuff, but I wanted to salute the youth at this point because I think they're a very vital part of us being able to make progress because they're going to inherit the earth, and so they're the ones who are the most at stake, and it's good to see them participating in many aspects of um, being able to move forward. So thank you to all of them.

[02:02:40] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you so much, Bruce. All right, so that concludes public comment, and we can bring it back to Council.

[02:02:49] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Well, Jason, I just wanna say, um, thank you again for being so inspiring for all of us. Um, I think we were really just in in awe of you and that you're engaged, um, and involved. So we look forward to seeing what AAPI SV does next. Yes, we'll give you a virtual random applause. Thank you. All right. Have a good night. Thank you for joining us. All right. So we'll move on to item 3.5, which is municipal clerks week proclamation. The proclamation reads was the professional municipal clerk, a time honored and vital part of local government exists throughout the world. And whereas the municipal clerk is the oldest among public servants. And whereas the municipal clerk provides the link between the community, the local governing bodies and agencies of government at other levels. And whereas municipal clerks have pledged to be ever mindful of their neutrality and impartiality, rendering equal service to all. And whereas the municipal clerk serves as the information center on functions of local government and community. And whereas municipal clerks continually strive to improve the administration of the affairs of the clerk's office through participation in education programs, seminars, workshops, and the annual meetings of their state, county and international professional organizations. And whereas it is most appropriate, that we recognize the accomplishments of the city clerk's office. Now, therefore, I, I link may mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, do recognize the week of May 2, 2021 through May 8, 2021 as municipal clerks week, and further extend appreciation to our city clerk, Heather Glaser, city clerk's office staff, deputy city clerk Wanda Wong, Secretary Margarita Herrera, office assistant 3, Jeanette Gutierrez, and all municipal clerks for their vital services they perform. and their exemplary dedication to the communities they represent. So city clerk glazer, would you like to say a few words?

[02:05:01] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Just on behalf of the city clerk's office, I want to say thank you for this recognition. It means a lot to staff. So thank you.

[02:05:10] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Wonderful. Yes, thank you. We're so appreciated. Well, one, we're we're still so grateful that you're here. And wonderful to recognize your office. I know that, especially during the pandemic, we've all been relying on you and your office so much. So I know I appreciate our colleagues, appreciate it, and I'm sure the public appreciates it as well. So thank you very much. Would any member council like to say a few words? All right. I'll turn it over to public comment. Would any member of the public on the line, like to provide public comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or star 9 on your phone. Okay, I'm not seeing any hands. So thank you very much to our city clerk and the city clerk's office. And we'll move to item 3.6, which is our national public works week proclamation. Joining us this evening to receive the proclamation is the city's public works director, Don Cameron. The proclamation reads, whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are of vital importance to the sustainable and resilient communities, and to the public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of the city of Mountain View. And whereas these facility, services, and infrastructure could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals, who are engineers, managers, and employees at all levels of government, and the private sector, who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. And whereas it is in the public interest for citizens, civic leaders, and children, to gain knowledge of and to maintain a progressive interest and understanding of the importance of public works. And public works programs in their respective communities. And whereas the year 2021 marks the 61st annual National Public Works Week, sponsored by the American Public Works Association. Now, therefore, I, Ellen Kane, may of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, do recognize the week of May 16th through 22nd, 2021, as national public works week, and further extend our appreciation to our public works director, Don Cameron, and all the public works professionals in the public works department. Public works director Cameron, would you like to say a few words?

[02:07:45] Public Works Director Don Cameron: Yes, thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. Well, on behalf of your public works staff, thank you. We are proud of the work we do for the city and appreciate the recognition. I look forward to sharing the proclamation with staff. So thank you again.

[02:08:02] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you so much. Would any member of the council like to say a few words? Council member show alter.

[02:08:09] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I just like to say that civil works are really sort of foundational for a civil society and a healthy society, having clean water, having waste products taken care of, having roads that we can get around on, sidewalks, lights. It's all very, um, you know, all that infrastructure is really fundamental to us having a good working, happy society. So, um, Anyway, thanks to all those civil engineers, um, at the city that uh, work diligently to make that happen for us.

[02:08:45] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, Council member Michelle Walter. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in zoom or press star 9 on your phone. All right, Tim Mackenzie.

[02:09:02] Tim Mackenzie: I think probably the best email I ever got from the city of Mountain View is from you, John. Uh, you emailed me back in January and said that uh, the city would be providing period products in restrooms and uh, very much appreciate, appreciate it. Thank you for the work that you put in all the time that just goes on behind the scenes and keeps everything running and things, the types of things that, uh, no one will notice if it's done well, but when it goes wrong, everyone's paying attention and, uh, no one's, no one's noticing, which is, uh, uh, well, right now we are taking notice in a positive way and we, thank you, very, thank you very much. Much appreciated. And thank you for that email you gave me a few months ago. That, that was a, that put a big, big old smile on my face.

[02:09:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you so much, Tim. I think now we're all questioning how you feel about our email is about. That response is that, um, Miss Cameron, thank you so much. You know, every time you come forward with CIP or various projects, you know, I think we see the hard work that you and your department do. So just thank you very much. I, I, you know, I think these proclamations are important just so that we can say thank you. Thanks very much. Great. All right, so we'll give you another rounds of applause and we'll move on to item four, which is our consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion, unless any member of the council wishes to remove an item for discussion. The reading of the full text of resolutions and ordinances will be waived unless a council member requests otherwise. A motion to approve the consent calendar should include reading the title of the ordinance attached to item 4.one, and the resolutions attached to items 4.7 and 4.10. Items 4.6 and 4.8 require 5 votes. Would any member of the council like to pull an item? Okay, not seeing any hands. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on any Vice Mayor Ramirez?

[02:11:14] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Sorry about that. I'm just waiting to make a motion.

[02:11:18] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Oh, okay. Okay. Um. All right. We're going to go to public and I'll come back to you. Would I remember that the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in zoom or press star 9 on your phone. Okay, I'm not seeing any hands. So vice mirror back to you.

[02:11:42] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, mayor. I'll go ahead and move to approve the consent calendar, including 4.one Adopt an ordinance of the city of Mountain View, amending the zoning map for the properties located at 250 East Dana Street, 300 to 320 Moor Parkway, 709 to 7-Eleven Vaquero Drive, and 2254 Wyandotte Street, to be consistent with the general plan land use map. 4.7, adopt a resolution of the city, council of the city of Mountain View authorizing the continued participation in the Santa Clara County, abandoned vehicle, abait and service authority program, and extension of the fee service. And 410 Adopt a resolution of local support of the city council, the city of Mountain View authorizing the filing of an application, for funding, assigns to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and committing any necessary matching funds, and stating assurance to complete the project, and adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View to comply with Assembly Bill 2135 Surplus Land Act.

[02:12:44] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you, Council mayor Mata Check.

[02:12:47] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: 2nd motion.

[02:12:48] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So we have a motion by the vice mayor 2nded by Counselor Metachek. All right. So, uh, City Click Glacier, could we do a roll call vote, please?

[02:12:59] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Hi, Samir Ramirez.

[02:13:02] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[02:13:02] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Matachek?

[02:13:04] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[02:13:05] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Yes, Councilman Bobby Koca.

[02:13:07] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I,

[02:13:07] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Hicks.

[02:13:09] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[02:13:09] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Liebert. Counselor Michelle Walter.

[02:13:13] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes,

[02:13:13] City Clerk Heather Glaser: mayor can I?

[02:13:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[02:13:15] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Watch in case?

[02:13:17] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So we'll move on to item five, which is oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic for up to 3 minutes during this section. State law prohibits the council from acting on nonagenda items. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in zoom or press star 9 on your phone. And we will display a 3 minute timer for this section. Tim Mackenzie?

[02:13:57] Tim Mackenzie: Hello, I wanted to bring to your attention. There was a petition that has been started by the Alphabet Workers Union to support childcare workers at Google. Um, I, I know that council can't take any action right now. I hope that perhaps in the next weeks, like in upcoming council meeting, could send a letter of support, but it would be great if you as individuals also joined in, um, you can learn more at justice for GCC.org or FOR, the word. Um, and essentially what's happened is, uh, there are some, some people are starting to return to Google's campus and uh, they need childcare and the childcare workers who formerly uh, were provided shuttle service are no longer, they're now being asked to uh, get there themselves, essentially. Shuttle service is not resumed. Um, so essentially, the Google, who has a 100000000000 dollars, a $100000000000, who knows at this point how much money Google actually has, is shifting costs that they used to shoulder onto employees, uh, childcare workers, I'm assuming, are low wage workers, at least compared to software engineers and people whose kids they're taken care of. Um, So the, uh, the alphabet workers union has started this petition asking for uh, $1500 a month to be paid to the childcare workers so that they can arrange alternative transportations. And if you're not interested in uh, labor rights issues or the, like, uh, there's also the, the, issue about uh, traffic and the environment, like the number of car trips coming to and from our city, uh, what, how that impacts traffic and the local environment, um, whereas uh, providing money could be things like bikes, uh, public transit, things, uh, things like that. Um, so I just wanted to raise that, put that on your radar, hope that the city itself could send something in support, but, uh, you as individuals also would be great to have your support. And one more time, justice for GCC.org is uh, website where you can learn more about the petition. Thanks a lot.

[02:16:12] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So I don't see any other hands raised. So that concludes item pie, which is public comment. So we'll move on to item 6 which is our public hearings. We'll move to item 6.one, the renewal of the downtown parking maintenance and operation assessment district number 2 for fiscal year 202122. Business development specialist Tiffany Chu will present the staff report. Miss Chu, I'll turn it to you.

[02:16:44] Tiffany Chu: Good evening, mayor and city council. Tonight is the annual renewal of the downtown parking maintenance and operation assessment district for fiscal year 2021 through 22. The district supports the maintenance and operations of the downtown public parking system. This is the 1st of 2 public hearings to renew the parking district. The purpose of this parking public hearing is to take comment on the proposed annual assessment of $158,606 and to preliminarily approve the engineer's report. Any proposed changes to the report will be revised for the June 8th, 2021 public hearing. Each year, the assessment is uniformly applied to all property owners within the district. The formula is based on land use parking requirements and parcel area. Any changes to the assessment, boundaries of formula, would require a district wide vote. Each property owner in the parking district was notified in accordance with state and city requirements. This concludes staff presentation. Thank you.

[02:17:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thanks so much, Miss Chu. So um, does any member of council have questions or comments? All right, I'm not seeing any. So I will move on to, with any member of the public on the line, like to provide comment on this item. If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or star 9 on your phone. And I see no public comment. So I will now bring the item back for council deliberation and action. And note that emotion to approve the recommendations should include reading the title of the resolution attached to the report. Would any council member like to make emotion?

[02:18:41] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Bye, Sam Ramirez.

[02:18:44] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. go ahead. and move to adopt a resolution, I guess the staff's recommendation, including adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View, preliminarily, preliminarily, approving the annual engineers report, the downtown parking maintenance and operation assessment district number 2 for fiscal year 21 to 22.

[02:19:12] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Council member Abi Kota.

[02:19:14] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Second motion.

[02:19:16] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. So we have a motion by Vice Mayor Ramirez and a 2nd by counselor member Abby Koga, so I'll turn it over to you. Miss City Quick.

[02:19:25] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Hi, Mary Ramirez.

[02:19:29] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[02:19:30] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Abby Koca?

[02:19:33] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I,

[02:19:34] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Hicks?

[02:19:35] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[02:19:36] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Labor? Council member Mattachek?

[02:19:41] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes,

[02:19:41] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: council member Michelle Walton.

[02:19:43] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes,

[02:19:44] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: mayor, can I?

[02:19:45] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes. Mission carries. Great, thank you. So we'll move on to item 6.2. We'll house development at 198 Easy Street. Would any council members like to make any disclosures at this time? And disclosures could be meeting with the applicant or visiting the site. So I can disclose that I visited the site. Cells Normatoshack.

[02:20:08] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I visited the site on my own.

[02:20:10] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Cast number Hicks.

[02:20:13] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I visited the site on Google Maps, and I don't know if that counts.

[02:20:19] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Well, we'll just say it just, uh, just in case. Uh, great, thank you. All right. So, senior planner, Margaret Nettle and planning manager, zoning administrator, Stephanie Williams, will present the staff report. The architect, fo fan, fan architects, and the developer Julian Dong will be joining the meeting. Turn it over to you. Miss Meadow.

[02:20:54] Margaret Nettle: Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Margaret Netto, the item before you tonight is 198 Easy Street, a rowhouse project. The approximately in point, bottom one acre site is located on the west side of EZ Street between state route 85 and Glass Court. The site is currently developed with one single family home. The site's general plan designation is medium density, residential, and the zoning designation is R 33 SD, which is multifamily, multiple family, residential special design district. The project proposes to redevelop the site with 5 ownership rowhouse units. The proposed site, layout is configured to provide an activated street presence, along, um, easy street with easy access on there, access to the site, and to the parking is from Gladys Court. 10 year trees are proposed to be removed. They're in poor condition. Or are within the site improvements. 24 replacement trees are proposed. The project is consistent with the general plan and the zoning district. The project is in compliance with the roadhouse guidelines, and no exceptions are requested. The project was reviewed by DRC on February 20, 2021. Where the DRC get a recommendation for, for approval. The project was reviewed by the zoning administrator and subdivision committee on May 24, 2021. Where it was recommended for approval. One person spoke at the medium was generally supportive of the project, but was concerned with some site plan related issues and off site improvements. Staff was able to clarify the concerns and updated 2 conditions, conditions of approval, 121, and one and 122 related to red curb at the crosswalk and driveway. Now recommends approval of this project, with a correction to attachment one to correct the council hearing date, from April 27th to May 11th, 2021. And that concludes my presentation. Thank you.

[02:23:17] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. And then just a quick question, did the did the applicant have a presentation as well?

[02:23:25] Margaret Nettle: Yes, he does.

[02:23:27] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, great. Thank you. Hello.

[02:23:31] Fo Fan: Hello, hi. Good evening, Mayor, and members of the city council. So I just want to uh, present, uh, the, the part of the trees that were removing just the, uh, some kind of people that.

[02:23:47] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Do you mind introducing yourself?

[02:23:49] Fo Fan: Oh, I'm sorry, I'm fully fan. I the project architect with fan architects. We're the designers of this project.

[02:23:57] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you very much.

[02:23:58] Fo Fan: Thank you. I totally forgot.

[02:23:59] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. It's okay. All right. So,

[02:24:02] Fo Fan: as Margaret stated in the report, we have a total of 12 heritage trees. Um, I'm sorry, uh, we have a total of 12 trees on the site, 11 or heritage trees, and uh, we're going to remove 10 heritage trees in the end. Um, Most of the trees on the site, uh, are being removed because of uh, bad pruning by PG&E, especially the trees in the front, um, Easy Street. They've been just topped over the years. And then the remaining trees, most of them are diseased over time. And we do have one tree that is uh, in the back of the property, which uh, cannot be there because we on the west and the north side of the property, we have a public service easement there. So we have to meet that requirement and we're removing a tree in the back. And then, yeah, so overall, if you guys have any questions, I'll be happy to answer anything about the project.

[02:25:02] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Um, so does any member of council have comments or questions before we? Go forward. Council member Hicks.

[02:25:18] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So we did have a resident who made some comments about lowering the lighting so that it wouldn't glare. It wouldn't shine onto uh, residence properties. And uh, they had some suggestions for putting it, um, maybe garage mounted or lower so that it would, so that the lighting would serve the purpose of lighting the pathways and, you know, provide safety to the residents, but like I said, not kind of cause general neighborhood light pollution and keep, you know, shine into people's bedroom windows and so, so forth. So that's something that I would like to follow up on and see if we could the, the, um, if the applicant could incorporate those, um, suggestions, they seemed to me fairly simple to incorporate.

[02:26:10] Fo Fan: Uh, yes, uh, that issue has been talked about during uh, DRC review and also the last uh, zoning administrative uh, review and that's something that we're totally, um, uh, agree with. So we have no problems working out a different lighting solution for the rear area in the driveway.

[02:26:30] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, thank you.

[02:26:32] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Great, thank you. So I'll go to Council mayor Matachek, and then I'll go to you, Council member, Show Alter.

[02:26:39] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. I sent in a question about the distance between the units. Um, but what I forgot to ask was, what is the difference between, uh, sorry, the distance between the units at Wild Orchid, the development on the corner of Calderon and Dana?

[02:26:59] Margaret Nettle: The distance between those units is 4 feet between. And um, in the rowhouse design guidelines. You can have a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 10.

[02:27:10] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, great. Thank you. Um, and then, Um, yeah, I noticed that um, 5 oak trees are scheduled to be removed. And, um, is there anything that would prevent, um, five, 10 uh, new oak trees from being planted? Um,

[02:27:35] Fo Fan: from the project team per perspective? No. Um, we're open to uh, suggestions or anything that um, that, that we can replace oak trees.

[02:27:48] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, great. Thank you. That's it.

[02:27:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, council member, show Walter.

[02:27:56] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes, I was interested in the trees as well. Um, uh, I think I saw some information about the change in canopy. Could you explain that to us before and after?

[02:28:10] Fo Fan: Yes, sure. So, um, since most of the uh, trees are diseased on on the site and uh, with poor structural conditions. So, um, Overall in the long term, uh, 10 years after uh, the nutrients are plant planted, we will have more of a percentage of the tree can be coverage than what is existing right now. So I believe right now we're at about 38%. And then 5 years from now, because the trees that were going to be replacing are going to be not matured. So with the amount of new trees that were adding, that's going to be about 31% 5 years from now. And then 10 years down the road, the projection is about 51%.

[02:29:03] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay, so is that is that a 5% increase in canopy at least?

[02:29:08] Fo Fan: 5% increase in canopy at least. Yes, it's more than that.

[02:29:12] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah. So, so, so it's about like about a 7 to G. Well, we, as you can tell, we're all interested in the amount of trees. So if there is a way to do that, that would be good. And also if there's a way to help plant some trees nearby. Um, that, um, you know, might might not be um, on the site, but maybe you could arrange with neighbors or something to plant trees. They would be interested in that as well. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:29:41] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Any other questions from council members? Okay, seeing none. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide public comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone. All right, we will put a 2 minute timer up. And I see a hand.

[02:30:11] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Scott Atkinson?

[02:30:18] Public Speaker: One of the adjacent property, uh, residents, and, uh, into this, and we're looking forward to being developed, and also, Mark, on this. I would note one correction in the... Uh, the tentative map has an error on it. The address media adjacent neighbor. Um, Other than, um, I, one recommendation by the design review committee. We object to just sort of, Smoke. And we have the nearby Creekside Park, provides plenty of seating for resting and walkers and so forth. So that, I think, just uh, making a general comment about row houses with necessarily specific to this project. is that, um, have row homes within this zone. Uh, as it's stated in there, it needs to be. That's be as incompatible and consistent with the existing resident. And obviously the height and size is the most significant and obvious fact. Above, you know, color matching or architectural, Right, and size as the character. And so in this immediate adjacency, uh, to adjacent, and, uh, throughout the neighborhood, and fill up early, and I think it needs to be made more of a...

[02:32:19] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. So, Scott, we're hearing, like, every other word. I think, I'm not sure, if maybe you want to, um, If you want to call back in or if you've shared these comments with Margaret, um, I'm not I'm not sure, would you like to try again?

[02:32:43] Scott Atkinson: Sure, I'd be happy to try again. Can you hear me now?

[02:32:46] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yeah, we can hear you.

[02:32:47] Scott Atkinson: Help? Okay. All right. Um, I apologize if, um, I did email my comments to everybody within the council, so highlight, uh, number one needs to be corrected before approval of the tentative. The open space seating, uh, just so that it doesn't become a default smoking area for the J... as the residents of these real homes and others in the neighborhood. Um, Exciting park is within 15 yards and there's plenty of seating there for walk. That was foundation by a DRC and not necessarily the applicant. Uh, not like to see that. Otherwise, I'm in a project. Oh, to, uh, uh, or other places in the city, although it's, um, the, also to clarify and re-emphasize that these neighborhood factors, I don't, the existing residential neighborhood character. Game, uh, early on in the process. Um, Um, with the neighborhood, the height and size is, um, this factor in determining compatibility, character and harmony. Color or architectural features. And so we need to care about. To the uh, immediate neighbors as we do the trees. Um, both the apartments and homes and I think it's project and to not, that there should be an early gating factor on those roads.

[02:34:55] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. So I, I, I still, it started off strong and then I couldn't, I think we still struggled to hear you, but I, but I heard comments about the, uh, the tentative map and needing corrections. I heard some comments about open space seating, um, making sure that that doesn't become, um, a defective smoking area since Creekside Park is 15 yards next door. And then you had comments about the real home guidelines, about the height size, neighborhood compatibility. Those are the comments that I heard. So hopefully I got that right.

[02:35:31] Scott Atkinson: I think pretty close. And you can see my my...

[02:35:35] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Okay, great. Thank you very much for your comments and working with us on the technical difficulties. We appreciate it. All right, so that concludes public comments so we can bring it back, um, to council, and before, um, we lead into council deliberation, perhaps staff, you might have heard these comments already. I'm not sure if you wanted to address them or if the applicant wanted to to clarify anything that we tried to to hear there.

[02:36:07] Fo Fan: Yeah, thank you. Oh, go ahead.

[02:36:09] Ms. Netto: Okay, sorry, Margaret. Um, yeah, so I think, uh, what Scott mentioned about the 10th of the map, uh, a neighbors that dress was off. So that's definitely something that maybe could be just a contention of approval, that that, that, that part can be um, addressed and just corrected. And then, yes, so the park bench that did come up with, uh, during DRC. It was a recommendation by DRC to have a park bench at the corner there. So we are flexible. So we are open to include that or not include that. That part in the design. And then regarding the row houses and the designs. So, um, yes, uh, we followed, uh, the Rohaus guidelines height and everything, and I do understand that there's always concern with height and mass. And we did our best. I think we went through about 8 or 10 design iterations of planning DDRC a few times just to bring everything down. And we did reduce the massing on the corner units a bit, uh, just uh, just to be more compatible.

[02:37:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Great, thank you. And I see, uh, Ms. Shravesta was hand up as well.

[02:37:22] Ms. Shravesta: Thank you. I just wanted to confirm and maybe at the end we can highlight all the different items that could be added to the motion. Some of them, like the correction of the address, will be made in the final map, and so it doesn't need to be added. I think that's something that staff and the applicant have noted.

[02:37:43] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Thank you. Miss Nano, did you want to say something? I, I know that you were trying to speak earlier.

[02:37:49] Ms. Netto: Sorry about that. No, that, it's already been answered. Thanks.

[02:37:54] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. All right. So, um, we'll bring this back for um, council deliberation, um, and action and note that a motion to approve the recommendations, should include reading the title of the resolutions, uh, as attached to the report. And I think Ms. Robust will help us if we need to add anything as well.

[02:38:16] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yes, and I can maybe add to make it easier. Uh, the date correction to resolution one and then, uh, There doesn't seem to be a need to correct the property owner address in resolution 2, but also I would just add to that motion. The 3rd action is to find the project categorically exempt from Sequa.

[02:38:41] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, city attorney Chopra. Okay. So any council discussion or motion? Council member Mattachek and then council member show Walter, I saw your hand too.

[02:39:06] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Prepared to make a motion and then I'm happy to discuss the additions, directions, whatever. But I would get the ball rolling here. Um, unless there are other comments that folks want to make before I make a motion, I see shaking hands, okay. So, um, I know that we adopt a resolution of the city of Mountain View, approving a planned unit development permit, special design permit, and a development review permit to construct a 5 unit, rowhouse project, and a heritage tree removal permit to remove 10 carriage heritage trees, on a .51 acre site on the west side of Easy Street, between State Route 85 and Gladys Court. The address is 198 Easy Street, to be read in title only, further reading waived, and that's attachment one to the council report. Two, adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, approving a tentative map, to create 5 lots and one common lot on a .5 acre lot at 198 Easy Street, to be read in title only for the reading waived. And that's attachment 2 to the council report. And three, find the project categorically exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to section 15332, which is in field development projects. And then I heard to, um, adjust the, without a condition to adjust the lighting at the rear of the property. And it sounded like the applicant was open to that. Does it have to be really specific, or can I just leave it at that?

[02:40:50] Ms. Shravesta: Council levelmatic check. Condition number 22 actually requires them to provide a lighting plan with photometrics, and it's standard practice for the city, um, and the zoning administrator to review it. To make sure that there are cutoffs, um, and other items attached to the fixtures. So they don't go beyond um, the property. So we don't believe that a special conditions. needed to address it.

[02:41:16] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, great. Um, We need to make the date correction to uh resolution one um to today's date. And, um, Let's see, the neighbor's address we don't have to include. And I would like to include that. Um, I, you know, I'm not an expert on tree canopy or how close or far apart tree should be planted. And so what I would like to include is that at least 5 oak trees are planted. And um, I would say it'd be nice if possible that 10 were planted, since for heritage trees, we have a 2 to one replacement ratio. But I would leave it between 5 and 10. Oak trees be planted and leave it up to the applicant and staff to figure out what's the best solution there. And did anybody else have anything else they wanted to add? I don't think it needs to be included, but I heard there was flexibility around the discussion about the park bench. That's the only other thing that I had. So, but I don't think that needs to be, um, included. Okay.

[02:42:40] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: City Attorney Choka. Did we have to include anything else? Did we capture everything?

[02:42:45] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: I believe so. I think, um, if there wasn't a desire for any more specificity regarding the bench other than to work flexibly, to implement it, then no, I would just double check that with Miss Netto, to understand that correctly.

[02:43:04] Ms. Netto: Yeah, no, that's fine. I mean, there is flexibility. It was a recommendation from the DRC to include that bench. So.

[02:43:13] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Okay, then nothing more would be needed.

[02:43:16] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. And, um, vice mayor, I saw Kelsamo Shelter's hand before yours, if that's okay. if that's all right. Counselor Michelle wants here.

[02:43:29] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes, I was just going to 2nd the motion.

[02:43:32] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So we have the motion by council member Mattachek, 2nded by council member Showalter. So, uh, let's do a roll culvert, roll call vote. Sorry about that. Council member Mattachek?

[02:43:45] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes,

[02:43:46] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member, shall Walter?

[02:43:49] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes,

[02:43:49] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: council member Abbe Koka.

[02:43:51] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Hi,

[02:43:52] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Hicks.

[02:43:53] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[02:43:54] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Lemur.

[02:43:56] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Hi.

[02:43:57] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Ice Mail O'Mearance.

[02:43:59] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[02:44:00] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Mayor, can I?

[02:44:02] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[02:44:03] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Okay. Great.

[02:44:04] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. All right, this concludes our public hearing, and we can move on to item seven, which is our new business. This is uh, item 7.one. Our sustainability action plan for progress update. Environmental sustainability program coordinator Steve Battinger will present the staff report.

[02:44:37] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Hello, Mr. Andrew, how are you?

[02:44:55] Mayor Ellen Kamei: So I'm not sure if Miss Seymour Rambo will start or Mr. Asinger will start.

[02:45:03] Ms. Seymour Rambo: Good evening, Mayor, um, Mr. Atinger will start, um, and I am, uh, checking to see if he's got any technical difficulties. Looks like he's off mute, so Steve, over to you.

[02:45:18] Steve Attinger: Oh, there we go. I was not able to get my video to show. Um, So if you'll bear with me 12nd, I will share the presentation.

[02:45:38] Steve Attinger: All right. Are you able to see the presentation now?

[02:45:43] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, and maybe we could go to full screen. If possible of your slide.

[02:45:49] Steve Attinger: Uh, yes, just one moment.

[02:45:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Perfect. Thank you so much. Is that better?

[02:45:55] Steve Attinger: Yes, there it goes. Thank you. Take it away.

[02:45:57] Steve Attinger: Excellent. Well, thank you very much, uh, Mayor May. Vice Mayor Ramirez, council members and members of the public. My name is Steve Attinger, and I'm the city's sustainability coordinator, and I'm here to present a progress update on our sustainability action plan for. So by way of a little bit of background, Um, the city has had a long history of supporting environmental initiatives and environmental protection. In the recent past, there have been a couple of milestone events that are worth noting, 1st in 2018, um, about 40 community members convened for 9 months, and delivered a series of recommendations to the city council for the areas in which the city should be focusing at sustainability initiatives. Uh, following that um, task force initiative. The city engaged in a process of evaluating its own sustainability program. against benchmark leading cities in the country. And subsequently developed a strategic plan. Um, leveraging both of those documents. Uh, the city council adopted this current action plan, sustainability action plan for, uh, in October 2019. It's a 3 year plan, spanning 2019 to 2022. It's comprised of 81 new actions, 27 goals across 7 sectors. And in the adoption of this plan, the city council appropriated $7500000 in budget. And in terms of where we are today in our progress. So we're about a year and a half into the 3 year plan. And nearly 2 thirds of the 81 actions have been completed or are in progress. Um, Some of the actions have been delayed. Um, no surprise here, but as a result of the COVID pandemic. And also as a result of select staff vacancies across the organization. Um, in terms of more details on the progress update, there are key uh, activities and actions within the staff report where we provided a little bit more detail. I'll highlight those in the next couple slides. But also just to point you to attachment one, which provides the status, the budget, um, and the timeline for all 81 of those actions. And you can see the progress, um, update on the table on your screen here in terms of um, the percentage completion, et cetera. So in the staff report, I mentioned, we provided a little bit more detail on key initiatives that have been underway. Um, those initiatives include, uh, the staff, uh, initiatives related to plant promoting plant-based eating in Mountain View, um, and from the standpoint of transportation, developing an EV action plan, and installing new EV chargers around Mountain View. And then also an update on gas powered landscaping equipment. Further, there are updates in the report pertaining to transportation, demand management, activities, and also land use, as well as current 0 waste initiatives, and some additional details related to parks and ecosystems. Um, as part of this report, staff is recommending uh, one action, uh, be deferred, uh, beyond the timeline of this plan. So basically beyond the timeline for SAP 4 for consideration in the next action plan, and that's related to our e-scooter share pilot program. Um, and the reason this is being recommended is because of um, industry changes associated with COVID and also some staff and constraints. And I wanted just to point out that council has already provided direction to remove this item from the strategic roadmap action plan. Um, in addition to that one item recommended for deferral, staff is recommending that we remove 5 of the 81 actions, um, that you see on the screen, um, for various different reasons. The 1st 3 actions pertain to developing longer term sustainability plans, and staff is recommending that we basically integrate those into our development of a carbon neutrality plan and an update to our climate action plan. Action B one. was related to restricting natural gas use in buildings and construction, but that's no longer needed because of council adoption of a reach code in late 2019, which bans the implementation of natural gas and all new construction. And finally, T.217, that's related to accelerating active transportation infrastructure, and staff has recommended, and council has agreed, that the better way to approach this is through integrating pedestrian and bicycle projects into other existing projects. And from the standpoint of, um, the original action plan, some of the original actions did not have a budget associated with them because staff just did not know exactly what uh, the action would, um, comprise. And what we've done now is we are presenting for council approval, 5 specific actions that were funded before, totaling $330,000. And these are being requested so that we can actually move forward with these 5 actions. And again, these are existing actions within the plan that originally didn't have a budget allocation. In addition to that, there is one new action that we are requesting funding of $75,000 for. This was not in the original plan, and it is a request to fund, uh, citywide irrigation audits in our parks. Um, also for council consideration, attachment 3 presents a resolution for a national carbon tax and dividend policy. And there have been 2 bills, uh, introduced at the federal level related to this, one of them a couple years ago, HR 763. That's no longer active, but within the last month or 2, a new bill has been introduced by the same author. HR 2307, um, and that is now beginning to be uh, considered in Washington. So for council consideration, staff has presented a generic resolution to show support for the concept of carbon tax and dividend in general. As 2nd resolution, attachment 4 is also being presented for consideration of council support. And that is related to the state's initiatives to accelerate the phase out of the sales of gasoline powered vehicles by 2030. So that would be a proposal is to accelerate that up to 2030. Um, and that is presented in your packet as attachment four. From a fiscal impact perspective, staff is requesting approval from the city council to allocate $405,000 to fund the 5 existing actions and the one new action that I highlighted a little bit earlier. And is also requesting permission from council to have discretion to spend the remaining $114,800 of balance in the budget, um, with, you know, discretion to spend that on the actions in the plan as needed, um, uh, depending on if some of the scopes uh, for the projects succeeds the allocated budget. In terms of next steps, from the sustainability division standpoint, uh, we are wrapping up, uh, the development of our final 2018 and preliminary 2019 inventories and working on a date to bring that uh, to the city council. We anticipate providing the council with a final update on this current action plan for in the fall of 2022. And we anticipate beginning development of the next action plan, action plan 5 in mid 2022. And present that for council consideration in late 2022. So these are the 4 recommendations presented in the staff report. This concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[02:55:31] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Great. Thank you. So, uh, do any does any member of council have comments or questions?

[02:55:43] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Right. And if you if you don't mind, Mr. Ender, just so that we can see everyone for now. Maybe we can stop the screen share and then if that's all right. And I see council member hicks his hand up.

[02:55:57] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So my 1st question was just whether the, uh, new or upcoming legislation from the Biden administration has impacted your planning or whether you expect it to impact the planning for SAP 5 in any way, whether it's too early to tap.

[02:56:15] Steve Attinger: It is a little bit early to tell. I mean, we certainly understand the basics of what the Biden administration is proposing, which falls into 2 primary buckets. One of them is a drastic acceleration in our national requirements to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and the administration is requesting nationally that we reduce our emissions between 50 and 52% by 2030. This actually doubles our commitment under the Paris Climate Accord. So that's kind of one primary focus. And then um, associated, uh, with that is the Biden administration's American jobs, $200000000 American jobs plan, which is providing an infusion of funding, uh, for many aspects of infrastructure, development across the country, um, related to, um, showing up our roads and bridges, investing in affordable housing, investing in utility infrastructure, um, investing in businesses that support green industry like battery production. So that's a quick highlight of what they're proposing. Um, in one minute or less. And certainly from the standpoint that the federal government is proposing drastically accelerating reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030, um, as it's actually it dovetails very nicely into what I was referring to earlier, um, in the development of our carbon neutrality plan and an update to our greenhouse gas reduction. Um, excuse me, an update to our climate action plan. So as we are looking at, um, the climate action plan and the carbon neutrality plan, we will absolutely be considering these accelerated federal greenhouse gas reduction targets, um, as we as we develop those plans. And, you know, in terms of the $20000000000000 um infrastructure. It's a little bit too early to tell exactly how that will impact Mountain View, but staff is going to be monitoring that very carefully.

[02:58:29] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, thank you. And my 2nd question is, um, how much, I mean, I would encourage you to do this, but I'm wondering how much you have in looking at transportation demand management plans, how much you are thinking of incorporating, uh, what we've learned from remote or hybrid work into that, into those plans.

[02:58:55] Steve Attinger: So for transportation, demand management, I would defer to either RT or Don. They are the resident experts related to our TDM programs.

[02:59:17] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Well, I think we're going to need to wait a 2nd to bring over Miss Cameron. So if you have, oh, here she comes. Miss Cameron, are you there? We can also come back to you. There she is. Thank you.

[02:59:38] Public Works Director Don Cameron: Don Cameron, Public Works director. I believe I heard the question before I was put into moving up on the panel. Uh, it was, to what extent are we taking into account, you know, lessons learn, about remote working, telecommuting in terms of TDM plans? We definitely see that as a new tool or a greatly expanded tool also, because that's always existed, but now it's a greatly expanded tool in the toolkit for how to, uh, reduce drive-alone vehicles, uh, commuting to work. In many ways, right now, the way we're looking at it is, as we look at developments coming in, and they need to achieve certain trip rejection strategies. You know, they have a whole range of tools, and we would expect that they would also take a look at telecommuting or remote working, at least part time for their employees as one of the mechanisms they could use to meet those trip reduction strategy, um, goals.

[03:00:44] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, thank you. And I, yeah, I hope we can use that as much as possible. So thank you. I'm glad to hear you're already thinking about it. That's it.

[03:00:54] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Council member Abbe Koga.

[03:00:58] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, and thank you for the report. Uh, I wanted to, um, ask about the, um, landscaping equipment items, um, the new request. So the 50,000 for city staff. Does that cover all of our city staff?

[03:01:18] Steve Attinger: Hey, it actually, it actually does. The city already has um, a few of the electric landscaping, um, devices and equipment that it's using primarily in the downtown area. So what this will do is, since we already have a few pieces of equipment for some of the staff, this will basically provide enough funding so that all city staff who are involved in landscaping and parked maintenance will have electric devices and batteries sufficient for the use of their full day and then also chargers. Great. That's exciting. Thank you.

[03:01:58] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, and then going to the other item that went $100,000 for a potential um, ebate or trade-in program. So this is hoping to understand better what the $100,000 would be used for. Um, as you know, I know you've been in conversation with, um, our Silicon Valley clean energy staff, um, and, uh, they've been working with the mob, the member, uh, agency working group to see if there's interest in a, uh, regional SVC member, uh, group program. So, are you thinking this $100,000 would be, uh, supplementing that or is, is that there's some other use for this?

[03:02:46] Steve Attinger: As envisioned for this report, the $100,000 would be utilized to, um, hire a consultant to administer, administer a city run program and provide the financial incentives themselves. Um, the conversations among the member agency, cities for SVCE, that is in very preliminary stages. And so, um, we're not quite clear on the traction that we are going to get from the other um, local agencies toward uh, this kind of an initiative. And we are also, um, watching very closely what's happening at the state level, um, through carb, and there are initiatives underway at the state level. Uh, to, uh, basically phase out the sale of gas powered landscaping equipment. It's preliminary, like, preliminarily slated for 2024 with generators being given an extension to 2028. Um, and so, as we, as staff is beginning to look at what kind of a plan, uh, we want to, um, develop or implement going forward, we're going to be evaluating interest through the SVCE agency cities, looking what's happening at the state level. Um, but the $100,000 in funding would basically fund a city specific program for administration and the rebates.

[03:04:26] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, yes, and then, in addition to what you mentioned, there's um, assembly member Berman's bill, AB 1346, which has gone through a couple of committees, I believe there's another committee hearing tomorrow, um, and that one, I believe the date starting would be July of 2022. Um, so I guess I'm wondering how, what is our timeline, if we were to do our own, like, would, would be sooner than that, or if not, um, maybe it's best to see how these other initiatives might move forward.

[03:05:04] Steve Attinger: Absolutely. Um, we are aware of, um, 1346 and we are going to be monitoring that, um, to see its progress, and certainly, uh, if that bill passes, and and within that bill, is actually an allocation of funding, um, delivered likely through carb, um, for commercial, um, trade-in, uh, program for a commercial trade-in program. So, um, since there is funding allocated within that bill, if it does pass, then that would provide a means of diverting some funding for Mountain View landscapers. So we're definitely going to be taking a slow approach to this initiative, given what's happening with SVCE and given what's happening with the bill more broadly. And we're going to get a sense of what's going on in those 2 areas before we dive into spending the money on a Mountain View specific program.

[03:06:08] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I'm sorry I'm having trouble getting to unmute the unmute button. Um, thank you. And then the other question I had was in terms of, um, reach code. So what are we looking at for reach codes for 20 the next 2022 cycle? It's item B one. 3. Since we've done reach all electric new buildings, like what more do we need to do? I thought that was pretty far reaching.

[03:06:37] Steve Attinger: Well, it, it, it was. The last reach code was was very aggressive, um, on the council's part. Um, I have had preliminary conversations with community development staff related to this. Um, but to be honest, uh, uh, we haven't gone further enough in our conversations for me to be able to provide a lot of specificity related to this. And part of why we haven't gone further in those conversations is, um, building division staff is still waiting, um, or either waiting for or in the early stages of reviewing the proposed, um, state level changes to, uh, the code, uh, in order to be able to ascertain what items we may want to consider as a city, that reach beyond that, those, those state changes that are coming down the pip for the next reach code. Um, so I would be happy. I don't have specifics tonight, but I'd be happy to talk with building division staff and we can provide an update for you as soon as we're able to.

[03:07:47] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Let's say, remember, I think we read a letter to, is it the PUC about encouraging them to, um, require all electric new buildings as well. I don't know where that is, but yes, an update would be great. Thank you.

[03:08:02] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Mir. Thank you. Council member show Walter.

[03:08:09] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Well, this is very exciting. It's always good to hear about all the work that's been going on in this field. Particularly in mitigation of GHGs. I mean, I think we should all be really proud of the amount we've accomplished. And I'm really glad to see there's an adaptation action in here, which is the evaluation of the irrigation system. So that, that's really important too. I do have a couple questions, though. I was a little confused and in talking to some constituents, they were confused too about the staffing changes. You know, there was, there were staffing proposals initially, and then, um, uh, some of them were, were, uh, was decided to combine with uh, transportation, uh, planners and uh, anyway, so could you go over how the staffing is working now, Steve, or or whoever's appropriate?

[03:09:02] Steve Attinger: Maybe I can take the 1st comments in response to that question, council member, show alter. So there were um, both limited period and ongoing positions that were identified as necessary to implement the actions that were in SAP 4 and that were kind of tied to the strategic plan and kind of the levels of response that the city wanted to have to its climate goals. And, um, there was one, uh, uh, idea in there to have a short term funding of a, like an extra crew, an extra CIP team to, to, to jumpstart some of the, um, uh, active transportation, capital projects. And, um, upon further evaluation by, uh, Don Cameron and her team in public works, it was determined that, you know, given the full range of the whole CIP and the management. for a new team of CIP, um, uh, uh, engineers that, that it would be more effective and feasible to be able to incorporate active transportation elements into other types of CIP projects. And, um, so it was actually a council action um, as part of the CIP process to remove those 3 positions um, from the, you know, the plan. And, and they weren't part of the 7500000 in funding, they were always going to be funded through the CIP. Um, so that leaves the other positions, which um, uh, 4 of one of them is filled, 4 of them are underway and being filled and 2 of them are pending. And if you wanted more specifics on which of which I can provide that.

[03:10:46] Councilmember Pat Showalter: That's very good news. That's very good news. Okay, thank you. And I think another thing that that, you know, another concept that that reflects is that the, you know, most of our GSGs are generated in our transportation system. So it does make really, really good sense to, um, uh, you know, to have the, uh, transportation, um, group and public works beefed up, essentially, to deal with this because it's, it's long term ongoing. So that's great. Um, but, but, um, Then going to bicycle improvements. That's another thing. Lots of people are very, very concerned about, you know, where are the bicycle improvements, where are they taking place and kind of what's the schedule for them? And um, I was wondering, is there a specific place that a member of the public can go to kind of see what the status of bicycle improvements are? Um, I know we have, you know, we have a bike plan. And there are, I would say, upwards of 20. Maybe even 30 bike improvements that are kind of in the, you know, in the process. So where can somebody go to find out what's the status of those?

[03:11:59] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Don, is that a question that you could take?

[03:12:03] Public Works Director Don Cameron: Yes, thank you very much. Probably the best place right now is on our public works webpage where we have a couple tabs related to projects. For instance, we're in the middle of designing up a green, a bike lane for Calderon, and there's a tab for that, that talks about what that project's, what's going on with that project. Uh, we have the Shoreline Bust Lane project, which also includes, um, constructing protected bikeways along Shoreline Boulevard. That's now in, you know, starting into construction. We have a whole series of projects. That's not to say that we couldn't do with a redo and reorganization of our of our webpage and website that would make this information easier to find. And I'm, I know that this is something the city's looking at on a whole. And public works is really looking forward to working on this. uh, I think with the city manager's office because I think, We're doing a lot. You are. It can make it easier for the public to find this information.

[03:13:08] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I think, um, I remember that there was a map in the, um, in the bike plan that showed, uh, the, you know, the trails and, um, kind of the plans for each and maybe there would be some way to update that and make it, you know, so you could expand it and look at it in and out, um, to see where things were. Anyway, it would take some time. But I think people would really appreciate that. Um, and then my other question, uh, for right now, is about the ongoing inventory of, um, GHGs. You know, one of the things that we decided a couple years ago was to, um, go for the GHD inventory annually instead of, I think it was every 3 years or 5 years. And, um, I know that we, you know, we got that going and then there have been some interruptions with COVID and uh, it sounds like there are about 3 that are about to come out. This 3 years we're about to come out. So I'm just wondering, um, uh, do you feel like the, uh, the system is in place now to do this on a regular basis, um, was kind of basically the hiccup related to COVID or, you know, are, do we still need to spend some time and money figuring out how, how to do this more, um, uh, you know, on, on a, you know, annually? Ease with the staff we have.

[03:14:27] Steve Attinger: Uh, we are, we are positioned well right now to uh, deliver annual greenhouse gas inventories for the city council. Um, the delay in releasing the final 2018 and preliminary 2019 was related to a staff vacancy. Um, but we actually have, um, a number, we've actually implemented in the last few years, several specific internal processes that allow us to generate an inventory, uh, dramatically more quickly than we were able to previously, and do it with in-house staff as opposed to needing an outside consultant. Um, so we're well positioned to deliver the annual inventory results. Um, the one other little nuance that I would just, um, provide is that there is always a few year delay in producing a final version of an inventory, um, which is why we're now only releasing the final of 2018. And that simply has to do with, we have to wait for the, the last piece of data, which generally comes from PG&E, in order for us to be able to finalize the inventory. And that, unfortunately, actually takes a couple of years. So that just gives you a little bit of a, um, explanation for why there is a little bit of a delay, even, um, when we are, basically, when we have the rest of the inventory already to go.

[03:15:53] Councilmember Pat Showalter: But you have the resources that you need to do it. The city council doesn't need to provide you with more resources. Oh, we get this. Okay. That's why I wanted to make sure. And I, and I, and you know, as we've talked about before, things that are measured get people's attention. And this is something that we really, really care about. So, you know, there's a, there's a lot of, um, you know, there are a lot of people who are, who really think that having it measured this regularly, um, particularly now is exactly what we should be doing. So, okay, so thank you. those are my questions.

[03:16:30] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Any other council members have questions? All right, not seeing any. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press sternine on your phone, and we'll display a 2 minute timer on the screen.

[03:16:51] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Peter Myers?

[03:16:57] Peter Meyers: Good evening, thank you, mayor. My name is Peter Meyers. I'm with an organization called Zev 2030. Um, that's Z 0 emission vehicles 2030. Um, we are a nonprofit that was started uh, several years ago to help push for a statewide goal of 100% of new carp sales in California to be 0 admission vehicles uh, by 2030. We were originally spurred on for this. For climate reasons, you know, science tells us that we have until 2030 to drastically reduce our carbon emissions and greenhouse gases. And in California, transportation accounts for 40% of those greenhouse gases. So climate got us interested, and of course, they're, um, you know, numerous uh, benefits of electric vehicles and 0 emission vehicles. They're quieter, it's cleaner air, it's more reliable. And of course, this President Biden said, I think about 40 times in his speech, uh, the other week, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Um, and Mountain View is obviously a center for uh, so many technology jobs that can become automotive jobs as well. The electric vehicle industry is already the number one export in California. Um, in our economy. So we need to continue growing that, um, and passing uh, this resolution. For 2030 as a goal will be a huge step. Mountain View would join Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, San Leandro and Culver City. as the 6th city in California to pass a similar resolution in the 1st in Santa Clara County. And I want to conclude by thanking the council for and city staff for all the concrete actions as well, with regards to electric vehicles, especially the increased building of public charging, stations, electrifying the city's vehicle fleet, and creating a complete EV action plan in the future. So thank you very much.

[03:18:58] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Lisa Wade? Lisa?

[03:19:16] Lisa Wade: Hi, my name is Lisa Wait. I'm an environmental access. We've met in Picon Valley for over 30 years. I have lived in Mountain King and Santa Barbara. I currently live in Algana, and still have friends in Mountain. I love to visit the downtown stores and restaurants. I'm so pleased to hear, in 2019, that not really a make commitment from a plant-based city in the state. We cannot sell the climate crisis without the ship towards client AC. According to the United Nations, meat consumption, continues on, don't forget them. We cannot limit global warming to 2 degrees southwest. In order to perform to a boy, a potential collapse of human state. The United Nations released a special time report for 2019. It found a vegan diet to be by far the most sustainable diet. In addition, researches in a 2018 Oxford site, published in a Journal Client, said that vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on pentacle. Not just free house cancelling, but global acidification, futrification, then use and water use. It is far bigger than cutting down on your plant or buying an electric car, as these only have in her gas mission. I'd like to see that when they follow through on their commitment. I know comment has made things challenging. But I don't think we need to wait for restaurants to open before creating programs to engage in educating public. I think you can start on that now. According to project go down. The 3rd and highest climate solution are reducing food waste and eating a plant which size. In fact, if you read the section on plant-based science, they say that making the transmission to a plant-based site may well be the most effective way an individual can stop climate change. Thank you so much for hearing my comments, but I'm excited to hear what will happen next in regards to ISU.

[03:21:20] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Mary, Dario?

[03:21:27] Mary Dadio: Hi. Mary Dadio, Mountain View resident. I'm really excited to see that the shuttle hours are going to be increased to 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. I want to commend staff on getting the grant to make that happen. Super exciting. I hope that, um, major, major, major outreach is planned for community awareness, um, so that, um, the community makes can make use of that because that's going to be a great resource. I'm also here to speak in favor of all the funding requests, especially those related transportation, since that is our largest source of greenhouse gases. I think the fleet electrification plan is a great idea. It would be so great to see the city model the driving electric vehicles, especially start to see some electric, you know, more electric trucks, and, um, you know, electric police cars. I think doctor vehicles actually have some major benefits for police cars. Um, Also, the bicycle facilities and monitoring program. Um, and I just, I'm hoping that we're keeping a focus on this whole problem of EV chargers for, um, multi-unit, um, dwellings, because that, that's a real, um, I see that we're working with Silicon Valley clean energy on, on that, but we really need to focus on that. Regarding the irrigation audit. It's not clear to me what the scope is, but if this is only an audit of the irrigation equipment, I'd like to see it expanded to include, um, just identification, not conversion yet, but it's an audit. Just identify land suitable for conversion from law to drop tolerantados. For example, there are at least a couple parks with grass planted between the sidewalk and the street. That's not useful for sports. It's difficult to water properly, and I assume it's difficult to mow. And regarding landscape equipment, I hope we're checking to see if we have any subcontractors who do landscaping for the city and setting a date for them. Uh, very soon, such maybe at the tennis center to make sure that um, those subcontractors that subcontract to the city um, are required to use electrical landscape equipment. Thank you.

[03:23:36] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Mohan. Good to Nathan. Hi Mohan, you there?

[03:23:58] Mohan Gurunatin: Good evening, Mayor, can you hear me?

[03:24:00] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, I hear you now.

[03:24:01] Mohan Gurunatin: Okay, great. Okay, thank you. Good evening, mayor, council members. So my name is Mohan Gurunatin. a 15-year resident in Mountain View. Um, in 2019, I spoke to the council about uh, advocating for plant-based diet, um, to be part of the SAP 4 program, and we were grateful to see that the city allocated $30,000 to promote plant-based diets. It was inspiring to see this because this issue is so often neglected. And uh, Mountain View may be one of the 1st cities to actually, um, put some attention on this issue. However, for the past year and a half, to my knowledge, not a single action has been planned to follow through on this commitment to promote sustainable diets. I understand that COVID has been a major disruption and thrown a wrench into many plans, but we lost a whole year where we could have been teaching our residents through webinars and educational programs more about sustainable eating. Teaching people about these things is not expensive or difficult, and we don't need to engage city restaurants. All we need is a Zoom account, an audience, and a speaker. And there are plenty of good speakers available on this topic from available through many nonprofits. Um, with all of our time, home and making meals at home and on Zoom in 2020 was the perfect opportunity to offer this kind of education to the community, and it would have cost the city very little. We continue to see the cities placing a lot of emphasis on reducing transportation emissions, which is very important. However, globally, the emissions due to animal food production exceed those from all forms of transportation. And the UN has asserted. There's no way we can keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees C without a radical shift in global dietary choices, especially in Western countries. So I urge you to follow through with the commitment to promote sustainable plant-based diets in our city, through education, webinars, and other events as quickly as possible. I'm happy to help in any way I can. And thank you for hearing my comments.

[03:26:03] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Melissa Lee?

[03:26:12] Melissa Lee: Hello, can you hear me?

[03:26:13] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[03:26:15] Melissa Lee: Uh, yes, hello, my name is Melise Lee, and I have been a mountain view resident for the last 18 years. I want to echo council member show Walter's pride in mountain view's commitment and work in addressing climate change. I'd also like to thank the sustainability team for dragging a resolution for the endorsement of a national carbon tax and dividend policy. This will give Mountain View the opportunity to take action at the national level, complementing the stellar work we already do at the local level. The proposal puts a price on carbon and distributes the proceeds equally to American households. This policy doesn't grow government and would be affected because business leaders would be favoring clean energy in response to higher fossil fuel costs. It would also favor mountain view's technology leadership in renewable energy. Additionally, disadvantaged families would be able to afford the transition to renewables. In fact, a 2020 study by citizens' client in education showed that 99% of the poorest 20% of U.S. households would either benefit or break even from such a plan. Let me repeat that. 99% of the poorest 20% of U.S. households would either benefit or break even. They win because they are the smallest consumers of fossil fuels. I invite, no, I don't invite. I urge the city council to join the cities of Los Alto, San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo County, Santa Cruz and Marin, as well as the California State Assembly in endorsing a carbon tax and dividend policy. Thank you.

[03:28:17] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, I have a 650793 number and Bruce Nagel, I think that's you. So if you hear me, Bruce, you can just, uh, unmute, it's a, I think, Star 9.

[03:28:32] Bruce Nagel: Alright, can you hear me?

[03:28:34] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, we, I hear you.

[03:28:36] Bruce Nagel: All right, thank you again for the opportunity to speak on this. As other people have mentioned, there's a wealth of wonderful things that are going on in this, um, plan that has been put forward. Um, and the, the 2 initiatives. I think are, are sterling in terms of their ability to reach out to the rest of the world. I think one of the things that we can take advantage of that is, um, we have, I haven't seen as much of, but it has been, uh, proposed in Menlo Park, which is another city that is going to, uh, 2030 to, uh, to be 0 carbon. And that is that um, to do some measurements, and the measurements that are available, we can get today free of charge, measurements for the amount of gasoline consumed per year per city. And um, so I, I think that that, along with measuring the number of uh, automobiles of various types, as we've transitioned and making them all being, uh, 0 emission vehicles will be helpful. And so I, I urge that we do that because as has been mentioned before, if you don't measure it, you can't manage it. And I think that, you know, we are putting a lot on the table in order to make sure these things work and every, every piece of information can be helpful. I've heard some concerns that the measurements are not as exact as they could be, and that's probably true, but the other comp point I'll make is, is that, that at least is something, and hopefully will help us guide us to, uh, to moving the things forward because what we need to, we know where we need to get to. We need to hit the 0 by 2030. So the endpoint is clear. How we manage along this, and as we start to, uh, get closer to it, if we can find out if we're succeeding or, uh, not succeeding at certain things, we'll have a better chance to be able to, uh, course correct and move forward. Now, thank you again for the opportunity to speak, and uh, look forward to all the good things that are going on here, and hopefully can continue to move them forward. We lead and we need to keep leading so that others can follow in our footsteps. Thank you.

[03:30:40] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thanks so much. Nicholas Robinson.

[03:30:52] Nicholas Robinson: Hello, um, thanks so much for letting me talk to you tonight. My name is Nikki Robinson, and I live near Rangstorf Park. I'm really impressed by all the work that the Mountain View government is doing to address climate change, as you all just discussed. However, it's crucial that everyone across the country reduced their carbon footprint as well. to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. So I strongly support the resolution Mr. Attinger presented asking the U.S. government to enact a carbon tax and dividend policy. I have 4 primary reasons this policy should be enacted. First, this policy will reduce America's carbon pollution 50% by 2030, putting us on track to reach net 0 emissions by 2050. Second, America leads the world with technology innovation. With this policy, the government sets the direction and businesses respond in order to provide abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy. This clean energy innovation will drive us faster toward net 0 carbon pollution. Third, this policy is affordable for ordinary Americans because it puts money in your pocket. The money collected from the fee is given as a monthly dividend or a carbon cashback payment to every American to spend with no restrictions. Most low and middle income Americans will come out financially ahead or break even. Finally, this policy will improve health and save 4500000 American lives over the next 50 years by reducing the pollution, which Americans breathe. Poor air quality is responsible for as many as one in 10 American deaths today and sickens 1000s more. I hope you will pass this important resolution to encourage the federal government to enact effective climate policy that is good for Americans, including the citizens of Mountain View. Thank you for your time and for your hard work.

[03:32:32] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Mario, Panagetti.

[03:32:41] Mario Panagetti: Hi, my name is Mario Panagetti. I'm a lifelong Bay Area native and I've been a Mountain View resident for the past 4 years.

[03:32:48] Public Speaker: California studying California setting a statewide goal of 100% 0 mission vehicles by 2030, creates a powerful and influential standard. That encourages car manufacturers to move more quickly in rolling out new EV models, while phasing out cars that rely on gas. It pushes essential infrastructure changes forward like ubiquitous EV chargers, which makes it much easier to justify switching to an electric vehicle. The next time any of us are due for a new purchase. And it directly targets and combats a huge source of pollution, passenger vehicles. Personally, the car I've run for the past decade is slowly falling apart, and getting to the point where I have to make a decision, I'm like to put more money into it, or invest in a new vehicle. And I would love for that to be an easy decision to make, but it depends heavily on California as a whole, supporting this initiative and building out necessary infrastructure, which is furthered by individual cities and citizens voicing their own support. It's important that Mountain View back this effort to achieve 100% 0 emission vehicles in the next 9 years. Thank you, mayor, and council members for your time.

[03:33:50] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Alright. That concludes public comment, so I will now bring the item back for council deliberation, action. And note that a motion to approve the recommendation should include reading the title of the resolutions as they are attached to the report. And I believe staff had put forward for recommendations for us to provide feedback on as well. So would anyone like to start the discussion? So we can have comments or we can get into the recommendations or we can have emotion.

[03:34:27] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Council membership. Were you looking for Ray's hand? I couldn't tell.

[03:34:31] Mayor Ellen Kamei: No. Vice Mayor Ramirez?

[03:34:35] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I have a couple of questions, um, based on public comments, just, just more for my benefit, I think. Um, I've also been interested in the plant-based diet, uh, program. Uh, and I'm curious if there are things we can do uh, to, uh, expedite or prioritize some of the types of ideas that, um, members of the public have shared with us. So, maybe more ambitious things like, uh, prohibiting, uh, you know, animal products and food, uh, uh, in municipal facilities can be deferred, but programmatic elements like education, uh, would be introduced more quickly. Is that something that staff has evaluated?

[03:35:28] Unknown Speaker: Uh, certainly, we are beginning to look again at uh, what we can do to promote the concept of plant-based eating among our residents. We're actually actively considering, um, and using an app for this, uh, related to food waste. Um, and also are actively talking with our solid waste folks, uh, so that we leverage both of, um, our efforts to bring this information to the public. more readily. We have had a little bit of a delay in getting this information out due to staffing vacancies. But now that we are fully staffed in the division, um, we will be able to, uh, engage the community members in this conversation, uh, in a more meaningful way.

[03:36:20] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Okay, great. Thank you. And then the other question, um, relates to, metrics and, sort of, how we're, uh, measuring our performance. Uh, I think this is something that, that, Bruce Snapel had shared at an email and not mistaken. So what kinds of data are you collecting beyond just the greenhouse gas emission of reduction data? Are there other things that we can, uh, we can look at to gauge our progress in achieving related goals? Uh, and would it be helpful to provide council direction on that or is that something that staff is already proactively doing?

[03:37:06] Unknown Speaker: So right now, um, the primary metric that we are, uh, are focusing on and how focused on is greenhouse gases. Um, that said, uh, staff has convened an internal manager level, uh, working group, um, as of earlier this year in January, and one of the primary, um, uh, initiatives underway among that working group is actually to define which metrics we want to be tracking and publicizing on uh, basically a sustainability dashboard more broadly. So the question that you've asked, we are literally in the middle of, I'm having cross organizational discussions around which additional metrics that we should be tracking or evaluating a dashboard platform. And so, hopefully later this year, we'll actually have something, um, presented to the public via our website that will be a more comprehensive look at our sustainability progress, uh, beyond just greenhouse gas emission reductions.

[03:38:13] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Terrific. Thank you. So, no further questions. I'll go ahead and move the staff recommendation. Uh, including adopt a resolution that the city council of the city of Mountain View supporting a national carbon tax and dividend policy, and adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View supporting 100% 0 emission new vehicle sales in California by 2030.

[03:38:35] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Thank you, Council member Mattachek.

[03:38:41] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So I have got a follow-up question to one that the vice mayor just asked. And, um, I also have a strong interest in the plant-based diet, um, program. And I think it's really important that we get going on that and I really don't want to see it deferred. Um, so if it was not deferred, I think I just heard that we do have the staff resources to work on that, is that true?

[03:39:10] Unknown Speaker: Uh, yes, that is that is correct. As of a couple of months ago, um, we now have uh, new staff, uh, that are overseeing community engagement, which is where this would fall. And so right now, we've had, we have a little bit of a backlog from some other projects that we are working on. But certainly, uh, we do have Capal City now, um, and can put more focus and attention on plant-based eating, um, initiatives within the community.

[03:39:38] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, Council member Meta check, if I may, um, just to add a little more context to this. So the, the item was, it wasn't just that there were staff vacancies and and obviously we needed to fill those vacancies and uh, we were short staffed, but this also was an item just during COVID. Um, there's a lot of work that has to be done with the restaurants um, and businesses on this item. So, um, certainly, as we all know, this is, this has been an industry that has been hit very hard during COVID and any outreach to the restaurants we were, um, being very thoughtful and sensitive to, you know, approaching them about any, you know, plant-based diet initiatives or kind of going down that path. Given the situation with restaurant industry. So I think it was kind of all of those elements taken together. So now that we have staffing, um, more fully loaded. And, you know, as we progress through COVID, I think those conversations can be more easily had, but, um, just realistically, it wasn't just about staffing. It was also because of COVID and the, the restaurants and the ability for them to adapt and make plant-based changes, um, which, which are considerable for, for many of our restaurants.

[03:40:57] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Right. So what I was going to suggest is that, um, we start with the outreach to residents, which doesn't necessarily involve the businesses, um, there were some suggestions from members of the public who spoke with us as well as some items in the council questions and answers, um, of things we could be doing. Um, and I get it. I appreciate what the restaurants have been going through. As a lifelong vegetarian, however, if they want to be promoting, uh, plant-based entrees, um, gosh, I feel like people, um, would be interested in that, have a special promotion of that. Um, but that's because I'm a vegetarian. I probably have, uh, a particular interest in this. Um, but I do think it's important for our um, environment, you know, mountain views, a leader in so many areas. This is another opportunity for us to be a leader in this area. And so I would ask the vice mayor if he would um, as a friendly amendment to your motion. Um, say that we would not defer the plant-based diet, um, program and that we start 1st with outreach to residents and programs for residents. And then we do the working with the businesses in order to be sensitive to their situation with COVID.

[03:42:26] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: I'm comfortable with that.

[03:42:27] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Then I will 2nd the motion.

[03:42:30] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Great, thank you. Council member, Abi Koga.

[03:42:38] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I will be supporting the emotion. I just want to thank Steph. I think this is a, um, a great update and, um, really helped me to understand where we were with the SAP. Um, I wanted to just comment that, um, uh, as we hopefully hire new staff soon. Um, I hope we can um, capitalize on the, um, grant opportunities that are coming down the pipeline. Um, I just sent an email, um, earlier today to staff about, um, for instance, the Volkswagen, white duty electric vehicle infrastructure program that's going to be opening soon. That's some grant funding for EV chargers and whatnot, um, earlier on our consent. We, um, we did the resolution to the, for the application to NTC for um, one of our bike projects. And I see a lot of, um, a lot of more opportunities seem to be coming, um, basically with ARPA and and, um, you know, relief efforts. And so, um, that takes staff time to monitor and to look out for grant opportunities, um, and then to apply for them. Um, but I see quite a bit of opportunity there and for terms of funding, and so that I hope that we can incorporate that as we move forward. Thank you.

[03:44:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Council member Lieber?

[03:44:04] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. Well, um, I think one of the really powerful things that we could do around plant-based eating is um, making more community gardens based uh, available for folks. And, um, maybe looking at what kind of activities, uh, for children, uh, that there are about growing food. Um, and I think that that can be a really powerful way of getting the whole family into it. When kids see the um, GHD impact of certain foods and and people have the opportunity to experience the gardening and and I think in particular, getting people who haven't been involved in gardening, so might not have gardening confidence. Um, involved in the community gardens, um, somehow, whether it's beginner lessons or, um, sort of presentations in the garden, I think would be very important. And, um, I'm more appreciative of the uh, landscaping equipment, uh, funding possibilities, for staff, and for uh, the community as well. And I think there may be some changes to 1346, but as it stood previously, it was 2024 or whenever it's feasible, whichever is later. And, um, so I think something that happens really soon is, um, very important to public health, of the people who are using the machines, as well as the community, um, around them. Um, as well. And I'm very thankful for staff, all that's been done with short staffing and with a difficult year already. So thank you to staff for that.

[03:46:03] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Council member Hicks. You just have to unmute. 2nd try his golden.

[03:46:15] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. So I will be supporting emotions, and then I wanted to highlight a few things that, um, uh, that members of the public and other council members have said, um, I think in terms of the plant-based eating, I, I, um, understand and support why we're not working with restaurants immediately. But I think, and excuse me, Mr. Currentness, and I think I'm going to mangle your name, but he did mention maybe an easy way to start up in doing the plant-based diet, uh, uh, starting with that initiative. I know he did a a webinar on a plant-based heating and I think he said he knows other people who've done them. So maybe we can just start by posting those. And then, um, go on from there as, you know, as a simple startup and then go on from there as, um, staff time and restaurant, um, uh, Restaurant ability allows, uh, you know, I agree with council member Matitrek that I think it would be attractive to a lot of people too. You know, see a menu, either a section of a menu, a separate menu with more plant-based feeding, because I think a growing number of people are becoming interested in that. Um, several members of the public have talked about different things about biodiverse landscaping, and some members of the public emailed us saying, it appears that we're, uh, focusing on that mostly in shoreline and can we do it through the rest of the community? And I liked one, uh, one of the commenters said, a lot of our parts that have a large amount of grass could, uh, could use native landscaping around the borders. And so that of those parts. where you don't play ball. Um, so I would agree with those comments, um, I also agree with uh, councilman Rabbit Koga, who talked about taking advantage of grand opportunities, um, and in particular, uh, if those I know we're following, um, uh, state legislation in terms of the lawn equipment, but I, uh, in particular in terms of sticks and some carrots. But I would like to be able to, if we can access grants to offer some of our own sticks ahead of that legislation, uh, in terms of trade-ins or rebates, I would like to start that up as, you know, kind of ramp up towards that because I think that many members of our community have said in order to do remote work, it, and, um, it's important to them for the sound, and we've gotten a lot of emails on this. So to start a little ahead of the legislation, I would, um, I would really like that. Um, And let's see, I also was really happy to see the, uh, in the local hiring policy, because I know that, um, it, uh, particularly our lower income workers having to, uh, drive a long way is, um, you know, or and also particularly having children who've just graduated from high school, 1st time jobs. I think hiring locally is an important thing to do. Um, and then, um, I think, I think those are all of my comments. Thank you.

[03:49:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Hey, thank you. Council member, Michelle Walter.

[03:49:58] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I just want to, um, kind of chime in on what many people have said, uh, especially just what, uh, council member Hicks said, the importance of improving biodiversity is something that I've just heard for decades and decades and decades. And, um, of course, you know, I think we used to think of it as only in big wildlife, uh, preserves or something, but, but we kind of find out that that's not true. I mean, it's really important to have local pollinators and use local plants. And as we adapt to climate change to make sure that we are going to be planting trees and plants that will be happy with our slightly warmer and drier climate. So I just like to put in a plug for that and the leaf blowers. I think that it's, um, uh, the leaf bars are really something that are very much an environmental justice issue because the people who are the most um, impacted by it are the people who use it. They ingest most of those pollutants. And, um, so it's really an environmental justice issue. So what we can do to, um, to, to move that forward as quickly as possible. It's a great idea. So, um, and, and, um, Mr. Enger is right. There's just so it's such a fluid situation right now. We kind of need to watch a little bit and see what happens. But, um, uh, behaving proactively is really good for the planet and it's very, very good for those individuals who are working with them um, day after day. Thank you.

[03:51:40] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you so much. Any other comments from council members? All right, so we had a motion by Vice Mayor Ramirez, um, and that was 2nded by Castle Ramadachek, and it did include the friendly amendment to get started on plant-based dieting by reaching out to, um, community members first. Did I miss anything in the motion?

[03:52:07] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: No.

[03:52:08] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. So, um, I just want to echo the thanks to um, our staff as well as residents. I feel like we continue to come so far and ever evolve on this topic and it's just, I think it's really exciting to see all that we can do as a community as a city. really excited. I'm a vegetarian as well. I'm really excited to move forward with plant-based. A plant-based diet. Growing up, I was always the only vegetarian. It's just really nice that we're all moving in this direction. Um, so I don't, I don't have any other comments just, um, again, thank you, thank you to staff. So, um, we can move on to a roll call vote, and we'll turn it over to the city clerk.

[03:52:49] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Hi, Sam Ramirez.

[03:52:53] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[03:52:53] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Mattitech.

[03:52:55] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[03:52:56] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Abi Copa.

[03:52:57] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I

[03:52:58] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Hicks.

[03:53:00] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[03:53:01] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Lieber?

[03:53:02] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Hi.

[03:53:03] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Shell Walter?

[03:53:05] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes.

[03:53:06] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: May I, May I?

[03:53:07] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes,

[03:53:07] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: the amended motion carry.

[03:53:10] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. All right. Well this concludes item number seven. And we can move on to item 8, which is council and staff committee reports. Does anyone have anything to report here for item 8? Councilman Rematichek.

[03:53:26] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Just one item real quick. Um, There was a Santa Clara County airport land use commission board meeting that I participated in, and we talked again about how we would factor in new information on how much noise, um, annoys people. And there's a new survey out, and um, we talked about how we might factor that into updates to the airport, comprehensive land use plans. Thanks.

[03:54:00] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, council member Abi Koga.

[03:54:04] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I attended the VTA board meeting. We continue to work on the biennial budget. Um, and there's quite a bit of discussion as well on, um, service levels. We're not at 100% service levels because of COVID, but there is a plan to gradually increase that back to normal levels. Um, I attended the hate, uh, County Hate Crimes test force meeting. Um, It's uh, continuing to do data collection. Um, the focus was on um, how to support victims of hate crimes. Um, and then, um, from MTC. Um, if you may remember, uh, there was a bill, um, AB, 13 and 87, 1487, I believe it was, um, from the semi member, David Chu, that established a new, um, housing authority, the Bay Area housing finance authority, um, to look out ways to basically, um, finance more affordable housing projects. Um, I have been appointed to that authority, um, through my MTC position. We had our 1st meeting last week. Um, and uh, I will, um, we are now looking at a plan, um, creating a business plan. Um, and uh, the end goal, um, is to look at uh, uh, potentially a revenue, um, measure, uh, down the road, um, to be able to finance these affordable housing projects. So I will keep you updated as things move forward in that regard. And then finally, from the city's association, um, we are having our general, our annual general membership meeting, um, on May 20th, uh, the 3rd Thursday. We usually meet as a board on the 2nd Thursday. We would canceled that and we'll have our general meeting, May 20th. The topic is let's talk about race, and um, we will be having the director of the, um, Southern um, Poverty Loss Center as our keynote as well as a panel. So I hope I think you've all received an email from our executive director and invitation to our meeting. Um, so I hope that um, you will all uh, attend. If you haven't yet, I will go ahead and forward it to you, um, later today or later tonight or tomorrow. Thank you.

[03:56:34] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you so much. Any other council members have a council staff or committee reports? All right, I have one. The council use services committee met last Tuesday on May 4th. We received an update from the school districts, um, as well as an update from check, and we also approved the new, um, yak members, the youth advisory, um, committee appointees that will be starting out. And I believe our next council meeting will be recognizing, um, those, um, yak members who, um, are moving on from from yak. So exciting. We'll be able to do that next meeting. All right, that's my update. So we'll move on to item nine, which is our closed session announcement. City attorney Chokra will make remarks, and then the city council welcomes any public comment for all 4 items listed for the closed session. City attorney Chopra.

[03:57:29] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Thank you, mayor. The city council will meet on 2 items in closed session. The 1st is item 10.one conference with labor negotiators, government code section 54957.6 Agency designated representatives, city of Mountain View Assistant City Manager, Audrey Seymour Ramberg, Human Resources Director, Sue Rush, and Charles Sakai, Sloan Sakai, Young, and Wong, LLP, Employee Organizations, Service Employees, International, Union, SCIU, local 521. The Eagles Association, the Police Officers Association, POA, the International Association of Firefighters, IAFF, Local 1965, unrepresented fire managers, unrepresented police managers, unrepresented department heads, and council appointees, unrepresented confidential employees, and unrepresented hourly employees. And item 10.2 conference with legal counsel, formally initiated litigation, government code section 54956.9 name of case San Francisco Baykeeper versus City of Mountain View, United States District Court, Northern District of California, case number 520 CV 00824 EJD. That is the closest session announcement.

[03:59:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. And I just want to correct myself. I think I said 4 items and there's only two. So apologies for that and just wanted to correct. Um, so would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on any closed session item listed on tonight's agenda? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone. Okay, I am not seeing any hands. Great. So we will adjourn to the closed session and maybe if folks just want a 5 minute little bio break and I will see you at 9:05 in closed session. Thank you.

[03:53:06] (archive recording) Mayor Ellen Kamei: We'll move on to item 11, which is our closed session report. City Attorney Chopra. Do have a closed session report?

[03:53:14] (archive recording) City Attorney Krishan Chopra: There is no closed session report tonight, Mayor.

[03:53:17] (archive recording) Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, great. Thank you. All right, so we'll move on to item 12 which is adjournment. Thank you so much for joining us. Our next regular city council meeting will be on May 25th, 2021. Until then, stay stay healthy, stay safe, and the meeting is adjourned at 9.36 p.m. Thank you, everyone. Have a good night.

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